Christmas @ The Club

I wanted to first let you all know that Preston, the little boy I had asked you all to be praying for, is doing much better. He has been at the King's Club almost every day and seems to finally be getting back to his loving little self. Thank you all so much for your prayer for him and his mom during this difficult time. We are so happy to have him back and without your prayer that may not have been the case, so thank you.

As the Christmas parties for the King’s Club (the after school program I work at) have been this week it has been a very busy week for me. After baking about 100 sugar cookies on Monday night for them to decorate at the party, I continued to be busy all week. I went in Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday early and stayed late for preparation for the parties. The elementary and teens had separate parties on different days and both were a lot of fun and went very well overall.

            Every week Kat and I meet with either our city director Jason or the two year apprentice Becky to spend time together and talk about what is going on in life. During our one-on-one this week, Becky and I talked about BARM and the differences between the teens and the elementary kids for a while. I have recently been spending a lot of time with the teens, but previously I spent very little time with them. I remember feeling guilty for not spending much time with the youth, since I have always loved teenagers. I felt like I was just choosing to spend more time with the elementary because they are easier to work with as they show affection more than the teens who are frequently hard to reach. The few times I did try to talk to the youth I was met with cold responses, pushing me even farther towards the elementary portion of the program.

            In the last few weeks after Jesse invited me to go to youth group with many of the teens, I have been developing relationships with the older students. I now am greeted with hugs from many of the girls, I get asked to play pool or other games with them, the guys mess with me, the girls will talk to me about different things going on in life, and we all joke around and have fun together. I noticed how much I really do feel that I am now a part of the teen group during the teen Christmas party. We spent a lot of time together as friends during the Christmas party. I also noticed that I was really being accepted when Marshelle was going around the room thanking everyone that helped put the party together and I received quite a few hollers and “We love you Rachel’s” particularly from the girls when she said my name. I also got very positive feedback from the students about the game that I led during the party and noticed their excitement when I decided to play one of the other games with them.

I am not saying all these different ways that I received positive feedback from the youth to try and act like I am really cool and popular now, but instead for it to be a testament of God’s greatness. Although I was very uncomfortable with it at first I think the fact that I waited to reach out to the youth was part of God’s perfect timing. The youth at the King’s Club are very hardhearted and closed off to many new people and to the world in many ways due to the variety of difficult circumstances they have been through. Many of them have faced off and on homeless since they were very young and as a result have been forced to relocate very frequently. People other than their parents, such as their grandparents or another family members, have raised many of them. If they are lucky enough to have a parent raising them it is never both parents. The realities so many of these youth face are so far beyond my understanding as I have always had such a strong support system. Due to their life experiences with abandonment they do not automatically trust people and in order to gain their respect and favor one must really work for it. I really do think that me fixing my attention at the beginning on the elementary rather than jumping right into the youth was a part of God’s plan. I think that by first showing my dedication to the King’s Club through my consistency with the elementary kids, I was laying the foundation and preparing the way for me to be able to invest in the youth and develop relationships with them. I wanted to jump right into relationships with the youth and through many different circumstances I kept getting pulled back into working with the younger kids. My original frustration was due to my lack of understanding God’s greater picture. God’s timing is perfect and through this I am reminded of that. I am also reminded how great God is and how small I am. There is no way that I could have known what God had in store for my involvement with the youth. As always, God had a perfect plan with perfect timing all along. I was just unable to recognize it because our ability as humans to process and see the great depths of God is so small. I am also very excited for what He has in store for this next year as I continue to work at the King’s Club.