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after
Kids Club 2003
 when
Kids Club is over we pause and reflect ... here we call it
debrief ... what did we learn, what did I learn ... what
happened ... what did God do?
we take Kids
Club that seriously because God has used it in so many lives for
the past 16 years
a strange
thing happened this year ... the work crew and staff were filled
with people who had grown up in Kids Club and in the ministry, a
few coming from the way, back past (a friend devoted three full
days to video taping 15 half hour segments of these young adults
and their stories of growing up in the barrios of Phoenix, their
pain, their losses and their hope in Christ)
so if you
wouldn't mind, I'd like to reflect with you about what God said to
us (to me) through a few of them ...
Donna
One of the greatest surprises of this summer was hearing from
Donna. She is 23 now, and a young mom. Donna grew up
without any real gifts of love or nurture. Her mom was an
alcoholic and pretty much gone ... Donna met us at age 6, the
summer we ran an experiment in a park, called Neighborhood Kids
Club. It was a "monsoony" August week, in the
evenings. We gathered nightly and the group that hung in
there with us has always been fondly called "The First Kids
Club". Donna can see herself there, asking her mom if
she could join the other kids. "My mom was drunk and
said, 'whatever'". After that summer, Donna joined our
small ministry and whenever the doors were opened she was there.
She went to every camp, bonded with leaders, stayed in our homes
and, one summer, while she had been with us for a week, we
were the ones that told her that her brother had died. Then,
when Donna was in the seventh grade, her mom died. Neighbors
ransacked her home after her mom's death and we helped her rescue
the only thing left of her belongings, a sewing machine given to her
by her grandmother. It came to live at my house while Donna
went to live with her brother on the Hopi Reservation. A
bunch of us drove her up to Northern Arizona and left her with him
... we wouldn't see her for years. Those years were cruel ... her
brother was uncaring and eventually she would live in 52
foster homes and 4 mental institutions ... until at age 18, she
showed up on my door step, pregnant and crying,
"I'm home". "Yes, you are!", we
said. Donna went to live with a ministry that cares for Native
American girls during their pregnancies, gave birth to her
beautiful boy and finished some schooling. The old life
grabbed her and she went here and there until, the Lord called her
back. Donna has been living with the Victory Outreach Women
for over 16 months, and has grown strong. At a conference for
children's workers she heard the Lord ... "I want you to reach
children and teach them about me" ... I hadn't seen Donna for a
few years ... her phone call and the update was enough to
invite her to do work crew with us for the first time as a leader.
She hadn't been to Kids Club since she was a child.
I watched Donna's heart's desire to rescue children. She
noticed what most can't see ... the child leaving the house crying
to get on the bus ... the hard hearted kid who doesn't want to let
anyone in ... the child who is hungry, worn out, sullen ... the
child who listens to God, like she did.
We heard her hear from God through a child in her class ...
"Miss Donna", the child whispered one day when Donna was
crying. "God is going to take all the hurts from you
and make them beautiful". This is her promise, that
with Jesus there is redemption of every loss, every terrible
violation, every horrible time you remember asking "where was
God?"
I
heard Jesus say to me through her ... "Kit, you worry about
where these children go, you struggle so hard to find them, and
can't, many times. These are my precious children, I haven't
lost them. Raise them up in the way they should go ...
that's your part. Trust me, when they're lost to you, for
they are not lost to me."
Heidi
and Molly
One summer years ago, a youth leader asked if we might add some of
his young people to the work crew. Most of his students were
going to Spain, for their summer missions trip, but there wasn't
room for five freshman girls. What he failed to tell us,
that later spilled out, was that these five freshman girls were
spoiled and not ready for THE mission trip. Inner city
Phoenix was all they were ready for. I can picture them ...
even today ... from that summer. Worried about their hair,
tired from the hard work, not wanting to swim with the kids --
that was the first week. Then something happened ... their
pastor and parents visited them, just to make sure they were OK
and to check out the program. "Who were
these girls?", sweaty and focused, spiritual
and changing ... I remember those pastors telling me
"You aren't sending back the same girls we sent you".
The girls and their friends came back every year for five years.
Four years ago Heidi left with Food for the Hungry and worked in
Peru for three years. She tells her story that it was at
this "little deal" called Kids Club that God called her,
birthed in her a love for Latin people and inspired her to work
with the poor. Molly married and has become a public school
teacher ... "I learned to love children at Kids Club and
wanted to teach kids because of those Kids Club years."
Both women taught classes this Kids Club, Heidi taught in Spanish.
I heard Jesus say to me through them,
"I am training an army. Want to join me? Want to
sign up for one more year of investing in the next generation of
leaders. Don't think I'll waste this hard hot summer of
difficult work with difficult kids. That's how they learn,
remember? When it's so hard they have to trust me."
Luis
We have had so many tough kids over the years, and too many of
them are dead. Somewhere over the years we might have lost
hope that many would cling to their childhood faith. Luis is
all tatted up ... as they say. WEST SIDE runs down the
side of his arms. Guns, gangs, drugs, la familia, are the
classic story of his now adult life. He did time in jail,
has lost too many homies and remembers loving Kids Club.
"When I was young I always wanted to be a leader", he
shared this year with the work crew.
Breakthroughs come to some when there is a wake-up call. We
don't always know what brings an older kid back, but we watch and
take it seriously. Especially one who was so loved for so
many years, like Luis.
Every Sunday he has been coming to church. "Getting
back to church is what I have to do", he would say.
Summer was coming and Ian really wanted him to step up and take a
stab at being a leader. Early mornings are rough for old
gangsters, hard work, shepherding kids, being patient, sleeping in
a huge room where you have no personal space. what
would compel a street kid to choose such a crazy challenge?
Jesus!
Luis found "chasing kids" was his best asset. He
remembers that leaders chase kids, they don't let them get away
from you, you pursue them, you win them ... then they'll learn to
trust you ... it can take forever. Somehow he knew this
instinctively, and loved "his" kids for two weeks.
He affirmed other workers, he obeyed staff, he prayed, he worked out
his salvation ... and God showed through him.
I heard Jesus say to me through him ... "What do you
see, Kit." "I see a lot of work, set
backs, small baby steps, disappointments". "That's
not what I see" ... "I know that's not what you
see Jesus, I know."
Ralph
The art work in the ministry is all indigenous. Over the
years artists surfaced and they became well known to hundreds
because of the Kids Club t-shirts which could then be seen at
the mall, at school, for years to come, at other camps, and so
forth ...
Ralph grew up in Kids Club because he lived across the street from
our family while he was young. Even when he moved we
remained a part of his life and he with ours. Kids Club was
the best way of relocating Ralph once he got into high school.
If we had lost touch with him, or he was lost to church or
spiritual things, Kids Club was his clarion call.
His junior high and high school years Ralph discovered something
about himself ... his artist self. In the hood though, the
arts are specific, and Ralph became quite a "tagger".
But because his artist self is for real, Ralph became a beautiful
painter and his street murals are known widely in the underground.
Ralph also designs the Kids Club shirts and with each passing
year, they tell a story of his own spiritual pilgrimage.
This years shirt was the cross roads verse, choosing ...
Jeremiah 6: 16
This
is what the LORD says:
"Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls." 
Ralph
was baptized at Lake Day, something he has waited to do for
years. His testimony was simple, direct, specific ...
I heard
Jesus say to me through him, "You are not very
patient. Gifts take time to develop, people take time to
develop too. Be patient!"
There
was Becky, Irene, Morena, Victor, Veronica, Tony, Panda, Dora,
Ian, Claudia, and a whole lot more ... whose stories reminded me
about some
things
I am supposed to never forget
What
we learn in the battle
This
band of misfits
and
old gangsters,
younglings that don't know hard work
where the heat becomes the point
Counseling
each other ...
"its
about the kids"
Watching
neighborhoods from broken bus windows and noticing
"their
poverty broke my heart"
Being
willing in reconciliation, grudges break God's heart
Expecting
God to do more than we could ever ask or think
Loving
kids -- "the way I was loved"
Testimonies
-- a common word now ... describing conversion but also
breakthrough
Telling
the truth about who I am and where I've come from
What
did we learn in the battle? We have to debrief ... to find
it
Unexpected
Blessings
thank
you, thank you, thank you for praying for Kids Club ... you
can't imagine the layers of provision we experienced ... 7 boats
for Lake Day (a little like the loaves and fishes) ... safety ...
the walls of race and culture coming down with the work crew ...
reconciliation between neighbors and kids in conflict ... in fact,
the following Lake Day baptism comes from this healing ...
Hi,
My
name is Bethany. I'm 12 years old. This is my
testimony.
 All
my life I've been going to church. But there were always
problems around me and in my life no matter what. I tried to
avoid them but I couldn't. My problems were always in my way
and I felt like I had no control over them. I even started
blaming it on Jesus because I thought he was punishing me for
being bad. My problems made it hard to believe in him
because I felt like he had left me in this world and he wasn't by
my side anymore. Now I know he's always going to help me and
guide me through all my problems. In a way I knew he was ...
he is the Lord of all creation. But then again, I didn't.
I would pray for my problems to go away but they didn't. It
took a long time.
I've
been bad over the years. I just want God to change it all
and just let me leave the past and look to the future. I
have asked him to forgive me for my sins. I want people to
forgive me and see me as a good person not a bad person. I
want people to respect me for who I am and not what they want me
to be. I always pray for my friends to forgive me. I
fight, I cuss and I lie too much when I'm around some people.
Sometimes I do bad things because they say if I don't then I'm a
chicken and I don't want people to think I'm a chicken, but now I
understand that it's not what they think it's what Jesus and I
both know. Now I know I need him more than anything and my
heart wants to let him in and I  want
to be in his life more than anything.
Now
my life is having less problems each day. I've believed in
Jesus our Lord for many years but I wasn't sure if I should
dedicate my life to him but now I know that it's the best thing.
And I want to walk on a good path. Having a good
relationship with the Lord is the best thing ever. The Lord
has helped so much . I hope everyone here works on a good
relationship with the Lord because it's great. Also I want
to follow Jesus all my life.
That's
why I want to get baptized. (Why I was baptized ... at Lake
Day)
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