Living life with each other, and loving one another

I feel like I’ve been getting stretched to and past what I thought I could take since I’ve been here, and day in and day out I’m amazed at how its possible to keep moving forward, even through the tough times.  This past week, as a whole I guess and even particularly the end of the week, Camp Hero, the wildfires, and other things have pushed me to the point of being stressed and tired and initially/honestly wanted to just take a step away from it all and try to regroup myself. 

What’s recently amazed me is the idea that working towards a goal and a purpose, while putting your trust in the fact that it’s for the right reason (spreading the love of God and loving all we come in contact with), is enough to give you the strength to carry on day after day, even when you feel as if you had enough.  Thinking back to my Urban Min class and thinking back to the reality that God truly has a heart for the poor, a heart that so many in our society has locked away and disregarded, makes each encounter, each gunshot heard, each shooting we hear about, each tantrum from our kids at Camp Hero, each moment of attitude that should not be coming from a 3^rd grader, and each conversation with these kids and people here an absolute joy.  Now there is no way I can say that I think it’s a necessary joy in that moment, ;-) but what I can say is that, there is so much going on behind the scenes that we often don’t get the privilege to find out about.

Knowing the few stories that I do gives me the option and better ability to love these kids better in spite of their bad spots, because first off, so many of what influences them pushes them to this point and by the time they get to us, they really cant help it necessarily, and second, we’re to love everyone.  That includes orphans, widows, homeless (in what ways we can, obviously will vary given different circumstances), ‘bad’ kids with attitudes that make you want to just lose it on them, and people that are just different than you.  There obviously isn’t a surefire way that works to love everyone, but if we take the time to get past initial first reactions, attitudes, and really love on a person, we’ll find ways to love and care for people in ways that best meet their needs and not just in a way that we think they should be helped. 

How do I love on a boy who has told me his family may be getting deported? How do I love on a girl who tells me about the constant gunshots she hears outside of their apartment during the night? How do I love a boy who can push your buttons constantly, not listen, talk back, fight, etc, but gets frightened when we’re in the park with the rest of the class and he heard what he thought was a gunshot, but was really just a group doing construction on a house?  When I really sit back and think, so many kids in the class I’m with have stories that show why they act like they do.  Cant lie. I know that I prob would have given up on them before because I was fed up and cant handle it.  Now, I cant help but want to be around them more and be a positive influence.  I know that an answer that I have even failed to do enough of is to pray.  PRAY, PRAY, PRAY, PRAY, PRAY.  I’ve yet to truly understand and realize the power of prayer, but I do know that if nothing else, that’s something I can do. And also, dont think that you are going to be able to make it through alone.  At least for sure dont think that youll make it out well.  Community is a part of life.  Community brings people into your life that can support you and walk along side you.  While it may not be always super duper, its a process that can, if handled well, end up as something beautiful.  

First full group picture! (Rebekah, Me, Grant, Jill, Mike, Funmi)

Community

Community – a unified body of individuals (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

It’s been about five weeks that I’ve been here in Denver now, and I know that one of the most impactful things that is really really sticking to me, is community.  For multiple reasons, some of the ‘communities’ I have been a part of before seem to fit and not fit this definition at the exact same time. Every one of them is united by some kind of purpose.  It seems like oftentimes though, outside of that one purpose, some people could care less to do with some others.  And in seeing and understanding how much goes on in our city, state, country, and world today, that’s understandable.  So on that, I have come to the point of seeing that not everything can be united in community, necessarily all the time.  (And I also realize that not everyone may consider many things to be a community so then there is no need to care or address that.)

The Christian community that I’ve been blessed to be a part of out here has been eye-opening.  Here at Providence, community is talked about a lot.  There are even things that they have called community groups and basement groups, which meet on other days outside of Sunday church just to fellowship, love each other, and read/discuss God’s Word while finding ways to be there and challenge each other along the way. A phrase that one of my professors uses to describe some churches many times is “us 4, no more, and shut the door.” (or something along those lines). The basic point of that statement, however it is correctly phrased, is that many times, it seems like church has now become this thing that can only be done inside of four walls of a church building on Sunday.  Here, in Colorado, I’ve been blessed to see how it shows through the people that living here in community with other Christians and living and interacting with the neighbors around them is a part of life.  It won’t always be easy, our intern group can attest to how it can become messy at times, but looking back and seeing how we grew from that and different scenarios, that messiness is what has made us better as a team and closer as friends. 

From these past couple of weeks, we’ve been able to experience the awesomeness of community and how it can suck at times, but then the beauty of it all is when we struggle together and ultimately grow from that.  Our group, this church, and all of us as a body, are far from understanding everything and how things should be done.  Many mistakes can and def will continue to be made, but that’s all apart of how you grow. 

I’m learning so much here that it’s becoming hard to get all my thoughts placed. :/ (weird that that’s so good and semi bad at the same time)  What I do know though is that I have been a part of a family here that I haven’t experienced before, and have been apart of something that cant be paralleled to anything from my past.  I need prayer that all that comes from this will continue to change me and that I’ll (along with Jill and Mike) come back to Cedarville and maybe even Akron with something that will impact and, who knows, possibly even teach others.  It’s funny, I’ve heard so many stories about people coming out to Colorado to visit or whatnot and then eventually staying here for good.  Gosh, there is obviously something in store for me elsewhere, cause I’d so like to stay, but I know I’ve got two more years of college ahead of me.  I want to dive into things now, but I know I’ve still got much to learn. Lets see where this goes.

Thanks so much to all of you who have supported me financially and prayerfully.  It’s so greatly appreciated and I wish I could do better at showing you all the crazy, amazing things that have been going on here. 

Thoughts on this past week and a big thanks to an influential man with a contagious heart for the city

Here I am, getting ready to start week 4 of this internship, looking onto this next week of Camp Hero and looking back to all that’s happened, particularly this past week at in particular.  These past 3 weeks have been so challenging and informational/insightful.  I’ve learned so many things here and there, most about both myself and faith so far.

Haha, I first off want to say that I have the utmost respect for teachers.  Camp Hero was so challenging, for many reasons, and the fact that teachers deal with things day in and day out is incredible.  While I don’t mean to be disrespectful necessarily to many out there, but we continually need greater teachers.  Within the past two weeks or so, we’ve learned so much about the public school systems and all that is wrapped up, discussed, and involved in that.  It’s an unfortunate fact that so many people realize that the young children in many schools are being slighted, but the necessary change isn’t able to be made due to unions, tenure, and other things.  Now I know that there is so much to be said about that, but in what I have been able to look back and see from the schooling I’ve been privileged to receive, so many kids are missing out on quality education.  Due to that, many lose interest, drop out, continually get stuck in the poverty from which they came, etc.  I say all that to praise the many good/great teachers out there who have a heart for teaching students and teaching them the value of learning and becoming better people in that area, and also to encourage those who are going to college to become teachers.  I’ve talked to a couple education majors in the past and one of their statements has stood out to me this whole time.  This isn’t verbatim, but he pretty much said that he would never work in an urban setting and would go far from it.  While I’m struggling to figure out where I fit in this whole equation with where I’m at now, I just want to add my voice to the crowd of those saying that there is a need for great teachers who are willing to step up to the challenge and reach these kids who are otherwise going to get pushed through the system by people who may not really be looking out for them so much as their paycheck.   The urban community needs to be reached in so many ways, physically, educationally, and spiritually. 

I’ve been able to work with 3^rd graders at Camp Hero with another intern and a teacher from a local public school.  From 9-noon, it’s Mr. Mark who is teaching them and giving them lessons that have to do with literacy and things like that, then from 1-2:30, Jill and I have them and either do games or crafts and stuff.  It’s been one of the toughest things, just between realizing that it’s partially a summer camp, they need the push to learn and progress so they aren’t behind once the year starts, etc.  I’m struggling to find out how I can be most effective with this wonderful opportunity that we’ve been placed in.  While they may get on my nerves often due to whatever reason, I desperately am looking for a way to let God’s love show through me and let him use me in a way to best serve these kids.  As I had mentioned before, this is becoming a hot summer, both in temperature and in violence (2 shootings within the past week, a double homicide 1.5 weeks ago, and just heard shots a couple min ago).  These kids are growing up in an environment that doesn’t necessarily help them succeed.  Hopefully people like those at Providence Bible Church, Camp Hero, Boy’s and Girl’s Club of Metro Denver, and more can continue to have an impact that begins to change this community from the inside out literally, like we’ve been able to experience now and more-so after we leave. 

Today’s sermon has been working on my mind all day and I know is going to be a constant challenge in my everyday life from now on.  The basic point, in short, was realizing the blessing, purpose and inevitability of enemies.  The sermon was over 2 Samuel 16:5-14.  Pastor J talked about how even though David was being cursed, David took it as something to leave in the sovereignty of God and if it’s from God, then he accepts it, if not, God will deal with Shimei on His terms.  J was contrasting how the typical reaction nowadays and even back in that time was to fight fire with fire, in a sense, and how David, MLK, and even Jesus took a radical move to not fight back, even calmed those with them to not fight back.  They fought fire with true love.  They truly embraced the meaning of love your enemies.  I know that with all I’ve been learning and being challenged with, I cant just keep it to myself, I’ve got to share it somehow, I’ve got to stand up for the good things that I’ve seen here that may not be somewhere else.  Since I’ve been here I’ve been challenged with my faith and where it really is and how strong it is (if it’s even really there).  Something said in the sermon that really stuck with me was, “Faith without risk is a dead faith.”  I wholeheartedly believe that and I know that if you’re not really risking something, how can you say you really believe and are fighting for something? Things really grow, impact, and spread many times through adversity, and the things that are being fought for in the city are so far against the common way of life that it’ll be a long time before it gets righted, if ever.  But just because it may be hard and nothing may be happen in my lifetime, that doesn’t mean I give up caring for the orphan, widow, and the forgotten.  I’m continually being shaped into having both a heart for the city, and a heart for the world.

Who woulda thought that 3 of us from Cedarville, from the
same class, would be in the same city for the summer?

*P.S. – none of this would happen without the influence of one of my profs, Dr. Cook.  Thanks Dr. Cook for all the things you are doing at Cedarville, all the people you bring in, the weekends you simulate, the videos you show, and the heart for the city that you truly have and are trying to open up so many people’s eyes to.  We continually need more people like you in our lives.  I know I've got so much more to continually learn, but I wouldn’t be here getting impacted, with these other awesome interns (2 from Cedarville as well), and learning these things if it wasn’t for you :)

Diversity and the impact of a local church

I'm going to share a part from the book I'm reading called One But Not The Same by Chris Williamson.  The title of this particular section leading up to the actual start of the book is called, A Diverse City.  "... Christ's bride is a racially mixed, economically mixed, and gender mixed bride.  This means that Jesus is in a mixed marriage!  That's beautiful and it should make us shout, but there is an obvious disconnect that should also make us weep, and here it is: The kingdom of God on earth through the church appears to be theoretical at best because the city coming from heaven is diversified whereas the city going to heaven is by and large homogenized in its local expressions.  In other words, we don't look like where we're going.  Our churches within the Church and our spiritual cities within the City are sadly segregated and separated along racial and denominational lines.  We all know that no segregated and separated church is going to have a lasting impact on a diverse world.  It's past time for the church, or should I say kingdom of God on earth, to come together and be united in the midst of our diversity.   We are much more potent and successful when we come together under the banner of Jesus.  We are much more reflective of heaven and God's great love when we come together as one."

Reading this has recently stuck out to me because I've been able to firsthand be a part of what it's like when a church is together in the midst of diversity (racially, economically, etc).  It's hard for me to describe what Providence has been to me so far other than a pretty sharp glimpse of what was said in that section.  This church is literally filled with so many different types of people.  Caucasians, African-Americans, Hispanics, African, wealthy, poor, ex-felons, etc have come to and even are apart of this church.  I've even met at least one of all those that I just described.  What I've been able to have been a part of so far this summer is truly unique.  Having this many people here at a church, where they aren't just another group of people able to be brought to sit in the pews, adds a level of variety to the church in a sense that when they go out to do work in the community, for one, it'll truly be a united force going out, but also, such diversity allows for a variety of views and insight into how things are or could be in given scenarios.  Having such a diverse congregation that is willing to go out and serve lets the church get a hand in the community that they might not have otherwise had.  With different people helping to lead the way here and there, the reach of the church can grow to become endless in many ways.  

A great example that sticks out to me came from today.  Today was the celebration that we had in Globeville.  In short, it was a neighborhood barbecue, party, and the opening of the neighborhood pool.  It was awesome to see how we were able to hook up with a local rec director and leader, Boogie, the organization Globeville cares, and other people to just make this event happen and to have a great day with those people in the community.  It was awesome because we were able to see a good handful of the people that we had gone out and surveyed when we were trying to get the building that the city was offering for grabs.  What was awesome about the leaders in the church was the fact that they said they hoped that they could get this building, but even if it wasn't meant for them to have it, they still had no doubt that they were going to stick around and make sure to do what they could in the community.  Building, or no building, Providence would be getting involved in Globeville and hopefully helping in whatever way possible.  With a church full of admitting, diverse, sinful people, who have problems just like anyone else, it's incredible to see the depth of service they are able to provide to those in these surrounding 9 neighborhoods and even beyond.  

Boogie, in the middle with the sleeveless shirt and tats, stands alongside
Pepe, a pastor at Providence at the beginning of the celebration