God is letting me see...

My window is right above my kitchen sink, so when I was dishes I can see what is going on in the neighborhood. My kitchen sink is a great praying spot! Today as I was washing dishes, I saw one of the boys who comes to Teen Ministry walking by. I opened my door and said hi to him. He walked over to me and I noticed that both of his ears were bleeding. I know that he usually wears large ear rings, but he didn't have them in. His ear lobes were ripped and the one lobe was ripped all the way through. I asked him what happened and he said that he and his friends were playing around. I was pretty sure he was lying to me and that it wasn't just an accident. I grabbed some peroxide and Q-tips and had him clean the blood off his ears. While he was doing this, we both noticed a fight getting ready to start one building down from mine. A large group of teens and young adults started forming in a group. Several of the kids were teens who come to Teen Ministry and also many of this boy's friends. He got ready to take off to head towards the fight, but I wouldn't let him until he finished cleaning off his ears. I stood there and prayed so that the fight would break up. It broke up, but then started up again a few buildings over. I couldn't see it from where I was but prayed. A few nights later as I was driving home, I saw one of the boys who was in the fight walking home. He is also one of the boys I take to school on Mondays. I pulled my car over and asked if I could talk to him. I asked him why they were fighting and he said that some other boys jumped his cousin and they were sticking up for him. My heart just broke as I listened to him, because inside I know he is a tender kid and he has so much potential. I began sharing from my heart about how God has such a good plan for his life and fighting isn't going to change anything. He listened and looked me in the eyes as I talked to him. The other part about this story is that the two groups who were fighting against each other make up more than half of the kids who come to Teen Ministry. All this time I thought they were all friends, or at least acquaintances, but as I spoke to this boy, he said they really aren't friends, but just say hi and bye to each other. For months I have been asking God to reveal things to me about the lives of these kids and bring things out in the open. God is starting to do this, these are not the easiest things to see and hear, but I am so grateful that He is letting me see and know them. This way, we will know how to pray and how to reach them. I feel like I hold all of them at the same time in my heart like a mother and my heart just aches for them to know Jesus and to be free.