Let the Children Come

“Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them!

For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children.”

Matthew 19:14 (NLT)

Skunked?

Particularly disturbed by some of the promiscuous comments made by the middle school boys (see previous blog), I had a fleeting thought they really needed a Jesus-loving, strong man to mentor them, someone who cared about the treatment of girls. But really, I had nothing.  No vision.  No help.  Nothing, except a verse I was drawn to: Hebrews 10:35-36, "So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the Will of God you will receive what He has promised."

I was discouraged. It was then that I received an invitation from my friends, Jeff and Shellee, to go clamming.  Ah, yes!  Time away to think, pray, and go on a new adventure!

Since I have a family of guys, I assumed they would be all over this clamming thing!  After all, it must be a cross between hunting and fishing.  You get to use a “gun!” (OK, so a clam gun is just a tube with a small hole on the side, but it is a weapon, right?) Besides, my friends promised great things, “The tides are perfect.  We will probably get our limit in about 20 minutes!”

“Okay you guys, look for a divot; that’s where you dig,” my friends instructed.  The rain pounded. Every drop looked like a divot.  Even with lanterns, we couldn’t see a thing.  After a couple hours, heads hanging, we were only interested in hunting a hot shower. My friend consoled, “We’ve never been skunked before.  EVER!  I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The next day, my family was eager to leave. But Jeff, a father of 4 girls, was really enjoying his guy time and started practicing some martial arts moves on my son.  Jeff was in his element sharing his skills! He talked non-stop about martial arts, showing his assorted real weapons that don’t look anything like a clam gun. “You can’t leave yet; you need to stay for today’s low tide.  We’ll get out there in daylight.  It will be different,” he coaxed. My family relented.

This time we planned for the long grind, going out way before low tide.  With a rainbow overhead, we limited out in about 20 minutes. Full tooth grins accompanied the hunting party home.

Beaming, our encouraging leader Jeff shared, “You know, I’m at this stage of life where I just really enjoy showing kids this stuff.  I just want to mentor some boys and pass on what I know.”

What?  Mentor? Boys? Martial Arts?  Jesus?  Could it all fit together?

At this writing, we are in the middle of our trial Martial Arts program with my apartment kids.  More on that later. 

So, where do you feel skunked?  Do you lack a vision?  Help?  Everything? 

"So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the Will of God you will receive what He has promised."  

Hebrews 10:35-36

-Annie

 *Names of children always changed.

We Didn’t Plan This!

After two years of homework club for elementary school-aged kids at a local apartment complex something unplanned happened.  Shocking I know, but these cute kids started turning into middle schoolers!  Yikes!  Middle school is not my thing, but we had grown a heart for these kids.  We couldn't just leave them. What now, Lord?

Adding these kids crowded the already full apartment cabana.  And they did not disappoint my expectations, playing the part of “middle schooler” well.  Goofy, disrespectful, conceited, concerned with impressing their friends, inappropriate sense of humor; embarrassingly, I recognized myself at this age.  Yuk!  I really had to depend on God’s love to show through.  There was nothing in me that could do this in my own power.

And they weren’t great role models for our elementary kids.  I thought maybe if we made them leaders, they might step up and act like leaders.  We formed a group.  I thought it would help if they had an identity.  ‘How about giving our group a name, like “Community Heroes"?’   

They came up with the name, “Churro Guardians”.

“Miss Annie, do you know Churro is not a nice word?” One of the elementary kids whispered to me, “It means Gangster! I don’t think you should let them use it.”

I was particularly disturbed the day one of the most popular boys, Indi, asked a high school leader if he had slept with his girlfriend yet. 

Since I’ve had this conversation with leader Raoul previously, I was not surprised when he said, “No!” His heart is set on following God and waiting until he gets married.

Maybe I should have asked first but my instinct told me this middle school boy probably didn’t know one person that thought about waiting for sex until marriage and I needed to take advantage of the opportunity.  At the risk of embarrassment I asked, “Hey Raoul, do you EVER plan on sleeping with a girl before you get married?” 

“Nope!” Raoul fired.

Indi didn’t miss a beat, “Well I’m going to!”

I didn’t plan this!  OK Savior of the World… HELP!

-Annie

*Children’s names always changed.