Worlds Apart

We (Thomas and I) survived a youth lock-in event in church this past Friday night till Saturday morning. It was...DISASTROUS!! There were 4 leaders including us and about 16 teenagers. We reached church at about 630pm, and played board games, Pictionary and basketball as the crowd began to trickle in. We had pizza for dinner and then resume playing games.

At about 930pm, we had worship and Opie gave a short Word, after which all the madness . The youth were running around in the whole building, screaming, playing, shouting, throwing small packets of coffee creamer on the floor till it burst! Crazy..it was crazy!! They were loud, they were rude, they showed attitude to you. They just couldn't care less. They even broke the church bathroom door and the water fountain. They almost tore the whole place down..almost!

Most of them did NOT sleep at all. So did Opie and Thomas!! I slept 3 hours..well, barely cause i was falling in and out of sleep with all the noise of running footsteps and voices. We had to scold and correct them so many times but they just wouldn't listen. Someone even tried to steal another person's discman. All the drama in a night!

There were white kids, there were Hispanics, and we also have some black kids in the youth group. One thing that struck me was the great gulf of differences between these different people groups. Most or if not all Hispanic youth loathe the white kids. Can't blame them i guess. They are brought up in a community that feels ostracized by the white community. Hence, these Hispanic kids grow up with prejudice towards the whites! Some white kids are more withdrawn from the Hispanics and the blacks. And the blacks and the whites? ..are also worlds apart. They are so different!! and to bring them altogether in unity and love..it's so difficult.

It's almost like Malaysia. We have the Chinese, the Malays and the Indians. We say that we live in harmony..but really, it may not be as harmonious if we look under the carpet. The Chinese don't really like the Malays because they have special 'bumiputera' rights from the government. The Malays, for some reason..don't really like the Chinese. Maybe they feel treatened with the Chinese for their tremendous growth in business, education, etc. The Indians..i don't know. I'm just venting.

My point in saying all this is..the society everywhere around the world is antagonistic with each other, agree? Yes, No? Is yes..then how do we as Christians bring about peace? I'm reminded in Matthew 5..it says "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the sons of God." How then shall we live?

Will you be counted to bring peace to this hostile world??