Most of the time that we speak about “Mission” on this site we’re referring to what the Lord is accomplishing through His people sharing the gospel with the “nations” around the world – fulfilling the “Great Commission”. There is a lot of work to be done, and still so many “peoples” who haven’t heard about the glorious gospel of Christ. But this next post is about a Junior in high school that has a heart for mission and answered the Lord’s call for him to do something quite extraordinary. A couple of months ago I asked a friend of mine to write about how the Lord called him into the mission field of his local public high school from the comfort of the private christian school he grew up in. The following is Part 1 of his story.
*Please note all names in this next section have been changed to protect privacy.
Last year around May you would have seen me walking the halls of my beautiful private Christian school with no worries about being beat up or being made fun of by saying “Jesus,” but that all changed when God asked me to step out of my comfort zone and into His will. I’m currently seventeen and last year around May I was just praying for direction from God on what to do on a minor decision with my life, when God put my local high school on my heart. This is the last thing I wanted to hear because I loved my school and the people who were in it. Well, with much prayer and thought my parents and I agreed this is where I should be for my junior year. The summer rolled by quickly as always filled with wonderful times with friends and family, but most importantly I grew in faith and knowledge of the Savior. Before I knew it, it was September 7th, the day before my new school started. I walked into the new building knowing that I had the Lord on my side as well as the prayers of my friends and family, but not knowing what to expect. The first day was so revealing to me. I was simply shocked at the way these kids brazenly talk about the sin in their lives to each other and the illegal things that they do. As I sat alone at lunch that day, I remember thinking to the Lord, “Why? Why here? Why me? I can’t help these kids. I’m just one kid in the presence of 400 other kids. What am I supposed to do here?” The days went by and soon I had people who I could hang around with, but it wasn’t until I met Samantha, a girl in my woodshop class, that showed me why exactly I was there. She was a confused “Christian” who believed that all the religions were the same and in the end we’d all make it to heaven. I smiled at her and over the next few weeks we had many conversations about why the other religions differed from the absolute truth, the Bible. The confusion is still there to this day, but little by little religions are becoming more like stories rather than truth to her. I know that by the grace of God alone the strongholds will be broken if it’s His will.
After two days of school passed by the superintendant, called me into his office and told me, “you have a good head on your shoulders, I’m sure you’ll be a leader of the junior class this year and I’ll watch out for you in the hallways during school hours.” Favor was coming my way in every direction from the administration and that’s what we were praying for at the prayer night during senior high. Prayer was being answered in mighty ways quickly, right before my face, which was amazing to see. There is another girl who is in my lunch period and every day she eats a nice little paper bag lunch. For some reason I noticed she hadn’t had a lunch for about 3 days in a row and I got concerned, so I made her a lunch and brought it into school the following day. When I handed her the lunch she started crying and thanked me many times for it. She asked me why I would do such a thing as to “care for someone else like this.” I was able to tell her about the good news of Jesus Christ and how He took my life and made it something new. I was able to talk to her for about 30 minutes about Christ and His character before the bell cut us off, but it was a great experience and one I will not soon forget.
My ministry was confusing for me at my school at first. I couldn’t find anyone who was even remotely interested in a bible study. Tutoring soon found me because of my high marks in every subject and the gifts that God has given me, especially in math. This simple act of teaching others basic Algebra has grown to 27 students and is still growing. Walls and social barriers are just melting down for me by only the grace of God because I’m starting to reach the “hard kids.” They all have that reputation of “I’ve had a hard life so don’t mess with me.” I actually had the opportunity to get to know a kid whose mother died and his dad is plagued with an addiction to alcohol. I tutored him for a while after school and then he just poured out his heart to me. His story was heart breaking, but I was able to tell him that there’s someone always there for him and readily available to listen to him and just love him. Jesus Christ can be so much more to him than a father; He will be a Savior to him if only he asks. After sharing his story he let me pray for him and I was just blown away. Another set of girls had me tutor them for a test they had the following day and after we were done, they had offered me money and I had refused. Which led to the question of why I would give up my time for them for no cost at all to kids I had barely known for a few weeks. Through that question I was able to give them a brief overview of the New Testament (we even flipped through the bible while doing so) and just explained that He’s the reason I’m able to compute calculus, so I thank Him by helping others just as He commanded me to.