High Schoolers

Apparently I was a strongly abnormal High Schooler. And now I wonder if all my friends (or more likely the ones that were acquaintance friends) were not. Did they go to drinking parties, did they bug their parents to let them go to co-ed sleep overs/parties, did they smoke weed, were they part of the horrible statistics of sexually active teens? I don't know, and I pray not. However, I do know that many of those things are or have happened in the youth group. How can one get through? How can you say that you're following God and yet do nothing to please Him and everything for selfish gain.

I feel like I can vent a little on here because there are only a few people who read it and pretty much only family which I could tell anyway. I know you'd rather have a post about the kids complete with pictures, but without me writing about this, it will drive me batty and thus drive Travis batty. : )

So last week Travis received a tip that there might be alcohol brought to a co-ed birthday party one of the girls in the youth group was having out at Sun River. Obviously Travis had talked to the girl and told her it was a bad idea etc...but, the tip said that the girl's 22 year old brother might bring some, and the other chaperone (her aunt) isn't necessarily trustworthy. HE told the parents of the kids going, one parent told his son he couldn't go (which he took really well and we're quite proud of him for that) and the other kinda shrugged his shoulders because he's past the end of his rope. We debated whether we should call the cops, but decided that we needed to give them the benefit. Well, one of the girls who went (who is older than 18 and had been advised strongly against going) came back early. Not because of alcohol being there, but because she felt guilty for getting plastered the night before. The aunt apparently brought alcohol for a 16th birthday party (did I mention this aunt's boyfriend is in jail...I think he was there when they met?). So, Travis called the teen's mom to let her know her sister brought alcohol and now he has to call parents etc...The mother didn't have the other youth kid's father's number (even though that is her daughter's boyfriend) and when asked for the address so we can give it to this father (so he can pick up his son) and to call the police she said she didn't know. She didn't want anything to do with the party because she didn't want it to come back on her...well guess what IT DID! Currently Travis is driving to the boy's house to tell his father because the phone number that a youth leader had wasn't working. And if that father doesn't call the police, we need to when he gets home. It's not something we want to do, but it's the morally right thing and it breaks my heart (and travis' more).

While there are many, many single mothers working their tails off to provide for their kids, many of which are due to divorce. Then there are many working to provide for their kids, with their singleness not due to divorce and many of these children should have been gifted to a family as a baby. As we are starting the adoption process I see every unwed pregnant mother to be out there and I try so hard not to judge that they should place their baby with a family. Sometimes it works out okay, and others it doesn't. I keep reminding myself that 'Life is better than death,' and that choosing to birth and raise a baby is better (WAY better) than choosing to kill your child.

We can't know the 'what if's' of this life, but we are going to strive to do a good thing and provide a home for a baby. And, yes I know that there are no guarantee's that an adoptive baby in a home with two parents will do anything differently than in a home with a single mother, but it's worth a try to change that babies' life.

Please pray for the youth at our church, most come from broken or never complete homes.