Thank You

The following is a thank you to my parents, to my grandparents and to whoever in my family history did these things for their children...

• Thank you for loving me enough to provide me with a clean, safe place to live.
• Thank you for protecting me from physical, sexual, and emotional abuse.
• Thank you for giving me healthy food to eat and working to provide for our family.
• Thank you for disciplining me and teaching me the right way to live.
• Thank you for teaching me the importance of an education and expecting the best from me.
• Thank you for trying your absolute best and for passing down the good things you learned from your parents and for being a "cycle breaker" and doing better for me than your parents did for you.

No, my parents aren't perfect, no body's are. But I do know for certain that the foundation they provided me has prepared me to serve the Lord in the way I do now. I know that the simple act of providing me with a safe, clean home is a WAY bigger deal than I ever realized. I took those things above for granted until I moved here and learned. In 4 years I have learned that is safer to assume that kids I come into contact with here in Kensington:

• Have been physically, sexually, and/or mentally abused.
• Have been neglected in some way.
• Live in an unsafe, dirty environment, often with roaches and mice.
• Are not supported educationally.
• Are not guided spiritually.
• Are not disciplined properly.
• Are in the hands of people who have NO clue how to raise them properly.
• Are on welfare or government aid of some sort.
• Desperately need professional counseling and aren't getting any.
• Don't have healthy food available to them, if even enough food at all.
• Are doing things that they shouldn't be allowed to do, but their parents allow them because either they don't know better or it's just easier (ex: roam the streets alone).

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not at all saying that all of the kids and homes are like this, but in the 4 years I have lived here I have learned that this is way more of the norm than I realized. I think I wore the rosy colored glasses for awhile and God is ripping them off of my face. I am being made aware of issues of abuse that I had NO clue about and never would have expected. I am seeing filth I never realized was so bad. I am seeing more and more of how the educational system and families are failing children academically. I am seeing more clearly how the reason cannot necessarily be blamed on the actual parents of the children I am working with now. That they can love their children, but they honestly just don't know HOW to love them because nobody loved them right. The never ending cycle is what I am seeing. I am praying for the cycle to end, praying that one of these children I am working with, and so desperately praying for, will be the cycle breaker for their family. I am praying that I can work with the children and families God places in my path and possibly be the hands and feet of God to lead them to a better life.

Please pray with me, crying out to God is more like it. I am beyond what I would call simply praying. I am in some serious grief for the people I love. I am begging God to rescue them. I am crying out to the Lord to tell me what to do. Please pray. And be sure to thank the people in your life who did those things in the first list, for you.