Where God Guides
“How can we be a part of what is breaking God’s heart as well?” asks Michelle Hamilton. She had no idea that God would call her into schools to minister to students. But God is always working, and she has seen that in her life.
Michelle leads the Light of Orlando Young Life Urban area of the Multiethnic Young Life ministry. Young Life is an organization that enters into schools and is committed to introducing adolescents to Jesus and helping them grow in their faith.
Every year, Summit designates the offering collected during Christmas Eve services to go to an organization outside our walls. We are so excited to come alongside Michelle and her volunteers’ work as this year’s offering will be given toward their ministry. Light of Orlando aligns with how we are serving locally with organizations that serve and reach vulnerable children—in this case, in local schools. The goal of Multiethnic Young Life is to reach kids of color and kids from vulnerable and under-resourced communities.
“We're not the impetus for this stuff,” explains Liz Cronlund, our community engagement coordinator. “We join into stories already happening, and the momentum of this ministry is just exponential.”
Young Life focuses on creating genuine, lasting relationships between the students and leaders. These students are being discipled and counseled toward their future goals. They are also being encouraged to disciple others and share what they’re learning about the love of Jesus. Light of Orlando will use this offering to fund programming that will help further the ministry’s reach by enabling them to enter into more schools.
Michelle first heard about Young Life while she was serving with a different organization. A couple of the girls involved told her everything they love about Young Life and she saw the absolute joy on their faces. At the time, she was job hunting after moving back to Orlando. It was through an event she volunteered for that she met a woman who connected her to her current job at Young Life. “The Lord ... met me exactly where I was and introduced me to a life I never thought that I would ever see,” Michelle says.
“Michelle is uniquely made for this work and it’s apparent in the level of impact that she has,” says Dan Sherfield, our Summit Connect director.
“There's a very felt and obvious need that she is meeting,” adds Liz. “She's determined to do ministry no matter what and is extremely faithful in it. She just keeps growing the ministry knowing that her resources are extremely limited, but she's still listening to God. He's pulling her into things that seem really risky. She's like, ‘All right, God says this. I'm going.’”
“One of the things that God has shown me personally is that where God guides, he provides,” Michelle says. “He has done that for me in my personal life, and he has done that in ministry.” She says that it’s all about exercising faith, expectation, and trust. “When we let the love of Christ transform who we are, whether we know it or not, we look like Jesus,” she says. “And that's what people see.” She is passionate about the love of Jesus and sharing his love with others. That’s exactly what Young Life is passionate about too.
As Michelle grows in relationship with her Young Life students, she becomes very engaged in their lives as another or, sometimes, one of the only stable adults in their lives. But while she is there to disciple them, there are things she learns from them, too. “The kids have taught me how to persevere,” Michelle reveals. “The kids have taught me how important it is for me to pray—how important it is for me to know the word and hide God's word in my heart.”
Something that’s unique about the way Michelle works is the way she encourages the students with integrity and shows them the value of making choices that may be hard, but better for them in the long run. Michelle continues, “They have a whole different world that they're living in. They teach me how to navigate through that world. And the kids teach me that every kid deserves the love of Christ.”
To learn more about Young Life in Orlando, you can visit their website here.
Leading up to Christmas Eve services, please be prayerfully considering giving something beyond your regular tithe to the Christmas Eve offering and be inviting your guests to do the same.