Where Do We Begin?

Last night, we had our monthly Youth Meeting. This involves the leaders and staff in the Youth Ministry (Youth President, Vice President, secretaries) and those who deal with the youth on a regular basis. We were faced with a difficult question: how to reach those in our ministry? Our problem area seems to be our high school students. I know why, they are at an age where they are curious and don't want to stick to one thing; but to be involved in everything! The youth these days have it a lot harder than those who were their age decades before them. A lot of them come from broken homes, single parent households, the ghetto, and are dealing with drugs, sex, gangs, gay & lesbian issues, etc. The only way to able to reach them is to tackle them one by one. We have to address each person so we can figure out how to reach them. We can't put them in a group because each child is different. I have the blessing and the curse of being close to the age group that we're targeting. The blessing: being able to know what they are going through. The curse: Having to sign up for unlimited texting so I don't put my phone bill through the roof, lol. But seriously, I know how hard our work is going to be for us but with the strength that only God can give, we will be able to lead them all in the right direction.

Give Me Your Eyes

Every time I get on the train and sit down, I have to close my eyes or read a book. If I don't, I find myself staring at the different people on the train with me. I often wonder what their stories are, where they came from, what they are going through. I always used to hear that there's always someone out there less fortunate than you. What if I was staring right at them? What if the person sitting next to me needed something to eat, money to get home, etc.? How would I know? Would I help? Sometimes I feel like I think too much, that I need to keep my mind occupied so that I won't stress myself out. There's a song I heard a couple of days ago on the radio called "Give Me Your Eyes" by Brandon Heath. It had me thinking: what if we saw what God saw? Would we show compassion and love? Would we reach out to to those who are lost? Or would we be comfortable in our blinded state? I think to be honest a lot of us including myself; sometimes would chose the latter. We want to help, but sometimes it feels like too much; like they're too many people out there in need and not enough time and/or money. But if each one of us helped one person in need think about the difference it would make?! If we adopted a "Pay it Forward" mentality and each person helped the next person and so on and so on; without expecting a thing, what kind of world would this be?