God answers a woman's prayers for help.

Liszette Reyes was on her hands and knees "crying like I never cried before and praying harder than I had ever prayed," she says.

As an operations manager for a human rights organization, Reyes gets paid to plan and strategize, which carries over into how she runs her personal life. Yet on one day in May, "I felt that every plan I made was falling apart piece by piece," she says. "For some time, I felt that God had stopped loving me, that I was being punished for my sins.”

She begged God for forgiveness. "I finally humbled myself and admitted that any plan I put into place would not work because I had not put God before me," she says. "I had not asked God for his help. On that day, I set aside my pride and asked God for help."

One hour later, the doorbell rang. Tim Bourman introduced himself as the pastor of a new church in the area. "I knew I was witnessing a miracle," says Reyes. "It is something really amazing when you can actually see your prayers being answered."

As one of 11 children, Reyes grew up in an area of Brooklyn filled with drugs and gangs. "My father worked to put food on the table, and my mother spent all her time caring after her children and keeping the house clean," she says. "We didn't belong to a church, but my parents believed in God." Her mother practiced Catholic traditions, lighting candles and praying to the saints. Another family member occasionally took her to a Pentecostal church. There she received her first New Testament, a gift for remembering the Ten Commandments. "It dates back to Sept. 26, 1982. I was 11 years old, and I still have it today," says Reyes. "The seed was planted back then."

As an adult, she tried a few churches but never felt she belonged. When she was pregnant with her son, there was a chance he would come early. "I was afraid I would lose him, so I bargained with God—back in the time when I thought you could actually bargain with God—that I would attend church regularly if he would allow my baby to live." She followed through for a while but never went back after she witnessed the police escorting a homeless man out during worship, and the church didn't help him.

She tried another church for a while. But when she reached out for help and the pastor didn't return her call, she stopped attending. She would occasionally pass members on the street, but they wouldn't acknowledge her. "I thought it was amazing that I had attended church for seven months and the people who had greeted me in peace during Sunday services pretended not to know me the moment I stopped attending," says Reyes.