The Bridge trip April 2010

In April of 2010 I had the honor of going to “The Bridge” a youth center for boys ages 13-18 in Gadsden, Alabama. God shared with me His love for these trouble boys. Boys who come from a variety of backgrounds, monetarily, racially, and criminal pasts, and yet all of them are there because they have been listening to the enemy feed them lies about who they are and how they should behave, lies can only bring death and these lies entrapped them into pain and suffering and brokenness. That is why our main mission was to bring the love of God to them and love them where they are and prophesy over them who they really are, who God says they are, who He created them to be and to speak encouraging words over them.
There were three groups at the compound, divided up by the dorms where they lived and we had one meeting with each group on both Friday and Saturday. When we were told of the groups that we would get to share with, one in particular stood out to me, and I knew that was the group I wanted to minister to specifically, so I began to pray for them. I did get to minister to those boys more than the others without doing anything, the doors just opened that way. They were the ones that touched my heart the most, as I watched their hunger for the love of God and I watched them experience Him in beautiful ways.
Unlike the trip to New Mexico, I didn’t take the time to prepare and get a message, which is funny because I knew I was suppose to speak but I didn’t want to because I was afraid of speaking to these boys, afraid that what was inside me might not be relevant to a group of young men, which is quite silly of me to listen to that lie. Then we got there and were planning who was going to speak and Scott Thompson, our leader was taking volunteers and we needed one more speaker and nobody was volunteering. So he said something to the effect of who knows they are suppose to speak but is scared to do it, if your heart just started beating faster that’s you. I raised my hand and then because we have such an amazing culture of honor at school everyone cheered for me and I could feel their confidence in me and it gave me confidence. I did not hear what I was suppose to speak on from God until the next morning, the morning I was suppose to speak. I woke up early and spent time in His presence waiting to hear what He wanted me to share with them and I heard “Lead them into an encounter with me, I’ll do the rest.” So I led them into a meditation/vision and He showed up and it was just a beautiful time. It was the first time I had ever done that, and they really encountered Him!!!
We were the second team that our school had sent to The Bridge and some of the young men decided they wanted to get baptized after encountering the Fathers love with the first team and we got to be there to celebrate their baptisms. Six young men were baptized into the Kingdom of God on that Saturday. I watched as one of the boys family was there and one of the boys family was not, how the first boys family pulled the second boy in and prayed over him, blessing him and joining him into their family. It was such a beautiful picture of how the body of Christ is suppose to function together. The love and unity that was displayed on top of the beautiful time of celebration made the presence of Holy Spirit on these kids intensify! I can’t even describe it fully, but I could feel His joy and pride over them. He was pleased with them, these kids who had screwed up and ended up here instead of jail, and He was pleased with them, because they were His babies and His love covers their sin. Their sin was not enough to separate them from His love because He had already covered their sin in the blood of His Son, so absolutely nothing could separate them from His love. It makes me think of Romans 8 specifically this passage verses 28-39:
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It was His love that drew these young men to Him, His grace that covered them and taught them that they can be amazing despite their past, despite where they come from. His love that told them that they were born to be great and they can become the over comers and leaders that they were born to be. Some of these boys had never heard good things spoken about them, and probably never had anyone believe that they could be great and accomplish great things. Seeing them for who they really are on the inside and calling it out of them is so important in watching a person grow into the amazing person they truly are. We like to call this gold digging J because we are digging for the gold that is inside of them and we want to draw it out of them so they can see their worth and know who they are so when the battles come, their identity is not something that can be easily shaken.
When your identity is founded on who you are and who God is and who He created you to be, then when circumstances change and things look rough, your circumstances will not cause your identity to change, and you can be at peace in the middle of what appears to be a storm. That is what I am learning to do in my life, to find my identity in who God is and who He says I am and not in what I can accomplish or do. These boys and their stories and dreams are something I treasure and I look forward to returning to Bridge next year to meet new boys and start the process over again.