Granny

A few weeks ago, K (my 6 year old) and I gave my parents a set of prayer cards for our trip to Teen Missions. My mother responded and said, "I will pray for you guys." Which is funny because my parents have never been religious. They have supported me in my endeavors with youth work and stuff, for the most part. Of course, they tell me all the time that I spend too much time doing stuff for the church. They just aren't interested in spiritual things. Or so I thought.
While we were at Boot Camp, I know K thought about my parents a lot, and what they thought of Jesus. It was on her mind at least two nights after the evening rallys.
Yesterday I was having dinner with them, griping about my job, more than a bit. My mother said, "I will pray for your job." Which was a surprise. Well, come to find out that she has visited this local Chinese church plant, right down the street, that meets in the upstairs of a pretty big local Baptist church. They do the service all in Chinese and they have Chinese Bibles and all. There were about 30 people that were there, she has only visited once.
I know K is going to be incredibly excited to talk to Granny about church and Jesus. They have already talked a little bit about it, since K told me that my parents are preferential to Buddah rather than Jesus. In other words, she has dialogued with my parents about stuff that I never really had the courage to. Moreso, my parents seemed to have been willing to talk to her about it, whereas with me, it was a subject they could just dismiss out of hand.
That's some pretty wild stuff. It's got me thinking a few things:
- We write people off in their spiritual journeys so easily. I would have never thought my mother would be at all interested in going to a church.
- That the younger generation does and will and will continue to make more of an impact than we ever will. Youth has an energy, a drive, a power, that those of us in our 30s and older do not have. Us older people still have some of that, but life experience has changed us a bit. We now have a medium that is conducive to mentoring, guiding, etc.
- God has granted us enormous power and impact when we minister as families. I saw it with my Dteam, and continue to see it as we lead SPACE... students love little kids, they love to see families. Our kids speak about what kind of Jesus followers we are.
- Older people are still searching, even when we may not think so. My good friend's mother make Jesus her Lord when she was 70.