One of my young people had an eating disorder

One of my young people that I am mentoring has recently been in hospital with an eating disorder.  He chose to go in voluntarily but I guess it was pretty stressful for everyone for it to reach that stage.  He is a gifted worship leader and has singing lessons with a well known Christian artist that happens to live nearby so we went together to visit him.  He had the hardest, most ridiculously boring looking jigsaw you've ever seen - just loads and loads of flowers in pastel colours... anyway, we took him a book - Philippa Hanna's biography and The Irresistable Revolution by Shane Claibourne and a couple of CDs and a The Gentlemen T-Shirt and stuff.  We chatted for a couple of hours and then prayed with him and asked the holy spirit to meet with him powerfully and make it a
really useful time for him.  He was very honest and admitted that everyone is purely interested in his weight rising - not in how his mind is working or feeling or the truth about how he feels about food...

I texted him a few days later to let him know I was really praying - not for his body to gain weight but for his mind to know the love of God and that he'd become confident in the holy spirit so that his battle with eating faded away into insignificance.  He seemed to really appreciate the fact that I had clearly been listening to what he had said rather than just telling him how to think or behave and that I had his back even when he was out of sight...

A week or so he came out properly excited about God!  I think he had enjoyed being waited on hand and foot but was making good progress physically and had made great friends with the nurses.  He had been in the hospital prayer room (there's only one that isn't just for Muslims!) and shared his faith with the nurses and read both books AND The Heavenly Man and is really fired up to follow God!  It's a great reflection on his personality - but it was a priviledge to stand with him in that situation; to give him an intentional relationship that was there to listen to his emotions and gripes and turn him around so he could overcome his situation.