After School Program Week In Review (4/13 - 4/17)

THURSDAY AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAM PREACHING:

As the kids sat down in their chairs, Stephan and I walked into the room with a bucket of water and some towels and set it down in front of the pulpit. The kids knew somebody was going to get their feet washed and were interested in todays' message.

The kids were very goofy today and had a hard time focusing throughout the message. But I believe God was still able to get through to them. The minute before we started, a new, middle-school aged friend of mine walked into the room-- so I invited him to come in and sit down with us.

I stood behind the pulpit and we bowed our heads to pray and ask God for help.

As I read the story of when Jesus washed the disciples' feet from John chapter 14, I also explained each verse by verse using easy to understand language. The kids were following along quite nicely, I could tell by the looks on their faces that they understood what was happening.

Next I preached passionately about the good news of Jesus in that He died and rose again from the grave-- but He didn't die for no reason... Then I tried to explain substitutionary atonement, (of course I would never use those complicated terms with the kids...) Jesus died in our place. We all have sinned and deserve to punished, but Jesus was punished by God instead of us. I explained how the call is to repent and believe in the gospel. We all must stop running away from God and instead turn away from our sins and run back to God-- we must let Jesus forgive us for our sin. And we also must let Jesus clean our dirty, sinful hearts-- just like Jesus washed His disciples' feet. Now for those of us who believe in Jesus Christ as our savior and who believe in this good news, the gospel-- we are saved. We are not going to go to hell after we die. We are friends of God! This is good news! They agreed. Furthermore, Stephan explained how Jesus said that we also are to wash others' feet. He explained how as Christians we are called to be servants just like Jesus was. He then applied it and gave practical examples that we all can do. I also jumped in and explained how this teaching is the answer to all of the problems in the world! This really is good news!

Midway through the message, Stephan and I sat down and began to wash each others' feet in front of the kids. They thought it was really funny-- especially because my feet really did stink! As we washed each others' feet, Stephan and I talked about the message. We kept talking about the two concepts over and over again and gave lots of examples.

Finally, Stephan and I gave a final recap, then we prayed (...a couple of the kids voluntarily got down on their knees again...) and the kids were dismissed from the preaching area...

Afterwards, I had a good one on one conversation with the boy who came for the first time during the preaching today. I told him that some of my grandparents don't believe in God. He replied, "Yeah, neither does my Dad..." We talked about why some people say they don't believe in God, but the fact is that really they are just running from God because they don't want to be in trouble. I told him how it is like that if he were to punch a kid in the nose, the principal at school would come looking for him, then he would probably run and hide from the principal. But the fact is that God is love and He will forgive the sins of people who will come back to Him. I explained how just about everybody on the planet believes in God and atheists are a minority group. Then I briefly tried to explain how other religions are false, but we can trust in our God. I quoted how Jesus, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father except through Me." Then we played a game of monopoly. The boy was happy to go home with the very last Jesus Storybook Bible that we had. I also gave him an "adventure Bible." (Unfortunately NIV, but it was the only version I had...)

What a day!

God is good. All the time. Amen.

DAILY (MON-FRI) SNACK TIME BIBLE LESSONS:

Monday's Story:

No School, No After-School Program

Tuesday's Story:

Today we distributed four more Jesus Storybook Bibles and now we only have two left! That makes for a total of eighteen storybooks we have given away already. The kids were excited to have their own Jesus Storybooks. It's our hope and prayer that the Lord will use these books to build the spiritual foundation of Christ in the lives of these children! We wish it was as simple as giving a full-on "Holy Bible" to the children and that their parents would read and teach them from the Bible, but the harsh reality for the majority of our kids is that their parents are not Christians. The Bible is such a large and peculiar book that it even overwhelms many adults. And with all of that said, we still must regularly incorporate readings from the actual Holy Bible to our kids. We want to inductively introduce the Bible to the children, so that when they are more able to read at length with understanding, they then will hunger and crave to read the Word of God in entirety and purity (as opposed to a paraphrased storybook...)

Today's story was "A little girl and a poor frail lady." Specifically it was about Jairus' daughter that was raised from the dead and also the woman that reached out and touched Jesus to be healed. We read the stories from the Jesus storybook and then I quizzed the group of kids about the story and had them re-explain it back to me. The cool part about today was that one of our kids, (who has some minor learning disabilities), was answering the most questions and explaining the story in the group. After all of this I then taught them that we should be like the lady that reached out to Jesus. We can pray and and ask Jesus to help us with our problems just like the lady that touched Jesus and was healed. I also taught them that we should trust Jesus and believe that he really raised up Jairus' daughter back to life. Then I talked once again about the true meaning of easter. Finally, I linked the fact of Christ's resurrection to the fact that the Bible teaches that one day all Christians will be raised back to life and there will be new heavens and new earth full of righteousness. There will be no war, pain, suffering, sin, or death. It will be a completely new and amazing world. This is all because Jesus will be the King of it all. This resurrection is our hope. This teaching surprised a young girl who has been with our group over the last couple of weeks. "Really?" She said. It was cool! She smiled and I could tell thoughts were stirring inside of her head...

Wednesday's Story:

There were about twenty kids today. The story was titled "How to pray." It was a paraphrase of Jesus' teaching's from the sermon on the mount & "The Lord's Prayer." We talked about how we must pray first of all because prayer is how we get to know God. We cannot know God apart from prayer. Prayer is extremely important. We also explained who the pharisees were, how their prayers were hypocritical, and we should not be like them when we pray. We strongly stressed that prayer is actually talking to our living God. Towards the end we took prayer requests. Finally, I had everybody bow their heads in prayer and we had a group prayer time. About six or seven kids all prayed a unique prayer of thanks or request to God in one way or another. I really believe that God is teaching many of our kids how to pray! It was really cool.

At the end of the day we gave away a Jesus Storybook. We gave it to a girl who comes from an anti-God, atheistic home. She was happy to receive it (and to have one just like her other best friends do.) This girl already has been here during one or two preaching events, and also has watched the Jesus movie for kids with us. Pray for her salvation and for the strengthening of her faith amidst the trials of her own family! Now we only have one Jesus Storybook left.

Thursday's Story:

On Thursday we read "The Servant King." We read and talked about the time when Jesus washed his disciples' feet and taught them also to do the same for each other. I explained the message from the storybook with a two-fold meaning. 1. Jesus washed the disciples' feet. He does this for all of us who come to Him. Those who come to Jesus He will forgive sins and cleans up sinful hearts. 2. We as Christians must follow Jesus' example and do the same thing for other people-- not only by washing each other's feet, but also by doing acts of serving. After this we prayed and then we had the kids move out of the snack area and into the preaching area... (See above.)


Friday's Story:

Stephan is leading Today. I will be out of town and unable to update this blog for a few days. I will post a summary of what took place at a later date.

After School Program Week In Review (4/06 - 4/10)

THURSDAY AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAM PREACHING:

Before preaching, we distributed 7 more Jesus Storybook's to the kids, which means that we have distributed a total of 14 so far to our regular children that come weekly. We still have a few regulars who have missed the last two weekly preaches, so hopefully we will distribute those next week! :-)

Thursday was extremely challenging as the kids were excited about the 4-day weekend coming up, easter Sunday (w/ lots of candy), and a family fun night at school that same night. It was impossible to get the kids to keep still, but that's ok-- I was just trying to keep them engaged. I find that the two most important things that must be done while evangelizing kids are 1. Keep it simple and understandable. (This is why blues clues is such a popular TV show with kids-- they understand it. While adults are hopelessly bored to death with blues clues, the kids love, and can even watch reruns over and over again...) And 2. Fast transitions. (Many kids have a short attention span, and are used to going quickly from one organized thing to another, and when you lose the kids' attention during a transition, it is difficult to regain their attention.) The first point has caused me much grief and heartache before God-- it is always a challenge to keep the gospel simple and understandable without watering it down! The biggest challenge was that Stephan, my preaching parter with whom I tag team, was not able to come today. But God's grace was sufficient!

We started out with prayer.

First we talked about Easter. I asked the kids to tell me the first things that they think of when I say, "Easter!" They said the usual, "Candy, Birds, Bunnies, Eggs, etc..." I explained to them how the true meaning of easter is the resurrection of Jesus. Many of them did not know what the word resurrection meant, so quickly I explained it and then had them repeat, "resurrection" out loud with me a couple of times.

The text for the day was from John 11,

Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

I told the kids, "You know, I'm going to tell you something true today that probably none of your teachers has told you before. But I'm going to tell you the truth. Are you ready?" Once I had all of the kids' attention, I dropped the line, "You're all going to die." Many of them were very surprised, an older girl was a shocked, but I told them, "I have to speak the truth to you kids, and this is very important. We are all going to die. I know one thing that I can absolutely prove to you all, and that is that 10 out 10 of you are all going to die."

"BUT I HAVE HOPE!", I told them...

I read the Bible Verse again and again, Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life."

"JESUS CAME BACK TO LIFE!"

"Did He?"

"Yes." They replied.

Then I explained how that since Jesus came back to life, we can trust that even though we will die, that God will raise us back up from the grave, too. I repeated this point and tried to explain it to them in a variety of different ways until they understood the message.

I also explained how that one day the dead will be raised back to life-- those who believed in Jesus, and those who did not believe. I explained how we will all stand before God and we will be judged. Those who believed will be with Jesus forever, in the new heavens and the new earth; those who did not believe in Jesus will be in hell. "...Please don't go there." I said.

Lastly, I pulled out the Jesus Story Book Bible and read to them all of the stories about Jesus' arrest, crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and ascension. This took about 15-20 minutes to complete. A few of them had trouble paying attention, but the majority loved the story. They even corrected the storybook by adding details at certain points ie. the spear that pierced Jesus.

Afterwards I asked the kids how many of them had never heard the story before. About 3 or 4 hands went up! It was so exciting to me to be the first to present it-- what an honor!!! I thank God for this privilege often.

In conclusion I recapped the main points of the story and pleaded with them to believe and trust in Jesus so that they will live forever with Him.

[We also had a brief discussion about "how do we know that the story of Jesus is true?" For the little ones I explained how it comes from the Bible-- and for those who were older I further explained how the Bible is not ONE book, but 66 very old books, from several different authors, all saying the same, truths about Jesus and knowing God. I explained that we have thousands of these ancient books and more books about Jesus than we even have about George Washington. I explained also that if the disciples of Jesus knew that the story was not true, then they would not have died for it, but history speaks of how they all died for believing in Jesus.]

Finally, we practiced what has been the scripture memorization over the last few weeks,

John 3 (ESV)

16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

The kids know the majority of it and a few have it completely memorized. The last verse is the hardest.

We gave the kids easter candy and then it was time to go home.

DAILY (MON-FRI) SNACK TIME BIBLE LESSONS:

Monday's Story:
Before the new stories today, we briefly recapped the past 5 stories, (using pictures), to remind the children of the stories and lessons they have already learned.

Today we covered two stories, "Get Ready & "He's Here!"

From "Get Ready" we read about Ezra and Nehemiah, and how that once Israel been set free from slavery, again; they read the law of Moses to the people... We read about how this law shows us that we are all sinners and bad people, and we also read about how they threw a party for a week, to celebrate the wonderful things that God had done for his people.

From "He's Here" we talked about the Nativity and how God chose to enter the world through Mary. We talked about how she was a virgin and had not yet married Joseph, who was Jesus' dad. We talked about how the angel spoke to Mary to tell her what was happening and how the Holy Spirit (God) is the one who made Mary pregnant-- it was a miracle. We talked about how Joseph was righteous and was going to change his mind and not get married to Mary, but an angel explained the situation to him and so they still got married. We prayed and went outside to play freeze tag!

Tuesday's Story:
The Light of the Whole World & The King of All Kings. We reviewed yesterday's story, & covered the rest of the beginnings of Jesus' life-- the visiting shepherds and the later coming wise men... Afterwards we talked about how this is the story of GOD coming down to earth, to rescue His people. Jesus is the God-man, He is Immanuel, which means God with us. Jesus is God with skin on, yet he is still a real person! We briefly discussed BC and AD (Before Christ & In the Year of Our Lord) and simultaneously debunked "BCE and CE." ("Before common era" and "common era"-- it's an absolutely ridiculous teaching, and ironic that textbooks still divide history at the coming of Christ 2000 years ago-- they have only tried to remove Christ's name! We also talked about how Jesus was humble & poor, being practically born in a barn with animals.

Wednesday Story:
At snack time I had one of the kids pray. I wish you could have seen it-- she spontaneously prayed something like this, "Dear Jesus, Thank you for this snack... Thank you for everybody here... I LOVE YOU! Amen." It was extremely cute and gushy while remaining extraordinarily genuine. Praise God.

While they were eating I had a "show & tell" with the kids. I showed them my foreign language Bible collection. I told them about how the Bible is the most popular book in the world because it is the only book we have that is from God. I explained how it is the most translated book the world and that people have died to read it and translate it for people to read in their own languages. I showed them the following translations: German, French, Spanish, Swahili, Marshallese, Russian, & Korean. The kids digged it and I hope they will come to realize how universal our faith is and how it is not merely a "white mans religion."

Further during snack we reviewed yesterday's story, and then we quized them on the true meanings of B.C. and A.D. (Let's just say they got an A+!) Then we talked about today's story, "Heaven breaks through." We told them about John the Baptist and his baptism of repenance, ending at the baptism of Jesus and dove falling upon Jesus with God's audible confirmation.

We prayed and then the girls had a special "sunbeams" class with a lady from our church who is training to become a teacher-- so as usual, the boys and I sat in the computer lab, ate corndogs, pie, and watched cartoons. We watched "God's Prisoner", the story of Richard Wurmbrand, founder of Voice of the Martyrs. Afterwards we talked a little bit about persecution. I handed them my Korean Bible and told them how if they were caught holding the Bible in North Korea they would most likely be arrested and put in prison! We talked about Wurmbrand's example of courage and standing strong in faith. Afterwards, we played with lego's and paper airplanes... I love this job!

Thursday Story:
The same girl prayed for snack time as on Wednesday. It was another cute, genuine prayer. We talked about how after Jesus was baptized, he went into the desert and was tempted by satan. We talked about fasting, prayer, and how Jesus said, "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." Then we talked about how after Jesus left the desert, he went and chose his first followers to help him in the rescue plan. We talked about how the disciples were ordinary people just like us and we talked about how the disciples left everything they had and immediately followed Jesus. Afterwards we prayed.

Friday Story:
No School, No After-School Prog.

On The Importance Of Youth Ministry

15 My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,
of your deeds of salvation all the day,
for their number is past my knowledge.
16 With the mighty deeds of the Lord GOD I will come;
I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.
17 O God, from my youth you have taught me,
and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
18 So even to old age and gray hairs,
O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might to another generation,
your power to all those to come.
-Psa. 71:15-18

Today ministry to the youth, especially young children, is sorely neglected! And I hope that people who read this blog will get ideas to do in their own communities. The state of our youth today is horrible..! Sometimes I can't help but fall down to my knees and weep for these kids... So many of the kids live in broken homes, and they do not even see their parents except for more than a few hours in the evenings when their parents are home from work-- tired, and cranky! And to top it all off-- the State is raising our kids! They are in large a godless and idolatrous generation that does not know the stories of God and what He has done, and much less to actually know our God personally. The state of our public schools is pathetic, with education being dumbed down, and the (so-called) removal of God from our schools-- which means the teachers are only dispensing knowledge and facts, like a vending machine, without moral application. Since they have left God out of education, by logic they must leave moral application out-- which makes learning pointless, and so the schools are able to talk about all of the problems of society, but have no solution-- hence the drop-outs and kids who think "school is dumb!" This all leads up to a shocking condition of lawlessness among the kids. "Right" and "wrong" is defined by personal happiness, not God's Word-- resulting in a bunch of rebellious tyrants, to be the future of our self-destructing nation. Our kids need a right theology of God and a God-centered philosophy and world-view to be the foundation of all education.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.
-Pro. 1:7

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
-Pro. 9:10

Sometimes I can't help but wonder if this mess is a judgment of God upon our nation? I suppose the subject is beyond the scope of this blog, but I would say our nation is the biggest sin factory in the world, we even make other godless nations blush-- yet we have no shame. Now I don't think we were a chosen nation like Israel was, but we did have much light from God-- even our public schools were originally Christian schools, teaching from Bible. And the main purpose of our "ivory league" universities was once for the raising up of ministers. I'm praying for God to raise up a remnant of Christian youth with a faith like Daniel had amidst the empire.

After School Program Week In Review (3/30 - 4/03)

FRIDAY AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAM PREACHING:

[Fridays are always the highlight of our week...]  

First we distributed the Jesus Storybook Bibles to the kids. (Ages 7-10.) We will continue to distribute them on Fridays so that those who were absent will get their own Storybook in the future... We wrote their names in the front of the books, and they were all happy and said they would read it! :-)  

Second we walked the kids into the library, and we watched the scene from the Jesus Movie when the sinful woman anointed Jesus' feet with alabaster oil, tears, and wiped His feet with her hair. I told the kids that she loves him so much because she was forgiven so much, but the kids still had a lot of unanswered questions.  

Third we walked back into the main room and sat down with the new Jesus Storybook Bible's and we all turned the pages to the same story that we just watched on the Movie Screen. Now we read the story together, out loud. They were starting to understand more about what and why it was happening, but there was still much to be realized.  

We explained how their story Bible's are re-written in story language that is easy to understand, and how it comes from our Holy Bibles... We told them that one day, we pray and hope they will also read the full version of the stories from the Holy Bible like we do. However, I also admitted to them that I LIKE their storybook Bible's and I often sneak a peak into my story book Bible so that I can look at the pictures, too! (They laughed.)  

Lastly, Stephan and I read the same passage from the Gospel of Luke (ESV) out loud to the kids. After we prayed for the right words and that we would all have understanding from God, Stephan was first up. He summarized the story and spoke on the main points. He asked if we were "ever so happy to see somebody that you cried?" Well we should feel that way, too, especially about Jesus.  

I was up next, for round two... I dialogued with the kids and we talked out loud through the entire story. (In getting them to explain it back to me, it is my prayer that God will give them understanding and also future remembrance of the story.) I also asked the kids, "What is the correct way to meet a king?" I demonstrated the answer as I prostrated myself on the ground before them. "Knees bowed, Face-down, in the dirt-- that's how we meet a king." As I got up I showed the kids the picture of the woman doing the same thing in the storybook Bible. Then I preached to them how Jesus is the KING OF KINGS. I also preached on how there are two groups of people in this story. There is the woman, who WASTED the precious perfume and there was the group of people who complained that she should not have wasted it, but they did not realize who Jesus was-- the KING OF KINGS. I explained in simple terms and great detail how if they do not see themselves as being like the sinful woman, then they missed the point and DO NOT UNDERSTAND the story. (This suprised the kids.) I preached that we all are either going to be like the woman who worshiped Jesus, and wasted her life for Jesus, giving him everything (our hearts, our thoughts, our time, our money, everything we care about...) -- or we will be like the men who complained and did not worship Jesus. Then I challenged the kids... I told them that people are going to ask them, "Why should you waste your life for Jesus, for God that you cannot even see!?" I made them think, "What are you going to say to those people?" ... (They did not know) ... With a big smile we preached, "BECAUSE HE'S WORTH IT!" ... Towards the end a few kids had some questions, like "When is Jesus coming back?" "SOON. We replied, but the Bible says that nobody knows the day or the hour. So we must BE READY." Then we explained what we all must do to be ready for when Jesus comes back... At the end of the message, I begged the kids to live only for Jesus and to be like the woman we preached about. In closing we led a simple, yet serious, prayer-- I encouraged the kids to pray with me if they really meant it. It was a simple and slow, but very deep prayer of thankfulness and plea for forgiveness of sins and salvation. During the prayer, several of the kids got off of their chairs, and bowed down on both knees, face down to the ground-- they did this on their own, without my own instruction. PRAISE JESUS!

"AMEN."  

That very next minute the first parent walked into the room to pick up her child. It was perfect timing, as it is always frustrating when parents come in and take their children home before the end of the message or when they come and interrupt the meeting. The kids were very happy to carry their own Jesus Storybook Bible's out the door as they went home today!  

Well, it was a great day today. I really believe some of these young kids are starting to "get it!" Thank God. Amen.  

DAILY (MON-FRI) SNACK TIME BIBLE LESSONS: 

Monday's Story: 

Psalm 23. The Lord is my Shepherd... We read the story from the Jesus Story Book Bible and we talked about how if we are saved by Jesus, then we are God's sheep and Jesus is our Good Shepherd. Then we talked about how great it is that God is our Shepherd and about the various roles He plays in our lives. After the closing prayer, one child was able to quote the entire Psalm 23 for all of us to hear. It was powerful.

Tuesday's Story:

A little servant girl and the proud general. We talked about Namaan from 2 Kings 5. Namaan had leprosy and God used a little slave girl and Elisha to heal him. Elisha tells him to go wash in the river to be healed. He did it and was healed by God, (not the river!) We read about how we have a sinful, diseased heart-- which is worse than outward leprosy. And how God can cleanse us of that, too! (note to self: I wish I would have talked more about our inward sin-problem and the cleansing work of Christ...! Help me God.) ALSO: We watched the Chronicles of Narnia for the second time.  

Wednesday's Story: 

Operation: "No More Tears!" We talked about Isaiah and how he wrote a book of the Bible. We talked about his message that we all like sheep have gone astray. We illustrated this using an art picture that we drew during art time. We also illustrated it with many examples such as the question, "how many of you have ever had a pet cat or dog that ran away from home? Well, like that, we all have run away from God..." And the whole message climaxed at how Jesus is the Good Shepherd and how he came to seek and save those who were lost. We all must go to Jesus to be forgiven of the leprosy, disease, SIN which is in our hearts, and Jesus will cleanse our hearts, too. The kids really enjoyed the story and were hanging on to every word which was spoken.  

[Side note: We are beginning to see more fruit (possibly?)... One child brought some printed papers that he made on the computer at school this earlier in the day. It was an acrostic poem based on the words "SPRING" and for "S" he used Shepherd (the Lord is our shepherd) and for "G" he wrote "God is great." He also had typed out on another paper, "Obey God." This particular boy did not come running in showing his completed papers to us, we found it laying around later... So it appears he did not even have a hidden motive to impress us, but that he simply did part of his homework about God, on his own, regardless of what others think!]  

Thursday's Story: 

Daniel and the scary sleepover (lion's den)... The kids LOVED this story. It was their favorite one so far. They were laughing, smiling, and empathising with Daniel throughout the entire story. We related how it would be wrong for Daniel to pray to King Darious, and it would be like us praying to Obama-- all the kids agreed. Darious was crazy and we should only pray to Jesus, the KING OF KINGS. We also talked about prayer and how important it is. After the story all of the kids were clapping! (unusual!)... Also, after the closing prayer, one of the girls looked up at me with an excited smile and said, "I just prayed ALL BY MYSELF at the same you did!" Lol! Praise God! It is so amazing to see kids get excited about stories that are from the BIBLE. (Assuming the Lord genuinely works in the hearts' of these kids, God is going to do some amazing things through these kids!) I hope the Lord raises up a new generation of missionaries and godly men and women from this poor area within the small town of Coos Bay, Oregon!  

Friday's Story: 

God's Messenger. During snack we talked about Jonah. We talked about how God told him to go to Ninevah and tell the people to repent. Jonah said no and disobeyed. God sent a storm and he ended up in the belly of a big fish for THREE DAYS. Then Jonah repented while he was in the belly of the big fish, and so God had the whale spit him back up on the dry land. Then Jonah went and preached the gospel to the people. Not only did they enjoy a fun story, but we also talked about how this is a just like how Jesus died, and his body was in the grave for three days, then he came back to life. We also talked about how when God tells us to do something, (like, for example, to tell our friends about Jesus... and we are scared...) we must obey, otherwise God may just do something like he did to Jonah. So we should obey the first time!

Follow Up (...from yesterday)

Today Jeremy came and visited me at the after-school program! It was amazing and God is so good. We talked for quite a while. I told him a lot about my life and some stories of what God's been doing in my life over the last couple years. He also talked to me about his school situation. We had a good time. When he left I gave him some ice cream and offered him a Bible, but he said he already had a Bible... I also offered to take him to a Christian rock concert that some friends of mine were going to tonight, but he already had plans to go to another local church's youth group, so... I have no complaints there! Interesting, to say the least...

Keep praying for Jeremy!

A Crazy Day and God Is Good. Always.

Today after work I went to find my (unsaved) friend James to take him to a Bible study that he previously agreed he would come to with me. He wasn't home. So I went to find him at the next logical place: The basketball courts. Sure enough, he was there with about 6 other highschool freshmen / 8th graders-- so, it was a fat chance he was going to come with me to Bible study. But I played a game of hoops with them anyways, then I figured I would go to the Bible study after the game by myself. Well, that's pretty much what happened-- James did not come...

But after the game, a fight broke out between two of the other kids. Jeremy and some kid whose name escapes me. In a matter of two minutes, it was the 5 other kids all circled around Jeremy, hurling abusive profanities and pushing to shoving-- they were threatening to beat him up. I jumped in and attempted to break it up, but it was not really happening. I started to get to the bottom of things by asking the group all questions, basically, I, (being the oldest and the biggest), became a mediator between Jeremy and the group that was ganging up on him. After some questions, I discovered that Jeremy stole about $6 worth of cigarettes from the other kid. The other kid wanted justice. They wanted to beat him up.

Jeremy kept saying he was sorry, and that he really was going to pay the other kid back his money. Finally I got all of their attention and said, 
"The one of you who has never stolen anything, the one who has never done anything wrong-- you punch Jeremy first!"
They were caught off guard. I repeated it several times to make it sink in. They were not going to simply forgive Jeremy for his stealing-- it was too hard for them. I told the group, 
"Look, I will pay his debt of $6, and you all can forgive him and let's go."
The kid would not agree to this. He wanted PAY BACK, and he didn't want money anymore. I told them again, and I told the kid he was being unreasonable, because I was going to completely pay him back... but the kid would not take my offer-- So then I told the kid,
"You don't want to be repaid because you don't want the problem to be fixed-- You love hate and you love war."
He heard truth and was speechless. I told the group,
"You all want to fight, and you don't know how to forgive, and until you learn that, all you are going to have is war and hell."
Then they told me to stop preaching. (At this point, I wish I would have shared more of the gospel... but it was a crazy situation, and I have my doubts that the kids would have received the word at all... Perhaps it would have been throwing pearls before swine? I don't know...)
Jeremy said to me, "I'm coming with you."
I said, "I know you are."
The kids weren't going to let him get in the van with me and were trying to push him off the side of the road, down the hill that was next to where I parked, into a fence. I told them that if they didn't let him get into my car, I was going to call the cops. Finally I let Jeremy into my van and I drove him home.

On the way home, I told Jeremy how they just wanted to fight because that's what they love-- hate and war. He agreed and told me he does not believe that's the way to solve anything. Then I told Jeremy that we are all sinners, and we all need to get right with God. I told Jeremy that that is why we must go to God to be forgiven. (Upon reflection, at this point I wish I would have mentioned Jesus... DOH. Sorry Lord.) I told Jeremy that he could come see me at the Salvation Army any time after school. He thanked me and got out at the street he lives on. (I don't think he wants his mom to know he had been smoking...)

Pray for Jeremy. Pray for James. Pray for the other gang of kids.