Shepherd Team

Pastor / Prayer Room

Caleb Amundson

Originally from the suburbs of Kansas City, I moved to Manhattan in 2012. I met Jesus in a radically personal way through a group of guys my first year of college. Before that, I had clung to moralism and the sense of security offered by religion (welcome to the Enneagram 1 club…). But when I had my first real experience of God’s truly unconditional love for me, I started participating with Him in my transformation and being set free in even the most hopeless area of my life. I have a passion for helping others discover their unique identity in Christ and walk in freedom.

Currently, I am learning to surround myself with opinions that challenge my preconceptions, am seeking to adopt a posture of surrender rather than processing, and am encountering God’s presence in beautiful new ways in the place of prayer.

Pastor / discipleship

Ana Sousa

I’m Ana and I’m Portuguese! I am a passionate follower of Jesus, who loves to see people joining God’s huge family and being shaped in the image and likeness of Jesus.

Even though I grew up in a Christian family and was always very involved with the church and Christian community, I never understood God’s love, His longing for a relationship, or how whole He wants to make all his sons and daughters. At the age of 33, I fell into a deep depression, anorexia, and two suicidal attempts. At that time, a couple of friends felt called by God to pray for me and started talking to me about the reality of God outside of religion, about who I was as a part of God so that I could understand how deeply in need of God I was. Soon I realized who I was apart from God… The Word became alive in me and in front of my eyes. I was taken by Jesus’ hand and into His heart; in my deepest brokenness, He made me see how much He loves me and how free I can be if I die to myself and let Jesus live through me. I decided to put all my heart into God. I started to put into practice everything I had learned from God and through His Word, no matter what the price was that needed to be paid. Soon I started to see how much I was being transformed at Jesus’s image and likeness!

Teaching / Finances

Lilly Schmitz

I grew up in the small town of Westmoreland, KS, not far from Manhattan. I went to a small church where early on I learned the value of service and the role of a church in a community. I was totally unaware, however, of what a personal relationship with Jesus meant. His love was a concept I applied outwardly but never inwardly. In college, I became involved in a community where I was able to form deep relationships on a completely new level. Still, having become so accustomed to self-nullification, it was a challenge for me to find this intimacy in my relationship with God himself. Learning to trust Jesus’ deeply personal love for me is a process I am still undertaking. The more Jesus has revealed himself to me, the more his light has exposed the stark reality of who I am without him, and the more in awe of him I become.