A guy in his mid-70s
who talks kinda slow and is not all that interesting should not be trying to
interview young people on the street, right? I’m more of a thinker and don’t
have great social skills. But I have a vision. Or a dream, as Peter reminds us in
Acts 2:17, “your old men shall dream dreams”. I have this dream of children and
young people and then their parents in the towns all around us praising the
name of Jesus for his great salvation. As I share in the AIM
video the first step after bathing the area with prayer is to search
for young people willing to serve. If they join in a project of helping with
children, then as we work together they themselves can be challenged to get to
know Christ personally. One way to look for them is by interviews or surveys.
Here’s one thing I
tried. I came to the conclusion that even though we had no one working with us
to form a team I was going to go out on the streets and try to contact young
people as an initial experiment. Then it occurred to me to call Aurora, a lady
in Madrid (2 hours away) who was converted in a church plant that we pioneered
years ago. She and her two grown sons, whom we have known since they were tiny,
came out to help. The 4 of us put together some survey questions and went out
to the town of Jaraíz that we are targeting. As we were having coffee I
reminded them that it would be rather unusual to find teenagers who are
actually interested in serving others. This town is known for its wild weekends,
in which many or most of them participate.
Then Aurora and I went
out with our questionnaires and the two brothers formed the other team. I
especially remember our first interview, 3 young men whom we met on the
sidewalk. Turns out they did not fit the pattern that I had warned the team
about. These 3 did not participate in the “botellón”, where everyone brings a
liter of beer or whatever. They were serious guys. Interestingly, one said he
was an atheist, the other an agnostic and the third a “creyente” (believer,
meaning active catholic). Interesting conversation. They gave us their phone
numbers to send them a whatsapp message when we had some activity they could
participate in. The other team also had good conversations with some girls who
were already involved in some kind of volunteer work with an NGO. I shared with
Aurora and José and Ángel that it looked like the Lord was showing us that we
were moving in the right direction. The plan called for getting to know as many
of these kids as possible and giving them opportunities to help in open air
events for children as well as small groups in homes. Over the years we have
found these 2 activities to be quite fruitful in bringing whole families under
the sound of the gospel. When we made these contacts last March we should have
struck while the iron was hot and followed through.
This was quite a few months ago, and we haven’t been in
touch with any of the people we contacted. The reason? All of those who helped
in making the contacts were here only briefly and are busy elsewhere. My error
I guess, hoping we would get recruits sooner. Eventually Ángel did come to stay
with us and was here for a few months. But now he plans to get married next
year and has gone back to Madrid. An O.M. team that was here for a while went
to a high school in the same town with the same survey, and they contacted
about 30 kids and got about 15 phone numbers with the valuable help of our
granddaughter Elie. Whenever a team comes through here we hope someone will
hear God’s call to make a long-term commitment, with town after town not having
a gospel testimony. Various possible recruits have contacted us. One young man
is hoping to come from California early next year even if he’s the only one on
the team. Some seem to be asking “What’s in it for me?” I wish they could
understand that what’s in it for them is an eternal reward and the opportunity
to share the gospel.
To read or watch more about the importance of reaching youth and children, look up the 4-14 window, for example, Empowering the next generation
