By Avery Joshua

As the kids called me this summer, I am Ms. Avery.  I grew up in Tacoma, Washington and moved to the DC area in 2006 when I started school at the University of Maryland in College Park.  I graduated this May with a degree in Finance and I’ll be starting my full-time job at PricewaterhouseCoopers at the end of August.  During my last semester at UMD, I began to think about my plans for the summer and wanted to find a job that would allow me to serve God.  I heard about the internship at DayBreak through The Gathering (the college ministry of McLean Bible Church) and after praying about it, I knew that it would be the perfect place to spend my summer.

Working at DayBreak has challenged me and blessed me in so many more ways than I ever expected. If you ask anyone who is close to me, I never had any desire to ever teach, but with God’s grace, that’s exactly what I did for the past five weeks. I taught a class of eight 4^th and 5^th grade girls and over the summer and we learned about Presidents, natural disasters, fractions and even a bit of geometry. I can definitely say that this hasn’t been the easiest summer of my life, but I’m glad to have been a part of sharing the Gospel and Christ’s love with these kids. Beyond the academic portion of the summer, I am so grateful for the relationships I was able to build with the girls. Although there were times when they’d be upset with me if they didn’t get their way, I really believe they understood how much I loved them and that the love I have for them doesn’t even compare to the love that Christ has for them. Through DayBreak, God is providing a way to save these girls from their sin and to build lasting relationships with them.

One of my favorite moments from this summer was after camp one day when all of the kids had already been walked home. I returned through the front door getting ready to have our “end of the day debrief” and Ms. Becky hands me the phone saying, “There’s someone who wants to talk to you!” One of the girls from my class called DayBreak right after she got home and asked if she could come back just to hang out. I told her that she couldn’t come because the staff needed to have a meeting and pray, but before I hung up, she asked if we could pray together over the phone. The prayer was quick, but I was encouraged knowing that she had a desire to pray and that she knew she could call us with anything she needed.

Now that the summer is over, I am praying that I’ll find ways to stay connected to these girls and this community once I start my full-time job. Please continue to pray that all of the kids would develop personal relationships with Christ and that DayBreak would continue to be a light in the darkness here in Lincoln Heights.