Look for where God is working and GO THERE.
I love telling people how Serve Orlando started. It probably isn’t the way most ministries or businesses start, but it’s my story and God has been preparing me for this kind of work for most of my life. The story of Serve Orlando begins with brokenness, uncertainty, a new purpose and God bringing beauty from ashes. Back in 2013 I was in the midst of many life changes, moving back to Orlando and feeling very uncertain as to what my future career would look like. Before 2013 I had been working as a youth minister for over 12 years in the church and truly loved building relationships with students and their families. I loved walking with students through the good and bad and providing opportunities for them to grow in their faith.
After becoming a single mom, I knew that life would look different for me and probably meant that I would not be working in a church as a youth minister any longer. Hanging out with students after school, leading retreats, mission trips and events would take me away from my children and that wasn’t a good option for my family. So that prompted me to start thinking about what I am the most passionate about, what I love about youth ministry, and how I could serve people. That’s how Serve Orlando was born.
God gave me the idea to start Serve Orlando after inspecting my heart and knowing my gifts, talents and hope for students (and adults) to catch a vision for what having a servant heart should look like. After a lot of research, I learned that there was not an organization that would set up year around mission trip type of experiences for groups in Orlando and the Central Florida area. So, I decided that’s exactly what I would do, in God’s timing.
Over the last few years God has opened many doors for great partnerships, the best lodging option for groups (hello, you get to sleep in real actual beds!) and ways to serve our community well. God is obviously at work — on my heart, in my life, in Orlando and with the many people we serve. God is at work here and you should join us!
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a NEW thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
