Christian Youth Warriors Are About to Take the World by Storm
Hopewood Chapel - First Youth Night since the re-establishment of a the youth program.
While the older kids remained upstairs in the chapel and were being schooled in the best way to speak to the opposite sex, the younger kids downstairs were being primed to do great things. JoJo Adams ushered them down to the community room. They took seats in folding chairs placed in a giant circle. There were about thirty-five kids, JoJo estimated, most of whom he’d never seen before. He smiled at them, greeted every single one of them, shook hands with them, and directed them to take a seat.
Once they were seated, he looked around the giant circle for several seconds, silently asking God to help him to help them. He then nodded and smiled.
“What? Are you trying to figure out what to say to us?” a boy quipped.
The others laughed. JoJo smiled. “So, a few of you know me personally. Daniel Davis, can you tell them what I was doing?”
Daniel’s face turned a little pink for being called on in such a large group of kids. Still, he nodded. “Yes sir.”
JoJo prodded him. “Go ahead. What was I doing?”
“You were praying over us.”
JoJo smiled. “That’s right. So, let’s get started. Hello everyone. For those who don’t know me, my name is JoJo Adams. Just to give you perspective, Logan upstairs, is my brother. Young Eric Kino the third and his sister Taylor are my cousins. My father’s younger brother is Joey Adams, who is my uncle. The same Joey Adams who did some movies with Ricky Kino and who fought in and won a bunch of Kino Challenges and now helps run Ameritech Security. Ricky Kino is my uncle. His wife, Breanna Adams Kino is my aunt. My father is Mark Adams, he’s an attorney, and also a Kino Challenge Champion. My mother is Bella Adams, and to me, she’s the best mom in the world. I have a little sister, Emily, who is four. Dr. June Flower Kino Wallace, is my father’s little sister and she is my aunt, and her husband, Cameron Wallace, my uncle, is a JETT.”
“What’s a jet?”
“He’s like, special forces. My Uncle Joey is also a JETT. My grandfather is Grandmaster Eric Kino, and my grandmother is Shelley Kino who was a MART champion back in the day. I was the USC quarterback for the past three years, but I was put out with a shoulder injury. I was gonna go pro, but that’s over, and so now, I get to talk to young people like yourselves and that, to me, is a great privilege.”
He drew a deep breath and smiled. “So, there’s a lotta kids here, which is awesome, and I WAS praying over you for a moment, so why do you think I was doing that?”
“Um, cuz we need all the prayers we can get?” Lyle Keith jested.
“Well, that is true about all of us, but I was praying over you because this group, you kids right here, you are so much more important than you think. Now, what I want you to do right now, is go around the circle and count off so I know exactly how many kids we have today. He turned to Daniel Davis who sat on his right. “Dan, you’re number one. He pointed to Jeremy Davis.”
“Two,” Jeremy said.
JoJo waited for them to finish. There turned out to be forty-two kids. It was a diverse group. Each kid was unique. There seemed to be a few more boys than girls, which was odd, but cool. JoJo nodded. “Okay. Forty-two. Wow. That’s more than I thought. Awesome! So, next, I want you go around and introduce yourself. Give us your name, your age, what school you attend, or if you’re home-schooled, and if you’d like, tell us a little something about yourself. I mean, like, hey, I’m JoJo Adams, I’m fourteen, I go to Newport High School and I like to play football. Or, I’m Breanna Adams, I’m twelve, and I’m into drama. Got it?” He nodded and turned to his left this time and gestured to a pretty girl. “Let’s start with you.”
She immediately blushed. “Oh. Okay. Do we have to stand up?”
“No, unless you want to stand. Either way is cool with me.”
She stayed in her seat. “Okay, well, I’m Ava, I’m thirteen. I go to Huntington Middle School, and I like to surf.”
JoJo nodded. “Awesome. Next.”
They went around the entire circle. JoJo listened intently, trying to pick up on nuances. Who was shy. Who was definitely not shy. Who was a leader. Who had some self-esteem issues. As they went around he realized, he’d like to have a private conversation with every single one of them.
When the last one finished, which was Daniel Davis, JoJo smiled. “What Daniel didn’t tell you, is that today is actually his thirteenth birthday. So, happy birthday, Dan. Daniel’s mom provided the giant birthday cake that’s sitting over there on the counter and we’ll dive into that later. You’ll notice when we do, that his brother, Jeremy’s name is also on the cake, and that is because his birthday is in two days, on the tenth, so we’re gonna sing to them later. Do we have anymore birthdays that have recently happened or will happen this week? No? Okay. If anyone has a birthday coming up, please let me know, and we’ll make it a tradition to celebrate with you on Wednesday nights.”
JoJo looked around. “Just full disclosure, I personally know three of the kids here. Daniel here, and his brother Jeremy, are like family to me. Their father is a very good friend of our family and I love these guys like they are my own little brothers. And, Lyle Keith, the soon to be Oakview High School Varsity QB over there, is the brother of my brother’s girlfriend, and their family is very close to our family too, and I love him like a brother. So, what that means, is not that Dan, Jeremy and Lyle are special. It actually means, I expect a lot from them. Got it, guys?”
The three boys laughed. “Yes sir, JoJo, sir,” Daniel said.
“Good. Now, someone tell me, how does it make you feel to be in this younger group, separate from the older kids upstairs?”
When no one answered, he smiled. “Come on, now. Be honest. How do you feel about it? There is no wrong answer. I just want to gage how you’re feeling about it.”
JoJo glanced at Lyle and nodded.
Lyle sat up straight. “Well, to be honest, it makes me feel like, man, I missed the cutoff by four months. Cuz I’ll be fifteen May 5th.”
“And you’d rather be with the older kids?”
He shrugged. “I guess.”
“Why?”
“Well, I’m not sure. It feels like, we’re not as important. Or like, ya know, we have to sit at the kid’s table at Thanksgiving.”
JoJo laughed. “Good description. And thank you for being so honest, Lyle. And thanks for speaking up, because being a good quarterback means being a good leader. So, point for you.”
“Just one?” Lyle quipped.
The group chuckled.
JoJo looked around, his eyes shining. “So, listen up guys, because what I’m about to say is important. This group is ultra special. I’m not sure why yet. I was hurt in that last season game, and poof, just like that, my pro career was gone. But that wasn’t bad luck. That was God, working out His plan for me. I’m supposed to be right here, working with you kids. You younger ones, are actually more important than the ones upstairs, in some ways. They’ve already passed this time when how you conduct yourself can make or break you. They’re working on other things. Right now, what they’re doing, is learning the best way to speak to someone of the opposite sex. How to talk to a girl respectfully. How to talk to a boy and remain true to yourself.
“But us down here, we’re about to learn that you, as young people, can make a huge difference. You’re about to learn how to work a room. How to be a leader, even if you’re a little shy. And not only be a leader, but how to influence a whole nation, a lot like Gabe Tanner did, though he was older than you. You guys are so important, and if Reverend Clark asked me to change up and work with the older kids instead, I would respectfully ask to stay here with you, because we are about to light– this– place– up.”
He smiled. “In my family, we are very competitive. Go figure. Everything gets turned into a competition and we don’t hold back. Even if it’s just a backyard volleyball game, we go at it full force. So, we’re gonna turn this into a competition of sorts. Can this younger group down here outdo, shine brighter, be more dynamic than the ones upstairs? I think you absolutely can. So, let’s begin with a few rules.
“We can be competitive, but we cannot be bad sports. That’s the rule in our family. We play with honor. No anger. No temper. You know our whole family are martial artists, and Kino Martial Arts is big on integrity and honor. It’s core. And that’s the way our youth group here, the under fifteens, that’s the way we will operate. With honor.”
“So, like, are you a black belt?” one of the boys asked.
JoJo nodded. “I’m a third degree black belt.”
“Cool. Will you show us some stuff?”
“One day. Right now, I’m rehabbing my shoulder. I should be back in business by March. Then, if you want, we’ll do a demo for you guys.”
The boy nodded.
“Anyway, what I was getting at is this; we are at this church on a Wednesday evening because we are Christians. We are followers of Jesus Christ, and we need to learn how to go about our everyday lives being holy and exemplary and living in a way that shows the world that Christians are not hypocrites. That’s how a lot of people think of Christians. They think that Christians go to church on Sunday and act all good and stuff, but then they go back to school and act like everyone else. They curse. They lie. They make fun of someone. They cheat on a test. They dis people.
“I want this group, to be different. I want us to always have our faith foremost in our minds. I want us to live in a way that the Holy Spirit will dwell in us always, and change our hearts and our actions, because setting a good example for others, living in love and kindness and righteousness, yet being strong and fearless, that is how Jesus would have us live. That example is how we bring others into the fold to be believers in Jesus themselves. That saves them. That saves them from a life of darkness and pain and sadness.
“Now, doing this is not always an easy thing to do. Peer pressure, and not wanting to stand out, or be made fun of, keeps us from really living what we believe, and over the course of this year, we’re gonna come to understand more deeply what we actually believe as followers of Christ.
“So, what we’re gonna work on tonight is how to enter a room, how to work a room, and how to have confidence in yourself, so that others are not dictating what you should do or say, but YOU are influencing them instead. Now, I’m gonna show you how to enter a room full of people, how to work the room and how to make a difference. And when the older kids join us later, you’re gonna practice on them.”
“Ooooh,” a few of the girls murmured.
JoJo smiled. “It doesn’t matter that you’re younger. You can still shine brighter. Look at David in the Bible. He was just a kid. All his older brothers were warriors, but it was young David, a boy left behind to tend the sheep, it was him who slew Goliath, it was him who became King of Israel, and it was him who is a prominent figure in the Bible. Where did he get his strength?” JoJo nodded at the mumbled answer. “That’s right. He got it from God. The same God that is with you guys right now. The same God who will be with you as you learn to enter a room with strength and light and love emanating from your very being. Okay, let’s get to it. Everybody on your feet.”
Excerpt Book #14 Such A Time As This-In Jesus’ Name
InJesusnamemanuals.org
Add comment
Comments