Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Why is he so Angry?

Tonight’s Kids Club was a little rougher than usual … particularly for one little guy.

Let’s called him Bobby. Bobby came in yelling, “That woman cussed me out! That woman cussed me out so I cussed her out!” And again and again, “That woman cussed me out so I’m gonna punch her in the face! That woman cussed me out! I don’t even know that woman!”

As he was yelling, another one of the little girls tried to explain to me, “He’s a bad kid.”

So I went over, knelt down, and held him. “God loves you, Bobby. I’m sorry that the woman wasn’t very nice to you.” I spoke gently to him, and he slowly calmed down. “God loves you so much, Bobby! So much!” As I prayed for him, I felt the peace of the Lord come over him and around us.

His dad walked by as we were talking, and simply told me, “He’s a bad kid.”

I could see the anger well up in Bobby as his own dad spoke the identity over him (for the second time in just a few minutes) that he is a bad kid. Maybe Bobby believes that he’s a bad kid because he’s heard it so many times.

I quickly responded to Bobby’s father, “Oh, no. You’ve got yourself a great son here! He’s a great kid.”

Not much longer, Bobby decided to drop a glass off of the second floor onto the area in front of the gate right where the kids walk into the playground. It shattered, and he ran. After chasing him down, I made him clean it up. (I’m sure I looked really cool, running after a seven year old … don’t you wish you could watch a video of that?)

After getting in trouble for a few other things, I decided to send Bobby back home and told him to come back next week.

So Bobby decided to beat the fence with a stick. I was afraid to walk near him because he was waving the stick around with such anger. He ran away before I could talk with him. It seemed like Bobby was used to getting into trouble.

The problem is not that Bobby is a bad kid. The problem is not his anger. That’s just the fruit of the root issue. Why is Bobby so angry? Why does he act out? He is so wounded, so broken.

Jesus, please heal his wounds!! You’re the only one who can make him whole.

Monday, September 20, 2010

worship :: defined

After experiencing a month and a half of transitions, I am proud to announce that I am back in the swing of things! I actually feel like a new person.

Here is what has been going on with me since August 4th. I went to Thailand for three weeks, came back and moved out of my house 3 days later, then into my new apartment 2 weeks after that (I was kinda homeless for a couple of weeks), all the while planning for the first week of our Fall season of Kids Club which all went down last week.

Whew.

Did I mention that I don’t really love transitions?

But I survived. And now I’m in a great new apartment with 2 really sweet roommates, and we’re right by the Chatahoochie River. It is such a gift from the Lord to be able to come home from a busy day into a peaceful environment. Thank You, Lord!

So now that I can breathe again, I’m taking some time to reflect on the victories that I’ve experienced in ministry over the past few days.

The first week of Kids Club was a blast! There were about 80 kids total, several of which were new to us.

The whole theme of the week was “On Earth as it is in Heaven.” We shared with the kids about the way Jesus taught His disciples to pray.

But we didn’t just teach the kids to pray a nice little prayer. We taught them that Jesus’ life on earth was a beautiful picture of Heaven on Earth, and so we can expect Heaven to invade Earth because we are also God’s children living here on Earth.

The kids made crowns to represent how they are God’s royal family here on Earth, and that they are a part of the Kingdom of Heaven here.

They absolutely loved decorating their crowns! I’ve never seen so much glitter glue globbed on such a small space. I found glitter glue and sequins in my car, on my bed, on my clothes, and in my hair after Kids Club was long over. Talk about taking your work home with you!

It’s almost like the kids stay with me even when I’m away from them. I really love that.

One of the coolest things that happened at Kids Club last week was when I was trying to get the kids excited about worship before our worship leaders came out. It went something like this:

Me: “Are y’all ready to worship?!?”
Most kids: “YEAH!!!”
One of the New Kids: “What’s worship?”
Me: “Great question! What is worship, guys?”
One of the Teen Guys: “LOVE!”
Me: “Yeah! And who do we love when we worship?”
Another Child: “GOD!”

Did you notice how the kids defined worship?

WORSHIP IS LOVING GOD.

That definition came from a bunch of street kids. And that definition was followed by such a pure and passionate time of worship with the kids.

They are responding to the Lord’s love for them with love for Him.

“We love because He first loved us.” - 1 John 4:19