Flipping the Lens, A Look Back So Far...

            Before Urban Life, I was halfway through my junior year of college down at UNC Charlotte. I was struggling to find how to fit my new-found faith and fervent passion for Jesus Christ into the life I had just worked so hard to build up with worldly things. I had the friends, I had the social circle, I had the grades, I had the latest party invites, and I found my self having been hurled into a life of lies and deceit and trying to develop and grow my faith among all that.  I struggled to find a happy medium of trying to know who God is while still holding onto everything I had worked so hard to create for myself; after all, this was fun, wasn't it? I walked upon shaky ground for a time. I yearned to hear God say, "This is the way, walk in it" yet when I came to a fork in the road I continuously chose to go off-roading somewhere between right and wrong. I was trying. But my double life was consuming me and any chance I had of really living out my calling and walking with Christ Jesus. So the Holy Spirit led me to begin to search for alternate routes. 
On August 15^th I got an email that turned my world upside down. I got an email telling me I was officially an Urban Life intern. The bold prayers and audacious faith I had begun to discover the power of in the weeks prior led to a door opening to a lifestyle that I didn’t even think was possible. God gave me what I had believed and trusted Him for - a chance to change the world, starting in West Charlotte. Talk about grace! Now here I stand, only 3 months later, feet taller than I was on that first day when I stand up against the spiritual growth yardstick. 

            Urban Life for me has been an incredible whirlwind of answered prayer, challenges, provision, indescribable joy, surrender, learning, wooing and growth for me so far, and a few weeks back when I had an opportunity to return to University, and revisit the life I came from, that growth was apparent. As I was blessed to get to spend the day on my old campus seeing all my college friends, I had the opportunity to reflect on all that has changed .

            I started the day doing my old job, being a tour guide at UNCC; only this time I was leading a group of inner-city middle school girls from my outreach partner, Right Moves For Youth, around. Instead of droning on about academic programs I was sharing my passion for the importance of education, giving tips on financial aid and watching these 14-yr-old girls’ eyes light up at free movie theaters, on-campus salons, and an all-you-can-eat cafeteria full of more food choices in one place than some have ever seen in their lives.

            I also brought along one of my fellow tour guides, Alexis, who comes from a similar background as the girls and could relate to them in a way that no one else could. She was only there by grace as she had dropped a class that morning which made it possible for her to be present. Thank you Lord!  By the end of the hour we spent with this amazing group of young girls who had so touched her heart, Alexis was ready to sign up to volunteer with Right Moves, start a student organization centered on mentoring kids in the university area, and declare a concentration in youth upon her social work major. This girl was on fire! And I was just watching in awe as God displayed her calling out in front of her on a campus tour and all of a sudden the path it took to get her here this morning made so much sense. My friendship with her was so crucial, her job was so essential to His plan, and this chapter of my life is still affecting the relationships I established in the last chapter. Praise God! This is what Urban Life is about, and yea it might take a while to see it play out that plainly in Wesley Heights; but today, its all laid out – the goal of what we're doing here– and its amazing.

            That same day, I met up with one of my best friends from UNCC who hasn’t been the best about staying in touch since I started Urban Life. Our conversations used to be so surface level, and this time I knocked on the apartment door, told him the Holy Spirit had directed me to come talk and pray with him and got right down to it. My heart was touched by how open he was to my clumsy request and after talking through some things with me, we ended the visit by praying for each other. I loved how comfortable I was initiating prayer and leading it and letting the Spirit speak through me and call him out on some things – I recognized the growth within myself then because previously I would have taken a note in my phone and brought to God quietly alone, not daring to hold someone accountable out loud. But I’ve learned here that there is so much power in prayer, especially corporately, for Jesus said where two or three are gathered in my name, there I will be also, and I was affirmed of that when we said Amen and my friend turned to me and said, “Wow, Meg. That was a pretty powerful prayer. You have come such a long way. Thank you for caring about me enough to pray like that with me.”  

          
 I’m experiencing life change. I could have never fathomed the ways that God is pouring out his never-ending grace on me in this community and in this ministry. Urban Life is transforming me. And I’m doing my best to transform those around me. This opportunity is a once-in-a-lifetime deal, and I’m so grateful to you all for playing a role in making this possible.

#HeySandy

I had the opportunity this weekend to travel to NYC to aid in the disaster relief efforts that were being coordinated by the New York Dream Center and Hillsong Church. We left on Thursday night and traveled in a van through the night squeezed in between stacks of non-perishable food for those without power, case upon case of bottled water, all kinds of sleeping bags & blankets and our own possessions on top of all that. It was a tad crowded, but the joy we got from knowing we were going to bless people and get our hands dirty serving all weekend, coupled with the rush of adrenaline we had from our theme song mashup,  was no match for a little discomfort. We began our serving partnering with @nycdreamcenter in the projects of Chelsea, Manhattan where all the power was out for days and elderly people and others with small children were seemingly trapped up in thier apartments, some as high as 20 stories high with no heat, no water, and no way to get down due to the pitch black and occasionally puddly stairwells and non-functioning elevators. We packed food bags and brought water bottles up to all the elderly and the families that hadn't been able to get out from their homes yet all day on Friday and then offered them hot food and supplies if they needed them. Check out some footage from the afternoon!

We were incredibly blessed by the attitudes and gratitude and honor of all those around us and I felt God's abundant grace just pouring down on me as my heart and soul were refreshed from service. I used muscles I didn't know I had hauling two 5 gallon buckets full of heavy wet sand a good jaunt to the street to get it out of people's general house vicinity. I talked to people whose homes were half ruined with water, who saw their neighbors go through terrible things right before their eyes in the storm, whose entire house of possessions and years of memories sat piled in a soggy mountain out in street that used to be so quaint in Rockaway, Queens but was now ruined and ransacked and piled 3 feet high with sand from the beach and ocean. And through it all, they smiled. And they lifted each other up and they didn't dwell and they were sleeping with no heat in the same bundled up clothes they'd been wearing for days and they were inviting neighbors into the top level of their home that was still sort of okay to provide a refuge. It was insane. But it was awesome. Check out a video of us working in Rockaway!

http://urbanlifeclt.org/blog/hey-hurricane-sandy/  <-  A wonderfully articulate account of the trip