Finding Hope at Theology Pub

This past Thursday, I went to my first Theology Pub (a bible study through my church were we meet at a local brewery downtown). The Bible study was not exactly (I thought it would be more structured I guess) what I imagined, but I enjoyed it. After we placed our orders (I had one of their local brews and a big soft pretzel!), the pastor who leads the Bible study had us introduce ourselves and then she introduced our topic for the evening. She told us that our topic would be poverty based on the census results and rough job market. We all received a handout that had some census facts as well as some Bible verses about poverty followed by some questions that we could discuss with the people at our tables. The conversation was not super focused but we talked a lot about families who are struggling and how it effects kids in the classroom (most of my table mates were teachers). After about an hour we were all pretty depressed about the local poverty problems. We had barely mentioned the bigger poverty problems all over the world. One of my table mates asked, "Where is the hope?". We all sat for a minute soaking in our whole conversation and thinking about how things could get better, when I offered, "the youth". Just this week, I had two of my three Red Cross Clubs confirm that they would like to do some sort of project dealing with feeding the hungry or delivering meals. Both of these groups suggested these ideas. I think that is so neat! A lot of times jr high/high school aged kids get a bad rap for only doing what they want and not really paying attention to others and their needs - which I've definitely encountered and something that is at times true, but I've also experienced the opposite. Like these two groups telling me that they want to spend a Saturday morning serving food at a meal site. Or these jr.highers saying that they would like to serve/deliver meals to the elderly during their winter break. Or the high schoolers that I traveled to Chicago and NYC with to serve others. I hope that I can encourage this in any youth that I encounter or work with because they truly are hope.