With Amazing Grace playing in my ears as I rolled down the streets of New York City in the Peter Pan bus, it was a bittersweet feeling. Bittersweet because my mind flashed back to the last time I was here( May-2015 I think) and coming back here after so long, but as a totally different person with a completely different outlook on life, and in a much much better place in life, it just showed such a huge contrast in my persona as a whole from last year up until now.

I just began to ponder on how far i have come as a person, as an individual,(….just a mini reflection on the bus) and all this is because of the grace and mercy of God.

Up until now, New York had become a place i did not want to return to, because it was filled with multiple memories, most of which i was not proud of….broken relationships, drunken nights, disgraceful acts amongst others. I do not think the company i kept would even be able to recognize me if they saw me now.  But a greater part of me was scared because i felt as though, going back there meant going back to my old ways. Its like i was denouncing what the word says in 2Corinthians 5:17..“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” I am a new creation in Christ, so why do i still feel the need to allow the past the live in the present?

Often times, as Christians, we forget whose we are on this earth. We forget how much power has been given unto us.(2Peter1:3-4...His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.)  We forget to live and walk in the word. But let me remind you, incase you find yourself in this situation, we are a new creation in Christ. So from that day that you decided to give your life to Christ, everything was washed away, every sin is once again washed away when you ask for forgiveness of sins, because the Bible says in Psalm 103:12…As far as the east is from the west, so has He removed our transgressions from us. So i am here to reassure you that the God we serve is a forgiving God. And i realized that when i was leaving that weekend, that my new memories of NYC was that of that weekend, the weekend where we evangelized on the streets of Yonkers, we spread the gospel and reached out to several people on the streets, entered random shops and witnessed to them.

My favourite was when i entered this shop and i told the lady i wanted to share a word with her, but she said she was busy, so i then offered to pray for her and asked if she had any prayer points. Even without me opening my mouth to pray, that act alone touched her and blessed her. I had no idea what was going on in her life, but just offering to pray for her got her teary eyed and changed her life forever. If that was the most i could do that weekend, i wouldn’t exchange it for anything. It was such a wonderful and fulfilling feeling!

I have become such a beautiful, powerful and strong woman, because of His grace. The grace that keeps me going, the grace that empowers me to strive for perfection, because even when i am at my lowest, I am strong. I boast in my weakness because His power is made perfect in my weakness.(2 Corinthians12:9) It showed me that i am growing, and just as the Bible says I am fearfully and wonderfully made, i am actually starting to believe it, because it is true.