The Brady Bunch

     Here's the story, of a silly baby...well, he wasn't a real baby.  He was five...but his behavior was quite infantile.  He had had another fit, and I had been summoned from the worship service to take him home.  The pastor's wife was teaching children's church, and, for whatever reason, my little friend decided to bite her!  Not only that, but he was tearing apart the classroom when I arrived upstairs.  

     "Not again, Bobby (not his real name)," I sighed under my breath.  

     But Bobby didn't care.  He ran past me before I could stop him, tearing down the stairs and out the front of the church.  Several of the men from the church elder board had joined me in the parking lot by this point, trying to help me corner the little rascal.  

     "What's Bobby done now?" his twelve-year-old sister Marcia (not her real name) appeared by my side, a note of laughter in her voice.  I would later find the humor in this, but not now!  

     "Got him!"  One of the elders exclaimed triumphantly, lifting the little boy up and carrying him (kicking and screaming) to my car. 
     "We have to take him home.  He had a fit and bit Mrs. Dunkerley," I explained.  

     "No!!!!!!!!!!!"  Bobby wailed.  "I want to stay!"  

     "Yeah," Marcia said calmly to the gentleman carrying her brother, "he does this stuff a lot at home."  

     "You don't believe in me!"  Bobby hollered as he was placed into his booster seat in the back of my car.  "You think I'm fake!"  

     What was that supposed to mean?  

     "Stop it, Bobby, or I'll call Mr. Monster to come get you," Marcia threatened, the laughter barely hidden in her merry voice. 

     "Do you want one of us to go with you?" the church elder asked me.  "No, I'll be fine," I told him (which turned out to be a little error!).  I turned to Marcia.  "This shouldn't take long.  You stay here.  Cindy, Jan and Peter (not their real names) are still in children's church.  I'll be back before church is out.

     That drive home with Bobby was stressful, as he tried to climb out of his seat and slap me, screaming that I take him back.  He almost caused an accident.  I half wanted to get pulled over, because at least a police officer could help me control this little maniac!  How had I gotten into this?

     God had brought this family into my life at a Bible Club I taught in Riverside.  Six children in one family.  They told me they were "Brady Bunch without the dad."  The reason there was no dad was because he was in prison.  He was in and out of jail all the time, and six consecutive times upon getting out, he had gotten his wife pregnant.  All six children in this family were full-blooded siblings, so the Brady Bunch analogy isn't perfect.  But there were three girls and three boys in corresponding ages.  The girls all had "hair of gold" and the boys all had brown hair.  To protect their privacy, I will refer to them in this blog by the names of the Brady Bunch kids: Greg, Marcia, Peter, Jan, Bobby and Cindy.  

     Out of all of the kids who came to the Bible Club, the Brady children were the ones God had clearly led me to be involved with.  Marcia had grown in the Lord over the years, and the summer preceding my present plight of driving Bobby home, Marcia had served on my junior high evangelism team.  She had demonstrated a real gift of evangelism, even witnessing to some Mormon missionaries.  Some of the "nice" Christians in town had turned up their noses at me for associating with a criminal's children.  My response was always the same, "It isn't the well who need a doctor, but the sick."  By the end of the summer, all six Brady children were attending church with me.  Bobby had his good days and bad there.  I'll never forget the day I was teaching children's church, and Bobby's team had lost a little Bible trivia game.  Bobby had gotten furious and screamed at the other children, "You're all a bunch of knuckleheads!"  He then began hitting himself in the forehead with his Bible!  Needless to say, all the others in the class got a good laugh at this, which only caused Bobby's rage to escalate.  He was a challenging child.  

     He wasn't only like this at church.  At school, he had thrown a rock at his teacher's head and tried to run away.  He had the janitor and several yard duties after him.  He was sent to a special, private school in town...one of the only schools left that was allowed to use the corporal punishment.  I can't tell you how much of a difference this made.  But the biggest difference came later that fall.

     It was at our weekly Bible Club.  Mrs. Collier (my co-teacher) and I taught a Bible story, always including a gospel message and invitation to receive Christ.  That particular day, Peter followed me to the back porch, Bobby in tow. 

     "Peter, I thought you already asked Christ into your heart at church," I said.

     "I have, but Bobby hasn't, and I want him to do it too!" 

     "Is this what you want, Bobby?" I asked.

     "Yeah!"  he exclaimed excitedly.  He was in a good mood today!

     I explained the plan of salvation, and afterward, Bobby prayed to ask Christ into his heart.  To this day, he is the only child I have ever seen get saved while jumping up and down and spinning in circles! 

     We all knew it was a real decision on Bobby's part.  He still had his struggles, but his conscience was more quickly stirred.  He began taking an interest in spiritual things, and acting like a beloved child of God, not a criminal's child. 

    The Brady children also began attending AWANA with me on Wednesday nights, right after the Bible Club.  I remember one evening, during the drive there, Bobby announced, "When I'm in junior high, I'm going to join the military, but I haven't decided which side to join yet."

     I laughed hard at this one! 

     The next week, Bobby told me, "Yeah, I've decided to join the America side, because we kicked German butt in 1945!"

     Even as I saw Bobby's ideals grow beyond himself, I saw his heart soften to spiritual things over the months and years. One day, he asked me for a Holy Bible.

     "But Bobby, you have a Bible," I told him, referring to the Kid's Adventure Bible I had given him.
    "No, that's just a regular Bible, I want a Holy Bible!"  He meant a black Bible with the words HOLY BIBLE on the cover.  Shrugging, I handed him a spare church Bible that fit the bill.  Imagine my surprise a few days later when Bobby showed me how far he had gotten.  He'd been reading it daily and was in Genesis chapter nine, just finishing up Noah's story.  He finished Genesis in three weeks. 

     A few months after he began reading the Bible, he made an interesting discovery on the way to church one day.  "Hey!"  he called out.  "What's that building?"

     "You mean that Chinese church?" I asked him.

     "I thought it looked like a church," Bobby said, "but how can it be, when the sign is Chinese?"

     "What do you mean?"

     "Well, the Bible's in English.  I know!  I've been reading it.  How can people who don't know 

English have church or Bibles?"

     I gladly explained that God's word is in virtually every language on earth.

     Bobby also began referring to Jesus as "Jesus Christ."  He always wanted to volunteer to pray at church, Bible Club, and AWANA.  He would begin with, "Dear Jesus Christ..."  It was priceless.

     One day, Bobby told me, "I really want to lead people to the Lord!"  How could I deny him this?  After church that day, I took a group of the church kids to the park.  We brought a loaf of bread, to feed the ducks in the pond (something they always enjoyed doing), but also brought tracts.  I allowed Bobby and his friends to share Jesus with other children playing at the park.  Marcia helped them out.  Her boldness was impressive to me.  At one point, she even engaged an adult woman in a conversation, and flat out asked, "Do you want to become a Christian?"

          The Brady family was not well off.  With dad in jail and six kids to feed, money was tight.  As Christmas approached, they knew they wouldn't be getting any presents.  While other children at church excitedly talked about the new toys they wanted, my heart went out to the Brady children.  One of them asked Bobby, "So what do you want for Christmas?"  I cringed, knowing Bobby didn't have hope of a present.  Bobby's answer totally surprised me. 
     "I don't need anything.  I have Jesus Christ and the Holy Bible, and that's all anyone needs to be happy."  

     I felt the tears pricking at the back of my eyes.  Of course I had to get them something small.

     God just gave so many fun opportunities with those kids.  That was one of the most fun times of ministry in my entire life.  Greg, Marcia and Jan all served on my evangelism team.  One year, I even took Marcia up to Bakersfield, California (Three hours north) to partner with a church up there.  We worked with their youth, doing 5-day clubs at an apartment complex.  Cindy and Peter came to help me evangelize at the County Fair.  One time, Greg, Marcia and our pastor's daughter got to be on a televised Bible game show, and they won! 

     Little Bobby always had a special place in my heart. 

     Probably the very most wonderful ministry experience I ever had involved the Brady children.  My cousin Rachel helped me direct a Christmas play at church, A Charlie Brown Christmas.  God was in it.  Bobby was perfect in his roll of Linus.  He did a wonderful job playing opposite Charlie Brown (who was played by a fine young man in our church, also one of Bobby's good friends).  My heart was touched beyond measure when I heard Bobby's sweet voice saying, "Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you what Christmas is all about..." then quoting from the gospel of Luke.  This was what it was all about.  Not just the true meaning of Christmas, but the true meaning of ministry.  Serving God means loving the least of these, bringing them to Jesus, and discipling.  It means looking beyond bad behavior (like a fit in the church parking lot!), to the real person that Jesus died for.  That's how God sees me, and it's how He wants me to see others. He used my own personal Brady Bunch to teach me that.

    In December of 2010, when Bobby was almost ten years old, the family moved to Indiana. I have more or less lost touch.  What I do hear is generally positive.  Jan has kept in touch the most.  Last I heard, she was attempting to go on a mission trip with a church she had joined back there. 

     God used this time to expand His kingdom, and expand me.