Devil-foiled Youth Ministry.
Proverbs 16:9 (TLV) "Best Laid Plans Often Go Awry".When I was a teenager in the Anglican Church the priest approached me and another young person to join with him as he set up the church hall as a youth drop-in centre with youth activities on a Sunday afternoon. He booked the hall and purchased a large amount of equipment - table tennis tables, card tables, dartboards, board games and all the paraphernalia that went with them and gave me a set of keys to the hall. He then worked on an extensive advertising campaign within the church, the local schools and in the general community. For a couple of months, every Sunday afternoon I would unlock the hall and turn on the hot water urn for refreshments. Shortly thereafter the priest would join us in the hall, say a prayer with us and go out into the streets surrounding the church to round up young people to attend. Faithfully the other young fellow and I would boringly fill the time playing table tennis or darts, activities that neither of us bookworms particularly enjoyed. No one else ever came and eventually the idea was abandoned and the equipment donated to the church school.
-- Lionel Hartley