With these thoughts in mind, you probably ask what is in the future? Well, I am at a loss on several fronts. I wish I had the answers. ODFT is in a "wilderness" state. (see Psalms 107:4-6)
We are continuing to advise those who come to us with all sorts of problems. Many times it is just helping them get on the right path to others, who can really give them the help they need. Other times it is Jill and I who offer some degree of advocacy and peace of mind. We continue to uphold parents in their quest to solve problems with their children and this often turns to their own relationship first. Because of this we spend time with couples or single parents finding the helpful spiritual and temporal techniques of correcting, forgiving, and gaining control of their emotions and households. Jill and I try to help those foster parents and families we work with to hold it together long enough to see God working, which He already is, in their lives. We spend an inordinate amount of time in restaurant, parks and coffee shops talking. For me, most often I'm with teens themselves. We are not shrinks. We are parents with experience, missionaries to the families of DuPage County, leaders in the Wheaton Bible Church Youth Group, Student Body, we are frail, weak people trying to do God's will.
Why Wilderness?
So, why am I in the "wilderness"?
Like everyone we have our challenges, problems, and illnesses. My biggest challenge and worry is that Open Door appears to be more than prepared to return to using the Coloma Place home for the intended ministry we purchased it for. God has chosen differently, but why? I have thought for about a year that God wanted the neighborhood to heal from the damage done by our former foster parents to our reputation and the property. We have had many work projects by dozens of volunteers from Wheaton Bible Church small groups, a core group, and the Local Missions work day, as well as the "Interact Rotary Club" at Oswego East High School. They have exemplified the support and dedication of diverse groups of people for the teens we provide for.
Our Morse St. Home has been very active, just like our home on Glencoe Street as well. Both homes have each had about four teens all year long. What is next for this year? We want to get the Coloma Place Home manned with a Christian family (if you know a family willing let me know). This family could minister to girls or older young women.
Jill and I have experimented in the area of providing a home, mentoring, and discipleship to many older teens and young women for several years now. It has a different feel and it takes different skills (mostly patience and perseverance). It has the same goals: bring Jesus to all, keep the women safe, and help them develop into women who will be a blessing to God and to the community.
Waiting for God
I am in the "wilderness" personally as well.
I have for many years based what I am on what I can accomplish. It is not happening the way in which I wanted it. I have witnessed many miraculous things in my life but they were not from my effort. I have had more jobs than most people have had and a grifter like that should not have had much success. I have seen many people come to Christ, and change their lives for the good of others, but I continue to maintain the same "old man" inside me. He is just not so evident on the outside.
I become jealous of other organizations with what appears to be greater success. I get jealous of the youth I work with because the have the opportunity to do it all better than I ever did or will. I worry in ways I never have before - retirement funds, old age health for Jill and I, Jill's Mom's health, my children's and grand children's faith, morals (faith and morals most of all) and health, their futures on this earth, and for some their futures in eternity.
Will the girl that sleeps in the next room from Jill and I be alive the next morning, or will she starve to death, or cut herself and make a mistake with the razor? Even with these issues in our lives and being in the "wilderness" of our lives we can be effective for the Lord. ("In season and out of season") (2 Tim 4: 1-8) We must be prepared to be called on in His good time. I am! I just wish He would give me the encouragement of Foster/House Parents for the Coloma Place Home.
Jesus - Lord & Savior: Worthy of Obedience
What I now want to hand down, and be my life's work for all who listen to me, is to realize our worries are not of much consequence. We may have them, but they change little in the longevity or quality of our existence. We often hear platitudes that may influence you, or you may have heard them too often to be anything but drivel. I personally believe the platitudes but they still are all too often spoken and these may be a couple: Jesus has taken all your worries, and He bore your stripes on the cross.
He did this! Can you believe it? No! Why? Do you believe in Jesus as your Savior from your sins? I do, but the above mentioned platitudes do not change my behavior. What does? The knowledge that God through Jesus has provided the salvation but I must believe then act! Correct? Act!!!!
Act how? Act good? I don't think I can. I do think I can be changed by His Holy Spirit as I work out my salvation! I work out my salvation! Heresy! No, it isn't. (Philippians 2:12 -18) (Editor's Note: "work out" is not the same as "work for".)
I live in this body today and someday I will have a new body in what we evangelicals call "eternity". Fun word - hah! Nevertheless, now we must act in this body! The two acts we need "to do" are to allow the slow process of God, through the Holy Spirit: to peel the onion layers of our sin, and to do His work of healing our sins, physical & mental aliments and worries. Our acting is "to do"!
Let me say that again, "to do" I must walk and let Him guide my feet. I must "do acts" that bring worship and honor to the Almighty Lord of Lords, the one and only God.
The two parts of our "to do's" are one, OBEY and, two, TO ACT FOR GOD!
Yes, I must obey, as I do my parents, and I must "do" as an independent adult does. The "obeyer" is often still an immature Christian. The "doer" has overcome the guilt given by Satan and knows he must act for God, regardless of what he may have done only moments before. God will take the pain for the sins, but He has mandated we "do" for Him. (Matt 28:18-20) Satan wants to cripple us with guilt and not allow us "to do" for God. He can not stop us from being saved. It is sealed. But he can ruin our work for God. Don't let him! That is my life's message, even as I am in the dessert. We, you, and I must be "doers" even when we are not ready ("in season and out of season").
That is where I am going this year. I will not be robbed of the joy of serving Him, even if I don't think I am accomplishing what my ego thinks is successful.
The Disciple of Jesus: Paul (PJ)
In Christ's Service for the Community,
Paul & Jill Keenon
Open Door for Teens, Inc.
