"Carry Me Through" by Dave Barnes

So I'm here in Meredosia, and honestly I really miss home. I've never realized what a blessing it was to be surrounded by so many groups of people to spend time with until I had only the one. Now don't get me wrong I like the people here in the Dosh, but its just so strange.

I walk from where I'm staying to Phil's (the head minister's) house, and what I see is a community that was once a prosperous town. Now it seems the shell of its former self, filled with countless broken homes, buildings that have gone many years without care, and many cars that are just this side of croaking.

I wasn't prepared for the way this town looked and appeared. I mean when most of us think of small town america we think of a town where everyone knows each other, and goes to church together and the worst problem you run into is a little gossip and dancing. That may be an over simplification, but you know what I mean. What you don't imagine is a place full of broken families from divorce. Drug use and production are thriving, as well as alcohol abuse and all manner of domestic violence and abuse. Its a place where since there parents are so hung up on their own stuggles and issues few kids know what its like to be loved or even to have a parent who cares enough to give them rules. Sadly this is closer to the truth of small town America than anything in our imaginations or in Mayberry.

Its been a shock to my system, but the kids are great. The youth group clearly are looking for God in the people around them and I hope they can see him in me. I've had several long talks with Phil and we see eye to eye on what part I can have in there lives and what I can do for them.

I've been here 1 day (2 nights) and it won't be easy, its a different place, a different mindset than anything I've experienced, and a lot is being asked of me, but I'll do what God has strengthened me to do with them and no less.

The Song of the Day for today, is "Carry Me Through" by Dave Barnes. Because like the song says, "There's a mountain Here before me And I'm going to climb it With strength not my own."

-matt