Maybe it’s not surprising because I’m a mother of two young children, but more and more my greatest joys in life come from being a “Mama.” But this mama has kids ranging from 16 months to 21 years (even though I am only 29). The range of circumstances I’ve encountered differ from giving pregnancy tests to informal nutrition talks about the importance of vegetables and what a healthy portion of cheese looks like to conversations about race, poverty and what it means to want to “better yourself but not lose your culture.” I really love all of it.

This weekend, Doug and I experienced a full but fairly normal 48 hours of sharing life in the Hilltop with our community of mainly kids and young adults, and I felt inspired to share it.

         Friday, 6:30pm
My kids (Tobey and Lucy) and I arrived at the People’s Community Center to help with Sozo Kids, a grade-school late night outreach program that is a partnership between Metro Parks, Tacoma Youth for Christ, and City Central Church. Over 50 5-11 year-olds came to run around a gym, jump rope, play video games, and hear a message from John 2 about Jesus turning the water into wine. Doug and I helped start Sozo Kids 3 years ago and it’s wonderful to still see kids excited to bring their friends. Rarely does a night at Sozo Kids go by without at least 5 new kids coming. After Sozo Kids, Doug and I were up late talking with our friend De’Marko (who lives with us and also works at Sozo Kids) and his 14-year-old brother, Armond, who usually stays with us on the weekends.

Saturday, 8:45am
Doug and Lucy were already driving over to Tacoma’s Eastside to pick up Nathaniel to take him to the making of a film that some friends of ours are submitting to the Tacoma Film Festival. Nathaniel’s goal after high school is to pursue acting and attend a community college that offers classes towards that goal. In less than 6 weeks, Nathaniel will graduate from high school at the age of 19. Two months into this school year, Doug made a deal with Nathaniel that he could come over for dinner every week that he had perfect attendance. As such, Nathaniel usually shares at least one meal a week with our family, and we are so proud of him for persevering in school!

Saturday, 10am
Doug woke up De’Marko for a meeting at our house with our Sozo Kids adult leaders and 3 youth leaders. We have an amazing team at Sozo Kids, but De’Marko has definitely become one of our most responsible leaders as well as one who really engages the kids each week.

Saturday, 4pm                                                    
We were awakened from a family nap to Nathaniel knocking on our door. He was done with the filming and ready for his weekly dinner. While I’m cooking, it is common for Nathaniel to stand by me in the kitchen and ask various questions about health and nutrition, relationships, and what the Bible says about different topics. Doug and I are regularly amazed at how hungry Nathaniel is to learn and how much he loves family life. He loves it when Tobey comes to him with a book for him to read or Lucy sings “A Whole New World” for him. 

Saturday, 7:30pm       
While Doug was taking Nathaniel home and helping 3 of our youth—De’Marko, Justin, and Corasia (who are now paid staff with Metro Parks)—I was putting our kids to bed when I saw 6 elementary school kids from Sozo Kids playing in the alley by our house. I decided that was a worthy cause to delay Lucy’s bedtime and we ran outside to play relay races, tag, and do cheers with those 6 kids and two neighbor kids. In that 30 minutes of play, one of the girls thanked me several times for how much fun she had. Isn’t that so telling about the innocence of childhood and the importance of spontaneous life-on-life interactions?

Sunday, 11am-7pm
Our family spent most of the day worshiping at a local Hilltop church. Then the rest of the afternoon we had family time with De’Marko, Armond, and Allie (De’Marko’s girlfriend). De’Marko watched popcorn kernels pop for the first time from an actual popcorn popper.

As I look back on the weekend, I cooked meals for 15 people in addition to our family, used 20 eggs, and vacuumed three times. And this is a fairly typical weekend off for us! But I really can’t imagine changing any of it. Last night I couldn’t fall asleep because I kept thinking of the precious kids I had played tag with, and how grateful I am for moments like that with 5th grade girls who will be attending junior high next year. There are definitely moments when it feels difficult to choose to give my time away, but more often I am so grateful that God has made me to feel most alive when I am surrounded by opportunities like this. Thank you, Jesus, for making me as a Mama and giving me so many to love in addition to my own children!

I’ve been discipling Nathaniel ever since he first gave his life to Christ two years ago. It’s been such a joy to walk with him from ground zero to the honest, pure-hearted man he’s become. In order to encourage him to become a “self-feeder,” I made a challenge: I ask him a question, and he has one week to answer it. Here’s the catch…the only valid answer must come from the Bible. Nothing else is valid (even if it’s the right answer). I also challenged him to reading one chapter per day (starting with Mark). We meet every Tuesday. In order to add a little accountability, we made the following rule: if he hasn’t done all of his homework (including question answered), then he has to vacuum my car. If he does all his homework and has the question answered, then he comes over to my house for dinner.

It’s a win-win for me…either I see growth in my disciple or I have a clean car.

So far, Nathaniel’s won every challenge. He not only comes every Tuesday with his reading done and the answer, but he always comes with a complete hand-written word-study on the topic. He never answers the question with two verses…I’m talking 15 different verses. He’s very thorough!

The best part is seeing the personal revelations that He is having as He’s digging into the Word, and the way that they’re translating into action in his life. Last week’s question was, “What does God think about laziness?” We met yesterday, and he was so anxious to get started and tell me all the things that God showed him.

He read me verse-by-verse all the scriptures about laziness, the sluggard vs. the diligent, etc. When he was done, he exclaimed, “Doug, I found out that laziness is a sin!!! I’ve been lazy my whole life!!! I didn’t think there was anything wrong with it…but it’s a sin! When I woke up this morning, I wanted to turn off my alarm clock. Then I realized that I was being lazy…and that’s a sin! So I got up and went to school.”

We take these simple truths for granted, but Nathaniel was never raised with Biblical truths. His “right and wrongs” looked very different than mine or yours. What joy to see God transforming him by the renewing of his mind (Romans 12:2). God looks past the outward behaviors that made me first overlook Nathaniel, and he sees the man who desires to know God and to please Him. What a joy and an honor that God has allowed us to partake in this ministry!

-Doug Jonson, Sozo

Every day I get a “devotional” from Airfeira texted to my phone (usually around midnight). Air is one of our youth that has undergone probably the most radical transformation. She now works with me at the REACH Youth Services building, where she was given an AmeriCorp position to do youth outreach (even the secular world recognizes her evangelistic DNA). I love her text devos, and wanted to share snippets with you…
-Doug Jonson, City Life-Sozo

FEBRUARY 2010

At times you may not feel complete. But I got the answer. All you need is Jesus Christ. No weapon formed against you will prosper. He loves you!

——————————————————–
Everyone wants to be loved and find themselves searching for love in all the wrong things. In the end you’re still so lost and confused wanting that same someone that would never stand you. “Why?” is what you ask yourself. Jesus said that His love is unconditional. Jesus said He loved us when we didn’t love ourselves. He will never hurt us nor leave our side even if we hate Him. He died for our sins. That’s real love.

——————————————————-

It’s hard to forgive someone who betrayed you–especially someone you called a friend. It’s hard to forgive a parent that’s not doing its job. It’s hard to trust someone when you’ve been hurt all your life. Jesus said, “Forgive and He shall forgive you. The world says, “Don’t trust no one and you will not get hurt.” I’ve come to realize that by not forgiving you’re only hurting yourself. You’re letting the next get the best of you. Who do you gotta forgive?

——————————————————–
Faith is sure of what we hope for and certain of what we don’t see. Life gets hard, but take your eyes off the moment and put them on the future.

——————————————————–
05 J.C. Saved Me 1

Their journey began a little rocky.  Each held tightly to the children; both wanting what was best for them.  Over time, they began to know each other, hear each other’s story, and enjoy each other’s company.  Restoration began to take place in the birth mom, as she was reunited with her family and given a new family through her children’s foster family. 

 After many visits and court appearances, we were at our final hearing before the kids would be going home for good.  Birth mom and foster mom sat side by side at the table with the children in their laps.  Birth mom cried as she spoke of her 2 year journey, with the help of her new friend, the foster mom.  Those in the court room were wiping away tears as they heard this story of redemption.   The judge stood up and applauded both of the moms and their journey.    Rejoice in God’s redemption and restoration!!!

Katie Bass

The night was also one of the more exciting Sozo Kids.  It had crazy games like an orange-eating contest that involved three teams of two kids, one pealing while the other ate the orange.   We also played a game called Banana Olympics in which the boys competed against the girls.  In this game kids tossed bananas back and forth, rolled over them, ran with them in their arm pits, and had to eat them when they were done.  The girls barely pulled out a one point victory over the boys .  Then we feed them giant cupcakes and juices.  Over all the night was a huge success as the kids felt loved on and had lots of fun doing it. 

-Rick Herzer, Sozo Kids Director

I remember 2 years ago it was such a thug environment, and it was not a safe place to be. There was a lot of gang activity, and there was always a spirit of intimidation. I would get cussed out constantly and I remember having to call the police for about 5 weeks in a row. Needless to say, there was always the temptation to quit and give up. But we staked our ground, pressed through, continued to pray, continued to love kids, continued to be consistent…and now the People’s Center is a safe place to be, and a place where kids are getting saved and transformed!

Late Night has become an intimate environment, where kids feel safe and welcome on a Saturday night. This is so important as many of these are coming from home environments filled with drug activity, violence, and gang activity. Our leaders are so faithful and dedicated, and they love these kids so much! It’s so amazing to walk around Late Night and see kids having so much fun and receiving love.  Whether it’s baking in the kitchen with Shannon and Heather, playing dodgeball with Zach and Mandy, basketball with Chad and Josh, hip-hop dance with Cindy, or hanging out at the front desk with John and Summer…the kids know that they are loved!