Dear Friends,
Well, the Semester is about over. Sorry for my lame-ing out on "ya'll" as far as this newsletter goes. My apologies.
Today we went "surveying" for a class and also to help out the church my pastor goes to. It was pretty interesting, going to "inner city" Louisville. Micah, Kristi and I were on a team and walked down a street that was surrounded by about three to five bars. Woot. I have done door-to-door stuff for as long as I can remember. Selling Girl Scout cookies or some sort of pocket-change/fundraiser catalog thingy, collecting canned foods for the local food pantry, etc. was all part of the normal growing up activities in Eastern New Mexico and Ohio. Micah's parents are missionaries in South America, so he was pretty cool with whatever as well. Poor Kristi, however, is from a good homeschooling family from Minnesota where one simply DOES NOT DO THIS. One does NOT go into rough-er neighborhoods and one does NOT knock on doors unless selling something or one is Jehovah's witness or Mormon. She wasn't wierd about it, just extreemely nervous as only her sweet-hearted self can be. And she had just gotten over the flu, which didn't help anything.
We started off by her saying something about how the weather was perfect for someone who had just gotten over the flu, and Micah took off his huge neon-yellow coat and put it on her while she argued with me about putting it on. It was rather reminicent of me trying to boss my younger sister Kendra and reason her into doing something she was determined NOT to do. Kristi humphed almost exactly like Kendra does and good naturedly snarled, "oh you big sister you!" At the end of the day she was glad she listened to me as we all got chilled and damp and she would most definately have gotten sick again if she hadn't taken the jacket (I restrained from telling her "I told-you-so" when I was with her, so that's why I did it here. Forgive me for bragging over my sagacity and wisdom
) Kristi has eight younger brothers and sisters so wasn't used to being 'big-sistered'.We then drove to our assigned street. The first house reminded me very much of a Gypsy house, as the living room was about the same size, smelled almost the same way, and had almost the same decor. It was very messy with a new TV blaring in the corner and stuff tossed hither and thither in no apparent order. Every surface was covered in clutter and the windows were covered in plastic wrap or cheap plastic sheets serving as glass. The lady we talked with looked like she was still in her teens but had a very cute golden haired two year old running around.
We asked her what she thought the community struggled with, what problems it had, what she thought Jesus would do if He were to go to that neighborhood to fix it, what she would look for in a church were she to go to one, what the local church could do to help the community.
She wasn't really sure on any of the answers, but she said she guessed they could help the gangs to stop shooting people as there was a lot of shooting going on in that neighborhood.
We didn't write the survey, so it was a little akward when we said, "what are the needs of this community" and then said "what do you think Jesus would do to fix the problems?" We got the same reaction from just about everyone. Their eyebrows raised, they sort of blinked, gupled, thought for a minute, then said, "Well, I don't know exactly. Fix the problems I guess."
The main problems voiced were bad housing (which we agreed with), bad drug problem (which we didn't see blatant evidence of, but thought very likely) too much shooting (which we thankfully had no experience with while we were there) and programs for children that parents could participate in and learn how to interact with their children were needed.
I thought it was interesting they all said they really wanted programs to teach their kids and to teach them how to teach their kids.
They all also said that the reason the local churches weren't being attended was due to laziness on the community's part. They didn't think the church was too much to blame, they were just too lazy to get up and go on Sunday morning.
There was one point where two guys in a pickup truck slowed down and stopped the truck at the corner and checked us out for about five minutes. I was knocking on a door when Kristi said rather nervously,
"We're being watched."
"Yup." Micah said and knocked on the door again. "Welcome to Portland!" He said. Portland is the name of a road that runs through that community. Portland is also the by-word for 'inner city, disfunctional' for this part of the world.
But they eventually drove away and didn't say or do anything.
In all it was a good experience, I think the church got some good feed back, and the community was made aware of the fact that there is a church in the area that is trying to start ministries. There were a few points where I was like,
"Oooooohkaaaaay... Lord, protect us!" Nothing blatantly dangerous, just the guys watching us which made Kristi and me nervous.
In other news, the Church planting praxis that I'm a part of has officially decided that we are going to target the Bosnian-Herzegovnian and Ukrainian people groups that are by the church I'm becoming a member of. There are over 300 Bosnians in the area and over 100 Ukranians. We found out that the church used to have an English as a Second Language program/ministry a while ago, but since it has ended the church has recieved a lot of calls about when they are going to start it up again. So David, one of the two other guys on my team, has thought about becoming a certified ESL teacher over the summer and re-opening the program. Jordan, the other guy, wants to integrate ESL and a sports ministry. Bosnians are usually either Muslim or Orthodox, so apparently I will be taking charge of teaching and interacting with the women. David is engaged, so when his fiance-soon-to-be-wife moves here, she'll be working with me. We want to do some sort of women's fellowship, as we know a lot of the women are stay at home moms and don't get out much due to lifestyle and language/culture barriers. So if you could please be praying for the doors to open for that, we'd really appreciate it!
Academically, classes are going well. I'm taking Intro to Psychology, Ancient and Near Eastern History, Cross-cultural Evangelism, Spiritual Warfare, and English Comp 2. I'm loving all of them except for English - which is at 8 in the morning, and is soooo basic but I can't test out of it - and Psychology, as the professor and I have had rather different experiences with Psych in the Christian and Secular world. But that's okay, we've talked during and after class and have agreed to disagree. Although there have been a few times when I think I've bitten my tongue so bad it's almost bled. :-D
Alrighty well speaking of PSych class I have to go read for that class. :-S
And I need to make potatoe soup, because I and a few other girls have officially decided that we do n't care HOW much better our cafeteria is compared to other schools, WE WANT REAL, HOMECOOKED FOOD!!! That does NOT include fried chicken!
According to Kentuckians, Fried Chicken is a food group. I like fried chicken, just not EVERY SINGLE PICKING MEAL!!!!
*ahem*
Anyway, I hope your spring is going well!
God bless you all!
I guess you don't want to go eat at KFC anything soon, right?
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