Fathering the Fatherless

Well, everyday that I get to spend in the neighborhood my brain expanded a little bit more to the unknown issues and injustices within the neighborhood. Today, I had a neighborhood kid, Roger that waited for me all morning to get back home from church. He’s an awesome kid, and just wants someone to invest in him. He left with some other friends around 4 pm, and they showed up again 5 pm.

When they arrived the spirit in the air was not happy, something was up. Roger ran inside, and sat at my kitchen table. He buried his head into his arms. 2 other friends came up to the door. They seemed tense about the whole thing as well. I knew bad feelings were in the air. I was kind of in bewilderment about what was happening, and started to question what was going on. I asked the eldest kid, and he denied anything happened. The youngest ran out the door and came back with a big chunk of a cinder block and said, “ He threw this at us.” I felt disappointed in Roger, but knew that couldn’t be the whole story. I asked why he did that, and found out that the eldest was tried to hold Roger in place so that the youngest could hit him.
I asked the eldest if this was true a few times, and got a negative response, and eventually he confessed to it all. It was like pulling teeth. They apologized and walked away somberly.

It was a bit weird to somewhat have this relationship with some of the neighborhood youth in this manner. It is like I am their father. I am a place of comfort and trust with them. It’s beautiful, I want to be able to do so much more for them but its tough because they are not my kids. My heart wants to provide for these kids, and to father these boys into growing men. I am fearful that they will be forced to move away, or that I will not have the time/budget for them.

I need a wife too, I am sure there are girls in the neighborhood as well that are probably having similar issues as many of these boys.