I have two friends from my college days. Let's call them Eric and Jen (not their real names since I'm going rouge and didn't ask permission to write about this event. Ha!). Eric and Jen met in college and married one another. They have both always had a heart for teenage students and helping them cultivate a personal relationship with Jesus. Eric was a youth pastor for many years. He moved from being a youth pastor within the church to working with a ministry that reached teenagers. Through all those years, Jen was by his side, being a part of the ministry with him. Now, Eric works in a ministry that does not include students, but adult athletes. (And Jen is still by his side, as a part of the ministry.) However, Eric and Jen still have a passion for reaching students for Christ.
Eric and Jen have two teenage children. So currently, they host what they call "Breakfast Club." Once a week Jen makes breakfast and a pile of teenagers cram into their house before school to eat and have a Bible study led by Eric. Jen has the gift of hospitality - seriously, she will welcome anyone in her home. And she will feed them. And she's one of those rare gems who can rock it, cooking for the masses. It does not phase her when multitudes of people stream through her door and into her kitchen. So Eric and Jen always say that Breakfast Club is "feeding their tummies and feeding their souls." She cooks, he teaches. Kingdom teamwork!
They often post photos on Facebook of how this Bible Study is growing. I have seen photos of their basement FILLED with teenagers. Seriously, they are piled on the furniture, there are folding chairs everywhere, and every space on the floor is occupied. Jen used to post photos of the giant pile of shoes by their front door, in the entryway. Until the shoe pile became too big for the space! Now the shoe pile is out in the garage. The group has grown to over 50 kids showing up in the early morning to eat and hear from God's Word.
Now, feeding 50+ teenagers a few times a month isn't a cheap endeavor. And I would imagine that as the group has grown, the cost has grown. So, Eric and Jen began to pray to ask God if they should continue Breakfast Club or finish out this school year and end the Bible Study. They asked God to make it very clear what He wanted them to do. No ambiguity, please.
About a week after praying about continuing Breakfast Club, Eric had someone ask him about the "pile of shoes" pictures he had been seeing on social media and what that was all about. Eric told him what it was all about and he asked how much it cost each month to make all that food for that many students. Eric told him and that was the end of that.
A few days later, Jen gets an envelope in the mail addressed to her and she opens it and finds this.
A check for $3150, which is enough to cover the cost of Breakfast Club for the entire school year next year. Like Eric said, in his post, "Who does this?" This money is from a couple who live several states away from where these students live. They will never meet these kids. But my guess is that they were being obedient to God and what He asked them to do!
The answer to Eric and Jen's prayer about continuing Breakfast Club was met with a resounding, "Yes!" from God. Wow. What a miracle. What a testimony this will be to those students about the power of prayer. Obviously God has plans for those students and He wants to continue to use the Bible Study to rock their world and create ripple effects for years to come. That personally is one of my favorite aspects of ministering to teenagers - the ripple effects. You know how you toss a rock into the water and the ripples just get farther and farther away from where the rock landed? That happens in ministry too. The way that kids can spiritually grow when taught through God's Word can shape them for years to come. And then sometimes, in their adult years, they turn around and minister to teenagers and the ripples of God's Love just keep reaching out throughout the generations. It's amazing to think about how God is going to multiply this $3150 many times over because of the Truth students will learn though another year of Bible study because someone obeyed and gave.
This world pulls at teenagers in a million different ways and there's a lot of "noise" out there, demanding their attention. This is just one small way God is using a couple to cut through the noise to teach these kids that they matter, they are loved, and they need Jesus.
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