These glories
On Friday a few of us went to do a children's program down at the Union rescue Mission out on Skyd Row. It was awesome. only about 20 kids showed up, which is alot, but not compared to the 56 we bus in each week to church. Now, I wish you could see what my Sunday mornings are like. Let me see if I can attempt to some what explain. We meet up at the bus parking lot around 8 am, and then have a brief "pep talk" and then we go on our way to our sites, my choice is Skyd Row as always. For those of you who do not know what skyd row is, it is one of the toughest areas out here in L.A. It is referred to as "tent city" by some. Hundreds of people live out on the sidewalk, not under a bridge or a bush, just in the middle of the side walk. Many of them don't have a "tent" they just sleep in the gutter, literally. Bonfires are lit at night in the middle of the street. People shooting up, smoking, coming down, everying you can imagine. About 90% of those out there are there because of crack. It is such an addictive drug that people willingly give their lives for it. One mother offered a couple from the dream center her children...for money to buy drugs. (the children were "bought" by godly people and then put into a foster family) Anyway, so I go out to the Union rescue Mission every Sunday morning and Thursday night to pick up kids. The L.A. Union Mission is the largest mission in the states and the 4th largest in the world. 100-150 kids stay there each night, and I have a chance to spend time with these kids. I am so amazed each day and almost terrified that I am in a position to change lives...I better take this seriously right? So okay, every sunday morning we go out and gather the kids...invite some new ones... and then, all hell breaks loose. They step on to that bus and they just go crazy. It is honestly a monkey house. Kids yelling and screaming, fighting, yes biting, punching, crawling over the seats, hanging out the window, throwing trash every where, and it is awesome. The kids are terrible, dreadful some of them, but I promise you I could not love them more. Some how I believe they are the best kids in the world. I miss them while I am away from them, I think of them always, and I just love them; Ivan, wayne, o'neil, rosa(the dreadful) eduardo, roberto, christopher, mikey, anthony, a.j., james, amber, heather, crystle, reanna, brit, bo bo and christa, and Le'vi(my lovely)
So many of them! I see these kids three times a week. Sunday and thursday for church, and Friday for kids program. But each time I have to say goodbye, and let them back into the jungle. It is like training a lion from the wild, we can take it out once a week for an hour, we can use the chair and the whip, but then after our hour is up, we have to release it back into the wild. still all the lion knows is the wild, for it is a wild lion.
That is what it is like with these kids, all they know is that their dad is in jail, their brother sells drugs, their sister sells her body, their mother is on crack, and when she's not she is coming down. They know fear, hate, lies, destruction, and abuse. That is their world, their reality, that is all they know. All they've been told their whole lives are lies. So then here we come with our big white buses, and tell them about the Truth, this Love, and some kind of Freedom, all of which they have never heard of. But we can not merely tell them about these glories, for they do not know how to believe, how to trust, they are not even sure what we are talking about...we must be the truth to them, give them the love we speak of, and show them the freedom we have found... being an example is what it is all about, I suppose.
"We ourselves must be the change we want to see in the world"
Gandhi
So many of them! I see these kids three times a week. Sunday and thursday for church, and Friday for kids program. But each time I have to say goodbye, and let them back into the jungle. It is like training a lion from the wild, we can take it out once a week for an hour, we can use the chair and the whip, but then after our hour is up, we have to release it back into the wild. still all the lion knows is the wild, for it is a wild lion.
That is what it is like with these kids, all they know is that their dad is in jail, their brother sells drugs, their sister sells her body, their mother is on crack, and when she's not she is coming down. They know fear, hate, lies, destruction, and abuse. That is their world, their reality, that is all they know. All they've been told their whole lives are lies. So then here we come with our big white buses, and tell them about the Truth, this Love, and some kind of Freedom, all of which they have never heard of. But we can not merely tell them about these glories, for they do not know how to believe, how to trust, they are not even sure what we are talking about...we must be the truth to them, give them the love we speak of, and show them the freedom we have found... being an example is what it is all about, I suppose.
"We ourselves must be the change we want to see in the world"
Gandhi