You're way overdue for an update on our life (or lack thereof). This is the place where I'm supposed to apologize for not writing in so long and then blame the absence on busyness. Well, I am sorry I haven't written anything in such a long time but it's laziness, not busyness that's kept me away. I just haven't felt like I had much to write for a while. But in the last month, enough has happened to at least fill up a page—or maybe two pages.
On March 22nd Sophia Elizabeth Scudder was born.
Sarah was a week past her due date so they sent her into the hospital for a series of tests to make sure that the baby was doing OK. Sarah hadn't had any complications in the pregnancy and everything was going normally except for the fact that she wasn't going into labor. Sarah was hoping to have Sophia without a C-section and without a spinal tap, but God had other plans. The tests showed that the baby was facing the wrong direction and that the amniotic fluid was low, so they were forced to do a C-section right then. The cord was wrapped around Sophia's neck, and they removed a 7cm benign cyst on one of Sarah's ovaries. God graciously cared for us, if they hadn't done a C-section neither of those two things may have been discovered until it was too late. Sophia is completely healthy. One of her tiny smiles makes us laugh out loud. She insists on constantly being held and we rarely disagree with her.
A week after Sophia was born, God had more for Sarah and I to learn. I needed to pick up the pizza for our Shepherd Group meeting after Sunday morning church and asked Bill to come along for the ride. Bill came to know Christ last November when one Friday before youth group he rang the church's doorbell and said this to me word for word, “My brother died from MS last week and my wife just left me, but what I need is Jesus Christ in my life. Can you help me with that?” I picked my jaw off the floor and told him that I could. That week he began his new life in Christ and we've been getting together weekly for prayer and Bible study ever since, so I asked him to come with me to help get the pizza. We had to stop at a Wawa a few blocks from the church to get cash since the pizza place didn't take a card. I got the cash I needed from the ATM and walked out to my car to wait for Bill since he was in line buying something. I hit the button on my keychain to unlock my car and turned around to see three guys beating Bill on the ground. Thinking that my yelling would scare them away, I screamed at the top of my lungs, "Get off him! Get off him!" But instead that was their cue to come after me. All three of them came at me at the same time, they would throw a punch and then back away. I covered my face and kept backing up to keep them from getting behind me. I was on my feet the whole time and I might have blocked one of their punches, but overall they were quicker than I was. The two punches that they got in gave me two cuts on my forehead so I started bleeding like crazy. Then in the kindness of God, (they either saw all the blood or figured out that beating on someone in broad daylight at a busy corner wasn't a good idea) they ran away. I pulled out my phone and called 911. The Philadelphia Police Department gets a bad rap sometimes, but they've always come through for me. Ten to twelve police cruisers with their lights on started to whiz in from every direction within minutes--they caught all three guys only a block away with money from Bill's wallet still on them. I identified them from the back of the police car and then went to the hospital to get thirteen stitches in my forehead. Now I'll never be a teen model.
Initially, the excitement and the adrenaline made the attack easy to handle. I was stunned at how quickly everything happened and thankful to be alive. The being thankful to be alive part started to fade in a few days. The knowledge of how quickly evil can assault you before you ever see it coming has stayed with me.
"For, behold, the wicked bend the bow, They make ready their arrow upon the string To shoot in darkness at the upright in heart. If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?" (Psalm 11:2-3) As you can tell, the Psalms and Proverbs that talk about violence aren't quite so abstract for me anymore. God has been opening my eyes to the Psalmist's answer to the question above,
"The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord's throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, And the one who loves violence His soul hates. For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness; The upright will behold His face." (Psalm 11:4-5,7) Nothing but seeing the face of God in His Word can smash the fear that wells up in our hearts.
I could write a lot more about all that I've learned from those 45 seconds of getting punched. But let me just put one more thought in here. When you read the New Testament, you have to be amazed that Christians suffer as rarely as they do. Almost every New Testament book is prepping Christians for soul-staggering, life-threatening, body-crunching suffering.
"Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you;" (1 Peter 4:12) But somehow, we're still shocked every time. It's almost like we forget that we're followers of Christ--someone whose life and death was FULL of suffering.
"For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps," (1 Peter 2:21) Suffering, tears and pain are part of God's plan on this side of heaven to bring glory to Himself and holiness to His people.
Alright, just one more thing since my writing spasm is just about over. God has been working in some amazing ways in the youth group here at Bethel. The youth group for 7th-12th graders had had 10-15 kids most nights for almost the entire time I'd been working with the youth here. They were typically 10th grade or older and most of them were kids that had come to church for a long time. This past fall three of our most faithful youth group kids graditated and felt called to Christian college, so I was fully prepared to see the youth group shrink a little or maybe stay around the same size. But, as usual, God had very different plans. Suddenly, kids started coming--lots of them. We started having 25-35 kids, mostly 7th-8th graders who were being exposed to the gospel for the first time. Here's where I should insert my profound insight about how to build an inner-city youth group—but I got nothing. All these kids coming had nothing to do with me. I was doing the same thing I'd been doing for the last three years. None of the disciples tried to take credit for the bursting net of fish that Jesus had filled. I'm with Peter falling down at Jesus' feet and crying, "Depart from me, for I am sinful man." In other words, I'm hardly a worthy recipient of your power. I was just tired, grouchy and full of unbelief, but You decided to work.
So we obviously changed the games, preaching and structure for bigger numbers, younger kids and newer/non-believers. From a human perspective, we simply don't have the workers we need in order to reach these kids who keep coming back week after week. But God has provided all the workers He wants us to have, and I'm learning to trust that He knows better than I do. God's been working in their hearts, but of course there's opposition too. About a month ago I broke up a fight between two of the younger kids. Two weeks ago my youth group staff faced off against a mob of 15-20 kids who were trying to jump a kid coming out of youth group. My youth group staff includes an ex-Philadelphia school teacher, an ex-prisoner and a future cop--so we can handle ourselves against some kids, but it reminded us how much we have to be rely on Him for safety and how desperately the gospel is needed in our community.
So yea, that's the big stuff. A couple from our church moved into our basement for a few months. They're both newer Christians and it's a joy to be able to serve them and learn from them. A lot of my time and energy these past few weeks has been filled with helping a newer Christian in my Shepherd Group break his addiction to drugs. It's time consuming and emotionally draining—but the Holy Spirit is the one doing all the work. It's actually pretty fun to watch.
Congrats if you've made it all the way to the end of this. Hope it encourages you to pray for us and reminds you of the goodness of your God and the power of His cross.
