Sometimes the transformation that occurs in these lives is quite visible. Sutter recalls
sitting in church one Sunday worshiping in a row of people from her ministry. “I was moved to tears,” she says, “because I knew the
stories of the people in that row. There was an alcoholic who had come to faith in Christ and had entered into his sobriety. There
was a woman who had prostituted herself for crack cocaine for years, who had been set free. And there was a man who had recently been
released from prison and had found Christ and been reconciled with his family. I am just in awe to worship in that kind of setting with
people whose lives have been changed.”
And yet, she’ll be the first to tell you that, in many ways, her life is the one that has been changed for the better. She frequently
tells the story of a certain homeless man who entered the church back when Breakthrough was just getting started. Over a cup of coffee,
he told her his feet hurt. “I asked him if I could take a look,” she says. “I remember taking off his old shoes full of holes, and these
brown, worn socks, and finding his feet crusty, cracked, and bleeding.” She brought him a tub of warm water, soaked his feet until they
finished the coffee, and then rubbed them with lotion.
“I remember, at that moment, having an epiphany experience and thinking, Oh, my goodness, this is what Jesus was doing for His disciples.
This is what He calls us to do,” she says. “When we do these kinds of acts of love as unto Jesus, we experience a special intimacy with
Him that can’t be matched.” That intimacy inspired her to take on a leadership role that dramatically transformed her life.
Sutter believes her calling is, in some way, a universal one. “While we aren’t all called to live in East Garfield Park,” she says,
“we’re all called to reach out in love to our neighbors. You can’t be a Christ-follower and not care about people without coats.”
Arloa Sutter is proof of the power of responding to that calling with obedience.
**Sources for this article include Christianity.com and Moody Radio.
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