my day off

Getting back into the swing of things quickly after being away. I met Mario (my hero), and Steve our Tech Coordinator to shoot the story of Mario's life at the Juvenile Center today. He is an amazing testimony to the mighty way God takes bad and turns it to good! If we use his story in the service I will post it with my weekend report.

Let me digress...last night flying home from Minneapolis, I finally finished Kay Warren's Book Dangerous Surrender, a MUST READ! I read it through chapter 5 quite a while ago, and once I read chapter 5 I was so moved that I began to pass it around to our missions team, powerful is an understatement. But, now that she will be coming to our ministry, I am trying to familiarize myself with everything she's written. One of my best friends recommended the book and I honestly don't think I've ever read anything so personally challenging EVER. Challenging because God used it to ask me for complete surrender at a level I have never experienced before. The surrender may have began to reveal itself to me today...I will be praying for His leading.

Kay reminds us that we are to be involved in the area of caring for the orphans, widows, sick and also the prisoners.

The area I am totally not involved in, or really never paid attention to, is the area of prisoners. As I ended the book LAST NIGHT, I prayed for God to show me what He wants me to do with this newly pledged surrender...I really, really meant it. So, today as I met Steve and Mario at the Juvenile Center to shoot video, I talked to the judge and I asked him what church involvement took place there. He said there is some, he wasn't sure what ministries come. I told him that I feel God may be leading me to personally connect with these kids in some way, to look them in the eyes and know them. He looked at me rather shocked and said, I've always thought the most affective program that could begin would be a one on one mentorship program of some kind. There is was, a God moment...now what?

As I left the building with a thousand possibilities going through my mind, I mentioned the conversation to Steve and Mario. Mario said, that is exactly what the kids need. They are rarely visited by anyone, even their own families never come. Heart breaking!!

I then had a conversation with my daughter just generally talking and told her what I had been doing this morning. She said, "that is exactly what my focus is at college this next semester - creating and launching non-profit organizations/ministries" - are you kidding me?

Jesus spent his time on earth training and teaching his disciples, a hand picked group of leaders that He would send out to rock the world, and he spent his time with the forgotten hidden community. He touched the sick when no one else would, he forgave the criminals even as he himself was dying and he loved the orphans and widows. To limit our personal ministry to those who are like us is wrong. Those our community has abandoned need us too.

Would you be willing to join me in very focused prayer asking God to open the doors that each of us need to walk through, specifically in caring for our community's forgotten?