Mission 4 Monday Family Day

Have you ever thought about adoption?  I know there a many young couples that are struggling to have children and they choose adoption.  And what a great thing to bring a baby into a loving family.  A family that spends major amounts of time and money for the child. 
But have you ever thought of adopting a teenager? 

One of the young men I work with was adopted when he was 13 years old.  He is now 18.  He is actually a very rare case.  His story is much different than the rest of them.  His adopted mother is a cardialogist.  The 18 tickets that he still had outstanding after coming to our prison unit his parents paid for.  (these were all traffic violations)  He is an amazing kid.  And now at 18 he is finally getting his head on straight.   He is my 'tech guy' on Sunday and he will help with our Drama team.   
He was one of the boys on Saturday that didn't have family come for family day.  (His mom and dad visit regularly)
The others either didn't have a family that cared enough to come or financially it was out of the question.
Texas is really a big state and many of the youth are from the far south end or far west side it costs a lot of time and money to travel to the northern part of our 'great' state.  (sorry I had to add that)

I wanted to share this photo.  It is the only one I managed to get without faces showing.  18 of  the 47 boys received certificates for memorizing more than 30 Bible verses since September. 
Tatooed Hearts is the program we help with on Wednesday nights. 
(The program is voluntary the boys don't have to participate) It is amazing to listen to the boys recite verses.  Not only single verses but long passages!  They put me in my place! 
It's been awhile since I have been able to post a M4M post.
I am hoping to be more regular about posting here and on our ministry blog. 
I want to urge you to consider the youth.  As I said many of them didn't have family that were able to come to family day. 
There are many ways to help.  Even if teenagers scare you there are ways to help without actually working directly in a prison unit or jail.  I urge you to investigate your local area and find a way to share the love of Christ with troubled youth. 
And BTW . . . Just to let you know they used to scare me