Privilege, Is It All It's Cracked Up to Be?

Do I want privilege for the kids in our neighborhood? It's not a simple question for me to answer. I desire to bring clarity to this very important question.

Is our goal to help these kids become better educated, graduate college, get a job making good money, and to get out of this this neighborhood? Is a our hope for them to live in a safer, more comfortable place?

I have determined my answer is no. That is not the goal.

If it was, why would we ourselves decide to give up good paying jobs to move in to a needy neighborhood. Our whole life would be sending them an opposite message.

I have had some friends recently ask me what my hopes and dreams were for the kids in our neighborhood. It's a very simple question, whose answer should instruct the very nature of our work. Of course I want good things for the kids, and for the neighborhood. I want them to have options, to not become stuck. I hope they become all God has made them to be and that their gifts and talents are encouraged and used for good.

But the world's idea of success is very different from God's.  After all God does not call us to be citizens of this world but sojourners passing through, living as followers of Christ in his kingdom established for us before we were even born, an eternal home (Ephesians 2:17-19). He has given us life and freedom that the world can not give(Galatians 5 :1). Privilege itself is often a hindrance from finding this life and freedom. We who find privilege in the world often turn to own abilities and desires, we loose sight of community because we no longer have a need for it. We begin to believe the lies of this world that say more is better and comfort is the best way.

I desire for every kids in our program be treated with dignity, to understand their worth in God's eyes, and to live out that knowledge in showing love and generosity to those around them.  The hope we have in this work, that keeps us going, is that we know however broken and unfair the systems of this world may be, God offers them all they need.

God  is powerful and can change people! We want our neighbors to know God's love and how to live out that love in their own lives. So when one of our young leaders decides to stay here and become a neighborhood mechanic or a young lady makes a mistake and becomes pregnant and never goes to college, or a teenager decides to do nothing more then to stay here and invest in the younger kids in the after school program, and they bare the fruits of the spirit in their lives, we find joy, and praise our heavenly father (Galatians 5:22-25). Because we know our work has been honoring to him. We can celebrate those kids as much as we can the ones who go off to college and make good money. Because to us the most important thing is that they know Jesus and that he has changed them.

The beauty of the kingdom of God is that we are all different and have unique things to offer in showing love to one another (1 Corinthians 12:1-11). God uses the rich and the poor. We are not all called to be rich and we all not all called to be poor. The important thing is that wherever we find ourselves we never forgot God's love for us, and that like Jesus, we live by that love and for that love. Loving God and loving others should be our motivator not worldly power and success (Mark 12:28-34).

Let's work together to bring restoration to broken systems and justice for those who are oppressed! But we must not hold ourselves, or OTHERS, to the worlds standards of success. For God is still at work and his spirit can still make a person whole no matter where they find themselves or end up! For God can use his children in powerful ways, whether they are in a jail cell or in a law office, whether they are rich or poor, whether they are documented or undocumented! This is why we don't give up.  This is why we continue to visit Nico in prison. This is why we are proud and inspired by Miguel and his work in the neighborhood. This why we celebrate Laura, being the first in her family to go to college, and her desire to help others through her degree.  This is why we have hope.

Take This Cup

Hope is found somewhere in the middle of despair. We are now approaching 5 years of life with our neighbors in Huntington Creek apartments.

We have seen an empty pantry and empty fridge and felt love demonstrated to us in a grocery gift card, or the offer of a meal in the home of a friend.

We know what it feels like to be broke. We feel the weight of the world on our shoulders. And to then be offered the cup, the symbol of Christ's blood shed for us, in communion with our brothers and sisters, who help us bear that weight.

We have felt the sting of sin in our own hearts. We see it working itself out in violence, greed and hopelessness in our neighborhood. When forgiveness is given and received in the mist of this mess, it is tangible. Grace becomes a reality.

Ian and I hope to be the hands and feet of Jesus in this neighborhood. He asks us to do the things that bring out our weaknesses, so that he can be our strength. The work is impossible to do alone, so as we work we experience the joy of community.

He strips us of the things we think we need so that he can satisfy our soul.

He does this through his people. Through you. Over and over again our family, friends,  and church have extended love to us. You are all connected to the cup of lemonade we place in the hands of Dulce, Diego, and Sammy at after school program.

You are connected to the rides and encouraging words we speak to Juan, Georgie, and Alan on the soccer team.

You are connected to a Friday filled with dignity at Refugee Beads class where women receive work and can contribute to their families needs through the work of their own hands.

When we feel we have nothing left to give, God gives us the very resource that is needed for someone's specific need. Thank you for being so generous with us, so we may be generous with those in need in our neighborhood.

We can testify that it is a satisfying way to live. It will be risky, hard, and maybe even dangerous, but God is faithful! Pray that we stay faithful.

We pray that God fills your cup and that you know where to pour it out again.

"And Jesus said, "I earnestly desire to eat this Passover meal with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God." And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood."

Luke 22:14-20

The Creek Kingdom (pt 1)

I dreamed nightmares, one after the other. I was pinned to my bed, unable to breathe, trying to call out the name of Jesus, but there was no air in my lungs. Each time His Name came to me, the torment slowed, I awoke muddle-headed, and I drifted off to the next horror.

The first one I remember with clarity had me suffocating under my sheets as they ballooned around me. I watched shapeless shadows play across the translucent fabric. I knew if I could reach Ruthie, I would wake up, but I was paralyzed.

In the final dream, I prayed for God to open my eyes to His truth, and the room flashed before me violently like a caught reel of film, on and off, meaningless and horrifying with the silhouetted outlines of pines and empty branches clawing at the walls. I couldn't breathe. Then I woke with one bright flash into a dark room.

When I came out of the dream, I went to the book of Acts, where I have been reading sporadically. It seemed like the thing to do.

The story goes that when Jesus was here on earth in skin, he did his own work and teaching. Then when he had died and risen, and it came time for him to get sucked back up into the sky, he promised that something better was around the corner.

No one knew what to expect, especially his followers.

Then, in a rush of fire, they found out what had been promised. That the kingdom, the power, and the glory that Jesus had held in his person was now loosed in them. And that through them it would overturn the world.

And when they went out and preached, their message was some variant of this: The Kingdom is here.

On Sunday after we heard a sermon on Acts, a police officer nearly ran Ruthie over in his haste to bully a homeless man for blowing bubbles in a parking lot. We saw the policeman slam on his brakes mere inches away from the homeless man, get out of the car, and charge over to establish his kingdom in that parking lot.

It was an injustice like all the others I witnessed during the week. I have been worn down by the laws which guarantee that kids we love will never be able to find legal work in this country. I am oppressed by the collapse of families all around me. The damage done by physical and sexual abuse to the kids and adults we work with will not go away. And despite all our hopeful stories, money pretty much tells us what we can and can't do.

Everything that I see suggests that what is broken must remain so, and that everything is broken.

And the church nowadays seems mainly interested in getting people zapped up to Heaven instead of announcing that The Kingdom of Heaven is here. It seems like they've admitted that Jesus, while He can do some pretty cool things in the unseen forever, is pretty much impotent for now.

I'm sitting in front of the computer now at 2:28 AM, contemplating my nightmares, trying to understand how they fit with the distress I feel.

Are they my mind's way of grieving and letting go of a false faith? Some physiological result of the Indian food I had for dinner? Are they God's Spirit, awakening me to know his power? Are they demons, come to torment me so I will be impotent for the Kingdom work?

As I write this, the answer is out of my reach. I feel though that writing this entry is the task before me. I stare at what I have written. I wonder how it will be read. With no conclusion to draw, I commit the final words to my readers and place the period that ends this moment in the story.

Art/Drama Camp

Today I took a Liberian refugee named Aziz to an art and drama camp that one of my partners, New Covenant Community Church, is hosting.

I stayed to watch the drama portion, and the leader involved the kids in a New Testament story about freedom. Aziz played the madman, a young latino guy played Jesus, and the rest of the kids were Legion, clinging to Aziz, whispering to and echoing him. The presentation gave me goosebumps.

So much of Christian teaching focuses on supplying the correct answers. It's beautiful to see a program where they draw kids into a story and an experience as well.

That idea is central to our work with Refugee Arts. We are into engaging and ministering to the whole person. The arts are some of the best tools to do that because they get into the creative, feeling-oriented places in the heart.