Jewel loves to write, whether through her own journaling, emails to her friends, or the weekly RISE newsletter. This fall she begins a two year writing major. “I wasn’t going to do college for writing,” she says, “but last month I suddenly knew in my bones and from Jesus that I was supposed to. One thing that’s important to me is to be a truth teller, and writing plays into that. There’s not a lot new to write, but truth needs to be spoken into every generation.”
On Sunday mornings, Jewel speaks to kids at the Hutchinson detention center. “There’s something incredible about dealing with kids who have hit their lowest point and know they need help,” she says. “They look at me in my nice dress and veil and think, Who is she? But then I tell them my story of going through depression and wanting to commit suicide and finding Jesus. I tell them, ‘You guys right now with your experience, because you have been at the bottom, you are the best equipped to help the kids at the bottom. ‘
“That’s the call God put on my life, to offer hope for kids who lost their hope and be a voice for kids who lost their voice. Over the last five years, that call has really grown.”
How she got involved : “I wasn’t here when RISE started. It was started by six teenagers who hung out together and decided they wanted to do something good with their lives. When I came home in the fall of 2013, two years after they started, there were 60 kids coming. Four months later, there were 100. Now we average 110 kids every Tuesday.
“I got involved right after I came home. I had just finished two years of Christian ministries classes. I was very tired of talking about ministry and very ready to start doing it.”
A special journey: “I met Hiromi at a birthday pool party with a lot of little kids running around in bikinis,” Jewel says. “Hiromi heard about kids’ church from her friends and wanted to come. At first, she thought I was just perfect. Then the shoe dropped.
“Hiromi is sorta a princess, if you know what a mean. Her parents indulged her, and she’s spoiled. I set boundaries for her, and she thought I was awful. She can be manipulative, and she did push my buttons.
“I’m not sure at what point that switched. I came to realize that Hiromi has a really caring heart. I tend to have a mercy heart as well, so I could relate to that. She is controlling, but also insecure because she’s been given whatever she wants without boundaries. I continued to hold boundaries, but also love her. We got to be really good friends.
“We had a meaningful conversation recently, and for the first time I could tell she wanted to hear what I had to say. One of her friends at school had died, and it was terribly hard on her. She asked questions about what happens after you die, and I was able to talk to her about the choice that we each have to turn our life over to Jesus.”
How she sees God at work: “Basically all our kids are from south of the tracks,” Jewel says. “They deal with abuse and drugs and alcohol. Our vision is to see them rise out of those circumstances to positively affect their communities.
“Our church has been rural and isolated and protected from a lot of that brokenness. Since RISE began, we have a connection to the community I don’t think we had before. I am convinced if Jesus were alive today, he would be hanging out with a lot of the people we hang out with.
“I have also seen our youth group mature and learn to take leadership. There is a part of spiritual maturity that doesn’t happen until you need to disciple someone else, and we’ve matured because we’ve had to lead others to maturity. ”
More coming! This is one of a 3 part article written for Daughters of Promise magazine. Check back tomorrow to hear Janae Miller’s story.
To see more pictures of RISE kids or to contact those involved, you can visit their Facebook page.