For some time Cheryl has had a real sense of urgency about seeking out and trying to disciple the group of young men that came forward in a church service way back in 2006. In case you don't remember the story, the Baptist Chapel youth group had come to Honduras on a short term mission. Toward the end of their visit we had an evangelistic service at one of the village churches. We invited Alexander, a former gang leader, to preach the sermon. At the end, when he began the altar call, there were only a few elderly villagers and some small children in the congregation; but when we looked up at the end of his prayer there were 23 young men lined up across the front of the church. They had been standing out in the dark listening to the whole thing. They had taken the first step, but we never really followed them up. It looks like God is giving us a second chance. First of all, we are now seeing it as a priority and are developing a plan to seek them out. Some time ago I provided a home fellowship group from First United Methodist with the names of the young men and they are praying. Then, over the weekend Ron and Donna Roberts brought by 10 copies of the Cross and the Switchblade to be handed out. Yesterday we received in the mail two DVDs from the Nicky Cruz ministry designed to reach young people. Finally, at our last medical clinic I met a young man who said he knows all of these guys. He, Eli Lara, will be our contact person. An obvious question might be “what is so important about this group of guys?” Part of the answer could be that several are involved in gangs and often times those are the young men who have qualities of leadership..
THOUGHT FOR TODAY: When I say, “The answer is yes”, I mean it’s both. Behavioral scientists have noted that when we take action and do what we know we should we come to feel more like doing it again.