MMotW: Where I needed to be

I host a variety of events for YOUth Ministry.  I try to have service, fellowship, and faith/prayer nights each month, though, obviously, they often tie in with one another. 

If I try to do an even tied solely given to prayer my numbers are never good.  At least, not yet, as this is a new opportunity for them, both at this parish and, more importantly, at their age, since they're just now starting to really flex their prayer muscles.

In any case, Palm Sunday afternoon I was setting up stations (this link was my inspiration starting point).  It has a fair number of details to pull together, so while I was setting up I was in and out of rooms at the building.  I was the only one in the building, as it was still over an hour until my event started.

So, when I walked out of the presschool room with a bowl of uncooked rice I was a little startled to see a young man in the hallway, looking into the rooms I was setting up.  He appeared nervous and didn't offer his name when I introduced myself.

He said he needed to talk with someone.  Immediately I offered to contact our priest, but he shrugged and said he'd just come in and talk with me while I set up.  And so we did.  As I moved around the room, setting up stations based upon the Lord's Prayer he haltingly told me he knew something had to change in his life, that he wasn't working up to his potential and he wa tired of it. 

He was needing to make change, but he wasn't sure how and he doesn't really have a support network as his parents work late and on the road often and his siblings are younger and his friends are all doing pretty much the same thing. 

I listened to his words, but, for one of the first times I was really able to listen to what he meant.  He was looking for answers and I told him I didn't have any.  But that he seemed to already have them in his head.  He hadn't set foot in a church in 12 years, though he believed in God.  That's a good place to start, I said. 

We talked, sproradically, for the next hour before my kids began to show up.  He excused himself, but before I let him go I asked to pray with him.  He was nervous, until I said he didn't have to do anything but listen and be there.  I prayed for God to watch over him with special care and to help guide his heart and mind now that he has resolved to change.  When we were done he had tears in his eyes.

I still don't know his name.  My prayer stations went fine, but my job that afternoon was to be there for that young man, who hadn't even intended to stop that afternoon.  God knows better than we do, always, and so I am grateful I was there, setting up an underutilized event, as I was able to offer than still nameless young man some hope and fellowship.