I'm honored to be
selected as their 2012 Commencement Speaker. The event will most likely not be
televised. There will not be media reporters there. Nevertheless, something
very significant will happen. Over 25 youth will graduate from high school and
received their diplomas. The Youth Opportunity Academy
To get to this point of graduating, they had to overcome personal
trauma, disappointments, tragedy, abandonment, navigating through community
forces that are designed to make them quit and join gang life, and very little
family support.
The Good News is they made it.
They did not allow themselves to be defined by their context, but
by their content. Biblically, "Greater is he that is in you than he that
is in the world." These graduating youths are called to the greater. They
are called to be greater than the streets of Sandtown Winchester. They are
called to be greater than any force that is seeking to deny, to deter, or to
detain them from becoming what God has for them. They are called to be greater
than any family legacy they may have inherited.
They are great youth graduating from a great academy. I'm excited
to be able to share a word with these graduates today because they are examples
of our great youth of today.
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