Thank you to leaders...

We're doing something a little different at Teen Haven Camp this weekend.

Usually during the school year, camp runs a 3-1 schedule. 3 weeks of Teen Haven Camp - kids from Philadelphia, York, and Lancaster come to camp and Teen Haven staff run the program; and 1 week of an outside church rental - church runs their own program and Teen Haven staff provide background support (facilities, meals, etc).

During the "Teen Haven Camp" weekends, anywhere from 5-15 teenage leaders from our city ministries serve various roles to make the camp run smoothly, and to minister to the campers. The teens serve as cabin supervisors, junior counselors, kitchen staff, and occasionally maintenance assistants.

By the time a young teen with leadership potential is 16 years old, they may be done with their years of being "just a camper."

Well, this weekend is just for those special teens who have given of themselves to serve God, to serve Teen Haven, and to serve other youth from their communities. This weekend is a special leaders retreat. No campers to watch, no scheduled activities to supervise, not even any training seminars or workshops to make them better leaders. Just a weekend of fun and fellowship. A weekend of "Thank you for giving of yourselves to help others."

Please pray that all the teen leaders who attend this "Thank you" weekend will have a safe, restful, and fun weekend at Teen Haven Camp.

Our ministry would not be the same without their selfless service.

-Jack Crowley, Teen Haven

Where there is a will...

Sometimes We need to think outside of our normal programs in order tomeet the needs of those God brings our ways. Here is another example of with from our Teen Haven ministry in Philadelphia:

Last month three girls finally attended camp from the Hill family. For months they were trying to come to camp but other church activities the children were involved in forced them to cancel.

After attending in January the girls had a great time and went back and shared with their parents. The girls were really interested in attending our Bible Study on Tuesday nights, but they lived outside of our normal boundaries. After talking with their mother about different options, and trying to make it work, we concluded that the girls would not be arriving home until well after 10pm which would not work for a school night. Needless to say, the girls, their mom and I were all disappointed.

Their mother was still determined. She is concerned that their youth group is more focused on games and social time and isn't helping the girls to grow spiritually. I offered to mail four quiet-time books and four notebooks to her and her girls that they would be able to be doing what we do at Bible study. She was so excited that she said she would pay for the postage by sending in a donation. I also suggested that I would be willing to come to her home once a month with some girls from Bible study and do a lesson with her and her girls and have the leaders check her girls quiet-times. She thought that would be great and said she would provide lunch for us.

We are excited for the start of this new relationship and for the ooportunities to connect not only with this family, but even their church as well. God is making a way even outside of our normal way of doing things.

-Oddet Mears, Teen Haven Philly

Superman, Batman... or Jesus?

So, who's your favorite superhero?

As a kid I always liked Spiderman and the Incredible Hulk. Maybe you're a Superman fan, or Batman, or maybe you were into the more obscure superheroes like Green Lantern, Captain America, or Dwight Howard (you NBA dunk contest fans know what I'm talking about).

Nikki, one of our Wonder Club teachers, recently shared with me a great story about the new superhero that is capturing the imagination of her pre-kindergarten students:

During free play time at school one day, two of her students ended up sitting a table having a pretty intense discussion...

"So, who is your favorite superhero?"

"My favorite superhero is Jesus!"

"Really, Jesus is my favorite superhero, too!"

"No way, are you on Jesus' team, too?"

Superheroes can be great role models for young kids, they can teach us about character, justice, and courage. How exciting to see these 4 year-olds recognize a role model even greater than Superman.

Staying connected

Working in youth ministry anywhere can sometimes be bitter sweet: you invest and care deeply for a teen, watch them grow, and then either they graduate and slowly drift away or they move and it is hard to know whether all you taught them and all that God has shown them really stuck. This can be especially true in the city where transiency and sudden changes in life circumstances are the norm rather than the exception.

This uncertainty of urban ministry makes it especially sweet when we are able to stay in touch and watch God continue to work in the life of a former Teen Haven "kid."

Once a week I get a phone call from EC (pronounced "Eee See"). Believe it or not, that is the actual name on his birth certificate. EC is 20 years old and is attending school at York Technical Institute. He will be graduating this summer and there might be wedding bells following that.

He calls me and often we will chat about scripture and what he is learning. Right now he is going through 1&2 Corinthians. We recently spoke about the headship of Jesus Christ in our lives and being a man of prayer.

What an encouragement to know God has built up our friendship based on the God of the Bible.

-Alex, York Teen Haven

Ministering grace to one another...

One of the blessings of working at WSRM is the staff realizes that we are just one of the venues through which God might choose to work in the lives of those he brings here. He works just as often through fellow residents to minister to those who need to feel his touch. A slice of life at WSRM from 2007:

We had a very interesting chapel this morning. I was sharing excerpts from Philip Yancey's book "What's So Amazing About Grace?". We started out talking about what we think grace is, where it comes from, what to do with it, etc... moved into things that prevent us from either accepting grace or showing it to others. For example, we spent quite a bit of time talking about a Ben Franklin quote about pride, and then went into guilt and shame, in relation to how these effect our ability to show grace.

I read a quote in the book that talks about "the three common sources of crippling shame", which are: secular society, a graceless church, and unaccepting parents. I said that I knew I had been affected by all of these and asked if anyone else felt that they had. Many hands went up at that point, but as they went back down, Stewart's hand stayed up. I said "go ahead" and as he started to speak, he completely broke down sobbing and shaking.

Some of the guys were encouraging him and one got up and put his arm around him and brought him some kleenex. Jerry (another gentleman in our program) jumped up and asked if we could come around Stewart and pray for him, which we did for some time. As we debriefed after chapel, it came out that Stewart is dealing with some very heavy stuff from his childhood and struggling with the idea that he can be forgiven.

-Scooter, Director of Operations

Systems and Relationships

I have been thinking recently about relationships and helping someone who is homeless. Specifically, I have been thinking about relationship and systems. I think humans are pretty good at designing systems, including systems to help people. In my world of caring for homeless individuals we call them “continuum of care systems” or “the social service system” or the “health system”. I am proud of some great systems of care that our community has developed to help people in need. There are people and processes ready to help where needed.

I was wondering though what role relationships have in the success of those great systems? In working with homeless individuals, relationships of trust are incredibly important. It is not unlike the relationship of a business with a customer. Without the trust of its customers, a business will not succeed. Without trust an individual—a homeless person—may not choose to access available services simply because they don’t know and therefore don’t trust the people in the system. All the great intentions and best systems fail if not interwoven with relationships of trust.

I think we need to regularly guard against allowing really good systems of care to push out relationship. Relationships can be hard work. Creating and managing systems often seems easier and, to be honest, it is. I think the key variable is that in a relationship we don’t have as much control over the outcomes.

I think when we value the system more than the relationship, caseworkers get weary. The daily work becomes managing the system instead of helping the person. When we push relationship out of the provision of care, a homeless person becomes discouraged, disillusioned and even more frustrated with life. I know this because, ashamedly, there are times I catch myself focusing more on ‘systems of care’ than on the people for whom they are designed to care. I must remind myself that systems without relationships are simply inhumane.

-Jere Shertzer, WSRM President

God at work (in big and small ways)

It is incredible what God can do in a minute, in a day, in a month. The Lydia Center is Water Street Rescue Mission’s long-term recovery program for women. The following stories are examples of some of the things God has been doing there recently!

--The staff had been praying that God would provide workbooks for Beth Moore’s study Breaking Free as well as volunteers to lead the study with the ladies. God provided both!

--One lady who enrolled in the Lydia Center was not engaging in the program for the first 3 weeks of her commitment. She seemed shut down emotionally. She didn’t feel she really needed all the program had to offer. Finally after several weeks, she has shown a willingness to look inside at what’s going on in her heart. She has been honest about her heart struggles. She shows a willingness to receive input from others. She loves to worship the Lord, and she talks about wanting to do things that please Him.

--In the last few weeks, another client has really come out of her shell. We have seen her looking happier, engaging more in the community, and taking more responsibility for herself. She is more conversational, enjoys the company of others, and allows her true colors to show. God has brought this dear woman a long way in her view of herself and what she offers to others!

Perfection - this side of heaven

I used to believe that work in a Christian organization would be a bit like heaven – no tension, problems, or disagreements. I no longer operate under this delusion. I’ve come to see that any association comprised of flawed people can never approximate the perfection of a future paradise. An organization conceived, constructed, and controlled by men is destined to be characterized by relational rifts and conflict.

And this is to be expected. Sin is alive and well and saturates everyone’s heart.

I also see something else that contributes to the persistent capacity we have to hurt and sin against each other. Everyone with whom I work is insanely passionate about what they are doing! I can think of no one who works here simply because ‘it’s a job!’ Each of my colleagues is deeply zealous about what he or she does. Each believes they are ‘called’ to minister here. And each is striving to make Jesus the Lord of every aspect of his or her life, to not compartmentalize. So when conflict happens it feels like a personal attack and it really hurts! Disagreement, though actually inevitable, feels so personal because it threatens the essence of ‘what I do, how I think, and who I am.’

Where does this leave us? Are we to walk in fear of messing up? Are we to be consumed with making sure we stay in the lines as we color? Is inoffensiveness our ultimate goal? Are we to walk on eggshells with each other and withhold what we think or who we really are in order to maintain the peace? I’m not exactly sure about all of this but am reminded of something Martin Luther wrote in a letter to his friend, Philipp Melanchthon. Luther was quoted by others after his death as saying, ‘if you sin, sin boldly.’

Here is some of the context around what he really said:

If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. If the mercy is true, you must therefore bear the true, not an imaginary sin. God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides. We, however, are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where justice will reign (2. Peter 3:13). It suffices that through God's glory we have recognized the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. No sin can separate us from Him, even if we were to kill or commit adultery thousands of times each day. Do you think such an exalted Lamb paid merely a small price with a meager sacrifice for our sins? Pray hard for you are quite a sinner.

Another explains Luther’s comments this way:

“Luther was making the point to Philip Melancthon that God's grace calls us to live boldly. If you are going to do something do it with confidence. Know that if you screw it up, God's grace and forgiveness is mightier than your efforts to screw up. No he is not calling us to go out and sin to get grace flowing (though he has said that if you cannot find a sin in your life go and commit some small sin so you can know that you are a sinner); he is saying that we are not going to get thrown away by sinning. Go out and proclaim God with confidence... you are a sinner but God is not ever going to be outdone in His ability to forgive a sin.

Think of this analogy ... if you are in high school on the football team and the coach tells you that if you make one mistake he is yanking you out of the game for the duration, then you are not going to play good ball because you will be too worried about making a mistake. But if the coach tells you to go out and play as hard as you can, to give it all on the field, and not to worry about getting yanked, then you will play a much better ball game because you are free to go out and play without worrying about mistakes. Go and sin boldly, live boldly is the same thing.”
So when you’re in the game, play as hard as you can. As a coach always says, ‘don’t leave anything on the field!’ Press onward!

-Steve Brubaker, Residential Ministries

Joy in the flood

Urban ministry is not always fine dining and caviar (oops, is it ever) or even a bed of roses - sometimes it smells a bit different. The story below is from Alex Mikusow, our York Teen Haven Field Director who lives in our TH Center in the city of York:

Last summer my basement flooded due too a raw sewage backup of the city sewer. Because I'm the lowest point on the block I had about 20 inches of water in my basement. It wasn't pleasant or joyous.

But then the Lord sent his saints to my rescue and encouragement.

Daniel, my next door neighbor who attends my Bible study and is a cabin supervisor at our camp, came over to help. My brother Vinny, our camp director, also arrived with bleach, brooms and brushes to help me out. By the end of the evening the city came and helped pump out what they could as well. They were also able to unclog the blockage.

But the real joy was remembering what James said, "Count it all joy when you encounter various trials, knowing that the trying of your faith produces patience". My brothers in Christ helped me to remember what I already knew.

-Alex