“My senior year of high school, I found myself homeless, unhoused. I lived on the streets for an entire year. That just kind of gave me a heart and a passion for identifying, associating and connecting with people who find themselves in that predicament,” said Gilbert, whose family moved from Guyana to the U.S. Virgin Islands when he was young. After his stint on the streets, Gilbert served in the U.S. Air Force and later got an undergraduate degree in computer science. But being a pastor was his calling, and he established Restoration Christian Fellowship in Aurora just before the start of the millennium.