Poverty on Poverty

Yesterday I had the opportunity to speak at my friend Amanda's school. She teaches high school Spanish at Julian HS on the south side of Chicago. As you may guess from the fact that this is a Chicago Public School and it's on the south side, it is a struggling school. Most of her kids are what we would consider poor, many of them are in gangs, and even the advanced students are far behind average students in other school districts.

The purpose of my visit was to speak about the culture of Guatemala, where I visited in 2008. It was fun to share the similarities and differences of the Guatemalan culture and these student's culture. Overall, the students were engaged, respectful, and a lot of fun to spend my day with. What really stood out to me was our discussion on the poverty in Guatemala. I shared about the problems with air pollution, lack of drinkable water, and high crime. I'm not sure what I expected the students' reactions to be, but I was surprised that so many of them said, "If it's so bad there, why don't people just move?"

I think this is an easy question to ask about people living in poverty. I guess the reason I was surprised to hear it from these students is because when I host groups, we work in neighborhoods just like the one that all these kids live in. When we tell groups about the issues facing these neighborhoods, so many of them ask the same question- "If it's so bad, why don't they just move?"

Maybe poverty is more relative than we think. Maybe poverty needs to be measured by more than tax brackets and one's zip code. Maybe it goes beyond the obvious things that we see and has more to do with attitudes and perspective of ones' individual experience. I'm not trying to say that poverty is not a real and destructive thing, but I'm curious as to what this world would look like if those in power looked beyond the obvious conditions of poverty and more into the perspectives of those living in the situations that we only read about.

Is this where incarnational ministry begins?

Hitting the Breaks

As you've no doubt noticed, it's been quite awhile since my last post. I assure you this is not from lack of desire to blog. Instead, my absence has been result of complete immersion in my ministry- and as a result, total exhaustion and near burn out.

Here's what a typical day for me has looked like as of late:

Sunday: 8:30am-3pm- Project Nehemiah (transporting kids from the Ickes and Dearborn Homes and other areas on the Southside to and from church)

Monday: 11am-4pm- Cafe

Tuesday: 11am-4pm- Cafe (and soon teaching a class on sexuality in the evening)

Wednesday: 11am-4pm- Cafe.... 6:30pm-9:30pm Real Talk 678 small groups

Thursday: 10am-2pm- shopping for the Cafe... 6:30pm-9pm- Driven Youth Ministry

In addition, I was often hosting on the weekends. Even though my boss Kelly would urge me to take a day off, she would often have to force me to do this or I would work straight through.

I LOVE ministry. I adore serving God's people to the full extent. That said, this kind of schedule is ridiculous. It's not ok to never have time for dishes, laundry, the grocery store, calling home- activities otherwise known as LIFE.

This week God forced me to hit my breaking point. To be blunt, this week has been a pretty terrible one. It was one of my busiest weeks yet, and instead of being filled with amazing spiritual experiences, it has been riddled with incidents that have caused me to be bitter, irritable, and cross with many people who did not deserve it. I don't think I was a particularly pleasant individual to be around the past four days, and I apologize if I was rude to any one reading this blog.

God has once again reminded me that I have two choices- listen and be obedient, or go my own way and make things difficult. It seems like I really enjoy the latter of the two, despite the fact that things ALWAYS end up being way more difficult than is necessary! I'm discovering that it is possible to be disobedient in your ministry, if that ministry is taking precedence over God himself. After all, if the point of ministry is to glorify God, it does seem a bit contradictory to do so much ministry that you neglect to spend time in the Word and only pray in a corporate worship setting.

So that said, I'm working to revise my schedule. I'm going to have Wednesdays completely off from the cafe, so I will only be working at CSM doing some light office work and then having youth time in the evenings. I'm also experimenting with firming up my boundaries. From now on, my answer is no. There is no possible way that I can get involved with any more ministries and stay sane, or be a positive asset to the ministry. I'm going to spend the next three months learning how to limit myself.

It's time to actually discipline myself in the practice of rest.

Back to My Roots

I'm a suburban girl who loves the city. Since I was little, since before I knew/cared what a homeless person or a gang member was, I've loved going "downtown."The buildings, the noise, the people- everything excited me.

As I've gotten older, those feelings have only had the opportunity to grow. Serving in New Orleans after Katrina, I found myself enjoying spending time in the ninth ward. Yes it was shady and resembled a war zone...but it was the city. A year after that trip, I got to spend the best summer of my life facilitating urban mission trips in Chicago. However, toward the end of that summer, I started to feel a strange pang for the suburbs. By August, I was ready to go home and figured I just wasn't cut out for the city.

Sometime during my senior year of college, a longing for the city returned and I couldn't push it away. I was discontent and bored until second semester when I started working with two different groups of students- a group of at-risk girls at Muncie Southside High School and a Youth for Christ program in Yorktown called Campus Life. If you know much about Muncie and the surrounding areas, it will come as no surprise that girls at Southside fit into the urban category and the kids at Yorktown were most certainly (rich, priviledged) suburn.

At first, I seriously dreaded my Monday nights with the Yorktown kids. Youth ministry is my passion, but I was used to kids with "real" issues. Thankfully, God put me in my place and showed me how to love these kids and understand their problems- after all, I was just like them as a student.While this opportunity solidified youth ministry for me, it did nothing to alleviate the urban-sububan conflict that was raging in my mind.

Present time finds me back in Chicago, being immersed in urban culture once again. And while I love it, the more time I spend here, the more curious I've become about the problems of my hometown. I'm starting to become interesting in the impact of suburban-urban partnerships and how that might impact these different communities. What issues face the youth of Indianapolis? What gangs are present? What churches and agencies are working to make it a better place?

So, with this curiousity I'm going to start a new feature on this blog. Every week I'm going to profile a ministry or social service agency in Indianapolis and in Chicago. This is mostly for my benefit so I can be more educated, but I hope you'll find it interesting as well.

In Indianapolis:

Save The Youth Inc.

http://www.savetheyouth.org/#

Save the Youth is located in the Meadows neighborhood of Indianapolis and is focused on prevention. They identify at-risk youth and work to keep them off the streets and out of gangs. What interested me most about this ministry is that it was founded by a former gang member who wanted to keep kids from going through the things he went through. Check out the website for more information!

In Chicago:

By The Hand Kids Club

http://www.bythehand.org/index.html

By The Hand has three Chicago locations- the neighborhoods of Austin, Englewood, and Cabrini-Green. These are three of the most economically depressed neighborhoods in Chicago, and kids who live in these areas face issues such as gangs, drugs, and teen pregnancy at far too young an age. By The Hand has afterschool programs for kids from first grade to high school graduation. My friend Julia is a staff member, and their ministry does not end in the classroom. The teachers at By The Hand pick the kids up from school as well as conduct home visits in order to understand and nurture the whole family.

A Quick Bit of Inspiration for Your New Year!

I've mentioned Treneal to you all on this blog. She is without a doubt one of the most inspiring and uplifting individuals that I have ever had the privilege to meet. Now I want to share her story with you in the best way I know how- through her own words. I taped her testimony with her permission (and her enthusiasm!) at the Dream Center 2009 Graduation. The graduation is when women transition from different phases of the three phase program. Treneal is now in the phase where she is looking for a job and trying to start a new, restored life outside of the program. I'm not sure what was more touching- watching her give her testimony in person or watching the video with her.

Here is her story:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3_Z0yfdkZY