shout encouragement over eachother

And let us consider how to stir up one another

 to love and good works, 

 not neglecting to meet together, 

as is the habit of some, 

but encouraging one another, 

and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Hebrews 10:24-25

When I was shepherding New Hope Anglican Church, God led us to host an Easter Hunt in a housing project that was less than a mile away from the middle school we were renting on Sunday Morning...

It started simply enough;
I was driving in one day, and the Spirit of God spoke to my deep place..."why do you keep driving by? Stop and meet and love them."

We couldn't hide eggs in the grass and bushes because of all the broken glass and stuff, so we blew the glass off the basketball court, and picked up the trash in the playground. I actually found a four inch knife blade in the mulch. I had to ask a bunch of kids to please smoke their blunt somewhere else...

You obviously can't "hide" eggs on a basketball court so we got creative and blindfolded the kids and had an adult pair up with them and shout directions on which way to turn to find the eggs...it was a joyful riot!

We ran that for three years, the last year we set out three thousand eggs...God's over-abundant grace. We would have games and a message. The kids would look forward to it and invite their friends. We would show up the week before the event with flyers and the kids would run around and pound on doors inviting everyone.

"Oh man, we just moved here, I heard about this!" The first year we had almost fifty, the last year, almost 200. We learned that they did not come for all the stuff...they came because we shouted at them.

I looked around and saw that every kid was naturally grabbing the hands of the adult they were next too. "The girl next to me would not leave me alone"...quipped a church member who was a child psychologist.

And it hit me that day;
we were adults yelling encouragement over them, not discouragement at them.

that, makes all the difference in the world.

Isn't that the way of God? You know, "repent" does not mean we are idiots ...it means "I love you, come back!"