Violence Isn't the Answer

Hey everyone!

Memphis WorkCamp came to a close yesterday and it was a great week. Our team of 14 did an AMAZING job repairing, scraping, cleaning, landscaping and painting our house in OrangeMound of Memphis. Here are a few of the week's highlights I'd like to share with all of you.

One thing I've learned this week is that God is always ready to teach me a lesson. The most reoccurring lesson is one of patience. Just when I think I've got it under my belt there's always a new level that I need to grasp. Remember the kid that I told you about, you know, Tyler? Well God used him in a BIG way to teach me patience. For the rest of the week Tyler decided to have a vendetta against me. I want you to understand that he's a CHILD and I resolved that he simply didn't know what he was doing (or that he was off his ADHD meds). Regardless, he continued through the week to attempt more injuries. I'm of the persuasion that generally I have a plethora of patience. For some odd reason this kid just got the best of me. On the last day he kicked my leg where it was cut and attempted to strangle me (again) and I want to be honest here - I had to have a conversation with Jesus about it. I was so frustrated! I didn't understand his behavior and I'm pretty sure that violence isn't one of the usual five love languages. There was another college student on the crew with us and his name is Jake. He goes to Memphis University and he made a good point. Jake saw what was happening and said "Megan...Tyler needs just as much love as the kids in Uganda do." As soon as he said it I knew he was right. At that point I realized that God was trying to show me that every teen needs love in a different way and if you are going to be a disciple to them you have to find out what it is. Rodney did a GREAT lesson on Sunday about Genuine Love. The most memorable thing he said was "The hardest thing God ever asked us to do is LOVE. I can't think of anything harder than that." It was so true for me this week. It was hard for me to look at Tyler and think of love instead of kicking him in the shins. Even so, God used him to teach me so much and for that I'm thankful.

Another awesome thing that happened was getting to know one of the girls on my crew. Her name was Haley and she's a sophomore in high school. We were at the back of the house painting alone while everyone was working on the front. She looked over at me and said "Okay, this might sound really weird to you, but I've really felt God this week." Amazed I replied "No! That's not weird at all! That's AWESOME! So...when did that happen?" She explained to me that on Wednesday she just wasn't feeling it. She was tired of being hot and scraping the house, to which I nodded in agreement. Haley continued by saying that she glanced up when she was scraping and she saw the trees blowing in the wind. She said "Trees are just so beautiful to me and then the wind blew across my face and I just felt God's presence with all of us." I mean, wow. That was so cool to hear her say that. Sometimes I feel like we forget that God is in the simple things and it's incredible to be reminded by a 15 year old.

Those were the best moments of the week for me. Oh you might find this slightly humorous too. On the last night night Tyler found me and asked me to sign his shirt. I agreed as he handed me the sharpie and I decided to write him a little message. I put in quotations "Violence isn't the answer - love is." He said "I can't believe you wrote that on my shirt!" and I smiled with the reply "I can't believe you injured me but what I wrote is true." He grinned and jogged off.

Well I'm going to get back to writing my lesson on the Good Samaritan! Thanks for checking in