Standing in the Gap

Every year as part of the 30 Hour Famine, we have a Break the Fast Celebration during which we invite our family of Faith to join us for a worship time that celebrates all that God did in and through us during the Famine. As part of this, various students share about their experience and each adult answers one question, “Where did you see Jesus during the Famine?”

This year, as I listened to the other adult leaders share their Jesus sighting from the weekend, I sat in agreement with their observations. The weekend was a rich one and Jesus sightings were abundant. Yet, for me, my most profound Jesus sighting wasn’t one that I shared with the group that night. Instead, it’s one that unfolded before me during the Break the Fast Celebration itself, as I sat in awe of our family of Faith, and the strange conglomeration of people assembled there to support and love our youth.

There were, of course, parents of participants at the Break the Fast Celebration. But there were also grandparents and a very random assortment of people from our congregation who served as fasting buddies. This group included a former confirmation guide whose own child could not participate in the Famine but who chose to be a fasting buddy for one of the teens she had shepherded through two years of confirmation. There was also an older gentleman who I had absolutely no previous connection with, yet who decided on a whim to be a buddy for one our high school seniors.

And then there was the lady who runs our church’s ESL (English as a Second Language) ministry. This woman, Debbie, has a servant heart like non-other but she’s also someone who would not immediately strike you as a natural when it comes to working with youth. Yet, Debbie served as a prayer buddy for one of the girls in our ministry, who we’ll call Sally, who faithfully babysits at ESL every Monday night. Unlike most of the students at the Famine, neither of this young lady’s parents came to support her during the Break the Fast Celebration. But Debbie did.

When Debbie walked into the sanctuary that night for the Celebration, Sally flew down the aisle into her arms, hugging her, delighted by her presence, eager to share her Famine experience with her. Later that night, Debbie and Sally broke their fast together with communion, literally sharing Christ with one another.

And when they did, I was moved to tears, struck by the fact that this is just one of many times these two have shared Christ with one another. In reality, they do so regularly, when week after week, Debbie stands in the gap for Sally, providing spiritual leadership and encouragement for this young lady after a divorce has left her own parents struggling to do so. In so many ways, Debbie is Christ to Sally. She’s taken Sally under her wings, unofficially mentored her, and nourished her passion for refugees, enabling it to flourish.

While that’s all fine and good, what is perhaps even more remarkable is that in watching Debbie and Sally during the Break the Fast Celebration, I suspect that Debbie is not just Christ to Sally, but rather, that Sally is also Christ to Debbie.

The surprising, intergenerational relationship that these two have embodies what it means for adults in a community of faith to invest in its youth – regardless of whether or not they’re officially adult leaders in the youth ministry.

When I look at the relationship that Debbie and Sally have with one another, I see the power of Christ.

That’s something to celebrate.

It’s also something that I’ll continue to pray each youth and every adult in our congregation will one day know the power of.