A few months ago I was just brainstorming as I was running through the projects. Tomorrow morning I'll meet Josh at Costco to get supplies, and tomorrow night my volunteer crew will start arriving in town.
It hasn't been completely smooth sailing, but God's hand has been pretty clearly on the plans from the beginning. When I proposed the idea of doing a Christian-Street-Outreach-style event up in the Bronx to Josh and Rich, they embraced the idea right away. "We can use it as a recruiting event for camp!" they said, and the brainstorming began. I know of a guy who coordinates spring break missions trips for college students, so I contacted him immediately to see if they could be our manpower. As I waited for his reply, I got more and more excited about the prospect.
And then I got his response. Though he thought it was a great idea and would love to help us out in the future, we were just too late in the game to pull it together for this year. Josh and I knew we couldn't pull it off with just the two of us, but I somehow couldn't let the idea go.
Two days later, I got an email from a girl named Rebekah from Tennessee. She'd seen my name on the Kids With A Promise website, and she emailed to ask if I might possibly know of any service projects she and a group of her college friends could do on their spring break. They were willing to do anything, she explained, but they were especially interested in doing something with urban youth-- if at all possible.
Oh, that's possible-- I thought, and I responded immediately.
Josh had the idea of holding it at a garden where he helps out periodically. But when he spoke to Mike, the man from his old church who runs the place, Mike pointed out that it might be chilly outside mid-March. So we got permission to hold our event in a school in the Bronx. But when we went up for one last meeting to finalize all the details, the first thing the woman said to us was, "Just so we're clear, you know you are not allowed to speak about 'Jesus' or 'God,' right? You can talk about peace, love, and hope-- everyone needs spirituality-- but nothing about Jesus." My heart sank. I told the woman we'd need to get back to her.
How do we tell these kids about peace and love and hope if we don't tell them about Jesus?-- I asked Josh-- We'd only be telling them part of the story, and that's not doing them any favors.
"Want to go see the garden I help with?" asked Josh, and we headed to the South Bronx to see a community garden there. Padre Plaza is awesome-- Josh's friend Mike has been working to renovate it and make it beautiful for a neighborhood that is not exactly known for its beauty or tranquility (to say the least). There is a stage on one end, and there is just enough open space for a group of kids to gather and play some games, sing some songs, and learn about Jesus. We called Mike to see if he had time to meet with us. He did, and within minutes, we were sitting in his living room explaining what had happened and why we were scrambling to find a new venue.
"Why did you tell me you didn't want to meet here in the first place?" he asked Josh.
"You told me it would be too cold."
Mike just shook his head.
"You gave up too easy, man. You gave up too easy. You see, the devil wants you to give up. He tells you that you can't do it, and that you may as well not even try. You may as well not even get out of bed. And when the devil tells you it's not worth getting out of bed, you have two choices-- you can pull the covers up over your head, or you can throw them off and jump out of bed with even more determination."
He looked at me quizzically. "So? Are you gonna talk about Jesus at this event?"
You betcha.
"Good. Then you can use it. Don't give up, you two. Don't let the devil tell you that you can't do this. It's like when the light turns yellow-- you can either slam on the brakes or step on the gas. So when the devil tells you it's not gonna work out, you can slam on the brakes or you can step on the gas. He'll be really unhappy if you step on the gas; but don't let him stop you."
I'm glad Mike reminded us of that, because I've been hearing those whispers of doubt and discouragement all week, but God keeps affirming our plans as we step on the gas.
And the weather? Well, the forecast says it'll be in the 60's all week, and even getting up to 70 on one of the days!
"That's not normal for March," people keep saying. And I just smile, because they're right. And it's just another reminder to me that Jesus is excited, too, that we're going to be telling children in the South Bronx about him next week.
