Poverty can be a huge factor for whether or not someone will be educated and learn a lot but does not impede on their ability to be educated and learn. Opportunity is huge and I grew up with much of it, which made me think it was normal for everyone to have the same opportunities as me. Not true.
Living here for just over 6 months, I've learned some new words and phrases that I've never heard of before. "Put it up," means to put something away. "Can I hold this?" is asking to borrow something. "Where do you stay?" replaces where do you live since people often sleep wherever the closest friend is. The house is a place to sleep, not really a place to stay all day. At church, we sang a song called, "Can't Nobody Do Me Like Jesus." Another double negative but I still sang out with all the joy that the Lord gave me. There's something about gospel music that gets me excited. Maybe I will do a future blog just about the music here. This past week has been a great time to just rest in Him and claim the salvation that Jesus gave me. One thing I've been learning about what Jesus did on the cross is that not only did His blood take away the penalty of my sins, thus justification for my sins, but His blood also took away the power of sin, thus sanctification (or making us more like Jesus). Through faith in Christ, He becomes our representative to the Father saying, "It's all good. Andrew deserves hell, but I already paid the punishment for his past, present, and future sins. He's clean." Can't nobody else in history take away my sins but the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Last night, we got to go see the Harlem Globetrotters play. I know a guy who knows a guy that plays for the team. We also got to take three of our students with us. Emery, Alex, and Diallo. We got to sit in the front row! Alex kept asking players, workers, anybody if he could get a basketball. They were selling them for $25 and he admitted multiple times that he wanted to steal one. He even hopped over the ledge a couple of times when he saw other kids getting the chance the dribble their newly bought basketballs in a dribbling area off the court. "Why do these kids get to have a ball when I want one more than anyone?" I'm sure it's frustrating to see people with privilege that have the same ability and capacity to grow as you, maybe even less than you. Diallo loved everything. He doesn't get to leave his house much so he admitted to being scared of all the people in the stands. Big Easy, huge Globetrotter, came over to their row and gave them high fives. Diallo held onto his huge hands for as long as he could. He was touching someone "famous". He was super excited at all the gimmicks and dunks. Emery is shy and was mostly scared that the players would pick him in the stands to go on the court with them. He didn't get picked and I'm sure that allowed him to enjoy himself. Please pray that God would reveal himself to these three boys in ways that make them want to live for Him and invest back into the Brentwood community 10 or 15 years down the road. They had so much imagination and potential for great things. I can't wait to see how they grow from when he first started working with them.
The weather has gotten back up to the 80's. The next three weeks will be crazy. Three consecutive spring break groups from Northwestern College in Iowa, Tampa Florida, and Kent State in Ohio. Please pray that they would be a blessing to the schools, community, and the ministry. I'm super pumped and anxious to engage with people I've never met. It's been getting kind of lonely at the Green House, my home, with just me and one other person living there. I'm super pumped and anxious. Rejoice in the Lord for he made today. You are alive because of Him. Why not thank him?
(Diallo, me, Emery, Alex, and Papa Glen at the Globetrotters game. We got to move up closer after this. I look just as excited as the kids. I was.)
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