Disciples on a journey, it is constant growth, sometimes with the necessities and other times without. How resilient are we when we don't have everything we need to grow? Water is a need, the right nutrients are a need, sunshine...well, you get the picture. The youth I worth with in the juvenile facilities are pulled from the "soil" of life when they are "dying" and are cultivated in rich soil of attention and treatment and loving adults. Then when they are healthy they are transplanted back into communities and life that can "grow" them into unhealthy very quickly, unless they have their needs met. One need we have found to be successful in lifelong "growth" is one loving adult mentor. I am so fortunate and humbled be be working along side of a team that believes in investing themselves into young people, because they are loved. One young man just graduated with his G.E.D. which is the result of new fertile soil his life is now growing in. Once starved for needs, he now has relationship with one loving adult mentor who is living Life with a capital "L"! This young man is living loved in the Father and it is evident on the inside and out! Thanks for being on the team a partnering with us to transform the lives of young people!

So you know how they say God is good in the ups and downs of life?! Well this past week I have experienced that first hand! I ran my little Toyota Corolla into the back of an F-350 and the Ford truck won. All I could think about was the inconvience to all the travelers on the road, the guy I hit, the firefighter people, the paramedics, the police officer, and the first responder who all came to my rescue. Then I started thinking of all those that give to our family so faithfully and how I'm miss managing their sacrificial giving by getting into an accident. What truly humbled me was good friends who lent us their car for the week during our transition from crash car to different car. Then God's mercy and love entered my heart and the days to follow my actions and words.

Regret is a good teacher for me and I have learned so much about my Father during this, I've learned about myself, and other people! Much of the youth I talk with live with many regrets. Does it change their life? Their actions? Their hearts? Some can never forgive themselves. Some never ask for forgiveness for what they've done. Some have never received God's grace!

Later that week we receive a call from a good friend that asked if we had found another vehicle to replace the one I crashed. When we told her we were waiting to make a decision she replied with wait a little longer. Within 6 days we are in a new vehicle donated through this friend's church because of an email that went out from the pastor, who received an email or phone call about our situation! We do not deserve God's grace, that is why it is called grace, undeserved! And yet, let us not cheapen grace and take advantage of His death and resurrection. May we know Him more each day and love Him more each day!

I've been working with a lot of gang members lately...listening to them and trying to understand why they "bang", a term they use when they are part of a gang. Recently I was having a conversation with the son of one of the originals of a prominent gang, which means this young man's dad started this gang here in Denver. He doesn't live with his dad and feel s like he has betrayed him, but loves his mom and doesn't want to disappoint her. If he lives the way his mom wants him to live he will not follow his dad's "way of life" and feels he will be letting his dad down. He longs for his dad to be proud of him and love him, but that means following the gang life, there is "family" there too he says. But he loves his mom and doesn't want to disappoint her! He wants to be himself but has a reputation on the streets and in jail already as the son of...he struggles between good and evil moment by moment everyday! I struggle between good and evil moment by moment every day! I love my family, pictured above are my sons! I love them so much that I will raise them as Christ wants me to raise them, wanting the best for THEM, not having them live for me their dad, but for Christ who is the ultimate reason to live!

Have you ever been told you are not wanted? With a shrug and no emotion, (Nate) told me his parents had both said that to him. I'm devastated inside for him, he has put his walls, not feeling, not showing how he feels for fear of being rejected again. I lean over the table we are sitting across from each other and say, "God wants you, He loves you, he'll never leave you, he hurts when you hurt, and he longs to heal all of your pain!" Tears flow from once a hard heart, but the Holy Spirit has been working on his life long before I came into it. My Father wants to redeem all those that are defeated, broken, and hard-hearted! (Nate) has been pushing others way for fear of being hurt again. It will take time for him to trust again and he really doesn't even trust our friendship that has just started and doesn't want to get too close for fear that I will let him down. I let him know right up front that I will let him down, but his faith is not in humans but in Christ. My best friend, Jesus, has never let me down. Even when my perspective is messed up, Jesus brings me back to the truth that there is nothing I can do to make him love me more or less. He loves me because God first loved me! I cheapen grace when I think it is what I do that makes God love me. (Nate) has started a new journey of not being the victim of his parent's words, but walking in freedom of Christ's words!

The picture above, a friend of mine took on his canoe trip, is the ultimate visual of peace and tranquility. All the young people I work with have chaos and the picture of their life is painful, volatile, and devestating. I've been reading Mother Teresa's biography lately and she dedicated her live to the sick, the orphans, and the widows. 9 out of 10 young men have not had a father in their life or a uninvolved father. The young ladies that are incarcerated have been left by boyfriends and have been widowed in a way, left alone to take care of a baby. We are broken individuals in need of the One who puts things back together! I'm grateful that the chaos created in young peoples lives that are incarcerated have been and continue to be transformed by the love of Christ. Thanks for being a part of this team. Continue to pray for youth in Denver and the front range of Colorado.

Climbing up the class 4 scramble, hands and feet climbing over boulders and scaling rock, as the sun is setting I'm thinking, "What did I get myself into?". We were on the second day of our trip with at risk youth from Denver and had just talked about how important it is for each one of us to learn how to love God more and love others more as a result of that love for God and from God. One of the staff had taken that opportunity to speak into a young man's life and this young person took what he said wrong and took off and was standing at the top of the cliff pictured above. On my way up I'm thinking about my life's call, my family, I'm praying for the safety of this individual. Just that afternoon another kid had been kicked in the mouth and it messed up his braces and cut his mouth pretty bad. I couldn't help but think things weren't going well. Don't we pray more when there is crisis in our lives? Or when we are absolutely at the end of our rope? Or we are very aware that we are not in control?

I get to the top and there is another peak above, but there is also two other ways to head. I stop and catch my breath and listen, I'm getting ready to yell out the young man's name and hear a sound of someone getting closer so I wait. I see him before he sees me and when he does see me I scare him unintentionally, but I don't think he expected to see me. I let him know I care about him and worried that the night on top of the cliff won't be very comfortable and we eventually head back down with light from one headlamp.

I learned a lot on this trip. Risks are a necessity to allow God to transform our lives, young people are longing to have us share God's love and show them what God's grace and mercy looks like, and you never know what God sees on the inside of these kids, but there is always hope!

The last night we are sitting around a fire and speaking life into each other. Just the other day they were fighting and arguing and tearing each other down. This night they are appreciating each other and saying how thankful they are to have gotten to know each other! I praise God for the work of Holy Spirit and the lives that continue to change for His honor and glory!

What is God asking you to risk to be more transformed by Him?

I want to serve the best I can every day. God, my wife, my kids, my job, and others! I find myself serving youth's needs a lot in the detention center. The other day a staff person of the state asked me why I serve these kids. My answer was Christ served while he walked on this earth and I want to as well. You see, Jesus is our example of how to live. One of His last acts of service was to his disciples who walked with Him on this earth for three years. He lowered Himself to a servant, doing the job of washing his guest's feet...something none of the disciples would have volunteered to do in a million years. Sometimes we have to serve in ways that others would never do. Sometimes we have to give up our desires to do what He desires. Some people call that slavery...I call it true freedom! May we live to serve today!