Sometimes, in order to be utilized by God, all we have to do is ask.
Pine Glenn is a housing project on Highway 80, next to Craig
Field. It was once busy and well-maintained housing for the military base
located there. Now, the backside of Pine Glenn is some of the most undesirable
housing in all of the Selma area. For 20 years, two ladies I look up to, Joy
Thompson and Caroline Anderson, have been ministering to the children of Pine
Glenn. They have had the help of many volunteers who committed time, energy,
and money to serving these children. Wednesday afternoons during the school
year, these inspiring followers of Christ would divide the children into
different age groups, share a Bible story, complete a craft, and provide a
snack to each child.
I began the weekly drive out to Pine Glenn on Wednesday
afternoons a few years ago. I quickly found a role of floater and enforcer. I
floated to whichever group needed an extra hand and I enforced the rules by
sometimes sending a child home before snack time. Almost a year and a half ago,
the building we held the meetings in was destroyed for the most part. The
inside was damaged so much by vandalism that there was no way we could afford
to fix it and take the risk of it being decimated again.
During the past month we have attempted to find a solution
to serve the community. A few weeks ago, our group met at the old building and
decided to go door-to-door and share with people what we were wanting to do out
there. Seeing as this is not the safest location in the world, someone asked
who would stay behind with our belongings and vehicles while everyone else
visited with people. Being by far the youngest and the manly bearded man that I
am, I volunteered as tribute. The others got in a truck and began to ride
around the neighborhood. Standing by my car, alone, and feeling useless, I
began to pray. My prayer went something like this, “Father, the workers are
here. We want to make a difference. We just don’t know what you want us to do.
If you could give us one person to talk to today, one person to hopefully bring
joy to, that would be great.” I couldn’t say “amen” in my head before I looked
up to see one person on the desolate street I was standing next to. The
larger-than-myself man was walking down the street toward me. I began a
conversation with myself, with God, asking, “Is this the person you wanted me
to talk to?” As he came closer, it was evident that whether he was the right
person or not, I was going to have an opportunity to talk to him. I walked
across the street and met him. He wanted to know if we were going to fix the
building and return to meeting weekly. We both agreed how disappointing it was
for someone to disrupt such a great ministry. I gave him our information about
the new meeting place and he said he would be glad to help “get the word out.”
He departed and I found myself praying, “Thank you Lord. How
bout one more?” Would you believe me if I told you that very moment a young boy
with a football walked around the corner and headed straight for me. I thought
there was no way this boy is going to walk all the way down this long street to
me. Oh, how wrong I was! Eight year old Jermaine walked straight up to me and
asked, “Are we meeting today?” We began a conversation, threw the football, and
shared a snack together.
Soon, a group of five kids came from the other side of the
block after talking with the others in the truck. I couldn’t stop them from
immediately going into the ransacked building. I didn’t think they needed to be
in there, but there wasn’t much I could do about it either. Finally, I asked
one of them what they were doing in there. One young boy proudly held up a
poster and said, “This is going on the wall in my room. It is the Ten
Commandments!” Another asked if he could have a Bible he found. Of course!
Continue your treasure hunt and show me how God can use the wreckage to love
His children.
"And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'" - Jesus (Matthew 25:40)
Jarvis showed up to walk through the building also. Jarvis
is well known to those of us that faithfully came on Wednesday afternoons. He
is well known for being kicked out at least once a month, sometimes more often.
It never failed that he came back the next week every single time. He is older
than the others and wandered throughout the building without picking up one
thing or saying a single word. After the others left, I had an opportunity to
speak with him. He told me about his love of football and how he hoped to go to
college and eventually make it to the NFL. If football didn’t work out, he
hoped to learn how to weld. No matter what, he wanted to never live in this
place again. He didn’t want to be like the other boys he saw each and every
day. He longed for a better life. It was refreshing and heart-breaking to hear
this perspective from a 13 year old boy. Then something happened that I never
expected. Jarvis said, “We could get it done a whole lot faster if y’all let us
help.” “Help with what?” I asked. “Help fix this building back up,” Jarvis
responded matter-of-factly. Wow! Here my self-absorbed self was looking for
someone that “I” could help. Thirteen year old, always getting kicked out
Jarvis was encouraging me more than he will ever know with his heart of wanting
to make a difference.
We still do not know what the future of Pine Glenn
Ministries will look like. We continue to ask God for guidance because we know
He has a plan for the community members there, just like He does for all of us.
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