My Friend John

When I walked out of the church this morning I noticed a large pile of blankets pilled up in the hallway. I didn’t think much of it at first because I never know what is going on in this church half the time, but when I walked outside I noticed something had changed. For the last few months there has been a man living behind the dumpster of the church I live at in Oakland. This man’s name is John and he is an elderly guy that has been struggling to maintain a stable living situation with the Bay Area’s incredibly high cost of living. John has become my friend over the last few months as we have had many conversations and I have been frequently bringing him my leftovers and other small goodies. 

He is a very sweet guy and having him in the parking lot where my car is parked each night has made me feel quite a bit safer. Many car break-ins happen every night around where I live in Oakland, but having someone around seems to be a deterrent from anyone wanting to choose my car as the next candidate. I believe in many ways he has taken on the role of protector over my car and me. Through many conversations we have had and various comments he has made to me about how I need to stay safe and ways he is working to keep the parking lot to the church safe and secure, I know he was greatly concerned about my safety. 

When I walked outside this morning I noticed that John’s home was no longer there. The dumpster was pushed back against the wall of the church and all of his belongings were nowhere to be found. I am unsure whether the church made John leave or if he chose to relocate, but the fact that some of his things were inside the church makes me wonder if the church did not have something to do with it. Homelessness has become an issue incredibly close to home since I have been out here. I have many friends around the neighborhood that I will find sleeping outside the church on the sidewalk at night. It can still be shocking to drive up late at night and see several bodies lined up sleeping right outside my window.  I wanted to ask you all to be praying for John. I do not know where he is headed or if I will ever get to see him again, but I want to bathe him in prayer. I just ask you all to pray for his safety and his living situation. Also please pray that through some manner John will come to know the Savior who loved him so much He died for him. I do not know if John had any kind of faith but I do know that his Father in Heaven cares for him deeply. Thank you all for your prayers for my dear friend. 

Oh No! Another Four Letter Abbreviation for the Name of a Ministry Site

Hello all you wonderful people!

These last few weeks have been pretty dandy although nothing particularly striking has happened. I wanted to start by saying the Women’s retreat was absolutely amazing. It was such a wonderful time to be surrounded by God’s wonderful creation in nature and in the other beautiful women that joined me that weekend. There were about 30 women total on the retreat and I loved getting to know each of them more. Through this experience I feel that I am much more connected with the women in my church and have really started to develop some great relationships out here.

            For the last month at least I have been working with another ministry site called Chinese Christian Herald Crusaders or CCHC for short. I know what you all are thinking, "Oh no! Another four letter abbreviation for the name of a ministry site!" I felt like you all must be comfortable enough with what BARM is by now that I could introduce CCHC to the mix... Sorry you should tell ministry sites to start coming up with some shorter names and we won't have this problem! =P  Becky, one of the other girls on staff, started working with them first and for the last few weeks I have been joining her. CCHC has a number of programs they are involved in but we have been working with their Chinese immigration program. We help them practice for their immigration interviews. There are three parts to the interview. The first part is simple questions about the person and their family, the second part is a number of United States history and geography questions, and the third is a reading and writing portion. I also just wanted to say how much harder the citizenship questions are than I even would have thought they would be. I am very thankful to have been born in the United States because many of these questions I definitely do not know. Many of these men and women who desire to gain their citizenship have been living in China their entire lives and greatly struggle with the language. Not only does it help for them to practice the English but also to have someone that is proficient in English speaking with them.

Although I was hesitant at first to work with CCHC because it is something that I have never done before, I absolutely love it! I have found just how much I really do love different cultures and enjoy working through some of the language barriers. I don’t have much experience with Chinese culture but working with CCHC has caused me to learn a lot about their unique and interesting culture. I also really love that CCHC is literally across the street from where I live because it allows me to be directly involved with my community. I have also discovered about myself how much I really do enjoy one on one teaching. Although BARM is working with kids and CCHC is working with adults, the concept of working through a problem and trying to explain it in a way that makes sense is something that I really love. I go to CCHC Wednesdays and Fridays for a couple hours each week and hope to be able to continue that relationship with them for many weeks in the future.

            I am still working on the video project alongside many other smaller projects for CSM. I have been beginning to teach the youth lessons at BARM and am enjoying discovering new ways to teach in a manner that reaches urban culture. I have never really given bible lessons to unchurched urban youth so the learning process has been incredibly interesting. It has caused me to look at my own culture in a different perspective and has stretched my mind through the planning process. I am still getting closer to the youth at BARM and have been receiving calls from some of them just to chat. The fact that they see me as a friend and in some ways a mentor makes me extremely happy. I am so thankful for all the ways that they have blessed me with about a million laughs. They are some of the most hilarious people that I know and I don’t know what I will do without hearing their jokes everyday when I move. Our relationship has in many ways blessed me far more than I could ever have blessed them.

            We haven’t had a group for a couple weeks now but one does come this weekend. I however will not be hosting this group so it doesn’t really count for me.  I will be leading a prayer tour for one of the cars on Friday night but besides that I will not be with them during the weekend. I will not be hosting again until the last week in March, so I have even more time to invest fully into BARM before I have to host again.

            Becky, Kim (the city director), Kat, and I have been going through a book called Space for God together for the last 6 weeks. This book is basically about how to create space for God within our day. We meet every week to discuss it and throughout the week we go through the chapter on our own. The book has some readings but also just has specific spiritual exercises to do throughout the day/ week. I have really enjoyed going through this book with these ladies. The book itself isn’t anything that extraordinary but I am really growing through the act of carving out multiple times throughout the day to be in the presence of God. I have also really loved going through it with the other women that work for CSM, as they have caused me to think of things in entirely new ways. We are all very unique people which makes coming together to discuss the word incredibly interesting and fulfilling. God has been challenging and growing me a lot throughout this study.

For the last few weeks as part of our nightly Space for God time we have been writing down a list of things we are thankful for during that day. After we write for at least 15 minutes we are to pray over our list and thank God for these things. I have found how much I truly love writing down things I am thankful for each day. I am now keeping a separate journal with all of the specific things I am thankful for. I have found how much more throughout the day I am thanking God for things He has done or has given me and also how much quicker I am to thank other people for the ways they have blessed me.

Thank you for reading this update on my life out here in the Bay Area. I am very thankful for all the ways God is working here in the city and within my own life. God is definitely moving every day even if I don’t always choose to notice it. I hope you are all able to experience God’s presence in your daily life as well.

Economics and Racist Cops

This week has again been nice and steady although definitely busy as always. The somewhat consistency of my schedule over the last few weeks has been nice. We haven’t had groups for a couple weeks, which allows me to spend some good time investing into everything else I am involved in out here such as the after school program and church. I have been continuing to work on the pre-visit video for CSM. I am struggling to find working on this video exciting but I have to keep reminding myself that it is making it easier for groups to come experience the city and grow from it. Although I know it is an important video I am finding myself much more mentally and spiritually invested into the work at BARM, the after school program. Although I don’t think it is bad to be invested into BARM I don’t want to lose heart for my work with CSM. Pray that I will have renewed energy to invest into my work with CSM as well as BARM. Below are a few pictures I snapped of the after school program. They limit photography because not all of the students have permission to get their picture taken. Since they don't allow it I haven't been taking pictures but 

The name of the after school program is the King's Club. This painting is in the main room right when you walk in.

Homework Time!

Preston jumped in and tried to ruin my picture but actually ended up making it through his cuteness.

After I worked with one of the teens at BARM named Adieba on one essay for her to get into this summer program, she asked me for more help with a few others. I enjoy helping other people with schoolwork in general but especially with papers. Although I am no essay writing expert I enjoy the piecing together of words and the discovering of information to support an idea. As we worked together this week on two more essays I found that one was about Macro Economics. I had to read the prompt several times to understand exactly what she was to be writing about. Helping her with this well was way over my head. Although it was over my head I knew exactly who could help us with this, my brother. As an economics and finance major about to graduate I knew he would know exactly what the best argument would be. I texted Jake and asked him if he could look over the prompt and talk to me about it. I knew he would look over it because that’s the kind of guy he is, but I had no idea he would be as invested in it and happy to do it as he was. He texted me back right away saying he was really looking forward to looking over it. I sent him an email with the prompt to have him look over it and he sent me a long email back saying how happy he was to see God using some of his knowledge on economics in this unique way. The next day him and I talked on the phone about it for almost an hour where he filled me with a multitude of thoughts and ideas regarding the essay. I then brought the notes I took from our conversation to Adieba to help her develop her arguments.  He offered to look over her essay once she has a draft going and he said I could call him anytime if I have any other questions about it. I am so thankful to Jake for being the man of God that he is and for being so willing to go out of his way to help this girl. Jake, you are truly an amazing person and I feel so blessed to have you in my life. I love you!

            I was just amazed by how God can work through relationships and connect people in such amazing ways. My brother’s enthusiasm to serve in this way was such a testament to me. Even though I asked him incredibly last minute to help someone he would never meet, he still trusted God to use his efforts and made himself available.  I also thought it was just incredibly awesome that God used his knowledge from school through my calling for this year. I was also just reminded of how great relationships in general are. If it wasn’t for me and my brother’s great relationships I wouldn’t have been able to serve and meet Adieba’s needs as well. Relationships are not just great because people are fun, but they also help further the kingdom and this is an example of that. I was just amazed by God’s ability to connect our strengths and knowledge together in the best way possible through relationships to serve Him and meet the needs of others.

            I have been continuing to work with Adieba throughout the week and we have gotten together a couple times this week to work outside of BARM. I have loved just investing into her life even more. She is an amazing beautiful hard working sophomore girl that I feel so blessed to know. Although she is already opening up to me more and more I hope that by investing into her school life that eventually our relationship can grow even more to where she feels comfortable coming to me about anything.

Tuesday night I experienced racial profiling in a way I had only heard about but had never actually felt first hand. Every Tuesday, one of the after school program staff named Jesse and I take some of the high school students to a church youth group at the church Jesse attends. I have enjoyed getting involved in the youth group and feel that it has allowed me to connect on a deeper level with the youth at the after school program. On the way home from youth group I was driving 4 students from BARM (the after school program) home to Richmond. My seats were filled with three African American students and one Mexican. As we pulled up to a stoplight near one of the student’s houses in Richmond there was a cop in the lane over from us. As soon as we pulled up to the light the police officer began to shine his spotlight on us. The entire drive I driving incredibly carefully, we weren’t listening to music super loud (just a little jamming), and all the students had their seat belts on. As we turned the corner the cop continued to follow us and shine his spotlight on us as we were driving. When I pulled over to let one of the students out in front of his house, the cop pulled up behind us and put his lights on. When the cop came up to my car he didn’t even come up to my side of the car. He approached the car on the passenger’s side of the vehicle and didn’t even ask for any of my information. He asked if everyone had their seatbelts on but didn’t even try to accuse me of doing anything illegal while driving. He continued to question the group of students in the car and didn’t even look at me. When I spoke up and explained to him that I was simply taking these students home from a church youth group he asked, “Is that really all that is going on here?” I quickly answered “yes” and he headed back to his car. After he left I continued to take the students home.

            This situation enraged me for a number of reasons. First of all I was angry because it really upset some students and one in particular. I was mostly upset because this was the first time I had experienced racial profiling from cops for myself. I had heard people joke about getting a DWB (Driving While Black) ticket, but I liked to pretend that it wasn’t actually a reality. I can without a doubt say that this white cop would not have pulled me over had I been driving alone. It would have been easier to remain ignorant and believe that all police are sound thinking, nonracist individuals, but I am actually very glad that I got to experience this. I now feel great sympathy for individuals of different races that have to go through life with even law enforcement automatically judging them as being trouble. I was driving with some incredibly bright, gifted, strong, loving children of the King that are working so hard everyday to get out of the system of poverty that entangles so many. Although they are all great, respectful, non-troublemakers, they were still stereotyped by the color of their skin. I can’t imagine how frustrating that would be to have to deal with. I pray that eventually one-day people really won’t be prejudged by the color of their skin but will be viewed equally.

            This weekend I will be going up to Inverness, California for a women’s retreat with my church here in Oakland. I am incredibly excited to spend time with the women in my church surrounded by God’s beautiful creation in northern California. I am looking forward to the spiritual refreshment and growth that I hope to occur through this weekend. Pray that it would be a great weekend getaway for all of us. I leave for that tonight and will return on Sunday just in time for some Super Bowl madness! Go Niners! Thanks again to you all for keeping me in your prayers and for being interested in the ways God is working in and through me this year.