Ministering in the Inner-City

I've been doing a lot of Kid and teenage ministry lately. It's fantastic! On the weekends I've been hanging out with the inner city Kids downtown, who don't always have it easy. They age from five to 14, (once there was even a two year old). They come to our clubhouse, have a snack, we talk about whatever, but our lives are so different it is sometimes hard to find something in common. As the evening progresses we have small groups and pray, we have a quick teaching, and then we lead some worship. It has been amazing, because when we first started leading worship , most of the Kids didn't know the songs, and didn't really get into it, but about 6 weeks later they were singing their hearts out! This last time I could barely even hear myself singing because they were belting it out so loud. It is absolutely worth helping out, for that reason alone. The kids are so precious and adorable, they are respectful, and have very willing and open hearts. The girls absolutely love mine and Vanessa's "floppy" hair (as they call it) and will gently rub their faces against it, stating that they wished they had a pillow that felt like it! This weekend we are taking them to a farm with horses and cows and all kinds of other things. It is way out in the country where the kids probably have never been, so it will be quite an adventure!

Welcome to the Humble Club

Friday was a humbling day. Really it was. You know how cars go in the shop to be fixed right? Well My guitar had been in the "shop" so to speak, since Wednesday (and boy had I missed it.) The funny thing is though, it was the biggest, toughest, uneasy, job to get it home! The guitar was fixed then got drooped off at my church for me to pick up. Sounds easy enough yeah? Not really. I call Ben and he mentions that He won't be at the church that day so the doors might be locked if I try and pick it up. Well he suggests that I call Andy, so me being the agreeable person I am, take his suggestion and call Andy. Andy was seconds away from closing up the church and making his way outta there! So we figured out a plan to meet later in the afternoon and he would pass over the guitar to me. Well just let me tell you, if I got a dollar for every time I talked to Andy on the phone, then I would be about twenty bucks richer than I am now! Here's how it went: We set a time to meet at 2:20, then Andy would call 30 later and say "How does 1:40 sound?" then he'd call 20 minutes later and say "My meeting is over, How does right now sound?" and finally it came down to "I'll put the guitar in my office and leave a door unlocked and you can come pick it up when you feel like it." Talk about an indecisive morning! So we went to the Church and go to the door Andy tells us he left unlocked. Well we open it..or at least try to...But it won't open! We drive over to the other side of the church and try those doors...Nothing...By this time I am thinking that this whole thing was a big bad idea! I call Andy and he claims he left it unlocked! Then he offers us this bit of wisdom (read with a welsh accent) "If it isn't unlocked, then go to the side of the church where the windows are, and throw rocks at the windows. Because I know people are in there." This is where the humbling your flesh part comes in. Vanessa and I are a bit tentative at first, but we know that it has come down to this. So we search around for some rocks, but there are none....What do we do now? We get bark from around the trees! We have to find some heavy pieces though. Completely Humbling ourselves we walk to the side of the church and I throw the first piece of bark. How humiliating. Meanwhile Vanessa had hidden herself in a corner so no one could see her, and I didn't appreciate that so I called her over and made her stand with me and throw some. Then I go and hide....Finally after some heavy bark throwing, the teachers of the art class (they were cracking up) along with the students, saw us and went and unlocked the doors. Gosh it was dying to self for sure! We got our guitar back though, but I hope if it has to go the shop again someday, it won't be that hard to get back!