Yesterday started a little different than my regular Tuesday. It was the morning after a rainy day in the city which generally results in a beautiful skyline as the smog clears, the streets are cleaned and the foliage is drunk with being over hydrated. My time on campus was incredible as Micheal Sylvester (USC AIA director) and I checked in on the teams working with Athletes in Action on our 1st Annual "Warm Clothing Drive for Skid Row." This initiative was actually begun by the head women's soccer coach after coming out to one of our homeless karaoke nights. He realized what a great need there was for warm clothing and blankets as the temperature begins to drop at night. He presented the clothing drive proposal at a coaches meeting last month and got every men's and women's team to sign on! The Lord works in mysterious ways- I am already taking trunk loads of clothing down to Skid Row...no complaints here!
After my morning on campus, I headed downtown to Skid Row. Tuesday is "early-outs" so we pick up the kids at the bus at 1:30 instead of 2:30. I have to admit that picking up the kids every afternoon is defiantly the highlight of my day. As the bus turns onto San Pedro from 5t St. you start seeing the little hands waving through the dark bus windows. Every now and then the rebels manage to stick a hand or face out the window before being reminded to sit down. As the bus pulls to a stop, their little bright faces are smiling SO big and their hands are waving frantically to be acknowledged. Row by row the bus driver lets the students off the bus. They carefully proceed down the stairs and run and jump into my arms. Some run and leap, others do a ran and slam, and some wait their turn to be greeted with a hug and kiss on the head. Each child greats in a way that lines up perfectly with their personality. As the hyper greetings wind down, the kids begin doing their inevitable "Miss, I gotta goooo" bathroom dances so we headed down the block to the big green doors that mark the portal to Central City Community Outreach.
On Tuesdays, the 'event of the evening' is Inner-City Arts. Inner-City Arts is dedicated to bringing the best of creative experiences to the thousands of children who live in the downtown area, and attend public schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Working with LAUSD and community partners, Inner-City Arts offers programs during the instructional school day as well as after school serving over 8,000 children from 55 area elementary, middle and high schools. While Inner City Arts is relatively close to our program, walking the kids would take half an hour. Because of our need for motorized transportation, the volunteers and myself each load up our cars and drive the kids.
On this particular Tuesday, I had the pleasure of driving 5 of the 2nd graders in my little Honda Civic. We skipped, jumped over cracks and played the "guess which car is my car" game all the way to my car-very creative, i know :-) We all loaded in and headed off for our destination! As I pulled up to Inner City Arts, Duriel leaned over and smacked the cross hanging from my rear view mirror asking, "Miss, is it true God Lives on that cross?" What an innocent but beautiful question!
Duriel's question sparked a greatest Q & A I have ever experienced. They asked questions like 'why did God make the devil'- 'why did God send the devil to hell'- 'how is God with us if He is in the sky'...these are 7 and 8 years olds! I felt so blessed by the way the Lord granted me the 2nd grade vocabulary to teach them the Gospel. One of the final questions was 'how do I go to heaven'- and 'where do all the bad people go?' I gave them a 2nd grade variation of "If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved." (Romans 10:9-10).
After answering their questions (to God be the glory) I asked them if they believed in God and wanted to be able to go to heaven to be with Him forever. I received a resounding YES! So, naturally, I lead them through a prayer to invite the Lord into their hearts, asked the the Lord be with them and grow them the rest of their lived, and to proclaim their faith and desire to rely on the Lord. Not only was this moment beautiful, but it lead to each one of the kids wanting to say a little prayer of their own! Their prayers included:
-thank you God for my family, for the universe, for all the people, for my brother/sister/ mom/dad, for the mission, help all the homeless peoples to find homes, thank you for Say YES (CCCO), thank you for coming into our hearts, God please help the good people go to heaven and the bad people to become good so they can go to heaven too (I kid you not!), we want to be with you forever, we want to be with you in heaven so we can play with you and be happy forever, etc...
Sweet Jesus, thank you thank you for these 10 minutes! I will never forget this moment for as long as I live. The day that 5 of my 2nd graders prayed to accept Christ! Please be praying for them and all of us at central city community outreach!!! GOD BLESS!
PS. The pictures are from today's ice skating trip! SOOOO MUCH FUN!!
