Name | Sarah James
Hometown | Covington, Ken.
Graduate Degree Program | Master of Arts degree in Urban Studies
Class of | 2001

From the Word

Sarah James earned a Master of Arts degree in Urban Studies from Moody Bible Institute in 2001. She felt a call to urban ministry as a student at an inner city high school.

“I saw kids [at my high school] that had a lot of potential,” Sarah said. “But, because of so many barriers in their lives, they didn’t have a chance to make it.” Now, she works to remove barriers for more than 700 children in Chicago’s inner city through By The Hand Club For Kids.

Sarah first sought to follow God’s call by earning a degree in elementary education from the University of Indianapolis and teaching in the inner city. She was convicted; however, that there was more she could do for her students.

“During my first year of teaching, I realized that these at-risk kids needed someone to come alongside them in a holistic manner,” Sarah said.

Also at that time, Moody Theological Seminary launched an Urban Studies program. Eager to see if Chicago was where God was leading her, Sarah visited the city and, during a prayer walk, offered her life to the Lord’s service in any city, no matter how tough. She happened to be speaking that prayer on a corner in Cabrini Green, one of Chicago’s most dangerous and impoverished neighborhoods.

During her time at Moody, Sarah participated in overseas mission trips and interned with a ministry in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. But God intended to honor her earlier prayer quite literally, guiding her to a team leader position with By The Hand Club For Kids in 2002 and five years later, to the position of director for the Cabrini Green site. 

To Life

For more than 10 years, By The Hand Club For Kids has offered at-risk youths an after-school program that emphasizes academics and provides a nurturing, Christian environment. The ministry currently serves more than 700 children in four sites throughout Chicago and has plans to expand its services to reach 1,000 kids by 2012. In her current role, Sarah oversees eight team leaders, eight assistant leaders, a reading specialist and 176 children. She also has corporate responsibilities, including event planning, programming and field trips.

Sarah’s prayer has always been that God would bless the ministry, allowing staff to reach kids in Chicago and lead them to abundant and eternal lives. God’s faithfulness in answering her prayers is evidenced in the major milestones By The Hand Club For Kids has recently celebrated, including 58 percent of children making professions of faith, 80 percent of children in the program finishing the past academic year with passing grades, 140 children on their schools’ honor rolls and 20 young adults in college.

Sarah considers her time and training at Moody pivotal to her current work.

“Moody helped ground me in God’s Word,” she said. “As I plan our chapel and Bible study curriculum, I can feel confident that we are teaching our kids the Word of God in a doctrinally sound way.”

Through her work at By The Hand Club For Kids and her passion for at-risk children, Sarah became the guardian of two brothers, Keewuan and Trayvon, who lost their mother when they were young. Sarah faces the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with full-time ministry, but she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“My boys are my heroes, and I am blessed to be a part of their lives,” she said. “I don’t know how I have the energy every day to be a parent and work at By The Hand Club For Kids, and I think most of the time that I don’t. But God keeps me going with a strong support system and the passion and unconditional love He has given me for our ministry and for my boys.”