Audy Home
PCW
In each of the five semesters I attended Bible College, I was given a weekly Practical Christian Work assignment. The college designed that students would have opportunities to serve others using the strengths and skills they were being trained to do. I was a music major, so my first assignments was to direct a church children’s choir. Next, I did nursing home visitation and sang solos for the church service we provided for them.
A Surprise Assignment
Curiously, in my last semester at the school, I served where I least expected to. I was assigned to Audy Home, a juvenile temporary detention center. I was to meet one-on-one with middle school students in trouble with the law. The students were kept at this facility, and we would meet with them in rooms set aside for us.
An assignment at Audy Home was a coveted one by many at the school. I felt privileged to have been chosen for it, but, to this day, I don’t know why. It was a far cry from being a music major. Nothing in my history at the school would have indicated to leaders that I might be suited for this ministry role. God had to have guided the decision.
The Leader Learns
I said little to the struggling young girls that could have helped them. Their lives were riddled with brokenness and poverty. Even by age 12, they seemed destined for lifelong heartache. I wondered what I could offer them. I wanted to give them Jesus, but they needed more than just simple platitudes about Him. I didn’t know how to reach them.
I definitely learned more from the girls than I gave them. I learned that church answers are empty. For true healing, answers needed to be real and life changing. I learned that listening was more important than talking. I learned that people can tell if your words come from your head rather than your heart. And I learned that I can only help people if I have learned the lesson first.
I’m grateful for these young girls. Their questions about life and God helped me to face my own questions. They didn’t feel the need to pretend to have it all together like I did. Their brokenness and inability to hide it helped me find the brokenness in me. What a gift.
Redemption
LIttle could I have guessed that one-on-one meetings like those would one day become a big part of the ministry expression God designed for me. But God knew. He knew that one day, after I’d processed the broken places in my life and allowed Jesus to be my Healer, I would pass on to others the real answers He gave me. I pray the girls I met with long ago have experienced His healing, too. He is able.
Matthew 18:3 “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash