Congregation B’nai Amoona is hosting a pastor from an inner city Chicago church for a Shabbat morning talk July 28.

This Shabbat also marks the return of Rabbi Carnie Rose and his family from a sabbatical leave in Israel.

Rev. Corey Brooks, Sr. will be the guest speaker. He founded New Beginnings Church of Chicago, an urban, non-denominational Purpose Driven Church in the inner city on Chicago’s South Side. Brooks’ messages of restoration and reconciliation have attracted over 2,500 members. Brooks has been the force behind Project HOOD, which seeks to foster collaboration between the private sector, public sector and faith-based organizations in order to combat the “four primary ills of urban America: Social dysfunctions, Educational deprivation, Economic deficiencies and Spiritual dehydration.”

Brooks has been raising funds for a community center project and has brought awareness to the violence in Chicago. He made headlines last year when he spent 94 days during winter in Chicago living on the roof of an abandoned motel that had become a haven for drug dealing and criminal activity. He and his supporters helped to get the motel shut down and then raised funds to purchase the property and convert it into a community center.

This summer, he has walked 800-miles of a fundraising and awareness walk across the country to “raise additional awareness about the gun violence epidemic all over America and to raise the $15 million to fund the Project HOOD Community and Economic Development Center,” according to the Project HOOD website.

“Ultimately, we hope to offset the violence and give parents the much needed support necessary to make our communities a safe place to raise their families and not a killing field to bury their children,” the website continues.

Brooks started his walk June 5 in New York and has so far raised $600,000. He hopes to arrive in Los Angeles by late September, according to a story in the Chicago Sun-Times.

For more information about Brooks’ Shabbat talk, call B’nai Amoona at 314-576-9990.