“Was he going to keel over or not?” That was the question many of the attendees of the Silver-Tops Seniors Soup Supper were asking themselves as they watched Blaster, (that's Gramps) take his first few bites of Dixie's Shoo-Fly Pie. Gramps lived, and enjoyed the rest of his pie, while others tried a slice for themselves. The group of 40 or so seniors had gathered for a bit of a training session everyone needed to effectively reach out to the teens God had placed in their harvest field of souls.
As
most everyone was done eating, their chairman, Bob Tarpin walked to
the front of the group and tapped a water glass with a spoon to get
everyone's attention. Bob asked everyone to bow for prayer, asking
God to bless and lead the following discussion.
He
began with, “Thank you for all of you coming, and the ladies that
prepared the soup and sandwiches... including the Shoo-Fly pie,” he
said with a big smile. It's important that we make sure we're all on
the same page and are sharing our own ideas and opportunities. With
what we are reaching out with, Satan is certainly going to try to
destroy. Our unity is so crucial.”
“I
want to thank Blaster Jackson for the very moving presentation we had
last time. I really sensed that all of you want what Beulah spoke up
about. To help out in any way God can use each of us.”
Bob
picked up a dry erase marker and drew a large triangle on the white
board behind him, in the orientation of a pyramid. He began, “We
see many examples of the triangle providing strength and also unity
in objects large and small, and trios too. Here at the bottom left of
our triangle we'll put, 'Hurting Teens'. To the right we'll write,
'Silent Seniors'. And then at the top of our triangle of strength and
unity, we'll put 'Full Joy'.”
Our
plan is to build a bridge of understanding and compassion, as God
leads us, between ourselves and the teenagers. This done decently and
in order as 1Corinthians 14:40 reminds us, will move us both to
possess Full Joy.”
“You'll
notice in our triangle diagram, I refer to our white-haired
generation as SILENT SENIORS. I believe that as you and I begin to
reach out to the teens, in prayer and action, I'm confident that God
will show us powerful ways to connect with those we mentor; ways we
never thought of. I also expect each of us will enthusiastically
share and encourage each other, one on one, and also in our group
meetings here.”
“Before
I tell you one of the key ingredients to this process toward Full
Joy, I want us to use the remainder of this meeting time to begin
sharing our own ideas, and thoughts on how this can all happen. What
I'd like us all to do, is break up into groups of 4, where no two
family members is in the same group. Next, I want each group to pray
as a group and then elect a secretary to record all the great ideas
you'll be coming up with.”
“It
might even be a great help to choose a particular teen you know, or
one you can visualize and give thought how you can reach out to them
without preaching AT them or ruling OVER them.”
Bob
continued, “Oh. By the way. You'll want to pray for the teen
fishing event our men and women are having at Snyder's Pay Lake this
Saturday, at 1:30pm. We all want the efforts of burdened adults that
will be fishing for men and ladies, using worms, minnows, and tears,
to be blessed by God. It would be well for each of us to review Psalm 126, in our quiet time. And especially the last verse.”
Bob grinned with one of those expressions
where the cheeks and lips gave a smile, but the eyes said this is
very serious business for the Lord and the eternal destiny of hurting
teens. Do your best. Jesus did His best on Calvary for each of us.
