Fledgling believer

I heard a story from one of our volunteers worth passing on. One young man, a tougher teen, became a believer this summer through camp ministry. He has been hungry for God's word ever since, and has started attending drop-in to soak up what he can. For the last two months, after our short bible lesson is over, he finds Peter, a volunteer, and sits with him in a corner, picking his brain over the Bible. Last month, Peter gave him his own Bible to read. He asked this young man how he was doing with it, and whether he found time to read it. "Oh, yeah," the teen told him, "I brought it to school to read at lunch time. Some kid started making fun of me, so I beat him up. Now I can read it when I want without people bothering me." Peter was at loss at how to respond! "On the good side," he said as he related the story to me, "he is not ashamed of being a Christian and is really seeking God! On the other hand," he sighed, "He's still got a ways to go!"

A concern that has been brought to our attention, is it looks like a major organized crime unit is setting up their HQ in our neighborhood. This has been tried before, by other major gangs unsuccessfully, but this time it looks like they may have found a way to get their foot in the door with nothing the police can do to stop them. Once they have a foothold, it is a simple step to make the neighborhood fear them enough to turn a blind eye to anything else they have planned. This has happened before in other cities, with disastrous results for the community. Please pray that this attempt will not be successful, as once they have a stronghold in our community, there are so many teens and children ripe for the picking for such a gang.