It's All About Love

The following is the beginning of Bruce Wilkerson's dream for drug abusers, gang members, and prostitutes in New York, share through his book The Cross and the Switch Blade. It prompted Pastor Lou to create a home for boys in Jamaica. I highly recommend the book! It amazes me how applicable it still is, 43 years after it was written.

Suppose you were to be granted a wish for these kids. What would be the one best thing you could hope for?

And I knew my answer: that they could begin life all over again, with the fresh and innocent personalities of newborn children. And more: that this time as they were growing up that they could be surrounded by love instead of hate and fear.

But of course this was impossible. How could people already in their teens erase all that had gone before? And how could new environments be made for them? "Is this a dream You have put into my heart, Lord? Or am I weaving a fantasy for myself?"

They've got to start over again, and they've got to be surrounded by love.

The idea came to mind as a complete thought, as clearly as the first order to go to New York. And along with it came into my mind the picture of a house where these new kids would be welcomed - welcomed and loved. ... The door would always be open; there would always be lots and lots of beds, and clothes to wear, and a great big kitchen.

"Oh, Lord," I said aloud, "what a wonderful dream this is! But it would take a miracle. A series of miracles such as I've never seen."

It's it a beautiful vision?

"It would be the head-quarters for a dozen or more full-time workers who shared my hopes for the young people around us, who saw their wonderful potential, and their tragic waste."

"There, in the Teen Challenge Center, we would create an atmosphere that was so charged with this same renewing love I had watched on the street, that to walk inside would be to know that something exciting was afoot."

"They (the boys and girls) would live in an atmosphere of discipline and affection. They would participate in our worship and in our study. They would watch Christians living together, working together; and they would be put to work themselves. It would be an induction center, where they were prepared for the life of the Spirit."

"So if these boys were going to change dramatically, the transformation would have to come about in their hearts. I knew I could never bring this about: it would have to be the work of the Holy Spirit. But perhaps I could act as a channel through which the Spirit would reach these boys."

If you would like to read more about the history of Sunbeam please check out: http://web.mac.com/sunbeamjamaica