Ambar Sabino
Hi there!
My name is Ambar Sabino and I am originally from Lawrence, MA. I am a native-born of the Dominican Republic and immigrated to the United States with my family when I was five years old. As I always say, I was basically raised in the U.S. This past May, I graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA with a Bachelor of Arts in both Religious Studies and Spanish.
Religiously, I come from a latino pentecostal evangelical background. My home church Ebenezer Christian Church and my parents gave me a strong faith foundation, of which I will always be grateful. I am also so blessed to have participated in the Inter-Denominational worship service in my college and have served as both a Praise and Worship Leader and a liturgical Worship Assistant. In this faith community, I was stretched to understand other Protestant Christian faith traditions and be open to learning about what each has to offer. As I participated in the Magis program, program dedicated to develop future church leaders, through the Chaplains Office I also learned to appreciate different prayer practices from my Catholic brothers and sisters.
I look forward to becoming an ordained minister in the future in a Protestant Christian faith tradition, with the guidance of the Lord. My goal is to attend seminary and attain a Masters of Divinity. Before that happened, I wanted to dedicate my life to year of service to be with and serve the most vulnerable of our nation. This is why I wanted to apply to become a YAV! By the grace of God, I am serving in Hollywood, California for this upcoming year. This site is also a DOOR site, which means that it is a partnership between the YAV Program and the DOOR Program that is under the Mennonite Mission Network. DOOR stands for Discovering Opportunities for Outreach and Reflection.
In Hollywood, I will be working in the homeless ministry of First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood. At the church, I'll help prepare for the weekly Sunday worship services followed by a meal, set up for the Wednesday local agencies and social services event and meal, and coordinate the winter shelter that houses 8-10 homeless individuals each year. Homelessness is a prevalent problem in Los Angeles and more specifically in Hollywood. The LA county has the largest homeless population in the nation and in Hollywood a good number of this percentage are young people.
I am so excited to explore the many reasons why people are homeless and to more importantly hear about their life stories. An important theme in YAV / DOOR Hollywood, is also "Reconciliation Matters". By this we mean all types of reconciliation, not just those based on race, although race is central to the theme. We as the group of dwellers will also have conversations about racism and how it plays out in our community, our nation and our world.
Along with working at the church, I will be participating in my neighborhood in several ways. We have an open house two days a week for children from our community to come and hang out. We also have a community garden in our front yard where our neighbors can come plant and harvest vegetables. If you could please pray for my future steps, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you!
