24.0

I got my first proper goal kid today. I've become more of a Team Member and not just a shift filler. The transition is an astonishing experience. Here's a little example, a little Before and After.

I enjoy leading devotions, so the setting for my stories will be devotions. At Delta, i called devotions and went into the rec room to sit down and whip something together. I decided to read about Jesus telling a gathered crowd "If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also," since there was some of the beginnings of the trend of extreme violence which may have peaked right as or soon after i left. Or maybe it's still that way. But anyway, i waited five or ten minutes as four or five kids straggled in, and i closed the door to read scripture. One of the kids idealized violence, and had told me before that she would beat up anyone who needed to be beat up. And she could authoritatively say who needed to be beat up. Paradoxically, she expressed a great interest in following Christ. So i read that whole section of the Sermon on the Mount, and repeated the exhortation to non-violence. This certain kid said incredulously "Jesus said WHAT? Well that's just the STUPIDEST thing i ever heard."

At Crossroads, we sat down for dinner, and every single kid was there, washed up and ready to participate in devotions and of course the food which was to follow. One of my coworkers read the passage which says "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple." Well, since the vast majority of Christ's teachings exhort us to love everyone, even our enemies, this doesn't seem to make sense. So we really talked about that, going from kid to kid getting impressions of what's going on here. All the kids were really engaged, and one - one of the more oppositional ones who shows only vague interest in Christ - got pretty emotional about this, expressing totally legitimate frustration with this passage. We were able to have a really good talk about that.

So there you have it. :)