"Will I raise the full amount?"
"Will I be able to afford college if I can't?"
"How am I going to be able to afford food and transportation"?
"Will I have a job after this if I just leave Lancaster for the summer?"
And thank you to all of those who prayed for me because as doubt creeps up I think:
"How will I ever be good enough to belong in full-time ministry?"
"Who am I to intern with a church, teach children about Jesus, and offer prayers to those who are lost, hurting, and outcast?"
"How will I ever become a person who is able to boldly lead people towards Jesus?"
The answer to all of these worries is that God provides abundantly but for some reason I so easily forget. And that is why I am thanking all of you who gave towards my ministry in Philadelphia and kept me in your prayers throughout the summer. God provided down to the last penny for finances and provided peace and faith in my times of worry.
If I were to share three of the most glaring lessons I learned (at least those I see now as I know there will be more moving forward as I reflect back on my experience) they would be:
1. Human beings live in the inner-city. What? I know... it's true. There are families, children, pets, houses, businesses, churches, and schools that all survive there. I didn't even realize I did not recognize this until one day when I was driving on the street headed to my house in Kensington and I saw a homeless man holding up a sign asking for money standing at a red light. Well a light-bulb went off in my head and I realized that man was a man. He has a story, a life, a family, and a soul. He wasn't a person to look down on or pity but a person to be cared for and prayed for. Throughout the summer I came face to face with many people and situations that reminded me that the "inner-city" was not some far-off nightmare of a place but it is our close neighbor who Jesus has commanded us to care for.
2. The problems in the inner-city are very similar to the problems in suburbia but the real difference is that the inner-city is not pretending the problems don't exist.
(People did not always pretend to have it all together. We confessed our sins to one another whether that was anger, drugs, alcohol, theft, immorality, lack of compassion, hopelessness, impatience or anxiety. And as James 5:16 says when we confess these things and pray for one another healing comes.)
3. I love high-school/ early-college students. Their lives are changing and they are deciding who they are going to be. Over the summer we spent a lot of time talking about who our friends are and how those friendships affect our lives. The idea "show me your friends and I'll show you your future" was tossed around a lot as we looked at what the scriptures say about who we keep as company. After considering the development I saw in the teens over the summer I think it is fair to say if teens do not find something to live for that is greater than themselves then they will only ever live for themselves.
God's grace is sufficient and I am honored to have been used by God this summer in Kensington, Philadelphia.
This week I moved back to Lancaster for RA training for two weeks before the students move in.
This semester I am going to be working on campus in the admissions office and as an RA. I am also going to continue to co-lead a student group at Calvary church. Please be praying for me as I jump into these roles and as I move towards graduation in May!
God truly works all things for good for those who love Him. What an awesome God we get to serve.
As usual love has no borders,
Rachel Martha
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