Back
in February, I was a leader on our
Reality
Check youth winter retreat up in Michigan.
It had snowed a lot that weekend and we took a bus load of Jr. and Sr. High
students up about four hours north of our church, Sugar Grove
Church. We had meals three times a day in a small
cafeteria type room with the kitchen, had nice hotel set-up rooms for the girls
and bunk style rooms for the guys. Worship, lesson, music was held numerous
times a day as well as small group time and break-out sessions each day. And of
course, they had free time a couple times each day which could include anything
from sleeping or talking to snow tubing or ice hockey or octaball. While I
enjoyed time sitting with the students during meals and getting involved in
their activities, I got to know some of my Jr. High girls better and met some
new students who didn’t come to youth group regularly and were friends of our
core church group.
As I was talking with one girl during a meal (we’ll call her Myah), I started
asking surface level questions to get to know her better. She always seemed to
have a smile on her face, was humble, yet assertive, befriended others, and
impressed me as confident in who she was. As Myah spoke, some of the answers
she gave sparked deeper questions from me for her to answer. She seemed to open
up to me pretty quickly and trusted me right away because she started to
explain where and how she lived now and how she grew up. I wasn’t prepared for
what she described next; a life no one should have to live. She portrayed a
life of not knowing where her next meal would come from, not knowing if her mom
would be home when she got there or out with a boyfriend or drinking, wearing
the same outgrown clothes for years, parties at her house, being taken
advantage of physically, moved from one place to another many times, living
with a friend for a few days without being missed, kidnapping the baby next
door and hiding to protect him from the harm of abusive adults around, and
numerous other stories she told.
But what struck me most and caught me most off guard was her response and
attitude to everything she had grown up with. Still dealing with being the
responsible one of her family (mom, brother, and herself), she said God had
saved her at a young age after she started walking a few blocks down the road
on her own to a local church. She didn’t understand everything it meant to be
saved; all she knew was that God was with her not matter what she faced. She
told of many people at school who were going through depression or difficult
home situations that she was able to encourage and be a friend to when it
seemed they had been abandoned. My heart completely broke for this girl…I
wanted to take Myah home with me and take care of her in a way she deserved. I
wanted to hug her and not let go.
I wished I had had more time to get to know her that weekend, but we kept in
contact via e-mail for awhile. We set up a date for me to take her out for a
nice dinner and to go shopping, both of which don’t happen often for her. I planned to pick her up at her uncle’s house on
a Tuesday evening. As I proceeded confirm plans, her e-mail account had been
shut down. Worried about what might have happened, I decided to show up at the
house in case she was waiting for me. When
I arrived, her uncle, brother, and others living in the run-down over-grown
house didn’t know where she was and were very reluctant to give details. They
did give me another phone number of where she could be, but when I called that
number they said, “She doesn’t live here” and they didn’t know where she would
be either. It was so strange to me and I felt even more helpless at that point.
I began to worry and then remembered, God knows where she’s at, God knows my
heart and the best thing I could do for her was pray. I continued to pray for
her, not knowing where she was at or what was going on.
A little over three months went by and I was attending a concert to hear one of
my friends play in their band. It was
held at a smaller church in my town. As I was standing there listening and
enjoying the band play and sing, I looked a couple rows in front of me and
there she was, Myah! I couldn’t believe it. It was the oddest thing, but I knew
it was an appointed time by God. It took
her a little while to turn around, as she was surrounded by friends, but when
she did, her eyes got real big, her jaw dropped to the ground, she stood there
in shock and then ran over to give me the biggest hug ever!! She exclaimed many
times over and over, “I didn’t think I was going to ever see you again!!” She
hugged me several times over and over. She introduced me to some of her friends.
I was going to pray with her, but her friends were around and were heading out.
Myah has taught me a lot. Despite the toughest of circumstances, she has loved
God and realized He hasn’t given up on her. She has chosen to see the blessings
in life. She made the most of her situation and reached out to those going
through the same thing. This brought up
some questions for me about how I live my life. How do I
respond He takes the bad and uses it for
good. Thank you Myah for reminding me of
that and giving me a glimpse of the attitude God wants me to have towards this
life He has blessed me with!
to life? How about the little things? I have a loving
family, friends, shelter, plenty of food, etc…yet, how do I respond when
something small goes wrong? Myah is a great example of the attitude God calls
us to have no matter what life throws at us. She also reminded me of all the
people right around me everyday that are going through hard times. I don’t have
to go overseas to find people who are in desperate need of God’s unconditional
love. I have opportunities all around me everyday to reach out to people
including those who are often overlooked and left behind even here in Elkhart County. God has called me to make a
difference in other people’s lives and He can use the rough waters of life to
help.
5
Your
attitude should be the same as that of
Christ Jesus:
6Who, being in very
nature God,
did not consider equality with God
something to be grasped,
7but made himself
nothing,
taking the very nature of a
servant,
being made in human likeness.
8And being found in
appearance as a man,
he
humbled
himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Philippians
2:5-8
(NIV)
