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Message from the Director

December 2008

Losing Your Job to Save Your Niece

How do you know if someone loves you? How does a 10 year old know?  And what can we do about it?  Ten year old Randi has an answer.

Randi was sent out of class today.  She was sent out of art and Latin and lunch, too.  I'd seen the look on her face plenty of times before, but today her audition for "Miss Attitude" looked more troubled than tough.  I called her in.

She plopped herself halfway into the seat with pursed lips and a disgusted sigh.  I resisted smiling at the performance as I had her sit up properly and be respectful.  She was expecting a lecture, but she didn't need to hear from me.  I wanted to hear from her.  Besides, surprise is a great tool in the arsenal of discipline.

"Randi, you know how you're behaving and we both know it isn't how you want to be or what God has planned for you.  I don't know why you're making these choices, but you do.  Tell me what's bothering you, Randi."

For the next hour Randi shared about her ten year old life.  It was a story told with an alarming maturity full of loneliness, rejection, chaos, homelessness, violence, fear, poverty, threats - enough pain for a lifetime, not a ten year old.

I thought of a famous quote from a mom trapped in a project: "There are no children here."  Randi had never been a child.

She ended by saying, "People tell me they love me, but they're always lying."  I still can't believe how mature and hopeless this ten year old was.

UrbanPromise serves kids and families with the love of Christ.  This didn't have to be the end.  I read Randi the famous love chapter from the Bible.  "That's what love is for real.  Think hard, who do you think loves you?"  She looked blankly into the distance.  Suddenly her eyes lit up.

"My uncle loves me!  When my Dad threw me out, Uncle Larry left his job in New York early that day and drove to get me and they fired him because of it."  Suddenly she was full of joy.  She could think of someone whose love had proved genuine.  She believed it because it had cost her uncle very much to love her.  The rest of the day she beamed.  Every time I saw her she had a new look.

Of course this brief victory is not the end either.  It will take day after day of many people showing that love is more than words. Part of that love is the money it takes to support the hands and hearts she needs to teach, counsel, and love her.

Randi needs your gift to allow our staff to show her love can be true.  Like Randi's uncle, it can cost a lot to love.  But it can also bring life back to a ten year old.  There is no better time than Christmas to enjoy the gift of love.

Rob