This week’s student is Dennis. Dennis is incredibly intelligent and one of the few students I have who is actually on grade level in reading.
Last Friday was a pep rally for basketball homecoming and Dennis is not the school spirit type. He and a few other students had not purchased tickets for the pep rally, so they stayed in my room and we talked. Through this conversation, I found out that Dennis lost both of his parents a number of years ago and now lives with his aunt who has already told him she’s kicking him out as soon as he turns 18. Dennis has attempted suicide multiple times and is currently in therapy for depression. As with many of my students, his experience with the church has left him disillusioned – he believes Christians are hypocrites and questions why a good God would let bad things happen in the world. He calls himself a death metal hippie and practices Wicca. After our conversation, Dennis told me he appreciated me listening to him and not talking to him like he’s a kid.
Underneath his intelligence and bravado, Dennis is hurting. Please pray that I can BE Jesus to him even if I can’t SPEAK Jesus to him right now. Pray that I would have more opportunities to reach out and encourage him. Pray that he would be freed from the bondage of depression and hedonism and know true joy and rest in Jesus Christ.
Thank you all for praying for and loving my students – it means the world to me.
