Bonding

Rudy has written a great article here about projects and when they come to an end. Or not. A lot of us try to be careful in that when our students graduate - our projects - we send them to college and we are done with them. We wash our hands. They are now on their own. They need to assimilate, grow in the college environment, establish new relationships. And it is all definitely true.

"His faith in Christ strong, his future in his hands, he went off to college. Then he called on the second night of school. I thought he needed something specific. But as we talked, I realized that something had changed. He was no longer the floundering 15-year-old I had met on the corner of Howard and Navarro. He was more like a nephew, a member of my family, seeking a little encouragement from back home."

Rudy's article helped me see and understand my experience a little better, the other side of finishing projects that are students, that some of these students we minister to - they slowly start to understand us, they grow up, they minister with us, they challenge us even more than we challenge them. And then subversively, they bond with us in a way similar to how Rudy articulates it - "our bonds to other believers are stronger than our bonds to our own blood relatives."

As I look at some of the leaders now that were students then, we've got some strong bonds.