“There’s a lot of violence.”

A few weeks after I began working at Streets, Liz, the elementary coordinator, approached me, and asked me to lead a weekly devotional with the elementary guys. I nervously said yes, and now every Wednesday consists of spending an hour with about 5 elementary students. We’ve discussed topics from obedience to trust to selfishness, and we’ve learned about the stories of Joshua, Gideon, and David and Bathsheba. I have never taught David and Bathsheba to young children before this experience, and I am very thankful for Veggie Tales.

Our discussion this week was about courage. As normal, we watched a Veggie Tales video, and then had a conversation about courage. Usually our conversation is mostly superficial, and I had no reason to expect anything different this week. In fact, I expected less because I thought that last week was our final devotional of the semester, and I was completely unprepared.

I should’ve known better though. The craziest thing happened. God took my unpreparedness and moved this conversation with two elementary students to an incredibly deep place.

I asked them about some occasions that they need courage, and they responded by telling me that they need it to stand up to people who are doing the wrong things. I asked them what kind of things they meant, and they started telling me about all the things that they see in their school and neighborhood.

“People selling drugs.”

“Parents not loving kids.”

“People that steal other people’s stuff.”

I asked them what they see as the biggest problem in their school and community. They both agreed. Their answer?

“There’s a lot of violence.”

These kids are in 4^th and 5^th grade, but they possess a mature understanding of the problems of the world, specifically the problems in Memphis. After this beautiful moment, we kept talking about courage and what it means to stand up when people are doing these things.

Students like these two are why I do what I do. They are going to be voices against the problems of the community, and I’m grateful that God has placed Streets Ministries in a place where we can witness, protect, and encourage these students to continue on this path.

I am encouraged by their courage. I want to follow their example. As long as God allows, I will be a voice against violence, not just in Memphis but all around the world.