Updates

School

After having 8 months off from school, I am back! Spring 2011 semester has kicked into full gear and I’m on my way to finishing my last year and degree in Social Work. I am currently taking three classes and doing a social work internship at a nursing home. This has been a really exciting time because a lot of preparation has come to bring me to this place and I know God wants to teach me so much through this last year of school.

As far as life at SLM goes…

February passed by so quickly and the Lord has been doing so much with us as a team. Earlier that month, we were invited to host a weekend youth conference about purity at Grace & Peace which is one of the churches that have been coming on missions trips with us. As a team we got to pray and pour into the youth and God did so much in and through us. It was a really exciting time for me because at one point the girls and guys split up into separate groups and the girls were able to anonymously ask the SLM girls questions about life. Since this was a weekend about purity, most of the questions were directed towards relationships, however it was such a powerful time because not only was there such a hunger and desire among the girls, but the questions they asked were so genuine. It was almost as if God hand-picked every girl that was supposed to be in that group.

Here are some pictures from that weekend...


The ladies from our group :)










Also, for more updates about some things happening at SLM, please check out our latest newsletter.

Once again, thank you for all your prayers & support. Please if there is anything you would like prayer for please let me know. Or just let me know how you are doing.

He Came to Set the Captives Free!!

Back in June, I met Adrian at Tompkins Square Park during a crisis moment in his life. Although I was not able to help him, I wrote a quick testimony on my blog asking people to pray and intercede on his behalf. (Click here for the testimony)

A few weeks ago, Adrian came back to the truck to let us know that he has been clean for the past couple of months and placed in a three quarter house. He is now back in church and accountable to fellow Christians. He thanked us for being there and praised God for what He has done.

It was so amazing to see Adrain clean and hear how God’s restoring his life. Not very often do we hear testimonies like that, but for the ones that we do, we thank God and continue to believe that He desires to do much more. Please continue to pray for him because I know the path to recovery can be rough.

See You at the Pole

This year September 22^nd, the Street LIFE staff joined with students from Townsend Harris, Bayside and Queens College for their See You at the Pole (SYATP). SYATP is an annual international event that gathers students to pray for their campuses in front of their school’s flag pole. This is the perfect opportunity to kick off the school year and to show other students passing by that there is a Christian presence in their schools. I am so thankful for the opportunity to join together with believers and encourage them as we prayed for students, faculty members, the spreading of the Gospel and revival on their campuses. I had such a good time praying for their schools and for them as they lead their ministries and pursue to bring God's glory through their lives. It truly brought me back to my high school days when I was a leader in Seekers Christian Club doing what they are doing now.

Week of Fasting & Prayer Sept 13-17th :

God is so good! The week of fasting and praying was amazing. Every night we gathered and the Lord lead us to pray for topics such as the youth, revival, unity in the church, United States and Israel. My favorite thing about this week is the fact that believers from different churches (young and old, different ethnicities and denominations) come together for the purpose of seeking God’s face.

One of the most powerful nights we had was when we were praying for unity in the church, at the end of the night, Weslea (my coworker who was facilitating) had us come to the front, joining hands and each lifting up our fellowships in repentance and interceding for us to work together as a Body. This spoke so much to me because in a city with so many different people groups, if the world cannot see the people of God serving, working and showing love to each other, how can we ever show them God’s love. I know this sounds simple, but prayer truly brings people together.

The week ended with an All Nighter which was from 7:30pm (Friday the 17th) to 5am, Saturday. This year’s All Nighter, I felt so revived and refreshed in my relationship with God. David in the beginning shared on revival and how that starts in us. He had us come up to the altar, asking the Lord to speak to us about different issues in our hearts that would hinder us from experiencing more of God. It was so powerful because so many came up, in tears, on their knees, hungry for more of God. In my heart, I felt such a conviction that God was calling me to go deeper and to give more of myself to prayer and other areas of my heart.

This was indeed an exciting time! :)

Summer Update

hey everyone!!

so it's been a while since i wrote anything here, but i just wanted to post a quick summer update. This summer has been amazing and the Lord has been pouring out His love in and through us in the streets as well as in my personal life.

Thank you guys for watching!

Quick Update

What a week it has been! Summer outreach as begun and our first team for the summer just left. It has been a wonderful, joyous week full of great ministry opportunities and answered prayers. This week at Tompkins Square Park, I was so blessed to be able to help three different guys with housing and drug problems, Adrain, Alfred & Samir. Each of them has a different story of how God has divinely orchestrated our acquaintance.

The moment we got to TSP, Adrain came up to our truck and asked for help. He immediately told me he had a drug problem and needed to get himself into a detox and rehab. Adrain is addicted to crack. He told me he was born again Christian but walked away from God because he felt like a hypocrite but knew this day was from God. After doing an assessment, we looked into getting him into a Christian rehab. Unfortunately, we were not able to find a place that was suitable for his situation, however he told me he was going to check himself into a detox later.

We then talked some more and I encouraged him to continue seeking God and not give up. I shared a bit of my testimony on the struggles in my Christian walk and how some days I want to give up. Especially when you feel like it’s a never ending cycle of messing up, yet, God is so faithful and committed to us, never relenting in His pursuit to save us. As I began to share this, I could tell this gave him some hope and motivation to stay the course.

Please continue to pray for him because I know that he desires freedom but like so many, hopelessness gets the best of them. I’ve learned a lot through these past couple of years and one thing is for certain, God in his unfailing love does not want to leave us in our sins but promises to set the captives free and bring healing to the broken hearted. The streets of New York City are certainly filled with broken hearted people in need of a Savior’s healing touch.

Thank you for all your prayers and support and partnering up with me in bringing the Good News on the streets of NYC.

Also, please check out this video I made for one my classes this semester. In it you hear the testimony of one of my fellow co-workers and a bit of what we do here at Street LIFE.

To Write Love on Her Arms

hey everyone!

I just wanted to re-post this...

God is so good. This is the heart of God crying out over this generation and the lost, this is written so beautifully. Hope you enjoy and may it bless you today.

Love,
Amy

You matter very much.

Posted by Chris Youngblood at 3:42pm

i hope you know you're not the only one who feels the way you feel. You are not the only one who struggles. You are not the only one with questions. You are not crazy. You deserve to be heard, to be known. You deserve love.

You deserve love.

You deserve a place that feels like home. You deserve some hands to hold. Hands to pull you past the broken moments, hands to catch you when you fall. Eyes to see you. To say you're there, that you exist, that you change a room, that your presence is significant. Ears to hear you - hear your stories, hear you laugh. Ears to hear your questions and to say they matter.

Your questions matter.

Maybe call a friend today or invite someone to coffee. Tell someone they matter or tell someone you could use a conversation. Write a letter or ask someone how they're doing. Like a song too much. Feel the drums or get lost in the chorus. It means that you're alive.

It's good that you're alive. Who else could play your part?

i hope you get to a place, wake to a day, where that feels true. You deserve to know it's true.

To Write Love on Her Arms is a community of people with questions and struggles. It is for broken people and it is led by broken people. Life is heavy and light. Life is both. Beauty and pain, aches and dreams... We are saying that it's okay to talk about those things. We are saying that we need to. We are choosing to believe that stories deserve better endings. That hope is real, that help is real, that people need other people.

You are not alone today. You matter very much.

Peace to you.
jamie