Date: 8 Nov 2009 Comments: 0

Today the youth and I went out to pay a visit to a youth who has not been to church in a little while as part of a youth-wide outreach night. The person I was assigned to was a young man out in a remote area of Midwest City (east of OKC) but lived near my work so I figured finding him would be easy. So, I took two of the youth with me and we departed with high expectations. It only took us about 10 minutes to get to the right part of town but the actual address seemed impossible to find. We drove around for what felt like hours but was actually only about 45 minutes and I felt pretty foolish being trusted to take these guys and then getting lost. Tired of driving and feeling like failures, we headed on our way back to the church without finding the house. Jokingly, I said it would be funny if we found the house as we were going back to church.

Never let it be said that God does not have a sense of humor. Sure enough, at 6:50, we found our way to the house but since we did not have a pizza yet (that was part of the deal, offer the guy a pizza), we had to drive back up and get it. We didn’t arrive at the house until around 7:05 but it was the perfect time. This young man lives pretty much all alone in his house, he said his parents were not really around much any more and so he didn’t have a ride to church but he really wanted to go, he desperately needed the fellowship. We hung out with him for a little bit and brought him a pizza (perhaps one of the only things he had to eat based on his description of his situation). He talked about only having his MMA coach near by to call on and feeling grateful that we came by to hang with him. He told us his faith was the only thing keeping him strong and that he needed all the prayer he could get so we lifted him up and prayed over him and went upon our way. I promised him that we would try and see if someone could get him to church, heck, I will do it if I have to, and that we hoped to see him soon.

On the way back to church, the boys and I reflected on how wonderful it felt to reach out to this guy who was so alone in the house he lived in. I think that the boys felt okay despite my countless apologetic cries for getting us lost and my insane driving to get us around. Over all, they got the point loud and clear that people need to be willing to go out of their way and do crazy stuff to reach people who are lost. I think they both felt that something important happened and that it would not have happened if we had not been there. I just hope their parents don’t get mad at me!

I give praise to God for giving me an ever growing list of gifts. Perhaps my ability to work with youth is just a deeper aspect of my love for others. I feel very alive when I work with youth and am excited that it may soon be an actual income earner for me to boot!