Getting the church, government, and private businesses to partner together in tackling city crime and violence was apparently a unique and sometimes unsettling idea. Early on we tried to find Christian businessmen to hire our youth, even contacting a group of Christian businessmen. Meeting with no success, however, we turned elsewhere. The idea that nonbelieving business owners could accomplish the will of God was shocking to churches and Christian community-based organizations alike. City government, for its part, couldn't even conceive of assisting an overtly Christian organization to accomplish even secular civic functions, like crime reduction and full employment. Private business was the least scandalized by the approach of Hope Now, because all they wanted were good employees. But even here, our concept of reciprocity, "if you're profiting from this city, you need to help improve it," took some selling. Hope Now's message to each of the sectors was, "If we only do what we have always done, we will only get what we've already got."

Our message to Christians was to think out of the box, to expand their view of how God gets things done. Since God could enable even a jackass to see an angel and speak (Numbers 22:21-31), he could use anybody, believer or unbeliever alike, to accomplish his purposes. Both secular government and secular business could bless the lives of gang youth with dignity and productivity. Hope Now, therefore, appealed to all people of goodwill and offered them an opportunity in the midst of a crime calamity to make a difference. As Sir Winston Churchill remarked, "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." Fresno, as is true of your city today, had many optimists ready to seize the opportunity...

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