Team Fink has visited and served at the Denver Rescue Mission over the years. Yesterday, some of the gentlemen from the Denver Rescue Mission visited and served us at Anastasis. It was a pretty incredible day! Student reflections below. Thank you for sharing your journey with us!
Before you see the beauty in the world you have to appreciate the brokenness. You have to find the light in the dark. You can only find the beauty if you persevere through the hardships. Life is hard, but God is good. Beauty is in a smile that lights up the world. Beauty is in a act of kindness that changes a life. Beauty is in a story that changes our definition of hope. The stories that I heard today really opened my blind eyes. The stories made me want to live my life to the fullest and be purposeful with everything I do. Now I have a motive to serve instead of being served. Now I am aware of the world. Now I can look at the world through open and curious eyes. –Makayla A.
We all have a story that needs to be told, a story that only our journey in life can write. Our souls are hungry for someone to listen and read our story. Today I was blessed with listening to these stories. Each and everyone of them impacted me in some way, and that is a feeling I will never forget. Their story all had a common theme, they all said that God was there even when they hit their hard times. Except they chose to look and not really see. We can try so hard to look for God, but we can miss him because we are distracted by others circumstances. Circumstances that God has put in our life to test us of our faith. That’s what I struggle with. I struggle to find the beauty in the hard times, but I believe that’s when we truly look and see God. It’s the beauty in brokenness that our souls and minds long for. We just have to choose to see the beauty instead of the broken. We all have a story that needs to be told, a story that only our journey in life can write. — Angelina
Thank you so much, you guys all told me to get right back up when sin happens and you guys all felt beauty in brokenness. I learned so many new lessons that you can only Learn from experience. Experience is walking through the valley of shadow and death and staying strong with God. -Mitch
I thank Torris, Todd, Bill, Johnathan, Seth, Bill, and Fish for coming to share their testimonies with us. My biggest take away was you can find God in the valley of the shadow of death, you can find God in brokenness. God is always in front of us, but never do we actually open our eyes to see him. Their testimonies kept reminding me of my uncle who was homeless and how he kept pushing God away. I don’t know if he died a Christian, but I still pray that he is watching over my mom and encouraging her and I to be better Christians. I feel like my uncle was trying to talk to me through the guys from Denver Rescue Mission. I felt peace. I felt encouragement to listen to God more and trust him. Thank you for your stories Fish, Seth, Johnathan, Todd, Bill and Torris. Thank you. –Charleigh
A blessing for you, and a blessing for us. A blessing for you to tell, who you are. Giving our class. Hope. Showing the similarities and differences between just two humans. Each story ends up in the same path, it’s just that there are different paths. You chose there, he chose here, and he went there. We will agree on the same path, some we will not. All in all, we end up in the same path. If you could analyze your story in one word, what would it be? You have effected my story, with choosing some paths, and some different paths. — Jack
The empowerment of their testimonies was thriving. The men from Denver Rescue Mission, Torres, Seth, Todd, Bill, Fish, and Jonathan, told us their story’s. They talked about their struggles up to the rescue from God and denver rescue mission. It was amazing to hear and learn from them and about them. They talked about how they misused drugs and explained how there is always light in the valley of the shadow of death. They always had God but sometimes they forgot about him. There faith is stronger than ever now because they were broken and their finding the beauty. They are so vulnerable to tell their story’s. I’m inspired to transform my faith to be stronger. I need to learn to be more vulnerable. Over all I want to take more time to think. Thank you to Torres, Seth, Todd, Bill, Fish, and Jonathan. Your stories are all each individually different and amazing. –Noelle
Thank you all so much for coming to our school. I loved each of your unique stories and how you found God at the end of each dark tunnel. Every one of you has inspired me to be more like Christ and share that with others. Sometimes I struggle to find God in hard times. Your stories have inspired me to look for God in hard times. I appriciate all of you being so vulnerable and sharing your inspiring stories. Life is like a roller coster there are highs and lows but at the end of the ride each of you reunited with God. Thank you all again for coming! –Alli
Thank you all for being brave and sharing your stories! That really impacted my life in many ways. I learned so much about life just from hearing those stories. I understand that life is like a roller coaster, there will be uphills and downhills, but God is always there to help guide us to the right path. I really liked when someone said “We found Jesus but we just had to open our eyes.” I feel like when we are connected with God our eyes are opened for the first time. I can relate to one of you, but not on a deeper level. I’m adopted from China when I was a baby and I never knew my real parents or family. Thank you all again for sharing your stories it was very inspirational! –Maddie
There is beauty in pain and trials all we have to do is look for it and let it find us. Many of you explained to us that evil will try to deceive you in many ways. Evil may seem lovable, but it is just a trick to stray from Gods path he has planned for us. The valley of shadow and death portrays itself as an escape of the struggle and pain we have in life, but beauty does not lie in this place. Beauty can be found through enduring this shadow of death, but we can not find beauty in this place because God will always be with us. No matter what, God will be with us no matter what path we walk upon. “God always is in your life whether you see him or not.” Each an every one of their story left a stamp on my heart that will be carried with me throughout my whole life. Each one their stories had a common thread which portrayed that God reveals himself even in the brokenness. Even though life throws mountains and rivers for us to cross, we endure them because our souls have a hunger to find beauty. God is the Beauty that we find in the brokenness and we must mold our eyes to accept and see Him even when evil throws a new lense over our eyes. There is beauty in pain and hardships, but if we let God find us and we strive to find Him we will be renewed. –Macie
Everybody has a story. Today Toris, Bill, Tod, Fish, Jonathan and Seth told us their stories. These men encouraged me to have a story and to trust God. Something that stood out to me was all of them came to God in their brokenness. We need to stay on our path with God and not drift off to bad things. We will probably never know what they felt like because we have loving families. We take so much for granted but we don’t relize what we really have. –Lauren
Hearing one story can inspire thousands and through brokenness there is truly beauty. Fish, Torres, Jonathan, Tod, Seth, and Bill were such amazing people and definitely a huge impact in my life. Jesus works in ways we can never imagine. He has a plan even when we are in the valleys of the shadow of death He is constantly beside us. The vulnerability to share their hardest times was so powerful. We are blinded to see what others gifts are because all we look at is the surface. We choose to view the bad, when really there is so much more good. There was horrible moments these men had to face, yet they found God in the darkness and have been made new, redeemed. I have moments when i’m doubting, I am constantly sinning because I am a sinner, I walk in the valleys of death once in a while, but God always appears in my life. Hearing the stories today showed me the power of our Lord. God is walking with us every moment and when we can’t see His footprints it’s because we are in His arms. –Megan S
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