Another story

Jaclyn steps out of the parking lot elevator and into the heat of the street of downtown Ft. Worth. Men turn their heads to get a quick but good look at her. She smiles and struts, knowing she looks good in her lacy top, black and white skirt, and strappy heels. Then remembering her mission she frowns. Its 11:05; the business lunch started at 11. Glancing up the 40 story building, she rushes inside the revolving door and heads for the elevator. Once inside, the elevator flies upward and the rush pops her ears. Soon as she reaches the 40th floor a waiter waves and says hello. "What's up?" They have meet before and are familiar with each other. Finally after a series of turns, she finds the room where the lunch is. Only her boss, Janice, and 2 other people are present. "So much for worrying about being late." Unsure of what to do, she takes a seat near the head of the table. After the rest of the group shows up the meeting begins. First the group goes to the buffet for lunch. Jaclyn follows and runs into the waiter she knows. "This way, ma'am." She frowns, hating that he treated her so formally. "What's your name?" she askes him. He replied professionally, "Jonny." He didn't smile or look at her, but politely showed her to the buffet line. A different waiter carried her plates for her back to the lunch room. She sits and begins to eat as gracefully as possible. Everyone present at the meeting is friendly, professional and seems to know what they are doing. Later, Janice tells her to collect the names of the businessmen and women and to collect their money. She smiles and realizes that she is Janice's "bi-otch" for the day. "So be it, I'm getting paid for this." As the meeting wears on, she feels more comfortable in her surroundings and actually starts to pay attention to what is going on. At the end of the meeting she collects business cards and leaves after helping Janice clean up. On the freeway on the way home, she glances to her left and sees a truck full of men strain their neck and smile at her as they pass by. Feeling confident, she smiles back. The truck roars on and knows she's already forgotten. "No prob. I know I still look good."

Story time!
Its long, but oh-so-worth it.

As you know, I work with the Jr. High kiddos at church. Tons of fun. Every Wednesday we have what are called "Wild Wednesdays." We play crazy games like human foosball, human tic-tac-toe, improv skits, volleyball, and just goof off in general. Then, we end with a devotional. Last week was different. We had the first ever "Mystery Dinner." I gave them a menu with items like "Ogre snot", "animal droppings" and "black hole". Each item corresponded to a real food. Ogre snot=pickle, animal droppings=peanut butter, black hole=olives. Anyway. This event took more planning than usual, so I skimped out on planning a devotional. I felt horrible because this is the most important part and I totally was unprepared for giving one. But, as the kids were eating thier Mystery Dinner, I found John 6 which is the story where Jesus feeds 5,000 people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. And, here begins my story as well:

I had the most kids ever at this Wild Wednesday. There were 18-20 and 4-5 of them were new. At devo time I had them all sit in a circle on the stage with their bibles. It felt hot up there and I started sweating. Mostly I was sweating because I was trying to lead a devo I didn't plan. My adult volunteers gathered around to hear my devo, too. I was hoping they couldn't see through me. Thankfully, there were 13 verses to read so as the kids read the verses out loud I had time to rack my brain for what to say. Beads of sweat are now visibly forming on my face. After they finish reading the verses, they all look up at me, expecting me to sprout words of wisdom. I've got nothing. Instead, I fumble. "So...what happened in the story?" They answered. I asked easy questions like this so I could think. Bit by bit, I grew confident and started figuring stuff out. Jesus performed a miracle, he met these people's needs. He meets our needs, too!

Then, we looked up the next verse: John 6:31. Jesus says, "I am the bread of life..." I started contrasting this verse from the bread in the story we just read. Jesus feed 5,000 people with real bread, he meets their need of food. Here, Jesus calls himself bread. What does that mean? Jesus gives us food that will last a lifetime. When we know Jesus, we will never go hungry again. Having a relationship with Jesus fills us up forever. We'll never go hungry again. It was awesome, I got excited talking about having a relationship with God. I practically gave the gospel to these kids, some of which never have opened a Bible before. I talked about how a relationship with God is different than knowing about God. I felt like God was giving me the words to say even though I didn't prepare at all. I even learned something from the lesson I was teaching without knowing it! If that isn't cool, something else happened that was even more awesome.

A kid named Evan was sitting next to me. This kid is crazy and causes a lot of headaches. He is wild and hard to handle. I asked if there were any questions or comments after I finished talking. Evan raised his hand. I hesitated expecting him say something smart-aleck or silly. Instead, he spoke softly, looking straight to me without blinking, "Where can I find this bread?" I waited to laugh, to see if he was messing with me. He wasn't. He was serious, he wanted to know. It was so awesome to see a real hunger for God in these kids. A relationship with Jesus. Thats all, folks.