Teen Challenge Stands the Test of Time

When I was a kid I sang with a very popular youth group out of western North Carolina under the direction of my pastor and friend, Bob Parmley. The Southernaires Gospel Choir traveled extensively up and down the eastern seaboard presenting its own unique brand of gospel music. The Southernaries was my introduction to the ministry - and a significant part of my preparation for the ministry.

Many, many years ago we went to 444 Clinton Ave. in Brooklyn, New York to perform a concert at David Wilkerson's TEEN CHALLENGE. There we heard testimony after testimony from drug addicts and alcoholics, gang members and prostitutes of how God had delivered them from their desperate lives. I was so impacted by that visit that later on when in my own ministry I developed a musical group - one of the first places I contacted when we started to plan a tour was 444 Clinton Ave. in Brooklyn. I wanted my young people to see and hear testimonies of the power of the Holy Spirit to break the bondage of sin and set men free.

Last night, I traveled along with my son Bryan, Nathan and Zachariah Frink, and their dad David on a three hour drive to Johnson, Vermont to minister at TEEN CHALLENGE VERMONT. Fifty years after David Wilkerson started that center at 444 Clinton Ave. in Brooklyn the work of TEEN CHALLENGE is going strong and I had to opportunity of introducing another generation to a living demonstration of the manifest power of God in a real life flesh and bone. After we enjoyed dinner with them, the boys led the group in a time of worship, shared some of their original music with the men, and then I had the opportunity to minister the Word of God to a very appreciative congregation of men who have been or who are in the process of being set free by the power of the Word of God and the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

We don't get to see a lot of ministry in this day that has spanned the generations. We're more into the new and different. Men and women run back and forth accross the country trying to track down the latest 'revival', in the hopes of seeing signs and wonders, hearing the latest prophetic word, and witnessing gold dust fall out of someone's hair or new gold teeth grow in their mouth. Last night, I saw something better...............the ruined lives of men and boys transformed by the power of the Word and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. I saw men who at one time would beg, borrow, steal, or even kill in order to get their next fix; spend the kid's milk money on a bag of crack - running and leaping and praising God, laughing, clapping, and weeping because of His great love. The small chapel where we were gathered literally trembled with the power of God's presence and love.

TEEN CHALLENGE has stood the test of time. It began through a series of miracles and the miracles are still occurring. If there is a center near you, I recommend you visit. Better than a visit - get involved. You may not see gold dust fall out of an evangelists' hair, but you just might get to see a man rejoin the human race. For me, well, that's just way cooler!

Arrows

The word of God declares: "Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate."

God has blessed me with five wonderful children - Bryan, Robyn, Andrew, Timothy, and Abigail. Barbara and I lost a little boy, Matthew at birth almost 23 years ago. Additionally, I have 6 wonderful grandchildren - Gabriel Michael, Hannah Lynn, Emalee Mariah, Maddisen Daneel, Grace Elizabeth, and Noah Keith. Certainly a quiver full if I ever saw one.

However, I am blessed to tell you that the quiver is not yet full as Andrew (my middle son) and his wife Hannah have announced that they are expecting their first later this year. Our prayer is as always - Lord, boy or girl, we pray for a child strong in body and spirit - an arrow that can be trimmed straight and true and loosed at the heart of the enemy.

Confronting One's Self

Five years or so ago I carved off a big chunk of my heart and left it in western Kenya. Now, truth is I have pieces of my heart all over Africa in places with hard to pronounce names like N'gua, Kiryandango, Adjumani, Ol'kalou, Narok, Kagamega, Mumias, Kisi, Kisumu, and Banana Hill. I have fallen in love in Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi, and most recently, Cameroon.

But the piece of my heart to which I refer is sizable. I stumbled onto a little school for the deaf in western Kenya in a little town called Oyugis. When I arrived I found around 35 of the most beautiful and tender hearted boys and girls I had ever met. Ranging in age from 5 to 18, these children faced no future - at least no future with a happy ending. They were from the poorest of the poor families and they were deaf in a cultural setting where there is virtually no infrastructure to provide a future for them. Most Deaf persons in that part of the world have one vocation on their horizon - beggar.


The school was operated by a woman, a Filipino missionary and her Kenyan husband. They were, I thought, two generous hearted people who longed to make life better for the deaf. I threw myself into that school with all my heart. I raised thousands of dollars to assist the school. I talked other people into donating thousands of dollars to provide for better food, clothing, and shelter. I contracted a friend of mine to go to the school and help them set up a bakery project that would provide some stable income for the school while at the same time provide effective vocational training for the children as they finished school. I raised over $5000 to finance the project. It would insure that at least some of them would have marketable skills when they finished school.


To make a very involved story much shorter - I was betrayed. More to the point, the children were betrayed. I made a surprise visit to the school last year to find that the children were not any better off despite thousands of additional dollars poured into the school They were being poorly fed, dangerously housed, misused and sometimes abused. The teachers were not being paid and the funds being generated by the bakery were being siphoned off into personal bank accounts. When I confronted the principals about this, I was escorted off the property.


We lost everything we had invested in this project. The bakery ovens and cook stoves, the delivery bicycles, money for land and development. It was all gone. What was worse, I had to return to the United States and contact all of our donors and inform them that their trust in me had been ill placed - one of the hardest letters I've ever written. It was one of the most despondent seasons of my life.


We have, however, continued to work behind the scenes to rectify the situation. I have been in constant contact with the sponsoring agency who in all fairness took decisive and effective action. The offending parties were dismissed, the school was closed, and all funding was cut off. In all the agency has acted with transparency and propriety in every way one would hope.


In the ensuing year, a lot has happened. I just finished reading a series of reports which are summed up in the following: The school has reopened in a new location which provides safe and clean housing. The teachers have all been retained and are actually being paid - double what they were being paid before. The children look healthy, clean and well groomed. Most of all they are happy. The new school is in the final stages of its official registration and they have more students than they did before. Pictured here are are the students of the Immanuel School for the Deaf in Ringa, Kenya. I will post some others in the sidebar.

I am grateful beyond words for these developments. This project is of the greatest personal importance to me. I am really invested in it. Beyond all of this is what I have learned about myself. When I discovered this situation I was angry. I had to be physically restrained by friends to prevent me from doing harm to another human being. In all of my years in the ministry no one has ever been able to push THAT button. I did a lot of yelling and accusing directed toward persons who were in charge but not at fault. Most importantly, in my anger I forgot that God was still on the throne. He was aware of this situation and more than capable of dealing with it. I was devastated because these children were in danger and I could do nothing to help them - again, forgetting that their heavenly Father loves them much more than I do.

Probably more to the point is the fact that I was embarrassed. I had been taken in and it cost me and those who trust me thousands of dollars and more important to me, my reputation. I fancy myself a savvy, street wise guy who is pretty hard to dupe. I was wrong and what is worse, I had to admit it in public. I was convinced that I would never be able to raise funds for such a project again because my integrity, or at best my discernment would now be in question.


You know, humility is a wonderful thing. One of the most wonderful things about it is that it prevents humiliation. You can never humiliate a humble man because he has nowhere to fall to. However, a prideful man - he is ripe.


I am anxious for the opportunity to visit Kenya soon and visit the school and these precious children. God has supervised a restoration and things are better than they ever were before. Amazingly, He was able to do it without my help. And what's more, through all of this I have been able to face down some things I thought I had conquered a long time ago. God used me to expose some critical flaws in the care of these children and he used that situation to expose some critical flaws in me as well. Funny how that happens isn't it.