Since I've been in town around 10 days out of the last 40 or so I've not had a lot of time to make any posts. So I will reflect a little bit on those past 40 days. They began with me finding out that one of my more ornery high schoolers had commited armed robbery and was sittting in jail. Yay.
After a fun time of calling county jails and police officers I know, and getting the run around by the kid's mom, I realized that I was not going to be able to go visit him in jail. Which was frustrating. Even more frustrating was finding out later that he was literally sitting in jail for stealing $20 from someone.
The next week as my interns and I began to get our high schoolers together to prepare for our mission trip to Tulsa; I heard more bad news. One of our favorite people at Impact, Ashley Cooks, had suddenly died at age 25. Ashley was the sweetest and most kindest person you'd ever meet, she was an intern when many of my kids were in our VBS program, and adored by them all. I remembered being at her graduation party just the year before where we celebrated her getting her criminal justice degree and her new job at the jail. Needless to say, times were not happy around Impact.
But a surprise came ou
t of nowhere for me! My sweet Vicky who I have had since my first summer as a middle school intern came up to me and asked if I could get a hold of Wes, our old middle school minister, to baptize her! I was excited to her my mija say this. I call her my mija, because she's like my little daughter sometimes, but apparently we're brother and sister now since Wes is like our adopted Houston dad, but it's a Spanish word I don't know.
t of nowhere for me! My sweet Vicky who I have had since my first summer as a middle school intern came up to me and asked if I could get a hold of Wes, our old middle school minister, to baptize her! I was excited to her my mija say this. I call her my mija, because she's like my little daughter sometimes, but apparently we're brother and sister now since Wes is like our adopted Houston dad, but it's a Spanish word I don't know. Nevertheless, I got Wes and he came and baptized Vicky the Sunday before we left for Mission Trip. Which was perfect timing because almost right out of the water, we're taking her to a place where she can serve others and live out her faith. It's moments like these that keep me going in this job.
There may be times when things are just heart-wrenching and sad, but there's nothing better than seeing one of my kids put on Christ. It makes it even better to get a hug and to be told that you made a difference in someone's life.
Grace and Peace,
John
