First week

Week one blog entry

Well, week one of the Children at Risk School (CRS) is finished and it was an insightful week! Our speaker was Janna Moats who is the director of the Children’s Advocacy Centre (WCAC) in YWAM. The topic for this week was “why we are here, a frame work for action” and we looked at why each of us are taking this school, what the Bible says about the poor and needy and especially children.

I was quite amazed to see how much God has to say about children, the poor and needy in the Bible; I always knew that was important but when you line up a lot of those scriptures you realise just how serious God is about it and how much we are missing.

We also looked a lot at who we are (the students) our gifts, talents and desires. God made each of us the way He did on purpose and He has a unique plan for each of us. Again I know this sounds very simple and of course everyone knows this but there was some fresh revelation for me about who God made me to be and the skills He gave me to do it.

There were some good challenging teachings and discussions, some of which I am still working through, for example some of my misperceptions about poverty and developing countries. There are many people who say that evangelism is more important than mercy ministries, I didn’t think I believed that but now I am seeing that somewhere in the far reaches of my brain I did. When describing my ministry with the garibouts I always try and make sure I through in something about evangelising to the boys - why do I feel the need to include that? Would it not be just as needed and successful a ministry if I were just looking after their material and emotional needs? Looking at all the references to children, the poor and oppressed in the Bible they say to stand up for them, help them and look after them and not so much about evangelise them.

I am not trying to say one is more important than the other, both are necessary, but most of us do tend to lean one way or the other and it is interesting to flesh out how I really think about it and then to hold that up against what the Bible teaches.

I am looking forward to much more of this challenging teaching over the next couple of months.