Tuesday, December 14, 2010 | By: John

Police and Returns

For those who work with at-risk or post-risk kids, there are some things that are pretty much a given and some of them involve the police. When Scott, Hanne and I were at the Straight Ahead Discipleship house in Westboro, the kids who lived with us all came from lock-ups and some of them had some pretty serious crimes. They had all come to faith and wanted to live in a new environment, but the past was always with them. The police were aware of the house and would sometimes sit in front of it or would follow the guys to work at McDonalds. At one point, we had to let the police know that I was an attorney and though we didn't want any trouble, we were not going to let them make it harder for the guys to turn their lives around. That changed things and later, one of the kids, Moe, was even able to work with them as he studied criminal justice. God has a way of rewriting things, even if it is through demon spawn lawyers. I mean...

Last week, four days before Bogdan and Anya were to return from Egypt, I received a text message from Roma: "Привет Джон. У меня большие проблемы. Мне надо поговорить с тобой- Hi John, I have big problems. I need to speak with you." Never a good message. When he came home, Roma was shaking. He had been accused of taking something while at the university and he was brought to the police station for three hours. They told him to return the next morning. Orphans are often seen as guilty as they are thought to have "bad blood" and such was the case with Roma.

The Westboro experiences came flooding back (when Scott and Hanne went away or when I was gone, stuff always seemed to happen!) and I knew we had to pray. I also knew that we needed to contact a lawyer and we know one here who is a believer. Dima told Roma not to go back to the police and that if they came for him, he should tell them he has a lawyer. It worked and nothing went any further.

Anya, Bogdan, (L) a few of the kids, and Jenny Kelly from New Year's 2005
Early Monday morning, Bogdan, Anya and their son Pasha came home from their vacation. They were tired, but had had a great trip. Last night, they took out "the slides" and all of the kids, Bogdan's mom, and I watched and heard the stories. As Bogdan and Anya were talking, I was watching all 17 of the guys and girls who were there and saw how happy they were to have Bogdan and Anya home. It's hard to describe, but it was as if there was nothing wrong in the world for them and the ones who made them a family, the ones who keep them safe, were home.

I guess that is what Christmas is supposed to be like.

1 comments:

Anya said...

What a wonderful story, John! I am relieved, that everything involving police turned out to be OK. When I saw the title of your blog on FB, I was worried, and went to read your blog immediately. Thank God everything is OK. And, thank God you were there and you knew what to do! Demon-spawn lawyer? LOL. May God bless Anya & Bogdan's house, Roma, and you and your ministry!

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