Fruit is Coming!

            Some of the girls who come to the Drop-In-Center and some of the leaders making cupcakes
                                                   
Each Friday night is a time of satisfaction and joy for me.  It didn't always used to be that way however.

Every Friday night I go to the church to mostly observe (although the leaders have asked me to do some teaching for a few weeks) the Drop-In-Center we call “The Seed” or “La Semilla” in Spanish.  This is a ministry that we founded a few years ago.  Its purpose was to reach out to the teens of a nearby shanty town who wouldn't otherwise come to church.  My vision in this ministry was (and still is) to pour into the more mature youth in our church and train them to lead this ministry, which they are now doing.  Those first months after we started, really that first year, had its share of bumps along the road.  The youth who were running it weren’t very faithful in showing up and taking much leadership and the kids who came from the shanty town absolutely bounced off the walls!  Well times have changed!

We have mostly new leaders who are being much more faithful and responsible and the kids who come actually listen to what we have to say!  I have encouraged the leaders to focus on building relationships with these kids and that has been happening.  The female leaders will sometimes take the girls out for something to eat after the drop in centre or they plan an outing on another night of the week.  The male leaders just recently planned a night out at a local night-time soccer field for the boys.  They absolutely loved it!  Just this past Friday a mom of two of the female leaders came and began to train the girls in how to cut hair.  Her hope is to train them so that they might be able to earn some money in a respectable way and not end up on the streets selling themselves as so many in their circumstances do. 

I shared a short message from the word with the boys this past Friday and they were all attentive!  It was quite a shock for me!  This never used to be the case.  These boys are changing!  God is working in their hearts!  I have also seen a lot of maturity among the leaders of this ministry as they see that God is using them in the lives of these kids.  What a blessing for me to be a part of this and see how God is changing lives through this vision He gave me a few years ago. 

Thank-you for enabling us to be here to make a difference!