Everyone's eyes were on me while quickly scooting away. Looks of fear, shock, and amazement covered their faces as they watched to see what I was going to do next. I had just talked to them about how pressure can build up, and often the littlest things can set us off. I dropped three white candies into the bottle and poof a stream of cola went straight to the roof. Excitement filled the air as everyone said "do it again!"
Many people have seen the cola explosion done before in school, summer camp, or online. Tonight, I did it as a visual example of how peer pressure can affect us. Most of us will never explode fizzy drink like a geyser, but we can have times in which the pressure from others causes us to crack and do things we never imagined ourselves doing before. In today's culture, young people are constantly experiencing pressure not only from friends, but also in school, from family, from media, and from the society in which they live in. It can be a lot to take, and it's important that we all learn how to cope with the pressures we encounter in positive ways or we may one day shoot fizzy drink everywhere.
Every Wednesday night, you will find me in a green hut fondly known as the PC (YI project centre) for our Lifeline nights. Lifeline is a program for 15-18 year olds from the Colin area in West Belfast. Each night we have about 60-80 young people walk through our doors with many more who have just started coming. We have a rotation of coffee bar hang out nights, single gender small groups, sacred space faith nights, and life skills nights that happen every 2-3 weeks. Lifeline is funded by the Northern Ireland Big Lottery and part of our grant's goal is to tackle criminal behavior and reengage young people with formal education. Our Life Skills nights attempt to accomplish this.
Deboragh Webb my incredible co-worker and partner in crime has a criminology something another degree and uses her loud voice, short stature, and wealth of knowledge to equip young people with skills hopefully to prevent criminal behavior or at least get the young people thinking a bit more about it.
Tonight's session was amazing and I am so blessed I got to be a part of. The lights were dimmed down, cards with words relating to peer pressure like "sex, drugs, and fighting" were hanging from the ceiling with painted splattered on them to look like lava, mats were on the floor for young people to sit on, and at the back of the room was this massive volcano. The environment was set, and the room was a buzz as young people arrived. I floated between groups people excited that I knew most of them who were there. There were also a few faces there that I knew from street work that I wouldn't have imagined coming to our programs, but tonight they did. It was a good night for them to be there.
The night started with a challenge. Two of the youth workers called on two "volunteers" that didn't really volunteer at all. They were pushed and encouraged by everyone to eat a disgusting plate of beans and artichokes while the other one had to do 10 more sit ups than he thought he could. Immediately afterward a video was shown of interviews of young people and staff about what they thought peer pressure was. Without us even saying what the "theme" of the night was, the young people already knew. Such a classic teacher strategy.
Probably the best part of the evening was when one of the gapper interns who grew up in the neighborhood shared his story of being peer pressured as a youth. It started as bullying then led to people taking advantage of his desire to have friends by convincing him to do things that he wouldn't have done other wise. Eventually he became really down yet continued seeking after these "friends" while getting into further trouble with drugs and alcohol. But his story didn't end there, a voice within led him come to reality with the situation, tell his mum what was going on, and surround himself with better people. Those people became the community of YI, and he is now making a huge influence of young people's lives through his young mens work and street work. I'm really honored and blessed that I get to work with him. He's one of the most encouraging co-workers I have. The young people were also really able to connect with his story, and it was helpful for them to see how someone from many of their situations can change too.
After the story, Deboragh talked about the different kinds of peer pressures while I prepped for the cola pressure experiment. One of our goals of the night was to have everything connect together, and I loved how we had so many people involved in different parts. We all stepped in, and helped with what was needed. And the cola didn't go everywhere, but it stayed in the contained area I had prepared. Not a recommended indoor activity!
Volcanoes are such mysterious entities. They are so fascinating because they are unpredictable. There is so much going on that we don't see or recognize. When we least expect it they explode. Sometimes they do straight into the air as a massive eruption while other times they slowly trickle down the sides. Peer pressure can often have the same affects depending on the person pressuring or being pressured. The young people were given the opportunity to connect what we were talking about to their own lives by writing down a "boulder" a way in which they have been pressured into something or in which they have pressured others into something. Most them talked about smoking, drugs, and alcohol while a few were a bit more vulnerable about other ways they have experienced peer pressure.
Reading through each of those boulders, the gravity of the work I do sunk in. It's easy to label and stereotype the issues these young men and women have. They are just "punks" and "hooligans," but really they are just children desperately searching for love, meaning, and acceptance. Those "boulders" aren't just little pieces of paper, but actual situations, stories, lives, and hardships that are faced every single day. A month ago during my prayer time, I drew a little picture in my journal with me hunched over with a bunch of boulders on my back, and Jesus standing near a stream of water with his arms out. He just wanted to unload the boulders of burdens off my back and refresh my soul with the streams of living water. Tonight, I see the Lord desiring to do the same thing for each of those young people. They might not even realize the load on their back, but I see how they have started to hunch over from the heaviness they carry. I pray that the Lord will continue to use me as his hands and feet to lighten the load of my brothers and sisters through his love, hope, and joy. For all the pressure will be gone, and only freedom will exist.
No comments:
Post a Comment