hurt in Capricorn

6 March 2010

The excitement of a youth is quite unfathomable, especially here in
South Africa. A game of musical chairs can bring more noise and
competition and utter excitement than I can actually describe in
words.
We began Capricorn Youth (last night) with a simple, yet loud game of
musical chairs, moved into Shagmie's illustrations of trust and broke
into groups where we did the "Trust Fall" with each youth. For some
reason, I (and another volunteer from a local church, Luke) was given
the group of mainly visitors, boys, and all of whom would NOT listen
to instruction. As we began letting each teen stand on a chair and
fall into the arms of about 10 others ready to catch the fallee, I saw
disaster beginning. For some reason a few of the boys decided that
after they 'fell', they'd continue to wiggle and push their bodies
down the line of those that were the 'safeties' behind the catchers…
as if they were in a mosh-pit at a Rave. After two boys did that, I
was in the midst of telling them they must stop when Emmanuel jumped
into the arms of the catchers, kicked his legs back over his head – as
if to do a back flip – no one was ready for his wild move, he was head
first upside down; I tried to lunge to catch him, the crowd was paying
NO attention until they heard his head hit the pavement. He curled up
into a ball holding his head and neck. I quickly got on the floor with
him, tried to ask him questions, get him telling me where he was in
pain, all Emmanuel could do was cry and convulse. Thankfully, Luke is
in Med-School in Cape Town, knew what to do and just took over. He
carefully took him into the side room and examined Emmanuel's head. I
hopped in my car and ran to Pick n Pay to get some ice. Once I got
back, saw Emmanuel's head, I became nauseous. There was a 3 inch
goose-egg on top of his head, there was so much swelling and Emmanuel
continued to shake and cry. Luke said he was complaining about his
neck, which concerned us. I told Abigail (Emmanuel's foster sister) to
go get her mom; when the mom came to the church, I thought she was
going to faint when she saw the injury. She kept quiet and let Luke
continue to examine the injury. Luke made some sort of brace for his
neck, and about 5 boys carried Emmanuel to the car and Luke took
Emmanuel and his foster mom to the ER.
The youth stopped and prayed for Emmanuel, prayed that the Lord would
comfort this little boy (about 12 years old), would take care of his
wound and heal his every hurt. The reality is… not every youth took
this seriously, which made me angry, but we're dealing with kids that
don't know how to act appropriately, don't know how to have
compassion, want attention more than anything in this world. I
continue to fight within about how to handle their irreverence, how to
teach them to care about others, how to show them the love of Christ
and enhance their view of who the Lord calls them to be.
I left the church around 9:30 pm, Luke was still at the hospital. I
don't have an update on Emmanuel yet. As soon as I do, I'll write
again.
On a more positive note, after the service was over, I was cleaning up
and was pulled aside by one of the youth girls. The whole night was
about Proverbs 3:5- Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not
on your own understanding. This girl asked me "How do YOU trust in the
Lord?" On one hand, I wanted to say, "Were you not listening to
anything that was said tonight? Shagmie gave great examples and
explained trusting the Lord practically." However, I was honored that
she wanted to talk to me and was more gentle than that. I asked her
what specifically she meant. She said, "I gave my life to Christ at
grade 5 because I wanted to make it to my 21st birthday alive. I knew
that I needed the Lord and needed to change my actions; however,
there's been a lot going on since I was in grade 5. I turn 21 this
year and am not the person I want to be. All my friends have babies,
are sexually active and aren't following the Lord. I don't know why
the Lord has saved me from their lifestyles, their path, and I want to
follow the Lord better." I was so proud of her! I told her that she
wasn't believing who God said she is. She needs to be in the Word of
God, hearing His truth and love and truly believe Him. If she believes
that He died for her, believes that He expects more, believes that she
is called to be a witness to hear family and those friends, then her
life would reflect that. I told her that I wanted to her be in the
Word this weekend and pray about how the Lord wants to renew her life
and love for Him and then we'd talk on Sunday at church. She gave me
the biggest hug and said, "I'll do that and we'll talk some more."
Thanking the Lord for small things, great conversations, and planting
seeds in these young, lives.