Working with Youths!

Sally and I are both involved in a series of workshop for a post secondary institution. The group of students are considered to have a slightly higher risk of dropping out of school. We've been going back on a weekly basis and we are making in roads to the youths. I guess when Sal and I shared our lives, our stories with them, it made us "real" to them.

We have good days and some not so good days. And today was one of the "not-so-good" days. We were supposed to start at 11am but half the class sauntered in at 11.15-11.20am (including the group that I was facilitating. What's worse - I smsed the group to remind them to be early). That totally disrupted our programme and what we had planned for the day. And I got really upset and ticked the class big time. And that really stunned the class as usually I'm quite the jovial, easy going and funny guy. Anyway, we proceeded with the movie that we had planned and during the movie, I got an sms. Pulled out my phone and it read...

"Hey, Sry tat we r late. Dun angry wif us any more. :-)"

I couldn't help but let out a grin. This boy that texted me - it took me a while to get through to him, to build some rapport with. Somewhere along the way, through the sessions and the time spent talking to the group, I made a difference in his life. This sms showed that he cared, that he's serious about his life, that he's serious about wanting to learn (despite him being acting like a clown sometimes). I certainly hope that for the remaining sessions, I'll be able to continue to deposit and impart into his life.

Sal had a much harder time today. She has a group of boys that are rather challenging, if not, the most challenging I thought - unresponsive, attitude problem. It got so bad that she gave them a choice to go if they wanted to. The group decided to go except 1 brave soul, even though the rest of his clique asked him to go. He chose to stay to participate in the discussion. In fact he apologized to Sal on behalf of his friends. Sal and I have been actively reaching out to him, having lunch with him, talking to him after class - about his family, his likes and dislikes, etc. He was fully aware that he may get some flak from his clique but he made a choice. For that, Sal and I were very proud of him.

Working with youths is certainly not easy. Need a lot of patience and certainly a lot of time and a huge dose of relentless belief. I pray that God will continue to use Sal and myself and the team to minister to the youths and help them find their goal, identity and their purpose in life.

My Daddy.