I am sitting here watching the Blind Side with my youngest daughter and looking across the room at the sign she brought home from the last day of camp that reads, “our purpose we will find when deep friendship with God is yours and mine” This was the day one truth of the week long camp that my youngest attended.

I started out this week at camp with a sprained ankle and I ended it with a migraine. I bailed on clean up as I went to the vehicle to find a quiet place and close my eyes and try to keep from throwing up as I waited on the Motrin I got from the camp nurse to kick in. I usually spend camp jumping up and dancing and playing the games with the kids, along with helping the other leaders to make lunches and getting the snacks out… but this year I spent it sticking to lunches and snacks and slowly walking around and sitting. However, I still got my hugs, my high fives, my waves, and my big smiles.

Working with these kids does two things…  

One: it reminds me of how much I LOVE these kids and how much I love teaching them the Word of God and just flat out talking with them. I adore hearing Hey, Miss Nicole while two dirty arms wrap around me and one sweaty face buries in my side… and before I can get turned around here comes another and then before you know it, kids whom you have never met, have watched these others receive genuine affection from you, and so they come running up and taking their turn hoping to receive some for themselves… and I am thrilled to give it.

Two: it reminds me of how frustrating it is to know the lack of priority the majority of our churches put on reaching the kids in our community and serving them within the walls of our church. In the majority of churches this is the least paid staff member and usually the least time and effort has been put into choosing them. The majority of churches see this as problem that needs to be dealt with instead of a vital part of the ministry of the church that will be laying the foundations of the worldview of the ones who will in less than 20 years be their own leaders in the church and community. 

When I began as the Children’s Director at Shiloh, I also started working with a team of children’s ministry leaders and for the past several years our summer undertaking has been this Winshape Camp. This was actually the last Winshape camp that I will attend as the Children’s Ministry Director at Shiloh Baptist. I have to admit that not only has Winshape been great for the kids in our community, but having the opportunity to serve in the Children’s Ministry Exchange has been a blessing in itself. I have been honored to work with some of the most genuine and sincere ministry leaders that I have ever met. None trying to push their own agenda, all just seeking the best for the sake of the children in our community. I am thankful that in my resignation from Shiloh, they didn’t make me resign from the Children’s Ministry Exchange.

We are also working on beginning the ministry of FP Kids in our local schools. This is a ministry that will allow us to take the Word of God into the schools once a week in the early morning before school officially starts. We already have the high school program established in several of our local schools… however we want to begin equipping them earlier than high school and even earlier than junior high. FP Kids is set up to reach older elementary kids. 

If you are in the Morgan County area and you want FP Kids at your elementary school let us know! Larry Franks is the Children’s Pastor at Decatur Baptist, the current President of the Children’s Ministry Exchange. and he is the contact for Morgan County’s First Priority clubs. However, don’t just contact wanting FPKids to come, but contact ready to be a part of this ministry.

We need parents and teachers to step up and get involved because you will be able to not just share the love of Christ twenty minutes once a week, but you will be setting the stage to be a witness for the gospel, salt and light in the life of these kids, every day of the week for years to come. You will be the one dropping off and picking up every day. You will be the ones at the sporting events, working the concession stands, attending the robotics competitions… cheering these kids on in life.

I sit and I listen to these kids stories and if we who are in the church, we who are grounded in the faith, anchored in the hope of Christ, don’t make an effort to grab hold of these kids… I have no doubt that we will stand ashamed before our Savior one day.

We live in a day like one that has never been before. The majority of the kids in our schools have no security, no foundation, no authority, no safe place. They are neglected or abused at home, labeled at school, and kicked out of the church because they offend others by their mere existence and/or behavior.

Just yesterday I talked with a woman who works specifically with abused kids. Her and her husband were brought two boys, ages 7 and 11, from lower Alabama who were found living in a house with no front door, no glass in the windows, and no food in the fridge except some ketchup. Their mother was strung out on drugs and of course dad was no where to be found. These kids came to live with this family. The woman was telling the boys about going to church, and she asked if the boys had ever been, the youngest said, “Oh yeh, we went once and Bubba cussed out the preacher so they kicked us out and wouldn’t let us come back”

Kicked out. Two kids who desperately needed to know safety, security, and unconditional love… kicked out because they showed they were desperate sinners in need of a Savior. Two kids who desperately needed someone to throw an anchor of hope in their hearts and grab on to them and let their friendship sink deep in their souls so that they could see the grace and mercy and love of Christ and see that He is love and life and their future and hope. That there is someone who wouldn’t kick them out, abandon them, or despise them…

But it’s so much easier to just ignore them, or kick them out, or shield your own from them, rather than to try and reach, teach, and love them. It’s so much easier to live out our “Christianity” in the safety of our own determined conditions than to step out and actually apply our Sunday morning truths and walk in the power of the Spirit and extend grace and the gospel to the unknown in the great unknown.

I actually had a teacher tell me once that they like the idea of being a missionary in the schools, but they couldn’t share their faith in the school or they would lose their job. Yep, eternal souls verses your monthly paycheck… decisions, decisions.

Like I said in an earlier post… I have spent the last several years with my mouth dropped open and my mind saying, “What? Really?!?!?”

Behold, the rulers of Israel, each according to his power, have been in you for the purpose of shedding blood. They have treated father and mother lightly within you. The alien they have oppressed in your midst; the fatherless and the widow they have wronged in you. You have despised My holy things and profaned My sabbaths.

Ezekiel 22:6-8