well, it changed my life and my eyebrow.

It's over.
Our internship ended yesterday. I have mixed feelings. I'm excited to go home and apply what I've learned here to my actual life. I'm sad to leave such a great movement behind. MissionWaco is absolutely incredible in how it serves the poor and marginalized holistically. I'm so excited to see its future.

Sorry, my posts have been very sporadic and I've left you out of most of the events. It's mainly that the effort to drive out to a coffee shop or restaurant (usually meaning something had to be purchased for internet use) and endeavor to handle the plethora of internet needs just proved too much. I pushed it off until I could avoid it no longer.

So to make it up (and not bore you with all the details). Let's read a short list of things I've done since my last post.

1) Toured David Koresh's Branch Davidian Compound. (i.e. this was the cult from Waco and the second-most popular response to where I was spending my Summer - next to the heat) Here's a website explaining it all: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branch_Davidian_Massacre
It was basically a big deal....when we were 5. This is a long story, but the skinny is: I have this homeless friend who moved to Waco to investigate the conspiracy from Philadelphia. He moved onto the compound and was baptized into the church. Then he left after the new "prophet" got too weird. He offered to take some of us interns out there and give us a tour and tell us the run-down of what happened there. It was so cool. I love stuff like that.

2) Supervised the longest StreetCamps ever. Seriously. This camp called 'StudentLife' (which is like MFuge) was at Baylor and their day-service project involved MW's Street Camp. Instead of a two-hour thing, it was from 11-3. It was soooo long. But the youth groups seemed to enjoy it and I got a lot of reading done. Haha.

3) Read two more books: Under the Overpass by Mike Yankowski (which is about a college student and his buddy who decided to make themselves homeless and travel across the US through its major cities) and Theirs is the Kingdom by Robert Upton (which talked about his initial experience in Urban Atlanta and his organization FCS that is a community development organization like MW)

4) Helped more with Baylor Line Camp which this week was taking the students to nursing homes and homes for those with disabilities. This one was a little more difficult for the students to jump right in on. But understandably so. I can't imagine having to do that during freshman orientation...think it would've broke me. Haha.

5) The interns put on a party last night called 'Kathypalooza' for our director Kathy Wise who has been our shepherd in this internship. We made this giant dining experience in our living room with candlelight and good music, spaghetti, games, and fun. It was a great time.

6) Taught a lesson for the chapel at the homeless shelter. It was pretty heavy. I just talked to them about how I felt the church had neglected their responsibilities for caring and loving them. During one friday meeting, someone asked us the question 'Is the poor the church's responsibility or the governments?" And most people answered "Both". That stuck with me and I told the people at the chapel that if the church did what Jesus said, the government wouldn't have to be involved. I appologized for all the offenses I felt the church had commited against them. Here are a few from my notes:
"I'm sorry for the way the Church...
...neglects you.
...for any time we made you ashamed.
...for when we didn't feed you.
...for when we gave you no shelter.
...for when we told you to 'get a job'.
...for when we made you feel worthless.
...for when we ignored you.
...for when we oppressed you.
...for when we laughed at you.
...for when we made you a statistic rather than a human being.
...for making you a political issue.
...for lying to you."
I have read a lot of books, witnessed a lot of things. The Church needs to wake up.
"How can you worship a homeless man on Sunday and ignore one on Monday?"
Birds have roosts and foxes have dens but the son of man has nowhere to lay down his head. Matthew 8:20
It was great experience for me to just talk with them. I'll never forget it.

7) Then a few days later, another intern had the chapel service (she came to mine and used it to jump off on her's and invited me to come along). She read the Scripture where Jesus washed His disciples feet and commands us to do the same.
¹²So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? ¹³"You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. ¹⁴"If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet." (John 13:12-14)
Then with tubs of warm water with lavendar bath salts, she and other interns washed the feet of those in the homeless shelter. And in turn, they (their idea) washed the interns feet. It was beautiful and more like the "Church" than I have ever seen.

So now, we're done with our internship responsiblities. Everybody's doing little fun things today for our last times in Waco. We all go to Church Under the Bridge tomorrow for the last time together and then Monday night is the intern-appreciation dinner. Then Tuesday, Kaitlyn and I will hit the road...back to Carolina...oh how I've missed you.

Probably won't write anymore about my experiences here in Texas. This has truly been a journey for me. Thanks for reading along and I hope that God can reveal as much to you in the future. As always...
Thanks for reading, Peace to you.

O what a day.

I am so incredibly tired, but as I sit here drinking a free sweet tea from McAlister's in Waco, I feel the need to update you. I know that my posts are fewer and far between now in the end of this internship. The only excuse I can give is that I am trying to soak up all I can. There is a lot to mention so I will be brief (and yet profound...i'm just that good).

I visited an Eastern Orthodox church this past Sunday as a part of my exposure to different cultures and religions. It was very very interesting. It made me want to travel to the East, but not worship there. It was still staunchly conservative and exclusive. In spite of all that, it was beautiful and ornate. The ornate-ness was overwhelming. I just kept thinking...how many people could they feed by selling that gold cross? The incense was intoxicating (not really) but it made me feel relaxed. We stood and sat for about an our doing the traditional liturgy which is a lot of prayers read from a book and we would say some in english and then repeat it in Greek (i opted out of that one). So it was educationally wonderful.

I was almost stabbed at a Baylor Line Camp (see previous posts for explanation of the camp) by a mentally retarded 13 year old girl who was very violent and verbally abusive. It was so disheartening to see a girl who with adequate resources to behavioral therapy and medication, she could function and be safe. However, she was a horribly difficult kid who tried to steal everything, beat several people up and at one point went back to her apartment to retrieve some long scissors. She held them like a knife the whole time, and me (acting as MW security) just thought, well if she stabs me, then I'm okay with being done. But I called the head director of the Camp and he did a great job 'shadowing' her the whole time in spite of her yelling 'rape', calling him every name in the book, and slapping him once and trying many more times. At the end, he said how unfortunate that it is that because of her poverty, she will remain this way until she seriously hurts someone and is in prison. All because of poverty.

I was also in a car accident today (my first substantial one ever). In the ghetto of our neighborhood where we live, a car ran a stop sign at an intersection at the same time i chose to drive through it. I slammed on brakes and still succeeded in t-boning their car. It is really surreal how little damage there was to my foreign little honda and the chevy cavalier I hit was in bad shape. I took an immediate picture after it happened just going through the mental list of things to do after an accident. So once calling the police frantically, I tried to take the following lame picture of the accident. If you look at the far right side, you can kind of see the big dent in the side of the cavalier. Their passenger side window shattered and cut the two people in their car up. Flattened their back tire. I'll just say they are in much worse shape than I was. I hit my knees pretty hard on the dash and I was by myself when it happened so I was freaking because of that. I hit this car where the driver looks like a Hell's Angel and the passenger looks like a thug (what do you expect in Waco) and THEY ran the stop sign in the FIRST thing. Geeeez. So the police came and I called a fellow intern to come stand with me and I was the cause of half the neighborhood coming out and standing.

(That's the car on the right that I hit and the poor silver honda on the left)

Now my car looks like it has a lazy eye with the head light shoved up in there on the right. Check the fender too, it covers like half the grill now.
(Those scrapes and completely through. You can see on the other side)

Here are some, an intern Jill took with her real camera. (PS I hit the BIG guy standing there. Hell's angels I tell ya)


I am so blessed to have nothing but some sore knees.

I finished 'The Irresistible Revolution' and it was good every page until the end. Read it, it should change your life.

Here are some pictures I took from Baylor Line Camp today:

(This one's my FAVORITE)

All in all, things are great. Time is winding down. We have intern meetings all day tomorrow. And I'm teaching at the evening chapel service at the homeless shelter tomorrow.

Here's this for fun:





Thanks for reading. Peace to you.

one step closer to being a pirate.

Oh yeah. I forgot...





Yep. i love it.

Kingdom come.

Hello from Wacko.

So, since we last met some exciting things have happened. It is amazing how even though my life might be in pieces elsewhere, the call to be cognizant and active in this mission and need in society is still so compelling. I just keep asking myself ‘what is happening in America today?’ I am so discouraged to the point of hopelessness when I see the facts and repercussions of our actions and ignorances. I have spent the last few days trying to get motivated to keep up with the pace of life here. Its difficult and I really just want to hang out all the time. But the time is urgent and its just like me, a typical American, to be selfish and apathetic. However, the last few days have been great.

Baylor University, that is located in Waco, is the largest Baptist University in the country. I mean it’s huge and it’s incredibly expensive. Something like a population of tens of thousands of people and a tuition close to $40,000. They call it the “Baylor Bubble” because with so many “Christians” in the 11^th poorest city in the country, that relationship doesn’t really make sense. They are known as the “Baylors” to the local project kids and they are presumed to be white and rich; just as much as we expect the project kids to be dumb and dangerous. Anyways, MissionWaco and Baylor have paired up for an activity that their incoming freshman take part it. It’s basically a Street-Camp (going in to the projects, to play with kids, give them a snack, etc) in the morning which the new Baylor freshmen do. So every Wednesday and Thursday for the rest of July, we will have 200 new freshmen each day to take to a different project site in the city. Me and Emily (the work group interns) are the “security” (no joke) at each site to make sure everything goes smoothly and any needs are met. It has been incredible. The freshmen are true freshmen through and through. They’ve never seen anything like these kids…or the drunk men carousing around the picnic tables at the parks, or the beggars asking for rides, money, anything, or the poor women walking the streets with no shoes and ill-fitting, dirty clothes. To see it through fresh eyes has renewed my passion for what I’m doing here. One girl approached me and was astonished that MissionWaco does StreetCamps all the time. She was eager to get involved when she finally got to Baylor in the fall. It’s been so great and I’ve really been enjoying facilitating and being a part of these freshmen’s experiences.

So other than that, I’ve been doing a lot of administrative tasks around the offices which basically means organizing and running errands for the staff. I was invited by some staff members to go see Harry Potter and LOVED it, especially getting to hang out with non-interns for once.

This past Friday we had a “Friday Forum” with this guy from the Waco CDC (Community Development Corporation). It’s an organization that’s affiliated with CCDA (Christian Community Development Association). They work in the poor communities with substantial crime problems and terrible appearance and revive the community. They have really been concentrated in the neighborhoods around our office (15^th street). They’ve built 30 new homes and made 100 new homeowners. They offer financial counseling to families and to date, they’ve counseled more than 900 families. Remarkably, Waco CDC has had no foreclosures on their homes due to the economy. They attribute that to the counseling and making sure their residents can actually afford the mortgage. They work with the schools to use those as cornerstones of community improvement. And the two schools in the neighborhoods have improved exponentially. They also work in improving the conditions of the government housing complexes. It was really neat to meet in a small setting and just pick their brain about what they believe community development means and needs. Here are pretty impressive pictures of their work:

BEFORE

AFTER

Other than that, my actions have been predictable and not really spontaneous. On the other side of things, my philosophy in life is changing drastically. You can not spend time in this environment for long without it changing your life. I’m having to read my last book for the Summer and we get to pick our own. I’ve chosen “The “Irresistible Revolution” by Shane Claiborne.

I highly recommend it, the most of any of the other books I've read and I'm not even finished. Go out, buy it.

Shane Claiborne’s a good friend of Jimmy Dorrell (the Director of MW) and came to speak at the Church Under the Bridge with David Crowder leading worship last fall (HATE I missed that!). Also, the proceeds of the book all go to certain organizations of "ordinary radicals" that are working to change what the church means and does. Church Under the Bridge is one of those recipients.

Anyways, I’m only 70 pages into it and can’t stop the passion that is igniting in me to be a part of this revolution in America. Seriously, WHAT IS HAPPENING IN AMERICA TODAY? I have now committed to not ignoring the shortcomings and failures of the church today. But as Claiborne says I need to “stop complaining about the church I see, and set my heart on becoming the church I dream of”. I mean can’t you feel it? Can’t you feel how the American church doesn’t seem to GET it anymore? Can you even compare the current state of the “church” with the house church in Acts where “there were no needy persons among them”? On any given night, there are 700,000 to 2 million people homeless on the streets of America. 20-25% of these homeless are mentally ill and 40% are veterans of the US military machine. My home church spends 100,000 dollars on an awning to shield its members from the rain for 30 seconds when 700,000 are sleeping in it. Wake up, because I surely am. I’m tired of just feeling moved. I want to move. I will move.

“Don’t the Bible say we must love everybody?”

“O, the Bible! To be sure, it says a great many things; but, then, nobody ever thinks of doing them.”

Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncles Tom’s Cabin.

Thanks for reading. Peace to you.

The Return

So here I am back at Common Grounds after an almost 4 week separation. There are no words that can adequately express everything about the time in between. Just know, that I am a wreck on many levels. I have lost the only figment of real family I had left. And God and I are working some things out.

Now I'm back in Texas, sharing in the love and fellowship of these amazing interns and staff. Still diving deep into the education I want to get in community, poverty, and the call of Christ. I haven't done anything too incredible since I got back. I worked at the World Cup Cafe, waiting tables and such on Saturday for the first time and then served at the Poverty Simulation that night at the World Hunger Banquet. It has not been that hard getting back into the swing of things. It's been really slow too since I got back and that's what MW has been expecting. Once July 4th passed, it would be a slow decline to the end. We haven't had a work group since I got here but I have loved sharing so much time with the interns. Living together has been incredible. A great source of support and 'family-feel' when I've really needed to be around people a lot.

I did get the visit a Mennonite church on Sunday called Hope Fellowship. It was very interesting. Started at 9 with breakfast. The church built its structure on the principles of the house church in Acts. They meet in an old old green house. After breakfast, they have like an hour of worship music that is incredible and yet very simple, like half in Spanish. Then a little fellowship/coffee break and a Bible lesson. However, this Sunday one girl (probably my age) spoke on her experience living in a modern Mennonite community in Chicago. These aren't the bonnet-wearing, long dress wearing people. Very modern, just liberal-minded and earthy. Lots of chacos and hairy legs around.


All in all, I'm so glad to be back. I will cry when its over and hope to milk it for all its worth in the last days.

revelation

I'm back. Hope to write a more personal entry later, but for now: Here's a few excerpts from the book UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity...And Why it Matters. I got back on Tuesday and read this book by the deadline today, so its pretty much all I've done during my free time.

The book is based on a three-year long study that the Barna Group did on the image problem Christianity has with young adult-America (basically our generation). They asked people to name the first things that come to mind when thinking of Christianity and each of the top 6 answers is a chapter in this book (hypocritical, 'get saved!', antihomosexual, sheltered, too political, and judgmental).

In the Hypocritical chapter:
"Our passion for Jesus should result in God-honoring, moral lifestyles, not the other way around."


In the 'Get Saved!' chapter:
"Myth: The best evangelism efforts are those that reach the most people at once.
Fact: The most effective efforts to share faith are interpersonal and relationship based. When we asked born-again Busters (name of our generation) to identify the activity, ministry event, or person most directly responsible for their decision to accept Jesus Christ, 71 percent listed an individual -- typically their parent, friend, another relative, or a teacher. A majority of those decisions were described as conversations and prayer, while about one-third were instances in which their friend or family member took them to a church service or an evangelistic event. In an era of mass media, it is easy to believe that the more eyeballs, the more impact. But radio, television, and tracts accounted for a combined total of less than one-half of 1 percent of the Busters who are born again."

"One of the things I do when I meet people is ask them, 'What is Christianity?' Undoubtedly half will respond, 'A relationship with Jesus.'
That is wrong. The gospel cannot be merely a private transaction. God didn't break through history, through time and space, to come as a babe, be incarnated, and suffer on the cross just so you can come to him and say, 'Oh, I accept Jesus and now I can live happily ever after.' That's not why he came....Jesus came as a radical to turn the world upside down. When we believe it is just about Jesus and yourself, we miss the point."

In the Antihomosexual chapter:
"'Nothing that we despise in the other man is entirely absent from ourselves. We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or don't do, and more in the light of what they suffer.' - Dietrich Bonhoeffer"

"I am not asked to impersonate the Holy Spirit but to live a life that gives off God's fluorescence."

In the Sheltered chapter:
"We were made to be lovers, bold in broken places, pouring ourselves out again and again until we're called home."

In the Judgmental chapter:
"When Donald Trump becomes the poster boy for second chances and the church is viewed as a place of judgment...we have a serious problem."

Then finally the last chapter was on the hope for new perceptions in the future:

"I have faith that in the future we will make better decisions on what issues we think are important. When we stand up for something and draw a line in the sand we will know that it is clearly for the cause of Christ and not for some political, religious, or self-serving agenda. We will pick the hills we die on more wisely and choose to go to battle a little less often. And when we stand up for something, we will take our two favorite companions: grace and love. They will stand on the left and right of us. And we would never be so foolish or unwise as to ever journey without them."

Sweat

I'm on a little break in the office. Enjoying some pandora music, facebook, and of course blogging for a little while. I've been working with a youth group here from an episcopal church from something like "Waxahachee" Texas. I really have no clue...I just pretend I understand what they say. There's a park in the neighborhood with a sand volleyball court that was completely infested by weeds. It was like a jungle.

We cleaned it out today :]

Then water-sealed some of the wood around the park. Replaced some wood that keeps the sand in around the volleyball court. I hammered "ree-bar"(?) that was like the size of my femur into the ground. It was hard work, but I learned something new. Next step, lawn care.

Let's do another fun list of things on my mind:

1) Alls I gotta say is I'm getting an excellent tan.....on the back of my neck. Blisters and all. Maybe i'll fashion myself a swag-rag.

2) Aaron, a fellow intern, is currently driving me insane by slowly moving the door to this office back and forth on purpose as it squeaks. It sounds like a monkey dying. I'm going to punch him in the neck.

3) Got a Waco City library card yesterday and it's easier to get into college than get a library card in Waco. Checked out the Poisonwood Bible.

4) We're going to go see 'Seventeen Again' at the 50-cent theater tonight and then get $1 ice cream at Basken Robbins. [Notice, creepy cat ice cream picture. i have no idea why its in here. Just the fact that someone probably finds it cute.] YAY cheap intern outtings. Is it sad that i'm more excited to see chandler in the movie than zac shmefron?

5) I'm having such a good time.

6) I miss everyone back home.

7) Chiggers - have afflicted almost half of the interns...I'm an exception so far. First, swine flu, west nile, then I'll get CHIGGERS.

8) Okay, I gotta go to Street Camp now.

Love you all!

Thanks for reading, peace to you.

Some glad morning.

Welcome to the Tara post-Poverty Simulation.

(not my picture)

It changed my life. I spent 44 hours with only the clothes on my back and a sleeping bag. No shelter, no money, not knowing where my next meal was coming from. I can't even adequately describe to you everything about the feelings or experiences. Although, the massive sunburn I have from being out in the Texas heat could attest to something. (Have I thanked you guys for my chacos enough yet? because really they were such a BLESSING to me this weekend) I'm not supposed to disclose details and I won't but I did things I would never imagine having to do from begging for money to digging through trash. You get the picture.
My whole mindset toward the homeless completely changed when we had the chance to hang out with them on equal ground and actually ask advice on how to live on the streets. It was so crazy running into guys that we serve breakfast to and having to ask for help in finding water or food. It gave asking 'how their day was' a whole new meaning.
During one of our day, we had to put on a Street Camp in the projects, including getting there by foot. And it was basically the same thing, but something happened to me that I will never forget. I had a five year old tell me 'F you' and he meant it because I wouldn't let him steal another kids skooter. I could NOT believe it. I can't believe what I'm seeing/hearing sometimes. Thank God for opening my eyes.
It was so startling how harsh it feels to have all your resources taken away. And to walk with every half-block there being a church and realizing the immense poverty in Waco and the world. Waco has double the amount of poverty as an average city. On average, city's have 12% poverty, while Waco has 27%...almost 1 in 3. And when you get outside of this American bubble and look at the great need in the world, it is NO wonder Americans are looked at as immoral, arrogant snobs.
Sorry to be pessimistic. The experience was educational to say the least and definitely moving.

I was so ready for it to be over because of all the stress from hunger, heat, and lack of sleep. I can not tell you how good my shower felt and then my bed last night. Shoot...it was heaven. And thank God for A/C.

So thankfully, Jamie (our work group director) gave us this morning off to recooperate and I just went into the office and piddled around. It was an easy day and especially easy to enter right back into the middle class world. Went to Target and now i'm at my usual table at Common Grounds. I'm so ready to get back into it though. There's a new motivation now to mobilize the youth groups that visit and to connect with the poor here. My perspective has definitely changed.

I gotta run, my ride is leaving. More to come soon. Love you all (Thanks for all the cards and letters!!)

Thanks for reading. Peace to you.

Where is the hope in this, crowd of indifference. Where is the truth if its not in my mouth.

This is incredible. By this, I mean my summer. I can't believe what I have the opportunity to do.

I have spent the last three days diving headfirst into Waco. I spent my Tuesday with the guys in my work group in the morning again and then in the afternoon I went to StreetCamp for the first time. Street Camp is a weekday afternoon thing that MW puts on in the playgrounds of the projects across the city. The workgroups lead a VBS-style lesson/craft/snack time and just play with the kids for a few hours. The group had the craft of making masks out of paper plates just for fun, and a seven year old wrote "ass" "ho" "b*tch" on his and thought nothing of it. The slides and playground equipment is covered in bad language and when the kids got side-walk chalk, some chose to write the f-word all over the ground. It is insane to realize that they hear that word more than anything from movies and adults. I spent a little time talking with MacKenzie who coordinates the childrens programs and she was telling me that this is there culture, plain and simple. They don't think the words are unacceptable and don't understand words I would commonly use. It is a completely different world with different morals and customs. I LOVE that I am learning this. I don't want to be ignorant OR disrespectful of someone else's culture. I had an amazing time.
I went on to Small group and Scripture reading as usual for Tuesdays. These week's Scripture readings were all from Psalms. And I don't have my sheet with me but the summary of the few verses were that God hears the cries of the poor and raises them up from their afflictions. I didn't feel comfortable and quite honestly felt pretty doubtful after reading them. I just don't understand the depths to the verses. Because there are plenty of crying poor, dying from their afflictions. I know its our role as the church to help in the edifying and reviving of the poor. And since for the most part we're not doing that great of a job, I know we are outside of the will of God. I dont know...I'm just working these thoughts out. I don't really like the church of today and I don't mean to be super negative and stereotypical anti-"church". I just think we are so selfish. This guy in small group called it "consumer christianity" where we go to church to "get" something out of it. Was it ever supposed to be that way?
Today, I had my last day with a few fellas from work group. It is SO interesting to be a part of the dynamics of a middle-class white youth/college group and then go to teach at the GED class among those that dont fit into that group, whether they're black/hispanic/poor/or whatever. It is a whole different mindset. I spent this morning trying to politely motivate three white middleclass guys ranging from 16-24 to mow/paint one of MW's transitional homes for men with addictions or transitioning out of homelessness. It is SO hard to not get an attitude when they are so openly resistant to just serve three days. Me and Emily, the other intern, that works with me on work groups just had to vent to each other our frustrations about the crazy youth groups and even more questionable youth leadership. Father, give me patience.
Went to the GED class for the first time and it EXHAUSTED me. But it was so good I could cry. There were probably around 10 people there this time. And I spent a lot of my time with a girl named Indya who by my guess was around 20. We worked on long division. Ummm, first of all, long division is hard to teach. I never want to be an elementary school teacher. Explaining basic math was so stinking frustrating. But after working with Indya for 2 hours and she left, the teacher told me that that was the longest Indya had ever stayed. That Indya told her that her mom called her 'stupid' her entire life and she doesn't even want to get her GED. She's completely unmotivated but only doing it because her brother is pushing her to. I could definitely tell in the beginning that she was SUPER shy to the point of unhealthiness. And from my time with her, I'm pretty sure she can't see well. So we worked on math and she opened up to me and started to grasp the ideas. I wanted to cry. I loved it. It's one of those times when you feel totally gratified.
And now I'm here at Common Grounds (of course), unloading all this.

Honestly, I don't know how I can communicate all the things I'm facing spiritually and mentally. I don't understand the institution of the church for the most part anymore. And most of the time, I feel overwhelmed by the poverty around me whether its poverty of resources, wealth, compassion or spirit. And I am so below the radar on everything, I'm in a state of confusion...all the time. I know all of poverty is not my burden, but it's daunting and where's my role in it all? My heart hasn't been broken completely for the poor yet, but it's twisting and churning quite uncomfortably.

We have our Poverty Simulation this weekend as interns and we're going along with some others from all over. [So no posts this weekend. Take a break. I'll be force to take one.] Still, top secret. Got no clue what's going to happen and I'm so stinking tired that I have got to get some rest if I'm going to get anything out of it rather than extreme crankiness and dirt.

Interesting Wacko-news:
1. People magazine is coming to Church under the Bridge this Sunday to take pictures. Why the heck is People mag coming? You've got me. It doesn't seem like their thing, but this is our 'poverty simulation' weekend and we'll be going to church on Sunday in whatever state we have gotten ourselves into since Friday. So...maybe I can convince someone I'm homeless, since I will have been for the weekend.

2. I found the Relevant article on CuB
Here goes:
http://www.relevantmag.com/features-reviews/reject-apathy/16569-bridges-and-trolls-the-church-under-the-bridge


Man, I'm tired. Sorry.
Thanks for reading, peace to you.

98 degrees

my life is 98 degrees - not the band...the weather.

It is the hottest summer of my LIFE. Not much has been happening except for a lot of sweating. I opened a bank account at Bank of America to concede to Texas' lack of the bank I've used since I was sixteen. It felt like betrayal. I spent this past weekend just hanging out, getting ready for this week. Had a real short work group experience on Saturday with a group of frilly girls from Tulsa that I supervised cleaning the World Cup Cafe. It was uuuuhhh... "great". Haha I can't be positive all the time. Last night, we went to Micah's house (one of the grad school interns) and had dinner and he introduced us to Coco's ice cream afterwards. Yum sketchy ice cream place.

Went to Church Under the Bridge (look through that website, some of the pictures are incredible) on Sunday for the first time and it was so neat. Jimmy Dorrell (the director of MW) pastors the church but he wasn't there this sunday. Nonetheless, it was cool. They serve breakfast before the service and there are ton of people there from the homeless to well-to-do families. Okay, and they call people that go to CUB...trolls. How funny is that? Someone told me that RelevantMag did an article on the church in like April/May. I wish I had a way to read it. [Molly, do you have it?? haha]
Here are some pictures that Susan Mullally took of CUB:















Today, we started our real summer! yeeeeah! I spent the morning with three guys from The Village Church in Dallas. They are a part of a visiting work group. We were on snack duty, so basically that meant I took them to walmart while answering questions about waco and showing them things i thought were cool, we made snack, and then delivered it to the other sites. After that they mowed at the intern house and did some much needed clean-up, while i was inside "supervising". Haha. At lunch with the groups, I had a really cool conversation with the people at my table about how my views of poverty, community and church responsibility has changed. These adults really listened to what I had to say. It felt good.

Then I headed over to the office to do some assistant work and learn those ropes in the afternoon. I ended up sorting through the new summer t-shirts. They look like this:After that I felt disgusting from sweating all stinking day. I'm going to take a picture of my chacos soon and show you their current state, you'd never think i got them two months ago. Thanks to you guys for the birthday gift. They are a godsend this summer.

Finished reading our next book a few days ago. I liked it so much more than the first. By the way, I know I said I'd post my book reflection from the first but I don't like what I wrote and it wouldn't benefit anyone to read it haha. Maybe next time. Our second book is: In the Name of Jesus by Henri J.M. Nouwen. This book has less to do with homelessness, poverty, or community, but focuses on the future of Christian leadership. Nouwen who writes it, is a priest that serves and lives in a community for the mentally handicapped in Canada. His book is about how the secularization of Christianity has really changed what is now called for in Christian leaders. He says that the future Christian leaders are going to have be completely irrelevant by today's standards It is really interesting to read and super short. I recommend it.

So this coffee shop has a huge back patio area where they have live music and apparently movies. Tonight's is the Goonies. So while I'm enjoying an iced coffee and free wifi outside on this aesthetically pleasing patio, I can listen and watch a classic film on a giant screen. I'm trying to convince myself that this place isn't cooler than Broad River, but I'm having a hard time. The only argument I still have is that BRCC is in NC.

Things I miss this week from home (other than people): Rain. It hasn't rained since I got here. AT ALL. I hope the next time it does...if ever... i'll be able to go outside and get soaked. I'll take pictures.

Home Accents. The whole hick routine is getting old. Today, I was told by a mother in the Work Group that my accent was so "thick".....

My books. I should've brought more. I have nothing else to do during down time. I've read four books since I got here. I know next week I'm going to have to get a library card.

P.S. I've been getting incredible things in the mail and hear that there is more to come. Thank you so much for caring. I miss home a lot. So much so that today, when one of my fellow interns had a NC map delivered to her in a care-package (She's from Kansas but loves NC and is probably going to move there) that I flipped and had to open it up to find Kernersville.

Hopefully, this has entertained you a bit.
Thanks for reading. peace to you

ode to mosquitoes

Ode to Mosquitoes

Oh, mosquito, how I hate you.
You make life as miserable as too tiny shoe.
Those spider-like legs and big beady eyes
Make you a freak and despised.

Not only does the heat of me get the best,
you are an additional and unnecessary pest.
If ever comes a mosquito hunting day,
I'd join the NRA.

So please back off and find a new mammal,
Before I move to Egypt and ride camels.
Follow the economy and get a new job.
I hate you more than a racist lynch mob.

I met a Cowboy

The last two days in the life of Tara have been somewhat unexciting. We spent all day yesterday going around town, visiting important places and meeting important people.

Started off with a meeting with McKenzie who runs the Street Camp for kids. We went over logistics that wouldn't interest you.
We ate lunch at the Gospel Cafe which is a ministry of CrossTies Church. CrossTies Church is an interesting church. They have really strict requirements in order to become a member and even though the church has existed since the nineties, they only have six members. The church has a full service on Sundays but only six are members. The members have to adhere to strict observance of Sabbaths, including taking the entire month of July off. They also have to spend a year as an "intern" of the church to learn and invest in the church. It's an interesting viewpoint. Anyway, they run this cafe that is in an old crack-house that was 100 years old and they fixed up. People come in and pay what they can for a good lunch, whether is a quarter or 5 dollars. We got to sit and talk with a lot of the people in the poor in the community because the place was packed.
Afterwards, we went to the Talitha Koum (check this website out and watch the video. it explains everything.) It's a therapeutic nursery that takes babies up to 6 year olds and teaches them basic abilities that children from broken, chaotic homes do not naturally attain like the ability to rest, to solve conflict without violence, and to prepare them for the demands of school. The director that we met told us that it was common to hear a two year old who is just learning language to say "F*** you, b****" over and over again because its the most common saying they know. I couldn't believe that. Maybe at 5 or 6, but 2? The nursery feeds the children all their meals and even washes their clothes because the public housing the kids come from doesn't permit washers and dryers so clean clothes are rare.
We left there and went to City Hall and met with the Homeless Administrator for Waco. She was really cool because she didn't just sit behind a desk and fight homelessness from there but went out in the city, knew the people by name, and made tangible changes to help homeless people and families find homes and federal aid.
THEN we went to meet Carlton the Director of the Meyer's Center which is the homeless shelter office and the place where meals are served. I'll be serving there some and teaching GED classes. We got a tour and a little briefing.
Then by far the highlight of our evening was going to a two-hour food safety class. It was ridiculous. All we did the whole time was write down some of the ridiculous things the teacher said. For example, when explaining how you can't allow food to just cool down naturally, he said "it's not like we're in North America or something"...I'll stop there. I'll just say I didn't enjoy it.
Afterwards, though, me and some interns took advantage of the free rootbeer floats at Sonic. It was SOOOO good and free.

Today was not anymore thrilling but I had my weekly meeting this morning with our intern Director to talk about the goals I have for the Summer. We sat in on the Staff Meeting with all the people involved in MW and introduced ourselves. We then had our "Friday Forum" (even though its Thursday...we're too busy tomorrow) with Jimmy, the director of MW, over lunch on "Understanding Evil". It was SO interesting. I know I'm going to love these. He taught us how our different religious backgrounds affect the way we view evil and how we intend to change it. Everyone here is from so many different traditions and religious backgrounds. We've got a Buddhist background, Eastern orthodox, Presbyterian, Baptist (of course), Agnostic background, Menonite, Wesleyan, Lutheran. It's cool to hear everyone's point-of-views and opinions.
Then I had a meeting with the Work Groups coordinator and we learned about our job and what was coming up. We start SUNDAY with the first groups coming in from Austin!!! So excited!
Our last thing for the day was a class on "How to prepare a devotional for inner city youth, homeless, etc" and basically, all that was was to get on their level, use their language, and respect their culture.

By far the coolest thing I've done in the last two days happened a few hours ago. So "The Church Under the Bridge" that MW kind of partners with and participates in was having a party for a guy nicknamed Cowboy. Cowboy used to be an alcoholic, started going to the Church under the Bridge and got saved there, and married there. Then he was diagnosed with cancer within the last year and it's at stage 4. He's probably in his 40's and they had a picture there of what he used to look like and he used to look like this huge muscle biker guy. Now he's in a wheelchair and very skinny. So the church threw him a party in celebration of his life. It was this huge cookout and a ton of people from all walks of life showed up. They took time to let the people there tell him what he meant to their life and how much they would miss him. I cried probably 90% of the time. They had music and played that country song "Live like you were dying" and he and his wife danced (as his friends supported him to stand) and when his wife started to cry, I lost it and had to take a walk. It was beautiful. It was a celebration of his life and the excitement of the next one to come. It was so confusing because you don't know whether to be sad that this life is ending or rejoice in the fulfillment of God's promise of eternity and the wholeness and health he will have. It was one of the coolest parties I've ever been to...ever.

I have to now finish my book reflection and get out of this coffee shop.

Thanks for reading. peace to you.

"I will bless you...and you will be a blessing" Gen. 12:2

God said these words "I will bless you and you will be a blessing" to Abraham when He was establishing His covenant. The reason God blessed Abraham was so that Abraham would bless others. "To much is given, much is required." (Luke 12:48) Are you blessing with what God has given you?

I've been here a week and I have learned more about life and God than I have in a long time.

We have to do book discussions throughout the Summer to learn about poverty and the Christian responsibility. Our first book is Compassion, Justice, and the Christian Life by Robert D. Lupton. I finished it today and it is incredible. It taught me so much about impowering the poor and homeless rather than inhibiting them with free food banks and flop-houses (homeless shelters that have no programs or incentives). I learned that I have been so blind to what true community really is. I won't talk about it now so much because I have to write a paper on it by Friday and I'll be posting it on here. Stay tuned.


Some light-hearted news: In the past two days, we built a fire-pit in the backyard of our house and had a fire last night with S'mores included. It was us and the mosquitoes... ugh, I hate them. Emily, an intern, put up a hammock also and I have had the privilege of using it. It seems like we've all finally gotten comfortable with each other and our routines. Some of the best times have been sitting around the table during supper with my fellow interns. The fascination with my accent has increased and have had to say the word "South", "boat", and "both" to humor my co-workers. Who knew this would be the role I played among the group? The token Southerner.

Yesterday was an amazing day-off. I slept til 11:30 (12:30 your time). Didn't shower...at ALL. Read a book and hung-out with the interns. I also got to talk to some of you guys and catch up. It filled me up with that good, home lovin' I miss. I hope that made you feel awkward, but you taking your time to talk to me meant so much. The interns here that are local have had friends over and gone to dinner with people and family. It makes me ache a little bit for the ones I love back home.

Today, we did more orientation. Some game facilitation exercises for the summer. We got our schedules. YEE!

This is what mine looks a little like: (You should be able to click on it to make it bigger)
My main ministry participation will be with the Work Groups that travel from across the country to have an emersion and missions experience in the poverty of Waco. I'm a facilitator that basically hangs out with the groups, gets to know them, and tries to make their experience in Waco enriched. I'll also be with the Work Groups when they go out to do sort of a backyard Bible club on the streets in the community for kids to come out to. I basically do the same job there, play with the kids, and keep an eye out for safety concerns. I'll be tutoring the homeless men at the shelter as they try to get their GEDs on Wednesdays and once they get those, they move on to the Job training/placement program. And I'll be filling in as an office assistant at the main office which I figured would be a cool way to get to know all of the staff and locals. My Saturdays will be filling in random places as we will have to help with MissionWaco's poverty simulation which I don't really know if I've explained yet. But it's yet another event MW(Mission Waco) offers to visiting groups where they can emerse themselves into poverty for a weekend. I don't know any details because it's all highly confidential since we'll be doing it in two weekends. I'll tell you guys all about it afterwards and once we do it, we'll be helping other groups with it. We'll also have to volunteer some teaching chapel at the homeless shelters some nights and the World Cup Cafe waitressing (yay...haha). By the way, we ate lunch there today and it was DELICIOUS and so so cheap. One of our interns is going to do PR work for the cafe to raise awareness about it in the community because it is GREAT...and it all goes back to MW and is a place of employment for the homeless (That's where I met Malcolm).

Something else we are doing is every week, we have assigned times to get together with a few others and have certain Scriptures that we will read aloud to one another that are about the poor, oppressed, and our responsibility, Jesus' position, etc. We had our first tonight at Kathy's house and i LOVED it. I was sitting there thinking how this is how it was meant to be done and how the Jews still do it. Our Scripture came mostly from the Old Testament and it took us about an hour to get through it all. Here are some good ones:

"You must not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them, they will no doubt cry to Me, and I will certainly hear their cry." Exodus 22:22-23

"You must not oppress a foreign resident; you yourselves know how it feels to be a foreigner because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt." Exodus 23:9
[In the law, over and over again, the Lord reminds the Jews that they should treat others well because they should remember what it was like to be slaves and foreigners in the land of Egypt. Really, over and over again. This parallels today as we can all remember what it was like to be slaves to sin, to the world and the battle it still rages in our hearts. Remember what it was like and don't treat the foreigner, the oppressed, the homeless, the poor, the lost as if they are some dirty, "foreign" thing. They are struggling with the same as we are. We are responsible for them. Remember.]

"When a foreigner lives with you in your land, you must not oppress him. You must regard the foreigner who lives with you as native-born among you. You are to love him as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God." Lev. 19:33-34

"When you reap the harvest of your land, you are not to reap to the very edge of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You must not strip your vineyard bare or gather its fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the foreign resident; I am the Lord your God." Lev. 19:9-10
[You can see how greed has completely changed the fabric of our society and completely ruined 'community'. Applying these verses to the 21st century, why do we horde our money and continually feel its a requirement to upgrade and have the "best"? Why do we use every last cent, our harvest, on ourselves? Unfortunately even if you do tithe, one book I'm reading gave the startling statistic that on average a church gives less than 1/2 of 1% of their budget to the poor. Now, I don't know the details of that. But it's just something to think about. When did we become so greedy?]

"He saves the needy from their sharp words and from the clutches of the powerful. So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth." Job 5:15

"God rescues the afflicted by afflicting them; He instructs them by means of their torment." Job 36:15
[That's an interesting way to look at it. God's purposes are never completely known to man. How can we propose that the homeless deserve their depravity because of their afflictions? It's all in God's plan.]

I think that's enough, but I loved it. Can't wait until next week.
We also started our small groups. We are required to join a small group through a church and a few of us went to Jimmy Dorrell's (the director of MW) tonight. It kicked off with us going back to the homeless shelter to hear him share a message to the men there. I saw many familiar faces and a lot of the awkwardness was completely washed away. I got to speak a lot with a guy named Ron who is basically a flipping genius. He's probably late forties, early fifties. He came down from Pennsylvania immediately after the Branch Davidian church burning ((the big cult deal which is the only reason anyone knows about Waco)) to investigate what had happened. And he lived on the church property and gave tours to curious travellers. He was even baptized into their faith. If you can imagine my face I made at that disclosure, haha. He's really philosophical and believes that everything in this world is a conspiracy (and not just in the negative connotation, but just that everything has been plotted and planned by someone). He is teaching himself Hebrew and showed me how He is finding "codes" in the Old Testament that point to the divinity of Jesus. Now, you may be hesitant and so am I. But it was so cool to talk to him. I told him I wanted to know more about both: the codes and the Branch Davidians. I haven't gotten down to why he's at the shelter and if he's got a job, but it's another relationship that is forming by the grace of God.

There's a lot going on but I'm anxious to start my real summer schedule next Monday. Pray for that transition and that God would really use me in the venues I've been placed.

Thanks for reading, Peace to you.

Father, Father

I can't even begin to tell you how incredible this weekend was. But i'll try.

***And I warn you that I wrote this really REALLY tired. There is no humor and I don't even think it sounds like me a day later. However, the information is important to what my purpose is here in Waco and in Urban ministry.****

Starting off where I left off with Friday. We met at the office and went to take a tour of Brook Ave. Elementary school to see what an "inner-city school" really looks like. Honestly, the appearance of the school was not as bad as I expected. It was very friendly, bright and colorful. They seemed to have a lot of technology as well. They explained that they received a lot funding from outside donations and grants. The breakdown of the school was like 50% hispanic to 49% african american with 1% other and 98% of the students receive free or reduced lunch from the school district. We got to meet with some teachers and it was really interesting to hear their perspectives. From my understanding, Texas just started implementing their version of End-of-Grade testing. NC has been doing it since before I was in elementary school so it was no big deal to me. However, Brook Ave. can't seem to make acceptable grades. Since I am studying to be a teacher in high school, I have always heard the blame being placed on the early educators for the faults of high school graduates not being able to construct a proper paragraph. I asked them why they thought the kids couldn't seem to pass the state test or function at the appropriate grade level if they were working so vigorously at it. It was radical to actually realize the real reasons. It's a completely different culture and the state doesn't format its assessments towards the culture and more specifically the vocabulary of the inner-city kids. These kids learn their vocabulary from television and the local area. One teacher told us that her kids could not understand the concept of what a "pond" is...The closest they could come to it was "PAWN" as in pawn shop because it's all they've ever been exposed to. That broke my heart. They can't comprehend anything on the exterior of Waco because that is the world to them. They don't have the opportunity to see any outside aspects. Also, the teachers explained that there is 0 retention of what the students retain over the Summer because the knowledge they learned isn't cultivated or used at all for 3 months and it's just like starting over. That might not be interesting to you but it was completely new to me...after 3 years of college in an education program, no one has ever explained to me why inner-city kids fail and are generally on a education level two grades below the expectation.

This is a cool personal story: In between all the business of the day, I went outside to get some air and sat down on the sidewalk with a book during a break. Next door to the main office is the World Cup Cafe, which is MissionWaco's fair-trade store and restaurant that focuses on job-training for the homeless. It's really a cool place. So out walks this guy and I didn't recognize him and first but he comes and sits down next to me on the ground and mentions that he recognized me from serving breakfast at the shelter the day before. The whole point of my summer is to get to know the people in this community, hear their stories, and just be a positive face. God opened this door wide open with Malcolm who came to sit with me. He is 21 years old (same age as me), first-time ever being homeless, has a 10-month old baby and that was his first day working at the World Cup Cafe. The homeless shelter placed Malcolm there to work through MissionWaco. So we just sat and talked until his ride showed up and I made my first connection with someone that's homeless. I was so excited after that and still am.

We finally met the Director of MissionWaco, Jimmy Dorrell, at lunch time. Apparently, he is a big deal and I just didn't know it. He spoke to us about the Theology of Holistic Ministry and how that inspires MissionWaco. I really enjoyed hearing him speak and we'll get the chance to meet with him every Friday to be fed by his leadership and wisdom. His story is incredible. After college, he and his wife moved to the bad part of Waco to raise their family and turn the community around.

After this, we did more monotonous orientation stuff until the end of the day. After that, we all went back to the house and I went to bed at like 7 in preparation for the 3:30AM departure time for Houston.

We got to Houston around 8 and arrived at the Center for Student Ministries. CSM is a nationwide organization that has locations in major cities of the country. They facilitate service and emersion experiences in Urban ministry for groups that travel to spend a week with them. They were training their interns just like MissionWaco and so their interns and us went around and spent the day together. It was a great experience getting to know more people who were going to be doing the same thing as us. We started the day off and the 'End Hunger' Network in Houston. We boxed food up for meals on wheels and prepared food for several needs. The End Hunger Network of Houston feeds 80,000 people each week. It was incredible to see such a strong effort fighting hunger whether its the low-income, homeless, or elderly.
We left there for lunch and then made our way to a Men's Rehabilitation Center in Houston. We spent the afternoon hanging out with the guys there and hearing their stories. They were so incredibly nice. The facility was amazing. It was better than my school cafeteria and it was all funded by private donors.

After this, we went back to the church that CSM is located in and took a NAP. It was much-needed after being up since 4am. We woke up and went to eat dinner at an authentic El Salvadoran restaurant. The whole trip was about exposure to the city of Houston and Houston has huge ethnic diversity. It was incredible. It was the shadiest place I have probably ever eaten in (a rundown trailer with plastic tables and chairs). You don't make an order. Everyone gets the same thing but it was incredible. I loved the experience.

Then...the big finale: We went to Emmaus ministries in the homosexual district of Houston. Emmaus ministries works to evangelize and serve the male prostitutes of Houston. They offered us an emersion experience for Saturday night. From about 9:30Pm - 1:00Am, we walked the streets of Houston in the district and saw the male prostitutes in the ares. It was horribly startling. Emmaus ministries explained to us that since their start, they have probably met 500 different male prostitutes in Houston. They described to us the signs to pick out the male prostitutes on the street. They said they might be standing on the corner with no shirt and their chest puffed out. Or they said they'd be walking with real baggy clothes on so that they could get in and out of them quickly. It was sickening and so depressing to think about and see. We saw them just like they said. We walked by and said 'hey' but the ministry said they wouldn't be open to us as strangers and that the people in the ministry are especially trained to know what to say. It was just an experience for us to witness something devastating and true.

And, we got the experience to go into some gay bars. I visited a gay bar called the 611 club and a transvestite bar called 'Cousins'. [Be careful with who you tell this too. People may not understand or approve. But we were just doing what Jesus did, loving the unloved.] You may be wondering how in the world we didn't stand out in gay/transvestite bars. Houston has a lot of colleges and it was a saturday night so people of all ages and genders were out. They said that the college girls will go into some of the gay men bars to avoid being hit on.

I just can't put it into words what it was like. It destroyed me to see these men who were so broken and desperate. And yet, it was easy to be kind to them and they were so friendly. We talked with a few and just heard their stories. Many of the transvestites were homeless. A disturbing thing were the business men in the transvestite bar. I couldn't help wondering if they had wives or children. If this was their recreation on a business trip. It was an experience I will never forget or take forgranted. I still can't believe I had the opportunity to see what I did. As we walked around, I prayed for the homosexual couples and transvestite men I saw and the gay men and women in the bars. Just because we, as evangelicals, can somehow stand up and make all these bold statements about the hell and damnation awaiting homosexuals doesn't mean we aren't responsible for LOVING them and to walk as Christ walked among the lepers and prostitutes. Do we understand the word LOVE? Love them. Love them.

The eternal God is your refuge,
and underneath are the everlasting arms.
Deut. 33:27

On Sunday, we went to St. John's Downtown Church which is Beyonce's church! She and Jay-Z weren't there... It was another emersion experience because as you could probably assume it was a black church. I've never been to a service in a black church and it fulfilled most of the stereotypes of being a loud and long service. The music was great though as you could imagine. We left there and went to an authentic Greek restaurant for an INCREDIBLE lunch. Then headed back to Waco and here I am.

I gratefully have the day off tomorrow and have some work to catch-up on. Please pray that the Lord would continue to open my eyes and show me the injustices and deep, desperate needs of the people in Waco.

Thanks for reading. Peace to you.

It begins.

Hello again from 'Common Grounds' coffee establishment! I am back at my "regular table", now armed with bug-spray. It has been an incredibly long and informational two days. I'm going to catch you guys up and throw in some pictures to make it more interesting. There's also a surprise at the end. Don't look ahead. It's too good to ruin.

I got settled in after our last post and met my fellow interns. There are ten of us from all over (Texas, NC, South Dakota, Missouri, China, Louisiana, etc.). We've been together ever since. It's been great to get to know people from so many places. Side note: I have the thickest southern accent I have encountered. I've never been 'that' person thats noticed because of the accent. No complaining though. It makes me think of home.

On our first day, I woke up at 5AM with the rest of the interns and went to "My Brother's Keeper" Homeless shelter and helped serve breakfast to about 20 men and women. We introduced ourselves, ate breakfast with them, and heard some of their stories. The manager, Anthony, shared a devotional and then we just hung out until about 7:30.

We then started our orientation at the main office called the "Jubilee Center" which is a few blocks from our house. We did the standard get-to-know-you stuff and got loads of paperwork on the openings for ministries, what's required of us in terms of Bible studies, service projects, small group participation, church visitations, and volunteer hours. We got tours of several of MissionWaco's facilities on both days and there are some pictures later on.

We met Mackenzie, the director of the Childrens ministries at MissionWaco, and toured their place. She took us to lunch at a eclectic, organic place called "Food for Thought" where the employees wore Toms and the feel was really cool.

That night we went to the Meyer's Center which is a part of the MissionWaco homeless shelter and led a 'chapel service' for the homeless men coming in for a place to sleep. A lot of them were the same from the breakfast that morning and we had more of an opportunity to speak with them. Something startling that came up during our time was that over half of the men in the room have served in the military. Over HALF...and they are homeless. It bothers me that our country would send those men to Vietnam and Korea to fight for this country and then they end up homeless and on the streets. I don't even know why but I couldn't believe it.

Then after our first day, all the interns went out to Thai food which was a first for me and it was really great. And expectedly, we went to Wal-mart and got groceries and stuff for the house.

Today was more orientation, and we took the "Other Side of Waco" tour that MissionWaco puts on for visitors. We saw the 'projects', the Habitat for Humanity homes, and the rehabilitation homes and half-way houses. Just making us aware of the issues Waco has with poverty and addiction. We learned why Waco was in its current state of poverty and community disparity. We met Gabe who is the director of the Youth ministry for MissionWaco. And he is so cool. He began his career as a drug-dealer at age 11 and served time and even witnessed murders throughout his childhood. Now he's working with teenagers just like him that are in gangs, carrying guns, and all that. He took us to lunch at this BBQ place (which was so bad compared to NC, but I didn't tell anyone. Haha)

We continued on with orientation and then ate dinner at Carlton's house who is one of the managers of the Meyer's center that's a shelter and social services center for the homeless. It was a good experience of asking him questions about the people that come in there and how he follows them once they leave.

Let's look at some pictures:

So basically from my understanding, Waco flourished as a prominent city in Texas until about the 1960's, then the rural movement took away a lot of it's established citizens. It was just explained that the 'tide just changed' in neighborhoods and the government and organizations couldn't keep up with the decline.
There was a huge tornado that wiped out half of the business district of Waco and lots of businesses left as a result.
It is just now starting to proactively build itself back up. The community leaders are working hard to build better housing, recruit companies and businesses and rebuild the city.

Here are some pictures of delapidated buildings left behind when an entire college just picked up and left:

The college just left the buildings there to ruin for 30 years. The windows are all busted out and there are vines growing up all over the buildings. It was startling to see because for me, it was just imagining what if GWU just up and moved, leaving behind all of the old brick buildings. It would look like this and Boiling Springs would ruin. Waco is now working on cleaning the buildings up and using it for public education buildings...30 years later.

There is a conscious effort now in the city to rebuild and revive the community. And that's what I'm here for. To see an active Urban ministry work in an area desperately in need. Waco is #11 in the nation in poverty per capita levels. And Waco has over 100 churches in the area. MissionWaco's job is to mobilize the churches in the area to take care of the poor like Jesus required.

Now on to something cheerful, our HOUSE: I'll take you on a tour, just like you were walking with me to my room.

There it is. Both doors go to the same place...so I still don't know why there's two. You can see my car behind the fence!

This is the guy's apartment in the backyard.

Lovely kitchen.

Through the kitchen, is the dining area....where we store our bikes. Haha

Our very "frat-house" feeling living area.

Up two flights of stairs, those double-doors lead to my room. And behind it, are two other bedrooms for 5 other female interns.

There's my bed! Looks a lot like college, but there are two other beds in that room for my roommates. (Notice the Office calendar & pictures of some of you!)


Here are a few pictures of the facilities through Mission Waco:

The Children's Center, where there will be a Summer Day Camp where some of us will be working:

This is where the "Work Groups" come to stay. This is groups from all over the country (Youth groups, men's groups, freshmen classes from colleges) and volunteer with MissionWaco for a week doing missions (like M-Fuge):

These are pictures from inside MissionWaco's secondhand clothes store called "The Clothing Line". They take donations and sell them to help support their ministries:

Funny "All about Waco" Game

The Warehouse of collections

The actual store


Okay, I said there was going to be a surprise. So here it is:


I live down the street from this:

Now, what is this? It's DAVID CROWDER'S House!!

Basically, I live in Crowder's neighborhood...like two blocks away.
How cool is that? The interns have been developing schemes to hurt ourselves on our bikes outside of his house. We think he's on tour though which sucks.

There's a church in Waco that the David Crowder Band plays worship music for...so on the off-chance that they're in town, we hope to make it there during one of our church visits.

There's so much more to tell, but I'll wait til later.
Please pray for me in the next few days as we make our specific assignment requests. Pray the God directs me in an area that will challenge me and really use my gifts. Pray that He would give me energy and patience with people.

This weekend we are going to Houston to do some incredible service learning and missions work. I'm not even going to tell you what we're doing. You'll just have to wait but I'm SO excited!

Thanks for reading. Peace to you