My Story: The I58 Ministry

This specific area in my life has been on my mind and on my heart for a long time. I guess now is a perfect time to write about it since Serve RDU is coming up in less than a week, and I couldn't be any more excited about it!!! For the last 3 years or so, my family has been involved in a ministry at the Summit North Raleigh Campus called I58.

"Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness,

to undo the straps of the yoke,

to let the oppressed go free,

and to break every yoke?

7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry

and bring the homeless poor into your house;

when you see the naked, to cover him,

and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

8 Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,

and your healing shall spring up speedily;

your righteousness shall go before you;

the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;

you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’

If you take away the yoke from your midst,

the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,

10 if you pour yourself out for the hungry

and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,

then shall your light rise in the darkness

and your gloom be as the noonday.

11 And the Lord will guide you continually

and satisfy your desire in scorched places

and make your bones strong;

and you shall be like a watered garden,

like a spring of water,

whose waters do not fail.

12 And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;

you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;

you shall be called the repairer of the breach,

the restorer of streets to dwell in." 

~ Isaiah 58:6-12

In this ministry, we reach out to the local Hispanic community just 5 minutes down the road from the church. We play with the kids, we help them with their homework, we teach them, we do Bible studies with them, and we assist to their general needs. Not only that, we have gone from friends, to best friends, all the way to being considered family to some of these kids. A couple of kids whom we have particularly bonded with call my mom "Mother," and they call me "Sister." We are known by the whole apartment complex as "the Church People." Even kids that we have never seen before will be playing on the playground when we get there and will scream, "the church people are here!!!" with huge smiles. But we aren't even there just to fulfill needs or even to build relationships, as Isaiah portrays in the passage, we are there to bring life! We are there to restore and bring a light into one of the darkest places in the city. I have always loved the idea that our lights shine the brightest in the darkest of places.

(The apartment complex)

(Here is a picture from about 2 years ago with some of our core kids)

Sometimes the littlest things make the biggest impact on me out there. One of my favorite moments ever is when at Serve RDU last year, I got out of the car (we had arrived slightly late and so some people and the kids were already out) and about 15-20 kids came running to me screaming my name! Nothing but experience can express to you how much love and joy that put into my heart. You go out there to be a life-changer, and they change your life as well. 

(This is a picture from last year's Serve RDU)

Another time, I sat down on the pavement and several little boys came over and started playing with my hair. They are normally crazy and wild, so it was a strange thing for them to do. I loved it.

We have had problems with one of the boys and his brother. They can be very sweet, but other times they are very...frustrating.  It had seemed as if we couldn't really reach them at a deeper level. Last year at Serve RDU, the older of the two did something especially bad and then later apologized! It's something that seems like it would be so simple, but it's not out there. "Sorry" is an alien word. Since then, He has said "sorry" on multiple occasions! 

Out of all families, the family with the two boys whom we sometimes have problems with opened up their doors for us to have a Bible study and also invited us to the older son's birthday party. We had just been praying for a home to be opened up that week. At the Bible study, we had the opportunity to lay out the Gospel for them (another life-changing yet terrifying event for me) along with some other kids. They seemed to really grasp the separation that sin has caused between them and God, and they were shocked to find out that God can see what they are doing at any time. They also understood the whole adoption aspect of it. I truly do think they understood the Gospel as a whole to some level when we drew out a picture using the two cliffs and put the cross in-between. I just hope and pray that through us continuing to live and share the Gospel out there, that those kids will be drawn to Jesus and receive His beautiful gift!

(Coloring Pages from one of the Bible studies)

At the birthday party, we had the opportunity to eat authentic Mexican food (including cow tongue), they had covered the whole ceiling with balloons, and the birthday boy's biggest request was that I would paint his mom's nails. Through painting her nails, we had the opportunity to talk to her through her son and she told us about her mom's death in Mexico just a month before. She was crying and asked for us to pray for her.That night we all gathered as a group and my dad prayed for their family. We were able to bring the hope of Jesus to them.

 (Cutting his birthday cake)

(The ceiling of balloons and the birthday boy)

It's crazy how God has even used my nail-painting to glorify Him this year! Nail-painting allowed me to become close with some of the middle school girls whom I had not known very well before, and in May, we went to one of the girls' Quinceañera. A Quinceañera is a milestone event for a teenage girl in that culture. It meant LOADS to the whole community that we came, because ever since, it has been brought up in conversation after conversation. I'm sure it was also a little strange to them, seeing as how there were only 2 other white people there. I was dragged onto the dance floor, but ended up dancing the night away and had a blast!

 (She looked SO beautiful!)

(The dance floor before it was jammed packed with probably 75 people... I am the tallest one out there of course! haha)

In the last couple of weeks, we have begun to help them with homework. This brought to light the true burden of their need in education.Their foundations were not established, and so they are having the hardest time learning. From them starting school knowing barely to no English at all and having to learn English at the same time as everything else, to the cultural barriers, to the fact that their parents are mostly illiterate and cannot help them since they also don't know English, to the huge amount of peer pressure that they have that gives them trouble in and out of school, and etc. -- it all adds up to make it almost impossible to be successful in this area of their lives. They are very bright kids, they just need help. God has obviously shown us this area for a reason, and although it is a great burden, He is a greater God! We are hopefully going to be planning an ESL program soon and will also be offering tutoring for these kids. I trust that God will use us in any way possible to help them.

(My mom with some of the kids at the park near the library that we do homework at) 

God's faithfulness and providence in this ministry has really been a blessing. From kids randomly asking for us to bring pumpkin pie on a summer evening and it just happening to be on sale at the store on the way there, to us getting tons of very generous and nice donations for the carnival that's happening this Saturday, and everything else that I mentioned above! I KNOW that God is working, and He is not finished yet! I realize that this post has been somewhat all over the place, but I just want you all to know what great things have happened out there. He has used this ministry and the children, not only to make us beautiful, but to shine the beauty of Jesus for everyone involved to see! And I know He will do some amazing things this week at Serve RDU as well.

(Some of our team eating pumpkin pie with one of the boys) 

(The donations for the carnival that have filled up our office... thank you to everyone who donated candy and prizes! Your generosity means the world to us! Might I add... those stuffed animals were not cheap, they are NICE)

**Update: As I was writing this blog, one of the girls was sending me voice recordings on FB Messenger and she was squealing with excitement about this week! In her last recording she said: "I love your mom, algebratic man (that's what she calls my dad since he's good at algebra), Cole, Ashlyn... yeah, how are they? Oh and you, I can't forget you!" And she keeps talking about how this week is as exciting as Christmas, saying "ya feel me?!"