I Like Free Things

Later this week I and 14 students and interns will take off to the beautiful land of Colorado. There we will begin an adventure up a mountain with Wilderness Trek Expeditions, which is a Christian outfitting group that leads youth groups and such on trips like these. Before we can go on this trip we all must have physicals.

It's a tedious and trying time to get physicals set up for 15 people, but we make it work. The simplest solution I've found recently is to pick up who I need and head on over to the Walgreens Take Care Clinic. There is a lot of paperwork there, but they are usually quick. So I walk in last week to get mine out of the way, and something cool happens.

The conversation went about like this.

Me: Hi!

NP: Hi! Oh you're wearing an Impact shirt...

Me: Yeah. I'm a youth minister there.

NP: Oh cool, I used to go there and house interns in the summer until I moved away.

Me: Sweet! Well I've got some kids lined up out here for physicals. We're going on this trip to Colorado and we're required to have physicals.

Physical begins, blood pressure is being taken and then...

NP: You know I hate to make Impact pay for these. How bout I come up to Impact on Monday and do them for free?

Me: Really? Sweet!

So we got our physicals today, for free, saving us hundreds of dollars. I learned/remembered two things from this experience. 1. Always wear an Impact shirt when going places in Houston. 2. God is funny. This lady hasn't had a church home in a while, hasn't been connected to a Christian community since being laid off. Yet for some strange reason, I stroll through her door, and she offers to do something inconvenient for her, but nice for Impact on her day off, all because of my shirt.

Now as much as I tried today, I don't know if I convinced her to return to Impact. But I think a door has been opened and opportunity has presented itself and I have no doubt that God with work through this.

Please pray for us as we trave l8 hours to Colorado this weekend!

Grace and Peace,

John

I Never Want to Speak at a Graduation

Today, I went to a graduation, many of which I hate. They are boring, lame, and nobody really remembers what the speaker says. This one was different, I found myself at the graduation of one of my kids I had just gotten on to, and told couldn't come with us on Monday. I had every reason not to go, I certainly knew I wasn't going to enjoy it all that much. I was sure that it would be an awkward encounter seeing her and her family afterwards.

So I went. It was boring. It was different from what I'm used to. It was awkward seeing her afterwards. But something happened. It may have been my girlfriend whispering to her to tell her to say something to me. But I got a hug.

Sometimes, I feel like it's just easier to just write the difficult kids of mine, or to just avoid them and not do things with them. What would that teach them though? That when things get tough at all between us I'm just going to ditch them? NO! That would be the opposite of what I want to do. I wanna teach them all about forgiveness. That even though we screw up all the time Jesus does not ditch us. And as a person who seeks to pick up his cross and follow Jesus everyday, I must stick with my kids when they treat me terribly. Maybe, just maybe I can teach them a little more about forgiveness through the awkwardness I experience.