Aside from picking up the dead at night, I also attempt to raise broken youth at The Parkesburg Point Youth Center.

Right now I’m working with a young girl who was raped by her father when she was eleven.  Raped by her father.  At the age of eleven.  And — with these young people — crimes of this severity committed against them aren’t abnormal.  Some have been prostituted by their parents for drugs.  Let me say that again: their parents allowed grown men to rape their children in exchange for a temporary high.  Others live with their cousins, grandmothers, aunts because their parents simply didn’t want them.

Broken.

And on Tuesdays and Thursdays I am there for them.  Whether it’s playing them in ping-pong or listening to their story, I’m there … practicing the ministry of presence.

This past week I talked to the young girl who had been raped.  She’s under professional care.  And I’m not a professional councilor.  But, I like to listen.

“How far ahead can you imagine your future?”, I asked.

“Not far.”, she said.

“What do you see in your future?”  I asked.

“I see suicide.”

“Do you see college, a career, a family … ?”

“No.”, she said.  ”All I see is death.”

And I just sat in the quiet of her answer, letting it fill the room with it’s darkness and my soul with it’s pain.

I finally responded, “I see more than death.”

At this point she looked up and made eye contact with me.  I was about to speak life into her death and she knew it.

“I see freedom.  I see you living and overcoming your darkness.  I see you graduating high school.  I see you going to college.  I see you finding someone who will treat you like a princess … a man who will encourage you and love you for who you are.”   And then (because this organization believes that God has something to say to these situations), I said, “I believe God is dreaming you a future.”

That conversation was the first of many that I’ll have with her over the next couple months.

As she left, I asked her to re imagine her future.  To create a different future and be ready to tell me an alternate story in our next conversation.

This is what I do at night.  In addition to being a funeral director, I’m also the part-time associate director at The Point, where I work with my best bud, Dwayne Walton (he’s the executive director).

Anyways, we just bought a building … a new building where our ability to provide educational and career opportunities for these youth will greatly expand.

If you’re interested in what we do, here’s a link to a video about our vision.  Here’s a link to our blog, which I manage.

And here’s the video about our new building.