The other week these were some of the responses I got:
Me: There are people out there who totally want to hang out with you and help you.
Juvi: No offense Miss (that's me... So weird). But no one wants to hang out with ex felons.
Me: No really, I've talked to them. I am one of them
Juvi: Why would they want to do that? We are ex felons. They don't wanna hang out with us.
Me: Tell me something or someone you're proud of.
Juvi: Oh that's easy. Nothing and Noone.
Me: *heart broken*
Me: I wanna learn your names. (goes around and has them tell me their names. I usually get their street names and never their real names which is fine with me.)
Juvis: Miss, do you know my real name?
Me: No, you never told me!
Juvis: *pause* Miss, my real name is Bradley (name changed for privacy reasons).
Me: *jumping up and down on the inside*
Me: Tell me the most important person in your life and why?
Juvi: My Mum, because she's always been there for me. Even though I am in here!
Me: What was the hardest thing you ever had to do aside from being in here?
Juvi: Tell my Mum what I'd done.
Me: I want to give you a challenge this week. (we do challenges EVERY week. One that we had to revisit is the one about not swearing. Now it's not just not swearing. It's just not swearing at church. LOL.) This week I want you to replace negative thoughts about yourself with positive ones.
Juvi: (who has been a pain in the behind for the past 6 weeks, has never listened, always been disruptive and been on the verge of being kicked out more than once) I like that challenge! I'm totally gonna do that Miss!
Me: *jumping up and down on the inside!*
These are just some of the conversations that happen when I hang out with them. Actually all these happened in one night! It also should be noted that these are not your average Juvis. I might call them Juvis, but a lot of them will be tried as adults and are seen by the law as adults. It suggests that what they have done was bad. Really bad.
And yet I believe they deserve a chance. First of all a chance to hear about Jesus ('Miss, who's Hosanna??') secondly a chance to be the person that God wants them to be.
Please continue to pray with me for my Juvis. Every Saturday I get to talk to up to 20 of them. And yeah, I kinda like them!
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