At the end of May, I left for the city, and when I found the house and pulled into the driveway, I saw around 25 teenagers and little kids from the surrounding blocks playing basketball and hanging out in the backyard. I immediately knew it was going to be a great summer and God affirmed my decision from the beginning. The burden of going to houses or creating ways to meet these teens was nonexistent; God used a basketball court and the welcoming atmosphere Steve and Chris provided to make their house the neighborhood hangout shortly after they moved there. Relationship building was among the most vital and rewarding aspects of the summer, and God provided a natural means through which to act.
The first few weeks of summer involved a good deal of planning and praying as we sought to find ways to reach the teens and children in the community. We expanded upon Paxton Play Days, a free summer program for 5th grade-and-under children, by making it two days per week for 5 hours, including a lunch with each program, and planned weekly field trips. For the teenagers, we planned weekly outreach events that included a devotion that challenged them to consider the meaning of the gospel for their lives.
Paxton Play Days turned out to be the most work throughout the summer. Each one involved a good deal of preparation, and the Paxton Play Days themselves could be exhausting; 35 children do have the ability to consume your energy. Fortunately, we had several youth groups from churches in Kansas, Missouri, and central Illinois and Chicago volunteer at Paxton Play Days throughout the summer as part of inner city mission trips. Despite the work involved, the fun and rewarding experience of Paxton Play Days was completely worth it. Through the program, we got to know so many of the children in the neighborhood, and show them love. We were able to be lights in their lives, and be examples of living for Jesus. The seeds planted through Paxton Play Days will undoubtedly come to life over the next several years, and I look forward to seeing how God uses and expands the program in future summers.
Our teen ministry started off with a plan to do weekly Bible studies, but most of the teens were uninterested, and quite simply did not have a hunger for the Word at this stage in their spiritual lives. Therefore, we decided to hold weekly outreach and social events, and include a challenge or devotion, with the objective of getting more teens involved and hopefully doing Bible studies at a later time. We watched movies, played water games, went on a scavenger hunt, went to a White Sox game, and held a basketball tournament and ropes competition (which drew around 75 teenagers). These youth group meetings were a vehicle to building relationships, sharing the gospel, and defying the notion that anything involved with church would be boring.
Early in the summer, I read a quote from Jim Wallis� Faith Works, in which a drug dealer in Boston was giving advice to a group of young pastors who wanted to win the streets back from the influence of gangs, drugs, and violence. The drug dealer said, �When the kids get out of school, we�re there and you�re not. When momma sends Johnny out for a loaf of bread, we�re there and you�re not. All night long, we�re there and you�re not�so we win and you lose. It�s as simple as that.� I saw the truth to that throughout the summer, especially among the males. The men they looked up to�the role models�were the guys who had money and were involved in gangs. Being a light in the darkness took on more significance for me, as I saw the way the children and teens in the community clung onto any love we would show them, and we were able to provide an alternative and show them something better for their lives: Jesus.
This summer, I got to meet so many people and share God�s love and have conversations with these teenagers about what success really is and what mattered in life, and talk about Jesus and plant seeds, and work on building a foundation for future summers. I am incredibly excited to see what God is going to do in that Chicago community. I learned a lot about myself, other people, and God. Like I said before, having God use me unlike He�s used me before was exhilarating and rewarding. When Jesus says �I�ll give you life, and give it to the full,� I relate to that most in the times when God uses me to achieve His will. The Creator of the Universe wants to use us, despite our faults and shortcomings, to accomplish His goals, and that�s awesome.
I have two or three years left of college, and after that I will go into civil engineering, and in many ways, my future is open to how God is going to use me, and I�m open to where He leads me. But through school, through my job, and beyond, I know I want to be living for Jesus and serving God in ways that stretch my faith and allow Him to make His glory apparent and undeniable. Our faith is not a means to escape the problems of the world, but gives us what we need to solve them, and allowing God to use me in this world in a capacity beyond what I could do myself is completely enlivening, and this summer made me want even more of those experiences.
- Alex Warren Pence
(Semptember 2002)