NSEP Week 3

I can’t believe we are already halfway through! This week has actually gone really well, and it is probably my favorite week that we have had so far. We spent the week doing our typical class work and activities and the students worked their hours at local agencies. On Thursday for our college visit we traveled to Huntsville to tour Alabama A&M, and on our way back to Montgomery we stopped in Hoover for the students to shop at the Galleria. Also, on Saturday, we traveled back to Birmingham to spend the evening skating and racing go-carts at the Trussville Playstation. This week has involved a lot of driving, but it has been very rewarding. In fact, the highlight of the week was on Friday when the speakers from the Alabama Department of Public Health invited our group to attend a conference that was hosted by the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Branch. This was the type of conference that many nurses and social workers attend for continuing education hours, and it was a great honor for our group of young adults to be asked to attend.

I did not really know what to expect at the conference. I was worried that our students would be bored, which would result in them being disruptive or falling asleep. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the material discussed was actually very interesting and the students were actively engaged in the conference by asking questions at appropriate times. Actually, I would venture to say that many of our students left the conference a changed person. I know that I did. One of the speakers at the conference was a twenty-year victim of human sex trafficking. She told us her story and how she began prostituting herself as a young teenager and continued his lifestyle for many years. She said that at the time she claimed that she consented to doing this, but today she realizes that there was so much brainwash and psychological abuse surrounding the situation that it was not consensual at all. She was forced to sell herself for sex in 48 different states and also Mexico and Canada. Her take home message was that prostitutes do not sell themselves for sex because they want to. Often it is done because there is a gun pointed to their head. Often it is done through brainwash. The same holds true for pornography. A 13 year old cannot consent to sex. That is the bottom line. Today, she is a survivor. She founded a faith-based organization called The Well House, which is a shelter out of Birmingham that rescues victims of sex trafficking and gives them a place to stay in order to recover. Yes, sex trafficking happens in Birmingham, Alabama. At the end of her presentation, the whole room was silent until a few of our girls raised their hands to ask a question. Through tears, they expressed their gratitude for what she had told them. They, too, were victims of sexual abuse. They, too, spent most of their lives thus far blaming themselves for what has happened to them. They, too, had no sense of sexual purity because sex had no meaning to them. They, too, have hated men for many years because it was men that had done this to them. They were broken. About half of our girls admitted to being victims of some kind of sexual abuse on Friday. I also have a feeling that there are others who are not ready to talk about it yet. Talking about it seems so hard, because it makes that nightmare become a reality again. But I am so proud of my girls who did decide to talk. Now, they can begin the healing process. I was able to talk to one girl one-on-one and she shared with me some of the specifics of what has happened to her. She told me that I was only the second person who she had ever told this to before. Unlike the first person she told, she said she actually felt comfortable talking to me about this. Upon hearing that so many of the other girls had been through the same thing, she finally felt like she was not alone anymore. I’m so thankful that I was able to be a part of the beginning of her healing.

I truly believe that it was the providence of God that led us to this conference on Friday. For the first time in the last few weeks I felt a sense of significant progress. So much is out in the open now and the students know more about each other than ever before. They understand one another in ways that I can never understand or relate to. But I can have empathy and I can be a shoulder to lean on and a set of listening ears. Please pray that God will equip me to help these girls in any way that I can.

One of the questions asked by an audience member was how a person who has not been sexually abused can reach out to a victim. She gave us three steps:

1. Introduce Christ. Because it is a faith-based organization, Jesus is the center of all they do. She did not mean for us to preach to people, but rather to just tell who Jesus is and how he can redeem us. When it gets down to it, Christ is the only way to reach complete healing.

2. Tell what you have overcome. Even though we haven’t all experienced the horror of sexual abuse, we have all experienced some kind of setback that we have had to overcome. Tell your story. Share your coping mechanisms. Allow them to understand that everyone has struggles, some more than others, but we must all work to overcome them.

3. Don’t ask why or pass judgment. This is extremely important. Don’t ask “why did you continue to subject yourself to that?” Chances are they will not have an answer. Instead they will pass you off as judgmental and feel as if you are trying to hurt them rather than help them. Also, do not call law enforcement. This will only scare them away, rather than bring them to a place where they can find healing. They do not trust you yet. You have to build rapport and show them that you can be trusted before you can effectively help them.

I would like to end this by saying that if you or someone you know is a victim of any type of sexual abuse, you are not alone. You may feel trapped or isolated, but I promise there are people out there who understand your pain. There are also people out there who want to help. Sexual abuse and sex trafficking can happen to anyone. It has no racial, religious, cultural, or socioeconomic discriminations. You cannot look at someone and know if they have been through this. It leaves a scar that never disappears, but I believe there are people out there who can help that scar fade. I would like to think that I am one of those people, and I would tell anyone that I am here to listen and to talk and to provide you with resources that could help you more than I can. Do not keep silent any longer. Please share this information with others. You honestly never know who may need it.

More information about The Well House can be found here:

http://the-wellhouse.org/

NSEP Week 2

Week two has come and gone and we have finally gotten used to the routine of things around here. There are several thing that have made the second week easier than the first:

1. I finally know everyone’s name

2. The funding finally came in (praise the Lord)! 

3. The students started working at agencies in the community. Part of the requirement for the program is that they work from 9-2 on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at a local agency we place them at. We have students working at the Boys and Girls Club, Salvation Army, a local nursing home, and a couple of other places. Lucky for them, the program pays them $150 a week to serve at these places. Lucky for me, this gives me a few hours to myself to come back to my room and catch up on much needed rest. Some of the students really seem to really enjoy working at the agencies, while others are a little less than thrilled. However, each of the locations we have students at is related to social work in some way and gives them a valuable learning experience. 

4. We have finally been able to get off campus and do things, which has made the program a lot less monotonous at times. On Thursday we were able to join with the students from the group at the University of Alabama and take tours of both Tuskegee University and Auburn University. I think everyone enjoyed this because we were finally able to get away and the students were also able to experience what other college campuses besides ASU have to offer. I have never been to Tuskegee before and I was actually really impressed with their campus and their excellence in academics. I will even admit that I kind of enjoyed seeing Auburn’s campus for the first time in quite a while. Although, I did tell all my students that they were not allowed to attend school there (roll tide!). Also, yesterday we traveled towards Birmingham and took the group to Splash Adventure Water Park. I think everyone had a lot of fun there, and it was really nice to just relax and not worry about social workers, foster parents, or anything else. 

5. I think I’ve finally found the balance between being nice and being authoritative. As I’ve mentioned before, I want to be friendly with the students but I also have to remember that I am here to be their leader, not their best friend. Our relationship must remain professional and I also must demand respect from them. For the most part, I think I have reached a point where I have figured out how to do this. My students tell me that they love me and they know that I love and care about them as well, but there are also times where they do not like me very much because I am get upset with their words or actions or tell them that they cannot do something they want to do. Respect is something we are still working on, but I do recognize the progress that has been made since the first week. 

With all of this being said, there are still some areas that need improvement: 

1. There is always drama. Our group is comprised of 12 girls and 4 boys and when you have that many teenage girls living on one hall together, there is likely to be a lot of drama. I’ve realized that many of them struggle with low self esteem and as a result they pick on each other so someone else’s flaws are highlighted instead of their own. Most of the time they gang up on each other. They always pick a couple of girls to be the “enemy” and everyone else is against them. However, the enemy tends to change every few days. By the end of the six weeks I think that each one of them will have been the enemy at least once. It’s mostly petty things that they fight about, which is very frustrating to deal with at times. In my head I want to scream “Just get over it, it’s not that big of a deal!” But for some reason to them it is a big deal and I need to try to help them work through it, despite my opinion on the matter. 

2. Money management. As I mentioned before, each of them receive a $150 stipend each week. Throughout the week we preach the value of saving money and shopping wisely, but when payday comes all of that goes out the window. Many of them spend their entire paycheck in one afternoon at the mall, and most of the time they are only buying garbage. Some of them are well aware of their poor spending habits, but others honestly do not understand that what they are doing is hurting them. Many of them have never been taught how to save or budget money, so everything we are teaching them, which seems simple to me, is actually new material to them. Despite how many times we teach them how to bargain shop and budget effectively, most of them are just not understanding it. My hope is that by the end of the six weeks some of the material will stick with them and they will leave better off than they came. 

3. I’ve realized that many of them have been very spoiled in their foster homes. In fact, a couple of them have blatantly told me that they are spoiled. Many of their foster parents feel bad for the things they have experienced or had to go through, so they spoil them to try to make up for it. The spoil them with money and material objects and they also spoil them by letting them act however they please. This is why we have had problems with respect, because their foster parents often do not demand respect from them. Many of them have good intentions by treating the kids this way, but it is only hurting them in the long run. What they need is to be treated like a normal child. 

5. Patience is a hard quality to learn. My patience has been tested so much over these two weeks. Most of the time it is simply that having sixteen teenager around can be incredibly annoying at times. The questions seriously never end. And they all ask the same questions over and over and over again, despite how many times I tell them I don’t have an answer. There have been times that I have been ready to either yell at them all or just walk away and never come back, but that is not why I am here. I am definitely glad that I am experiencing all of this, because there is so much here for me to learn. Patience is something that I am learning for sure, but it has not been easy. However, I am hanging in there and I am still standing strong. I’m excited about what week three has in store for us, and as always thoughts and prayers are very appreciated. 

 

NSEP Week 1

I survived the first week! Needless to say, I am quite exhausted. On a typical day this week, we begin the day with breakfast at 8:00 and do not end the day until 10:00 at night. Overall, it has been a really good experience thus far. I already see myself growing as an individual and as a professional, and in just one short week I have already seen progress in the student’s ability to open up to the class and communicate effectively. However, I would be lying if I said that this group of 16 young adults was not about to drive me absolutely crazy at times. The week has had it’s ups and it has had it’s downs, but at the end of it I am definitely glad that I stepped out of my comfort zone and made the decision to work with this program. 

This week we have spend a lot of time in the classroom, which has been mentally exhausting for us leaders and also for the students. We have spent about eight hours a day in the class doing a variety of activities. We have heard from various speakers on campus about different opportunities and resources the students will have when they begin college. We also had a speaker from the Violence Against Women Center to come and talk about domestic violence, as it relates to both men and women. We also heard from a woman from Toastmaster’s International, which is an organization that teaches effective public speaking skills. Every Wednesday, she will come and speak with our students about why clear communication is important and how they can communicate more effectively. Every Friday, we will also have a group from the Alabama Department of Public Health to talk about pregnancy and STD prevention. In between guest speakers, the other two staff members and myself have been teaching other material. We have been going through a book called Careers in Social Work, which talks in detail about what exactly social work is and what job opportunities are available with it. We have also been going through a book called Believe and Achieve, which teaches character building and empowerment and explains in detail “17 Principles of Success.” We have discussed each of these principles in detail and try to relate them to other experiences they encounter throughout the program. Lastly, we have been going through a workbook called Preparing Adolescents for Young Adulthood, which teaches skill development for living on your own. We have been working hard on finding ways make this material interesting and to keep the students engaged, but i has been difficult. If anyone has any ideas on ways we can take something boring and make it fun, I am definitely open to suggestions. 

Through this whole experience, I am learning how to improvise and think quickly on my feet. One issue that we have been facing is that most of the funding for the program has not arrived yet so we are having to rearrange the schedule in order to fit our budget and our current circumstances. Also, some of our guest speakers have been backing out at the last minute or we will arrive somewhere on campus to do an activity and find out that the resources for the activity are not available for us. Because of issues like this, the students are getting bored and restless and we are having to improvise in order to make things work.  On Saturday, we were supposed to take them to Birmingham to tour UAB and Miles college, but that plan fell through due to various reasons. Hopefully we will be able to reschedule that for next week because I know it is something the group was looking forward to. 

As the week has progressed, some of the students have opened up and began to share more of their background and what led them to be in foster care. Some of the things they have said have been very heartbreaking. Some of them have experienced things at a very young age that no person should have to experience in their entire life. What makes the story even more tragic is that their lives in foster care are often not much better than their lives in an abusive family. In fact, some of them have been in foster homes where they have been abused yet again. Many of their current foster parents simply do not pay them any attention, and many of their social workers treat them very poorly as well. It is the duty of the social worker to advocate for the child and do what is in their best interests, but so often that is not the case. Because all of these kids have been through very similar experiences, you would think that they would be kind and understanding with one another. Unfortunately, that is not the case. I have had numerous students come knock on my door to tell me about another student treating them poorly, and I am in a situation where I have to resolve the situation to the best of my ability. Respect is an issue we have been having to deal with all week. Many of the students are very disrespectful to each other and also to us as leaders. For my whole life I have always been such a nice, laid back person. Now, I am in a position where I have to be an authority figure and it is something I have had to work very hard at this week. I want to be liked by the kids, but I am often put in a position where I have to be the person they don’t like. What makes it even more difficult is that some of them are my age. The program is for juniors and seniors and also students who have just graduated high school. Many of those who have just graduated are already 19 or 20 because they have been held back a grade or two. It has been hard for me to demand respect from them as their authority, when many of them are not any younger than me. 

Overall, I think it has been a positive experience for both me and the students. There have been some specific situations and experiences that I am choosing not to share for confidentiality purposes, because the ability to keep information confidential is crucial to being a successful social worker. I am already learning so much about my career and I am becoming a stronger person. At the beginning of the week I was feeling extremely overwhelmed and unsure about what I had gotten myself into. Now, I feel much more confident and I am certainly happy to be here even if they do make me exhausted and drive me absolutely crazy at times. As always, I appreciate any continued thoughts and prayers. 

Foster Kids: A Population at Risk

Yesterday I traveled to Montgomery, Alabama to begin working with a six-week summer event called the National Social Work Enrichment Program (NSEP). The purpose of NSEP is to gather a group of foster teens from across the state who have goals of graduating high school and attending college. Specifically, it is geared more towards students who wish to seek a career in social work, although that is not necessarily required to join the program. This summer, a program exists both at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and also at AlabamaStateUniversity in Montgomery. Throughout the course of the six weeks, the groups will be traveling to various campuses across the state to do college tours, and they will be learning about financial aid and how to apply for college. They will also learn basic financial and living skills for adulthood, team building skills, public speaking skills, and the dangers of sex, alcohol, and drugs. I am very excited about the valuable learning experience for myself and also for each of the students attending. A couple of people have asked me to update about my experiences, and I thought it would be helpful to first give an overview of some important things to know about foster care and how it makes this group of kids unique.

 

In most cases, if a child is in foster care it is because they have been removed from the custody of their parents due to cases of abuse or neglect. There can be various kinds of abuse, such as physical, emotional, sexual, or simply failing to meet the basic physiological needs of the child. Abuse almost always has a serious negative affect on the child’s psyche and also society as a whole. In fact, about 80% of 21 year olds who were abused as children meet the criteria for at least one psychological disorder. Also, abused children are 25% more likely to experience teen pregnancy, 59% more likely to be arrested as a juvenile, 28% more likely to be arrested as an adult, and 30% more likely to commit a violent crime. The result of child abuse is that children are suffering severe emotional trauma, the crime rate is increased, the productivity of society is lowered, and it is costing the state a lot of money, especially when there is not early intervention.

 

Serious cases of abuse and neglect result in removing the child from the home and placing them with either a willing and competent relative or in a foster care home. Most of the children I will be working with are victims of abuse, which has created a whole new set of problems for the child. Many of them will be on medication for psychological disorders. Some of them will have behavioral problems and seek attention in inappropriate ways. It would be easy to see these children and automatically label them as a “problem child,” but it is so important to realize that these children have been through things that you will never be able to fully understand. But it is not our job to understand why they may act a certain way, it is our job to help them overcome these struggles and feel as safe and comfortable as possible. In fact, these children are very aware of the fact that they are often viewed as a problem, and this only causes them to act out more. Sadly, many children in foster care have become a burden to the system and jump around from home to home, never able to feel a sense of stability.

 

Although the goal of foster care is to place children in a safe environment, it does not come without its own set of adverse affects. Children often suffer more emotional trauma and psychological damage because they bounce from home to home far too often. Once they begin feeling comfortable with a family, they are moved to another family. Unfortunately, this often means that the children are forced to change schools, which hinders their educational experience tremendously. Typically, kids who change schools frequently make less academic progress and fall further behind with each school change. Frequent school changes also lead to an increased high school drop out rates and lower college attendance. Only about half the children in foster care graduate from high school, and even fewer of those go on to attend college.

 

If you know me well, you know that education is something that I am passionate about. I believe that a quality education greatly increases the chances of a successful future. Even though every child in America is guaranteed a “free and appropriate education,” this is often not the case. Although most kids attend school, many children are neglected the opportunity to receive an appropriate and beneficial education due to various circumstances. Often, this is the case for foster children. The goal of NSEP is to gather children who want to beat the statistics, and provide them with the means and the empowerment to do so.

 

The particular group that I will be working with is at even higher risk because they are getting ready to age out of the system. They are juniors and seniors and high school and by the time they turn eighteen, most of them will be on their own. Kids who age out of foster care are often at even higher risk of homelessness and poverty because most of the time they do not have a support system to help them with the transition into adulthood. If these kids do go on to earn both a high school and college diploma, their chances of homelessness are dramatically decreased. That is my goal for the next couple of moths. If I can be the difference in even one child deciding to earn their high school diploma instead of dropping out, then I will consider my time here a success.

 

 

I love live music so much. There are

I love live music so much. There are few things greater than seeing your favorite band live and being surrounded by a community who loves them just as much as you do. I recently got to fulfill my 5-year dream of seeing Paramore live. They were my favorite band in high school, and I still love them today. They remained pretty silent for a few years but recently came out with a self-titled album that was well worth the wait. The show was literally everything I hoped for. It was well worth the drive to Atlanta and standing in the hot sun in the mile-long line outside the door. The performance of each of the band members was phenomenal and I enjoyed singing along to every word. Hayley’s voice is just as flawless while she was running around the stage as it is in studio.

There’s just something about live music that creates a unique bonding experience between complete strangers. It’s one thing to listen to a band through your headphones when you’re alone in your room, but it’s another thing to shamelessly belt out the words while your cramped up next to a bunch of complete strangers who are dripping sweat on you. Afterwards you feel completely disgusting when you think about all the germs, but in the moment the thought doesn’t even cross your mind. All you’re thinking about is how excited you get each time they start a new song, because every song is your favorite.

At the last show I went to before Paramore I got hit in the head really hard towards the end. I blacked out for a few seconds and it scared the crap out of me. I ended up missing the last few songs because I had to go sit down and I had a throbbing headache for the next few days, but it was completely worth it. I was seeing my current favorite band live for the fourth time, and I swear they put on a better show every time I see them. I was able to take my sister to her first show and allow her to have that incredible experience. The look on her face when we pushed ourselves up to the stage and touched the lead singer as he jumped around was probably my favorite moment of any concert I’ve every been to. I was there with the people I love and care about the most. And I was also with a bunch of strangers who, oddly, I love and care about too.

Man, I just love live music.

Yes, Christians Can Be Hypocrites. So What Are We Going to Do about It?

Several years ago, I read the book Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. I read this book at a time in my life when I was spiritually lacking. I was a senior in high school, getting ready to enter into a whole new phase of life and I had reached the point where I was trying to figure out if I was doing this whole Christian thing because it was how I was raised or because it was what I truly believed and how I wanted to live my life. I’ll be honest and say that this soul searching experience took me down a not-so-great path for a while. I don’t mean that I began doing “bad” things or even began acting rebelliously or anything like that. But rather, I mean that I had a lot of problems within myself. I became an angry person. I was angry at myself, I was angry at my friends, I was angry at the world and society as a whole. But most importantly I was angry at God. To be honest, I couldn’t even tell you exactly why I was so angry. I think, more than anything, I was angry that I was surrounded by hypocrisy. Also, I was angry because I had no idea what my place was in this world, and I was mad that God wasn’t blatantly showing it to me. 

Reading Blue Like Jazz helped me in overcoming this anger towards hypocrisy. The best way to describe this book is its subtitle: “Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality”. The entire book is basically telling stories from the author’s life and explaining what he learned from different experiences and how they helped him to better understand who God is. Donald came from a strict conservative Christian family, but that did not mean that his life was anywhere near perfect. His father abandoned him when he was a young child, and was never very involved in his life at all. Also, his mother ends up having an inappropriate relationship with the married youth pastor at his church (whom Don worked under). Don ends up getting so angry that he neglects his plan to attend a private university nearby and departs to Reed College. He did this because he felt that Reed College was one of the farthest universities from God, and he wanted to get as far away from God and religion as possible. During his time there, he ends up getting caught up in the party lifestyle and his hatred toward God and Christianity is only further fueled. Despite all of this, God seems to have followed him to this place and He is determined to bring Don back to him. 

At one point along the story, when Don has reached the climax of his care-free lifestyle, he finds himself in a unique situation. At his school, they had this strange tradition of hosting an event where someone portrays a Catholic priest and students at the school come and make confessions to him. Now, it was Don’s turn to be the priest, but he decides to do things differently. Instead of having the students confess to him, he decides to make a confession to each of them, apologizing for neglecting his duty to bear the image of a Christ in a place where Christ seems so absent. He begins to tell people about how he came to Reed to escape his Christian culture, because he was ashamed of it. He was ashamed of the hypocrisy that surrounded it. But, he takes it even further than this and says that he is ashamed of Jesus. He is ashamed of Jesus because Jesus is so radically different, and in order to follow him we must be radically different as well. But it’s not easy to do that, is it? It’s not easy to be the outcast or the loser who nobody will sit by at lunch. It’s not easy to be known as that super Christian weirdo in a world where being a super Christian weirdo just simply isn’t cool. He goes on to say  that he hated all of these people who would be one person on Sundays and a different person every other day in the week. He hated them because they make the rest of us Christians look bad. The ones who are really trying to follow Christ still end up with this hypocritical Christian stereotype because there are some other people out there screwing that up for us. He hated those people who gave Christianity that image and stereotype. But then Donald has a breakthrough. He recognizes that even though he has distanced himself from God, God has never left him. He realizes that, by hating these people, he was just as bad as they were. Because Jesus commands us to love everyone, even our enemies. He commands us to love our brothers and our sisters in Christ, even if we don’t believe they are living their lives appropriately. We are all prone to sin and not one of us is better than the other.

So yes, maybe Christianity is rampant with hypocrisy. But if we are really following Christ should we use that as an excuse to distance ourselves from the Church and from fellow Christians? Absolutely not. In fact, I think we should use that as motivation to better represent ourselves as followers of Christ so that hypocrisy is not what Christians are known for. If we are ashamed of our faith, then we are not making progress. Actually, I think we will probably be going backwards. There is a common analogy that states that church is not a museum for good people, but a hospital for the broken. Even though this is kind of overused, I think it is very accurate. People come to church because they a sinners. Like you and me, they are going to fail to bear the image of Christ 100% every day during the week. You go to church to try to overcome this, but if we are just calling them hypocrites we are only pushing them further away. Our overbearing standards are hurting them and the Christian Church as a whole. 

Although there is probably some content in Blue Like Jazz that a lot of you may not completely agree with, I would still recommend reading it for an eye-opening experience. It can be controversial and maybe even offensive to some people at times, but I think it’s realistic and it allowed me to open my mind to issues I never thought of before. In fact, it helped me come out of a dark time. Last year a movie representation of the book came out. I recently watched it, and I will say it was rather strange. It’s definitely not your typical Christian film like Facing the Giants or Fireproof, but the acting still isn’t exceptionally grand. It’s now streaming on Netflix, but I would still recommend the book over the movie. However, I have posted a link to the confession scene in the movie. Hopefully it can give a better representation than what I attempted to describe. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY34q_sF3lI

**The movie tells a somewhat different account if Don’ s life, but they both essentially make the same point. The part that I summarized is from the movie, just because it is more fresh on my mind than the book.

Over the last few days I’ve had to learn the hard way that doing things my way will only lead to destruction. In the book of Daniel, there is a prophesy where God is warning the king of Babylon that if he does not change his ways then the kingdom will be divided. Although God has not communicated with me through handwriting on the wall, he was almost speaking just as blatantly. Yet I ignored his warnings because I was too afraid of what he wanted me to do. Now I have been divided and I am working so hard to put my kingdom back together. Ignoring his commands has caused much unnecessary pain and suffering, which I am now having to endure because of my own selfishness.

Jesus said that his Father would tear down the temple and then rebuild it in three days. I have been torn down emotionally, physically, and spiritually over the last several days but the thing that is getting me through it is my faith in the fact that he will rebuild me. It may take longer than three days, but I know I will get there eventually. And I also know that I’ll be a stronger person and hopefully know when to heed his warnings.

“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.” 2 Corinthians 4:8-9
It’s easier to face the difficulties life brings, knowing that He will never give us more than we can handle.

Not Every Person on Welfare Is a Lazy Scumbag

Not every person on welfare is a lazy scumbag. Some people actually need help. Stop and thinking before you make generalized statements about this stereotyped group of people. We all play a role in the eradication of poverty. Start by educating yourself. Know what you are talking about before you take a stand for or against something. Even if some adults are abusing the welfare system, innocent children still deserve to have food and their stomachs and a warm place to lay their heads at night. I would like to encourage everyone to take the time to watch this video. Open up your eyes, and open up your heart. What is your role in this epidemic called poverty?

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/poor-kids/

I am currently reading John Piper’s book, “Desiring God.” This book is arguing that true Christianity is hedonistic, meaning that it involves a personal joy and satisfaction from one’s relationship with God and the act of serving God. The chapter I read today is about Scripture and how it should be used as kindling for Christian Hedonism. Much of this chapter discussed the trials that come along with Christianity and how, with the presence of Satan, it is impossible to make every day a joyful day in the Lord. The first few paragraphs read as follows:

“Christian Hedonism is much aware that every day with Jesus is not ‘sweeter than the day before,’ Some days with Jesus our disposition is sour. Some days with Jesus, we are so sad we feel our heart will break open. Some days with Jesus, we are so depressed and discouraged that between the garage and the house we just want to sit down on the grass and cry.

Every day with Jesus is not sweeter than the day before. We know it from experience and we know it from Scripture. For David says in Psalm 19:7, ‘The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.’ If every day with Jesus were sweeter than the day before, if life were a steady ascent with no dips in our affection for God, we wouldn’t need to be re-vived.

In another place, David extols the Lord with similar words: ‘He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul’ (Psalm 23:2-3).  This means David must have had bad days.

There were days when his soul needed to be restored. It’s the same phrase he used in Psalm 19:7: ‘The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.’ Normal Christian life is a repeated process of restoration and renewal. Our joy is not static. It fluctuates with real life. It is vulnerable to Satan’s attacks.

When Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:24, ‘Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy,’ we should emphasize it this way: ‘We work with you for your joy.’ The preservation of our joy in God takes work. It is a fight. Our adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion (I Peter 5:8), and he has an insatiable appetite to destroy one thing: the joy of faith (Ephesians 6:17) for the defense of our joy.

Or, to change the image, when Satan huffs and puffs and tries to blow out the flame of our joy, we have an endless supply of kindling in the Word of God. Even on days when every cinder in our soul feels cold, if we crawl to the Word of God and cry out for ears to hear, the cold ashes will be lifted and the tiny spark of life will be fanned. For ‘the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.’ The Bible is the kindling of Christian Hedonism.”

The reason this spoke to me so strongly is because I am very aware in my life that not every day is a  joyful day in the Lord. Many days I am overcome by incomprehensible sadness and it’s days like that where my faith in God is at it’s weakest. There have been so many periods in my life where I thought I was trying so hard to pursue the Lord, yet I was getting nowhere. I have now come to the realization that this is the way Satan attacks me. He robs me of my joy and fills me with hatred and self-loathing. These are the days when my joy in the Lord is non-existent, and every time it happens I am pulled further away from my Creator. However, I have now learned that the only way to overcome this is by seeking him relentlessly through prayer and through the Word, even in the times that it feels like he is not there. I want to encourage everyone who has felt this way not to give up, because once you give up it’s a lot harder to get back. I have learned and am still learning that through my own experience. Don’t wait for God to pursue you; pursue Him by fighting every temptation along the way and by remembering that you are not alone.

 

Jesus Was a Social Worker

My decision to leave my comfort zone at Samford University to come study social work at the University of Alabama was based off my desire to follow my calling in life. And that is coming from someone who doesn’t even really believe that every person has one specific calling or destiny. But I believe with everything in me that I was brought into this world to make a difference in the life of others. Care, compassion, and outreach are the things I am actually good at and I am determined to put those skills to use in my career. When I left a school comprised of mainly dedicated Christians to come to one of the biggest party schools in the nation, I was under the impression that I was one of the only ones who chose social because of their desire to accomplish the task that God has placed in their life. I have never been more happy to be so wrong.

At the beginning of every semester we have to do those awkward go around the class and tell your name and why you chose your major kind of things. Every semester, about half of the class credits their faith in God for their decision to choose social work and I think that is just amazing. In fact, I feel the presence of God more in the School of Social Work than I did at the private Baptist university I once attended. Here, people are putting their faith into action by becoming the hands and the feet of Christ. This is not to say that every social worker I have met is a Christian. However, whether you put your trust in God or not, it is evident that the duty of a social worker requires one of have a Christ-like view of the world. And by this I mean non-judgmental, compassionate, patient, loving, caring, forgiving, and a strong desire to put others before yourself.

A few weeks ago we had a guest speaker in my policy class. He was a middle-aged man who grew up in the foster care system and is now a social worker. He had a terrible experience in the foster system, and decided in his adult life that he wanted to become a social worker so that that his clients would not have to experience the same things that he did. He told us his inspiring story. When he was a baby his mother took him to her neighbor’s house and asked them to watch him while she went to the store. Hours passed, and eventually days. She never returned. As an infant, he was taken into the foster care system by DHR, where he would spend the rest of his childhood and adolescent years. He was never a bad kid really, but he did have some behavioral problems. Because of this, no family wanted to keep him so he bounced from home to home and was eventually put in a group facility for children with mental illness, even though he had no mental illness himself. He was a burden to the system, and he was placed here because nobody wanted to deal with him anymore. At this point, he was reaching his adolescent years and began struggling emotionally. He contemplated suicide. After saying this, he stopped his story to say, “I’m going to be very blunt with you and say that I am an extremely religious man. The day I was considering suicide, God spoke to me and told me that he had a plan for my life. That was the day I surrendered myself to Him.” It was so encouraging to me to have this man come into a public university and tell my class about his faith in God. He continued his story by saying that when he finally aged out of the foster system, he was given the opportunity to attend college. “I started out studying ministry, I wanted to be a preacher,” he said, “but then we got to the part where we had to learn Hebrew and I decided that I didn’t want to be a preacher anymore. I didn’t want to be a preacher, but I wanted to be like Christ. So I became a social worker.”

I think that last bit pretty much sums it up. During his time on earth, Jesus spent time with criminals. He fed the hungry. He did this physically, spiritually, and emotionally. He associated with the outcasts. He was friends with those who were a burden to the system. And guess what. He didn’t judge any of them. In fact, he loved them. He showed care and compassion and he reached out to them.

When it gets down to it, I can’t think of a better way to spend my life than by using my career to bring life to the lifeless and to become a voice for the voiceless. Nobody tells us it’s going to be easy. In fact, they tell us it is going to be pretty dang hard. But they don’t focus on that; but rather, they focus on the joy and sense of reward that comes from changing someone’s life for the better. So what do I want to do with my life? I want to be like Christ. Therefore, I will be a social worker.