This summer, I had the incredible opportunity to serve as a missionary and host-leader in the city of Chicago. I've lived in community with 12 other women and men. We've cried, we've laughed, we've gone on crazy adventures. But most of all, we got a chance to be the hands and feet of Christ and reached out to those who the world has deemed to be unredeemable. When I first applied for the job, I didn't know what I would be getting into. Take a bunch of mission teams from around the country to do service projects in the inner city? Sure, that sounds pretty easy. But little did I know that my heart would be completely wrecked at the end.

Every week, I would be serving alongside my team at various places around Chicago. Soup kitchens, homeless shelters, schools, after school clubs, factories, under the train tracks, on the streets, you name it. As time went past, I developed relationships with those who I was serving. Not surface level relationships, either. I didn't just plop food on their plates smile and get back to my safe middle-class life feeling like I did something. No, I got real, raw, and personal with these folks. Kids opened up to me about a lot of heartbreaking things.

Do you know what it's like to have a little boy casually tell you that his family lives with rats, roaches, and other rodents and it's all because they can't afford to move somewhere else? Do you know what it's like to see an entire family, including a newborn, sitting on the side of the street on Michigan Ave of downtown and seeing every single person look at them in disgust and step over them? Do you know what it's like to hear a story from a young man, whose family kicked him out and left him on the street because he identified as being homosexual?

I know what all this feels like and it sucks. It totally sucks seeing all these issues right in my neighborhood and not knowing where to start first. We live in a broken world; Chicago is feeling that brokenness. There have been many times I've wanted to be weak this summer and say what's the point?! I've wanted to lose hope--hope for my city and the people in it. But then I remembered two things.

I remembered I was born for such a time as this. God had me serving in this city for a reason. And it was to see the brokenness, have my heart convicted and for action to take place in my daily walk. There is hope for this city cause he has pricked the heart of mines and so many others around this city to fight for our city and right the injustices.

I needed to turn my weaknesses into strengths. My favorite passage of scripture Joshua 1:9 says, "Haven't I commanded you? Strength! Courage! Don't be timid don't get discouraged. God, your God, is with you every step you take." I feel God is saying that to so many of us as we now face so many injustices in Chicago and America.

Micah 6:8 says, "What God is looking for in men and women. It's quite simple; Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, and don't take yourself too seriously--take God seriously" (MSG).

Summer is about to end soon for me as I head back to school to finish my senior year of college, and I'm forever changed. I can't go back to my same ways. I've seen and heard way too much to just forget all that God has taught me this summer. If you are reading this, I am encouraging you to get involved in your cities. Talk to the homeless people on the street, volunteer at the inner city schools, serve at the soup kitchen every week and watch what God does. I promise you, you will never be the same.