My family and I live in a interesting setting when it comes to our housing. Back in 2003, we literally landed in a townhouse community where the neighborhood has ever reflected a transitional nature. How does it change? Families in renting or leasing scenarios either change residences due to not being able to pay the rent, been evicted because of negligence or not following housing authority rules, or they find better housing. If they stay, like it seems we are doing at least for another year, they are seeking stability and consistency for the time that they are there until they leave for a “new adventure.” This seems to be what we are here for OR at least we have not had a leading to leave as of yet.All this being said, lately we have seen our neighborhood changing into more of a latchkey kid environment. One often wonders if the parents even discipline or disciple their kids by the way some of them show a disrespect for property and authority. Yes the neighborhood is multi-ethnic, but that does not matter. It is the worldview of the secular city and the entitlement mentality that are the driving competitive factors. So here we are, in a townhouse that we are gradually outgrowing space-wise, in a neighborhood that has its interesting dynamics.As interesting as things can be some times, we seek to make an impact and have a witness in our neighborhood. Having been here for almost ten years, we are seeing some fruit from this, despite those who try to inflict the aforementioned mentality upon their neighbors. When this affects us, interesting conversations ensue with the neighborhood “rug rats” (NRR – not a negative term). But of course the parents of these kids have different responses to our influence, and we have not heard the positives or the negatives as of yet.
I present to you this backdrop because with the changing of families, particularly with latch-key kids, our family is learning more and more each day what it means to be an ambassador for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20). The following scenario/dialogue in an example of this. Click here to see what happened next. . .