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

1200 miles later...

I'm here!

I am currently sitting on the patio of the 'Common Grounds' coffee shop in Waco. It's right across the street from Baylor Univ which is like 10 minutes from our house. Its closed but we're getting free WiFi. I'll be making more visits here for sure. I'm also listening to a CD that's titled "Music I Love" that Stephanie gave me in a care package. It makes me smile with every new song....It's got blindside, some weird male folk quartet, and music from Mulan so far. Mmhmmmm.

Welcome to Waco. I have traveled halfway across the country in two days. I had made all these exciting plans to make it a valuable roadtrip. However, I did not plan on only getting 3 hours of sleep Sunday night (due to packing and laundry procrastination) and then traveling 12 hours the next day. I was tired to say the least.

I drove from Greensboro through Atlanta and into Alabama before we stopped for lunch. Then after lunch, Kaitlyn took over the reins and I consequently slept through most of Alabama and Mississippi. So much for seeing the deep south. We stopped in Vicksburg, Mississippi to eat dinner and get a hotel room. We picked it back up this morning at 11am (got some amazing sleep). And drove the remaining 6 hours to Waco. We saw the headquarters of MissionWaco and dropped our stuff off at the intern house. My next post will include pictures of the house for sure.

So to make this more exciting, I figured I would do a '10 list' from the road trip. This is random and I haven't planned what they'll be. Let's go:

1. Cops - This is my summary: Carolina loves cops. The rest of the south has smaller budgets. We saw probably 40 cops in the Carolinas on Monday (Memorial day). I can't say I saw 5 in the rest of the south. What's up with that, Carolinas?

2. Armadillos - I saw my first armadillo as roadkill on the side of the road. The next 20 weren't as exciting. However, I learned that they're Texas' primary roadkill (no squirrels, deer, or stray dogs).

3. Grass - Texas has got it. It's not some sandy ghost town like you might think. It's humid too. Liars said it wouldn't be. The temperature today was like 90. oh geeeez

4. Mississippi River - Was really cool to see. Our hotel in Vicksburg was right next to the river and I could see it from my room. It also had very impressive bridges as to use to cross it :] I waved to Huck Finn when we drove over into Louisiana. This is a picture I didn't take...but our hotel was right next to these:


5. Bonnie & Clyde - I told some of you that I was going to go see the place where they were slaughtered and I DID! It was just on this windy country road with NOTHING but trees all around.

6. Rain - When it rained it poured so hard we couldn't see. Thank you, summer storms.

7. Atlanta - I hate you. Traffic was horrible and confusing. And it rained while we were trying to navigate you.

8. Garmin - It's a love/hate relationship. I love you because you save me so much trouble in trying to find my way across this lovely country. I hate you because your British voice gets on my nerves after the first 3 hours and you repeat yourself so much I feel like you're yelling at me.

9. "Supreme Court Justice" - We listened to the radio the entire time today and with every Christian radio station I found, I heard the story probably a dozen times of President Obama's appointment. The phrase will probably cause me to vomit every time I hear it from now on. More reasons to hate politics.

10. West Nile - I have it...probably. I have mosquito bites on top of mosquito bites from sitting outside of this closed coffee shop the last hour, writing to you. At least, it's cooler than swine flu.

I'll think of a thousand other things to tell you, but for now that's the best I've got. I'll include more pictures of my surroundings next time.

Thanks for reading. Peace to you.

Heading West

i'm starting an adventure. and i am terrified.
this is my first post for the summer i'll be spending in waco, texas.



i'll be serving as a missionary intern (term offered up by katie for a quick explanation) with the organization MissionWaco. you can check out their website and it gives you a good idea of what they're about. it's a large organization that focuses on so many ministries (homeless, innercity kids, innercity youth, etc.). their mission statement is to:

"1) Provide holistic, relationship-based programs that empower the poor and marginalized

2) Mobilize middle-class Americans to become more compassionately involved among the poor

3) Seek ways to overcome the systemic issues of social injustice which oppress the poor and marginalize"

So me and Kaitlyn (a girl from Mars Hill who is going as well) are leaving Greensboro at 7AM tomorrow. SO early. And we're taking the next two days to get to Waco, TX by car.

I'm excited but I've never taken a roadtrip like this before, so I just hope it goes easy and safe. I'll post pictures hopefully along the way.
Here's a map of our route (for the most part): It doesn't look so bad on the tiny map.

Our drive is approximately 18 hours and we'll be stopping along the way to eat and such, so it'll probably take us nearly one whole day. Thank God Kaitlyn has a GPS!

I'll be using this blog to keep friends and family posted at home on what I'm doing and the experiences I have. And I promise the posts will be WAY more interesting than this one.

I have loved spending so much time with great friends and family the last two weeks since I got out of school. Thank you so much for caring and I'll be missing you the entire time. My attitude towards this trip has done a complete 180 in the last week from so much excitement to hesitation and anxiety. I have been really struggling with having good relationships and friendships with the people in my life and I've prayed to God since the end of school for Him to show His love for me through other people and it has been made obviously real for the last week. You all have been such a part of that and I'm so thankful for you. That's why I am nervous about going to Texas as of late. I feel like I'm starting college over all over again and that was a horrible experience in itself. Please pray that God would change my world with this summer and that I would be in the midst of His work. Also, that I wouldn't let myself get in the way of being used by Him.

The title of this blog is "to proclaim freedom for the prisoners ... set free the oppressed" which is from Luke 4:18-19:
¹⁸"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

I am really hoping to build relationships with people that have struggled as I have, but with so many other issues and trials. And through them, God will educate me and erase any ignorances I have and burden my heart for the call I have as a Christian. I want my eyes to be opened wide to the social injustices in our country and in turn be educated in useful ways of combatting them. It's one thing to see it, but it's another thing to do something about it.

As for now, I need to finish laundry and pack my stuff up. [I promise this will be more uplifting and witty in the future. However, I am not as cheerful yet. Pray for me.]
Thanks for reading. peace to you.

[[P.S. this is a pre-existing blog that I started on a whim and definitely did not keep up with last summer. So if you're wondering why I have a few random ranting entries prior to this, that's why.]]