Blessed to Bless Others

We’re blessed and don’t know it, far too often.
What we don’t see or hear about, we don’t think about, but I heard a story this week about kids who have been in foster care who finally get too old to stay in the system, and they are simply …let go.
They move from lives of instability to even more instability, with no guidance, no sense of direction, nobody, really, to help them. They are expected to fit into a society they have never fit into.
Many of the young men, not surprisingly, end up in prison, and the women end up pregnant, also not surprising.
One young man being interviewed said he was trying to make it. He had gotten an apartment – apparently the state helps these kids for a while as long as they follow some specified rules – and he had tried to cook. He had never cooked before. The meal, he said, wasn’t too good.
When I hear stories like this, I think of all the ways the church can be working to serve the kingdom. It is good and all to do mission work overseas, but we have a lot of mission work we need to do on our own shores, in our own states and in our own cities and communities. Just like we need to reach out to African American kids who are gay and who find themselves ostracized from their families and churches, so also do we need to devise programs to help these foster kids who are basically set up to fail.
No wonder the world is so messed up. These kids represent “the least of these” that are thought of even less than other kids. The BREAD initiative this year is focusing on kids, youth and young adults. Surely, these young people qualify for our help.
In order to work with kids, an adult must undergo a background check and it costs $60. The church cannot afford to pay for it for you, but I would urge those of you who want to help us build our youth programs so that we can help kids who need us who have been blessed, to see Sis. Deneen Day or Dr. Judy Alston and make arrangements to get the check done. Members who want to tutor kids through the church need to get a background check as well.
We have too much work to do. Kids are crying out for help. If there is anything we can do, we need to do it. There is such a thing as the Cradle to Prison pipeline, and the School to Prison pipeline that are realities in our country. It grieves me that some kids, too many kids, are doomed before they get a good start.
If we do something, we need to, and soon.
Have a good week.
Pastor Smith