Dear people of Baltimore..

Dear people of Baltimore,

I am sorry for the loss of your citizen, Freddy Gray.  I am so sorry of the way you lost him. 

Dear family of Freddy Gray,

I am at loss for words for the loss of your son, brother, nephew, cousin, and grandson.  I cannot imagine what you are going through not only with having your son pass away, but more so the form in which he has gone.  I pray that God would give you strength, wisdom, patience and especially love.  I pray that as you continue your life, you would use this event to impact your city. 

Dear churches of Baltimore,

My prayer for you, is that you be wise about how you will/won't participate in these protests.  I pray that you would educate your congregations and your immediate communities on how to react, participate and speak of these types of events.  I pray that through you, the city of Baltimore would see a light- whether it be the police force of Baltimore or the violent protestors.  Please take time out of your schedule to embrace and speak to the violent protestors. 

Dear peaceful protestors,

Thank you for what you are doing.  Thank you for proving the media wrong.  On the other hand, I am so sorry that you are not getting any media coverage.  As always, the media only portrays what they want.  I pray that this would not discourage you, but rather continue your peaceful protests.  I saw a picture of a lady stopping another lady from beating on a police car.  To that lady, thank you.  To the men and women that are doing things like that, thank you. 

Dear violent protestors,

I understand you are frustrated, I understand.  I understand that you want justice to be served.  I understand that you are sick of these events.  I understand all of this.  And although I cannot directly relate to your pain, I just want you to think.. Through all of the destruction that is going on in your city- breaking into businesses, stealing all the inventory of stores, throwing rocks and stones at the police, setting cars on fire, breaking cars, etc., etc.; what good does that do for your city?  THAT IS YOUR CITY.  You are destroying YOUR CITY.  My prayer for you, is that you would not destroy your city.  This is your home.  I understand that these cities need work.  I understand that these cases can strike a huge cord in your hearts.  But I pray that you would find a better and less destructive way to express your frustration.  I know that there are many talented people in Baltimore.  If you get a chance to listen to Ray Lewis' message to the people of Baltimore, do it. 

Dear Baltimore gangs,

Thank you. Thank you for coming together to unite for this common good.  I watched a video of about 10 guys talking about how the media portrayed your pact (to not fight each other) to go against the police.  I am sorry that this is the case, but thank you for fighting to make your voice known.  I heard a man say, "Black men stand together", or something like that.  It gave me happiness to know that you are continually striving to prove the media wrong.  My prayer for you, is that you would take this and as time progresses that you use your influence in the communities to re-build it. 

Dear Baltimore Police Department,

For those of you who know your heart is in the right place, for those of you who are hurt and angry by this, for those of you who are sick of police forces getting a bad rep because of wrong actions taken by people who are abusing their power- thank you.  I hope that you would be able to hold your team/section/partners accountable to stick to true law enforcement, not abuse.  For those of you good police, I am sorry that you are not getting any media coverage.  Please keep what you are doing.  I know that now your job is not only to "protect the city" but also to try to rebuild the reputation of your job. I pray that you would be able to show Baltimore that there is still good in the police departments across the nation, not all police will take advantage of their power. 

For those of you who are angry at this, but only because you're sick of hearing people talk about this- why?  I may not know all the details and every second of what happened on that car ride, but you if everything I have seen/heard is true- Why would you take the life of a man?  I understand that your job is hard, and sometimes you need to take action.  However, the purpose of the police academy is to train you to think of how to take action.  The first option is never to shoot.  I pray that you would be convicted of your actions.  But not only your actions, your hearts.  Whether or not you directly participated in this, and you feel defensive, I pray that your hearts would be changed, that you would come to repentance. 

Valentine's Day Weekend

Well, here comes my mushy post about loveeeeeeeee and Valentine's Dayyyyy. 
Are you ready for it?
Because it's really mushy. 
Like REALLY mushy.

This past weekend was one of the best Valentine's Day weekends EVER. 
(Ohkay, the joke can't continue. I can't think of another way to make this sound like an a "cutesy 'with the bae'" post... So, from here on out, this post will be mushy, maybe, but you'll see that it really has nothing to do with boys.)

I just came back from winter camp with my NEW JOB. This was one of those weekends, where God just confirms that I am at the right place, doing what he has called me to do. So here we go..

Friday, as I was preparing some valentines we were surprise the girls with on Saturday, one girl came to ICI just to talk with me about some stuff she's been struggling with.  I got to help her think about how her actions affect everyone around her, and even tell her how they've affected me.  God gave me that opportunity to speak truth to her.  On the way to the camp, I just sat back and looked at all my girls, and just saw how beautiful they were- smiling, laughing, singing, joking around with each other, etc. Funny thing is, that word "beautiful" would mean so much this weekend.  

Saturday, was... woof. 
It was a cold... COLD COLD day, sledding and snow selfies, hot chocolate and "1,000 miles" covers. Oh! Me and my co-counselor also surprised the girls with personalized handmade/written valentines and chocolates But at night, God did some work in me, let me tell you.  
We had finished the night lesson and started the discussion groups.  We split up the guys and the girls.  I can't remember what the exact question was, but all of a sudden stories upon stories of heartbreak, and hurt, and horrible things were pouring out of these girls' hearts. 
"I just don't think I deserve love. All the bad things I've done, I just feel like I don't deserve love."
"I just don't understand how if God is so powerful, why couldn't he stop these things from happening to me? Instead, he just let it happen."

Even writing this is difficult.  I am just ANGRY at the things that these beautiful girls have gone through, the horrible things that have been said about it.  I remember one of the stories made me cry and start rocking back and forth a little because I was just angry at the horrible things she's gone through.  

However, there was something beautiful last night..
After the pouring out of stories, one of the girls was sitting outside on some steps (keep in mind that this was at WINTER camp, and it was about... oohh..... -15 degrees and she just had a sweater on).  I went and sat next to her and told her she needed to come inside, but she didn't want to.  I put my jacket around her and sat next to her.  A little bit before that, she had been talking to my "co-counselor" about some stuff. 
"Look, I don't know what you guys talked about in there, and I know you just want everyone to leave you alone and shut up, but let me just say one thing. What you did in the group, and what you said, that was so beautiful, so beautiful."
She went on to tell me how she has been living and trying to become more like Christ on her own (she became a Christian last year at summer camp).  I told her that we can barely do anything on our own, muchless the Christian life.. we can't do it on our own.  I told her that she needed to find a community, but then she said she couldn't because she doesn't trust people.  

As time went on, my co-counselor came out and put her jacket on me, but I gave it to the girl.  She resisted, but this time was about her.  I told her that she needed to pray that God would break down those walls and allow her to find community that would encourage her and build her up.  I also explained to her how living the Christian life isn't done on our own strength, we moment by moment need to pray that God would give us his strength.  

By this time, every sentence I said, I was shivering so much that I would bite my tongue with almost every word.  I say this, not to brag, or to show off or whatever, but because I want you to be there with me.  I want you to be able to imagine what that was like.  It was during that conversation that I was overwhelmed with worry, yet humbled that God would want to use me in these precious girls' lives.  Why did he pick me? I don't know... I feel like whenever I try to give advice or whatever, it's not as good as other leaders at ICI, so I almost shy away from opportunities like the ones I had this weekend.  I know that God places me in those situations and gives me the words he wants me to say, so I need not worry about "saying the right thing/saying the wrong thing", because the Holy Spirit is the one giving me the words to say.  

To my girls, if you're reading this, please never forget that God's love for you is perfect.  My prayer is that he would reveal himself to you, and that you would be able to feel his embrace and love, that he would give you the PEACE THAT SURPASSES ALLLLLLLLLL UNDERSTANDING. 
YOU. 
ARE. 
BEAUTIFUL.

Love, 

your onesie-wearing-leader.

 

Some Jokes Just Aren't Funny.

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