April 1, 2019
Dear Family and Friends,
One aspect of our ministry that I have not been involved in over the past 3 years while I went back to school was d-groups or discipleship groups. Now that I am done with my schooling though, I decided to lead a discipleship group that lost their leader last year. Once or twice a week, during the school day, I get to meet with an energetic group of 7th graders and live life with them. Our school’s Bible theme this year is G.O.S.P.E.L (God’s Image, Open Fellowship, Sin Introduced, Penalty + Price, Enter Jesus, Life Everlasting), based on a book by that title by D.A. Horton. We have also been going through the book of Mark. We are currently talking about the “Enter Jesus” topic and how Jesus meets us where we are.
Seventh grade is a challenging year as they go through puberty and as they struggle to develop their own identity. It is a time in life that I would never wish to go through again because of the awkwardness and challenges. On top of the typical adolescent challenges, two of my girls are dealing with the pain of having broken family relationships. One of the girls in particular, while she talks openly about her difficulties, has had her school performance decline over the past few years. She says she is trying, but her outside-of-school stresses are affecting her in-school achievement. During d-group times, she talks about her faith and the many doubts and questions that she has. God has been teaching me more and more about how to support and encourage them through challenging times.
When they came back from a teen retreat recently, they were sharing about how God really did something in them during that time. Yet, they could not articulate what that “something” was. I continued to ask questions and listen as they shared. Eventually, they were able to say that they felt the pain and anger to which they had been holding onto was released.
We talked about how this would be a continual process for them because they are returning to the same life where that pain and anger would arise again. Please pray for them that they would know how to process all the different emotions and situations that they are dealing with. Pray also that their parents would understand the ways that their choices are affecting their children and would choose to speak kindly to one another when they interact with one another. Pray that God would bring healing and restoration to their lives as well. Pray that as we continue to talk about how Jesus enters into our lives, that we would see ways that He can bring comfort, healing and wholeness into our lives.
Thank you for your continued prayers and support!
In His love and mine,
Grace Leong
