Something Beautiful

      Keli Hautman grew up — literally — on the “wrong side of the tracks” in the tough Roseland area of South Chicago. Among dangerous streets and lurking influences, you might think Keli’s future would be grim.

      But Keli lived near the Agape Center, Here’s Life’s ministry center in Chicago. When she was in the first grade, she began attending youth programs there. In fact, Keli soon made the Agape Center her “home away from home.”

      Straight through her high school years, Keli received a Christian foundation at the Center’s after-school program. Remembering those early days, Keli reports, “I got help with my homework, memorized Scripture, and learned lots of new things.” As a teenager, Keli says she learned “how to have fun and still be good at the same time” there.

      Once a week, Keli and a few other girls would meet with Linda Cotton, a Here’s Life staff member. Over popcorn or ice cream, they would study the Bible together and figure out how it related to real life in their neighborhood.

      Keli was always faithful to come to the meetings and eager to participate. Through the influence of her family and her friends at the Center, Keli lived in the neighborhood “but wasn’t of it.”

      Against the norm of her community, Keli graduated from high school and went to college. She majored in Business Administration at Eastern Illinois University — 180 miles and many worlds away from South Chicago.

      The Christ-centered principles Keli learned at the Agape Center remained part of her life ... although she admits she drifted at times.

      In 2002, the young girl from the wrong side of the tracks graduated from college. She returned to live in her old neighborhood, and she landed a good job in business. She made the choice to become actively involved in a large church with a zealous outreach to the surrounding poor community.

      Keli went on to receive her Master’s degree, and today she has a responsible position at a bank. Like it says in the old gospel song, God has made something beautiful out of her life.

Previous Stories of Hope:

• Walk a Year in These Shoes
• Authenticity From Experience
• Transformation Station
• The City Pulled Me Up
• Language of Love
• Thriving at 13
• S.A.Y. Yes! Celebration
• Urban Immersion: One Life-Changing Day
• Reach a Child, Impact a Family
• It Started With a Fishing Trip
• Hope Grows in Brooklyn
• A Transformed Family
• S.A.Y. Yes! Long Term
• Partnership in Brooklyn
• S.A.Y. Yes! for the Long Term
• Moving Toward a Career
• Breakthrough at S.A.Y. Yes!
• We Don’t Ever Have to Go Back!
• Prison Prevention Ministry Helps Redirect Lives