Sometimes I am reminded why I have the best job in the world. This past week was one of those times. The marketing team of The A Group presented Metro Ministries in Brooklyn, NY with our proposed marketing and branding campaigns. While we had immersed ourselves in learning about the ministry, nothing truly prepared us to being in the middle of it all.

On the bus on our way to Sunday School.

Metro Ministries started over 30 years ago by the remarkable Bill Wilson, who after being abandoned by his mother on a street corner at a young age, felt the call to go back to the streets of one the nation’s most dangerous neighborhoods and share the gospel with at-risk-children.  Metro Ministries claims the largest Sunday school in the world with over 42,000 children in NYC, the Philippines and now an exploding number in Africa.

But numbers often fail to tell the story of the people they represent. As our team toured Metro’s facilities, we encountered time and time again staff who once were at-risk children themselves whose lives are now filled with purpose as they now mentor children in the same predicament they once were in.

What a great cycle of redemption: the rescued staying behind to rescue the most fragile and vulnerable of us all.

I found myself early last Saturday morning in a school bus riding through Brooklyn, getting wet from a water gun, with screaming kids all around, and loving every minute of it.  I’m not sure one could get kids in suburbia America out of bed at 8:30 on a Saturday morning, but these kids were ready to go. After all, beyond all the fun they were about to have with the indoor water slide, they loved being held and hugged by the bus crew and being taught a spiritual lesson that could change the entire course of their lives—even if they don’t know it now. For a great number of these little ones, their time with the Metro crew is only physical contact and words of affirmation they get all week long.

Yes, this is a water slide inside the church. It's too dangerous to have it outdoors.

I’m thankful that I (and my entire team) can come alongside ministries, churches, and organizations that build people up and offer eternal hope all over the globe. There’s not a price tag you can put on the satisfaction of knowing that your work does indeed matter, nor on the smile of a child whose eyes twinkle because you showed up.

How do you feel about your work?