Thanksgiving Reflection 2010

During this Thanksgiving holiday, many of us celebrate with our families and friends about the things that we are thankful for.  My life has been filled with lots of things to be thankful for, and that is still true this year.  I am thankful that God has given me 34 amazing years on this earth.  God has blessed me with a beautiful wife and two wonderful daughters.  I am so thankful for the life-changing doctor of ministry program at BGU.  God has called me to live and work in Homewood, and I feel fortunate to be able to invest in such an incredible community.  I have many treasured relationships with kids in Homewood, and it has been a joy to watch as the boys that I have invested in grow into young men with tremendous promise in life.

While I am thankful for many things, my mentees have taught me to be thankful for some of the most basic things in life.  One of my mentees is especially thankful just to be alive and to have a bed to sleep on.  Seriously, his older brother and his uncle were both killed within the past six months.  At 15 years old, he is now the man of the family and he sees every day of life that God gives him as a bonus.  He shares one small bedroom with his mother and older sister in a house where a family has temporarily taken them in until they can get back on their feet.  They have been sleeping on the floor since they moved there, and last week I was able to find a twin bed for him so now he has a bed to sleep on.  Another one of my mentees is thankful for a roof over his head and for the sacrificial love of a woman who has taken him in.  For the past year or so he has been basically homeless, bouncing around from house to house of extended family members and friends.  A single mom of one of his best friends, a woman who struggles with addiction problems of her own and who has very little to even provide for her own son, has opened up her home to my mentee and allowed him sleep on the floor at her house whenever he needs a place to stay.  There is little food in the house for three meals each day for three people (especially when two are growing boys), but she shares all that she has with my mentee.  My mentee is thankful for her love this year.

Some people might look at the lives of my mentees and see only their tremendous needs.  When I look at my mentees, I see their incredible assets.  My two friends have resilience and courage.  Both have entered into relationships with God, and they depend on God to get them through each day.  They have a lot going for them, even though they have very little materially in this life.  And so I am celebrating Thanksgiving this year, and I may be most thankful for the investment that God has opened the door for me to make in the hearts and minds of young people who are struggling in Homewood.  When my mentees invite me to share in their journeys filled with struggles, I just continue to be stretched and challenged by their passion for life in the midst of difficult circumstances.  Like my mentees, I am now thankful for the simple things in life.  I have a roof over my head, a bed to sleep on, and plenty of food to share with my family (and lots of kids from my neighborhood who I've had the great privilege to share my table with).  Happy Thanksgiving!