Tonight, the Chevrolet insignias were stolen off our car while I was at ladies' meeting.
Towards the end of the evening, one of the women was informed that several teen boys had been hanging around the few cars parked outside on the dark street. Apparently ours looked particularly inviting to deface on this particular night, so they did. It was one of those things that unfortunately is fairly common here in Chile and probably would have happened at some point anyway, and in the grand scheme of things it's not a huge deal.
But it still bothered me, because it was just one more illustration of something that was brought to the surface time and again during our interactions with teenagers this past weekend. Basically they live by the motto: If I can get away with it, it's okay to do it.
During Evelyn's abstinence talk at the public schools, she tried to emphasize the importance of values. She used the illustration of two scenarios, one which was supposed to be obviously wrong (stealing a shirt from a department store) and another which is also wrong but is not perceived that way by many kids nowadays (cheating at school.) To her surprise, the kids in the Chilean public schools did not think either example was wrong. Again, their reasoning was "if I can get away with it, it's okay to do it." Scary stuff!
It's not hard to see where this line of thinking can lead. It is hard to teach abstinence to a group of kids whose moral compass is so terribly flawed.
Unfortunately, in speaking further with our pastor about these kids in particular and the pulse of Chilean youth in general, the picture gets even more distorted. The teenage generation in Chile, like its counterpart in the States, needs the transforming power of Jesus Christ.
There's more to be said about this, but I am going to save some thoughts for another post. Pray for us, that we will seek and know God's wisdom for interacting with those who desperately need hope and a new paradigm for living. It is a task of enormous proportions and one for which we feel very inadequate, but at the same time we trust the One who calls us, "... Who also will do it." Amen!
Towards the end of the evening, one of the women was informed that several teen boys had been hanging around the few cars parked outside on the dark street. Apparently ours looked particularly inviting to deface on this particular night, so they did. It was one of those things that unfortunately is fairly common here in Chile and probably would have happened at some point anyway, and in the grand scheme of things it's not a huge deal.
But it still bothered me, because it was just one more illustration of something that was brought to the surface time and again during our interactions with teenagers this past weekend. Basically they live by the motto: If I can get away with it, it's okay to do it.
During Evelyn's abstinence talk at the public schools, she tried to emphasize the importance of values. She used the illustration of two scenarios, one which was supposed to be obviously wrong (stealing a shirt from a department store) and another which is also wrong but is not perceived that way by many kids nowadays (cheating at school.) To her surprise, the kids in the Chilean public schools did not think either example was wrong. Again, their reasoning was "if I can get away with it, it's okay to do it." Scary stuff!
It's not hard to see where this line of thinking can lead. It is hard to teach abstinence to a group of kids whose moral compass is so terribly flawed.
Unfortunately, in speaking further with our pastor about these kids in particular and the pulse of Chilean youth in general, the picture gets even more distorted. The teenage generation in Chile, like its counterpart in the States, needs the transforming power of Jesus Christ.
There's more to be said about this, but I am going to save some thoughts for another post. Pray for us, that we will seek and know God's wisdom for interacting with those who desperately need hope and a new paradigm for living. It is a task of enormous proportions and one for which we feel very inadequate, but at the same time we trust the One who calls us, "... Who also will do it." Amen!
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