| Amazing Teenagers |
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| SmartFaith | |||
| Written by David Cassady | |||
| Monday, 30 March 2009 15:28 | |||
 I've been keeping interesting company over the last two weekends. These happy, helpful, hard-working teens defy stereotypes often promoted in our society.This last weekend, over 500 teenagers and their sponsors descended on Athens Georgia to help repair and paint homes, clean up yards, and demolish deteriorating structures. The weekend before that, another 350 or so attacked the same kinds of tasks in Newnan, Georgia. Both weekends, called "March Missions Madness," were sponsored and coordinated by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Georgia. Anyway, back to the teenagers. They were amazing. They jumped all over the tasks that were given to them... I never saw them goofing around or griping or whining. Instead, they had fun doing good things. Smiling and laughing, they scraped paint and climbed ladders, pulled weeds and carried off trash. They were enjoying each other's company while they did meaningful work. I got the sense that they really felt like their work mattered. And frankly, it did. Many of these homeowners couldn't do the work themselves, and none could afford to pay for the repairs to be done. The teens were life-savers to them.  And the youth gave without asking "why." No "why did they let the house get this way," or "why are we helping these people." They just helped and gave freely of themselves. In Athens, the weather rolled in on Friday evening with storms and rain. On Saturday, the rain poured and poured. But at 7am, the youth arrived at church, got their orders and their equipment and off they went to their work sites, as if the weather was warm and sunny (it wasn't). Many wore make-shift rain gear fashioned from large garbage bags. The ground turned to mush and their hair and clothing got soaked. But I thought they looked fabulous in them. And I'm pretty sure God felt the same way. To see photos from the two weekends, use these links: Newnan Athens
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