SPEAKER TELLS YOUTHS TO DEAL WITH PROBLEMS

Students at the Alternative Learning Center laughed, cried and sang "Hakuna Matata" lyrics with Penny Lea Friday.

Lea, who has been on the motivational-speaking circuit for 15 years, has visited a number of Cape Girardeau schools and a church this week to speak to youths. She will speak at a youth rally from 1 to 4 this afternoon at the Holiday Inn Convention Center. Hundreds of youths are expected to attend the Joshua Generation: Taking America Back rally.

Friday, Lea made students identify with the story of Simba, the young cub whose life lost direction after his father died in Walt Disney's "The Lion King." She told students the storyline closely follows the path of her own life.

She was 15 when her asthmatic mother died on the operating table. That event was followed by her marriage a year later and by many unproductive years of misdirected anger

She said she blamed many people for her mother's death: Her father, who chose to stay home rather than sit at the hospital with his three children, because he thought his wife would be discharged; God, who took her mother away when she needed her most; herself, because she had never given her mother 100 percent of the respect she deserved; and even her mother, who might have lived had she fought a little harder.

"One event in your life can destroy everything in your life if you let it," she said. "When you're hurting you don't want people to know, because it's not cool, No. 1, and because you don't want to show you're hurting."

Like Simba, Lea ran away from her problems in an attempt to escape them. Her marriage to her high-school sweetheart didn't help; neither did cutting all contact with her father and church. In the end, Lea said a re-acceptance of Christianity and a reunion with her father saved her life.

"It was like I ran into Jesus Christ and was knocked to the ground," she said. "I looked up, and just like Mufasa, he asked me what I was doing down there. It helped me realize one day that all the hate I felt toward my father was destroying me."

Lea told the youths they must accept life as it comes. Everyone faces ups and downs, she said, and alcohol, drugs and suicide aren't answers to problems. She said that every day her life seemed to get worse, until she finally wanted to die. Lea said her religion saved her from alcoholism and suicidal tendencies.

Said Lea: "Remember what Mufasa told Simba when he looked up in the clouds that day: "Simba, remember who you are. You're my son. You're more than what you've become. When you look in the mirror, if you see junk, you're looking at the wrong reflection."

Members of a prayer group at Heath High School near Paducah, Ky., are expected to speak at today's rally. In December, a 14-year-old freshman allegedly killed three classmates and wounded five others as the group ended a prayer meeting at the school.

A concert with Rebecca St. James, a contemporary Christian artist, is planned at the A.C. Brase Arena Building tonight.

Tickets for the rally are $5. They can be purchased at area Christian bookstores. Concert tickets are $10, and tickets for both events $15.