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Mission Impossible - Alex

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We had a great weekend of activities at Faith Baptist of Sorocaba. Saturday night we took six teens to a youth rally at Hope. There were over a hundred teens there to hear a great challenge from the Word.

Earlier on Saturday afternoon we had over fifty kids at Bible Club. Many had participated in club in the past but had left for one reason or another. The club's new theme has a "Mission Impossible" type emphasis. Each week the three teams get a "Mission" that they have to work out during the week. On Saturday they come with either a successful or a failed mission. Success brings boo-cu points and failure brings latrine duty! The Green team (mine) did really well Saturday but we were edged out by the blue team 1300 to 150. The Red team got latrine.

During club a little boy showed up that I wasn't exactly excited about having. He is a little "demon" or at least that is what I've heard. His name is Alex. He lives next-door to our newest convert Marcia and she says that he has a very difficult life. He is 11 but really tiny. His mother was run over by a car just after his birth and his dad is not a part of his life. He lives with his grand parents, neither of whom want the little rascal. They don't let him come into the house except at night to sleep. He even gets his food outside... when he gets food. Hard to believe isn't it?

He's been known to throw rocks through peoples windows, torment the neighborhood dogs, cats and other acts of kid terrorism. Marcia says that he spends a lot of time at her house because he doesn't go to school and doesn't have a place to live. Marcia's being nice but she doesn't really want Alex either. 

He came to club on Saturday and I expected a dickens of a time with him. However, to my surprise he was a little angel and not the fallen variety. He listened attentively and when we went to memory verse time he sat a tried to memorize the verse with me. This was a gargantuan task because he can't read.

Sunday he came back for Sunday school with his rag-tag clothes sewn together by someone that didn't have a clue about being a seamstress. Again he paid attention and seemed to love his time in class.

He came back for afternoon church too and after the service one of his little friends came up to me and said, "will you swing me around?" If you know me you know that I am a sucker for little kids and I will swing them until I can hardly stand up. So, I grabbed his hand and began to swing!

When I stopped my brain didn't and I was reeling trying to get my balance back. However, it was at just that moment that little Alex approached me slowly and said, "... will you swing me?" I could see it in his eyes as we went round and round that he had probably never been swung before. He had a big smile on his face and so did I.

Alex is hopeless. In the world there is no hope for his type. Praise God I am not in the world but in Christ! I have a Mission Possible and one of the most incredible weapons at my disposal, the life changing Gospel of Jesus Christ. As I shared in Club Alex fidgeted as I spoke of Salvation.

So, please pray for us this week as we visit Alex. I'm not exactly sure where the visit will take place because he really doesn't have a home. But God knows that.

One other thing, we had two visiting fathers on Sunday morning. It was the first time for both and they were there because they had been invited by their kids as a part of the "Mission Impossible" for the Bible Club. We'll be visiting them too so, "Jim, your mission, if you decide to accept it, is to pray for the Jewell family during this important week. The secretary will disavow any knowledge of your activities and this blog will self-destruct in five seconds!" Psssssssssssssssss

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