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Captain Barbara Sloan, director of special services at the San Jose, Calif. ARC, recently participated in the Key Club District Convention. Representing California, Nevada and Hawaii, Key Club members numbering about 4,000 attended the gathering.
Sloan is a Key Club advisor for a high school in San Jose, and when this year’s convention landed in San Jose, she was asked to co-lead an interfaith worship service for the teenagers on Sunday morning at 7:00 am.
“What do you say to a group of culturally diverse teenagers at 7:00 am?” Sloan wondered. As she struggled with the question, God sent her his peace and the answer, “one child at a time.”
Using the woman at the well in John 4 as an illustration, Sloan’s message was that when we sell ourselves short, we betray the best that is in us. Recalling experiences from her eight years in the ARC command, Sloan emphasized that amazing results come from a connection with a power much greater than ourselves from faith in God.
At the close of the service, leaders and participants formed a prayer circle and joined hands. They “passed the peace,” each person passing a hug to the person beside him. As the teenagers willingly hugged their neighbors, Sloan knew she had connected with them. She experienced a sense of peace as she realized that God had been present that day.
God also had a lesson for Sloan from the Key Club service. When we put our trust in God and turn our worries over to him, God has a way of coming in and doing exactly what needs to be done. With God’s help, Sloan was able to reach the teenagers who attended the Key Club worship service.