Life Update a la Motor City News

I’ve had a recent rash of requests for an update a la Motor City News, so here goes…

When I sent the final episode of Motor City News I was preparing to move back to Rochester and get married. These I have accomplished!

The last 16 months have encompassed some of the biggest transitions of my life, and I think the perspective of over a year makes this much easier to write than a month or two—I won’t get bogged down in the details.

I learned important lessons of humility, rest, and patience on a trip to Jamaica. Since then, the project has floundered, and God has led Belinda and I to spend more time focused on the ministries we’re already a part of.

We had a wonderful wedding, and honeymooned in Puerto Rico.  Unforgettable, of course.

In August 2010 Belinda and I began unofficially taking on the responsibilities of Service Coordinators for our church, and have recently become part of the local missions committee with a focus of helping our church and its small groups connect and serve in our city.  In some ways, this is the beginnings of the fulfillment of a dream.

At the end of last summer Belinda began working in electrical engineering, giving me permission and freedom to spend time finding a career which I would enjoy.  A period of confusion and joblessness ensued. After a few months without success in finding a job in engineering or otherwise, I began working part time at an amazing little used bookstore (Small World Books—check it out if you’re in Rochester).  I started there in February.

By the middle of March God made it clear to us that Belinda should not continue working at Harris. After a lot of prayer and counsel, she put in her two-weeks. At that time all the job leads I had had dried up, and we expected to be without an income for a while.

But God provided. I got scheduled for a second interview for the day before her last day with an organization called CompassCare Pregnancy Services. They’d interviewed me months before for a COO position (which I was clearly not qualified for). After repeated attempts to follow-up, and receiving little feedback, I’d given up. Now I was being called back for a second interview.

In the preceding months as I’d been attending career fairs and the like I’d taken to introducing myself this way: Matt Sones, Mechanical Engineer. I want to change the world. The mission of CompassCare is to erase the need for abortion by turning a woman’s fear into confidence. Sounds a lot like changing the world.

I got emailed the job offer that night (the night before Belinda’s last day)—a position as Assistant to the President, since I matched the organization in values, but not the COO position in experience. I feel blessed beyond measure to say that at 25 years of age I am in my dream job.

In other news, Belinda and I are both involved in children’s ministry at church, and we’re co-leading the best small group ever—sometimes very challenging—the highs and lows of life can be oh so high, and dreadfully low. But we walk through them together with Christ behind, before, and beside.

Learning to be a husband is fun, hard, and rewarding. I am stretched more and more to forget myself. And I’m deliriously happy.

Current spiritual thought: evil is evil. It’s really, really bad. Terribly, awesomely, wickedly bad. And that’s what I was. I am so bad Jesus had to die for me. But I’m so loved that he was glad to (these thoughts significantly influenced by Denes House and Mike Donehey).

In Christ,

- m a t t

Motor City Summer Journal Quotes :: Bob Lupton edition

At this moment in American history, poverty is suburbanizing. Gentrification brings wealth back into the city and pushed poor renters into 40-year-old apartment buildings in first-ring suburbs.

Without the participation of the Church in the unstoppable process of gentrification, it will be an unjust process.

Handouts are the kindest way to destroy people.  Why exclude the poor from bargaining? Let's re-tool our charity to develop reciprocal systems.  "There is no loss of dignity in finding a good bargain."

You don't get appreciated for this kind of work. In fact it's often the opposite. Disappointment asks: "What am I doing this for?"  I do it because God loves those who suffer.

A public school in Atlanta:
When my kids enrolled, school average 21% on standardized tests.
12 years later, school average 79% on standardized tests.
How?  investment in school by volunteers and the revival of the PTA.

Motor City Summer Journal Quotes :: John Perkins edition 2

it costs more to keep people in jail than to send them to college.

Eight Components of Christian Community Development:

1. Relocation - be incarnational
• this is hard work.  if God hasn't called you, if it doesn't bring you joy, don't do it.
2. Reconciliation - assumes equality. this is the Gospel!
3. Redistribution - $ is not the most important. this is redistribution of all kinds of socioeconomic resources
4. Leadership Development - indigenous development: "natives" must be leaders.  DISCIPLESHIP is key
5. Church-Based - the Body must act. authority matters, and it must come from love, not fear
6. Felt-Need Concept - listen. Don't use gifts to make ourselves feel superior. affirm dignity.
7. Wholistic Approach - reach the soul: body, spirit, emotion, mind
8. Empowerment - again, affirm dignity
1. design a plan
2. give responsibility
3. always remember: don't do what they can do for themselves

[for a better description of these check out the ccda website.  Reflecting on these things now, they seem to be exactly the practical out-workings of When Helping Hurts. They share the same philosophy.  Then I realized, "duh, John Perkins wrote the Forward."]

know the people you are helping. 

our giving and charity should create responsibility and thanksgiving, not dependency

Motor City Summer Journal Quotes :: John Perkins edition

The Church is to be the continuation of Christ's body on earth.  This is a foundational truth--not just "issues."

To develop a racialized society in light of the declaration of independence is witchcraft.

The black church in America is a result of white oppression.

Prayer:

• we need to 'dehyjack prayer'
• prayer is not for me
• prayer is God preparing us for responsibility and action
• take prayer back from individualism

naturally, it's easier to develop a church without the gospel

a racialized gospel is only a form of the gospel, but denies its power.

Motor City Summer Journal Notes

God has been taking me back to the summer when I first moved to Detroit and challenging me again with many of the issues that he brought to my attention a year-and-a-half ago.  I've been going back through some of my journals, and it's full of so much good stuff that I want to remind myself of, that I've decided to post a series of quotes from my journal.

Here's the first one:

"expectations are resentment under construction"

When God gives you a glimpse of his plan, a piece of the puzzle, resist the temptation to fill in details that God hasn't provided.

Practical Ways the Suburban Church Needs the Urban Church

Alternate Titles:

On church and neighborhood (Part 2) [See Part 1]

Jamaica, in further further review [See review and further review]

How can Darliston Baptist Church in Jamaica help its North American partner, Northridge Church? How could my Detroit hood church New St. Peters help a potential suburban partner from the metro Detroit area? How could a church from the city of Rochester help Northridge?

Often its clear how help can be passed one way in those partnerships. One church is far wealthier than the other, and usually far better resourced in many ways.

What practical ways can the under-resourced church (URC) help the over-resourced church (ORC)?

I give away one of the answers by using the word "over-resourced." In partnership the URC serves the ORC by providing an opportunity to be generous in a connected, relational way. Whenever Christ talked about serving the poor, it was always in the context of being with them, or relationship. I'm also reminded of Paul's praise for the Philippians (Phil 4:10-20, particularly v.17).

The URC had been among the poor and knows how to serve its neighbors effectively.  It is easy for the ORC to be tempted to view themselves as reaching down from on high to lift up the weak.  The URC can teach humility by leading the ORC into service and outreach in their community in ways that are culturally relevant and effective for them.  The last century of missions has proved the damage of outsiders coming into a community and trying to do things their own way.

 The URC can teach the ORC a deeper understanding of the gospel.  In many ways I believe the poor know the truth of the gospel better than we do.  It's hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.  We don't really know what it means to trust God only, and have nothing else to depend on (no money, no social network, no government). Even if we consider the Jamaicans, of whom the majority are not suffering in dire poverty, their lives are much more simple and close to the land than ours, and I believe we have something to learn from them that sheds light on the gospel, particularly in issues of justice for the poor and oppressed (Luke 4:16-21; 6:20-31).

And finally (and dearest to my heart), both churches help each other battle racism.  Rasicm (not overt, individual malice but systemic and structural oppression of minority ethnic groups) is in the air we breathe in America. When Northridge sends teams to Jamaica, they can help us breathe air that is a little different for a time.  And cooperation between churches of primarily different colors in the same geography can lead to overcoming ignorance and anger. Here's a poem I wrote last summer that describes some of my thoughts about race.
To me this is a crucial issue for Northridge in particular.  Looking at the location of the church (see the map below) and considering the demographics of the attendees, we have a problem. Perhaps it is youthful idealism, but I believe Paul when he writes that Christ has destroyed the barrier between people of different ethnicities, and has made the two one (Eph. 2:11-22).  And though racial reconciliation it is a very difficult issue, the challenge makes it no less our responsibility.

Raison d'être

Invariably, when I tell people about living in Detroit or about my quickly approaching move to the city of Rochester, NY, people ask me, "Why?"

In fact, after showing us several houses for rent in the specific area of the city that Belinda and I are moving to, the rental agent finally stopped and said, "Can I ask you why you want to live in this area?"  And a very nice discussion ensued.

One of my housemates, Michael, wrote an amazing article answering the question, "Why did I come to Detroit?" It's a beautiful, compelling, scholarly work (and he may try to add a bit more personal flavor in a second edition).

Please read Mike's Raison d'être.

wood

Today the city of Detroit sent a team of six men and two heavy machines to take down a tree across from our house.  It was cool to watch the guy in the bucket truck with a chain saw.  For branches leaning toward the house they would tie a rope and use a branch over the street as a pulley, kind of, so nothing crashed onto the house.

I'm convinced that a team of two could have had the tree down in less time than it took six of them to get most of the tree down. I'm happy that the city is employing them.  But I'm sad that they're not using the labor more efficiently.

I went out and asked if I could take some of the wood that they were cutting off the tree, branch by branch, and they said i could have as much as i wanted.

Which was sweet.  I then spent an hour in the backyard with an axe.  There is something incredibly satisfying about chopping wood with an axe.

scheming

Scheming is one of my most favorite activities.  I absolutely love it.  To dream, to plot, to plan -- it makes me come alive, puts a spark behind my eyes.

A few nights ago Luke and Mike and I ( who have been the only ones at the house for the last week) sat down together and started dreaming some more about what our church could do or become in the next few years.  God has given us new prayers to pray.
Monday night at Bible Study our pastor mentioned how our presence as White people in a primarily Black church makes our church a little bit better picture of the true Body of Christ. That statement excited me, particularly since I'm reading More than Equals right now.  The guys and I discussed a need for greater racial reconciliation.
We also talked about how there are so many gifted people (particularly the leader of NuVision, Damon, whom God is calling to preach -- he did the first of seven words from the cross on Good Friday, and it was amazing!) that have a powerful witness but who are stymied because of financial difficulties.
Wouldn't it be amazing if New St. Peters could partner with a suburban church in the metro Detroit area?

And so we've started to pray that God would be working on a pastor or church leader in that church He already has picked out to be our partner.  They would could serve us by providing resources and energy.  We serve them by leading them in how to do justice in our city.  And both parties receive difficult racial healing, forgiveness, and reconciliation.

I love scheming.

Belinda started to like me after we spent a week scheming together one Basileia.

Scheming is good.

Motor City News #6

A steady morning drizzle trailed off during the waning minutes of Michigan State's victory over Tennessee, and left the empty lot next to our neighbors' house a soft, muddy mess. But we would not be deterred. Luke, Mike, and I had met the folks who live right next to our church. The house next to theirs had been torn down shortly after we moved onto the block last fall, and a somewhat-flat swath of bare dirt remained. The woman of the house bought some grass seed to help beautify the lot. So with rake, shovel, pick axe, and hoe her husband led the three of us in an attempt to level the ground to prepare it for grass seed. The ground was soft from the rain, and easier to move, but also heavier. Our feet sunk in an inch or two. After only an hour of work we were all worn out!

I welcomed the soreness in my body the next morning, thankful for an opportunity to serve our neighborhood and interact with our neighbors. The folks that we were working with are the neighborhood parents—they take care of many of the young single men in the neighborhood who have nowhere else to go.  We’re so thankful that it’s almost barbecue weather.  More people outdoors means easier interactions with our neighbors.

Hello friends and relations. Welcome to the 6th episode of Motor City News

Old Episodes: [1] : [2] : [3] : [4] : [5]

My time in Detroit is rapidly coming to a close, and with every thought of Detroit there is a twinge of sadness—is there a better word than bittersweet? I will officially be moving back to Rochester, NY the last weekend in May in preparation for getting married to the love of my life, my Beautiful Dragon, Belinda. We will be married June 18! There is much yet to do—find a place to live, find a job, finalize honeymoon plans, and of course there’s the wedding itself (and flowers, and rings, and… ;) )! But we know that a wedding is a moment, a marriage is a lifetime, and a soul is eternal. Perspective lowers stress.

It’s been a few months since my last update, and I want to share some great things that are happening, especially through New St. Peters, the church I go to on the corner of my block.  Several new programs are starting through the church (and particularly the young adult group called NuVision).

• We are staring a free tutoring program for the community. The city is actually funding the program for each student from a particular list of struggling schools, but it is open to anyone.
• We are also in the late stages of planning a youth mentoring program, in an effort to reach out to many of the young guys in the neighborhood who have no positive male role model. The rate of fatherlessness in our neighborhood is upwards of 80%.
• One of the most exciting projects to me is a vision for come community housing development. The church has been gifted the empty lot on the corner across the street.  Of the next five lots, two more are empty and three have abandoned houses.  That’s six lots that are “up for grabs” in a sense. We’re imagining what our block could look like if we were to acquire those lots and redevelop them.  Some storefronts with housing on the second level, maybe a large hall with a kitchen that we could use to better serve community meals and host celebrations. Mike has a background in community planning and urban development, and he’s created some awesome models that we’re preparing to present to a member of the city council! He’s also attending a meeting today with the church secretary where the city is explaining how faith-based organizations can acquire land for community gardening and development. It’s awesome to see the church mobilizing behind this vision for change and development.

Work. I’m still working as a substitute in the Hope of Detroit Academy. I do everything from art and music with kindergarten to middle school math. I get three or four days of work each week, which is perfect. I really enjoy my job. I’ve been around long enough now that some of the kids are opening up to me a bit. It’s exciting to be able to impart some real life wisdom that’s bigger than adding two and two.

As I’m thinking about leaving Detroit well, I’m taking some time to reflect on ways that I’ve changed in the last year. One small thing I noticed just last week.  During the week I was in several different settings where I was the only white person among a large group of black people. And I didn’t really notice it until someone else pointed it out. I have become much more comfortable with my place in black culture (at least, Detroit Black Baptist culture). I feel like I belong. Part of that is my growing acceptance of my own ethnicity, part is my growing understanding of this culture, and part is the acceptance of friends that I have made here.

And the biggest news: Jamaica. In early March God dropped an opportunity to go to Jamaica this April right into my lap.  Here’s the story. Northridge Church (where I attended during college, and will attend when I return to Rochester) is developing a vision for short-term missions projects under the leadership of Brad, a member of the small group that Belinda and I are in.  The idea is to send a team from the church twice a year for several years to an impoverished community in Jamaica, in an attempt to help the community address its spiritual, social, and economic needs. The project is also focused on developing a spirit of outreach and service in the people of Northridge.

Brad realized that he and his wife would not be able to go to Jamaica twice each year, and so he asked Belinda and I to join the leadership team. We’re excited about being part of developing the vision of the trip and being able to have some influence in the direction of the church’s mission.

God has made Belinda and I missionaries to Rochester. A part of that is to connect the mostly-suburbanites of the church to its city neighborhood. I know how much God changes me when I participate in short-term missions. I wouldn’t be in Detroit right now if I hadn’t gone to Cairo. And so we’re delighted that Northridge is taking this step in missions—because people who have crossed a sea to serve might be a little more willing to cross the street.

I will be going to Jamaica April 17-23 on an exploratory trip.  We will be staying in a mountain village called Darliston, Jamaica, and working primarily through a small church there. We will be working to set up and network computer labs in several local schools, doing some construction projects, helping to equip some of the local teachers, and generally getting to know the community to determine if it is a place that God would have us commit our church to for the next five to ten years.

Thanks for enduring a long update!  I love you all. Peace be with you.

For the prayerful, please pray that:

·         God would bless the new ministries of New St. Peters.

·         For the unity, hospitality, prayerfulness, and peace of our house.

·         For the wedding and marriage of Belinda and I to please our Father.

Shalom.

on poverty and dignity

Here are some interesting thoughts that I'm just kind of putting together right now--

I think one of the major problems that we face in trying to serve the poor (in any context) is cementing a feeling of a lack of dignity.  When I have nothing, it's easy to feel like I am nothing.  And when we give handouts without relationship, I think we contribute to that feeling of indignity.

[Aside: Interesting correlation between the words lack of dignity and indignation:  "the quality of being worthy of esteem or respect" and "anger or scorn aroused by something felt to be unfair, unworthy, or wrong"]. I don't think that needs explanation.

A few weeks ago 11 people from Shippensburg University in PA stayed in our house while they did an "Urban Plunge" in Detroit. Two of their work days they spent cleaning up trash from the street and empty lots in different neighborhoods and boarding up abandoned houses. I wonder what people think when we do things like that.

I was just walking down our street, coming back to our house from church. And I was noticing just how much garbage had accumulated unnoticed under the snow, and how dirty and littered the block looks now that the snow is gone.  I picked up a few things from our front yard as I walked in the door.  But if there was a large group of outsiders that came in for a day and cleaned up the whole block, how would I feel?  I would be grateful, in part, but I would also feel guilty for not taking care of my own neighborhood.  It would feel particularly bad if I saw people picking up trash in my own yard.  I'd feel belittled.  undignified.  I can only imagine what years of that kind of treatment from "rich, powerful" outsiders would do to my perception of myself.

And as I am sitting here thinking of these things, I am reminded of the desire (need) that God has put into every man to be the provider for his family.  It is a strong desire, and there is an equally strong sense of shame that men feel when they are unable to provide for their families.  And I wonder if that doesn't play a large part in why men are so quick to abandon their families in situations of poverty.  In some ways, if I stay to be with the people I love but cannot provide for, I live with a daily reminder of my own shame and failure.  I run, to escape my shame.

This has strayed far from a discussion of poverty.  But I think my desire is strengthening to serve my neighbors in a way that dignifies, that makes them feel loved and valued and valuable, not worthless or used, not the project that makes me feel better about all the good stuff I have.

Detroit In the News

Teach for America May Return to Detroit!  TFA places college grads who don't have teaching degrees in inner city school districts.  They came to Detroit for two years back in the early 2000s.  The amazing thing is that tfa is designed to serve poor urban schools, and they had to leave Detroit because it was too bad here.  Very few of the teachers lasted.

A Possible End to a Favorite 'Ruin.'  Previously I wrote about exploring the Packard plant, which has been empty for 40+ years.  Now, investors are looking into using the building once more!  Between blowing it up for Transformers 3 and retooling it to manufacture new green energy vehicles, I'd vote for the latter.

Intersting Encounters

Two interesting encounters of the last week:

First, as jon and I were biking out to a CDC youth event last Friday night, we were only a block from our house when we saw a woman laying on the side of the road.  I'd guess late 40s, early 50s. We stopped, helped her up, and walked her to the house she'd been trying to get to, just three down.  Just as we were arriving at the house, a man pulled up in his SUV and knocked on the door.  He looked at her, looked at us, and said, "gettin' some help?" with a complete lack of surprise.  It seemed strange to both of us that he did not seem to find the situation unusual.

Turns out it was a good thing that we were delayed.  I had left a check at home for the Roto-router guy, who had just pulled a pile of poopy tree roots out of the pipes under our house.

Two days later, our neighbor's tires were slashed by her husband.  She'd filed for divorce, and he didn't want to sign the papers.  It gave us an opportunity to get to know Mary and help her out.  God showed his provision in the presence of Slippey, who was visiting with a trunk-full of useful tools. He and Tyson did most of the work, and Slippey actually drove Mary to the shop and back twice, with two tires each time.

God is definitely proving faithful in helping us meet and serve our neighbors.

heartbreak

I nearly cried at school today.  The words of a second grader broke my heart.

Demographics by ethnicity, Hope of Detroit Academy, one 2nd Grade class:
White: 2/25
Black: 6/25
Latino: 17/25

With the majority of students speaking Spanish at home, and kids being so brilliant at learning language, most of the class is somewhat bilingual.  Even those who only hear Spanish from the other kids at school.

This week I've been teaching second grade while the teachers are pulling kids out one-by-one for literacy testing.

During a period of independent and/or small group work today, I had to talk to a few of the boys who were getting out of control.  There was some kicking, some stealing pencils... all the normal bored second grade boy stuff.  It happened that this time it was the only three black boys in the class.  They hang out together (there's a good book called "Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" And Other Conversations About Race by Beverly Daniel Tatum, Ph.D. if you want to know why).

After I sent them away, a very cute girl with big green/brown eyes came up to me.  We'd connected a little bit at recess before, so I think she felt comfortable talking with me.  She came close, with a very serious face, and said in the voice of one divulging a dear secret:

"My mama says that I can't get close to those mean dark boys.  I shouldn't get close with them."

I was shocked, scared, angry... but mostly heartbroken.  I nearly cried.  I might have said any number of things, like "Just because they look different doesn't make them mean."  But in the moment, I had no response for her.

1000 anarchists arrested in Copenhagen

I'm not an anarchist, but I've made friends in Detroit who lean that way.  If the global climate summit was in Detroit, I probably would have been arrested too.

Read the story.

Politics are so frustrating.

Today after church Luke, Jon and I joined five others from NuVision (the young adult group at New St. Peter's) to pray on the four corners of our block.  It felt so good to join hands with my brothers and sisters and intercede for our church and our block.  It's exciting to me to see God beginning to put a fire in the hearts of the people in our group to see real change in our community.  And I know that as we continue to pray (now every Sat. morning at 10am) God will shape our wills to his own.  As we pray that God would restore the vacant and broken homes of our neighborhood, how long until God puts in on the hearts of others to move into the very homes they're praying for.  Jesus commanded his disciples to pray that the Lord of the harvest would send laborers.  And in his next sentence he sent them.

I've also been praying for friends from Detroit, people my own age who aren't other suburbanites moving into the city.  And after the meeting yesterday and praying today I think God is answering that prayer through NuVision.

Motor City News #5

Dear ones,

May the peace and joy of Christ be with you this Christmas season!

It's past time for an update, so here we go...

The biggest news in my life is that Belinda and I are now engaged to be married!  We have a great story, but it's much better when we both tell it. ;) We plan to marry early summer 2010 and live in Rochester, NY.  It was a difficult decision for me to make, to cut short the time I planned to be here in Detroit, but this is the direction God is clearly moving us.  There are four primary reasons that pushed us to make the decision to start our life together in Rochester, in order from least to most compelling (for me):

1. Living in Rochester is easier than Detroit, particularly in terms of friend and support networks.  I'm beginning to develop one here, but Belinda would come and only know me.  Marriage is a big enough transition in our lives that it seems wise to make the externals easier.
2. Belinda was just offered a job at in Rochester at the company she wants to work for doing the kind of engineering she wants to do.
3. Our church in Rochester, North Baptist Church (soon to be renamed Northridge Church) is situated strategically right on the border between the city and the suburbs.  The leadership of the church is interested in getting more connected to its neighbors in the city--one of Rochester's poorest neighborhoods is basically just across the street.  Belinda and I want to live in the city, and would love to move into that neighborhood for our personal outreach, as well as to help connect people from our mostly suburban church to God's heart for the poor and marginalized in our city.
4. One of our friends in Rochester has been carrying a vision for a type of engineering missionary work.  The idea is to get connected with overseas missionaries who are encountering technical problems on the field.  They would send us their problem (e.g. this village needs reliable electricity, or pure water, or we're having trouble drilling this well), and we would try to develop a solution to meet their needs (hopefully with materials that are readily available in their area).  We hope to help missionaries do missions by being engineers who do engineering.  That is exactly the type of thing that Belinda and I would love to do with the engineering education we've received.

So, I'm moving back to Rochester in about six months.

There's plenty of interesting and exciting things happening here in Detroit, too.

I am still commuting via bicycle to my job as a long-term substitute at a charter school in southwest Detroit.  I think this Wednesday was the first time I got ice-beard on the way.  It actually adds a decent layer of insulation.

Work is going well.  One half of the 8th grade in particular is behaving with increasing disrespect for me as an authority, but I've got the principal involved now, so hopefully they'll shape up a bit.  Amazingly, the other 8th grade has become the most well-behaved class.

I've decided that I'm just going to continue to substitute teach for the remainder of the school year.  I had tossed around the idea of going to school to get my teaching certification (NY does accept a MI certification), but the fact that going to school full time would not allow me to work as much and would cost money combined with my increased desire to get an engineering job in Rochester (based on #4 above) has led me away from that.

New St. Peter's is the church on the corner of our block.  I am in the middle of the process of becoming a member.  Church membership means something a little different here than it does in places I'm accustomed too.  Back in Rochester, the church had a larger regular attendance than membership.  The opposite is true of New St. Peter's.  This is a first step in getting involved in the ministries of the church.

Pastor Cheeks preached a sermon about prayer last week that really convinced me personally and set our house back in the rhythm of praying together each night.  It's been really good to turn the focus of our house back towards Christ, and actually being a community together rather than just living side by side.  Pastor Cheeks is pushing his flock to pray with expectation that God will actually work and answer our prayers for the coming year.

I'm really pumped about being a part of the young adults ministry called NuVision.  Mike, Luke and I went to a meeting of the young adults today, and it really became a brainstorming session for ways that we could reach out to the community.  We decided that first, tomorrow after church we're going to go out and prayer walk through the neighborhood (as a response to Pastor's message).  We want to couple prayer with action, and are going to try to put together some kind of bargain clothing sale at the local rec center just two blocks away.  I like the idea of selling a shirt for 25¢ rather than just giving it away.  It allows the recipient to keep some dignity that is generally squashed by hand outs.

Prayer Requests:

• house friends.  We're praying as a house that God would send us people from our area who we could enjoy and who would enjoy us.  We don't really know many people our age.
• wedding plans.  Belinda and I both actually enjoy planning, so it's fun, but it can still be tricky.
• legacy.  That I would be leaving a positive spiritual impact on my students.

Thank you!  I always enjoy hearing your stories, too!

Shalom,
- m a t t

weekly tidbits

On my ride home the other day I passes two teenage girls on their porch yelling wildly and pounding on a very out of tune piano.  For a moment, it sounded like Tchaikovsky.
If there were infinite monkeys typing randomly on infinite typewriters, would one write the complete works of Shakespeare?

Our former landlord Steve got jumped getting out of his truck a few days ago.  Apparently the other white guy who drives a Ford F-150 had done something to upset a few folks, and they jumped Steve, mistaking him for the guy who'd actually angered them.  He's doing alright now.  This event did shatter some kind of bubble that I think I've been living in.  I still think Detroit is much less dangerous than people who haven't been here make it out to be.

Tomorrow is my first day as the official Middle School Social Studies teacher at Hope of Detroit Academy.  And by that I mean that today was the real teacher's last day until January 4th, and so I'll be in his classroom until then.  I even get(?) to do parent teacher conferences.  Grades go out next week for the first marking period.  Joy.

I've had a sore throat for the last three days, so I've been drinking tea nonstop. Which means I also pee nonstop.  By the time I wash my hands and walk out of the bathroom I already feel like I have to use it again.

Monday night I had a two hour conversation with the Pastor at New St. Peter's Missionary Baptist Church, the one on the corner of the block we live on.  It was a really good talk. I got to ask all the questions I could think of about his theology.  I think we agree on about 90% of the things we discussed, which makes me pretty happy.  He kept coming back to the inerrancy and authority of God's Word, and that focus and devotion to the word comes out in the preaching I've heard on the last few weeks.  This Sunday New St. Peter's will be the first church that I ever become a member of.

I got to help a few students with their math homework a couple days ago after school.  Teaching math is way more fun than social studies.  At least it's more fun that the way I can teach social studies.  It's probably not more fun that being able to teach history the way it was taught to me in high school.

I wrote a post very similar to this one last night, and accidentally lost it before I published it.  I think round two has been better.  But I have the sneaking feeling that I wrote some cool thing last night that I'm forgetting now.

long walk

My commute home is usually about 18 minutes, (+/- 3 depending on the speed and direction of the wind, and how sore my legs are).

Today I left school at 4:30 and arrived home at 6:15.

Sometime between arriving at 7:30 and leaving nine hours later my front tire went flat.  I called my housemates, but everyone with a car didn't answer, and as I tried to call Jon, my phone died.  So I'm stuck in inner city Detroit, without a phone, and without transportation other than my own feet.  I also have with me my most valuable earthly possession (the bike).

The school I work at is just north of Michigan Ave, which is one of the major roads in Detroit.  I knew from past experience that regular city buses don't have bike racks, but that "Smart" buses do, and I was pretty sure that a smart bus would have the route on Michigan.  I walked south, and to my delight a bus passed me (going toward the suburbs) with a bike on the front.  I crossed the street and arrived at the next bus stop just as a bus pulled up.  I walked to the front and started to pull down the bike rack, when the driver yelled at me.
"Hey, I can't pick you up."
"What?"
"We can't take bikes until after six o'clock. That's the Detroit city rule."
"Sir, I have a flat tire, can you please let me on the bus?"

The doors closed, and he drove away.

I walked home.

I stopped at a church that I passed cause I saw someone inside it, thinking church-folk might be willing to give me a ride.  But no one answered the bell.

This was my route:


View Larger Map


Google says it takes 1:32 minutes to walk that far.  Which is probably what it would have taken me if I hadn't stopped.

neighbors

It's a beautiful day in Detroit.  After school I was out on my porch, and noticed my neighbor outside picking up some garbage.  She's doing some house cleaning.  But she has a little trouble getting around at over 80 years old.  So I was able to help her throw away some trash, and we're going to haul the garbage cans out to the curb on garbage day.  Being a good neighbor.  She has lived in the house next to us for 70 years.  Amazing.  I'm really looking forward to learning more of the history of the neighborhood from her.

A few days ago Mike and Jon came home at around 9:30pm and the met one of our other neighbors, a man about our age or a little older.  He sold them a rap CD for $5.  Turns out he's a Christian rap artist.  Or at least he wants to be.

I went to New St. Peters again on Sunday, and it was very nice again.  There is one family in particular that lives just a block away that is very interested in getting to know us, which is exciting.

We have a stove.  But it's still not hooked up.  Now we're just missing one small connector.  But apparently Home Depot didn't have the right size?  Lame.  But when we do have a stove (and our cabinet gets hung so we can actually set up our whole kitchen) we're finally going to be able to have people in for an open house or something of the sort.  I'm really excited about the possibilities!

Here are a few photos of some of the kids that are part of Club 7:37 with the CDC.  I'm co-leading a small group with the 8th grade boys.

travels

I don't do much chronological event posting, but I think this deserves it:

Tuesday night I took Belinda on a date - an indoor (candle light) picnic at our church.  Thanks to everyone who help make it an evening we'll never forget.  Stories available upon request.

Following goodbye, Slippey helped me quickly drop things at my parents apartment (sorry for a mess, mom & dad!) and then we sped to Buffalo.  I literally hailed the bus as the driver was about to pull out.  He let me on, and off we went.

Layover in Cleveland was uneventful.  I didn't sleep much.  I talked to a few people on the phone, and even when I wasn't talking, my heart was too full for sleep.

I was very tired by the time my bus left Cleveland at 3:30am.  I slept, and woke up as our bus pulled back into the Cleveland station an hour later.  bus=broken.  New bus.

So I was scheduled to get into Detroit at 7:15am, and be at school to sub at 7:30.  After the mishap with the broken bus, I arrived just before 8:30.  My housemates had locked my bike up near the bus station, so I picked it up and rode through light drizzle directly to school. 

Fortunately the teacher that I've been subbing for was in, so it wasn't a big deal that I was late.  We're going to be team teaching until Nov. 6, when he'll be out again for knee surgery.  And then I'll have the class until the end of the calendar year.

I was supposed to go to tutoring immediately after school. But I felt like I was about to pass out on my feet, so I went home, realized I had a pretty severe headache, and passed out in my hammock.  I slept 4-8, got up for some dinner with the guys, and am about to sleep again.