Here are a few pictures of some of my middle school girls.  It is so exciting to see them growing in their walks with the Lord.  I fee like they’re “getting it” as we study the Word each week.  I see the immense weight that peer pressure has on their lives, but i also see a fight and a desire to not succumb to it.

Let me give you an example:

Aquilah was simply walking across the street three weeks ago when some of the middle school girls were sitting on my back porch waiting for the rest of the girls to arrive. She walked right up and asked what we were doing so I invited her to join us and honestly, I didn’t really think that she would.  To my surprise, she said “yes” (i think that the aroma of freshly baking brownie in the air was a nice incentive as well).  She opened right up during the Bible study, and she’s shown up every week since.

Well this week we did a study on doing things “for the least of these” because when we do, we’re doing it for Jesus.  So we made bread and muffins for some people in the projects.  As we were leaving to go deliver them, she asked in horror “we’re ALL going to deliver them NOW”, then she grilled me as to exactly where in the projects were were going , and then she begged me to stay behind, but then she finally agreed to go with us but insisted on going a round-about way to our destination.  WHY?  because her friends (who are all part of a girl gang, Grapes) always hang out in a certain spot every afternoon, and if they saw her hanging out with church people then she’d really “get it” from them.

I was so proud of her for going with us despite the fact that we saw her friends and who indignantly asked her if the reason she was with us was for the food (we gave them muffins too).  She dealt with the situation with grace, and said “no, i go to Bible study every Thursday now”. Then, she even volunteered to pray for the old, sick woman who we went to visit.

We stopped by her mom’s apartment and when she introduced me to her mother she declared “she’s our bible study leader, i go to her house every thursday”.  Her mom was excited that she was getting involved in something positive.

God’s working in Aquilah’s heart, and its not because of anything we’ve done…He started a work in her and brought her to us when she was ready to grow.  Praise God that this is HIS work and not ours! He’s going to be working no matter what, to draw His lost children to Himself, and we just get the privilege of being partners in the venture.

***Note***  While we were walking back from our deliveries, Aquilah mentioned a girls night that we had hosted over 2 years ago.  A group of girls had come and made other younger girls cry because they were picking on them…Aquilah had been part of the bullying group.  The Lord is taking her out of her old “family” (girl gangs) and bringing her into His family (the family of GOD)