the ugly parts.

The busy-ness of this life here is similar to that of a summer camp staff, but the severity of it is exponentially greater.  Instead of hanging out with the girls in the craft shop or shooting BB guns with them, we sit in the hallway while they have study hall.  We have to maintain legal "coverage" in all areas of the building, so if we leave a room, we have to make sure that there are enough adults there, or that some of the kids come with us.

Each room has a lockbox, containing razors, nail clippers, tweezers, compact mirrors, nail polish, white-out, sharpies, sewing needles - anything that could possibly be used for self-harm.  These items are kept under close watch, as many of the girls struggle with this.  The restrictions are lengthy, yet the girls a given quite a bit of freedom within the regulations.  All this is to say that life here is like nothing I've experienced before - And I'm not even integrated all the way yet - just wait until all my training is done and I'm really in the mix!

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Each week I will meet with my discipleship group, which is with the intern and another girl who arrived here last month.  This morning we had our first "meeting" at Einstein's bagels where we sipped coffee and talked about God and his desire to be in our brokenness.  So often we try to hide the parts of ourselves that we find unattractive - the things that are hard, the faults, the thoughts that need to change, our doubts - ugly parts.

The beautiful pat of being broken is that God comes to us as we are.  He doesn't require us to be beautiful, to be perfect, to be fixed (in fact, we cannot possibly be those things without him).  These girls here have experienced so much, they have been faced with circumstances that nobody should have to deal with.  Regardless their openness to God's healing, they are openly broken.

This is not going to be an easy job, but, my goodness, will it make a difference in the lives of these teens.  I get to show them Jesus, get to know them, and love them every day - what better way to minister to them than this?

Upcoming:
The inside scoop on The Fray's "How to Save a Life"