Wyldlife

I've slowly been taking more responsibility upon myself to get my church's "Wyldlife" program up and running. Wyldlife is a Christian-themed youth group for middle schoolers who may or may not know the Lord. Accordingly, we mostly play games and goof around before sharing a quick Bible story or talking about Jesus. Then we head out to McDonald's for a night time snack.

The responsibility I have taken upon myself is that of chauffeur. I drive to a club house that the organization has within an apartment complex here in Escondido. I would expect that the majority of the tenants there are Hispanic simply for the sheer number of brown kids running around unsupervised while screaming obscenities and taunts at one another in Spanish. It was actually quite endearing and I found myself laughing in spite of myself.

I was surprised to see so many kids out and about by themselves simply because we're following hot on the heels of the Chelsea King and Amber Dubois murders. There was one kid nobody recognized who said that his parents told him he could go. I didn't trust him so I asked to be introduced to his parents. His brother and dad came to the door and the father asked only, "will he be safe?" What do I say to that? "Of course he will be!" are the words that came out of my mouth. I exchanged a handshake with this father whom I had never met and whisked his kid away to be brought back two and a half hours later.

My commentary on the entire situation to a friend followed along the lines of, "This would never happen in a community of white folks." I was left thinking that this cultural innocence (if indeed it is not laziness) was a good infusion into our own communities and I hope that a happy medium can be found where kids are safe enough to run around and parents are thoughtful enough to keep an eye on them sometimes. Importantly, this is what I hope Wyldlife (and Young Life) will be able to do within our communities because, truly, the groups are an engine meant to drive the Gospel of Good Hope and salvation through Jesus into the homes of those who have no hope. That is the only meaningful way to change our communities and our actions that get us involved prove that!