Their faces...

Last night at our Champions Teen Program was a whirlwind. I felt like I spent the majority of the night confronting several teens about their recent behavior. It was much needed to prevent future problems, but I didn't get to spend the quality time with the kids that I so enjoy on these Friday nights. The whole night I was in the mode of disciplinarian and running around making sure there were no problems. When I leave the center on Friday nights, I always try to leave with a memory from the night. But last night, when I left, I was exhausted and didn't have a memory because it was such a whirlwind. But then I began to look at the pictures we took from the time with the kids and just seeing their faces caused the memories to flow.

There was Adrianne's face... who recently was suspended from the program for a month. When he returned last night, one of the volunteers and I spoke with him to let him know what we expected out of him. We told him that we want him to be a leader. If his behavior continued how it had been, we would have to suspend him indefinitely. He listened intently and we didn't have any of his usual problems that night. On my drive home, I flashed back to a memory from several years ago when I first found out his story. He lives with his aunt and cousins because his Mom is on drugs. I knew he had a bad home life, but tonight I remembered again and thanked God that he was still in our program. My prayer is that we will be able to continue to mentor him and teach him how to be a leader.

Then I saw Dante's face... he was recently in a fight when he left the center one night. I confronted him about this and asked him why he did it. He explained what happened with another boy and said, "I wanted to hit him while we were at the youth program (Champions), but I wanted to respect the rules of the center." I wanted to laugh at that moment, because I was thinking to myself, "At least he respects us, which is huge." We talked about why his behavior was not ok and that we expect more out of him. When I saw his face in the camera roll, I flashed back to the time when we were having the youth program outdoors in John DeShields. This boy's mother walked straight to the middle of the basketball court to where he was, began yelling at him, grabbed him and made a huge scene in front of all of the other teens. I was horribly embarrassed for him and I knew he was too. It all happened so fast. The following week, I asked him why that happened and he said it was because he didn't finish his chores at home. There were other things that I saw his mother do to her children and remembered last night... there's a reason that Dante has some violent behavior.

Then I saw the face of two sisters.... They've been coming for about two years and they're just barely starting to come around with an occasional smile or chatting a bit with a volunteer. Sometimes it's frustrating to see such slow progress when it comes to building relationships with these teens, but when you remember their stories, it always makes sense. The mother of these girls is in a homosexual relationship and they live on the side of the neighborhood everyone calls the "war zone." True to it's name, there is continual gun fire, drug deals and violence.

Their faces and the stories behind the face is what stirs the passion inside of us for these young people. They face unbelievable obstacles and rejection, yet they still going on with life. They are my heroes! It is our desire at the Dream Center, to provide a feeling of home for them, to bring a sense of stability and to show them the love of Christ by spending quality time with them.