Article June 9, 1997 Issue

Working with young people in trouble

Robert N. Peaslee

I met a man in Florida in charge of providing religious services and spiritual counsel in the prisons. He asked me if I would be interested in working with young men between the ages of thirteen and eighteen at the stockade. I can remember so vividly my first day there. I had no idea what to do. But I read from the Bible to these men. One of the first things I read was, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty" (Ps. 91:1). This young man looked at me and said, "You know, Mr. Bob, I don't even know what it means to dwell."

It was then apparent to me how important it was for these young men to know that each one was a child of God and that they all dwell in His love. As we started to work together, I realized it would be wise for me to make a lesson for each one of them every week from the Bible. It had to be extremely simple. Some of them could not read very well, but they all could understand. We started right off with the fact that God made man in His own image and likeness and that God gave man dominion (see Gen. 1:26, 27).

It was important for these young men to realize that nothing evil had dominion over them or controlled them. Most of them had been under the influence of drugs, so our work was to know that drugs could not control their lives.

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