an excursion.

Hi family.

Well today was an exciting day.
I was able to go with some of my friends, who are a part of a group that redeems island dances of the south pacific, to share with some "troubled youth" at a local center. it turned out to be all boys, which I was feeling a bit nervous about.
i wasn't sure what it was going to look like, but I felt like G*d was laying on my heart that whoever we shared with needed to know that they were not under the law, but under grace-that nothing could separate them from his love. while my incredibly talented friends danced their feet off we inter*eded for all that G*d wanted to come be released.
after the cru*ifixion Haka (a dance done by the Maori people of New Zealand) we had the chance to disperse and talk to the boys. all of us "visitors" needed to stay within arms length of each other and in partners. my partner was my friend from South Africa.
we headed for these two boys we had met briefly at the beginning. they warmed up to us quickly when we asked them how to properly shake hands and confusing me to no end by introducing themselves with the wrong names. they asked "yous guys all churchies?"... "yous (aussie plural for "you") always been churchies?"...and without much more my partner launched into his personal testimony of laughing at chris*ian people all his life and then to being high out of his mind and confused as ever and G*d meeting him then and there. little did we know we were talking to two boys fully addicted to crack and pot. they shared how it is just "too hard" to give up, but they really didn't want to screw up their lives. they shared dreams of wanting to be a mechanic and basketball player. and said they wanted to help each other get to that point. it turns out they were cousins.

in the end they saw from my buddy's story that they wanted to meet this G*d for themselves, as we likened meeting G*d to a drug high, you can't describe it, you just have to try him for yourself.

and our two friends pra*ed a committment to keep following J*sus from this day on.

the guy who got us "in" to meet this guys will follow up with them.

doesn't get much better than that, hey?