It's Happening!

I have a close pastor friend who is slowly grasping the concept of community development work. He has challenged me to be more verbal about how God’s grace is changing some of teens and adults’ lives. I have a great story about something as simple as doing prep work for a painting project this Saturday.

I have a new best friend, Jeff, who is an amazing guy. He purposely retired from Intel at an early age. He is living out his ‘retirement’ doing community development work with a couple of non-profits. We have met weekly over the last six-months. It is very easy to talk about impacting a neighborhood and connecting with people. I have slowly gotten my new friend to give of himself in an amazing way.

He has volunteered a couple of times to help drive our group to events. We did a skating event that he helped drive where we had 80 kids. I don’t know if he was ready for this size of group. He connected very easily with some of our little guys, Pee Pee and Irwin. He has been trying to find time over the last 3 months to help with tutoring. Yet, schedules have conflicted so he graciously decided to do something on his own.

The last couple of weeks Jeff has met one on one with a 14-year-old guy, we will call him Joe. Please understand that Joe comes out of a large family with a dad that is not involved in his life at all. He has been around ‘bad stuff’ most of his life. He has other siblings who also have been kicked out of school. He is presently doing homeschooling. This is why I had my friend Jeff step in because he is homeschooling his guys who are the same age. I know that Joe has heard the gospel and seen grace in action through what we have been doing. Now the opportunity presents itself for Joe to learn with Jeff’s help.

Yesterday, I decided instead of our usual Starbucks meeting we would prep the church we are painting on Saturday. I also roped in Joe and another gal who is a High School grad to help. We had to power-wash the outside and wipe the walls down on the inside area we are going to paint. I had to rent the power-washer, which took more time than expected. I also had to pick up the paint for the project, which did fill the back of my truck. I also had to make multiple trips to the storage unit to get our equipment for the project.

I really didn’t help at all with the prep work and my friend Jeff was the champion in making this happen. He would say that our Joe was the champion who has stepped up and is putting his life back together. It would be so easy for this teen to drop out, be bitter and make excuses about his behavior and blame his dad mostly for the mess that has been his life. The great news is that Joe is doing his schoolwork, helping with projects, being mentored and has a great attitude.

I know that too often the church world wants to hear certain words or phrases that in their minds are the litmus test of a person’s spiritual commitment. I am beginning to see that a broken life that is willing to do the dirty work is a much better sign of a changed life. I know that the road before our Joe is long with many obstacles. His chance of survival statistically isn’t good according to where he lives and his circumstances. The amazing blessing of God’s grace is that having both Jeff and myself involved in his life has given him a living example of Christ in action. Joe is figuring life out with Jesus’ help each day. I am thrilled to see the gospel unfold in this way.

Thanks to my friends Jeff and Jesus for working on my teen, Joe!