“The Lord of hosts said, “Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother; and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another. ”BUT THEY REFUSED TO PAY ATTENTION”. Their hearts became like flint” (Zech. 7:9-12).
Hey
Gang: I just could not say no. In the first days of Eagle Village we could
not afford to hire house parents for our first living unit of twelve boys so my
family moved into Starr Home and became its mom and pop for the first
years. Our plan, after opening Starr
Home, was to slowly increase the number as we gained experience until we
reached the capacity of twelve, perhaps reaching the capacity of twelve within
the first year.
But, how
many know there are ‘if’s’, ‘ands’ and ‘buts’ that frequently show up and change the ‘best laid plans of mice and men’.
And some come directly from the Throne Room of Heaven. One of the first lessons that God taught me
was “Stay loose and be prepared for rapid changes and my way is so much better
than yours!”
I confess,
in those early development years God had to do a work in my heart to convince
Me that His ways were far superior to mine.
I grabbed hold of Isaiah’s words “For
MY thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways MY ways, declares the
Lord. For as the heavens are higher than
the earth, So are My ways higher than our ways. And My thoughts than your
thoughts” (Isa. 55:8-9).
Today, as I
sit here in the quietness of my prayer closet/office, and relive some of the
wars I had with the alligators, I can shout a resounding “Amen” to Isaiah’s
words. In those early days I said “Yes,
Lord, I want You in charge over everything, but what I meant as long as you do
it my way! He was not impressed and I
spent a lot of time on the Potter’s wheel going through major surgery of the
heart.
My plan to
gradually increase the number of residents, during year one, was rapidly
reduced to three months and then the capacity was increased and filled at
sixteen. My problem was I just could not
say no when a judge or community worker would call and say, “Hey, Kermit, I
have a boy sitting across from me that desperately needs what you are offering
at Eagle Boys Village.”
Shortly
after we signed the incorporation papers, making the Village a living entity, I
received a call from a judge who said, “We have kids on the street that need to
be off the streets in the coming summer. Can you do anything to help. That resulted in our first summer camp
involving over a hundred kids. At the
end of the summer we had five boys left over with no place to send them.
That was the
beginning of the Foster Care Program – it just seemed right that we develop
these programs, even though I did not have a clue what leadership skills were.
I just could
not say “no”. One night, when the boys
had been put down for the night, I was completing the ever demanding paper work
when I sensed someone in my room. I
turned to find a very small twelve-year-old boy standing in the doorway. I asked if he would like to come and sit in
my lap; he readily accepted. He came
loaded with a question that would add yet another road to our already
bludgeoning path.
He said, “Mr.
H., you tell us you love us. Do you
really love us?” I answered in the
affirmative, to which he said, “Do you want to show us how much?” Again my affirmative response, to which he said,
“Help my mother!”
Now hear me,
my friends, a summer camp with over one hundred kids for ten weeks, our
residential program growing by leaps and bounds, a foster program that was also
in the formative stages and now we were going to add support to the total
family. We already had had families camped in the yard during the summer. There was no way we could pull this off in
our own strength. During those early
years I learned what spoon-feeding was all about. His counsel, “Why don’t you let the driving
up to Me?”
Does that
mean -from that time on- everything was smooth sailing and no alligators
snapping at my heels? Not on your sweet Bippy.
Learning what He meant in Malachi 3:10-11 was a chore that required
total trust, but I can say “Praise God” I am a heap closer to total trust today
than I was on the day we signed the incorporation papers.
I just could
not say “No” for it seemed like that is what God told me I should do. I became a seed-planter for Christ and I pray
He will use me in that capacity until, He says, “Eenough, time for you to come
home.”
One more
time, are you a priest or a Levite or a Samaritan. Will you hear Jesus say, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of
these brothers of Mine., even the least of them, you did it to Me”
(Matt. 25:40).
Blessings,
Gramps
PS: Pray for Staff and teachers at Eagle Village who continue to reach out to youth and families needing help. We see many victories, but the enemy continues with roadblocks." Greater is He in us than he that is in the world."
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