Disciple Now 2009

Johnny and I got invited this past weekend to be a part of a youth event that takes place once a year in an inner city church. The pastor of this church was my youth minister growing up. Yes, I am an inner-city kid. The church where I grew up was a "safe place" for me to be outside of my home. For other kids it was their only safe place, and I remember my youth pastor had to play the role of "Dad" for the majority of us as most of us came from broken homes where a father figure was non existent or just not there. I remember my youth minister showing up at my high school often times where I would run into him in the hallways. I knew he was checking in on his kids, or one of them was in trouble in the office. James Darby, I'll always be grateful to you for allowing us to be your kids and taking us under your wing!

My church was what you would call a multi-cultural church. I often have heard it said that Sunday Mornings is usually one of the most racially segregated times of the week. Well, not at my church it wasn't. You could walk in on any Sunday morning and find people of all different colors, and ethnicity's worshipping together under the same roof. It is such that it has even been recognized among Christian leaders for it's congregational makeup. My pastor even wrote a book about the struggles that our church went through to realize this dream of seeing all people come together to worship under the same roof. It was Awesome! I'am sure this is where my love of gospel music was rooted! ;) I still remember the church's mission statement...."WBC is God's multi-ethnic bridge that draws all people to Jesus Christ, who transforms them from unbelievers to missionaries." Here is a CNN article that highlighted my home church in Houston.

NEways, my then youth minister is now a pastor of a new church. He is carrying the same torch that my home church pastor carried as well! They invited Johnny and I to be a part of their Disciple Now weekend, where teenagers from all walks of life come and spend the entire weekend together in Bible Study, Worship and plain good ole' fun. What's a youth event without that! I had the privilege of leading a group of 8th and 9th grade girls and Johnny had 9th + 10th grade boys. Each group stayed in a host home for the weekend and traveled to and from the church in a van. At church we had large group worship and sermons and then followed the theme up with smaller bible lessons at the host homes. Sprinkled in were fun activities like a city wide scavenger hunt and group service project.

I think we got more out of this weekend that the kids. I saw my young self in most of them. They totally opened themselves up this weekend and allowed the Lord to do a work in them. It was a totally awesome sight to see! We saw so much redemption, forgiveness and repentance. We were so privileged to even be involved in being a part of holding their hands to meet the Lord for the first time! It was so exhilarating to say the least!

The fire they had or caught for Christ this weekend was contagious. And it reminded me that no matter how old we get or are that fire should never grow dim. Now if only I can have their energy! I had lots of catching up on sleep when I got home!

Below is a picture of our whole group and then our smaller group. If your wondering about the club. Well let's just say my group of girls had a few tricks up their sleeve and locked Johnny's boys van's steering wheel during the timed scavenger hunt. Oh yah! Those girls rocked! We got a good head start on them boys! The whole weekend was full of pranks! We'll just keep it at that. I won't say who took the gold for best prank!