Urban Impact works with international immigrants and has three centers throughout the city: The African Friendship Center in Brooklyn, The South Asian Center in Queens, and The All Nations Center, also in Queens. In addition, Urban Impact also supports a beach ministry in Rockaway Beach. Three of us will be serving at the immigrant centers, and one of us will be helping the beach ministry. We will be joining hands with Urban Impact's regular staff and twelve other summer interns to teach ESL, work with children, and share the Good News of Jesus Christ, crucified and resurrected, to people from all over the globe.
This is our team:
Will (Team Leader)
Will is from Rainsville, Alabama and is a graduate-level law student at the University of Alabama. Though he's not exactly sure what he wants to do after he graduates, he would strongly consider accepting the office of Attorney General of the United States of America. This summer, he hopes to get his selfish self out of the way and make his time in NYC all about God and the people there.
Ben (Media Specialist)
I'm from Bowling Green, Kentucky and am a student at Western Kentucky University, where I'm studying Religious Studies and Creative Writing. I'm also a student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where I'm pursuing a Masters of Divinity. God has called me, after I graduate, to preach His Gospel in pastoring a local body of believers, Lord willing, until the day I die. I pray that, this summer, God would give me the grace to delight in Him daily (Psalm 37:4) and, in so doing, bring others to delight in Him through the Gospel of His Son.
Gabe
Gabe is from Memphis, Tennessee and is a student at Blue Mountain College, where he's studying the Bible and Psychology. God has called Gabe to full-time, career mission work, hopefully working eventually with Muslims around the world. This summer, Gabe hopes to grow in Christ as He is growing in him.
Mary Kate
Mary Kate is from Decatur, Alabama and is a student at Mississippi College, where she's studying English Literature and ESL. Other than being a part-time aerobics instructor and glorifying God and enjoying Him forever, as she so adamantly reminds us is written in the Westminster Shorter Catechism, she has no idea what she wants to do after graduation. She hopes that, this summer, she will grow in the grace and knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, develop endurance, and share His love with others.
We are all very excited about the opportunity God has given us this summer, and we hope that you are, too. We ask that you would, as Paul writes in Ephesians 6:18-19 (ESV), "keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for [us], that words may be given to [us] in opening [our] mouths boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel."
Some specifics to be praying for:
- that we might be unified under our common mission in Christ.
- that God might pour out His graces on us anew daily.
- that we might be bound to local churches in NYC, with whom we can "grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from the whole body, being joined together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so it builds itself up in love" (Ephesians 4:15-16 ESV).
- that God might, even now, be preparing the hearts of the lost to hear the Good News of His Son.
- that hard hearts of stone might be replaced with beating hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26) , being brought by the Holy Spirit to repentance and belief in Jesus Christ through the Gospel.
In Christ,
Ben