Street2Street

From Lost to Leader

You are going to think this is an easy question with an easy answer … and you are going to be wrong. Suppose I ask you how far it is between the Sunset Park neighborhood in Brooklyn and Camp Mahanaim in upstate New York? “Simple,” you say, as you click on Mapquest, or fire up your GPS. You ask me for the addresses, and in mere seconds you are rattling off the exact mileage, fastest route, and the precise number of minutes this trip will take.

And you’re not even close to being right. Because a kid named Daniel took that journey, and the distance between Point A and Point B was a lot farther than your navigational device says it was. A lot farther.

Pastor Danny Sanabria is Street2Street’s NYC Director, and he was there when Daniel’s journey started three years ago. He remembers the moment 15-year old Daniel stepped off the church bus to play in his first Street2Street basketball tournament.

Daniel’s mother was there to watch him play. She’s a single mom with four kids she raised in a one-bedroom apartment. God knows she’s trying her best, but this is one of the toughest Latino neighborhoods in America. The kid’s father? Long gone. The only things Daniel really cared about were girls, drugs, drinking … and basketball.

As Daniel’s mom watched him play, Pastor Danny sensed in her that despair that crushes so many parents who want the best for their kids, but lack the means to provide it.

“Daniel needs guidance,” Pastor Danny told the mom. “Why don’t you let him come hang out with us?” She was more than happy for the help, if a little shocked to discover that here was a man who was willing to be the first father figure Daniel had ever known. A man who genuinely cared about the future of her son.

After the tournament, Daniel quickly became a fixture at Park Slope Christian Tabernacle, where Pastor Danny is also the youth pastor. And later that Fall, Daniel found himself—along with 60 other Street2Street kids—at his first church retreat, up at Camp Mahanaim. That’s where everything changed for Daniel. On the second night of the retreat, Jesus broke through to his heart. He raised a trembling hand and he walked to the front of the chapel, his face awash in tears as he was introduced to his Heavenly Father—the One who would never let him down.

Daniel’s story gets better. He’s a major influence in his youth group at church. Not only does he lead the youth band, he also plays guitar with the church’s adult worship band. He’s building relationships with peers and he’s making a positive impact on others. Pastor Danny sums him up by saying: “He’s an exciting young man … totally committed to Christ.”

So, if I may ask again … how far is it, exactly? It’s a long way, for sure. The distance from despair to deliverance, from darkness to light, from lost to leader. Some would say it’s a bridge too far. Some would say you can’t get there from here. Not so. It’s a long way, but it’s a distance that can be traversed in an instant when God is charting the course.

And to think … the journey started with a basketball tournament. Thanks for visiting Street 2 Street today. I hope you’ll be part of the team!

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 6th, 2010 at 4:14 pm and is filed under Street Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.