frank + 12 middle school girls

a few weeks ago my friend frank was hospitalized at a rehabilitation hospital. i heard that he was at vasona creek hospital, a place that i have taken students on countless occasions. last week i decided to go and visit him and all of my other friends who are there.


i took danny, one of my former college students with me.
as i entered the rooms of my friends they all greeted my warmly and then asked, "where are the kids?" I had no middle schoolers with me- just me and danny.
i went to frank's room, but he was talking to a doctor- but he pleaded with me saying, "would you please come back soon?"
i knew that i had to, but this time i needed kids!
how would i get them there?
who could go during the day?
I talked to home schoolers, but the idea of visiting old folks wasn't so appealing to them. I figured that it wasn't going to happen.


tonight was "free night" at youth group. all of the small groups had free time to have fun any way they wanted to. so the 7th grade girls asked me to get my church bus and take them to starbucks. we were driving along down the street, when we passed vasona creek rehabilitation hospital.
and it was like the stars had aligned in this brief moment:
i was in the area-
i had the time-
and most of all, i had KIDS!
I squealed, "AHHHH! YES!"
the girls were like, "uhhh, rob? are you alright?"
I said "YES!
GIRLS!
we need to go visit FRANK!"
"who is frank?!" they asked.
I pulled the bus over and we rushed into the hospital.
we zoomed into frank's room.
he was laying in bed, on the phone with his wife-
he was so surprised to see us, he was in tears.
he has missed church for several weeks now,
so we brought church to him.
we sang together and prayed for him.
he couldn't even speak he was so moved and encouraged.


we left his room and I said
"girls, we can go to starbucks or we can go visit more friends..."
"more friends!" they said.
so we went to sing and pray with my friend barb.


the girls walked on air for the rest of the night.
I did too.
they were curious about barb's story
and how they could go again,
and had ideas of how we could go again and again as a youth ministry.


and as i drove that church bus home,
i thought about the whole thing-
it wasn't a huge event with a hundred kids,
but after seeing frank's tears and hearing the girls' enthusiasm,
i was reminded that this is why i got into this thing-
and to me, this is what its all about.
and i needed to be reminded that again,
because i almost forgot.


thanks girls, thanks frank, and thanks God-
I needed that.