One More Child
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good morning you're going wait this isn't pastor gene um i want to thank pastor gene and heather for having me here today my name is glenn carver and i am with one more child as you can probably tell by my shirt if you couldn't read that um i was with you back in in uh january but at that time i was actually with a different organization and i've since made a change and i am just very excited to share with you a little bit today um both from the scripture in terms of uh some things that that god has put on my heart that i think is important for all of us to be reminded of uh on a on a daily basis of of just whose we are and and why we're here but also to share a little bit about one more child and kind of what we do i'm not going to go into great depth with it i do have a table outside so if you're interested in learning a little more then i'll be out there after the after the service feel free to stop by and chat with me a little bit but just to let you know um one more child is an organization that has actually been around for a little over 100 years now uh started um as an orphanage uh back a hundred years ago uh over in acadia and has grown from there to an organization that is now both global and national in in our reach so we were for many years some of you may have heard of florida baptist homes that's what we were for many many many years running orphanages and also had some group homes that kind of thing and we've just grown in such a way that back in 2017 they rebranded and changed the name to one more child because florida baptist homes didn't really represent um the full picture anymore number one we're not we're not just baptist and number two we're not just in florida so it just made sense we started having all of these outreaches and it made sense to put it under one umbrella hence one more child so we really have a five finger outreach that we do both locally uh and then globally and those five fingers are we we work with human trafficking victims we do that we used to do it through some safe houses but we actually now have what we call mobile teams which have we've found to be incredibly uh more effective in our work in terms of the number of victims we're able to actually impact and reach uh and minister to and then we do foster care which is where my role falls in i'm a foster parent recruiter working locally in a five county area here in southwest florida recruiting for foster families that may have an interest in making a difference in kids lives and the beautiful thing is being part of a faith-based christian organization our number one goal is to have christian homes where children can be at least introduced to jesus christ and the transforming work that he can do in their lives and ultimately maybe even have an impact upon the family as a whole because the primary goal of fostering is always reunification with the family and so that doesn't always happen but that's our goal and so as such we want to be able to even have an impact into those families and and uh and and put that in god's hands for that change to happen then we also do work with uh feeding hungry children and we do that uh globally nationally as well as locally we work with single moms and then we just do work for just struggling families as a whole in trying to help them so that's really our five finger approach we're not necessarily doing all five things everywhere we are some things are more focused than others depending on what what one the need is and what the resources are to make that possible here in southwest florida our two primary focuses are human trafficking and fostering so uh those those are kind of the things we do and i'm just i'm just honored and thrilled to be part of what what god is is is doing uh through this organization and just to be part of a team that really comes together in some incredible ways in terms of serving one another as well as serving families so this morning i just want to talk to you a little bit about jesus view of of all of this uh particularly of children so i want to take us to a scripture in matthew 18 and verses uh one through five and it says at the time the disciples came to jesus and said who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven interesting question um you remember that at this point in time these disciples have been traveling with jesus for some time they have witnessed him um you know transforming lives both physically in terms of healing and and and and spiritually and and they've been listening to his teaching they've been hearing what his focus is but yet their concern is they're still not quite getting it they're still expecting him they believe he's messiah but they believe he's going to rescue them from the romans and he's going to set up an earthly kingdom and they're debating okay we know who's first that gets to be him right but who of us gets to be second that's what we want to know who of us is like right in line next to him and it wasn't this wasn't the only time they were battling this question we find actually later on in just a few chapters later we find james and john mother you know so they've obviously been talking about it outside of the realm of traveling with jesus going home and talking to mom hey guess what we get to you know and so mom now comes to jesus and says um excuse me but is there any way my sons can sit next to you when you get to sit on your throne can they be right there you know i you know i don't know i'm not going to get in between over which one's on the right which one's on the left but can they at least be there you know she she didn't give favoritism that way she left that up to jesus but she wanted to make sure they had at least the two best seats so i mean this was an ongoing argument i mean literally to the point where jesus when he was on his way to jerusalem to face his final week and go to the cross they're walking behind still arguing about this question still debating it still like hey what's gonna happen here when we get here he's getting ready to set this thing up which one of us and notice what jesus does so this is what's the amazing part of his response so they're arguing about who's going to be greatest and he called a child to himself and set him before them and said truly i say to you unless you are converted and become like children you will not enter the kingdom of heaven and again this isn't the first this isn't the only time or the first time that jesus calls children to himself right we've seen this in other places we see it actually one more chapter over in in in chapter 19 um excuse me i got to use my glasses for this because my print is really small um in in in chapter 19 verse 13 it says then some children were brought to him so that he might lay hands on them and pray and the disciples rebuked them even after hearing this they still don't get it you know but before we be too critical the question becomes do we really get it or do we kind of miss it sometimes ourselves you know and so he says but jesus said let the children alone do not hinder them from coming to me for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these so it's it's not the only time jesus is saying this it's not the only time he's trying to get these grown men to get it to recognize what's important he goes on to say whoever then humbles himself as this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven you want to be you want to be great you want to be next to me you want that power you know how you get it you become like this one that's how you get it and boy that that's tough tough for us you know i i've i've got my in addition to everything i do i get my own business on the side where i do some leadership development personal growth training that kind of thing and i it's been really kind of hitting me god's been working on my heart a lot in the last year or so around the whole idea of leadership everybody wants to be a leader everybody you know the sad part is is if everybody's a leader who's following so i mean it's not even possible for everybody to be a leader but an interesting thing happened to me a few months ago how many of you know the name jimmy collins he was the president of chick-fil-a for 40 years he's recently retired in the last few years and he and he wrote a book recently called creative followership so i reached out to him on linkedin and he sent me his book and i said i really love to have a conversation with he goes read my book first so i read the book and i responded back to him i said i finished the book can we talk and he said sure so he sent me his number and i called him up and we talked for an hour on the phone and god really struck me with we're so busy trying to lead that we're not focused on what he really came for which was we're supposed to follow we're supposed to follow him now if others follow us because we're following him like paul said then that's wonderful but if we're not focused on following him then what does our leadership really matter what's the point and so i i've got a whole idea for book idea but i don't want to tell you because then somebody might steal it from me um so i'm working on an idea i'll just say that so um you know so jesus is is is showing them and he's showing us that the key to being used to being in a place of of leadership within his kingdom is by being a follower and what's the thing about children is they follow they have they have a heart where if you truly just care for them and love them right it doesn't take much for them to trust it's when they're abused and hurt and that that it becomes difficult and even then sadly they trust when they shouldn't trust but what about us what do we do so he goes on and says whoever receives one such child in my name receives me so that being said the first thing that i want us to see from this is to see the children and when i say see the children i don't just mean the little children i mean the children in all of us now there's a difference between being children and being childish because the bible tells us not to be childish but it does tell us to be childlike so see the children i mean really see the children i mean really see not only their need but see what we can learn from them how many times have you looked at a child and thought what can i learn from this child probably not much right because we don't tend to think that way we think what can i teach this child but jesus is saying to these disciples learn from these children see them in a different way see them the way i see them i wish i had thought to bring a picture my oldest son just had his first baby born this week on wednesday and i had an incredible picture of him that his wife sent me of him holding her in the sitting in the chair and well and and asleep but holding her just you know he's exhausted she's exhausted but it was just like one of those ones that just has no words it just kind of melts your heart you know and so i mean this is my seventh grandchild so hey you know i'm you know not my first rodeo but yet it's funny how each one is a little bit different there's something that strikes you different and i think the thing that struck me with this one was here's my oldest son having his first and it was just there was a there was something about that that really kind of hit me in a different way and and uh in in the preciousness of that the specialness of that and and jesus looks at us and when he sees us it's that grace we sang about he doesn't see us in all of our grown-up-ness and our brilliance and our what we can do for him he sees us as little children who trust him who need his grace who need his mercy who need his forgiveness who need his love every single day that's what he sees when he looks at us so i want to i'm going to share this next video for you it's just kind of a a quick clip that will kind of tell you a little bit about one more child and kind of what we do and i just wanted to kind of throw this in just as a little bit of a change but also to give you some input on what we're about there are children and families around the world including in your community who are waiting for a family for a safe home for a meal for someone to recognize their potential for someone to help me in urgent need at one more child for more than a century our mission has been providing christ-centered services to those whose needs we are uniquely equipped to meet through foster care we equip people to meet the needs of children going through trauma giving them the support and tools to work with children's biological families we work tirelessly with law enforcement to identify victims of child sex trafficking train leaders and officials worldwide how to protect individuals who are vulnerable to being trafficked offering world-class counseling and holistic services to help victims heal we're confronting child hunger whether through our expert staff ensuring nourishment of infants around the globe or volunteers packing backpacks with food to put into the hands of children and families in your community brave moms working towards self-sufficiency come to us for temporary housing to take the next steps to become the best parents possible growing spiritually emotionally and relationally we keep families together with crucial resources and provide ways for churches and community members to provide wrap-around care for foster children and families offering life skills workshops helping parents meet their god-given potential with family support services god is using our expertise and drive our generous donors our compassionate partners and our inspiring volunteers to meet the urgent needs of hurting children and struggling families everywhere our burden is and always will be helping one more child oop went too far can't go back there we go all right um so that's a little bit about who we are and why we do what we do um and i it was great because this morning i already had the privilege of meeting a few different people who have done fostering uh in the past and i'm so grateful for those that have stepped out it's not easy work by no means is it easy work and we don't want to pretend that it is i you know i i personally haven't fostered i spent i've spent over 10 years in social service industry and worked mostly in group homes because that was when i first got started years ago that was the primary focus and so i spent you know nine years working in a in a group home for teenage boys that had been sex offenders that were had been incarcerated for sex offense i should say um is a more appropriate way to say it because that's not their identity it's what they did and we were a transition program for them knowing that they were going to turn 18 and be back out on the streets and wanted to try to give them as much intervention and help as we could to see them transformed at the time we were the only program like it in the country and i don't even know if there's many like it because most people when it comes to working with that population they just don't want to they just want to get rid of them um and then you know i spent the last year and a half working on the other side of that coin um with victims of of human trafficking so i i've been in a unique place to to experience both and and the bottom line is here's the thing when it comes right down to it it's all the same work they're all children who have in many cases been through horrific things that most of us you know hopefully haven't experienced and certainly don't want to and we need to see that need in their lives so i want to just tell you a quick story um the thing i loved about jesus when he taught was he always told stories so i'm going to tell a story and at some point in this story you're going to say hey wait a second i know this story you're not going to know that in the beginning but at some point you will and i think you'll you'll pick up on where i'm going with it so this is a story about a little girl who was born into an incredible loving family um mom and dad she was the oldest mom and dad loved her dearly dad was such a great model and example to her of love any and he was she was daddy's little girl and he loved her but what she loved the most as she got a little older she got to be five and six years old was watching how daddy cared for mom and how much he loved her and and when she was about five she had a little baby brother that was born and then a couple years later she had another little brother that was born and she loved to help mom and and participating and caring for her little brothers and supporting them and supporting mom in that way and playing like you know big sister to them and things were wonderful it was a wonderful home dad dad worked you know as a as a as a carpenter and you know he'd but he was home every night same time and they'd have dinner together and it was just wonderful and all of a sudden one day when she was nine years old daddy didn't come home when he normally did and she was watching for him like she always did and he wasn't showing up and about an hour or so went by and all of a sudden she saw two men coming toward the house that she recognized as men that daddy worked with and they showed up to inform mom that an accident that happened at work and dad wasn't going to be coming home mom was devastated mom couldn't even speak and this little girl she didn't know what to do she she couldn't really understand what was happening she just saw mom kind of break down and she tried to reach out to comfort mom and mom pushed her away the little brothers started crying and she kind of did almost the same thing with them that mom did with her and time went on and it didn't seem to get better because they were living you know in in a place where it was really hard mom wasn't able to really work there were people who tried to help out a little bit and give them some money and give them some food but as time went on that seemed to fade a little bit and there was less and less thought about it and less and less help and mom was struggling to to figure out how to make ends meet and provide you know some food and there wasn't much in the house and and mom seemed to just be depressed all the time and the little girl found herself being frustrated and angry with her little brothers and their behavior and finally she just wanted by 11 years old she just wanted out of the house so she'd try to get out of the house as much as she could and started hanging out with some other kids who were then kind of teaching her how to steal some food and get what she could and she kind of liked it in some ways because at least she could eat but at the same time it was it was hard and she didn't really like it she just missed what her life was and couldn't understand why all of this was happening and then another couple years went by and she was getting in some trouble and mom just became more angry with her and more frustrated with her and more discouraged and all of a sudden she came home one day and mom had a man there an older man and mom said to her daughter 13 this man is going to take you and he's going to take care of you because i can't anymore i can't deal with you anymore and so the man took her away and before long she found out that the man was interested in more than she thought he was interested in and things began to happen he began to take advantage of her in that way and that went on for a while and then all of a sudden the man introduced other men and this continued and continued and continued tissue was about 16 17 years old and finally the man wasn't even interested in in her himself anymore and cast her out onto the streets and she didn't know what she was going to do so she just kept doing what's been happening because at least maybe she could survive that way and so that went on for a couple years and all of a sudden one day out of nowhere in the midst of her being with a man in the midst of a relationship some other men came crashing into the room grabbed her started dragging her down the street she didn't know where they were going all of a sudden she realized they were going into a building that she had not been in since before her daddy died and all of a sudden she realized not as she only is she going into this building but she's going in naked and she's being dragged in and they came into the building and they're in the midst of the room was a man talking and they thrust their way in so that the everything went silent and these men threw her down before the man and said what are you going to do with her what are you going to do with her because she was caught in the very act of something that demands that she be tried and she'd be executed what are you going to do with her and the place became silent and this conversation happened and when they kept on questioning him he straightened up and said to them let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw the stone at her and again he stooped down and wrote in the ground you recognize the story at some point right i know i kind of took some liberty i get that but you know what in the world that i've worked in in the world that i work in i didn't take any liberty at all because there's a reason this woman doesn't have a name i believe there's a reason we don't see her again because this is hundreds and thousands of children in our world that seemingly have no name that seemingly aren't seen or they're only seen for what they've done and they're labeled for what they've done but jesus saw her he saw her he saw the little girl who lost her daddy at nine years old he saw the little girl that was taken advantage of over and over and over again and so what did he do he did what he could to get everybody else to see it a little bit too and it's interesting because we don't know what he wrote and people have debated about it some have made jokes about he was writing the girlfriend's names of all the other guys and blah blah blah i it really struck me in going back through this i actually think he was largely surrounded jesus was by uneducated people was he not that's who mostly followed him people who didn't have great education but the pharisees did and they knew that they were breaking the law in the way they brought her to him because the law required that they bring the man as well not just the woman if they were caught in the act then they were to bring both and they didn't so i'm kind of thinking maybe he was just writing the law out for them to read that others maybe couldn't read or understand he was reminding them of what it actually said and then he got up and simply said okay fine that's what the law says so whichever one of you is without literally in the original it means without this sin go ahead you you throw first and isn't it interesting that not only did they begin to leave but they began to leave from the oldest to the youngest guess what because those guys had a few more of those things going on in their life probably some of them had even been with this woman that's why they knew that's why they knew where to find her how to find her and that's why they dragged her out and not the man just saying could be wrong but think about the possibility there logically and then the younger guys are going whoa if if they're backing away i guess maybe i've been thinking about this too maybe i should get out of here my myself and so little by little by little they left in a very different way than the way they came in and then when they were all gone and he knew it those you know it says they they began to leave and jesus straightened up and asked her woman where are they as no one condemned you and she said no one sir and he said neither do i condemn you jesus declared go and leave your life of sin now this seems very interesting to me because i've heard this message a million times growing up i've been around this and i never until a few months ago was and maybe it's because of the work that i've been you know privileged to be a part of um did it strike me like it like it did because it almost seems like he says on one hand i don't condemn you but on the other hand he's condemning her does it not a little bit like i don't condemn you but go no don't sin anymore seems a little condemning right but that's not really it translates that way but really what he's doing is he's giving her freedom for the first time in her life he's saying others may identify you and it's interesting because even in the bible sometimes you have these titles and sometimes you'll see a woman caught in adultery as the title and other times you'll see the adulterous woman there's a difference is it or not woman caught in adultery an adulterous woman a whole identity thing jesus was saying this isn't who you are you're free you're free you don't have to live this way anymore you're free from it go be who you were created to be go with that freedom in your heart this doesn't represent you this isn't your identity go and leave this because it's not who you are that's the freedom that jesus offers all of us in our lives but it comes because he sees us who we really are he sees us as those children who are lost who are confused who are dying who don't know but just want to trust but because of all the things of life that we've encountered and face just keep coming against it and running from it but freedom is ours so let me move on go back to our scripture in matthew so first we need to see we need to be come like children we need to see that in ourselves in each other and we need to see children for who they really are then he says whoever then humbles himself as this child is the one who's greatest when i was here in january i talked to you about matthew chapter 5 and verse 3 blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven that in order to really truly know god in our lives it comes at a place that takes us to our knees to be spiritually bankrupt and recognize our only hope is looking up and being humble in that way as i shared with you then doesn't mean we don't see our value because that's not true humility that's actually pride i i was having a conversation with my wife about this just the other day she's up in maine um you can actually be praying for her dad her dad has liver cancer and he had a procedure this week to try to help um stop that he's 86 years old but so there's not a whole lot they can do but they're just trying to do some radiation treatment kill some of the cells but she was just struggling with some of the things within her family and the pride that's there and dealing with all of that and one significant person in her life plays victim all the time and i said to her i said you know that's that's really not that you know her playing that role is really more about her pride the fact that she wants to lower herself so everybody else will back away and lift her up that's not what humility is humility is is that i actually see my value as a one a creation of god but then as a child of god i see my value even more that he god would send his own son and die for me but i don't walk in like hey look what i got look what i deserve look what i i didn't deserve any of it he did it out of his love for me and when i see that then i can begin to see the value in others because i see that he also did it for them he created them and he died for them the problem is that's why satan has deceived the world so much around the whole idea of evolution and all of these things because what happens what happens if we're just here by chance completely takes away the value does it not we wonder why we have trouble with racism and all these other things it's because we've completely depleted people of value because when we recognize that we have a creator then we go he as david said i am fearfully and wonderfully made he planned and purposed me and then on top of that even while i was yet a sinner christ died for me that's real value that's real worth and when we can humble ourselves like a child would we begin to to see that so we really need to be children not childish but children we need to be willing to humble ourselves in that way and see our value and see the value in others by being children i'm going to give you an example right here comes uh comes naturally for me as they say like father like son i can assure you that there was no alcoholic beverages involved in either one of these that's not the reason for this it's just like father like son this was my dad at my sister's wedding just having a good time and that was me at my daughter's wedding um and that little thing that i'm dancing with strange as that is my oldest son's best friend found it at a goodwill and thought it would be a great gift for my daughter for her wedding so that showed up at the wedding and became kind of the centerpiece of the whole of the whole time so here's the point the point is is that if we can't see children and be like children we're never really going to serve children and when i say serve children i really mean serve one another i mean really kind of see one another and serve one another let me tell you a little bit about my dad my dad my dad she must have liked something i said my dad um was the fourth child in a in a family of nine children incredibly incredibly poor um and i mean they literally there was 11 of them living in a house that was smaller than this stage two stories and just really didn't have much and i didn't know most of this growing up because my dad never talked about it and didn't really live it out in that way in his life um but when my dad was 13 years old his mom died and so again remember he was four in line there was five more behind him the youngest was two so in that day and a this was back in you know 1940 in canada and not a whole lot going on in terms of social service work so what happened is my grandfather who was i think probably somewhat of an alcoholic couldn't really take care of the kids so he shipped all the younger kids out to other family members who would take them in some of them really i don't think were very wanted but that's where they went my dad being 13 being a male um there was nobody that wanted him not unlike much of our kids in the foster care system today and some things never change so he had to go make it on his own at 13 years old that never really struck me until my oldest son turned 13. and i thought how did my dad do that he went out he had to figure out where he was going to live and how he was going to live and basically just worked child labor for people farmers mostly who would give him room and board but do whatever they asked them to do and i he never talked about that other than once or twice he made a few comments that told me some of those places weren't very good some of those places were pretty awful and he struggled along my dad knew how to work that was one thing about him but he was short in stature he he you know he wasn't a very big kid and um but he knew how to work because that's what he had to do to survive and when he was 19 years old he was developing somewhat of a drinking problem himself like much of his family and when he was 19 years old he started working for a man that was a couple years older than him uh in a uh he had a little grocery store and the man's mother and father took my dad in and made him like another son unofficially but they were his foster parents if you would they became nanny and dumps to me to my brother and sister and nanny was the only grandmother i ever knew because both of my grandmothers died before i was born but i knew nanny and i can tell you to this day that if it hadn't been for nanny and dumps i don't think my dad would have lived and survived and i don't think i'd be here but they took him in because they saw who he was they saw his heart they saw the person he was and they decided to make a difference in his life i gotta move on so lastly it says whoever receives one such child in my name receives me so it leads us really to point number three which is to receive children how do we see receive children we receive children by being willing to share our own story because when i say receive children yeah i'm a foster care recruiter i would love for many foster parents to come out of the woodwork but the truth of the matter is we need you know not just one more child we need support in all kinds of ways i had the privilege of meeting beth this morning who not only fostered but eventually adopted and now she was adopted when she was young and now she's got children who are kind of are working to work in the same manner and already her and i are talking we're getting together i'm we're plugging her in somewhere we need that kind of support for our foster families i'm telling you because it's tough work it's hard work but receiving children is also about receiving one another because again when we become in our faith like children we start to look at each other differently we start to look at each other's needs and burdens differently we're so easy to become critical and judgmental even when we don't think we are to label people to put packages around people instead of really seeing who they are we only look at what they did or have done and we label that and it impacts lives sometimes forever in this life but we need to receive and see one another differently you see i really believe i strive to live and i i know this is not the first time i've shared this with you i strive to live by that motto i don't always get it right but life is relationship the rest is just details now details matter details are important if i didn't do the details of my job they wouldn't keep me but i can tell you it's not the most important thing the most important thing is relationship and i'm thrilled and honored to not only work in an organization but work for a direct supervisor who gets that who gets that who makes it about relationship and whether we're talking about fostering whether we're talking about being the church it's about relationship it's not about how we do things how we do things is important the details matter but they don't matter near as much as why we're here why christ gave us the church why we're supposed to receive one another and receive children and receive one another as children because that's what we all need we all need to be those children who are in need of a savior so all of that being said um i want to challenge you first and foremost just to think about how any of this applies in your own life where do you need to be more like a child in your faith in your walk with god where do you need to be humble and allow god to use you from that place of it not being about you being the greatest but him being the greatest working through you because we all need that and there's always areas where we can be humbled again so that's first and foremost but then secondly if you find yourself the holy spirit stirring you that you say boy i just i want to do something to help somebody and i want you to come talk to me because whether god's calling you to foster or not there's plenty of opportunities to help struggling families to help foster families to help struggling kids to help there's just ways upon ways upon ways that can be very simple regardless of where you may be in your own life's journey that can really make a difference and just as jesus said when we receive children important to him you know he was putting them around them all the time going hey these are the ones you got to focus on first don't focus on the ones that are going to make you look like something focus on the ones that matter to me and i'll do something with you bless you so i want to just uh kind of wrap up with this one last quick video of a foster family and their story coming from a standpoint of of being jesus followers and seeing that these these kids what they're going through what they're dealing with um and that they need someone to genuinely authentically help them um to you know stand in the gap for them you know we don't know what their parents are going through that we don't know what they're dealing with but we know there's something there there's something that took place the goal of foster care is reunification the goal is to bring this child and their parent back together as you're doing foster care you need to keep the gospel at the forefront of it of why are you doing this is it just for you or is it for this child and for this family so that it is difficult we we were in this in this child's life for the season that god needed us to be and and then they'll go back to it we are right now standing in the gap and we are helping this child but also helping this parent we want the parents ultimately to come to know jesus if possible when they come in contact with us because we want their child to go back to a safe home or a home where they're going to grow up knowing about god regardless of how hard it is there's always going to be one more child but to that one child it means the world and it makes you know a huge difference in their life no matter the sacrifice no matter what we're going through no matter what's happening no matter what our circumstances it's it's always worth it for one more child so with all my talking that said it way better than anything i said and they hit such incredible important things for us to know i just want to close with one story that um i'll i'll tell very quickly but it's it for me it kind of speaks to we just don't know we just don't know how god's gonna use us but when we're willing to be used the impact can be great um several years ago i said i worked in a transition program that were for boys who had been incarcerated for sex offense and we had i you know i was there for seven and a half years we had a number of boys come through our program there was one boy in particular who um he was with us for quite a while probably a year a year and a half probably a year and a half um all-american-looking kid i mean good-looking kid you know 6-2 you know just handsome you know but with that came you know an ego you know and and in many ways an unwillingness to really do the work and recognize um what need to be done and eventually eventually we had to finally kick him out of the program because he just wasn't doing what he needed to do uh and the the amazing thing is this organization was not a faith-based organization was not a christian organization it was a a private organization with state funding and and you know but over the course of time we had several of us that were working in there who were you know born again christians and and we were able to have an influence in that in that environment to where every sunday the kids went to church we took them to different churches but we we got them to where they were going to church we had some freedom we didn't you know we didn't you know necessarily witness to them you know unless they brought something up because we were careful about that you know it's going to remember these kids were high manipulators too so they'd love to play you so we were always very cautious and very aware but i get you know he anyway he got kicked out of the program a few more years passed and finally the i left the program and another i don't know five or six years passed and i was this was up in maine and i went to a christian concert and they had at one point they had a break between artists and so for whatever reason i have still no idea why i chose to go outside um yeah promise wasn't get a smoke or something i just went outside um and as i'm walking up the street i hear behind me uh glenn glenn i'm like who's i turn around and there's this young man now probably 25 26 years old walking towards me and i have no idea who it is doesn't look like anybody i know doesn't look like anybody i've ever met i mean just does not look familiar to me in any way shape or form and he says glenn it's and he tells me his name and i'm like are you kidding me and he goes yeah he said i just i i saw you and i just wanted to catch you he said i just wanted you to know that you know i i really went downhill for quite a while after i left the program and i finally hit rock bottom and i walked into a salvation army and i came to know the lord and he said i'm i'm married now i got a couple kids i've got my own business and normally you know in my heart there's that i wonder if i'm being manipulated again but looking at him he looks so different that i just went thank you lord nothing i did it was what god did but he used and he said to me he said you know i remember being in the group home and i remember how you you all used to take us to church and it didn't mean much to me then but it mattered it mattered we'd never know because we don't know what god's doing in the heart and life of somebody and how the littlest things we do can be part of his process of touching and transforming life so just be children and allow him to use you instead of trying to do something for god let god do something through you that's the difference let's pray father god i thank you for this incredible privilege and opportunity to be here at c3 church i thank you for this work here i thank you for pastor gene and heather and and just this body of people who love you and desire to serve you and honor you and grow in you and want to be actively involved in touching their community and touching people around them i pray that you would just use and work through them in mighty ways through the cafe through the church through the ministries of the church through reaching to those who are in need within the community i just pray that you would continue to bless that in ways that can only be because of you that can only be acknowledged to you like we don't even know how we did this god just did it and i pray that you would open doors for lives to be transformed and change i pray if there's any that are that you're stirring their hearts about how they might be able to be more involved with ministering to children who've been through traumatic things in their life i pray that you would not let them go but you would stir them to the point of action and that all that we do and all that we say would ultimately be for the glory of the one who gave his life for us and gave us purpose and meaning for life for we prayed in the name of jesus amen