The River Church Community

In December, a few River members went to juvenile hall to share the Christmas message with the kids incarcerated.  Mike Valentine wrote this to me after the experience:

“I must say that coming to the end of a very busy day in a very busy week left me quite tired and the idea of going out in the cold for an evening at Juvenile Hall was definitely not top on my To Do list.  I even commented to Pat that, honestly, I was just too tired to go.  Even during our abbreviated guitar practice with the other guitar players I wondered if this was worth all the effort. But when we got to Juvenile Hall and met the boys, the overwhelming knowledge that they aren’t consumed by the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season and the close of the business year suddenly hit me.  All they have now is the unit they live in and the other boys they see all day, every day.  Time stands still for them now and they have plenty of time to think.  When we started singing Christmas carols and they only knew just a couple I also had a glimpse of the world they grew up in and remembered how different it was from mine.  But they didn’t care that they only knew a couple of carols, they just cared that someone bothered to come out on a cold winters night to try to bring them something of Christmas.  When the night was over the tiredness was gone and I was energized about the idea of coming back.”

Tony Traback, Pastor of Mission Mobilization