Dear net people, Leadership is the greatest challenge all of us face in the JY community. Recently, a JY shared his experiences with me. He had a friend who'd been an active JY for two years but then suddenly dropped out of the fellowship. All attempts to reach out to him were thwarted. He had closed himself up like a touch-me-not, withdrawing form the whole world. There was nothing anybody could do for him, except visit his home where he had cloistered himself and share in his life. Even that stopped after sometime. One by one all his friends deserted him, they were busy with other things (that sadly includes me too - he'd participated activley in the programme that had brought me into the renewal, had also been a model JY for many people).
This friend had on the other hand kept on going to the JY's house, interacting with him, speaking to his family, encouraging the rest of us to take active interest in that JY(esp. in interceding for him). As per his request I am putting this prayer request in JOYnet; pray for this very young JY who is suffering a lot. He needs our prayers badly to come out of his shell. Now, isn't that true leadership? Call it true friendship if u want, but I would call it true leadership. +True leadership is not doing everything on our own. He was, as I shared, actively involved in making others take an interest in the JY. He had no illusions of his own omnipotence in helping the JY; he was only an agent in bringing that person into true fellowship. I witnessed a leadership busy motivating and encouraging fellow Jesus Youth in ministering to that person. +True leaders offer true hospitality. This guy gave whatever he could to the JY in need. He didn't wait for others to take the first step. He gave his time, money and energy to the cause. For me it was personally very touching to witness this because I knew how hard I'd failed in doing it, not with this person alone but with so many others who could have benefited from my resources. It was a time of conscience-checking for me. Am I using all my potential in building up the Kingdom of God? While writing this a beautiful character in the Bible came to my mind. Yep, the Good Samaritan. He is a good example of true leadership. He took the initiative and paved the way for a team work. We can maybe take such examples of leadership from our ordinary lives and share it in JOYnet. It'll help us to grow in this unique charism which is also our call. "Jesus Youth are people full of compassion and a sense of mission. They show a keen interest in others, and are ready for service and have a high quality of leadership" -Sr. Emiline(Principa St. Teresa's College) in 'Motivated by Love' Love in Jesus, Cuckoo Cochin/India **************************************************************** This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list. To unsubscribe, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to this mailing list, visit http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet For automatic help, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In case of any issue related to the mailing list contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] ****************************************************************
