I write this tonight out of a thankful heart for you guys believing in what we do. I have been in the “ministry” for 30 years and I do not what to persuade you with these stories that always seem to be told, but my heart is breaking tonight. My wife Tonya, who is a Registered Nurse at the top hospital in Florida (Tampa General), came home tonight in tears. She took care of a 14 year old boy that tried to commit suicide by putting a 12 gauge shotgun to his face. He pulled the trigger and is still alive. He managed to blow his face off, but is still alive for a reason. I listened as my wife told me and my oldest son the story of how this kid thought his life did not matter and he had nothing to live for.
I know the older I get the more emotional I become, but I have not stopped weeping for this kid. I thought about all the kids that hear the gospel because we are out there pushing the church to take the gospel to the schools. Our students’ foundational need is hope. The Hope of Christ in Every Student! It’s spiritual, not anything else.
Tonight I am dealing with a burden in my soul of the hopelessness of students in our country. I am also heart crushed that we have a ministry leader that walked away from a 300K job to do First Priority and now his wife has cheated on him and left him. The devil is alive and well and trying to bind us. Sometimes I get down and depressed, and wonder if anyone cares. Sometime I feel like we are losing the battle, but I know that Jesus already won the war! So I keep on. Thank you for having the heart, desire, and courage to step up to unite the church to influence the schools. This is a lonely adventure without you all.
I think of you all that have invested and prayed for us. I would love to say that all is well and things are going great. The reality is that in First Priority, it is not pretty. We have been filling out our goals template today and were a little disappointed in some of the categories, but I realized it is Zechariah 4:6 where it says, “So he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty”. In John 3:27, John the baptist helps us realize, “A man can receive nothing, unless it has been given him from heaven”. We will press on to see you lead your community, organizing the churches to help students reach students at school.
Please keep fishing!
Mark Roberts
