I came that they might have life

 Thank you for reading this and for journeying with me! Tonight I struggle to know how to share with you what is going on in my heart and mind. It is just past 9 pm and I am sitting in my apartment reflecting on the past day. It contained a lot for me.

I was harshly reminded in so many different ways of the dangers, the evil and the desperate need for a Savior in this city and within this community I am working in. My morning began with a pray meeting with fellow woman in ministry where we shared daily struggles and things going on within our separate communities. My roommate who is working as a youth worker to the homeless youth downtown also joined this morning and shared with us horrific stories of the people with faces, lives and family members just like us. Only moments later we were joined by a late arrival who carried the disturbing news that early Saturday morning there had been a sexual assault of rape in the community where I serve. Only doors away from where my youth laid sleeping in their beds a man knocked on a door around 4 A.M and proceeded to rape the poor woman who opened the door.

This harsh, harsh reality of the terrible brokenness of this world. Hours later from another co-worked I hear of another incident only from the day before a drive by shooting just down the road committed by mere kids, youth.

The day continued and we picked up the kids from school and brought them to camp. It was a chaotic day, the kids had a lot of energy and struggled to listen well. A young boy particularly had a difficult day, he always seems miles away and his attention span even in a one to one conversation is not much to speak of. I struggle to know how to work with him, his care to do well is non-existent. I know from my co-workers that he comes from a very broken, unstable home and I simply plea that God will show me how to love this boy in a way that he needs it but also in a way that will show him the love of God, one that will never fail or abandon him.

As the kids leave at the end of program I spend a few minutes talking with my co-worker who runs the kids program who shares with me that she had to suspend four 9-10 year old girls after a bullying incident where they had planned and nearly executed the “beating” of another girl in camp. Sweet 9 and 10 year old girls who are shown and demonstrated by the community around them that this is acceptable.

Sometimes I forget, I forget the terrible brokenness. Camp can look so normal some days, so easy and fun. Kids arriving after school high in energy and hungry just like any other kids after a day of sitting in school. But I can forget the homes that they can come from. I hate these evil reminders of the events they live with, the terrible effects of sin. When I look at the realities that today showed I shake my head at the craziness and the seemingly out of control evil that runs amiss. It brings me to a place of crying out to God for His saving, life giving power to come and have its way in the hearts and lives of so many people!

John 10:10 “The devil comes to steal, kill and destroy but I CAME that they may have life and have it abundantly.”