When Pastor Bronis Perteit planted New Life Apostolic Ministries in 2018, she had no building, no staff, and no roadmap — only a calling. She couldn’t have imagined that a few years later, the students in her congregation would be leading a nonprofit, cooking monthly breakfasts for the unhoused, and helping transform their neighborhood in Iowa City.

On the surface, Iowa City appears affluent, shaped by a major university and hospital. But in the neighborhood where New Life gathers, deep need lives alongside deep privilege.

“As I’ve heard people’s stories and challenges, I am reminded how we must look at people through a lens of love and service,” Pastor Bronis says. “I’ve always believed that connection precedes salvation.”

That conviction became the foundation for how she discipled young people.

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Cultivating a Heart for Service

Pastor Bronis knew firsthand how serving others could shape a young person’s faith. But when she began searching for opportunities for her students, she found very few.

Then she discovered YouthWorks, a nonprofit that leads youth service trips and participated in TENx10’s Faith & Service project.

Their first trip took them to Milwaukee. For many students, it felt like stepping into an entirely different world. The discomfort was real — yet Pastor Bronis knew  that’s often where faith begins to grow.‍

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Faith Internalized

Pastor Bronis believes thriving faith is formed when spiritual practices and service come together. The trip became a catalyst for both.

Not everyone arrived excited. Julian, then a seventh grader, almost didn’t want to go.

“I was scared,” he says. “I didn’t know what to expect.”

Naomi, a high school senior, carried different questions. As a young Black woman, she wondered whether she would see others who looked like her serving alongside her.

“I think sometimes people attach service projects with people of color being the people being served, not the people serving,” she says. “It helped us realize it’s really not about color. It’s just about helping people.”

Pastor Bronis approached the trip as more than a service project. She saw it as relational discipleship. Through daily devotionals, reflection, and honest conversations, students were invited to connect what they were seeing with what Jesus taught.

“I wanted them to talk about what they were seeing — what are you feeling, what are you experiencing?” she says. “Then let’s take scripture and apply it to the service they’re providing.”‍

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Faith Applied

But the real transformation began after they returned home.

Serving in another city opened young people’s eyes to the needs in their own neighborhood. Together, they began asking: What can we do right here?

The answer became Do Good Community Connections, a youth-led nonprofit now serving their community, month after month.

Students cooked homemade breakfasts for local shelters, planted a community garden that donates produce to a free clinic, and started a clothing closet after meeting a man with frostbitten fingers. They’ve organized food drives and partnered with local organizations to host pop-up food shops on church property.

Julian, who once resisted going to Milwaukee, now serves every month without hesitation.

“Seeing people being filled with food, because they don’t always have that privilege — it makes me happy to know that we helped them,” he says.

Naomi describes the breakfasts as a judgment-free space.

“Sometimes you’re just in a rough patch,” she says. “It doesn’t mean you don’t deserve help.”

She’s also learned that food opens more than appetites.

“Food reaches the belly and the heart,” she says. “Then people open up. Sometimes they ask for prayer. Sometimes they come to church.”

“A person doesn’t just want a handout,” Pastor Bronis says. “They want to be seen as a human being. They have a story. I want these young people to see people — to show the love of Christ and not be afraid. I’m talking about humanity.”

The adults in the congregation began noticing the transformation, too. Volunteers multiplied. Partnerships grew. What started as a youth initiative became something the whole faith community wanted to join.‍

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Faith Made Real

Pastor Bronis says she sees a clear difference in young people who actively serve.

“They’re not just reading about Jesus in a book,” she says. “Faith has to become alive. They need real-life experiences that connect the words in the book. They have to have their own encounter.”

Julian and Naomi are living proof. One almost stayed home. The other wondered if she would belong. Both came back changed — and kept serving.

“I’m not losing anything to help somebody,” Naomi says. “If anything, I’m gaining peace, because I know someone out there has an extra blanket, an extra coat, an extra meal.”

For Julian, serving changed how he sees the world.

“It makes me grateful for where I am and what I have,” he says. “There’s always somebody who would give the world to be in your position.”

That’s what Pastor Bronis has been building all along: not simply service projects or a nonprofit, but young people who encounter Jesus in the realities of everyday life — and can’t help but share what they’ve found.