Right from the start we sat down and went over the rules:  When we travel together, we stick together...  Respect authority’s leadership…  There were others on that short list, plus a new one.  At counselor orientation it was explained that money should not be given to any beggars.  There were some very compelling reasons, with our children’s safety at the forefront. And so I dutifully passed the rule along to our group.  

Minutes later we walked down the street and encountered a young man squatting against the building, shaking a paper cup for change.  With no hesitation, one of the girls of my group emptied her pockets of change and plopped it into the cup with a smile on her face.

‘What are you doing?’ I asked with surprise.  Had she not just heard our new rule?

  ‘What?’  She responded, ‘He was hungry.’  She looked at me like I was the one who was thickheaded.

I was getting the raised eyebrow look from the rest of our group.  I backed off.

The days went on and we passed by many needy folks with hands extended.  The kids would say, ‘Look away, Nathan.’ And proceed to completely empty their pockets to the beggars.  One of my kids once asked if I was mad.  What could I say?  I assured them that I could never be angry at their compassion or generosity.

Other rules were broken as well.  Three boys missed our bus because they were assisting others onto the shuttle in their place.  Some chose to skip devotions because they went looking for homeless people to take their leftover dinners.  A stagehand asking for just three volunteers to assist with putting some props away was unable to deter our entire group of 24 from helping out.  A stage manager later thanked us for saving the crew hours of work. 

I was anxious to find one of my quiet girls sitting next to a twenty-something African American man on the transit line engaged in a spirited conversation, yet sitting far apart from our group.  I quickly made my way closer only to find that she was telling him about what they had been learning about global community.  They laughed and shared for 20 minutes.  She was breaking one of our rules, but sharing the Good News. 

So were all of our rule breakers.  Even though I tried to hem them in to keep the group safe and punctual, the Spirit broke through taking them into risky situations and foiling our schedule.  I forget that Kingdom work is often dangerous and sloppy.  ‘Do Life’ was the theme of the Gathering.  I think our students definitely lived out ‘Ubuntu’ that week in Atlanta.  They just had to break a few rules along the way. 

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