We moved into a neighborhood full of kids. We see lots of ministry opportunities. Anna now has a street ministry (on our street). She calls it her skateboard ministry. We had a lemonade stand over the weekend, and kids came out of the woodwork. We had so many kids playing, riding bikes and skateboards, passing frisbees, and basically having fun in front of our house, it resembled a circus. I watched everything carefully and made sure that nothing inappropriate was going on. Wow, I felt like I was on recess duty again. But this time, a lot of the kids were my own.
My kids have told me of problems between some of the kids they’ve met, and I heard some girls talking about a kid who committed suicide and another who overdosed because her dad said she was worthless and wasn’t even part of the family. The girls were discussing this as if it were just a topic of gossip and nothing serious, just kind of exciting. I was appalled. I started to see that there are some serious problems among the young people here and their families, and maybe God will use us to bring some light to them.
I’m being careful to keep my kids home and safe. I’m warning them of potential problems and praying that God will give me wisdom and protect them from all harm. But I believe that God is saying that the children have been prepared and are being used in ministry to the children of this neighborhood – under my watchful eye.
So some of the story is unfolding. God put us in this particular neighborhood for a purpose. It looks like some of my children are being thrust into ministry. We’re figuring out new ground rules and routines so that this new ministry doesn’t take over our family life or expose my children to the things I’ve been protecting them from all these years. What a balancing act this is. I need lots of wisdom for this new season.
"Oh that God would give every mother a vision of the glory and splendor of the work that is given to her when a babe is placed in her bosom to be nursed and trained! Could she have but one glimpse in to the future of that life as it reaches on into eternity; could she look into its soul to see its possibilities; could she be made to understand her own personal responsibility for the training of this child, for the development of its life, and for its destiny,--she would see that in all God's world there is no other work so noble and so worthy of her best powers, and she would commit to no other's hands the sacred and holy trust given to her." -JR Miller
