Week two of summer programming has been a successful one and so many youth at risk were served from specifically Des Moines and Central Iowa region this week. One hundred children, ages 8-12, along with all of our young leaders and leaders for life brought the total for the week to 150 youth on site.
Each week, there are so many memorable moments and life changing experiences that occur. This week we are highlighting Austin’s story. Austin is on our full-time summer staff this year as a leader. Austin is a true example of what leadership by example looks like and has done a wonderful job of mentoring and helping the youth that are looking up to him this summer.
Austin wrote his story and shared it with us in poem format:
Austin’s Story
It all began back in December
At the age of 3
That’s the furthest I can remember
A young boy from a foreign country
Hungry
Due to the lack of food and water
I became a son
To a family that had 1 daughter
Along with a brother that was given the same chance
But this only a glance of the beginning
From 3 to 5
I strived to be everyone’s best friend
With a smile on my face
Wanting to play pretend
But that quickly got erased when I started
Going to school
I was surrounded by a sea of white and I didn’t feel right
Because I was different
The only sense of diversity starting to learn adversity
Picked on for being different
For being brown
Sadness and hate started filling my heart
The smile was now a frown.
Now home…home I’ve never known
Because the father they showed us in Bible school
Was way different than the one I had
A young lad living in fear
Where the most water he knew wasn’t rain it was tears
All loving
All showing
I am with you
I felt abandoned
Stranded on an island alone
Because I was worthless
A piece of crap
A pile of
Wait no I can’t say that
All things I believe because this is what I was told
By my father
Feeling nothing but hate
I thought how could you forsake me?
Mother…
Why would you let him do this
Don’t you see what he’s doing
His fist is held high
Don’t you love me enough to want to stop this
The beating
The hurt
The pain
I told you so many times but you said it was
All in my brain
Father God all loving
Father flesh mind numbing
So numbing I couldn’t feel
All of sudden lines on my arms I had to conceal
Just to feel something
Trying to see if I was really more than nothing
Those lines became scars
That became the prison bars
That held me captive
Feeling alone thinking no one is ever going to
Come and set me free.
What is this place?
Wildwood? Mmm. Yeah I’ll go
Not knowing what God was doing
But anything to get me away from home
For sure I am in
But even then I was still letting Satan win
And listening to his lies
Always asked what was wrong
I
Am
Just
Tired
Liar
A week later
I heard anyone come ask for change or prayer
I was a punk teen who didn’t care
But a friend who said you need this we’re
Going down there
Next thing I know I’m crying
Find out that what I thought people were saying
Was what I believed was true
Was just the enemy lying
A switch from hate to love
I felt you come from above and wrap me in your arms and
Say it’s going to be okay
A few years later I still knew who you were
But I didn’t fully step through the door.
But I felt like a bird in the sky because the only thing I
Was doing was getting high
Not off the Spirit but off of weed
A constant feel of relief
Man, I was deceived
Weed turned to LSD
LSD turned into
This is me
This is me turned into drug dealer eager
To make money
And you know God puts people in your life to bring
You closer to Him
Well it’s true because I met this girl who I knew I
Wanted to change for
And she asked me to come to Bible study
I went not for God but for her
Her and I are no longer together
But I am living way better and feeling so much more.
Because through her I met someone I can
Call my mentor
Who sat down on that day
Came up to me and said
Hey, can I pray for you right now?
So hesitant but I said yes
And then she told me who I was
What I stood for
What drove me
And there’s no way in the 3 minutes we sat with each
Other she could have guessed that
Images shown from God
A so real moment it was no facade
Fire lit
Inside me because I felt no longer lost
Asked that day back when I first went to
The Ranch please find me
Set me free from these bars
God you have been with me every step of the way
I didn’t make it this far on my own
I started seeing the picture shown to me so
Many years ago
Came to me
And I know you will never go
Set me free to be me. With love
That’s from above
It looks good on paper
And I live it
But you hold the pen
Now, then – until the very end