Little Conversations

Each year after a busy summer of ministry, I take time to reflect back over June and July. I think of the hundreds of at-risk teenagers that Leverage Ministries had the opportunity to point to Jesus this past summer.

I think of the little conversations we had with kids each week at the runaway shelter. I think of the conversation I had with a kid named Caleb one hot summer afternoon at camp when he didn’t want to go swimming with the rest of the boys. I think of the short prayers we prayed with the kids throughout the summer—for their brothers, sisters, moms and everything they face each day. I think of the short conversations before meal time about how God provided our meals. I think about taking the teens for ice cream or stopping to get them cold drinks on a very hot summer day. Many times, the teens didn’t know how to respond to all of the love we showed them or why we were doing it.

Was all this work and money really worth it? Are we making a difference? These are the questions I asked myself this past Sunday morning. As church was about to start, a man came up and asked how our summer ministries were going. Before I had a chance to answer, he said, “Scott, don’t ever stop doing what you are doing. I’m old now—at the end of my life and bound to this wheelchair. I was an at-risk youth just like the kids you reach daily. I was headed for a hard life, making bad decisions, and a ministry just like yours pointed me to Jesus. I am living proof that your ministry is effective and changing lives, and you are reaching kids nobody else sees.”

After he left, I realized that he told me exactly what I needed to hear—that God is continuing to change lives even today and that all the little conversations we had this summer would become big things. What might seem insignificant to us is truly significant. What most people would overlook, God is going to use.

Thank you for your continued support of Leverage Ministries. Your prayers and generous financial gifts allow us to continue reaching the forgotten and mislabeled youth in our community.

In His Service,

Scott Hirdes

Director, Leverage Ministries