I have a dream

I’m a youth worker in a house that provides a place for youths who have no where else to go. They either cannot live at home for a number of reasons and they don’t fit into the foster system.


I’ve had some interesting milestones in this job, my first visit to the emergency department, my first car accident (my fault nothing to do with the kids, Thank you Jesus for insurance on work cars), the first time I went to the watch house at the police station, the first time I woke up and there was fruit smashed up around the house, the first physical punch up, the first time kids absconded and the other night I had my first police interview.

As I was sitting in the room waiting for the police to come back and start the interview (I had to sit in as an adult representing the kid) I began talking to him. I told him that if I had a big house out in the country with a couple of acres I’d take them all out there to live. That way if they needed to burn off energy in the middle of the night instead of running around screaming like loonies in the house with the lights all turned off they could run outside.

‘And motorbikes’ he said. Yes and motorbikes. I’d have four wheelers and two wheelers and whatever else I could conjure up. I’d let them make bonfires and sparkler bombs and go camping for days by themselves. I’d let them be the teenage boys that they are, giving them room to make mistakes and have fun and discover who they are. I’d make sure there'd be heaps of food and space and love.

Because that’s what these kids need. They need someone to look at them and love them regardless of the damage they’ve caused, regardless of what the world tells them they are. Regardless of the words they spoke last night that made you want to rip their fingernails off slowly so they would be in as much pain as possible. Despite the apparent lack of potential to change holding onto hope that one day these boys are going to be men.



Men of good character. Men who work in jobs that are respectable, men full of hope for the future, men who walk with their heads held high not because of arrogance and pride but because they know that the past has gone, today is new and tomorrow has much hope.



One day it will happen. One day I will have that house.