Thank You, CCDA!

By Craig Wong, Executive Director

For the past 12+ years, it has been my joy and privilege to serve on the board of the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA), a national family of churches and ministries who serve in vulnerable communities in cities across the United States. Most of these ministries have, at one time or another, been inspired by the life and ministry of John and Vera Mae Perkins, pioneer of several ministries of reconciliation and community development in Jackson, MS and Southern California. 
 
In fact, it was in the 80s that our founding congregation, Grace Fellowship Community Church (GFCC), was befriended by John & Vera Mae, a relationship that deepened over the course of a decade of summer trips to the Harambee Christian Family Center in Pasadena. It was there that we, as a congregation, learned to engage more honestly with the sin of racism, and to have our imagination stirred for how the Church can embody the gospel of reconciliation in our particular urban context.
 
As I end my service on the governing board, I wish to publically thank John and Vera Mae, CCDA co-founder Wayne Gordon, Executive Director Noel Castellanos, my fellow board members, and the whole of the CCDA community for the witness of gospel faithfulness you all represent. Your lives have been a constant source of strength and encouragement in the work we do in San Francisco.  Praise be to God!