There seems to be a problem at school. The kids like to tease each other all the time.  I think perhaps it used to be fun teasing, but it has gotten to the point where kids are tearing each other down. They are quick to point out flaws and problems. This has left some of the classes in a bad place, especially the older class. It seems the kids have become experts at hurting one another. David decided to focus his discipleship classes on encouragement and love. In the first week he asked the kids what their ideal class would be like, what it would look like to love one another. The kids came up with great answers, but the challenge is to get them to take it to heart and to act out on what they are saying. He challenged them to come up with a few encouraging things to say about their class mates. There were some rules though, they were not allowed to just say “Joe is nice”  “Jane is pretty”  they had to really think about it. This was last week. He said that is went ok, but that it seemed that some kids really were getting it.
Yesterday he came home from school with a great report. When he he walked into class he asked them how their week had been, and EVERY single student in the class gushed about a single boy who had gone out of his way to encourage everyone in the class. This boy is a known trouble maker, he likes to point out thing other kids are doing wrong to get them in trouble. But the kids could not stop saying how this week he had encouraged each and every one of them. He is helping to turn this class around. David said that many of the other kids now feel like they also want to be like Roberto.
I think it is important for us as adults, and especially as Christians to hold each other up, and to go out of our way to encourage one another. It is such a simple and basic principle, but it is easy to get caught up in our own issues and to forget that there are people around us who need to be encouraged.

Not being at school has been difficult for me, but hearing things like this makes my heart happy. It is amazing to see how one child can make a difference just by pointing out the good rather than the bad. David is doing an amazing job with those kids. Please pray for him, and them. There is only four weeks left in this school year. Next year some of the kids in this class will move on to new schools. And David will not be teaching discipleship next year. This is his last few weeks to really make an impact on these boys and girls. Pray that they will catch a hold of the things that he is teaching them, and that this encouragement bug will bite all of them!