Enjoy a collection of videos Eden produced or co-produced as a student at Generation Xcel and youth leader at AGM.
“Grace After School (AGM 3.0)”
By Eden Martinez (10/27/2012)
The youth retreat rocked my world. I was fifteen at the time, and had never felt so vulnerable. During worship, CoCo (now known as Pastor Lou) stopped singing, left the keyboard, and walked to the back of the room to kneel in silent prayer. But first, he challenged fifty teens to join him so we could experience the still, small voice of God together.
A hush fell, and we followed his lead. For what seemed like an eternity, no one stirred, silently praying. Then sniffles began at one end of the room, then sobs at the other, and fifteen minutes later the floodgates had opened. When the youth pastor Jeremy invited us to share what God was speaking, I ran to the stage practically convulsing with raw emotion. I exposed pain and shared secrets that I had never before told anyone. It was as if my chest had been ripped open and my heart lay bare.
When we returned to the City, I really didn’t know what to do with the experience. The pain that night surfaced was too deep, too profound to simply go away after a confessional. I began to withdraw from my Abounding Grace family, and to act out at home.
Yes, Abounding Grace had become family to me long before the retreat, and even before I had ever attended the church. My mom had enrolled my sister and me at Generation Xcel, the youth center the church sponsored in the projects on Avenue D. I never imagined how much the relationships forged at Xcel would eventually change my life.
Ms. Cecilia, the site director at the time, had her hands full with me. One day after she scolded me, I retorted, “Have you ever heard the saying, ‘What goes in through one ear comes out the other?’” She was speechless, but refused to give up on me. The last day of the program I apologized to her in tears. That summer, I began to understand what a relationship with God actually looked like, and saw Christ in a tangible way that could never be explained.
Ms. Cecilia’s daughter Dorothy began mentoring me when I was eleven, and her other daughter Rachel – whom I couldn’t stand at first – taught me that a life full of Christ-like love is a life lived well. One of Xcel’s teen staff, Tristan, invited me to youth group when I was around twelve. Eagerly I volunteered for the Fear Factor activity, and was hooked by the nasty concoction they made me drink. Eventually my mom and sister joined me at Abounding Grace, and it became our church home.
After graduating from Xcel, CoCo and Dorothy invited me to help them start a new, high school after school program called Xpress. There I met Chris Chan, a film professor at NYU, and Rick Edrich, owner of Spot Creative, a production company. Together, they introduced me to the craft of filmmaking. In 2010, I graduated college with a BA in Cinema Studies, and today I work as a production assistant/production coordinator at Spot. I also discovered a love for music from artists like Kenny Grohowski, who encouraged me to write songs. I’m humbled how God has used both my filmmaking (the Gangs to Grace video) and songwriting (“Take the Lead,” featured on Sounds of Grace) here at Grace to Grace.
Back to that retreat. I came home wrecked, but wanting desperately to be whole, and began to act out. By sophomore year, I was expelled from school, and had grown very insecure and introverted. But family sticks together when times are hard, and my AGM family refused to let me go. My mother, sister, and grandparents persevered as well. By 2007, the youth minister Jonathan had invited me to be one of his student leaders, and in 2010, with the blessing of the pastors, he empowered me to succeed him as youth minister.
Facing the Future
Now in my mid-twenties, my primary focus is passing my faith onto others, especially my family. I hope to be remembered as someone who loves and serves as Christ did, and to leave a legacy of Grace that reflects that anything is possible for those who place their faith in Jesus. For the youth ministry, I envision a resurgence of after school and summer programs in a holistic ministry center that addresses the core issues of New York City students, including work force training and SAT-prep courses. I believe God is calling us all to worship beyond the walls of any church building, in and through lifestyles committed to creating and serving our community.
