I got this letter the other day and I thought you all might be interested in reading it. It is written by a co-worker’s wife, Sarah Metcalf, so please do not copy and re-use this without permission. You can email me and I can ask her if you can use it. Just let me know. It does not have a title yet because she just wrote it last week.

Okay, I have a question. Are adults supposed to say things like “that kid is a drugged up loser”? Aren’t adults supposed to see past all that to a hurting teen who has turned to drugs to escape from his life. Aren’t adults supposed to try to help the “losers” of this world, not leave them on the street corner to hang themselves by their shoelaces? Aren’t we as Christian adults called to reach out to those kids who seem beyond help? It makes me so mad that we would rather leave them to die and rot in hell than love on them. “Oh, those kids are undesirable!” we say. We tell our children not to go near them, and we walk on the other side of the street when we see them coming. Hmmm, kind of sounds like a parable Jesus told doesn’t it? Sure, these kids have made some really bad choices. And maybe they don’t want to give up those bad choices right now. Does that change how our attitude should be to them? Do we really leave them alone to wallow in their sin without ever showing them the love of Jesus? Any Christian would answer “well of course not!” but we do it all the time. We turn up our noses at the teens who dress in black and dye their hair purple. We shun the teens who sit on the couch all day playing video games and wishing someone would take the time of day for them. We shut our youth group doors to kids who cut themselves and don’t shower every day. They are undesirable to us. No one, not even the youth pastor wants them around. How tragic! I hope we are all happy in our plastic perfect lives. I hope that all of us who never have problems are encouraged when we hear of another tragic suicide. Good!! The world is rid of another trashy human being who apparently was not fit to live among US!!

HYPOCRITES!!! Wake up you white washed tombs!! I’m sick of your pharisaical tyranny over those who need Jesus the most!! I’m sick of watching another kid leave church never to come back because all of you act like you’re too perfect and too holy to interact with them. If not for the love of Jesus lavished on us, would we not be in the same place? How ugly we must look to God. How disappointed in us must the Lord of the universe be to see us deem another precious creation of His unworthy of our interaction! How about we let the Lord decide who will come into His presence. And since we do not know who that will be, it is our job, our RESPONSIBILITY to make sure EVERYONE has that chance, not just a select few that we think “make the grade.” Quit being Pharisees and try being followers of Christ. We can’t imagine the joy we’ll feel when one day that “drugged up loser” stands before Christ and says, “Lord, if not for your people I would have perished eternally, but they loved me like You and they showed me Your grace and here I stand in Your heaven today because of them!”

SARAH METCALF.

Last weekend was the TreeHouse Winter Blast 2008 retreat and it went very well. I’m going to give you a sample of a letter I received today about the retreat so you can get a taste of what God was doing there. The letter was written by Becky Walker (she is the executive director of TreeHouse).

Here are also highlights from WinterBlast!

 124 Teens went on WinterBlast this past weekend! It was the first time that we had teens from our Plymouth TreeHouse. Minnetonka TreeHouse even had a waiting list!  Brian (program director) reported that 15 of these Teens made their first commitment to Christ and 30 renewed their commitment!  These are amazing numbers.

This year we had the largest group of kids at Winter Blast EVER! Chaska TreeHouse has 19 teens and 5 staff go and out of those 19 teens 2 accepted Christ for the first time and 4 recommitted their lives to Christ. It has been awesome seeing the hunger and thirst the kids have for God and His Word after a retreat like the one we just had. We are now in a place where we are building upon their desire to know more by starting up a few Bible studies during the week. Yesterday was our first Bible study and we had 11 show up which is very encouraging. Pray that we will be able to communicate the truth of God’s Word accurately and relevantly. They have so many misconceptions about who God is, what His Word says, and how it applies to their lives, so hopefully the Holy Spirit will be able to work on their hearts and minds over the next few weeks. Pray that their hearts and minds would receive the truth and it would change them.

On a more somber note I wanted to ask you all to pray for a family that is involved with TreeHouse. Two of the teens in the family attend TreeHouse and were at Winter Blast with us last week. When they got home their mom told them that their dad had died on Saturday. Their dad is in an out of state prison and suffered a deadly heart attack. Over the past few days we’ve been trying to help the family figure out a way to get to the funeral because they can not afford plane tickets for all 5 family members. Several of the tickets have been purchased by individuals who know the family but there are still a few tickets left to be paid for. They left today for the funeral so please pray that they would experience closure and be able to grieve their lose in a positive way. If any of you know anyone who would be willing to donate money toward a ticket for the family please let me know and I’ll pass the information on to the right person. This family really has no money. Both kids come on Winter Blast and did not have any money to put toward the trip ($110 per kid was the cost) so I gave them both a scholarship. If anyone would like to send money to my scholarship fund to help cover their costs I would appreciate it very much. Thanks!

To end on a more positive thought I want to reiterate how awesome it is that we had 15 kids come to know Christ as their personal Savior for the first time! There is a serious party going on in heaven now! The work has only begun though because now the seeds need to be watered, pruned, and cared for as they grow. Please pray that we will be able to help them in that journey and they will be able to sustain their desire and yearning instead of it being a once-a-year feeling they get at a retreat.

Thanks for all your prayers and thoughts. Please remember Maggie and I in your prayer as we are thinking through some tough decisions for our family that may be coming up in the near future. Thanks in advance. Prayer really works!   I’ll update you soon!