Valarie Ashley, 51, puts great faith in small, daily steps as the executive director of Congress Heights’s Southeast Ministry. The organization, founded 20 years ago in partnership with Capitol Hill’s Lutheran Church of the Reformation, serves hundreds of adults with dreams of bettering their lives through education and job readiness training. Ashley sat down with The Washington Examiner at the start of the holiday season to share a faith and perseverance that bring about small miracles. Do you consider yourself to be of a specific faith?

I am a Baptist. But since I’ve been working at Southeast Ministry, I think of myself as a Baptist Lutheran. Both faiths have a strong sense of praise and worship, and both emphasize the relationship with God as central to life. And I certainly think about the Holy Spirit as my guide. In the past 18 months, especially, as I’ve taken on the leadership of a small nonprofit, I’ve seen the hands of the Holy Spirit in what I do.