The missionary in the city

RALEIGH -- On Saturday mornings, Erick Miguel Poaty hoists a cardboard box on his shoulders and knocks on doors in two of the city's poorest apartment complexes.

He hands out bagged lunches, offers prayer and invites people to his church.

But as important, he's there to minister to the residents and let them know he cares.

"How are your sisters?" he asks one girl who answers the door.

"I'm expecting your call," he tells another man who needs his help.

There's nothing unusual about the free lunch ministry, except for the minister himself.

For centuries, missionaries from the United States have fanned the world bringing Christianity to the most remote villages and outposts. Now ministers like Poaty are returning the favor, working in modern U.S. metropolitan areas to help people revive their faith.

Poaty (pronounced PWAH-tee) is part of a trend. A native of the West African nation of Gabon, he came to the U.S. in 2001 as one of many Africans passionate about revitalizing what they see as a stagnant faith.

"In America," Poaty said, "Christianity is a patrimony, a history, a culture. It's no longer a change of heart."

In Europe, some of the largest churches are led by African pastors. Although that's not the case in the United States, a growing number of African missionaries see this county as ripe for evangelism.

Like many of them, Poaty's Christianity is of the Pentecostal variety that finds expression in an exuberant worship style with a heavy emphasis on prayer and healing.

Although his church - Challenge for Christ Ministries - is still small, with only 40 regulars, Poaty has the drive and enthusiasm to grow it, one bagged lunch at a time.

Three Saturdays a month, Poaty, his wife and 10 or so other church members deliver 450 lunch bags at River Birch, a poor housing complex near Capital Boulevard, and at Cedar Point Apartments off Falls of Neuse Road.

On the fourth Saturday, he and his church give out bags of groceries from the congregation's rented quarters on the second floor of a small strip mall on Old Wake Forest Road.

They call their ministry the "Church in the Neighborhood."

"We want to have an impact in our community by showing people the church is not only about taking," Poaty said. "It's about giving."

His call to ministry

Poaty is no newcomer to the Christian faith. Baptized a Roman Catholic, he grew up in Libreville, the capital of Gabon, in a mostly nonpracticing home. He had a born-again conversion experience at age 14 and started preaching two years later.

In 2001, he quit a good job with a French telecommunications firm and asked his wife, Deborah, to cut short her university studies in public health.

He and Deborah, he said, "heard God's voice telling us to come to the United States to serve him."

The couple sold their home and car and, with their daughter, Symphonie, now 13, headed for an unknown future in the U.S.

Although Poaty envisioned starting his ministry in Miami, he ended up in Raleigh where he had a friend. But before he could get started, he had to learn English. In Gabon, which won its independence from France in 1960, French is the official language.

The first time he preached in English was at a Pentecostal church in Lubbock, Texas. Poaty describes the experience as nothing less than miraculous. God, he said, told him in a dream that he would fill his mouth with words, and God didn't disappoint.

That first sermon lasted one hour and 45 minutes. Church members were so pleased, they invited him to come back the next four days.

Reaching out

Now Poaty is beginning to work on his Spanish. Many of the tenants at the Cedar Point Apartments are Hispanic and Poaty wants to reach them as well.

With the help of another pastor, Poaty printed leaflets in Spanish advertising his "La Iglesia del Barrio."

On his rounds in the neighborhood, Poaty usually takes his three children along - Naomi, 5. and Mishcael, 3, were born here. Symphonie carries a clipboard, jotting the number of lunches given at each apartment.

"We are the Church in the Neighborhood, and we're blessing people with a free lunch," Poaty tells those he's never seen before. "Can I pray for you?"

To the several Afghan families at Cedar Point who are Muslim, Poaty does not offer to pray but instead works to build a relationship of trust. One Afghan man shot pictures of Poaty and his family the week before. Poaty gives him his e-mail address and asks if he could send the photos to him.

With other ministers

For all his certainty about his faith, Poaty knows that he has much to learn and needs the prayers of others if he is going to succeed.

Three years ago, he discovered a group of pastors and elders who met each Thursday to pray for one another. He called to ask if he could join them.

Through that group, he met the Rev. Bill Morgan of Raleigh's Bethlehem Baptist, and the two struck up a close friendship.

Morgan, the 67-year-old pastor of Bethlehem, said he saw in Poaty a young pastor willing to do God's will. He took Poaty under his wing, supporting his ministry financially and offering him guidance. Twice a week, Deborah Poaty now teaches an intercessory prayer group at Bethlehem.

"They are doing things churches much larger aren't doing," said Morgan of the Poatys. "They not only teach the Word [of God], they live it."

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