"I Don't Believe in God"

Yesterday was the first day of summer club for the kids in our neighborhood. So we spent our Memorial Day weekend preparing a new space for the kids and baby North to eventually share.  Come Wednesday at 3:30, everything was ready to welcome the 20 or so kids that would enter our two-bedroom apartment. 

In the couple minutes before opening our doors, I shared with our program leader, Miguel, and volunteers, Evangelina, Sarahi and Autumn, a quote by Maya Angelou. I asked the volunteers to remember this quote as they interacted with kids....

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” 
― Maya Angelou

"So the most important thing we can do here today, is make the kids feel loved, okay?" I said. They all gave a sincere nod. 

.......................................................................

There were two things that stood out to me during our afternoon together. 

The first was during our initial activity for the day. The kids were to fill out a questionnaire, giving their name, address, grade and then tell or draw a picture of what they would like to do for the summer. You know, give us some ideas. There was very little enthusiasm to fill out the paper in the first place, let alone give us any suggestions. So I told them they HAD to fill one out in order to come to the program. Suddenly, they were all asking for something to write with. So at least I knew they wanted to participate in whatever it was we would do. 

As their little hands began to shove their papers into mine, I looked through their answers, or lack there of, one by one. They had nothing or surprisingly little to offer us.

So I realized something. I think the kids in our neighborhood are used to just sitting back and taking life as it comes crashing into them. They deal with so many heavy burdens, ones I never had to bare as a child. "Where will my next meal come from?" "How will I cope the next time Dad becomes violent?" "Will I ever be at peace with who I am?" "Will I ever belong anywhere?" These are the questions our kids face. My guess is that those kind of daily challenges are exhausting.  The kids are not good decision makers. I pray we can help with this. I want to teach them that they have a voice and that their voice matters, to God, to me and Ian and to those who care about them. I want to inspire them to THINK for themselves, to know what they want and pursue it! This is going to take some work, and I believe over many years. 

The second was during story time. We finally got the kids settled down and Miguel began with a visual demonstration. He asked for a volunteer. Willing hands flew up in the air. Davey was selected and Miguel asked him to squeeze ALL the toothpaste out of a brand new tube on a piece of brown paper. Of course this looked incredibly fun, so Miguel quickly had a captive audience, as all the kids gathered around to watch. When he was done, Miguel said "Okay Great! Now, put it ALL back in there." Davey was dumbfounded. He re-positioned his hands many times, thinking, scheming as the kids shouted out suggestions. Miguel patiently listened for a good while as they tried to figure it out. Finally, after a couple attempts to redeem the flattened toothpaste tube, they gave up. Miguel explained that our words are like that toothpaste, once they are out, we can't take them back. "Our words can be used for good or bad and God has a lot to say about that in the Bible", Miguel stated.  He shared this verse: 

"Don't use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them." Ephesians 4:29

It was then time to pray before we served the kids a hot meal of chicken, rice and corn, prepared in a large 30 cup rice cooker. I asked the kids to be quite and respectful because we were talking to God.

A eager hand frantically shot up in the air and waved around. The middle school girl said, " Ruthie, I really have to tell you something and it CAN'T wait." I said, "Okay, what is it?" She said, "I don't believe in God." A little startled, I told her that was okay,  that she was welcome to come even if she didn't believe in God. Then I asked her if she could still be respectful as we prayed even if she didn't want to join in. She agreed. 

She stayed to help clean, and I will add, did a great job! She gave me a hug as she left with a smile. I think we succeeded in making her feel loved and welcomed, even after her open confession.

This was the second moment of the afternoon that stuck out to me, even hours after the kids left. Why did she feel such a strong need to tell me that? I am not sure. But I do know, for some reason she was confronted by that very important question: "Do I believe in God or not?" I hope that our presence in this neighborhood will confront many of our neighbors in this same way. I am excited that she is thinking. I pray we can be a consistent light and example of God's love in her life. God knows her heart. He loves her desperately. And that is what we have to do, love her, continue in the work of showing and sharing what God has to offer her. We know from experience that God's relentless love is hard to resist for long!

Five for Five

Ian wrote our first blog entry (read it here) about our move to Atlanta on April 11^th 2009. We will use this date, April 11th 2014 to mark our 5^th Anniversary in this work. We have a goal and maybe you would like to help us meet it! You can set-up monthly support or make a one time gift of $60 ($5x12) to help us get there!

I will keep you updated on our numbers here: Refugee Beads currently has 11 out of the 500.

“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” 
― Mother Teresa

We hear questions about "sacrifice" on a regular basis. People want to know how painful it is to do what we do. They want to know about the dramatic "calling" that drove us from our comfortable lives into the turmoil of ministry.

As our neighbors join us in the work of nurturing community, welcome us into their homes, and weave their own lives, we're finding it more difficult to follow that narrative.

The artisans of Refugee Beads offer us their stories, share recipes, and open their homes to us. La La, a player who has been with our soccer team for two years, has now taken responsibility for leading his fellow players. Miguel, who attended the afterschool program as a student, is now leading the afterschool program together with us.

We spend one evening a week visiting with Nico in jail. Wearing his orange jumpsuit and sitting across the thick glass with a black handset, he does his best to orient us with his world. At the end of each visit, he asks us how he can pray for us. There are no prayers I value more than those Nico offers on our behalf from his jail cell.

We moved into this neighborhood and began this work in hope of giving and receiving with neighbors from around the world, and the realization of that dream means a deep kind of joy to us.

We prefer the term "escape" to "sacrifice." We slipped the hold of a life ill-fitted to our hearts and entered a richer landscape of love for our neighbor.

We were certainly called by Christ to live as good neighbors, feeding, helping with homework, and visiting in jail, but that calling continues throughout the work, as we are drawn deeper into the work of living God's love for this neighborhood.

You can escape too, and pursue the Kingdom's constant call with us. How would you begin loving your neighbors? Would you take our neighborhood into your heart as well, and join us in praying and giving so that our work here could deepen? 

We are currently looking to pay stipends to our post-high-school student leaders to acknowledge the value of the work they're doing here. This takes consistent support.  We also need a vehicle, as the Refugee Beads-mobile died on us recently, and fixing it seems to outweigh the value of the car by a wide margin.

Please keep Nico in your prayers, as he's been sitting in jail for over seven months, with no sign of progress toward a hearing. His heart, however, is showing signs of God’s transforming love. He has been reading the New Testament and drawing pictures of God rescuing him from the clutches of evil.

Thanks for reading. Please let us know if we can offer any more information about what we're doing here and how you can get involved.

Grace and peace,

Ruthie and Ian

Up, Up, With Education!

Human beings create laws at a certain time in history with a particular understanding of the world. As time passes we must re-evaluate our laws for OUR time with a new understanding. Laws are for the good of all people. So we must listen to the voices of the oppressed and they must motivate us to justice.

People should never be called illegal. Only our actions can be illegal according to the law. And sometimes laws are unjust.

Take for example Rosa Parks. She stood up against the law to say with her actions; No! I will no longer abide by an unjust law. I am valuable. I am worth seeing. You must recognize that I am present in your society. There is a better way. The law must change!

In our after-school program we see the effect education or lack of education has in our community.

Our children attend schools that are barely able to pass kids through the system. I would say 1 out of every 5 kids in our program have failed a grade level. Teenagers going into High-school are not confident enough to read out loud. Their schools are over crowded and underfunded. Many even have to stand up during their bus ride to school because there are not enough seats. Their journey of education begins at a disadvantage. In their homes, they may be the only fluent English speaker, navigating homework, projects and forms all alone.

This is where we hope to be a presence in the neighborhood that can help.

Many of their parents left Mexico for fear of their life. There was no food and no real way to live if they stayed and there was no legal way to come. So it was a choice between death or breaking the law. So they came illegally.

In the present system, many kids who where not born here and are undocumented see no future in education. So they simply give up. They drop out. They ask, "Why push myself in school if my only options are to be a construction worker, cleaner, landscaper, drug dealer or thief?"

As many of you know we visit Nico in jail every week. He just turned 17. He dropped out of school, got mixed up in the wrong crowd and now he is in the Dekalb County Jail.

Nico spent many days helping me sweep floors for the after school program. He enjoyed playing soccer on Ian's team. But all his life he has been labeled an "illegal". He has not been afforded the luxury of having dreams for a brighter future. He feels stuck.

Some kids, despite these odds, try hard anyway. Maybe they have a mom or dad who push them to be the best they can be. Maybe a teacher, mentor or church community encourages them in the right direction.

When society calls them "illegal" we hope to be that consistent voice calling them "valuable". We must show them that they have gifts and talents the world needs!

These kids make it through high school, often with honors. Yet they find themselves in the same situation. They aren't allowed to go to college. If they are accepted they are forced to pay out of state tuition, and are ineligible for financial aid. Basically, at this point, going farther is impossible.

So what can we do? We can stand up and speak out against unjust laws.

Our friend Tim Isaacson, who started Immigrant Hope ATL, invited us to a Rally at the Georgia State Capitol for the right to in-state tuition for those kids who graduate from high school in Georgia. It was inspiring to see the courage of these young men and women chanting "undocumented... unafraid!", and "no papers...no fear...students are marching here." and "Up up with education, down down with deportation!"

Through our leadership program at the the after-school program, we are able to offer the older kids a way to give back and invest in their community in a positive way, giving them a sense of purpose.

We can create jobs that give dignity and provide resources to help them do well in school. This week I was able to give the job of making beads out of recycled magazine paper to Evangelina. We will use them to make beautiful jewelry for Refugee Beads. She is 15 and going into her freshman year at Cross Keys High School. She hopes to get a school uniform and school supplies with what she earns.

Miguel, a high school graduate that took honors courses but is stuck in limbo as he waits for the opportunity to go the college helps run the after school program three days a week. He is trying to earn a car and an education.

We would love to give more kids opportunities like this, giving them tasks and valid roles to earn their own way!

It takes all kinds of people in all walks of life, working together, to make a difference our world. We live here in the neighborhood and can help in a unique way. You are also are in a unique position, where God has you to love people. We need good teachers. We need good lawyers. We need the church! We need those who have resources to give. We need the housebound to pray!

Elie Wiesel, a novelist, holocaust survivor and political activist said,

"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference"

Sharp Instruments

I went to high school in the Philippines, and I joined the rugby team as soon as the sport was available. I still remember the feeling after the first pickup game we ever played. It was a revelation.

I grew up playing soccer, where you use your feet to manipulate the ball, but it felt nothing like rugby in terms of purity. The sport demanded that every muscle work together, that every sense moved into high gear, that speed meet agility meet power. And there were no gloves, bats, pads, bases, helmets, etc to slow you down or make your job easier.

In a far less adrenaline-fueled way, I feel like relational ministry offers a similar fulfillment. It strips away the mechanisms, the shortcuts, and the complex tracking methods, and puts a pure demand on the person engaging in the my inistry. It gets directly to the heart, and places its hope in what lies there.

That's why, when I looked at other missionaries doing this kind of work, I thought it looked like a pretty easy gig. Just spend time with people, right? I could do that.

Since arriving down here to do the work myself, I've realized the corruption of my own heart. There are areas where I am not willing to open myself to people, things I am not willing to give away, pains I am not willing to share.

For the most part, I love what we do. We help people and build loving relationships in the name of the kingdom of Christ. And for the most part, we see deep changes in the people we work with.

However, I have wrestled with small failures recently. A relationship with another missionary went cold, and he reached out to me before I opened up to him. A refugee I am close with expressed pain, and I did not go to him.

This is a 24-hour, inside-out gig. It's the most rewarding and demanding form of ministry, and I love it. When I finish with the immigrants and refugees, I come home and seek to open myself to my partners and supporters on this blog.

Thank God that when I hit the end of my resources, when I find those areas that are dark, and when I feel as if I have nothing to offer to the needy, his glory moves. Even now, I know that these failures are being used to turn my eyes to the Eternal for hope.

Communicycle

Good news: it turns out Eric isn't dead after all. We had a great time celebrating his birthday at Communicycle, Stone Mountain, then the Waffle House.

I've been meaning to post pictures of Communicycle for months now.

We regularly bring some of the older kids to a nearby warehouse where husband-and-wife team Josh and Margaret Feit head up a bike workshop. The "build a bike, earn a bike" program lets our kids learn how to take a bike apart, clean it, and rebuild it. As a bonus, they get to keep the bike at the end.

This has been a huge help to us. It gives us an environment to connect with the kids who don't really dig the whole arts-and-crafts focus of our activities center. Tonight Eric and I brought Ariel. As everyone worked, I was able to capture these totally candid, unposed pictures