Emerging from Merging Worlds Revisited

CS Chapter 22. How long is it taking me to get through this book? I feel like I'm in school again...but I enjoy it when I sit and read it. I have to confess, even though all this is truly worth reading, the primary reason I'm persisting is because I said I would ... If you weren't there to blog to, (I wouldn't be blogging. . .) and I would have never finished this book with all its treasures. Thank you!

I also have to say to all of you who keep coming back, that everytime I visit YOUR blogs I'm reminded that you're very special people.

Reading and thinking about all the things I've been blogging about and being part of a group of people who are mostly under 35, I forget that I'm not fighting the same battles you are. The ground here is soft, at least. You're breaking hard ground with hoes and picks and shovels. It isn't soft. It hasn't been plowed for you. That part of the work is a tough dirty job.

You probably welcome ideas for kids and situations but it sounds like you're crying out for encouragement and the tools to win older generations to new methods so you don't lose the generations you're working with. Trouble is, the older generations run things. They hold the purse strings. So you're caught in a gap with a job to do but, in order to do that job, you have to spend alot of that time building bridges between worlds across deep treacherous chasms. When I talk about generations giving to and learning from each other and working together you probably cringe. Every generation tries to bridge that gap when they're parents but maybe the gap is inevitable because young birds have to fly. If you can keep your friendship, it's a win.

Sometimes scripture is comforting and encouraging and sometimes the human who wields it misses the mark. I hope this is encouraging.

Isaiah 43 (NIV)
18 "Forget the things that happened in the past.
Do not keep on thinking about them.
19 I am about to do something new.
It is beginning to happen even now.
Don't you see it coming?
I am going to make a way for you to go through the desert.
I will make streams of water in the dry and empty land.

Isaiah 43 is full of encouraging passages (and some sharp words too).
But that's my hope for you, that there will be streams of living water for you and that you won't lose anyone.

You're advocating for Jesus. You're advocating for children. Not a popular place to be. You're advocating for using tools that children are familar with to bring them to the one and only Ancient-Yet-Living God who is there for every generation. You're trying to kick the debris out of the road but other people don't see it. They wonder if you're even on the right road.

I'm guessing that if you love Jesus and His Word and you encourage children to know Him and to walk in such a way that He knows them, you're on the right road. It's just a narrow road, a steep road (full of adventure) but steep and narrow. The Lord walk with you.