This past weekend, the Ember Cast team participated in Serve the City Baltimore's (STC) one day service event (unfortunately, the project we served with is not listed on the link because it was organized very last minute). Patrick Donohue, executive director of STC, intentionally put the project together for our team to expose us to relational Christian community development. He connected us with Don Campbell, pastor at Moravia Assembly of God. Don, as he prefers to be called, has lived in Baltimore for almost his entire life, first as a pastor's kid, then as a pastor. God has used him to build up an amazing network in the community of Darley Park.
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| View Darley Park in a larger map with more descriptions |
Darley Park does not look too harmless from this top view. The community is well organized, in a central location, and used to be a nice place to live. After years of spiritual darkness, the community is extremely dangerous to live in and has one of the highest incidences of murder. One of the indigenous leaders and our local contact, Ms. Dorothy, has lived there her whole life. She told us of a time when her community was safe, a time long forgotten by the aesthetics of the community. Below is a Google street view of Normal Ave:
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| Click here to take a virtual walk down Normal Ave |
The picture shows grates on windows, boarded up homes, and people sitting on porches in the middle of the day. These are signs of a crime-filled, poor community. The grates are a response from homeowners with disposable income who want to deter theft and vandalism. Boarded up homes are an affect of foreclosures and tenants who chose not to or were unable to upkeep the home. People on porches during normal working hours generally show an area of welfare and unemployment. But Ms. Dorothy said it didn't always used to be like this...
Ms. Dorothy is probably 70 years old (I didn't have the guts to ask). She explained how as a child, she felt safe in Darley Park, often playing outside and not worrying about what "might" happen. As she grew up, the community did too. A group called the "Uptown Boys" moved in at the top of the neighborhood and brought their drug distribution ring with them. The community quickly became engulfed in buying and selling crack-cocaine, ultimately reducing the living standard of the area. Welfare, waste, and crime followed suit and the community evolved into the Darley Park we see today.
Amazingly, this change didn't scare Ms. Dorothy or five of her friends away. Although her children have all grown up and moved out, she still lives in Darley Park, praying, searching, and crying out for an opportunity to transform her community back to its original state. Ms. Dorothy and her friends are Don's primary point of contacts in the community, his people of peace (although they are already Christian, the idea still fits). Ms. Dorothy and Don are fighting the darkness in Darley Park with devotion to prayer, walking around the community praying that God will again have a stronghold there.
In an effort to also fight the for the physical redemption of the community, Ms. Dorothy asked us (about 15 volunteers from Ember and the Salisbury Cru) to help her clean the ally-way that runs adjacent to the main road. After merely 3 hours we had filled over 40 trash bags with waste. Below is a series of pictures I snagged from Tony's blog post.
Amazingly, this change didn't scare Ms. Dorothy or five of her friends away. Although her children have all grown up and moved out, she still lives in Darley Park, praying, searching, and crying out for an opportunity to transform her community back to its original state. Ms. Dorothy and her friends are Don's primary point of contacts in the community, his people of peace (although they are already Christian, the idea still fits). Ms. Dorothy and Don are fighting the darkness in Darley Park with devotion to prayer, walking around the community praying that God will again have a stronghold there.
In an effort to also fight the for the physical redemption of the community, Ms. Dorothy asked us (about 15 volunteers from Ember and the Salisbury Cru) to help her clean the ally-way that runs adjacent to the main road. After merely 3 hours we had filled over 40 trash bags with waste. Below is a series of pictures I snagged from Tony's blog post.
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| Tony's youngest (11) is second in from the left |
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| Ms. Dorothy is on the left |
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| Our team! Don is in the blue, farthest from the camera |
This is just one account of community development in Baltimore. As my involvement with Ember and STC continues, I will be exposed to more and more opportunities for investment. Already we are pursuing a more intentional relationship with Don to encourage even more proactive programs in Darley Park. At the same time, Ember is looking beyond Baltimore and the United States and is sending myself and several college students to invest in some of the programs created by STC Stellenbosch in South Africa. Keep a look out for an official document on that!
Here's to community development in Baltimore and beyond.
Somehow I managed to miss posting anything the entire fall semester despite many experiences and learnings worth posting about. Even now, I am having a difficult time deciding what to write about.
My heart and passion are still geared towards the diverse country of South Africa. Many of you already know the plan of my return there this summer. For those that do not, stay tuned for a formal update of what I/we will be doing there. I encourage you to scroll through some of my old posts from my time there, check out "God Uses Ghost" for a great post on how God worked through the team I served with and look through "White Boy Just Scored?!" for a quick idea of South African culture. I came across this picture the other day and got a flood of memories from that trip:
As for now, here is an analysis of challenges South Africa is facing and a list of suggestions that I came up with after a semester of learning about international development in one of my major courses.
South Africa Country Profile
My heart and passion are still geared towards the diverse country of South Africa. Many of you already know the plan of my return there this summer. For those that do not, stay tuned for a formal update of what I/we will be doing there. I encourage you to scroll through some of my old posts from my time there, check out "God Uses Ghost" for a great post on how God worked through the team I served with and look through "White Boy Just Scored?!" for a quick idea of South African culture. I came across this picture the other day and got a flood of memories from that trip:
As for now, here is an analysis of challenges South Africa is facing and a list of suggestions that I came up with after a semester of learning about international development in one of my major courses.
South Africa Country Profile
As everyone says, "Saying goodbye is never easy."
I had to say farewell to a close friend today as we met for the last time before he leaves for the Middle East. He has been mentoring me over the years, challenging me in my faith and encouraging me in many ways. Today was certainly a bittersweet time as we reminisced on all of our conversations over the years and then talked about our futures as they physically grow apart. We both know that although he will be living across the ocean and getting together for breakfast at Panera will be exponentially more difficult, we will be together in Christ as we labor for Him. He is moving his family overseas in a direct response to the Bible verse above: "Therefore, GO and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you and surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:19-20).
I want to take a brief moment here to share with you some of the things my mentor and I discussed. We talked about the Christian Wheel, a diagram representation of how to live an obedient Christian life, centered on Jesus Christ.
via: http://bible.org/seriespage/wheel-general-presentation-session-14
This diagram is such an excellent reminder of how to focus our lives because in order for a wheel to roll smoothly and effectively, all of the spokes must be an equal size. Likewise, in our lives as Christians, we must spend equal amounts of time in the Bible, in prayer with God, in fellowship with other Christians, and in conversation and relationship with non-believers.
This leads in to another one of our major conversations: memorizing scripture. We took a lot of our time together to talk about and unfold the benefits of memorizing scripture. Two major reasons we focused on were: 1) we are commanded to do so in Joshua 1:8 and 2) we are promised love through our obedience in John 14:21. In this knowledge, he encouraged me to walk through the Topical Memory System, which I am still in the process of doing.
He left me with a book that a mentor of his passed one to him. Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper challenges Christians across the globe to live intentionally and passionately for God. I am excited to take the time to read this book, especially since it has challenged two men to move from their comfortable lives in America to share the story of Jesus to the unreached. My mentor leaves for the Middle East soon, his mentor is currently sharing the gospel in Indonesia.
Let me know if you would like more information or resources on any of these things, and join me in praying for my mentor. I'm sorry for not giving a name or destination for him, but seeing as he is moving to a muslim nation, security of his name and intentions for going are vital.