Belonging

So this past week I received something in the mail from my school from a "club" pursay that welcomes new students to the school, Welcome Week. Anyway, this past week I received a letter from one of the leaders of Welcome Week and I thought it should take up one of my blogs. I hope you enjoy.

Hey Fish leaders and Navigators
I hope you guys are having a very relaxing summer. please know that you are missed this summer here at PBA! Let me (Jon) begin by telling you about my summer. My summer has been packed full. I have been working in a new ministry called Revolution ministries which reaches out to Belle Glade. Belle Glade is about an hour from West palm Beach. It is one of the poorest cities in Florida and the nation. It has the highest occurrence of HIV/AIDS in America, while 7 out of 10 homes do not pass Health Inspections. I have been working with the youth in different ways doing service projects, youth groups and discipleship ministries. The one thing that bothers me is the sense of hopelessness these children have. One of the boys I disciple, age 13, had been absent for about 2 weeks, he came recently and i was catching up on what had been going on in his life. His father left their family with no source of income, and this teen joined a gang. He actually joined one of the worst gangs in town and I asked him why he wanted to be in a gang. His response was "I just wanted to feel like I belonged." Just like this boy, many of our students want to belong somewhere so they join the Cripps, the Bloods, or the True Haitian soldiers. We belong to the Body of Christ and we need to show that through our service. If we genuinely serve, we will add new members to the Body of Christ. I have seen a lot of students in this area come to know Christ.

Then Jon goes on with things about Welcome Week and how this pertains to welcome week, but the moral of me bringing this letter out there is the truth behind it. How I sometimes just want to belong and do things that I never dreamed of doing. Thank God I have never been put to that situation, but it makes me think on what kind of difference I can make if I just accept people for who they are and love them just like God loves us. Thanks Jon for your letter. I'm outs.