Arloa Sutter's Blog

Holiday Reality Check

2011-12-11T06:37:00.004-06:00

Thirty-five years ago, I lead a group of teen girls in Campus Life (YFC) Youth Guidance. I was right out of college and had so much to learn myself, but it was a wonderful job. It was heart breaking at times, but I loved the challenge. The girls already led difficult lives at such an early age. We met weekly in groups and participated in adventure trips like backpacking, rappelling, cross country skiing and spelunking (cave exploring). Several of them have kept in touch with me.

This morning I received an email from one of them that moved me to tears. I asked her if I could pass it on anonymously. She put the holiday season in perspective for me.

Arloa,

I am so pleased to see that Breakthrough is continuing to address so many of the needs homeless have.

I found myself homeless for 8 months. I was in a hospital and then a shelter and now a very tiny apartment.

I traveled the country, got spit on, punched, robbed, but I also witnessed small miracles on regular basis.

Shelter life was very sad. I did not sleep the entire time I was there. I was afraid of the other women some not all and I was afraid of the staff. the building was beautiful but what difference does it make if things aren't consistent.

I never dreamed I would be homeless. I imagine that is what everyone says. I never gave up hope.

Perhaps it was the skills I learned as a backpacker, or a spelunker or as a nurse but I have no idea why I am still alive.

I must say racism and cruelty exist but the amount I felt just led me to more prayer and meditation. we should be hoping for each other, peaceful lives working together as one. Imagine that. I guess that is why I have to take medication which I never had to before. I have the dreamers disease without the resources to implement my dreams, and the sad part is some of those dreams seem dashed.

Arloa, have a very Merry Christmas. I plan to also. Its not about clothes or education although those things are important. Its about keeping people safe and out of the rain and harms way.

Best always, with a hug,

One of your Campus Life Alumni

I hope you have a Christmas filled with God's love and peace, and that you never stop dreaming.

Breakthrough on Fox Chicago

2011-11-21T18:53:00.003-06:00

Breakthrough Urban Ministries Helps Fight Hunger in Chicago: MyFoxCHICAGO.com

Mayor Rahm Emanuel at Breakthrough

2011-08-13T08:22:00.001-05:00

Mayor Emanuel Reminds Parents of Stricter Curfew, Announces Community Anti-Violence Measures: MyFoxCHICAGO.com

Breakthrough Kids and Their Proudest Moments

2011-08-06T17:18:00.003-05:00

At the end of the school year, Breakthrough puts on an awards night for all the kids who attended their after school program during the year. This past year, they celebrated 10 years since the program started. Through this video, Breakthrough's staff wanted to honor the kids, and showcase their development, their dreams, and their sense of pride in what they have done over the last year.

My Proudest Moment - Breakthrough Urban Ministries from Interrupted Media on Vimeo.

2011-08-06T16:27:00.004-05:00

More and more, the desire grows in me simply to walk around, greet people, enter their homes, sit on their doorsteps, play ball, throw water, and to be known as someone who wants to live with them. It is a privilege to have the time to practice this simple ministry of presence. Still, it is not as simple as it seems. My own desire to be useful, to do something significant, or to be part of some impressive project is so strong that soon my time is taken up by meetings, conferences, study groups, and workshops that prevent me from walking the streets. It is difficult not to have plans, not to organize people around an urgent cause, and not to feel that you are working directly for social progress. But I wonder more and more if the first thing shouldn’t be to know people by name, to eat and drink with them, to listen to their stories and tell your own, and to let them know with words, handshakes, and hugs that you do not simply like them, but truly love them.

- Henri Nouwen

Who Are The Homeless?

2011-05-22T08:26:00.004-05:00

In this video I asked Yolanda Fields, Breakthrough's Adult Services Director, the question, "Who are the homeless?" Yolanda tells the story of a 19-year-old girl in the Breakthrough shelter who is finding her way.

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

2011-04-26T19:01:00.003-05:00

This is a video of Michelle Alexander speaking in Chicago about her book, The New Jim Crow.

http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Yolanda Fields and I discuss how to respond to panhandlers

2011-03-08T18:39:00.001-06:00

My interview with Moira Brown on 100 Huntley Street TV (Canada)

2011-02-05T06:18:00.002-06:00

The Man with the "Golden Voice"

2011-01-11T19:22:00.003-06:00

Suddenly, Ted Williams, the man with the “golden voice,” is no longer an invisible homeless man. He was catapulted into the media when a video of him and his radio voice was recorded by the Columbus Dispatch and posted on Youtube. Within days the video was viewed 15 million times and Ted Williams became a household name. He has appeared on numerous talk shows, has been offered a home and lots of employment contracts and he has been reunited with his mother who has been praying for him for years. It is an inspiring story.

When I heard about Ted, I thought, "I sure hope he has a good support system around him so he has help dealing with the stress and attention this will bring." I also wonder how this messes with our perspectives on the homeless. Certainly if it were not for his unique talent, Ted would have been looked over and would still be on the street. Until a few weeks ago, not many thought Ted Williams was worth a second glance. I wonder what other amazing talent is being wasted because of the suffocating stress of addiction, isolation and homelessness.

Ted represents many of the people we meet everyday in our interim housing centers at Breakthrough. Some are very talented but have hit bottom due to complicated circumstances. All are valuable as precious human beings created in the image of God. Like Ted, many of them have family members who have been praying for them for years. Most will not get the shot at fame and fortune that Ted Williams is experiencing, but with attention and a strong network of loving support, they can rise to start a new life. There are many inspiring stories waiting to be discovered.

I wish Ted the best and join his mother in saying, “Don’t disappoint us Ted.” I wonder, will the world still be there to support him if he falls?

Twista visits Breakthrough

2010-12-10T07:25:00.007-06:00

The day before Thanksgiving, the rap artist, Twista, came to Breakthrough to volunteer in our Fresh Market food pantry. The visit was set up by our friends at the Greater Chicago Food Depository. A few days ago he posted this video on YouTube. They even included me trying to convince him to support our FamilyPlex Capital Campaign! I especially liked the diamond studded "grills" on his teeth!

Take the 21 day prayer challenge

2010-12-08T16:34:00.003-06:00

Below is a challenge I brought to River City Community Church on 11-28-10. I really believe if we can be consistent in spending one on one time with God it transforms everything. It is one of the most difficult habits to keep because we are so easily distracted. For those of you who took me up on the challenge... how's it going?

A Christmas Story

2010-12-08T12:20:00.001-06:00

A Nativity Scene was erected in a church yard. During the night the folks came across this scene. An abandoned dog was looking for a comfortable, protected place to sleep. He chose baby Jesus as his comfort. No one had the heart to send him away so he was there all night.

We should all have the good sense to curl up in Jesus' lap from time to time.

2010-11-24T07:24:00.000-06:00

The Heroin Highway

2010-11-22T22:27:00.005-06:00

I saw this video on the news tonight. Kids from the western suburbs are coming to our neighborhood to buy heroin.

View more news videos at: http://www.nbcchicago.com/video.

Interview with Geoffrey Canada at the Education Summit at Park Community Church

2010-11-17T22:06:00.004-06:00

Led By the Spirit or Driven By Need

2010-11-02T06:18:00.004-05:00

Below is an article I wrote that was published on October 31st by the FullFill Magazine Weekly Refill Blog.

I have been leading Breakthrough Urban Ministries in Chicago for eighteen years. We care for people who have become crippled by unemployment, homelessness and addiction in a neighborhood where poverty and crime make life stressful. Overwhelming brokenness and need carries with it the reality that there is always more I could do. People often ask what keeps me going. What keeps me from experiencing burnout?

Well, I have experienced burnout and it’s not pretty. When I was in my twenties I worked with kids who were referred to me by juvenile justice officers and school social workers. I met with groups of young girls who were in crisis. I loved taking them hiking, cross-country skiing and spelunking, but I was unaware of my own codependency tendencies. It felt good to be needed and I found myself pulled into the drama of their lives. I would get calls in the middle of the night to pick up a girl who had passed out drunk in an alley or to negotiate a family dispute. I once called 911 in desperation as a young woman overdosed on my living room floor. My work was compelling: girls in need, in pain, and in trouble, and they were looking for me to rescue them. But by the end of four years I was exhausted. I cringed every time the phone rang for fear of hearing about another suicide attempt.

I know now that much of my early energetic zeal was rooted in my own pride. I had entered ministry recognizing my need for a Savior, but then had begun to attempt to rescue and save others in my own strength on behalf of the Savior. The burnout I experienced as a result would forever change me as I learned the importance of waiting on God in contemplation before rushing in with my own agenda. I learned to be led by the Spirit instead of being driven by need.

Today I start each day in prayer. I ask God to orchestrate my day, to guide and direct me. I ask for Divine connections, for wisdom to know what to do and what not to do. I have learned there is always enough time to do what God wants me to do.

I also listen to my body. I have learned to recognize the difference between good stress that pushes me to my best, and bad stress that means I’m attempting to do something that is not mine to do. When my shoulders tense and my stomach knots, I do a “gut check” and ask myself if this really is my responsibility.

To be led by the Spirit rather than driven by need. That’s my goal. When the chaos mounts, I take a break. Even an hour of contemplation clears my mind and tells me which tasks need to be tossed to someone else and which are mine to juggle.

Going Home

2010-10-30T07:31:00.001-05:00

Last week I struggled to open the door of our Breakthrough Mens' Center. The wind was whipping. I was hungry and it was cold. I managed to open the door and was immediately engulfed by warmth and the most wonderful smell of food. I’m not sure what was going on in the kitchen, but it smelled like Charlene had been cooking all morning, like thanksgiving dinner was in the oven. There was even the hint of brownies baking.

You know the feeling. It’s the feeling of being home. It’s warm and inviting and you know someone is creating something in the kitchen that is going to make your day very special.

I couldn’t help but think about the men huddled in the gathering place. Thirty of them had spent the night at Breakthrough and seventy more had come in from the cold, like I had. They may have slept in an abandoned building or in the park or doubled up on a friend’s floor. I knew this day they would experience the warmth of good food, friendship and support. It’s not the same as having your own place with your own stove and kitchen, but, today, they would know that they were loved and cared for. Today, they would know they were special. I knew the same thing was happening down the street at our women’s center.

Of course, the mission of Breakthrough goes beyond food. We surround our guests with supportive services that will hopefully, some day, get them into their own homes. But for now, at Breakthrough, they know they are special. They have found a home, a place to belong where people know their name.

As the temperatures drop and you enter your own home, reflect upon what it would be like to not have that experience of going home.

You Can't Make This Stuff Up

2010-10-28T19:21:00.002-05:00

The post below was originally posted by Tony Escobar on his Front Porch Theologian Blog on October 13th. Tony is Director of Community Relations at Breakthrough. It's the story behind the story of the video shoot for the Breakthrough benefit.

The most incredible things happen all the time when you are caught up in the kingdom of God. Have you ever noticed that?

Breakthrough's Annual Benefit is next week. And for this year's event, we are presenting a series of vignettes that illustrate the stories of guests from each program who have experienced transformation at Breakthrough, and who have in turn given back as a result.

So yesterday I was working with my man Donald, our video producer (I know, fancy, right?), to shoot the footage that would accompany the story I will be telling about my friend Andre. But before I continue, this will slightly be a spoiler warning, but I have to tell you this amazing story that happens within a story, because this is not stuff that you can make up. Maybe it will picque your interest enough to attend our Benefit next week!

Andre arrives, and Donald and I are explaining to him the kind of footage that we will be shooting of him. One part of the story involves Andre carrying a sick man back to his home from Breakthrough. So Donald and I tell Andre that we will be getting some shots of him reenacting that. Andre, of course, is up for it, no matter who he carries. He's a strong guy and is ready for about 10-15 takes, easy. But I look at Donald and ask him blankly..."Have we found someone for him to carry?" Donald says, "No." I say, "I should probably get someone, huh?" Donald says, "Yeah."

So I go and find a gentleman from our men's program to volunteer for the shoot who more or less fit the orignal man's profile (Think kind of like those cut-in doubles on the Windows 7 commercials).

Then we go outside, and we start doing a couple takes. And suddenly, during the third or fourth take, this voice on my left says, "Yeah, that's the guy who saved my life. Just like that. He carried me home."

I look over and there's an older gentleman standing next to me, pointing at Andre. "That guy is a Godsend. I don't know what I would have done without him. He carried me just like that."

At that moment, Andre and our double return to the camera. "Hey, that's the guy right there!" points Andre. "That's Mr. Johnson. That's the man I carried." And they warmly reunite and greet each other with a handshake and a hug.

Meanwhile, the double says, "That's the real guy? Even better! You don't need me anymore, right?"

Donald and I look at each other a little dumbfounded and don't really know what to say or do? Was this really happening? Should we put the real guy in the shoot? How is it that he is even here right now? Is he even healthy enough for it?

I give Donald a what-should-we-do look. "It's up to you, man," he replies.

Turning to the man, I ask, "Well, what do you think, do you want to be in your own story? Are you well enough to do a few takes?"

"Oh yeah," he says. "That guy saved my life. Of course, I'll do anything!"

So the double takes off, and we start shooting the story with the real characters. And surprisingly, Mr. Johnson does a fantastic job. To our delight, a natural for dramatic theater!

But midway, something else extraordinary happens. A group of about 4 other older gentlemen are walking down the street, who happen to be Mr. Johnson's friends. They recognize him, and they stop and interrupt the shoot because apparently their buddy is a movie star now! But then they realize what's happening and say, "Oh, this is the guy who carried you home that one day?" And Mr. Johnson glowingly introduces them to Andre and says again, "Yeah, this is the guy who saved my life. Thank God!"

We just let the camera roll.

What I haven't shared yet is that the major hook in Andre's story is about being at the right place at the right time, right where God needs you.

I'm telling you. You can't make this stuff up. Stories like this happen all the time at places like Breakthrough. If you want to hear more stories like this, you really should come to this Benefit Dinner.

On the Radio with Ted Elm

2010-10-12T21:15:00.003-05:00

Below is the audio of my October 4th interview with Ted Elm on WWJC-Duluth's Northland Notebook program. We talked about my book.

Urban Adventures and Environmental Injustice

2010-09-25T00:04:00.004-05:00

The following is a guest post from my friend, Tracey Bianchi. Tracey is a pastor and the author of Green Mama: The Guilt Free Guide to Helping You and Your Kids Save the Planet (Zondervan, 2010). I have the joy of joining her each month as part of the Redbud Writers Guild, a writing community of women’s voices that engage our world. You can catch her musings and information about her book at here.

I called Colorado home for a few blissful years. A native of Chicago and the Prairie State my little soul came to life as a graduate student in the Rocky Mountains. My classmates and I were a devoted tribe of skiers who would study Greek and Hebrew words en route to a ski resort, mostly broke we would skip a meal or two in order to scrape together the cash for a lift ticket or season pass.

I once took a ten day course that was designed to open my eyes to the complexities of urban poverty. We spent each night in a shabby hostel on the corner of a intersection where white skiing types like myself did not spend much time. We visited correctional centers, dined with the homeless at nearby shelters and enjoyed hours of lectures by community leaders seeking to bring peace, reconciliation and hope to the most beleaguered citizens of Denver.

One afternoon a local pastor stepped up to chat with us, the fleece and hiking boot crowd who sipped from high end water bottles and chattered away about recent hiking adventures as we waited for our session to begin. Behind his podium was a huge glass window offering a sun-drenched view of the Rockies.

He began by fanning his arm toward the window, remarking that indeed, it was a gorgeous day up in the mountains. We nodded, several of us letting our minds slip to a desire to be up in the hills rather than in a lecture. Then this pastor captured our attention quickly. He asked, “did you know that most of the children in this neighborhood have never been to the mountains?”

The foothills would take less than one hour to reach, the resort destination of Breckenridge barely two hours.

“They look every day at those peaks yet have never stepped foot into a mountain stream or experienced the joy of hiking in the backcountry.”

I was stunned. I looked around at the motley crew of seminary students assembled for this lecture. We were shabby and broke but for most of us this was a choice. We made a decision to pay tuition over a mortgage and even on our worst days could scrape by enough cash to cover gas and hiking boots.

To be a child living below the poverty line in Denver, to look upon those mountains each day yet never take them in, was ludicrous to me.

Eight years later I find myself championing the cause of our environment from Chicago. I urge my fellow urbanites to walk when they can, shop smarter, compost, recycle and such. But my mind still settles on that room filled with yuppie hikers and an urban pastor. What is the point in saving this planet if the very people who inhabit it cannot all enjoy its bounty?

Environmental injustice runs deep in our culture. The poor find themselves on the losing end of multiple transactions. First, they unfairly receive waste, landfills and serve as toxic receptacles since many communities lack the funding and education to fight these initiatives.

Second, the poor rarely get to relish in what is good and beautiful about this planet. To live in Denver yet never set foot in the mountains is a grave injustice. Millions of visitors from across this nation and the world fly into Denver’s International Airport every year. They drive through these neighborhoods, past children who are native to Colorado, and these tourists experience a Rocky Mountain High while the very children who stare at that vast space each day do not know the first thing about John Denver.

As we engage in conversations about urban poverty let us do our best to be sure we get children out of their urban settings on occasion. Let us fund initiatives that take children to summer camp, the mountains, the beaches or wherever it is that those with more income dash off to for peace and rest. Even if it means planting a patch of wildflowers in a local park. Moving urban children toward wilderness experiences is to treat their lives with justice and fairness, it is to bring their hearts a glimpse of the wild, vast expanses of God’s world. It is only seems fair to share the planet.

A Map of Race in Chicago

2010-09-22T06:05:00.002-05:00

I got this map of where people live in Chicago by ethnicity from this web site. Could we be more segregated?!

New Trier or Fenger High: Where would you want your kids educated?

2010-09-21T05:05:00.005-05:00

Thanks to Jean Mine Yang for pointing me to this video.

Full Length Video from United We Learn on Vimeo.

What is poverty?

2010-09-18T12:45:00.003-05:00

Rupert @roop13 asked me a series of great questions via twitter that I can’t answer in 140 characters. Here’s his tweet: @ArloaSutter define poverty? Do u really consider poverty in the US to be poverty? Do u really think we have it that bad in the US? #justcurious

Here is my response, Rupert. Let me know your thoughts.

Poverty is very complex and can be defined in many ways. The first thing that usually comes to our mind is economic poverty. In my book, The Invisible, I mention that even economic wealth is relative. Here is a quote from page 62.

Clearly, economic poverty is relative. A family living on $20,000 per year in Bolivia may be quite comfortable, while a family of four in the US would be living in poverty, and the family would be in crisis if they lived in Europe. When I traveled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 2005, I was amazed to learn that $40 per month was considered a pretty good salary for teachers there…

While you may not consider yourself to be financially rich, I am going to assume, in a world in which half the population lives on less than $2 per day, that most of you reading this book are extremely wealthy. A web site, www.globalrichlist.com, will tabulate your income relative to the rest of the world. A salary of $50,000 will put you in the top 1 percent of the world’s wealthiest! Unless, your income is significantly less than that, you can be pretty sure that nearly 99 percent of the world’s population is poorer than you economically.

Yes, Rupert, I believe there is, indeed, poverty in the US and lots of it. According to a recent article in the Chicago Tribune “The Census Bureau said 14.3 percent of the U.S. population, or 43.6 million people, lived below the poverty line last year, compared with 13.2 percent in the previous year and 11.3 percent in 2000… The poverty threshold last year was $10,956 for one person and $21,954 for a family of four.”

In the US, this poverty is compounded by what I call a “poverty of purposelessness, hopelessness and despair”. There are millions who are left out of any income generating activities. While I don’t want to discount that some people are just lazy, I would suggest that, for the most part, these are individuals who have simply given up on ever having the opportunity to get ahead. They often come from families that have been burdened by poverty for generations, have attended under-performing schools and have lived in environments burdened by crime and violence. Poverty has become a way of life for them. They are trapped with seemingly no way out.

There is also a kind of poverty that burdens the economically wealthy. The church of Laodicea was told in Revelation 3, “You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” We can have economic wealth and be trapped in a web of self-centered consumerism that stifles our soul and compounds our greed.

A few years ago, I asked a group of young men who had spent time in a refugee camp in Kenya what they were given to eat. They rounded their hands to form a bowl and said they were each given one bowl of meal to last an entire month. I asked if it lasted that long and they said it didn’t, that sometimes they had to go several weeks with nothing.

I don’t think the poor in the US experience that kind of extreme poverty. The fact that millions in developing countries go hungry and die of malnutrition and other diseases should disturb us. I think we all need to be involved in poverty alleviation at home and abroad in some way through our investments and advocacy.

Emerson, Smith and Snell in their book, Passing the Plate, discovered that if 90 percent of committed Christian households in the United States would give away 10 percent of their after tax income, we could raise $85.5 billion each year above what is currently given. What a difference this could make in alleviating poverty! The sad fact is that one in five US Christians give literally nothing to church, para-church, or nonreligious charities!

Jesus told a group of Pharisees in Luke 11, “you clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness… give what is inside [the dish] to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.”

Jesus was the greatest advocate for caring for the poor in dignifying ways that ever lived. Those of us who choose to follow him will follow him to the poor.

Myths of Homelessness

2010-09-18T10:34:00.004-05:00

Breakthrough Adult Services from Breakthrough Urban Ministries on Vimeo.

Memories of a five year old

2010-09-11T09:42:00.002-05:00

I ran into Ann Healing at River City Community Church last Sunday. Ann is the Director of Intern and Fellows Program for the International Justice Mission. She and her husband Dave were on staff at Breakthrough before they moved to the east coast two years ago. She told me about a comment her son made that I asked her to put in writing so I could post it.

We just moved back to Chicago after living in the DC area for 2 years. When my 7 year old son finally got over his sadness about the move back, he asked me if I was going to work at Breakthrough again. I told him someone else now has my old job but he continued to beg me to work there. (clearly a little confused about how employment works). When I asked him why he wanted me to work there so badly he said “Mommy, I loved it when we served meals in that big kitchen to the people who live at Breakthrough”. He was 5 years old when we moved from Chicago. Much of what we did the first time we lived here he doesn’t remember. On top of that, he only actually joined us 2 or 3 times in the year that we served meals monthly at Breakthrough. Despite all that, he remembers that there was something special about serving and having a meal with others like we did at Breakthrough. It was unique and forming for him. We hope to begin to serve there again now that we have returned to Chicago.

Staying Refreshed

2010-09-09T08:27:00.001-05:00

“How do you stay refreshed?” I’ve been asked that question twice in the last few weeks. “How do you stay positive in the midst of such crippling circumstances and devastating need?” Admittedly, we can run dry if we are not careful to put practices in place that sustain us for the long haul.

In my newly released book, The Invisible, I wrote an entire chapter on a principal that has guided my life work at Breakthrough. Early in our work we learned to “be led by the Spirit, rather than driven by need.”

In order to be led by the Spirit it is essential that we spend time with God in prayer and meditation before we rush in to meet needs and attempt to solve problems. We are led to joyful action when we first listen to the promptings of God’s Spirit. When we spend time with God each day we recognize how big God is and that God is the salvation of the world, not us. We don’t overestimate our own importance. Instead we let the love of God flow through us as we cooperate with the work God is already doing in the lives of others.

Another important principal that sustains us is the fact that we don’t work alone. We are part of a larger movement, a caring family of believers who work together to create a network of support for those who have become isolated and alone. This network also nurtures us as we engage in reciprocal relationships. We are part of a caring community that is reweaving the fabric of God’s shalom.

I am blessed to be surrounded by so many amazing people who are led by the Spirit to reach out with great acts of sacrifice and love in tough places. Thanks for being part of this great movement. Your contributions of time, encouragement and financial support keep us refreshed and joyful.

Green Faith and the Poor

2010-09-05T20:51:00.002-05:00

Last week I preached the second message in a series at River City Community Church entitled "Green Faith". I realized as I prepared that God has been bringing me on a journey of sensitivity about environmental stewardship and especially the affect of environmental injustice on the poor. You can listen to my message below.

Are we spending too much time in holy huddles?

2010-09-04T16:56:00.002-05:00

In my newly released book, The Invisible, I urge readers to join movements that are working for social change. This can be threatening to Christians who don’t feel safe joining causes that might be led or actively participated in by unbelievers. Can you participate in a walk to fund AIDs research or join a movement to end human trafficking that does not express Christian faith in its mission statement?

My friend and mentor, Ray Bakke, teaches that “people of good faith can join with people of good will for the good of the community.” We don’t need to water down our faith to be involved with unbelievers in causes that affect the welfare of the poor and oppressed. In fact, joining such movements is a natural expression of true Christian faith. When Christians are not present at the tables where plans are laid out to address societal evil our absence communicates that we don’t care.

Our holy prayer clusters are important. Our fellowship circles strengthen our resolve to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength. But then we must move out from those comfortable places to take action in the world to care for the oppressed and to work to right the wrongs of social injustice. This was Christ’s mission on earth as expressed at the outset of his ministry in Luke 4:18-21.

As Christians we are called to act out our faith. In fact, the apostle Paul states in Galatians 5:6, “The only thing that matters is faith expressing itself in love.” And James says, “What good is it, my brothers, if a person claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

Perhaps we are spending too much time in holy huddles and not enough time serving in food pantries and shelters or joining with others to bring education and business opportunities to impoverished communities. Here are some questions to ask yourself:

When was the last time you shared a meal with a poor person?
What cause or causes are you presently engaged in?
How many people in your network are from races and socioeconomic groups that are different from yours?
What is stopping you from getting involved in a movement that is working for compassion and justice?

Inside the Invisible World of the Homeless

2010-07-22T08:48:00.008-05:00

Several years ago I took a big cultural leap. I had been providing services to Chicago’s homeless population and I decided I wanted to know what it felt like to be on the other side of the services Breakthrough offers. I put on a pair of sweat pants and a union jacket and ventured out on the streets of Chicago posing as a homeless woman.

I asked a priest where I could find shelter. He sent me trekking nearly five miles south into an economically disadvantaged community. I wandered about for nearly five hours before a police officer pointed me in the direction of a storefront church. I collapsed exhausted on a mat next to nearly thirty other women. Several of them talked to themselves throughout the night. Others coughed and moaned and cried.

There was one bathroom with one shower for thirty women, no toilet paper or towels, no soap or deodorant. The next day, on the advice of several of the women, I started on what the homeless call “the trail”. I made my way from shelters to soup kitchens to ministry centers in quest of food, bathroom facilities and shelter.

I felt what it was like to stand in a soup line and watch as people passed by on their way to work without really seeing us. Volunteers passed me plates of food, but never asked my name or why I was there. None of the staff showed me any personal attention. I became a nameless, faceless, homeless person. It was like being behind a one way glass. We could see out, but it was as if others couldn’t see us. We were invisible to them.

I learned that the women on the street were not all that different from me. Though they struggled to find food, shelter and health care, they had unique personalities and fostered bonds of friendships with accompanying drama. Each had a story they were willing to share freely. Every morning they stayed at the shelter until we joined hands in a circle to say the Lord’s Prayer together, seeming hungry for the personal touch and the moment of spiritual reflection.

One afternoon as I walked from a library to the shelter, a policeman called out to me from his squad car and told me to come to him. I was aghast when he asked me out on a date. When I said no and walked away, he and his partner followed me in their car, continuing to call out to me over their loud speaker. I felt frightened and vulnerable. If they were to force themselves on me, what could I do? Who would believe me, a homeless woman?

I watched as women fought over their belongings and their space at the shelter. I felt anxious when a man told me I had to surrender my grocery bag with my water bottle and book at the door of a soup kitchen, wondering if I would ever see it again. I made friends and realized I could survive on the street indefinitely. Yet, I knew I was only there for a season. In just a few days I would go back to my own home, with my comfortable bed and my own shower, shampoo, lotion and coffee maker. I can never really understand what it feels like to be trapped, to have no options, to have no hope for a different tomorrow.

Most of us will probably never have to experience the challenge of homelessness. We have networks of support that we can rely upon in a crisis. There is much we can do to bring love, hope and dignity to those who struggle for survival. We can become part of a support network for those we find in shelters and on the street. We can join an organization or a movement that contributes food, shelter and clothing for those who lack these basic necessities. Most of all, we can give our presence, our listening ear, our friendship. We can look people in the eyes and ask them their names and listen to their stories. As we acknowledge them we begin to see the image of Christ in them and they in us and we both become more fully alive to the love of God.

Click here to join the Breakthrough Network of Support.

[This article is a part of the first edition of Here's Life Inner City's iHope Blog Carnival. For more information and to read other entries that focus on homelessness and poverty, click here .]

What Is Poverty?

2010-07-08T18:56:00.007-05:00

Thanks to Jason Fowler at the SustainableTraditions Blog for linking me to this video.

Bruised Apples and Local Character

2010-06-16T07:12:00.004-05:00

The post below is from my friend Tracey Bianchi, author of “Green Mama: The Guilt Free Guide to Helping You and Your Kids Save the Planet.” She is the mother of three and an author, speaker, and women’s ministry director. You can find more of her musings on life, faith and sustainability here and purchase her book here.

Our local farmer's market is a hub of activity every week. Lettuce, jelly, strawberries, nuns who bake bread. The old Greek guy selling olives is definitely my favorite. He takes plump, oval, gorgeous olives and crams them with soft bleu cheese. I don't even like bleu cheese but his olives have made me a devotee.

The family that hauls heirloom apples up from the southern part of my state is another treasure. By late summer they truck in over two dozen varieties of apples. Brown Snout, Adina, Prairie Spy, Akane, Pink Pearl, Chisel Jersey. Did you know apples had these names?

My apple exposure comes from the pile at my local grocer. Granny Smith and Golden Delicious. Maybe on a daring day I dabble in a Jonathan Gold.

Grocery store apples are perfectly smooth, no bruises and quite hard. I arrive home and they don't taste as stellar as they looked. Mealy and lackluster. These apples come from fabulously far away places like Washington State or New Zealand. I find this odd given the multiple apple orchards near my home. None of the apples in our stores actually come from these orchards (a common occurrence in food life).

Commercial apples are often plucked from the trees long before they are ripe, stealing their sweetness and color. A green apple at your grocer might actually, if left on the tree, become a yellow apple! And sweeter than the one in your cart.
On a recent trip to the farmer’s market my two youngest children were running from bin to bin picking their apples by yanking whatever looked tasty from the heirloom varieties.

Then they scurried over the the stroller where a canvas bag received their selections. At first they gently set the apples into the bag. It was perfectly idyllic. I was the uber eco-mom with the gentle kids and the awesome apples. But the moment quickly changed as competition and adrenaline suddenly took over.
They began racing back and forth, grabbing armloads of apples and throwing them into my bag. Beautiful apples bouncing around and bruising one another. I managed to stop the chaos for a moment so my 2.5 year old said "okay mommy, then let's go buy our apples."

Before I could harness his ambition he darted over to the stroller, grabbed the handle on our bag and yanked it with such force that the bag tipped and apples flew then bounced across the market lot. "Oops. Mommy?"

As we tucked them back into the bag I noticed, beyond our bruises, that each apple had such character. Traits you don't see in stores. Odd colors, lumps, freckles and spots. Each had a story to tell. An heirloom apple's worth of history, seeds from France, family secrets from Germany, local color from Illinois. These apples were ripe with more than flavor.

We relaxed enough to pay the farmer (who smiled and kindly said "happens all the time") and I felt embarrassed of course. But, I also felt joy and history swelling through my little suburban veins. A small moment of triumph over the commercial food industry, victory for my kitchen.

I had a bag of odd shaped character and it felt a little bit like my life. Freckled, bruised and filled with stories. Like the lives of my children as well.

So I beg you to get in touch with your local growers this summer. Not as an act of hatred against grocery chains but a way learning and of growing. To put your hands on freckled apples is to realize that you are connected to the same bizarre, bruised world as our farmers and our food.

A way of living into the reality that we are all connected to our land, God’s land. Our food and ultimately to one another. May you find an odd shaped apple this summer that fills your heart and your stomach with a glimpse of God’s love and grace for this world and for your very soul.

This is what 100 years old should look like

2010-06-09T08:43:00.003-05:00

This is 100 year old Vorese Fisher. This awesome woman of God is the only remaining family member and aunt of Tracy Kennedy. She is affectionately known to many of as "Aunt Vo." Tracy had a photo shoot for Aunt Vo a few days before her 100th Birthday. Oh yes, she is 100 years young!

Aunt Vo gets her rest. She loves the Perry Mason TV show. She cooks delicious homemade rolls. She is still mobile and enjoying riding her stationery exercise bike to stay healthy. This woman of tremendous poise, grace, and beauty is still in her "right mind". If you ask Aunt Vo what was her secret to longevity she would say , "Jesus in the morning. Jesus in the afternoon and Jesus at night keeps me in peace." Aunt Vo revealed her secret for health is simply moderation. Nothing overdone...nothing overdone. Aunt Vo retired from being in sales at the Bullocks Wilshire store in 1975. She is an avid reader. She learned how to endure the struggles and hardships of being a woman of color and so happy to have lived to received White House birthday greetings from President and Michelle Obama. (via Tracey Turner)

May God Bless You With Discomfort

2010-06-08T09:46:00.002-05:00

Thanks to John Deacon from Toronto for sending this quote to me...

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths and superficial relationships, so you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe you can make a difference in the world, so you can do what others claim cannot be done.

--Franciscan Prayer

Caring for the poor is not an option for Christians

2010-06-03T09:38:00.002-05:00

Teresa of Avila said, “Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours; yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion looks out on the world.”

While those words sound beautiful, many of us in the body of Christ struggle with how to care for broken people. Compassion comes easily for people who are like us, but what about people on the margins of society. How can we be the hands and feet of Christ to people who are struggling in the downward spiral of poverty and isolation?

A woman sent me a note asking me to please stop sending her newsletters about our ministries’ work with the homeless in Chicago. “I don’t want to have anything to do with those people”, she wrote. “I let a homeless woman stay with me and she stole from me.”

“I’m afraid to get too involved with people who have such desperate needs,” Toni told me. “I know that if I get personally involved it’s going to get messy. I had an experience once where I was taken advantage of. I felt like an idiot. I was angry. That’s what I get scared of, that I’m just being foolish.”

None of us enjoys being duped. After experiencing two or three of these unfortunate confrontations, it is understandable that some would rather just avoid dealing with people in need. After all, aren’t there government programs that take care of the legitimately poor and the unemployed? Why should we be bothered and chance contributing to someone’s addiction or being taken advantage of?

Yet Jesus was very clear in his teaching that Christians don’t have the option not to care for the down and out.

The Good Samaritan crossed the road and was moved by compassion for the mugged man. He got involved by bandaging his wounds and then took him to the nearest rehab center and paid for his rehabilitation.

What we do for the least of these, Jesus said, is what we do for him. The list included providing food and clothing, looking after people in prison, caring for the sick and taking in strangers.

Compassionate care for the poor is central to the teaching of Scripture. Ultimately the power to overcome poverty lies in learning to live the Jesus way, to follow him in how he interacted with the poor and the marginalized, and to be willing—like Jesus, to lay down our self-centered, materialistic lives to take up the cross of loving generosity, gentle kindness, and tenacious advocacy for the rights of the poor and the oppressed.

The needs of the poor are often complicated. Generations of social castaways are plagued with inadequate education, dilapidated housing and few employable skills.

What can the church do find and serve the least of these?

As I have walked for the past eighteen years alongside thousands of men and women who have become homeless in the city of Chicago, and as I have visited impoverished communities throughout the world, I have discovered good news. We actually can, in very practical ways, find sustainable, manageable ways to make a difference in the lives of the poor.

Caring for the poor is something we do together. In the body of Christ, we each have a role to play. God raises up leaders who start movements, ministries and organizations that are feeding and clothing the homeless, providing shelter, caring for the sick and ministering to those in prison. Each of us can join these movements in some way through giving and volunteering.

When was the last time you shared a meal or had a meaningful conversation with a poor person? Find a ministry in your community that is caring for people in need and find out how you can get involved. It will change your life.

The Christian church is the largest grassroots movement on earth. How we respond to the poor is central to the life and teachings of Jesus and to what it means for us to follow Christ. Together we can make a profound impact on poverty. Indeed, I believe we are called by God to do so.

When I Grow Up

2010-05-04T21:43:00.001-05:00

When I Grow Up from Breakthrough Urban Ministries on Vimeo.

The Practice of Self Regulation

2010-05-02T08:48:00.003-05:00

Tell those rich in this world’s wealth
to quit being so full of
themselves and so obsessed with money,
which is here today and gone tomorrow.
Tell them to go after God, who piles on all the
riches we could ever manage—to do good, to be rich in helping
others, to be extravagantly generous.
If they do that, they’ll build
a treasure that will last, gaining life that is truly life.

— I Timothy 6:17-19, The Message

Irving Wasserman was on a mission. He was single handedly going to erase the national debt by building an endowment. He saved nearly all of his disability checks and bought government bonds until he had accrued half a million dollars. Before he passed away in 2000 he set up a revocable living trust to give his estate to Breakthrough. Despite his disability, Irving still holds the record for the largest one time gift to Breakthrough from an individual.

Irving was the most frugal man I have ever met. He asked us to move his stove to the alley so he wouldn’t have to pay the gas bill for the pilot light. When he found coins on the street he immediately walked them to the bank. “I can’t trust myself with money,” he replied when I questioned him about deposits for five cents or a quarter.

One day I invited Irving to my house for dinner. Since he was a diabetic I purchased special sugar-free ice cream bars for him. He ate one with great pleasure. At the end of the evening I gave him the rest of the package of ice cream bars to take home.

The next morning he was pounding on my door. “Here, take these,” he yelled as he thrust the ice cream bars into my hands. “They make me want to have them all the time!”

His words have stuck with me through the years as I have pondered my own life style. As I have eaten at finer restaurants and stayed at nicer hotels, I realize, “They make me want to have them all the time.”

There is power in learning to practice self regulation, to simplify our life styles so we can do more for the kingdom. Instead of leading a lifestyle of consumerism and teaching our kids to follow in our footsteps, we can leave a legacy of changed lives and community transformation. We may not be as frugal as Irving, but there are likely ways that all of us could do more to regulate our consumption in order to be more generous and helpful to others. Though he was challenged in many ways, Irving Wasserman left a legacy.

What’s your legacy?

The Story Behind Amazing Grace by Wintley Phipps

2010-03-28T17:41:00.001-05:00

Social Justice is not Socialism

2010-03-21T08:49:00.004-05:00

Recently I was surprised to learn that the concept of social justice has been under attack. Several talk show hosts seem to be equating social justice with socialism and have warned Christians not to align themselves with anyone who is advocating for social justice.

While the words sound the same, they are actually quite opposite. Under socialism, all earnings from labor are given to the government and people are given just enough food and clothing to live in the worst conditions. I have never met a Christian social justice advocate who thinks socialism is the answer. Instead, we are guided by Scripture to acknowledge that “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof” (Psalm 24:1) and we are to be stewards who care for the poor through loving generosity, not obligation. (2 Corinthians 9:6-10)

Justice is, in fact, a concept that is core to the message of the gospel. Jesus announced in Luke 4:18-19 that he was anointed to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed.

“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne”, declared the Psalmist in Psalm 89:14 and Micah wrote, “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

King Josiah discovered the lost scripture in the temple and hearing it read led him to repentance. Later Jeremiah wrote of Josiah, “He defended the cause of the poor and needy so that all went well. ‘Is that not what it means to know me?’ declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 22:16)

While I can understand the concern that big government might actually increase poverty, I can not back down from the call of God to defend the cause of the poor. Social justice is not socialism. It is what it means to know God.

Micah 6:8 Conference from Conversations Next on Vimeo.

Empowerment: How do you help people without hurting?

2010-01-30T14:06:00.004-06:00

One of the core principles of the Christian Community Development Association is "Empowerment". The video below from Urban Entry gives a great introduction to the concept.

Does Serving Mean Playing Small?

2010-01-30T08:17:00.002-06:00

I teach a Wheaton College class in Chicago every semester. I like to remind my students that the fact that they are getting a college education and own computers means they are in the top 1% of the most privileged people in the world and that they have a special responsibility to use their privilege on behalf of the world and God’s kingdom. I encourage them to maximize their gifts to become world leaders who will speak to power about the needs of the poor.

Some of the students in one of my recent classes took me to task over this notion. Should they not take the role of humble servants, setting aside their privilege to live common lives among the poor? Isn’t that what it means to serve? To follow Jesus’ example of laying aside his position of power and privilege to take on the form of a servant? To live among the poor and disparate as one of them?

It’s a good question, isn’t it? Yet, even the fact that some of us have choices, sets us apart from those who don’t.

Shane Claiborne, of the Simple Way, is a good example of a young man from privilege, with a Wheaton College education, who set aside aspirations to accrue wealth and power to live in an impoverished community in Philadelphia and join his companions in making their own clothing and diving in dumpsters for food. He uses his power in crafting the English language to give compelling voice to the lives and struggles of the poor through his speaking and writing. Many in my neighborhood would have difficulty bridging cultural worlds like he does. They lack the educational background and access to a broader network to ever impact the world like he does. He is powerfully using his privilege on behalf of the poor.

The mother of two of Jesus’ disciples wanted to ensure that her sons would have powerful positions when she asked Jesus if they could sit at his right and left hand in the kingdom. As a mother, I understand that. Who doesn’t want their kids to be great? To be acknowledged and recognized for their achievements?

Jesus never reprimanded her or her boys for wanting to be great. He just gently turned the tables on the definition of true greatness with his answer. “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matt. 20:25-27)

I love that my students are wrestling with this question. I’m sure that some of them will become attorneys who will draft legislation and run for office, others will become doctors and teachers among the poor. Some will run businesses and finance firms that will generate revenue that they will pass on to incubate community and economic development projects and support ministries in impoverished communities throughout the world. I love their passion for justice and their desire to follow Jesus with radical abandon.

We are indeed, all called to serve, to give our lives for a greater cause, whether we head corporations and governments or pick up the dying in the streets of Calcutta.

Nelson Mandela, in his 1994 inaugural address quoted Marianne Williamson’s beautiful words below:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness
That most frightens us.

We ask ourselves
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.

Your playing small
Does not serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking
So that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine,
As children do.
We were born to make manifest
The glory of God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us;
It's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we're liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris - Hallelujah

2010-01-24T08:33:00.003-06:00

I loved this song by Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris on the Hope for Haiti telethon.

Grace Awakening

2010-01-17T22:25:00.002-06:00

A couple of days ago I came upon a beautiful blog post written by Jordan Dowell, who volunteered with his church, Willow Creek, at Breakthrough's women's center. Jordan gave me permission to copy a portion of his post below. You can read it in it's entirety here.

Tonight I had the opportunity along with 5 college students from my church to serve and eat a meal at Breakthrough Urban Ministries Women’s shelter on the Westside of Chicago. An old factory, turned warehouse, turned machine shop, then abandoned, and now remodeled, provides housing for 30 women and staff under Breakthrough’s name. It is a simple place, but in the unfolding production of grace this building radiates upon the stage. I wish to articulate everything that happened tonight, but to do so would take an entire book, so I must consolidate.

As is ritual, one veteran volunteer led the women in worship with her acoustic guitar while the meal was being prepared. As the women trickled into the dinning hall connected directly to the large open kitchen the smell of meatloaf and dinner rolls filled the air. The room echoed badly as the music begun, but despite that and the harsh hanging florescent lights there was an intense awareness of “home,” security, hope, and belonging among the people in the room.

I sat at a table with a woman named Patricia and shared her song book as we sang worship songs put to the simple rhythm of a guitar. She and I chatted briefly between songs as others in the room shouted song requests, then we would continue with the group in song. I noticed that as I sang louder, so would Patricia, and so I sang very loudly on one song “Hosanna.” I didn’t look at the songbook very much during that song because I knew it by memory, so I sang, loudly, along with Patricia who from the way she closely followed the words in the song book, I determined hadn’t heard the song many times before.

When the song ended, Patricia pointed with her finger to the first two lines of the bridge that read, “Heal my heart and make it clean, open up my eyes to the things unseen.” Through what seemed to be tears, she said “That’s what He did for me”
Patricia ran her finger along the words, back and forth as if stroking a precious piece of jewelry. I was taken aback by her emotion. I had just sung those words out of the cold repository of my memory without second thought while Patricia had been intensely reminded of grace and forgiveness. The next song started, but Patricia kept talking about who she’d been, who she’d hurt and disappointed, the drugs she’d used, the education she’d thrown away. She told me about an experience where God clearly “opened up her eyes to the things unseen.” With a cringe and a whisper she said, “I saw everything, I saw who I was, I saw who God was…” She paused, I was riveted by the passion with which she talked about God. Her awareness of grace brought tears to my eyes as I thought, “that’s what He did for me too.”

Last night I sang a song as I’d done many times before, but through the simplicity of a strummed guitar and through the delicate loving way Patricia talked about the words, my understanding of grace soared.

There are times when a simple single thing, when experienced in a delicate and simple way, will change your understanding of the greater whole.

Grace is a grand production that is redeeming humanity. It’s breadth and scale is magnificent, but to appreciate grace there are many elements of which we need to remain aware.

In understanding grace, there are stories we need to hear, and songs we need to sing.

Planning for a happy new year!

2009-12-30T22:44:00.003-06:00

The coming of the new year is more than banging pans and drinking champagne. It is a great time to check in on how we are doing and make plans for the coming year. Here are a few suggestions I jotted down.

The Red Dot: Where Are You Now?
Start with a frank assessment of your present situation. Most shopping malls have maps encased in glass to help us find our way. The key to reading the map is to find the red dot with the declaration, “YOU ARE HERE.” If we can locate where we are, we have a better chance of knowing how to get to where we want to be.

Your Passion: What Moves You?
Once you have a good idea where you are, you can start asking yourself questions that will reveal what you want to achieve in 2010.

What are the issues you care about? What breaks your heart, makes you cry, makes you feel? Is it children? The mentally ill? The elderly? Single mothers? Is there some issue that has evidenced itself in your family?

I care about arthritis because my father suffered with it. I care about single moms because my daughter has become one. I care about kids in the city because my kids were raised in the city, and many of their friends have been incarcerated, are living in dire circumstances, or have lost their lives to street violence. I care about the homeless because many of them have become my friends, and I have listened to their stories.

What issues matter most to you? Education? Healthcare? Economic development? Housing? Nutrition? Hunger? What do you think needs to be changed in order for everyone to have equal opportunity? What moves you emotionally?

Theologian Frederick Buechner wrote, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” What makes you glad?

I am made glad by seeing underdogs turn their lives around. I love to see people who have never had hope for their future begin to dream. I love to develop leaders. I love to see people operate in their area of giftedness. I love to build things, create things. It makes me glad. Where does your deep gladness meet the world’s deep hunger?

Pray for Guidance: Where Is God Leading You?
Take time to sit in prayer with God, affirming you openness to making changes in your life as the Spirit directs you.

If there is any hint of guilt or self-condemnation, lay it at Jesus’ feet and know that he loves you. Imagine that Jesus is picking up a towel and washing your feet. Look into his eyes and feel his love for you just as you are. There is nothing you can do to get God to love you more. Jesus does not require your acts of service to win his love. He just invites you to take up the towel and follow him because he loves you. This is not a burden. It’s an adventure.

Where is God leading you? Ask God to give you a vision for what you are being called to. Spend thirty minutes in uninterrupted silence, letting God speak to you through your thoughts.

Write Down Your Vision: Where Are You Going? What would your life look like if you responded fully to your calling. Can you picture it? Write about it in as much detail as you can. Draw or paint your image of yourself carrying out your vision. What will you be doing five years from now that will leave your mark on the world? What will you do in 2010 to move toward your calling. What would you like to be said of you at your funeral? Write it down. Read it out loud.

Build Your Plan
What do you need to do now to move you toward your goal? Build a five-year plan and break it down into years, quarters, weeks and days. Schedule appointments with God on your calendar in order to check in on how you are doing in carrying out the plan that God has given you.

Bill Lutes, former program manager for Wisconsin Public Radio, wrote, “All one can do is make little beginnings, to try to do ‘the next right thing.’” What is the next right thing for you to do? What do you need to focus on? What do you need to cut out? What do you need to prioritize?

Share Your Plan with a Friend
This is not something you can do by yourself. You need others to join you. Invite them into your plan. Ask for their help. Ask a trusted friend to hold you accountable.

Execute
Nike says it best, “Just do it”! Your life will become so much more meaningful when you begin to spend it meaningfully on behalf of others. I don’t know anyone who has begun to invest their time, talent and treasure on behalf of others who has lived to regret it.

Dream Big
Big problems need big solutions. There is no end to the opportunities to change the world and to make an impact. There are emerging enterprise initiatives that stretch our imagination and creativity with new ways of empowering people. Dare to dream big and join a coalition of others who share your vision.

I'm looking forward to a great year in 2010. I hope you are too. Happy new year!!

Making Rough Ways Smooth

2009-12-23T09:11:00.002-06:00

Merry Christmas! This is the season when we talk about peace and good will, family and love. It is a special time of the year when we listen to the voices of John the Baptist and Mary, the mother of Jesus, announce that, “every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth,” The coming of the Messiah would “lift up the humble” and fill the “hungry with good things”.

At Breakthrough we get to see the hungry filled with good things every day, a beautiful fulfillment of the prophecies as the people of God come together to care for those in the low valleys of life. It involves all of us listening to God’s whisper in our hearts and responding to the call to love. God intends that we care for and learn from each other.

I pray that this Christmas you will join the movement to make the “rough ways smooth” for those who are stumbling on the broken ground and the cracked sidewalks in our own backyard. This is the true meaning of Christmas, the announcement of the good news that Christ has come to bring new life. May you experience the joy of participating with Christ in the redemption of all that is broken this holiday season!

Dr. Brenda Salter-McNeil's Message at River City Community Church

2009-12-21T23:41:00.004-06:00

The message below is one of the best messages I have ever heard on the incarnation and why we need to cross cultures to care for people. It's an hour long, but very worth the time. A powerful word. You can download the podcast version here.

When did you know?

2009-12-17T19:43:00.003-06:00

Seth Harris, who works for the Inspiration Corporation and volunteers for i.c.stars, interviewed me a couple of months ago as part of his series of blog posts of interviews with leaders asking them, "When did you know" that you would be working for substantial change in the world? I don't know how he managed to get my Iowa farm lamb story out of me, but he did. I think he asked me to reflect back to when I was ten. Anyway... here's a link to the audio of the interview.

Health gap between blacks and whites in Chicago widens

2009-12-17T19:06:00.003-06:00

Here's a link to a very discouraging article in the Chicago Tribune that reveals that a study conducted by the Sinai Urban Health Institute shows that the health gap between whites and blacks in Chicago is getting WIDER!

Institute director Steve Whitman, whose work has compared breast cancer disparities in Chicago and New York, said the health of African-Americans in Chicago fares worse than blacks elsewhere.

"The underlying issue here is racism and poverty," Whitman said. "In Chicago, it's exacerbated by segregation. Black people in Chicago are forced to live in neighborhoods where there are no stores to buy fresh fruits and vegetables, where schools are failing, where they don't have parks to exercise in and where they tend to go to segregated health facilities that are poorly funded and, in different ways, failing."

This is what we have been trying to say at Breakthrough! And why we are raising $15M to build the Breakthrough FamilyPlex to provide a health clinic, fitness center, sports and arts programs, early childhood education and after school tutoring. We are also bringing fresh produce into the neighborhood and beginning to grow our own vegetables. It is urgent that we get this project done and continue to strengthen our work at Breakthrough.

New Poverty and Justice Bible Available

2009-12-09T07:16:00.004-06:00

I'm looking forward to getting this new Poverty and Justice Bible. The book highlights the more than 2000 references in Scripture to poverty and justice and includes a 56-page guide for personal and group study. This will be an excellent resource. Recognizing the importance of poverty and justice to the heart of God has changed my life.

Thanks!

2009-11-19T17:25:00.002-06:00

The audio below is a voice mail thank you from a Breakthrough Fresh Market participant who had no food in the house. This is why we do what we do.

Telling a story with sand art

2009-11-16T19:49:00.002-06:00

This is an amazing video of Kseniya Simonova, a Ukrainian artist, portraying Germany’s invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WWII through sand art. Absolutely amazing!!

The Harlem Children's Zone Conference

2009-11-14T05:59:00.005-06:00

This week, Bill Curry (Breakthrough's COO) and I traveled to NYC to attend a conference put on by the Harlem Children's Zone. The HCZ came to our attention during Obama's campaign when he heralded it as an example of how organizations should be approaching community transformation. Basically they have created a pipeline of best practice programs that follow children from before birth through college. They start with what they call Baby College, a program for expectant parents, through Harlem Gems, their early childhood education program and into Promise Academy, their school. Their goal is to make sure all of their students go on to college. They hire one staff member for every 20 students they help place in college to ensure that the students make it through college to graduation.

The idea is to discover what works and bring it to scale. Obama wants to locate 20 organizations that will replicate the HCZ approach in what he has called "Promise Neighborhoods" throughout the country. Their approach is strikingly similar to what we are trying to do at Breakthrough. We went to the conference because we want to learn from what they are doing.

Key takeaways for me were the emphasis on measuring impact, the high expectations they place on their staff, and the combination of passion and excellence that marks everything they do. The people in our community deserve our best and I came back with more resolve than ever to continue to grow Breakthrough in excellence and bring it to scale until it becomes the norm in our community for children to go to college and return to the community.

I think Breakthrough has an important contribution to the Promise Neighborhood conversation in that on top of creating this pipeline, which Breakthrough is already doing on a micro level through our preschool and after school programs, we have introduced a model for relationships. I think this is missing at the HCZ or it is happening informally. Here is a link to the Breakthrough video in which Bill Curry discusses the Network Model. Beyond building skills, Breakthrough connects people to opportunity through the creation of intentional supportive relationships that link people to schools, jobs and other opportunities.

1,400 people attended the conference which was sold out with a waiting list of 400, many of whom came anyway and joined in without registering. It was inspiring to be around so many bright people who are passionate about finding solutions to the demise of impoverished urban communities. I returned with a renewed sense of urgency to do all that I can to impact our community.

Precious, the movie

2009-11-14T05:45:00.003-06:00

Last weekend I went with a group of friends to see the movie, Precious. It's very raw, mostly due to language and the image of Precious being so horribly abused by her parents. When things get real ugly Precious switches into a fantasy world which saves us from having to watch. It is deeply moving. By the end I wanted to go out and start alternative schools and half way houses for people like Precious.

When she tries to escape her abusive situation she goes to a church. The choir is inside practicing but the doors are locked. She goes to her teacher instead. It is a sad commentary on the church, which I don't know is really accurate (in my experience it is mostly church-going people who are running caring ministries), but it is a real challenge for us in the church to step up our game in caring for hurting people.

The movie is a great discussion starter. Precious needs a lot of help, a support network, and she will need it for a long time. As in the film I find it amazing what a little kindness means to people who have lived with so much cruelty. May we all learn to be better lovers. And yes, I agree with the reviewers, Mo'Nique deserves an Oscar for this one!

My message at River City 11-01-09

2009-11-05T08:19:00.002-06:00

The Miraculous Love of God

NY Times video about runaway kids: When No One's Looking

2009-10-27T07:40:00.002-05:00

A conversation with experts on street violence: the kids in the middle of it

2009-10-17T07:50:00.004-05:00

Yesterday, at the request of Steven Levitt, author of the best selling book, Freakonomics, a group of us sat down with 10 young men from the neighborhood who are insiders to the escalating violence we have been seeing on the streets and in and around the Chicago Public Schools. We asked them what they thought about possible solutions.

They were eager to share their thoughts and ideas (especially since we paid them cash to do it!) Most seemed to agree there are no easy solutions.

Question: What if you were promised $5,000 if you stayed in school and got good grades?

Answer: I would use the $5,000 to buy myself some work (drugs) and turn it into $10,000 very quickly.

Question: How hard is it for you to get guns?

Answer: Very hard… later… sure I’ve had lots of guns. I need a gun for protection.

Question: Would more police help?

Answer: Sure if they did their job. They planted drugs on me and hauled me in. They picked me up for no reason and dropped me off in a community where they knew I would be in danger. They let us go if we give them a couple of guns and they use the guns later to plant them on us when they want to take us in.

Question: Are gangs a problem in the schools?

Answer: Yes, and not just the big gangs. It could be between floors. Like, don’t come up on the second floor unless you have a class, or don’t come over to the east side of the school if you don’t want to get beat up. There are little clicks and groups.

I wish I could capture the conversation better. There were times I could barely understand what was being said because of such heavy code language.

The “old heads”, former gang leaders, get out of prison and come back and think they can run things, but there are new leaders in place. That causes conflict.

Natasha, who was killed at a bus stop on Madison last week, happened to be standing next to a couple of guys who had killed Little Jim a few weeks earlier. It was retaliation and Natasha was hit by mistake.

Madison Avenue is the dividing street right now between the Black Souls and the Unknowns.

Hip hop sets the standard. If Li’l Wayne would rap the times tables that's what they'd be doing.

There are people out there who ain’t got no one.

Sometimes the streets show you more love.

Guys get bored. There’s nothing to do. We need jobs.

Question: What would you suggest as solutions?

Answer: More places like Breakthrough. (Honestly, I didn’t set them up!) Everyone loves basketball and we need to learn how to do stuff like woodworking, auto mechanics, how to build a house. If I knew how to build a house, I would build one for you right now. (He said to the guy next to him.)

My Wheaton College Chapel Message

2009-10-12T22:26:00.001-05:00

Youth Violence in East Garfield Park

2009-10-11T19:13:00.002-05:00

This has been a tragic week in our neighborhood. On Wednesday, Natasha Howliet, a 20 year old mother of three was gunned down at a bus stop on the day of her three year old's birthday. She was a graduate of West Town Academy, 2021 W. Fulton St., and worked at KMart. Someone in a red car shot into the group of bystanders, probably hoping to hit the guys standing near her who still have not been located.

On Friday night, Stacey Adams, 22, was gunned down and killed in East Garfield Park. Terrence Gallaway, 28, has been charged with his murder.

On Tuesday a 23 year old young man was shot in the leg. When police tried to apprehend the shooter he fired at them!

Last Sunday, Demetrius Watson, 23, from East Garfield Park was found shot to death in the Little Village neighborhood.

The violence in Chicago is making national news and much of it is right in my neighborhood. I have heard there is a turf war going on between a couple of the local gangs. This is prime territory for the drug trafficking business

Sadly, I don't think there are any quick fixes. Young men who have been tossed aside, profiled because of the color of their skin and not challenged to believe in their future, feel they have little to lose in this war. They are the victims of generational poverty and institutional racism.

A 17 year old who participated in the Fenger mob scene a few weeks ago that left Derrion Albert beaten to death remarked, "I don't think a new day is promised to nobody. Anything could happen at any time." The Tribune ran an interesting article about why they fight.

We recently interviewed young men for our new Launch Pad program at Breakthrough. Launch Pad is a residential leadership development program for 18 to 24 year old men. We were deeply saddened by their stories. Most of them have recently come out of the foster care system and at age 18 are tossed to the streets with nothing.

I wish we had room for hundreds of these young men at Breakthrough. It is urgent that we grow this program.

We are all family

2009-09-21T19:44:00.003-05:00

As I turned the corner a block from my home I was surprised to see a wave of nearly fifty young men and women, all wearing white T-shirts. It’s not unusual to see groups of young men wearing white tees in my neighborhood. They have become a kind of uniform publicized by the hip-hop group, Dem Franchize Boyz, in their song, The White Tee Gang, and by other rappers.

Some schools, restaurants and clubs have even begun to ban white tees because they have become so associated with gang affiliation. Police officers are often baffled when the description is broadcast that they are looking for a young black man in a white tee. They arrive to find ten young men who would fit the description. The tees have become a symbol of solidarity in the face of the injustice of the system.

These tees were different. They had black writing on them. I strained to read what was on the shirts as I slowed to let a group of them cross the street in front of me. As young man graciously waved me on, I read his shirt. “We are all family.”

“Isn’t that nice?” I thought. “Someone on the block is having a family reunion.” Then I noticed the backs of the shirts. In bold letters was written, “Black Souls.” My heart sank. The family that all of these young people on my block were associating with is a notorious street gang.

I have a dream that someday the white tees in our neighborhood will be replaced by Breakthrough tees. The kids get them when they participate in any of our sports leagues, after school programs, the choir or the hunger walk. One by one the white tees in our neighborhood are being offset by the multi-colored Breakthrough tees symbolizing the young people who really want to do well in school and to participate in positive activities that ensure a bright future instead of the violence and the hopeless downward spiral of gang life.

"We are all family". It's how I would describe the reign of the shalom of God, the answer to Jesus' prayer that the will of God be done on earth as it is in heaven. But if we are not family to our children, they will find their family somewhere else.

Thanks Brad and Calm the Static!

2009-08-19T21:15:00.000-05:00

Braxton Media: Chicago Has A Homeless Problem

2009-08-19T19:24:00.001-05:00

Living in a War Zone

2009-07-29T13:12:00.011-05:00

Last night, while I slept, there was a shooting less than a block from my apartment. Seven young men were wounded, several of them critically, when someone ran through a vacant lot and opened fire on a group of bystanders.

Homan and Walnut is a notorious corner in our neighborhood. There is nearly always a group of people hanging out in front of the convenience store on the corner. I have heard stories of the covert drug trafficking business that takes place in and around the store. Even the blue police observance camera has not deterred it. If you have ever seen the HBO miniseries or read the book, The Corner, by David Simon and Edward Burns, you would have an image of what that corner is like. It is a center of commiserating hopelessness, an emblem of a crumbling community crippled by spiraling poverty, joblessness and despair.

We are living in a war zone. Research shows that gang members living in the city are seven times more likely to become casualties of this war than they would be if they had been deployed to Iraq in the height of the conflict. Yet this war goes on in our back yards with little fanfare or public outcry, perhaps because we are confounded by it and tend to blame the victims.

Granted, every individual who was out there on the corner last night could probably have made a better choice about where to be and what to do on a nice Chicago evening. But there are too few options in communities like ours and life seems cheap and dispensable for our young people when they have the very real sense that no one cares. No one cares enough about their welfare to ensure that they are given a good education with marketable skills, or that they have even half a chance of ever actualizing their dreams, if they even have the audacity to still dream.

So the mounting distress finally gets released, turned in upon young black men by young black men, and the rest of us shake our heads and believe that if we were in their situation we would be different. We would pull together self-esteem from some dark hole and walk past the guys on the corner with their wads of money. We would flip burgers at a greasy spoon for eight bucks an hour and save every penny for our future. We would be home working on our homework while people around us scream at each other about who took the last piece of food and how they are going to pay the rent. We would get ourselves out of that hell hole and never look back. Why? Because we know that’s not the way life is supposed to be, for us, for anyone.

We are calling people back in to the East Garfield Park community, to rebuild it, to restore hope. Some of us have relocated from outside the community to join the many warriors who have stayed, who have been faithfully working, hoping and praying for its renewal. Others are returning with a dream. A dream that things can change. That a network of shalom can replace the spiral of despair. That healthy community can be restored, kids can learn, jobs can be created, loving families can support one another in raising healthy happy children. It’s a dream that must not fail. It’s a big dream.

Stand By Me - A Little Taste of Heaven

2009-07-27T07:27:00.002-05:00

Dr. Soong-Chan Rha

2009-07-26T09:38:00.004-05:00

Below is the audio of Dr. Soong-Chan Rha's important message during Euro American Heritage Month at the River City Community Church on July 19, 2009. Soong-Chan Rah is the author of The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity and the Milton B. Engebretson Associate Professor of Church Growth and Evangelism at North Park Theological Seminary.

How Should We Respond to Panhandlers?

2009-07-19T19:43:00.005-05:00

Panhandlers seem to bombard us in the city. They wash our car windshields at the gas station and then come to our windows expecting payments. They cling to rag tag cardboard signs and approach us with forlorn faces. Some are in obvious need. We can tell by their faces that they truly are blind or they are missing legs or they are sitting in wheelchairs holding dirty cups.

What should we do?

As the leader of a large organization that specializes in ministry among the homeless, let me give you my expert opinion: I don’t know!

I think God gives us these dilemmas to cause us to rely on the compassion of Christ he has implanted in our hearts. Coming face to face with someone who asks us for money is an opportunity to be led by the Spirit instead of being driven by need or guilt or obligation or the desire to bolster our own ego as a “generous person.” There is no simple answer.

Jesus said in Luke 6:30 that we are to give to everyone who asks of us. Most of us are hesitant to do that because we are afraid that we will be taken advantage of. Perhaps the recipient of our charity will use our hard earned cash for booze or drugs. Surely giving to someone who would use our money for those purposes would not be in anyone’s best interest, would it? Yet, the directive is clear. We are to give without question and without judgment.

While we don’t want to contribute to someone’s addiction, it is helpful to understand that people who are living on the street usually do not have access to appropriate pain medicine, mental health counseling, or the gentle pacifiers such as chocolate and ice cream that we turn to when we need a lift. Who are we to judge them for how they spend money? I certainly have not always made the best decisions with the money that God sends my way. Yet God keeps giving to me.

On the other hand, our gifts do not always have to be cash. I urge people to give their financial gifts to an organization like Breakthrough that specializes in wise care for the under-resourced and then get involved by volunteering to help the ministry. Then when asked for cash, we can then respond like Peter and John did when confronted by the crippled beggar. “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”

A financial gift to a mission or an organization that provides opportunities for the homeless will help men and women who have been crippled by life get back on their feet and—in the name of Jesus Christ—walk a new walk. As stewards of the resources God entrusts to us, we want to make sure our gifts to the poor are invested wisely.

Instead of giving cash to people on the street, we can give directions, or perhaps a ride, to the nearest ministry that provides loving care in the name of Christ. Like the Good Samaritan that Jesus described in Luke 10, we can transport those who are battered and broken to the nearest rehab center and pay for their rehabilitation.

I have a friend who always gives people exactly what they ask for. If they ask for change, he gives them change. If they ask for a couple of dollars, he gives them a couple of dollars. He says that in the grand scheme of things, considering his budget for giving to the poor, the amount of money he hands out is actually relatively small. He thinks we make a bigger deal of being taken advantage of than we should. After all, Jesus let himself be stripped, beaten and hung on a cross unjustly to show his great love. It is not likely that we will ever experience that much injustice in our giving to the poor.

Oswald Chambers says in his June 13th devotional in his great book, My Utmost for His Highest, “Never make a principle out of your experience; let God be as original with other people as He is with you.” So, again, we are asked to let the Spirit guide our practices when we come face to face with someone asking us for money.

One thing I am quite certain about is this: When I stand before God in the judgment, I don’t think God is going to drill me about how smart and frugal I was when face to face with someone who asked me for money. I doubt that God will point out how proud he is of me that I didn’t let myself get scammed by someone who was lying to get a few bucks out of me.

God is more likely to say something like this, “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.… I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

Urban Farming - Will Allen

2009-07-13T07:57:00.003-05:00

I am really interested in doing urban farming in East Garfield Park. As Will Allen says in this NY Times magazine article, there are 77,000 vacant lots in Chicago. One out of every three lots in East Garfield Park is vacant. The time for urban farming is now. Let me know if you want to be included in the planning task force.

Being Spiritually Well

2009-07-11T19:36:00.002-05:00

We serve the world by being spiritually well.
The first question is not, “How much do we do?”
or “How many people do we help out?”,
but “Are we interiorly at peace?”
The distinction between contemplation and action can be misleading.
Jesus’ actions flowed from his interior communion with God.
His presence was healing, and it changed the world
In a sense he didn’t do anything!
Everyone who touched him was healed.

—Joseph Campbell

Jerry

2009-07-10T20:51:00.001-05:00

“Arloa!” I was in the center of Chicago striding toward the train. I swung around to see who was calling my name.

My heart nearly leapt out of my skin. It was Jerry with his rugged tan face outlining crinkly eyes and a huge white toothed smile. It had been nearly ten years since I had seen him but he looked just the same, the story book picture of a gypsy man, his worn hat doffed to the side, curly brown hair wafting from underneath, good wrinkles patterned from years of smiling just like he was doing now.

Jerry always rode a bike, an old, thick tire one with a horn and baskets, lots of baskets stuffed with little happy teddy bears and toys and trinkets, gadgets and widgets hanging everywhere.

He had been part of the early Breakthrough family and had moved on, not wanting to be tied down to anyone’s rules. He never asked us for anything and didn’t really want any assistance into housing. He prefers to live off the land, sleeping and finding food where ever he can and occasionally stopping in to visit family and friends. He doesn’t drink alcohol or use drugs to my knowledge, and is one of the happiest people I know. He is at peace with just his bike, the shirt on his back and his love for God and people.

Sometimes I envy him.

Regarding the garbage? It's easier to blog about it!

2009-06-29T07:06:00.003-05:00

"Why don't you just go out and pick it up?" someone asked. The problem of trash in our neighborhood becomes discouraging and as I said in my first post on this, there is a strong tendency to just give up.

There is often loose trash in the alley and we get used to seeing it there. There is a constant stream of people who go through the garbage to take anything useful. What is left gets strewn about. When one of my neighbors did neatly bag the items shown in my first post, the bags were ripped open and the trash strewn about again. We also have a problem with "fly dumping". When someone has a lot of garbage, rather than putting it behind their own homes, they put it in someone else's alley. That way they are not responsible for the fines. In this case the sanitation workers didn't take the garbage even after it was bagged, saying they needed help loading it into the truck. Eventually, after nearly a month, that garbage has been removed, but there is a similar pile of loose garbage a few houses down from us.

In order to "just go out and pick it up" we have to supply the bags, put the garbage in the bags, watch over the bags until the garbage truck comes, and then go out and help them load it into the truck. That's what eventually happened, but it's a lot of work, so we tend to look at it for weeks. It's a lot easier to blog about it.

OK,I'm going to go out and bag up some garbage now.

Whenever I get discouraged...

2009-06-26T19:12:00.003-05:00

I look at this.

My grandkids have my heart!

Trash Removal

2009-06-26T06:37:00.004-05:00

After I published my last post there was a google ad on my "successful post" page for a trash removal company. Coincidence?

The garbage in my alley

2009-06-26T06:26:00.002-05:00

My daughter has my camera or I would post another picture of the garbage in my alley. After weeks of seeing the image in my June 13th post, one of my neighbors finally went out and gathered the pile of garbage into a neat line of about six large black bags. Since then the garbage trucks have been by twice but they have not taken the garbage. One of my neighbors said the garbage collectors said they only pick up the garbage from the black dumpsters and they would need help from someone from the neighborhood to lift all of the extra bags into their truck. Somehow, I guess, we are supposed to know when they are coming and be out their waiting for them.

In the meantime, alley scrappers have ripped the bags apart to go through them and the garbage, once again, is strewn throughout the alley.

Here is the dilemma. If I call Streets and Sanitation, they will ticket my neighbor who I know does not have discretionary funds to pay fines. I also don't want to be targeted as the neighbor who complains. So the garbage remains. There is another pile of garbage just like it a few houses down.

Walter Brueggemann on Preaching

2009-06-23T08:07:00.004-05:00

"I believe that many preachers finally get around to their sermon in their fatigue from everything else, and if imagination is the key to good preaching, you cannot be imaginative when you are exhausted."

Pray for peace in Iran

2009-06-21T14:07:00.002-05:00

Listen to the desperation in this poem from one woman, alone in the dark on a rooftop in Tehran. I pray today for freedom from tyranny and oppression in Iran. That God's shalom will prevail.

The worst question to ask a charity

2009-06-17T21:15:00.002-05:00

Rosita Cortez, one of the people I follow on Twitter, linked me to this article by Dan Pollata on the Harvard Business Publishing blog. He writes about one of the most frequently asked questions that affects a nonprofit's rating with Charity Navigator, the Better Business Bureau, and the American Institute of Philanthropy. The question is "What percentage of my contribution goes to the cause rather than to overhead?"

His point is that because these watch dog groups make this the only question in determining an organization's effectiveness, they don't lead donors to consider the more important question, "Is the organization making a difference?"

How can that be, you ask? Well, the media, the watchdogs, and the sector itself have done an amazing job of training the public to think that the two things are the same, i.e., that if a charity has low overhead, it must be making a difference. Major studies on the relationship between organizational strength and impact find otherwise.

A strong organization needs a strong infrastructure. By continually forcing charities to scrimp on such things as operational management, fund raising, human resource development, marketing and information technology, misinformed funders are weakening the potential of nonprofits to diversify their funding base and ensure for the welfare of their staff.

Here's a link to another article from Bridgespan entitled, Nonprofit Overhead Costs: Breaking the Vicious Cycle of Misleading Reporting, Unrealistic Expectations, and Pressure to Conform, that makes a similar case. the authors write, "When nonprofit organizations are able to invest adequately in staffing and infrastructure-- “overhead”--they are better able to carry out their missions."

At Breakthrough we try to stretch every dollar. Funding for overhead is the most difficult to find and yet it I believe adequate funding for overhead is essential for us to carry out our mission effectively. Here's what I would suggest you do before you give to any organization.

Visit the organization to witness their effectiveness
Meet the leaders of the organization
Ask to see an audited financial statement
Spend time observing operations
Volunteer so you get to know the staff and observe how they relate to the program participants
Ask about the accountability structure of the organization and the involvement of the Board of Directors
Ask how the organization measures outcomes

If you like what you see and you determine that you can trust the organization to use your donation wisely, give an undesignated gift so it can be used where it is most needed.

Skid Row LA

2009-06-13T23:04:00.000-05:00

After awhile you tend to give up

2009-06-13T22:01:00.003-05:00

This is a picture from my back door of the alley behind my apartment. It has looked like this for weeks. So why don't I clean it up? Probably for the same reason none of us on the block do. After awhile you get used to it, overwhelmed by it, and just give up. Maybe tomorrow.

Laughter is the Best Medicine

2009-06-05T00:21:00.001-05:00

Interesting facts about Warren Buffet

2009-06-04T08:48:00.007-05:00

Here are some very interesting facts about Warren Buffet, the second-richest man, who has donated $31 billion to charity.

He bought his first stock share at age 11 and he now regrets that he started too late!

He bought a small farm at age 14 with savings from delivering newspapers.

He still lives in the same small 3-bedroom house in mid-town Omaha, that he bought after he got married 50 years ago. He says that he has everything he needs in that house. His house does not have a wall or a fence surrounding it.

He drives his own car everywhere and does not have a driver or security people around him.

He never travels by private jet, although he owns the world's largest private jet company.

Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns 63 companies. He writes only one letter each year to the CEO's of these companies, giving them goals for the year! He never holds meetings or calls them on a regular basis.

He has given his CEO's only two rules:

Rule number 1: Do not lose any of your shareholder's money.

Rule number 2: Do not forget rule number 1.

He does not socialize with the high-society crowd. His pastime, after he gets home is to make himself some popcorn and watch television.

Bill Gates, the world's richest man met him for the first time only 5 years ago. Bill Gates did not think he had anything in common with Warren Buffet, so he had scheduled his meeting only for half hour, but when Gates met him, the meeting lasted for ten hours, and Bill Gates became a devotee of Warren Buffet.

Warren Buffet does not carry a cell phone, and he doesn't have a computer on his desk.

His advice to young people: Stay away from credit cards and invest in yourself and remember:

A. Money doesn't create man but it is the man who created money.

B. Live your life as simple as you are.

C. Don't do what others say, just listen to them, but do what you feel is good.

D. Don't go on brand names; just wear those things in which you feel comfortable.

E. Don't waste your money on unnecessary things; rather, spend on those people who are really in need.

F. After all it's your life, then why give chance to others to rule your life?

G. The best investment you can ever make, is to invest in the Kingdom of God.

Cause Marketing vs. the Virtue of Giving

2009-06-02T18:09:00.002-05:00

Here's a link to an interesting article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy asking the question, "Does Cause Marketing Replace Virtue with 'Mindless Buying'?" Writer, Brennen Jensen, refers to an article by Angela M. Eikenberry, assistant professor in the School of Public Administration at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, in the Stanford Social Innovation Review,in which she makes the case that

"the short-term benefits of cause marketing—also known as consumption philanthropy—belie its long-term costs. These hidden costs include individualizing solutions to collective problems; replacing virtuous action with mindless buying; and hiding how markets create many social problems in the first place. Consumption philanthropy is therefore unsuited to create real social change."

I think she makes a great point. Do we encourage more consumption in order to fund causes that have become causes because of consumption?

Faith Leaders Are Green Mapping Harlem

2009-05-30T12:11:00.006-05:00

“Faith leaders are responding because we have a mandate from our faith to protect the poor and to protect human life… Sojourner Truth had her watch. Martin Luther King, Jr. had his watch. This is our watch, and on our watch, this is the issue. On our watch people are dying. Whole communities are being held captive to environmental injustices and it’s our mandate to do something about that.” -- Lisa Sharon Harper, NY Faith and Justice

Prison, Drug Crimes and Racial Disparities

2009-05-30T10:09:00.004-05:00

Here are some facts posted recently by Protestants for the Common Good.

The United States leads the world in the number - 2.3 million - and percentage of residents it holds in prison. One in every 38 individuals is involved with the criminal justice system through probation, parole, prison or jail.
About 78 percent of Illinois drug offenders are African-American, vastly higher than their 15 percent share of the overall population.
A Human Rights Watch study from 2000 found that Illinois ranked first in the country with respect to racial disparities in prison sentences for drug crimes.
The number of African-Americans admitted to prison in Illinois for drug offenses grew from 1,421 in 1990 to 9,088 in 2000 - a six-fold increase. During this same period, there was virtually no change in the number of whites admitted to prison.
This difference exists despite the fact that rates of illicit drug use vary little by ethnicity.

Is incarceration the new slavery?

The Importance of Preschool

2009-05-30T08:28:00.005-05:00

Because my grandson was not talking very well at age three he was eligible for free preschool in Will County. My daughter and I talk all the time about what an incredible blessing it was that preschool was made available to him. He will start kindergarten next fall with a much better chance of success.

Unfortunately, in my community on the west side of Chicago and other low income Chicago neighborhoods, most of the children do not have this advantage. Recent research conducted by Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI), found that 40 to 64% of preschool aged children in low-income communities are not in any early education program. The report, “Why Isn’t Johnny In Preschool?” is based on over 5,000 interviews in 19 low-income African-American and Latino neighborhoods across the city.

The Catalyst Notebook blog noted, "Factors that kept children out of preschool included lack of transportation, scheduling conflicts, immigrant families’ fear of deportation and a shortage of slots."

We were encouraged to learn that the students who participated in our Breakthrough Beginners program tested at 72% in the Bracken Kindergarten Readiness Assessment, compared to 17% for those in our after school program who did not attend Breakthrough Beginners. What a difference good early childhood education makes! We plan to open a licensed preschool in our new FamilyPlex facility scheduled to open in 2011.

School Attendance and Academic Success

2009-05-30T08:04:00.006-05:00

Research conducted by the University of Chicago shows that a student's attendance is 8 times more predictive of failure than prior test scores.

This is especially significant for us at Breakthrough because we learned recently that at our local high school, John Marshall HS, the average number of days missed by students is 95 out of 180 days in the school year. Is it any wonder that in 2008, only 4% of the 11th graders at Marshall met or exceeded the state standards in the PSAE (Prairie State Achievement Exam)?

Here's a link to a Catalyst Notebook post about what not-for-profits should do to help students graduate. “There are a lot of really good programs out there,” said Elaine Allensworth, a co-director of the Consortium on Chicago School Research. “But if the people who work with kids don’t know how they are doing in class, they’re working blind.”

Garfield Park Preparatoy Academy

2009-05-30T07:47:00.003-05:00

We are excited to welcome Garfield Park Preparatory Academy , a new contract school to our neighborhood. GPPA is the result of a two-year effort by the Applied Behavior Analysis Department to establish an elementary school that would improve elementary education in unique and powerful ways and also leverage the talents of Chicago School faculty and graduate students. It is slated to open in September and will share space with Faraday Elementary School, 3250 W. Monroe St.

PS22: You make me smile

2009-05-25T22:19:00.004-05:00

NYC public school children singing Landslide by Fleetwood Mac

Who is that teacher?!!!

Bring Your Lunch

2009-05-25T08:02:00.002-05:00

My message at River City Community Church on 5-24-09.

What the warm weather brings

2009-05-22T15:13:00.003-05:00

Two people were killed in our neighborhood last night. The shooting occurred near Horan Park at Kedzie and Van Buren, where our Breakthrough kids play t-ball, soccer and softball. While most of us are happy to see warm weather finally descending upon Chicago, the sad fact is, when the weather warms up, the violence escalates. Please pray for the safety of our neighbors, staff and program participants and that God would give us grace as we minister to people who are facing extremely difficult situations.

Truth, Soul and Social Justice

2009-05-21T00:33:00.005-05:00

Thanks to Breakthrough Youth and Family staffer, Robin Rankin, for linking me to this great Commencement Speech from John Legend, University of Pennsylvania, College of Arts and Sciences May 17, 2009.

The High Cost of Poverty

2009-05-21T00:01:00.004-05:00

There was a great article in Monday's Washington Post about how expensive it is to be poor. The poor pay more for a gallon of milk, pay more for inferior housing, for transportation and health care. Prices at the corner stores are higher. You spend time waiting for the bus and at the laundromat. You spend money at check cashing and pay day loan joints, etc. etc.

Here's another link to an article from a paper in Texas that makes the point that the poverty line is set too low.

Consider the current U.S. “poverty line” amount for a single-parent family with two children. According to the Census Bureau, the 2008 amount was $17,346. Would this annual income cover a family’s basic needs?

According to the Economic Policy Institute’s Web site, this three-person family in the Kerrville area (rural Texas) must earn $31,320 annually to pay for key necessities, without setting aside any money in savings or investments.

Is this our country's way to keep the number of people living in poverty down? Just don't change the "poverty line" level even though prices go up?

North Lawndale Churches: More Harm Than Good?

2009-05-19T20:11:00.004-05:00

There was a challenging article in the Sunday Chicago Tribune about the proliferation of churches in North Lawndale. I thought the article was kind of on target. As the community experienced disinvestment in the 60's, businesses moved out and storefront churches moved in, often side by side in the heart of the neighborhood's business district. If businesses are going to be brought back into the community, it makes sense to me that the churches should be given incentives to move off the business strip and into the residential communities. Tax revenue from thriving businesses would do a lot to turn the community around.

The article also mentioned concern from some community leaders and even some pastors that the churches aren't doing enough to heal the community's ills.

What is disheartening to me is the raw anger expressed in some of the 95 comments that have been left on the site. Here's what one commenter had to say...

Wow. I live in this ward. From many years of Neglect, I must say that it's depressing. We have almost "200" Churches in our ward and at least 90% of them are Powerless beyond their own front Door. It's depressing that many of these churches are constantly getting Grants, Tax- exempt Status without giving back to their community. How can you have this many churches and still have a ward that has to be almost one of the worst to live in? It's Deprived, Depressed and our entire make-up are Second Class Grocery Stores that hike Prices because most of their make-up are due to Link Aide, Mounds of Liquor Stores who's bottles are picked up by residents DAILY (Yea even the liquor stores have no respect for the community that they do business in. Mostly "Dollar General Stores" ... Forget Coffee Shops, Dry Cleaners, places to sit and eat. Those don't exist here but hey How about ALL OF THOSE CHURCHES

Another wrote:

One would think that a community that has received the attention of so many "men of the cloth" would have no need of a police force.

I'm thankful for Lawndale Community Church. They are on the Ogden Avenue strip too, but they have Hope House for recovering addicts, a thriving Community Health Center with 241,000 annual visits, and a Christian Development Corporation which has generated over $14 million of investment in the Lawndale community. They are being the true Church in Lawndale.

What Doesn't Go Away

2009-05-19T19:46:00.002-05:00

Here's a link to a very real and pithy article by our own Breakthrough Housing Specialist, Paul Luikart, published by Burnside Writers Collective. He writes...

It’s good work, very good work, but being involved in the lives of these men and women takes its emotional toll, believe me. Of course there is a lot of joy in the work, but the moments of pain tend to stick to my psyche a lot longer. Some days I come home and sit on the couch and stare and stare at nothing, having completely retreated from the day into the darkest depths of my brain...If I believe (I do believe this, you should know) that an essential element of this kind of work is identification with the poor, then what elements of the lives of these men and women will never leave me? It’s sort of like I fear transference of the emotion of their experiences.

Paul expresses eloquently the challenges of hearing the troubling stories of abuse over and over and carrying that burden as well as the tendency to feel proud.

It’s not like a real overt sense of superiority, but just a little something I carry around in the back of my mind so when I meet somebody new at church, let’s say, and I ask him what he does and he says something like, “I’m in finance,” I can dip into that little sack of pride in the back of my mind and think at him, “Finance, huh? Well, who gives a rat’s ass? I know a guy with a huge crack problem and it’s my job to help him. Finance? Please. Come on, ask me what I do, you sucker.”

I'm trying to whet your appetite with these quotes, but you really need to read the entire piece. Great writing, very honest, profound.

"Good News?! You can’t handle The Good News!!" - Raffi Shahinian

2009-04-30T17:42:00.003-05:00

Check out JR Woodward's blog. He has posted an article by Raffi Shanhinian implying we really don't want to hear the good news about "the first being last, and the most powerful being slaves."

Do you really wanna hear about allegiance to a Master? Do you really wanna hear about ultimate justice for the poor and the oppressed?

I mean deep down, in places you don’t talk about at parties, do you really wanna hear about serving others as a lifestyle? And not just friends and family, I mean others, you know, those uncool, unwealthy, unsexy others, or as some people put it, “the least of these?”

Indeed! The gospel Jesus taught in Luke 4:18 is good news for the poor.

Prayer for Children

2009-04-26T21:31:00.005-05:00

Listen to this beautiful audio of Pastor Daniel Hill and the congregation reading one of Marian Wright Edelman's A Prayer for Children during the benediction at River City Community Church this morning. You can listen to Daniel Hill's dynamic sermon about children at this itunes podcast link.

A Prayer for Children

By MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN

We pray for children
Who sneak popsicles before supper,
Who erase holes in math workbooks,
Who can never find their shoes.

And we pray for those
Who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
Who can't bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers,
Who never "counted potatoes,"
Who are born in places we wouldn't be caught dead,
Who never go to the circus,
Who live in an X-rated world.

We pray for children
Who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
Who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money.
And we pray for those
Who never get dessert,
Who have no safe blanket to drag behind them,
Who watch their parents watch them die,
Who can't find any bread to steal,
Who don't have any rooms to clean up,
Whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser,
Whose monsters are real.

We pray for children
Who spend all their allowance before Tuesday,
Who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food,
Who like ghost stories,
Who shove dirty clothes under the bed and never rinse out the tub,
Who get visits from the tooth fairy,
Who don't like to be kissed in front of the carpool,
Who squirm in church or temple and scream in the phone,
Whose tears we sometimes laugh at and whose smiles can make us cry.

And we pray for those
Whose nightmares come in the daytime,
Who will eat anything,
Who have never seen a dentist,
Who aren't spoiled by anybody,
Who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,
Who live and move, but have no being.

We pray for children who want to be carried and for those who must,
For those we never give up on and for those who don't get a second chance.
For those we smother ... and for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it.

Blacks hit hard by the recession

2009-04-25T08:22:00.002-05:00

Here's a link to an article from BBC news about poverty and the profound effect of the recession on the African American community in Chicago.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, black unemployment has risen to 13.4% since the recession began in December 2007. The national unemployment rate is 8.5%.

You will see pictures of the Greater Chicago Food Depository produce truck. When the truck comes to our neighborhood, East Garfield Park, on the west side of Chicago, a line circles the block. Fresh produce is difficult to obtain in our neighborhood. East Garfield Park has been labeled a food desert by a researchers. The study indicates that Chicago’s food deserts are nearly exclusively African-American.

What I did on my personal retreat

2009-04-18T15:25:00.007-05:00

I've been asked by several people what I did during my personal retreat day last Thursday. I hadn't taken a personal retreat day in a long time, much too long. Every time I do it I wonder why I don't do it more often. I really want to make it a more regular practice. I really needed this time for restoration and direction. "He restores my soul". Psalm 23:3

If I don't block out time on my calendar far in advance and guard it ferociously, it just doesn't happen. In fact, there were several things that came up on Thursday that seemed pretty important. It almost seemed like a test to see if I would cave and not follow through. But, of course, I was able to delegate everything, which I think is part of the benefit of taking the day. It is kind of like fasting. It reminds me that the world and Breakthrough go on just fine without me. I get untangled from my co-dependence on my work.

By the way, isn't it interesting that the Israelites were told to "deny" themselves and take a sabbath of rest (Leviticus 16:31)? I would think a sabbath of rest would be considered self-centered rather than self denying, but it really is about withdrawing from the many things that hold our focus and about presenting ourselves, instead, to God, for reflection and renewal.

I started the day in my usual place where I light candles and sit in prayer, meditation and Scripture. For this special day I followed several of the retreats from the blue Upper Room Guide to Prayer. There are 12 monthly retreat models in the back of the book. They involve 30 minutes of silent listening followed by Scripture readings, readings for reflection, reflection, prayer, journal writing, recreation, rest and then repeating the cycle.

At one point in the retreat I felt led to get out my acrylic paints and try to put on canvas what I was experiencing. I created this painting.

I'm not sure what it is exactly. There is the sense of being carried on water which is a bit turbulent. (I often feel carried.) Then there is definitly new green growth, sprouts, shoots of new life coming out of something that looks like a heart on fire, or a germinating seed or an egg. Anyway, I have never done a painting like this before, so it was an experiment for me and I actually kind of like it.

Then I did another retreat cycle and then drove out to the Morton Arboretum in Lisle. I hadn't been there for years. It has changed a lot (great new kids play area). I walked several miles until I found a place to sit and did another of the retreats.

I was affected in several ways by the day. My soul, which had begun to feel dry, was definitely stirred and restored. One of the themes of the day for me was power. Luke 6:12-19 describes the effect a night of prayer had on Jesus. "One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God." After the night in prayer Jesus chooses his disciples and a large crowd gathers around him and it says in verse 19, "the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all."

Power was coming from Jesus. He would later say in Acts 1:8 "you shall receive power".

Zech 4:6 "Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord. Spirit = Ruwach = breath

Acts 17:28 “For in him we live and move and have our being.”

Ephesians 3:16, “strengthened by his Spirit in your inner being”

Joshua 3:5 “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.”

Consecrate - sanctify, prepare, dedicate, be hallowed, be holy, be sanctified

Amazing things, wonders = alp, pala, paw-law’

to be marvellous, be wonderful, be surpassing, be extraordinary, separate by distinguishing action
to be beyond one's power, be difficult to do
to be difficult to understand
to be wonderful, be extraordinary, marvellous (participle)

Psalm 20:7 "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God."

Anyway, there was lots to ponder. I ended my time by refocusing on my personal mission in life and did some planning. It was an amazing day. I really want to make this a monthly practice.

Do you have personal retreat days? Where do you go? What do you do?

Why we need to focus on education

2009-04-18T14:36:00.002-05:00

The schools in our community are in bad shape. There are 2,265 grammar schools in the state if Illinois and all four of our local schools are in the bottom 100. At John Marshall, our local high school, 3.5% of the juniors are at or above their grade levels in math and science and only 6% in reading. The average PSAT school is 4% at or above their grade level. There are 180 days in a school year. At John Marshall High School the average number of days missed is 95! Westinghouse High School, just a block away from Breakthrough, will open a new facility in the fall and none of the kids from the community grammar schools have been able to test into it.

On a positive note, we gave the Bracken test for kindergarten readiness to the kids in our Nettie Bailey Student Achievement Program. The kids who attended our Breakthrough Beginners (preschool) program tested at 72% compared to those who did not attend who are at 17%. This is strong evidence that what we are doing is important and is working. Twenty of our program graduates started college last fall. While this is significant and encouraging, we recognize we have much work to do.

Click here to support Breakthrough's academic program.

The stress of poverty affects kids' learning ability

2009-04-10T09:28:00.002-05:00

Here's a link to an interesting article in the Washington Post that discusses recent research on the affects that the stress of living in poverty has on the cognitive ability of children.

Now, research is providing what could be crucial clues to explain how childhood poverty translates into dimmer chances of success: Chronic stress from growing up poor appears to have a direct impact on the brain, leaving children with impairment in at least one key area -- working memory.

Food as art

2009-04-04T09:28:00.003-05:00

I had a wonderful dinner last night with dear friends at "Arun", a Thai restaurant at 4156 North Kedzie in Chicago. Breath taking taste and presentation! Check out the Nemo fish below made from a carrot!!

Let all the earth PRAISE THE LORD!!

2009-03-29T21:11:00.001-05:00