Exposing My Faith

Hello! My name is Chaerin from Grace Church and I had the privilege of joining Street Life Ministries in their Prayer Station Outreach this past weekend.

The entire week before setting foot on the mission ground to pray for the locals of Flushing, Main Street, I was very anxious about publicly exposing my faith in Jesus Christ. I asked for prayers left and right in order to gain some comfort and confirmation that this was truly what God wanted me and my church to do.

The night before the outreach, I read chapter 2 in the book of Ezekiel.

“2  And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me. [...] 6 Be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks [...] 7  And you shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear” (Ezekiel 2:2-7)

The main message that the Lord was speaking to me was for Godly obedience. His promise that the Holy Spirit will set us on our feet and bring us to a place we do not want to go, called for action upon my faith. And once again on the morning of the outreach, God confirmed His message with me, as I listened to a sermon preaching for obedience in the Lord.

At the Prayer Station itself, I encountered so many different kinds of people and reactions to our offers for prayer. Some would completely ignore us, others would kindly accept, and the rest would just give us weird looks or wave us away. I met this one beautiful homeless lady, Lourdes, who was not mentally well. My partner and I approached her, offering prayer for her to which she gladly accepted. As we conversed, whenever my partner or I would mention the name of Jesus, Lourdes would start singing praise to Him for a minute straight! We must have said the name Jesus ten times because we stood there for almost 15 minutes, watching her lift praise and worship to the Lord-- It was a beautiful sight to see His daughter singing for her Father.

Another particular person I encountered was a 90-year-old retired medical doctor, with a prosthetic leg named Francisco. He started arguing with me about the righteousness of God. In silence, I listened to his reasoning about how he could not believe in a God who allowed suffering for humanity. It deeply broke my heart to hear that Francisco grew up in the church but quickly fell away due to the corrupt churches that he went to and the hurt that he had received from Christians. I could not offer any satisfying counter-argument, but God compelled me to share my own testimony with him about my journey as a Christian. Francisco listened intently and ultimately replied that he needed faith in God.

The one thing I was most afraid of was meeting someone I knew. I even prayed that I would not run across a friend while at the Prayer Station; However, God is funny sometimes and He still allowed it to happen in the best way possible. I met my good friend from high school, whom I actually evangelized to many years ago. He was not a religious person, but still came to church with me for about half a year. I found out that he had moved to California last year and was just visiting New York for ten days. And I happened to run across him after losing contact with him for 6 years, at that exact moment, place, and time. It was truly a divine appointment. I was able to reconnect with him a couple days after the outreach and am currently in the process of praying for my friend.

From the way God has connected our ministries together, I know that He has already set a perfect plan to use Street Life Ministries and Grace Church as one Body in Christ. Thank you so much for inviting me to join you in this wonderful outreach. I know for a fact that the Lord is powerfully moving within your ministry through your faithful obedience. God bless you all!

In Christ,

Chaerin Grace Kim