Fortress Youth Development Center

Well, here I am, sitting at my desk in the Fortress Literacy Lab, with a month of the Fortress routine under my belt, feeling this odd mixture of the comfort of home and the realization that I still have so much to learn.

I have learned a great deal about the children during this month, but only enough to realize how much I have yet to learn. I am a recent college graduate, having majored in everything from English to Music to Physical Therapy: they call me the professional student where I’m from. With that in mind, you’d think I would have figured a few things out by now, but God keeps surprising me with just how small I am and how limited my perspective is in the grand scheme of things.

I am so thankful for this experience because it has opened my eyes yet again to the great rich diversity of God’s creation. Each of us has experiences in life that shape and mold us, form our perspectives and the lenses with which we view the world. These children have enriched my life in such a way that I feel like my lenses are expanding. They are opening my eyes to an entirely different culture and flavor of life. Their dancing, singing, rapping, laughing, and storytelling give me joy and fill me with an overwhelming sense of God’s goodness.

I thought I was taking this job so that I could impact them, teach them, and show them God’s love (and yes, I still pray that God is using me in that way), but the most astonishing reality is that the very thing I thought I was to bring into their lives, they are bringing into mine. While we don’t always share the same musical taste (I’m working on my appreciation for Lil’ Wayne), we do share the same Lord, and His love is the force that transcends every single cultural, racial, or even personality difference. Our differences only illuminate the power of God’s love working in and through us, creating a unity in spirit that can only be possible because our Creator has made it so.