Meet Rachel!

Hi! My name is Rachel and I have had the privilege of serving twice a week at Family of God this semester for one of my practicums at Concordia University. I am a junior at Concordia in the Family Life Program and absolutely love being a Cardinal.

I am going to challenge you to imagine for a moment walking around late at night and looking for a place to stay; not for a house or a bed to stay, but for a porch. Now imagine doing so with a baby on the way, and the struggle of staying clean after getting released from drug rehab. Imagine doing all of this without any family support. Think of the loneliness and sadness this would bring. The situation I just had you picture yourself in is not fiction: it is a true story about someone’s life. During my first week at Family of God, I met a lady who was four months pregnant, had just gotten out of drug rehab, and had spent the previous night on a porch that she found. Not only that, but she told me that she had not spoken to her family in years.

I was able to pray with her and give her a blanket, and I have not seen her since then. When she told me all of this and when I gave her a blanket, I felt heartbroken. It felt so small to hand her a blanket when she needed so much more. However, someone made the point to me, that to her the blanket was warmth. At Family of God I have learned that we cannot fix the problems that people have to face. However, we can love them and point them to Jesus. We can show them the One who died for all the brokenness of the world and who promises that He is currently making all things new. There are few things more special than being able to show the light of Christ in the midst of intense darkness. Serving at Family of God has been one of the biggest challenges ever, but the joy and new perspective that have come from it have been even more. Family of God is really a family, and being a part of it has been a blessing beyond what I ever anticipated.