The battle is the Lord's

The battle is the Lord’s …

I couldn’t sleep last night. A normal problem during the weeks of Kids Club. We all seem to become unsettled … usually these wrestling’s are at night, bad dreams, minds that can’t turn off, unwarranted fears. Summer ministries carry so much weight for all of us; the rescuing alone … well it’s like a battle, for lives. All of a sudden the words “the battle is the Lord’s” came to me as I flipped flopped around trying to find peace. Where is that? I got out of bed and looked it up. David against the undefeatable foe, the giant, overwhelming odds stacked against God’s own … the words made sense. He was telling me, “This is mine. My battle. I will win, you watch. Stay close.” So I thought of this past week:

JUNIOR HIGH KIDS CLUB

Junior high kids club is just that, a kids club just for 140 junior highers. Learning, listening, responding, believing, letting the years of investment birth something new and better, the next thing. Bryan inherited a group of street boys that have been with us for quite a few years. When the previous leader first took these boys on they were hard and rough, sullen, difficult. He was faithful. Now these have been Bryan’s group all year on Tuesday nights. You watch, hoping. And they were here, that's good! They were reluctant, didn’t engage at first. But slowly … got into it. All the boys learned their verses, listened in class, opened up. One became the class superstar. It was like all the hard work of the years was leading to this kids club. The second to last day, the story was on the unforgiving servant, dark hearts made white by forgiveness of sin, the cross, a decision opportunity. One of the boys tapped Bryan. “I didn’t get that prayer.” It was a little fast maybe, maybe he just needed to be certain. Bryan took him outside, to clarify. Problem was, Bryan has never led anyone to Christ, he looked for that paper we passed out this morning, the one with the guiding words, then a bible. And Randy became a Christian, asked Jesus into his life. The next day, another story, Jesus and the treasure in the field, that is us, and the whole group went out to be alone with Bryan. I saw Randy on a bench, “hurry, bus leaving for Slide Rock!” “I’m waiting for Bryan. You know how I got saved yesterday?” (wow! saved that’s quite a word!), “Well, Bryan’s doing it to the rest of them”. And he was, leading these boys straight into the arms of Jesus. Really I have to tell you, one of them, maybe the hardest, looked to me like he was glowing, I hardly recognized him. Bryan said, “I didn’t really know what I was doing”. JESUS IS REAL is this kids club’s theme. Yup!
Shaurene is tall, skinny, bony, all over the place and loud. She can’t sit still, wants all the attention, and breaks things, mostly accidentally. She kicked her foot through the wall in the bathroom hallway. But she wants so much to be good. “How do you think others see you?” was the leadership question. Shaurene finished the classes to be a junior leader. “Bad”, she said. Her week was composed of taking the risk to believe what Jesus says about her, that she is not only not bad to Him, but lovely and wanted and precious. She improved; she settled down, on occasion, she let others help her. She apologized. Her fuzzy hair was all sticky up at Slide Rock, she had been in the water for hours. I loved it that way, especially when the sun would be behind her and her silhouette was all you could see. She couldn’t jump off the 30 foot cliff into the big pool of water, it was too scary. She wanted to. She would run to the edge, back up, run to the very tip with her toes hanging over, her long skinny arms dangling like she wants to just give way, then couldn’t brave it. We waited for her in the freezing down below for ½ hour calling out, you can do it! She was funny. The van was packed going home, loud rap music, loud kids, not enough air conditioning. For Wendy, Shaurene’s teacher, it was too much and she began sinking into the despair titled, “this van ride will never end”. As Shaurene climbed over her teacher .. feet in the face, then in the lap, then realizing her teacher was sick, Shaurene hollered to turn the music off. Face to face, skin to skin, Shaurene got close, close like she likes. “Let’s talk about our Lord”. Now Wendy, the intentional conversationalist just couldn’t cooperate. So Shaurene pushed. “Let’s talk about our memory verses”. And one by one, passage by passage, through the next hour and more, Shaurene became Jesus with skin on to Wendy, her teacher. The most unlikely, the most disruptive, the most unexpected, Jesus in disguise … its too much to expect what only He can do, what He will do, what He did do … thanks for praying!

ALBUQUERQUE KIDS CLUB

The team we sent to serve in our sister camp was composed of Chol, a Sudanese Lost Boy, Gabriel, Francisco, Tanya and Yessenia, all emerging Neighborhood leaders, plus Danielle from Arkansas, Erin from Rhode Island, and Jessica, on our team, but from Albuquerque. This team represents the diversity of our summer interns: two are Native American; three are Latino, one white, one Asian and one African. All going to serve among the least of these in Alb. Jesus was real there too, kids were loved, relationships that the ministries have been building in the Juntos outreach were strengthened and unexpected breakthroughs are now part of the memories of their summer. Reconciliation, the coming together of diverse groups and people … that’s one of the things that happened in Albuquerque. Also, the work crew memorized Isaiah 58 and put it to a step dance. We’re looking forward to Yessenia teaching our team here to perform what became a hallmark moment for the team in Albuquerque.

BEACH CAMP

“I like this”, was the comment a new high schooler made during a small group time at camp. I like being myself, honest, open, not playing religious games – the intimacy of beach camp helped kids find a place at church, a relationship they can count on. A few kids got noticed in a new way, we’re hoping they can join us on the work crew for kids club.

YOUNG LIFE CAMP

Four boys were privileged to go with Victor up to Lost Canyon, and experienced a life changing week. They will never be the same. We’re looking forward to a summer of growth with all of them. The investment in lives is bearing fruit.

THANKS FOR PRAYING, GOD IS TRANSFORMING LIVES this summer! Please hang in there with us, we've only just begun!

Pray for final preparations for Kids Club which begins Monday (500 kids and 80 work crew)
1. Teacher preparation
2. Finding kids and getting them signed up
3. Work crew’s readiness
4. Thousands of details
For three I Can Do It trips – camping and river rafting this week
For our ongoing financial needs ... summer is expensive!