I am eternally grateful for my time spent at Street LIFE Ministries. It will always be what I refer to as a milestone in my walk of faith with Christ. Before coming I had many wrong mindsets and preconceived notions about what it meant to follow Christ and what success as a Christian looked like. As I spent 2 1/2 months with SLM, God began reshaping my perspective and molding my heart. My understanding of following Christ shifted from fulfilling some idolized idea of success to a calling to serving him and others out of sacrificial obedience and love.
From this simple yet profound shift in perspective, there has been a noticeable change in the way I treat myself, how I relate with others and how I live my day to day life.
I've found that before, life was filled with so much negativity, misery and struggle to get ahead to some projected, picturesque, future me. Now life has become something to enjoy where I am able to meet God in the present moment and enjoy my time here with him day by day, resting in the fact that He has accepted me, and knowing that my call as a Christian is simply to be faithful and obedient to what He's placed in front of me and to serve Him and others out of love. Fieldwork has a way of revealing the contradictions between our professed beliefs and the ones we truly walk out in life. Although I had spent 4 years at bible college and had a mental concept of what it meant to follow Christ, it wasn’t until I found myself serving on the field that what I thought I believed and what I actually believed was exposed as two different things.
Before leaving I remember how fearful I was of going to serve as an intern at Street LIFE Ministries. Many people choose not to answer the call of going and serving because of the fear of not being ready or not being good enough. One teaching I will always remember from David is about how God sent the disciples out even before they were what we would consider as "ready to go." God has called us to GO. If we are obedient to his call, in the midst of the going he is faithful to walk us through our shortcomings and failures.
I am so glad that I chose to push past the fear of inadequacy in order to answer the call to serve NYC with SLM. This internship helped to tear down an old, shaky foundation of wrong mindsets, teachings, and beliefs in order to lay down a new and solid foundation in Christ!
David, Robin & Carol, I can’t thank you enough for being faithful servants and answering the call God has placed on your lives! It has truly been a blessing to learn from and serve alongside you. Your hard work and sacrifices for the Kingdom of God are a blessing to me and many others! I will always cherish my time at Street LIFE Ministries, for this is the first mission trip that I have participated in where I can look back with confidence and say, "My life has been forever changed." 
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| Brazil Team |
