An Invitation To New Life In Community

http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2008/03/innercity-riches-by-bart-campo.html

So the link is for an article I read today by Bart Campolo. It tells of the riches and depth of community when we are "somewhat intentional" in forming it as we minister in the inner city. It struck a cord for a few reasons. First, it was encouraging to hear that the ideal we are striving for in our ministry is attainable and real and can be deep and fulfilling. This occurs when like minded Christ followers move into a neighborhood together and commit to each other and to God to support an love each other and those they live among. Second, it almost made me cry...this is because we so long for just such a community of believers to live and work along side of us as we minister in the city of Miami. Do we have friends? Social network? Yes, but it is not the same. We deeply desire for a few more families to move into the neighborhood as Jesus moved into our world and became the Word made flesh. We desire others to encourage and share the load with us as we encourage and share the load with them and our other neighbors. So I encourage you to read the article and if this sounds like what you are looking for as well let's talk! Consider yourself invited! _ Michael

Representin' Ethiopia!

Just showing off the girls in their traditional wear!  

Fire in the Night

The phone call came while Erika and I were out on a date together trying to have some alone time. There had been a fire. 

 

Our neighbor Emmanuel and, his girlfriend of 17 years, Darlene had been asleep already when around 9pm there was an electrical fire started in Darlene's bedroom. She awoke engulfed in flames, and Emmanuel to her screams. As neighbors struggled to release her from the flaming room she was burned over 90% of her body. 

When Erika and I arrived they had already taken Darlene to the hospital, and Emmanuel was sitting in a chair in our drive way in shock. As events unfolded Erika and Laurie went to the hospital to pray with Darlene and share the Gospel with her. In the meantime I stayed with Emmanuel and prayed with him and comforted him as best I could all the while waiting for the fire department to clear the house and tell us what was next. 

Darlene passed away soon after Erika an Laurie left, mere hours after the fire started. Since that night it has been an endless saga of insurance companies, Red Cross reps, police reports, fire department reports, insurance companies, family politics, funeral arrangements etc. We have been helping Emmanuel through the process and ministering to him in all areas. He has been very open and grateful. 

Please pray for his soul's healing and for his grief process. Pray for all of the details such as insurance and housing to be taken care of and pray for us as we ministry to him. Pray that the street continues to step up as well and care for their neighbors. It has been good to see a core group of neighbors band together around him in this time of need as well. Finally pray for Christ to be glorified even in the midst of this suffering and tragedy. 

Michael's Breakthrough!!

As some of you know Michael has been on a 15 month journey with the DeVos Urban Leadership Initiative (www.devosurbanleadership.org) which is basically part boot camp, part retreat, and part grad school, with a focus on developing urban leaders who work with youth in the cities of America. This experience has been amazing and a great encouragement in our developmental process on both a personal and ministry level. 

Last weekend he presented his final project, a comprehensive "Breakthrough Plan" that lays out the blueprint for leading himself, his family, and the Urban Resurrection team to the "next level". It was  deeply encouraging to him as one after another his peers and the trainers from DeVos spoke highly of his plan and blessed his with prayer and ideas to better it. We look forward to seeing the results of this plan and hope you will too. Please keep him in prayer as he leads URez and the Miami community development networks into new and bold steps of positive change. 

Check out the DeVos website for more info on how it is impacting the city you may live in or near. We highly recommend the program. 

Bummer for missions!

Good Neighbor Initiative (pics)

Thought you would all enjoy some more pics of the Good Neighbor Initiative... (notice Isaac lending his hand to painting as well!) 

Just something to catch you up a bit...

Hey everyone, sorry it has been a little while since I updated the blog but we were out for the holidays and then once we returned it was full speed for a while to get caught up. Now it is leveling off a bit. So God continues to build relationships into our lives and we are surprised by the ways He uses us to influence others and instigate steps of transformation in peoples lives. I have had a few such incidences this past week. 

  

Our Good Neighbor Initiative has finished our first service project and we were able to bring a broad consortium of people together to do it. As we worked to paint the interior of our neighbors house and fix her bathroom toilet and sink we had several people from the neighborhood join our other volunteers to accomplish it which was very encouraging for us. Our neighbor is definitely excited about her new look inside and to have the use of her bathroom once again. 

Our Voice Groups have taken the slow route in starting back up but we were able to meet with a key young leader in the community and he was encouraged and encouraging (not to mention stinkin' funny). 

BEATS (Bringing Eternal Arts to the Streets) is about to have its second open mic/art expression night on the 15th Feb. We are excited for this one as it will have the theme of MLK's "I Have A Dream" and will be focused on expressing their dreams through the arts it is also a part of celebrating Black History month (Feb). We are trying to find a great venue for this event so keep that in mind if you want to pray for us in it. 

The kids are growing a the twins are walking. We just have to figure out how to get them out of destruction mode! I think we pressed the wrong button or something cause they make our house look like there was a tornado every day. They are fun but a lot of work too. :) I have attached our new team pic as well in case you wanted to see it. Don't worry I will put more pics on soon...(everyone keeps asking). 

Well, I know that wasn't a very polished entry but I am not in a polished mood. Ciao 

Yearning...far away

We have a good friend visiting Uganda right now and he is going to see our old home and the friends we have there. He is traveling there with some packages for our friends, letters with words written to express our heart to those we once were able to speak, and pictures to replace our very presence there. These thoughts stir echoes of a different time and a longing to return. Langston Hughes expressed it well in a poem not spoken from the same source that our longing derives its soul, yet somehow rings true even to my comparatively small experience there. So I wanted to share it with you...

Afro-American Fragment

So long,

So far away

Is Africa.

Not even memories alive

Save those that history books create,

Save those that songs 

Beat back into the blood-

Beat out of blood with words sad-sung

In strange un-Negro tongue-

So long, 

So far away

Is Africa.

Subdued and time-lost 

Are the drums -- and yet 

Through some vast mist of race 

There comes this song

I do not understand, 

This song of atavistic land,

Of bitter yearnings lost

Without a place-

So long,

So far away

Is Africa's

Dark face.

Christmas Reflection

One of my favorite authors and a mentor to me through his pages is Henri Nouwen. In his book, The Road to Daybreak, he says, 

Somehow I realized that songs, music, good feelings, beautiful liturgies, nice presents, big dinners, and many sweet words do not make Christmas. Christmas is saying "yes" to something beyond all emotions and feelings. Christmas is saying "yes" to a hope based on God's initiative, which has nothing to do with what I think or feel. Christmas is believing that the salvation of the world is God's work and not mine. Things will never look just right or feel just right. If they did, someone would be lying.... But it is into this broken world that a child is born who is called the Son of the Most High, Prince of Peace, Savior.

Luke 2:1-7 says,

In those days a decree went out from Emporer Augustus that all the world should be registered.... All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house of David. he went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. 

A reflective prayer for these thoughts  could simply be: 

    Thank you, Lord, that you came independently of my feelings and thoughts. Your heart is greater than mine. I welcome you. Amen.

May these thoughts turn your heart to Him and minister to you soul as you celebrate His first coming and await His second. Peace to you from our family. 

                 

Voice of the Youth Night in Pictures

Voice of the Youth Night...a success!!!

God is doing some great things in the Grove these days and one of them happened last Friday night (the 30th of Nov) when we held our first Voice of the Youth event. Just to give you a bit of background, one of the areas Urban Resurrection works through here in the the Grove is to create a space for people to have a voice that will be heard where they normally would not. It is also a place for people to share ideas and express themselves to each other and thus build the movement and momentum that will in turn create action and transformational change in our community. We call this a Voice Group. Our first Voice Group meeting happened in August and we have met pretty consistently every other week or so ever since. Out of these meetings it has come through that our neighbors have a real desire to see the youth of the community involved and having a voice as well. Due to the recent violence there was a more urgent desire to make this happen. SO the Voice Group decided that they and our Urban Resurrection team should create just such an opportunity for the youth ages 14 to 21. We all though that using the creative arts as a medium for this expression would be a good way to do it so we developed the Voice of the Youth Night. This was held at Rustic Treasures, a local coffee shop owned by Bona and Walt Parlins (Voice Group Members).  We had a church donate over $400 worth of art supplies that made it all work. So we advertised at the local youth hangouts and handed out fliers then prayed really hard that some youth would actually show up....

    Well, we were not disappointed because over 40 youth came through the event and many actually participated in the hip hop, drawing, graffiti wall, and open mic! We were thrilled to say the least and we even had ten youth sign up to be a part of the planning process for the next one!! So we plan to build on this event and hopefully it will grow into a full fledged part of our ministry. All of this aligns really well with our vision and we have decided to call the arts portion of our ministry BEATS which stands for Bringing Eternal Arts to the Streets.  Enjoy the pics!!!

Miami is one of the least livable cities to live in!!!

Hey check this article out. It gives just one more reason for us to fight hard for justice in the urban centers of the world. Miami is one place that the stark realities of economic inequality is seen clearly evidenced. 

More Pics...

Thought you all would like some more pics of the Block Party

Carter Street Thanksgiving "Block Party"

On Nov. 17th we had our first annual Carter Street Thanksgiving Block Party! It was a real hit. Everyone brought a dish to share and we provided the turkey which were donated to us for the occasion by a local church partner.  We were really excited to have this event because it not only served to bring the immediate effect of gathering the street together to celebrate and give thanks, it also served as a kick off event in our efforts to bring a greater sense of community to our street and to begin organizing a neighborhood action committee or block club. We had over half of the residents of our street show up and all were very excited about the time and thought it was great. Many expressed the desire to see it happen more regularly which opened the door for us to talk about organizing together and moving forward as a street. The pics are just a few of the 65 people who joined in for the meal, music and fun. 

Shots in the Night!

Well it has been a sad and eventful weekend. On Saturday morning we awoke to the news that there had been a shooting in our neighborhood. Not just any old shooting but this man was gunned down by five others and was shot over 30 times!!! In the same night another man was stabbed to death in a seperate incident. All of this in one weekend. The violence continues to escalate in our small community as drugs and the traffic it brings continues unchecked. Many could look at these instances and dismiss them as "just another shooting of an unwanted menace to society" but we know that they were fathers, sons, husbands, uncles, friends who grew up with many of those we know here in the Grove. As we have learned the details surrounding these killings and the ways that these losses are being felt by some of our friends in the community it tears our hearts and serves as a wake up call to pray and to act to try to make sure that it doesn't happen again. Will it happen again? Probably, these things usually trigger other events. Can we be a part of the solution to these and other problems like them that plague our communities? YES! and we must. We must stand for justice and mercy at the same time. We must seek to find the hurting who have so recently lost their loved ones and bring the love of Jesus to them and the healing that only He can give to the wounded souls. Please pray for us as we seek to do this. We know that one of the men has two young daughters and we know many of his friends and relatives. Please pray as we seek to minister to them and walk along with them in their grief. One of our neighbors grew up with this man and has told us, choked with emotion, that he was one of his best friends "coming up in the hood". This is real life...and death on the frontlines... and the front lines are in our neighborhoods.

CCDA Conference St. Louis

If you have all been wondering why we haven't updated this thing in a while it is due to our travels. We recently were privaleded to go to the annual CCDA conference which was held in St, Louis this year. It was great time to connect to old friends, get encouragement, and simply be around a lot of people who understadn CCD and who are actually doing it. We also were able to check out some of the stuff in order to get ready to host the conferecne next year in Miami! Yep you read correctly we are having the conference right her in Miami in the '08!!! So if you are interested in coming put it on the calendar I belive it the 3rd weekend of October.

I was also able to go to the DeVos Urban Leadership Initiative 2nd National conference. I (Michael) am a part of this initiative that pours training into young emerging leaders in the urban ministry settings around the USA with the idea that in doing so they will reach more effectively into the urban centers and strengthen leadership therein got the future. I am one of 12 nominated and then chosen from Miami there are currently four other groups taking the 15th month course and they are from Cleavland, Chicago, South Chicago, and Indianapolis. It was a great time and one that really give practical ways to improve your personal and ministry lives.

Don't worry I will be putting some pics on here soon I am sure you all want to see the kids more than my ramblings.