Unforgettable

As I write this I find myself still trying to process what I witnessed first hand, just last night. This date of June 12 2010, this night will and should be forever etched into my puny little mind.
Last night I began to help a gentleman who has taken on the task and ministry of opening up our church gym to the local youth in the nearby neighborhoods. He opens the gym and allows those who want to play basketball with one main objective, to give a devotion and short bible study. The basketball and the air conditioned gym is the bait that gets them in to here a message from God’s word. From what I gather from this kind and humble man of God of what to expect on these Monday nights, is a variety of age groups. The primary age group he said, should be from the ages of late teens to early 20’s. Well it was just as he said. That was the primary age group that showed up. On my first night of assisting Mr. Vic he informed me that he would have to leave early and would leave things with me. I thought ,o.k., what a crash course this will be. You see, I thought somehow this was just going to be a bunch of small children and preteens running around and having a good time in the gym, with a short bible story squished in at the half way point. And the squished in bible study would be led by Mr. Vic, since he has been doing this for a couple of years now.
Well here I am, no Mr. Vic and not many small children running around. The small children consisted of my son who is eight and his friend. There was a couple of preteens who attend our Wednesday night youth group who live in the same neighborhood as the young adults who were there last night. As Mr. Vic was leaving he came back in and said there were several young people walking across the parking lot of our church. So, we went outside to meet them before they came in. Mr. Vic did not recognize but just a couple of them who were in this group. He laid out the rules before they entered, if they did not want to attend the bible study they could not stay to shoot hoops. He introduced me to the group and then he was off. There was about 20 young men there that night. As I watched these young men play basketball, I wondered what it would be like when I whistled and called them all over to share with them. How would they react? How would they respond?
With nothing prepared to say and not knowing what they were accustomed to as a bible study or devotion from Mr. Vic, I knew that I was going to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. I figured in no way should this be a place where the name of Jesus Christ and His gospel is not loudly and gloriously proclaimed. No way should this be a Christianized Y.M.C.A. youth night. No way should this be a glorified Boys Club. No, the bait is basketball and the hook is Jesus Christ. So, I called them over and proclaimed the gospel with boldness and much Holy Spirit powered conviction. I know it is not how hard that I try to set the hook in the heart of these young African American men from the projects, no that job belongs to God Himself. What liberation we can feel from knowing this truth. Our job is to simply scatter the seed.
During the time I was sharing the gospel I asked one young man to assist me in illustrating a point I was trying to make his name was Mark.
After we prayed I let them return to playing basketball. Near the end of the night when it was time to go, Mark and another young man began to argue over something that happened as they were playing. I guess it may have been over a hard foul. The young man whose name I do not know began to threaten Mark. He was threatening Mark with promises of shooting him or busting a cap in his brain. I managed to get him to calm down. He quickly left. I thought, thank you God that nothing worse happened. I mean, here I am alone, what if his threats turn real? By Gods grace the angry young man left. On that note I thought it would be best to end the night right here. So, I turned out the lights and locked up the gym. The two young preteens who attend our Wednesday night youth meetings asked me for a ride home, I said yes. They lived in the same housing projects as did the older youth. The same neighborhood the young man Mark lives in I had just met forty five minutes earlier. I dropped them off in front of their door and noticed people walking and running about a hundred yards up the street in the direction I was to travel in order to leave the complex. By this time the older kids were now making it back to their neighborhood on foot. It appeared that the young man Mark had an altercation with earlier in the gym had already made it back to the neighborhood and was waiting for Mark’s return. There must have had some altercation. I didn’t see any physical fighting but what I did see I will not soon forget. I saw the the young man with whom Mark was arguing with, take off running down the side walk. Others began walking really fast or jogging away from where Mark was standing. I saw Mark lift up his arm about shoulder length. In his hand was a small revolver. He began to shoot down the sidewalk at the direction of the young man who was running away. He fired three shots. As I was witnessing this take place seated in my truck at a dead stop because the road was blocked by the people standing in the way, my eyes and Marks met just briefly before he turned and trotted off.
I reported the incident to the police. So many thoughts flooded into my mind. Where did the bullets that left his revolver end up? In the side of someone’s apartment? Inside of someone’s apartment? In someone’s back? Is this something I really want to continue to do? Is Mr. Vic naive? Does he really know what kind of environment these kids are growing up in? Do these basketball games cause arguments that lead or fuel greater violence later on? Do I know what I have gotten myself into, really? I do know this, I do not fear these kids. I see young men and women who battle poverty, gangs and violence, more properly defined SIN, unlike what our average church member has ever had to cope with. I see young men and women created in the image of God.

I see the gospel as the only means of setting captives free from the bondage of Satan and sin. Whatever happens next may it never, never, be about social ills and fixes. May it only be about Jesus Christ an exalting His Holy name to those held captive by Satan to do his will.