Run-A-Way

Today at Re:gener8, our funky name for kids stuff, we had a girl run off. Now this reminded me of some good ol' camp times, but keep in mind, this isnt camp. Anyways, so I was teaching the lesson, when out of no where this kid grabs the hat off of Karen head and runs off with it. Karen gets furious and chases after this kid. After Karen gets her hat back, she grabs her bag and starts walking out the door. I grabbed another leader, told him to stay with the kids and went for a nice stroll with Karen. Now, Karen is 10 years old, and she was angry...and not any type of anger a 10 year old kid should be going through either. She was on a mission, her mission was to go home. Funny story, Karen lives a good 15 minute drive from where we were, and her plan was to take the bus alone. I continue walking with her, becuase as if I was going to let a 10 year old walk home alone, yet she wanted nothing to do with that. We get to a bus stop and her intent is to get on the bus and I would leave. As much as I wanted to please her, I had to uphold my responsibility and make sure she got home safe. Oh ya, this whole time, Aaron White, the boss guy, has no idea what is going on. So Karen gets on the bus, and so do I. I have no bus fare...I explained my situation to the bus driver how I had to take a kid home, and he let me on the bus free...Bless Mr. Bus Driver. Karen gets home safe, still angry, but safe. The part that sucked the most from this, other then the fact Karen had an aweful day and was hurt, was that generally Karen and I have a good relationship. Generally if she is upset we can talk through it. Generally we are buddies. Today I wasnt that person. Today I had to step up into authority and do something that was for the best of Karen, yet to Karen seemed to be the worst. Today I had to put Karens safety over our friendship. Does God do that with us? Does God put our safty above all else? Does God make sure we get home-which is Heaven becuase Earth is our footstool-safe? Anyways before I get on to the many other adventures of the day I have another thing to add to this. I noticed that Karen gets angry the same way I do...for those that dont know me well, I have a few minor anger issues...Karen stayed stubborn. I do this too. If I am angry over something, and then someone rationalises it out for me, I remain stubborn and continue in my anger. Karen didnt cry. I wont cry. Please upon reading this pray for Karen...she is a wonderful kid.

So on with the rest of the day. After I watched Karen enter her house, I went to the nearest store to call Aaron to let him know what is going on...becase as you recall he had no idea what was happening at this point, other then the fact that one of his kids and one of his leaders were gone. The first store refused my request for the phone. Store number 2 refused my request, but graceuslly some guy in the line let me use his cell. I gave Aaron a quick call to let him know Karen was safe and I was fine, and I was on my way back and hopped onto the next bus. This guy gets on the bus and the driver tried to tell him something, and turns out this guy is deaf...so I start interpreting the drivers comments. This guy was impressed that I knew sign and asked if one of my family members was deaf. I replied no, and told him Jesus told me to learn it. He was a little akward and confused and the topic got switched. He bagan telling me about his day and that he was sick, and if I wasnt getting off the bus at the next stop I would have prayed for him...but maybe I should have put my own agenda down and picked up that of the Holy Spirits...besides, we-Holy Spirit and I, have never done a healing in sign language before,that would have been a first!

Okay, this will be my last paragraph becuase seriously this is ridiculussly long. Please pray for Wendy. She is a parent of one of our re:gener8 kids and we were talking today. She broke down and said how lonely she felt. She said, she re-commits to God everyday, yet still feels so alone. Her oldest son is in jail, her boyfriend/common-law, is never around, and when he is he is drunk. She was crying and explaining she has no normal friends. My heart just broke. We got to talking and after some encouragment she agreed to coming to a cell...the only thing is the one cell she would get the most out of, I cant be at, but I did tell her I would walk with her...anyways this is besides the point. Please pray for Wendy. Pray for peace and comfort. Pray that she gets plugged into community, and feels acceptance. Pray Psalm 68:6 over her...'and God places the lonely into families'

Sorry for the long blog, Ill never do it again.