What Love Can Do

I think that posting stories on here will 1. Keep me motivated to blog, and 2. Maybe be an encouragement to someone. :)

Yesterday during Vacation Bible School, yet another fight broke out caused by one of my boys - Molique. That fight marked number 21 for the week (just for him), and I quickly realized that I need some other method in order for that craziness to end. Let me tell you a little bit about this beautiful boy. Molique is an 7 year old kid, yet acts like a 20 year old. His face is always serious, and I rarely catch him smiling. Molique never cries, but instead gets angry and hits. He has a twin and 5 older siblings, all living in a 15x15 room at a homeless shelter. Molique is a part of the Latin Kings gang. Since he is only 7, his job as of right now is "guard." While things go down on the streets, he is the look out. He is looking forward to moving up in rank though.

When I caught him kicking a 13 year old in the stomach, I took a deep breath and took him into the hallway - again. This routine happens just minutes after I return to the classroom after I talk to the last kids who got in a fight. When I sat Molique down this time, instead of telling him how I expect better, how violence isn't tolerated, and how he will receive a warning, I took a different approach. I sat him down, looked him in the eyes and told him how much I loved him. I told him that he was such a servant, that he brought joy to the class and that I love seeing him each and every day. I told him that he doesn't always have to be so strong, that he is only 7 and should still be able to play like a kid. Throughout this, he didn't say a word. However when I looked down at him, he was silently crying. Once he saw me looking at him, he turned around, leaned into my shirt and sobbed. He sat there, shaking and crying for 15 minutes, each of us not saying anything. He then got up, nodded at me, and grabbed cups to serve lunch to his friends. The rest of the day he was fight-free and he was going out of his way to serve. 

Molique showed me how important it is to relax a little. In my class I have three rival gangs. I cant expect to have a "low-violence day" unless each and every one of these kids understand how much they are loved. I have learned more from a bunch of kids in the "ghetto" than I have from high-educated people. I'm going to miss these kids terribly... its incredible to see the improvement they have made from day one. They have stretched me more than I thought possible this summer.

More stories to come... :) 

Chicago Update ::

So. Where do i even begin? I admit that I have been the worst blogger, life has gotten crazy. To explain my lack of blogging and my "average" day to day, I will give you a run down of what I have been doing. When groups first arrive, I give the leaders a leaders meeting, and then I give my whole group orientation. We then then get to head to a restaurant and then I give them a two hour long prayer tour of the south side. We talk about the public school system, gangs, housing projects, homelessness etc It is very deep time and can often be an overwhelming start to the week for groups. The next day we begin the day we load back into the 15 passenger van to our morning "anchor" site. My anchor site is CCO where I teach 30 homeless children about Jesus and His love. I will tell you more about that later. After that, I direct my group to our afternoon site.. this can be anything from a soup pantry, homeless shelter, food depository, etc. I lead my group how to serve there and I get to build relationships there. After that we usually head to some kind of ethnic restaurant. Which is usually always, delicious. :) We then head back to our housing site, they have their "shower time" in our lovely locker rooms and then I get to sit down with the group for about an hour and debrief with them. We talk about stereotypes, whats on their heart, how they see God working in the city, etc. We also have activities such as Immersion where I give each person 2 dollars and a cta card and send the groups into the city. They are told they are homeless for the night and need to use the 2 dollars to find dinner for themselves. I'm amazed at how creative groups can be.

So anyway, this is an extremely brief overview of a typical hosting day. We live without an air conditioner, and most times I host from 8AM and get done with my group at about 1130 at night. That includes getting all the finances for the next day as well. As you can tell, its hot and exhausting. Very exhausting. But oh so worth it.

At my anchor site, working with the 30 homeless kids I mentioned earlier, I couldn't be happier. My eyes  always tear up when I see my kids walk in the room and faces light up when they see me. They give me a HUGE hug and seem genuinely happy to be there. However, not minutes later they are getting in fights, cursing the place up, kicking each other and throwing crafts. To get the kids to listen up during the Bible story is a miracle in itself. At this particular anchor site, I am the head person in charge. I have to handle all the discipline and earn these kids respect. I cannot even begin to tell the stories of the crazy things my kids have done to get in trouble.. but for some reason I still want to teach them. Crazy??

Although the day is long and hard and I get emotionally sick of breaking up fights, there are those few times where God shows up and reminds me that this is worth it. For instance, those few times a kid looks up at you and says "Wow, God really does love me." or you see a kid go from cursing you out to singing a praise song whole-heartedly, or a 10 year old tells you that he is resisting joining a gang because he feels like there is actually something more to this life. Those things - those things make it worth it.

I could make this blog a dissertation - my heart is so heavy from each and every ministry site. I absolutely love serving all day long, however I am beginning to get exhausted. Please pray for the  kids - that they will get even a glimpse of who Jesus may be. pray for my groups - that they can take what they learned home with them, and please pray for myself. That I have the energy to keep truckin' along. Thank you guys. You rock :)