Please pray for me!

I am speaking at a women's retreat for the Village Church of Barrington and really need you to pray for me! I have asked you all to pray for me before and I really can tell the difference when there is an army of prayer support around me. I am speaking about "Encounters With Jesus".

The first one Saturday night will be about the woman at the well. I will talk about the relationships forged at wells, Abraham's servant meeting Rebekah, Jacob showing off to Rachel by rolling the stone from the well, Moses drawing water and impressing Zipporah, etc.

This well, Jacob's well, is also where Dinah was violated by Shechem and her brothers had all the men of Shechem circumcized and killed. The well is also in the area where Joseph went to look for his brothers and was thrown into an empty cistern. I will talk about relationships gone bad, the rejection, emptiness, and barrenness this woman must have felt at losing love five times until she finally gave up on commitment and just lived with a guy. Empty cisterns vs. wells of living water. What brings living water into our lives? How do we keep our relationships fresh. We have the awesome opportunity to sit with Jesus at the well and experience the living water that flows out of our innermost being and displaces the guilt and shame of our brokenness.

Then on Sunday morning I will talk about the resurrection of Lazarus. How Mary and Martha didn't understand what Jesus was doing when he waited to come until Lazarus died, but that Jesus waited purposefully so that God would be glorified. Sometimes it seems like God doesn't show up when we call and we have to go through the valley of loss. We get to the end of our hope. The situations in our lives are beyond hope, they are dead, stinking dead. Yet Jesus would come and ask if we still believe, do we believe that God can resurrect any dead thing in our lives? How do we respond to the call of Jesus to "rise up"? What are the cycles of death that we are caught in and what would those situations look like if Jesus raised us to life? Do we really believe?

I am always a bit overwhelmed at the responsibility of speaking and having something meaningful to say to a group of people, but the preparation time is always a time when I learn so much. I am the one who benefits most. This morning God gave me Hebrews 13:15, "Through Jesus therefore, let us continually offer to Gad a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess his name." The "fruit of lips" seems to imply that the words are the outward evidence of inner growth. My speaking must come from deep within, not just flowery words. And it all comes "through Jesus".

OK, back to my study. Please help me by praying for my focus and clarity and that God would give me the skill to be able to craft a structure that harnesses the thoughts and that God would be glorified through me.

Link Day Reflections

I went to Dominick's in Lawndale this evening and was surprised to find the store unusally busy. Then I remembered. It's the first of the month, the day the Link cards get replenished for the month. Link cards are used like debit cards and have replaced food stamps in Illinois. I know people wait anxiously for the beginning of the month, sometimes using the food to pay off debts or win favors with friends, or to sell for cash so they can buy things like toilet paper and diapers, but mostly to replenish barren cupboards and fill hungry children.

Link is an interesting name for the card. It is othen the lack of links, the experience of isolation that keeps people in poverty. I wish they could experience a different kind of link, links to opportunities, links to support networks, links to employment, links to education. Then we could cut up the cards and celebrate the end of poverty with a Link Day holiday.

754,000 homeless people living on the streets

CNN reported today that the HUD (the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development) homeless count in January 2005 found 754,000 people living on the streets or in shelters. We at Breakthrough participate in that count every year by supplying the information about the number of residents in our shelters. Some of us have also gone out to try to find the people living under bridges and in the alleys, etc. The count does not include people who are sleeping on the sofas of there friends and relatives or those who are hidden in abandoned buildings or riding the trains and buses to stay warm all night.

My Enneagram

I took the Enneagram test tonight so I can discuss it with some friends tomorrow. I had never taken the actual test before, but somehow from the descriptions I already knew I would be a 2. I'm also a pretty high 7, which is the Enthusiast, the busy, variety-seeking type: spontaneous, versatile, acquisitive, and scattered. The picture below really looks like me, doesn't it? NOT! So what's your type?

Kim McCormick at School of the Prophets

Bob Marsh posted a challenging message delivered to the School of the Prophets by Kim McCormick about her experience as a white suburban woman joining an African American church.

The School of the Prophets is an ecumenical group of men and women from many backgrounds who have been meeting together since January 2000 to worship, share and pray. The group meets monthly on the first Saturday of the month at 7 a.m. at Austin Corinthian Baptist Church at 823 S. Cicero Ave., just 2 blocks south of the Eisenhower Expressway on the east side of the street next to Marvin’s Soul Food Restaurant.

Amazing Grace

Cindy and I went to see the movie, Amazing Grace, tonight. It's definitely worth seeing, a bit slow especially in the beginning, but very inspiring. The theater was packed and their were a few amens throughout the movie. People applauded at the end. I was inspired to keep up the fight for justice. We need to carry the torch.

There are more slaves today than were seized from Africa in four centuries of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The modern commerce in humans rivals illegal drug trafficking in its global reach—and in the destruction of lives.

Rev. Al Sharpton at Rosa Park's funeral

The Buzz on East Garfield Park

Ryan sent me a link to a YoChicago today site that has been running articles about East Garfield Park where I live. It is interesting to read perspectives on the community from outsiders.

Wealthy, But Impoverished

In the book, The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse, author Gregg Easterbrook, claims we are experiencing great economic progress. The incomes of Americans have doubled in the last fifty years, he says. Even poor people have air conditioning, televisions and cars, and many middle class Americans actually own more than one home and drive multiple vehicles. Many even own boats and airplanes. The environment is getting cleaner and crime is on the decline.

Yet, he claims, people think they are worse off. They feel poorer and more pessimistic. He attributes this growing pessimism about life to “choice anxiety” and “abundance denial”. He recognizes the existence of extreme global poverty and rightly claims that there is enough wealth in the world right now to eradicate it. If we would just accept that fact that we are indeed wealthy instead of bemoaning what we don’t have, we could put our wealth to work on social ills.

I found myself arguing with Easterbrook throughout much of the book. While some poor people may indeed be better off, the people who come to our shelters and those that I see on the street corners certainly are not, and the conditions I have seen in third world countries are very bleak. The gap between extreme wealth and extreme poverty continues to widen in America and certainly in the world. Those of us who own computers are in the top one percent of the world’s wealthiest people. (Check out the global rich list to see where you stand.) The system is working for us.

I want to be hopeful about progress and would love to be able to embrace the notion that the benevolence of the wealthy will rebuild the world. It would be encouraging to know we are winning the war against poverty, but many of Easterbrook's observations don't ring true in my experience. He clearly writes from a western context where, indeed, things are looking better. Even Chicago is "gentrifying". But he disregards the growth of consumer debt and the fact that there are more Pay Day Loan stores in America than there are McDonalds as people struggle to make ends meet.

I am not ready to celebrate prosperity while there is so much poverty in the world. American consumerism is causing global suffering. We need God's redemptive power to redeem us individually from our selfishness and greed and corporately from the shared structures that perpetuate global poverty while benefiting the wealthy. It will only be when we embrace the way of the cross as the people of God that these structures will become forces of redemption instead of oppression.

I think his observation of the discontent of the wealthy is right on. As we have seen in the tragic lives of some of our wealthy celebraties lately, money does not buy happiness. Vandana Shiva points out in a very thoughtful article in Resurgence , that “people can have immeasurable financial wealth and be socially impoverished – without love and companionship, without solidarity and community, with an empty soul in spite of overflowing bank accounts.”

I am privileged to know people of great wealth through my fundraising endeavors for Breakthrough who have discovered the transforming joy of giving. Deuteronomy 8:18 says that it is the Lord who gives one the ability to produce wealth. When God gifts individuals to give to the work of the kingdom, the world is blessed by their generosity. Jesus said in Matthew 5:16 that we are to let our lights shine before men, that they might see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven.

We need to promote rigorous thinking about economics and the poor. I was challenged by a podcast from wiredparish.com with Greg Horton and Jon Middendorf in which they discuss Thomas Friedman (The World Is Flat) and Reformed theologian Louis Berkhof and the plausibility of redeeming big business to bring healing and restoration to the world. Here's the iTunes link.

William Wilberforce and Amazing Grace

As evidenced by the slide above created by Glen Kehrein from Circle Urban Ministries, many American evangelical denominations have a history of being on the wrong side of social justice issues. Many of the evangelical denominations in the US split over the issues of segregation and slavery and took stands that we now acknowledge were racist. William Wilberforce (1759-1833) is an example of an evangelical who fought for social justice during that time. He was heavily influenced by John Wesley and the Methodist movement and became an Anglican evangelical. He organized for the abolition of slavery in Great Britain. A month after he died, Parliament passed the Slavery Abolition Act that gave all slaves in the British Empire their freedom. The movie Amazing Grace which opens Friday, is the story of his life. John Newton, the composer of the song, Amazing Grace, was a slave trader who fell to his knees and found forgiveness in Christ.

Poverty in Illinois

Heartland Alliance has released the seventh annual "Report on Illinois Poverty", which illustrates that Illinois families are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. Over 85% of Illinois’ 102 counties had increases in poverty, nearly 1.5 million Illinoisans are poor – almost 700,000 of them live in extreme poverty, below half the poverty line – and over one third of Illinoisans in poverty are children.

The report finds that:

• Economic inequality in Illinois continues to worsen.
  
• Illinois’ future is threatened by poverty and economic disadvantage among young adults.
  
• Illinoisans in extreme poverty face significant hardship in trying to meet their basic needs.
  
• Illinois’ fiscal health crisis jeopardizes the current and future economic well-being of families and communities.
  
• Income support programs, designed to supplement worker’s low wages, are being compromised by inadequate benefit levels, as well as capacity and access issues.
  

Clarence Otis, Jr.

Did you know that Clarence Otis Jr., the CEO of Darden Restaurants Inc., one of the largest restaurant chains, Olive Garden and Red Lobster, is an African-American man? Darden Restaurants Inc. is one of the largest casual dining operators in the nation. The firm operates nearly 1,400 company-owned restaurants coast to coast, serving 300 million meals annually. Darden employs 150,000 workers and has annual revenues of $6 billion.

Mr. Otis was born in Vicksburg , Mississippi . His family and he moved to Los Angeles when he was 6 years old. His father was a high school dropout who worked as a janitor. The family lived in Watts at the time of the 1965 riots. As a teenager they moved to Compton.

In the post-Watts period, Mr. Otis recalls being stopped and questioned by police several times a year because of the color of his skin. A high school guidance counselor recommended him for a scholarship at Williams College, the highly selective liberal arts institution in Massachusetts. Otis graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Williams and went on to earn a law degree at Stanford. Otis landed on Wall Street as a merger and acquisitions attorney for J.P. Morgan Securities. He joined Darden Restaurants in 1995 as corporate treasurer. Clarence Otis Jr. became CEO in 2004.

Akiane Kramarik - Spiritual Young Artist

Holy Ground

Be sure to read Marcie Curry's Valentines Day blog post.

Heading for Florida - I think!

I was supposed to be on the beach today, but couldn't make it out of Chicago yesterday because of the blizzard. We're trying again today. I'll try to blog if I can get internet access.

Let It Out

This Kleenex commercial captures the power of listening. Jesus only directly answered three of the 183 questions that he was asked. That is surprising for those of us who have grown up thinking the function of religion is to give people answers and solve their problems for them. Jesus knew how to ask the right questions to draw people out and get them to think more deeply, more critically. We could learn a lot from Jesus and this Kleenex commercial.

Break forth the dawn!

This is the final paragraph in NT Wright's book, Simply Christian...

Made for spirituality, we wallow in introspection. Made for joy, we settle for pleasure. Made for justice, we clamor for vengence. Made for relationship, we insist on our own way. Made for beauty, we settle for sentiment. BUT, new creation has already begun, the sun has begun to rise. Christians are called to leave behind, in the tomb of Jesus Christ, all that belongs to the brokeness and incompletness of the broken world. It is time, in the power of the Spirit, to take up our proper role, our fully human role as agents and heralds and stewards of the new day that is dawning. That, quite simply, is what it means to be Christian, to follow Jesus Christ into the new world, God’s new world, which He has thrown open before us.

I'm speaking at River City on Sunday

I need you to pray for me as I am preparing to speak at River City Community Church on Sunday. It is intimidating for me because Pastor Daniel Hill brings such great messages. Please pray that God will speak through me and touch hearts and if you are in the area come on by!

Homeless Dumping in LA

The Associated Press and MSNBC have reported that the Metropolitan Medical Center in LA has been seen dropping patients off to homeless shelters in poor neighorhoods against their will. This reminds me of the early days of Breakthrough when we used to see white vans from state funded mental hospitals pull up in Uptown and drop people off in front of the churches that host shelters. The present trend of defunding emergency housing will only escalate the problem. Thankfully, God's people are stepping up to provide care for these precious ones.

How should we respond to panhandlers?

Jonathon Choe created a great documentary about panhandlers in Chicago for our latest podcast. Jesus said in Luke 6:30 to "give to everyone who asks of you", yet perhaps giving money to panhandlers might not always be helpful to them or the best use of our donations. What do you do when people ask you for money?

Asian Chicken Salad

Kym Cramer linked to this very funny video of Margaret Cho.

Persistent Racial Inequities

Today I received the 2006 Legislative Report Card on Racial Equity, produced by The Applied Research Center. Here are some of their findings.

• For people of color in Illinois, the median household net worth is $18,160; for whites, it is $111,750.
  
• Between 1980 and 2004, the hourly wage gap in Illinois between white workers and Latino workers widened by 24 percent; the gap between whites and Blacks widened by 162 percent.
  
• Blacks and Latinos are 15 and 10 percent, respectively, of the Chicago area workforce, but 30 and 27 percent of the working poor.
  
• Working-age Blacks and Latinos are, respectively, twice and three times as likely as whites to have no health insurance.
  
• Undocumented Latinos are five times as likely as whites to be without health insurance.
  
• Only half of Black and Latino students graduate from high school, compared to 82 percent of whites.
  
• For every Black person in an Illinois college or university, 2.5 are in prison or on parole.
  
• During the 2003 school year, school districts with the fewest students of color spent $1,496 more per student than districts with the most students of color.
  

Ed Gilbreath on Open Line

Ed Gilbreath, author of Reconciliation Blues, was interviewd by Chris Fabry on Moody radio's Open Line last Friday. Here's a link to the iTunes url.

Dead Cats and Darkness

Sometime on Saturday someone evidently ran over a cat in front of my apartment. I felt very sad when I first saw him and grew even more "yucked out" as I watched him grow flatter and flatter every day as more cars ran over him throwing him right beside my usual parking spot. The street lights have been out on my block for the last several days as well. In the darkness last night I stepped on the dead cat!

After a few days I began to wonder whose responsibility it was to move the dead cat off the street. Finally today I decided it must be mine. Fortunately with the temp at 9 degrees he was very frozen and very flat. I put him in the trash can in the alley.

This evening the lights are back on, the dead cat is gone and a beautiful snow is falling. All is at peace on Fulton Boulevard.

Learning to ask for help

It is sooooo cold today. This morning when I turned on my computer my weather bug read -10 degrees. Over the weekend my daughter, Monica, had car problems so I let her borrow my car. I had to get out to the burbs for a super bowl party so I borrowed a friends pickup truck. This morning the pickup truck wouldn't start so I got a jump from another friend. Anyway, I realized how difficult it is for me to ask for help, yet how heartwarming it is when God uses people around me to care for me. I thought about how wealth isolates us because we think we don't need others. Christian community involves interdependence. There is a vulnerability in that.

Keeping our hearts soft

Melba Maggay, in her book Transforming Society, observes, “There is something about the daily exposure to poverty and other ills of society which tends to tear away faith and make agents of change some of the most cynical people around”.

How do we keep our hearts soft and our spirits alive in the face of so many discouraging setbacks and difficult challenges? How can we stay hopeful when we are so often disappointed? Do you have a suggestion you can share?

Tim Wise to speak in Elgin

Tim Wise, an anti-racism activist and speaker hailed as one of the nation's most courageous critics of white privilege, will speak at Elgin Community College on Tuesday, Feb. 6.

Wise will give presentations at 9:30 and 11 a.m., and 7 p.m. in the Advanced Technology Center Auditorium on ECC's Main Campus, at 1700 Spartan Drive. The presentations are free and open to the public.

Wise is the author of White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son and Affirmative Action: Racial Preference in Black and White. He also is hailed as "one of the most brilliant, articulate and courageous critics of white privilege in the nation" by best-selling author and professor Michael Eric Dyson.

Wise also will be featured during a luncheon at 12:30 p.m. in the Fox Valley University and Business Center dining room. Cost of the luncheon is $10 per person and reservations are required. To reserve a seat, call Lonnie Keeler at 847-214-7014.

Wise's visit is sponsored by the college's Multicultural and Global Initiatives Committee (MAGIC), the Black Students' Association (BSA) and the Student Life Office.

Geese on Ice

I took this in Garfield Park on Friday, just a few blocks from my apartment.

Extending Grace

I like this quote I found on Erika Carney Haub’s blog...

I happened to pick up the latest Thielicke book I am reading last night, “Christ and the Meaning of Life.” One of the chapters I read looked at the story of unmerciful servant: the man forgiven an extravagent debt who then turns and witholds forgiveness of a pittance from his brother.

Thielicke makes the point that, as forgiven children, we stand with one hand grasped by the mercy and grace of our Father. Our other hand is thus free to extend that same grace to our neighbors. He writes:

“Don’t you feel your hand in the hand of God? But what is your other hand doing? Is it a clenched fist—or is it stretched out toward your neighbor so that the divine circuit can be closed and thus allow the current of creative power to flow into you? Our left hand is capable of doing something very different from our right hand (in the same way that we may be schizophrenic in our minds and souls and belong to two masters). And this can split and break us. It can send us staggering down the wrong road and make us miss the gates of the Father’s house.”

Kona Coffee Wars

I have a dear friend who is a Kona Coffee farmer in Kona, Hawaii. She and her partner lovingly harvest and roast their own coffee beans or hire local harvestors and pay them a living wage. She sent me an email with a plea for support in the face of large processors who are mislabeling their products and selling inferior coffee using the Kona name.

The farmers in our organization "The Kona Coffee Farmers Association" only sell 100% Kona Coffee but our reputation is being damaged by processors selling an inferior coffee blend and using the "Kona" name. We have been fighting to change the law in the State of Hawaii to require that at least 75% Kona beans be used in a bag of coffee in order to use the "Kona" name on the bag. Currently, the blends have only 10% Kona coffee and 90% inferior beans from places such as Guatemala & Columbia but the blenders are still allowed to use the Kona name on the label. In a 10% blend, the Kona beans can not even be tasted.

We have won this fight at the city level however, in the coming week we are going to Honolulu to take it to the state level. Because so many of our members are small farmers who can't afford to be away from their farms or do not have the money to travel to Honolulu, we are attempting to get as many of our customers to sign this petition to let the state know that not only do the farmers need protection but the consumer needs to be protected with truth in labeling.

Our biggest battle is against the large processors creating these blends, they have waged a war against us in this fight. They have a very lucrative business deceiving tourists and others into purchasing coffee they believe are blends of different Kona coffees. They are very well financed and will have a very large group in Honolulu to try to protect their bottom line. Please help us protect our farms and the reputation of Kona Coffee which generations of farmers have worked so hard to create.

Click here to sign the petition.

Tag Cloud of the Words of Jesus

I found this tag cloud of President Bush's State of the Union speech. The words used most often are larger. I decided to Tag Cloud the words of Jesus. I found the words at this site and copied them into TagCrowd.com. Here is the result.

accept accounts against away become began believe blessed born bread breath called care children chosen comes darkness days doing done door dwell earth earthly enter eternal evil except fail faith father field filled five forgive friend fruit gave given glory god greater hear heard heart heaven honour hour house judge judgment king kingdom knows least leave life light lives lord lost love man mercy night offer pass peace people power pray prophets receive replied return reveal rich rise seed send sent servant shall sheep son speak temple things true truly truth until upon vineyard whoever witness words work world yet

created at TagCrowd.com

Bubble

Thanks Kym, for pointing me to this award winning short film about urban isolation.

Forgiveness

Yesterday Ron Hall, the co-author of "Same Kind of Different as Me" mentioned that Denver Moore had made a vow never to speak to a white woman because he had been beat up and drug behind horses by white men after he stopped to help a white woman change her tire. After their talk Alice, one of our volunteers, asked a great question. She asked Denver if he struggled with anger over how he was treated.

Denver talked about forgiveness and how he knew he had been forgiven much himself and that he had to let go of the anger. For years he waited on an evil Nazi man who spit in his face and called him a nigger repeatedly. Denver took care of the man when no one else would go near him. I think he learned how to love and forgive. That kind of forgiveness clearly takes the power of God. I get defensive and angry when someone looks at me cross-eyed. I pray for that kind of spirit in our personal lives and our families and work relationships.

Derek Webb -- A New Law

Compassionate Conservatives Give More

Here's a link to an interesting article in Christianity Today about the study that came out a few months ago that indicated that conservatives are the most generous givers.

Generous giving is part of the religious conservative identity, according to sociologist Tony Campolo. "The Religious Right, by conviction, is convinced that helping the poor is something that should be done individually or by the church," said Campolo. "[They say that] asking the state to do it is wrong."

Another study by the Christian research organization Empty Tomb Inc. said evangelicals gave away 6.7 percent of their income in 1968. By 2004, that figure had dropped to 4.4 percent. Also, more money is staying within the church to pay for things like music and technology. Evangelical churches on average designate only about 2 percent of their budgets to missions.

Ron Hall and Denver Moore

We were blessed to have as our guests at Breakthrough today, Ron Hall and Denver Moore, the authors of the book, Same Kind Of Different As Me. They told their story to a group of about 80 ministers and friends of the ministry. If you haven't read the book, you simply must. It is the moving story of Ron, a wealthy art dealer, whose wife, Deborah, brought him into the Union Gospel Mission in Fort Worth, Texas, where he met Denver, a former sharecropper from Mississippi who had been homeless for forty years. At his wife's insistence Ron began a friendship with Denver that deepened when Deborah was stricken with cancer and finally died. Their experience models the love of Christ that breaks down barriers of race and class and teaches us to love one another.

They were also interviewed today by Anita Lustrea on Midday Connection at Moody Radio. You can listen to the show at this link.

Someone has to do something!

"Someone has to do something, and it's just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us."

--Jerry Garcia

Brian McLaren On Loving Our Neighbors

I like this post from Brian McLaren on the Sojourners blog called, Religion of Mass Distraction. He says,

Those of us who see religion in a different light – who see religion as a powerful motivation to care for the widow and orphan, to seek justice and peace, to love our neighbors and our enemies – shouldn't feel superior, but we should keep practicing, and preaching, with humility and focus. It's so easy to get distracted, and a lot is at stake.

"Not Even A Place In Line" - Report on Housing

I received an email today from Doug Schenkelberg, Associate Director of Policy for the Mid-America Institute on Poverty of the Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights announcing the release of their latest report -- Not Even a Place in Line - 2007 - Public Housing & Housing Choice Voucher Capacity and Waiting Lists in Illinois.

The report reveals that Illinois continues to face an affordable housing crisis where too many families have no opportunity to access the safe, decent and affordable housing they need. Continuing declines in funding levels for housing assistance programs, combined with new rules affecting the funding and flexibility of local public housing authorities have resulted in long waiting lists and thousands of eligible Illinois families unable to get needed housing assistance. In more than half of Illinois communities where the housing choice voucher program operates, families seeking rental assistance cannot even get in line to receive future vouchers because waiting lists are closed. For every public housing unit, there are two families in need.

Is Obama an Evangelical Christian?

Here's a link to an interesting article in today's Chicago Sun Times in which Obama answers the question, "Are you a Christian?" with a quick "yes". But when asked if he is an evangelical, Obama's response was, "I'm not sure". He resonded,

"Gosh, I'm not sure if labels are helpful here because the definition of an evangelical is so loose and subject to so many different interpretations. I came to Christianity through the black church tradition where the line between evangelical and non-evangelical is completely blurred. Nobody knows exactly what it means."

I heard him speak in Washington at Pentecost 2006 last June where he told his testimony of walking down the aisle at Trinity United Church of Christ to embrace faith in Christ. I really appreciate his candor on the subject of faith and religion.

Building Bridges

Check out this link to the Boomer Babes Rock blog where Keri Wyatt Kent wrote a great post about her visit to our women's shelter last Saturday night. She called it "Building Bridges" which is a phrase we use often at Breakthrough.

Why blacks are leaving evangelical ministries

Here's a link to a very important article in Christianity Today by Edward Gilbreath entitled, Exit Interviews:
Why blacks are leaving evangelical ministries. It is adapted from Gilbreath's book, Reconciliation Blues: A Black Evangelical's Inside View of White Christianity. Several people have pointed me toward this book this week so I just ordered it. I also just discovered Ed Gilbreath's Blog thanks to Rodolpho Carrasco at Urban Onramps.

But is it right?

Cowardice asks the question-is it safe?
Vanity asks the question-is it popular?
Expediency asks the question-is it political
But conscience asks the question-is it right?
There comes a time when one must take a
position that is neither safe, popular,
or political, but because it is right!

--Dr. Martin Luther King

The Old Storefront is Gone

If you are familiar with Breakthrough's northside site at First Free Church you may be interested to know the storefront room where Breakthrough started is gone. It is a dream come true and an answer to many prayers for the church to finally be able to build a Family Life Center in place of the three flats that were there.



This is what it used to look like.

Outward Ministry Driven By Inner Growth

I have been reading from A Guide To Prayer For All God's People published by the Upper Room. This was in my reading for today.

The sense of connection between inner growth and outer change permeates the Christian understanding of reality. St. Paul was an activist of the first order. Every time he entered a new place he created major disruptions, but his activism was the fruit of the relationship he enjoyed with the living Christ. The great hymns of praise that seem to burst out in epistle after epistle are a testimony to the reality of this relationship. The ministries of Mother Teresa in the slums of Calcutta or of Martin Luther King in the streets of Montgomery, or of the countless people whose faith has touched your life and mine and indeed has affected the life of the world are expressions of lived prayer. These people went deep enough in prayer to embrace life with some degree of abandon. These inner experiences literally drove them in ministry to others.

                --from Invitation to Holiness by James C. Fenhagen

Clap Hands

"Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy." Psalms 47:1

Here's a song from Beck.

Is Increasing the Minimum Wage the Answer to the Right Question?

Here's a link to an interesting post from Chris Rabb on the Fast Company Blog about the minimum wage ordinance that passed in Congress last week and now heads for the Senate.

Ultimately, shouldn't we be asking ourselves, our public servants and business leaders what responsibility must we take as a nation to ensure that no legitimate business be compelled to base its economic sustainability on the necessary exploitation of its employees?

Breakthrough's Peanut Butter and Jelly Caper Before the City Council

Breakthrough's Senior Program Director, Bill Curry, testified before a City Council Committee this week about an incident that happened in our dining room during our kids' summer program. City departments were squabbling over whether or not organizations like Breakthrough needed a retail food license to serve food to kids and homeless guests and we were caught in the middle.

We had tried to get the license, but were told by the issuing department that we didn't need one. When a woman from the city health department came out and demanded to see our license which we could not produce, she took peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that had been prepared for the kids' field trip and threw them all in the garbage right in front of the kids.

Alderman Burke was livid. Here's what an article in the Chicago Tribune had to say...

Also on Wednesday, the committee advanced a measure that would exempt soup kitchens and food depositories that prepare food for consumption from a recently imposed requirement to obtain a retail food establishment license.

Burke, crimson with anger, decried what he called City Hall bureaucracy and demanded that a Health Department official give him details of what he called "the great peanut butter and jelly sandwich caper."

In an incident last July, speakers at a meeting said that a new department employee destroyed sandwiches in front of needy children because a not-for-profit organization at 3330 W. Carroll St. that prepared the sandwiches did not have the proper license.

"And this is city that works?" Burke asked sarcastically.

Speaking of hugs

This makes me smile...

Neta Jackson and the Sister Circle

We were blessed last night to have a visit from Neta Jackson, author of the Yada Yada Prayer Group series of books. Neta and her friend, Pam Sullivan, kicked off Breakthrough's Sister Circle, a group of women from very diverse backgrounds who are coming together to learn to know God better and develop meaningful relationships. Neta spoke to us about how God knows us intimately, knew us by name before we were even born. It was a Spirit-filled time of reflection and prayer. Being there reminded me of how rich I am to have such wonderful people in my life, who, despite all of our various blessings and struggles, are all on level ground at the foot of the cross.

Now that's a hug!

Enough to make me jealous...

Water To Wine and Running Out Of Sugar

One evening the women at Breakthrough’s Joshua Center for Homeless Women were pouring coffee when they discovered they had run out of sugar. There were many moans and groans, especially from those who were recovering from alcoholism as their bodies craved the sugar to replace their alcohol intake.

Later, I led them in devotions from the book of John. Our Scripture for the night was about Jesus turning the water into wine. I asked the women what they do when they run out of resources, when the jars of their lives are empty and it seems like life is hopeless, when the sparkle is gone, when the love has run out. I was passionate in my application. “What do you do when you when you don’t have enough? Who do you turn to when the zest is gone from your life, when you are empty and dry, when it seems all of your resources are gone?”

“When you run out of sugar?” one of the women quipped and we all had a good laugh.

The point I was trying to make was that no matter what problem we are facing, Jesus, who turned the water into wine, will bring the sense of celebration, the love and the resources back into our lives if we just bring our empty jars to him and ask him what to do. We talked about the fact that Jesus cares about our need, and will act to meet our needs when we turn to him and do what he tells us to do, that he can work miracles in our lives if we trust him.

A few days later a volunteer came to the center and said she wanted to donate some supplies for our food pantry. Without anyone telling her about our special need, she donated two ten-pound bags of sugar! God gave our homeless women a first hand experience of his special love and care!

Oxygen: Deep Breathing For The Soul

My good friend, Keri Wyatt Kent, has a new book out this month entitled, Oxygen: Deep Breathing For The Soul. Keri is a wonderful author and speaker and has also become a regular Breakthrough volunteer! I have known her since she was a teenager and am really inspired by all God is doing through her!

The Leadership Model of Lot?

2 Peter 2:7-9, says that Lot was a righteous man, who was “distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard).” I like the Revised Standard Version which says he was "vexed in his righteous soul day after day with their lawless deeds."

When God decided to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of their wickedness, Lot's uncle Abraham was able to barter with God and garner a commitment that if ten righteous people could be found in the cities they would be spared. Because Lot was not able to mobilize even ten people in Sodom and Gomorrah to live godly lives, their entire cities were destroyed. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah have been remembered, not only for their sexual deviance and ungodliness, but because they “were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.” (Eze. 16:49)

Today we don’t have leadership books written about Lot. On the other hand, on the day I am writing this, there are more than thirty-five books listed on Amazon about the life and leadership of Nehemiah.

Nehemiah, when he saw that his city was in trouble, garnered resources from the government, conducted a recognizance mission to scope out the problem and mobilized a movement of people to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. When he heard the outcry of the poor, he became angry and "called together a large meeting", and told their oppressors, "What you are doing is not right. Shouldn't you walk in the fear of God?" (Nehemiah 5:6-9). Nehemiah and his people have become known as "Repairers of Broken Walls, Restorers of Streets with Dwellings", just as Isaiah promised in Isaiah 58.

Just being vexed in our righteous souls over wickedness will not save our cities. Like Nehemiah, we need to organize a kingdom movement and help people find their places at the walls, hammer in one hand and sword in the other, prepared for battle, but staying on task til the job is done.

Homelessness and Affordable Housing

A Chicago Tribune article today reported on a study that estimates the number of people without homes in the US to be 744,000. Nan Roman, president of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, says, "The driver in homelessness is the affordable housing crisis. If we don't do something to address the crisis in affordable housing we are not going to solve homelessness."

I noticed another article today in Crain's Chicago Business about Mayor Daley's reluctance to support a city ordinance proposed by Aldermen Tony Preckwinkle and Walter Burnett that would require 15% of new multi-unit buildings to be set aside for affordable housing. Daley is proposing a 10% rule for only projects needing zoning changes or a $100,000 per unit contribution to a city rent subsidy fund.

The author of the article, Greg Hinz, says about Mayor Daley, "He says he doesn't want to kill the golden goose that's reviving the city center. I believe him. I also believe he'd like to avoid offending powerful business interests."

It will be interesting to see who wins this debate.

NT Wright's books

I noticed on Amazon that NT Wright published three books in 2006. I wish I could just get one done this year!

Thy will be done on earth - NT Wright in CT

Here's a link to a Christianity Today interview with NT Wright about communicating the gospel in a post-Christian society. He says,

Because I've done all that historical work, my view of the gospel and how it works out in the real world has been deepened and enriched in all kinds of ways that I would never have guessed 25 years ago when I was starting out writing about Jesus. So in Simply Christian there's a lot about justice, what it means to be human in the mandate to work, the putting to rights of God's world, generating beauty, alleviating poverty, working with ecology. Thirty years ago I would have said those were secondary issues.

...the great emphasis in the New Testament is that the gospel is not how to escape the world; the gospel is that the crucified and risen Jesus is the Lord of the world. And that his death and Resurrection transform the world, and that transformation can happen to you. You, in turn, can be part of the transforming work. That draws together what we traditionally called evangelism, bringing people to the point where they come to know God in Christ for themselves, with working for God's kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. That has always been at the heart of the Lord's Prayer, and how we've managed for years to say the Lord's Prayer without realizing that Jesus really meant it is very curious.

The Success of the Faith-Based Initiative

Stanley Carlson-Thies, Director of Social Policy Studies at the Center for Public Justice, issued a commentary today praising the success of the Federal Faith Based Initiative. He calls it a great success story. I agree. While the initiative has not produced more money from the federal government and the competition for federal dollars is very stiff, I do think there is not as much attention from government funders regarding how religious our activities are. It is understood that Breakthrough is a Christian organization and that is OK. We just can not require people to participate in religious activities in order to receive services. That makes sense to me because I don't think religious activities should be forced on people anyway. The devotionals that we have in all of our program areas are always optional. That puts the onus on us to make sure the discussions are relevant and that our guests want to participate and they do.

Listening to Regina Spektor

I downloaded Regina Spektor's album, Begin to Hope. She has a quirky sort of folkish blues style that grows on you. Her songs also have an urban theme. She lives in New York. Here's a You Tube upload of "Fidelity", one of the songs on the cd.

2007 Bible Reading Guides

Here's a link to the plan to read through the Bible in a year that I will use this year.

Examen of consciousness for 2006

I finished reading Sacred Rhythms by Ruth Haley Barton today. It was a good way to start the year. She wrote about the spiritual disciplines of solitude, prayer, lectio divina, the examen of consciousness, self examination and confession, honoring the body, discernment, sabbath and community. I was most challenged by the segments on honoring the body and the sabbath. I have not taken very good care of my body in the past year and really want to make some changes. She emphasized the need to unplug from technology when enjoying the sabbath or seeking solitude. Of course, that is another challenge of mine.

I have used the daily examen often but reading this book at this particular time of the year led me to reflect upon the entire past year instead of just the day. In doing the examen of consciousness we ask God for light and then reflect on the day with thanksgiving, noting the consolations (the positive things that happened and the ways we got it right) and the desolations (the low points or the things that happened that we wish we had handled differently). Then we are to confess and pray through the things that God brings to our minds and finally we rest in God's love and assurance.

2006 was a challenging year for me and I had many desolations and consolations. My prayer is that this year will be one in which I practice the sacred rhythms.

May God bless you with foolishness

I like this blessing that I found on Tom Allen's blog.

May God bless you with discomfort
at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships
so that 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 pain, rejection, hunger and war
so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and
to turn their pain into joy

And may God bless you with enough foolishness
to believe that you can make a difference in the world
so that you can do what others claim cannot be done
to bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.

Pursuit of Happyness

I finally got to see Pursuit of Happyness tonight. I cried through much of it. Many of the homeless guests that we serve at Breakthrough have the kind of potential that Chris Gardener had if they could just get an opportunity. They, too, experience the constant struggle to make it into the shelters before they are full and it seems like there are so many factors working against them. Will Smith did an awesome job. I really hope he gets an Oscar for it.

Podcast Link

"A Junky's Christmas" by William S. Burroughs

Here's a link to a heartwarming clay animation video edition of William S. Burroughs', "A Junky's Christmas" narrated by Burroughs himself. It's a story about Danny the Carwiper and his desperate search for a fix on Christmas day. It's a tragic reminder for us of those who will be spending this Christmas locked in addiction and isolation. It's 21 minutes long but worth the watch.

Happy Day!

May you be as happy today as these two pots on the stove.

Breakthrough Stories: Season Opener

For those of you who are technologically challenged I have uploaded our podcast season opener into YouTube and placed it below. My kids used to tell me to "get in the '90s"! Believe me, if I can figure it out, you can too! Just click twice in the box below. It takes a few seconds to load...

How much should we give?

This is the time of the year when financial managers are busy trying to maximize tax incentives by giving. It's not just that Christmas warms our hearts to give, but it makes economic sense for donors to hang on to their investments, letting them gain as much interest as possible, until the very last days of the tax year, when those dollars can be released to ministries and charitable organizations to reap the maximum deduction in income taxes.

In my research about poverty and giving I came across this interesting article in the New York Times magazine by Peter Singer. He says the philanthropy this year of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet raises the following ethical questions...

Why are the people who are giving doing so? Does it do any good? Should we praise them for giving so much or criticize them for not giving still more? Is it troubling that such momentous decisions are made by a few extremely wealthy individuals? And how do our judgments about them reflect on our own way of living?

Singer outlines how it is within our reach to eliminate extreme poverty (defined as living on less than the purchasing-power equivalent of one U.S. dollar per day).

In 2000, the United Nations Millennium Summit, the largest gathering of world leaders in history, jointly pledged to meet Millennium Development Goals, by 2015. The goals include:

Reducing by half the proportion of the world’s people in extreme poverty.

Reducing by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

Ensuring that children everywhere are able to take a full course of primary schooling.

Ending sex disparity in education.

Reducing by two-thirds the mortality rate among children under 5.

Reducing by three-quarters the rate of maternal mortality.

Halting and beginning to reverse the spread of H.I.V./AIDS and halting and beginning to reduce the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.

Reducing by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.

Last year a United Nations task force, led by the Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs, estimated the annual cost of meeting these goals to be $121 billion in 2006, rising to $189 billion by 2015. When we take account of existing official development aid promises, the additional amount needed each year to meet the goals is only $48 billion for 2006 and $74 billion for 2015. Singer details how a total of $404 billion could be generated without creating any hardship from just 10 percent of American families (those earning more than $92,000) if they gave just a portion of their wealth.

Where does that leave me? I am clearly not in the top 10 percent of America's wealthiest, but I learned from the Global Rich List website that I am in the top one percent of the world's wealthiest. I can't ask people to give unless I am doing my part. So I'm tossing in my "loaves and fish" and asking God to multiply it.

Pursuit of Happyness

Marcie Curry, Breakthrough's Youth and Family Services Director, blogged yesterday about seeing the movie, Pursuit of Happyness. Seeing it is on my list of things to do during the Christmas break. When you visit Marcie's blog be sure to read her December 7th post about the funny thing her three year old daughter, Addy, said. She is an incredibly bright little girl who is growing up urban as you will get from the quote!

Check out our new podcast

Yesterday we launched a new podcast called Breakthrough Stories. We will be mixing some audio and video episodes with a variety of content put together by Breakthrough's Communications Director, Scott Parker. Scott has assembled a great team of professional documentary journalists who are volunteering their time to work on this podcast. If you are new to podcasting let me tell you that I like it alot because you can determine what you want to listen to and watch. You don't need an ipod to participate. Before I got my ipod I listened to them on my computer or burned them on cds to listen in my car. Eventually we will link to the podcast from the Breakthrough website. For now just download itunes if you haven't already, go to the itunes store and enter Breakthrough Stories in the search line. We will be uploading new episodes several times a week, so subscribe now so you don't miss any of them, and please give us feedback about what you would like to hear and see in the content.

Increased Cost of Living for Low Income Residents

The cost of renting a two bedroom apartment in the Chicago area has risen by 25% since 2000 according to an article in the December 13th Chicago Tribune. An individual or family would have to earn about $18/hour or $37,400 per year in order to afford the current average $935 monthly rent. With the Illinois minimum wage at $6.50, without paying more than 30% of income for housing three people in each household would have to be working full time to afford a two bedroom apartment. In our neighborhood of East Garfield Park, the per capita income in 2005 was $11,599.

The Christmas Bonus Buzz

Today I get to hand out Christmas bonuses to our Breakthrough staff. We will all be elated and grateful to the Breakthrough board members who every year pony up cash from their own pockets as a gift of heartfelt appreciation for the hard work and dedication of our 49 staff members who love on our city's most vulnerable populations day after day.

I've been hearing the buzz this week about outlandish Christmas bonuses being handed out on Wall Street. The New York Post reported that Goldman Sachs' bonuses average $622,000 per employee. The most senior partners can expect $10m to $20m in their Christmas stocking. Some top traders are expecting $60m.

Our staff are just as smart and talented as these financial salesmen, but they do what they do out of a sense of mission and love for God and people. Our reward? Seeing lives transfromed by God's power. As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, my prayer is that those of us who stand in that gap will always understand that our reward is not on this earth, and that those who are blessed with such wealth will learn the joy of giving.

Personal DNA Test

Here's a link to a very cool free personality test, My Personal DNA Report, that you can take on line. I was amazed how "right on" the results were for me. My new label, the "Considerate Inventor"!! You can run your curser over the grid below to see how I stack up... (the very bottom right hand blue sliver is my ranking for authoritarianism!)

Considerate Inventor

Isaiah and Justice

I read the book of Isaiah today and was again impressed by how justice is emphasized throughout the entire book, starting with chapter 1...

16 Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, 17 learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.

I wonder why we don't more often associate "evil deeds" with oppressing poor people by our greed and self-indulgence when Scripture seems to make that association over and over? Lord be merciful to me a sinner!

Isaiah 58 is my all time favorite...

6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-- when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. 9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. "If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, 10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. 11 The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

From Isaiah 65:17-25, Ray Bakke outlines seven characteristics of a healthy community from the heart of God:

• Public celebration and happiness (18, 19)
• Public health for children and the aged (20)
• Housing for all (21)
• Food for all (22)
• Meaningful work (22, 23)
• Family support systems (23)
• Absence of violence (25)

This list outlines our marching orders. There is a good chance that the next great movement of God will involve putting the church back into community where it can be the leaven, salt and light God designed the church to be.

Willow and Jami Smith

Thanks for praying for me while I was out at Willow this weekend. What an amazing place! Everything is done with such precision and with the best of the best. Of course, I was totally out of my league, but welcomed the opportunity to give glory to God for the many miracles we have experienced at Breakthrough. The people were very kind and responsive.


I was also amazed by the love of God that I would have the privilege of hanging in the Green Room with Jami Smith, who performed and led worship all weekend. I blogged about her song "Your Love Is Deep"
back in June and have loved her cd, Bravo God. She did Christmas music from her Christmas cd, Hope Of all the Earth, which I have also downloaded from itunes. It was a privilege to meet her and her band. I am more a fan then ever!

Thanks to Breakthrough staffer, Mariko Tinaya, for sending me the poem below, right when I needed it!

If I forget, yet God reminds me.
If these hands of mine cease from their clinging,
Yet the hands Divine hold me so firmly I cannot fall.

And if sometimes I am too tired to call for him to help me, Then he reads the prayer unspoken in my heart
And lifts my care.

I dare not fear since certainly I know that I am in God's keeping, Shielded so, from all else that would harm, And in the hour of stern temptation, Strengthened by his power.

I tread no path in life to him unknown;
I lift no burden, bear no pain, alone;
My soul a calm, sure hiding place has found;
The everlasting Arms my life surround.

God, thou art love!
I build my faith on that.
I know thee who has kept my path.
And made light for me in the darkness,
Tempering sorrow so that it reached me like a solemn joy.

It were too strange that I should doubt thy love.

                 - Robert Browning

Please pray for me!

I have the wonderful opportunity to speak before the Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington for four minutes once tonight and twice tomorrow. Please pray that the Lord would anoint and inspire my words and use me to encourage the congregation. Thanks!

I've been getting a lot of insight from the book The Prophetic Imagination by Walter Brueggemann. Here's a quote from page 91...

Jesus is remembered and presented by the early church as the faithful embodiment of an alternative consciousness. In his compassion, he embodies the anguish of those rejected by the dominant culture, and as embodied anguish, he has the authority to show the deathly end of the dominant culture. Quite clearly, the one thing the dominant culture cannot tolerate or co-opt is compassion, the ability to stand in solidarity with the victims of the present order. It can manage charity and good intentions, but it has no way to resist solidarity with pain or grief. So the structures of competence and competition stand helpless before the one who groaned the groans of those who are hurting, and in their groans they announce the end of the dominant social world. The imperial consciousness lives by its capacity to still the groans and to go on with business as usual as though none were hurting and there were no groans. If the groans become audible, if they can be heard in the streets and markets and courts, then the consciousness of domination is already jeopardized... Jesus had the capacity to give voice to the very hurt that had been muted, and therefore newness could break through. Newness comes precisely from expressed pain. Suffering made audible and visible produces hope, articulated grief is the gate of newness, and the history of Jesus is the history of entering into the pain and giving it voice"

I am coming to realize that much of the hard work of the kingdom involves entering into the pain of others and visioning alternatives. It is indeed a journey to the cross. It is in enlarging our capacity to suffer that we become like him and know him.

Rita Springer: "I Have To Believe"

Requests for shelter increase while funding falls

Here is a link to an article in the State Journal Register about the need for more funding for homeless shelters. A survey of nearly 60 shelter providers conducted by the Housing Action of Illinois indicated 44 percent of organizations have seen a significant increase in demand for their services since 2003.

While the state contribution to rental subsidies for low income residents has increased due to new legislation enacted after years of advocacy, funding for emergency shelters has decreased. Nancy Radner, Executive Director of the Partnership to End Homelessness, says funding emergency shelters is the “missing piece” that has gotten less attention. “Plenty of people need that place to go immediately,” Radner said. Bob Palmer, policy director for Housing Action Illinois, predicts the number of people who are refused from shelters will go up in the days ahead.

Positioned for a miracle!!

I mentioned a few months ago that we needed another million dollars for our building project at 402 N. St. Louis and that I was struggling with how we would be able to reach that goal. I can tell you now, that blog post was an understatement. Just before Thanksgiving the real estate and finance committees of our board met to try to map out a plan of action. There were very legitimate questions being asked...

Was the construction project distracting us from focusing on raising our key programs to excellence? Was there a way to change our plans to free up money and staff during the construction? How was the construction project impacting general operating funds? If God was leading us to do this work, why were we struggling financially? Were there other options that we had missed? How was this construction project and the ensuing costs going to impact Breakthrough’s financial stability going forward? How would this project affect our ability to complete the 2010 plan to build a Family Plex (academic and recreational center)? What were we going to do about the funding gap?

Beyond these internal questions we were facing the likelihood of having to halt construction until the bank felt confident providing a bridge loan for us while pledges from our capital campaign come in. We investigated a plan to phase the project and finish only a portion of the renovations. We certainly did not want to reach the end of construction and have a debt of one million dollars to repay from our already tight operational cash flow! And there was the stress of our thirty homeless men having to squeeze into a small apartment building every night because the construction project at First Free Church was beginning to disturb the habitat of the building's rats. The guys desperately need this living space.

I could write on and on about the process, the escallating costs of construction, trying to keep everyone on the same page, facing the constant vandalism and stealing at the construction site. Let me just say, the last several months have been the most stressful of my life. In the midst of the stress, I somehow knew the Lord was with us, but it felt like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego being tossed into the fiery furnace with the claim that, "Our God is able to deliver us, but even if He does not, we will not bow down." The fire was unpleasant and hot and I didn't know the outcome, and yet I knew Jesus was with us in the furnace.

Another analogy I thought of was Moses leading the children of Israel to the Red Sea and not seeing a way out. I admit, I was beginning to lose faith. Several times I woke in the middle of the night filled with anxiety and I would get down by my bed to pray. I felt that I had done everything I knew to do, and we were coming up short. I wavered between earnest cries to God for help and flat out protests of "Where are you God? Why have you abandoned me?"!!

Finally, this past Monday, our staff leadership team told God that we recognized that we were positioned for a miracle. We had done all we knew to do and we were utterly dependent on God for the next step. We repented of our pride and self sufficiency. I joined Nancy Hall, our Development Director, in a fast that day (She fasts regularly). By the end of the day I told my daughter, Teri, that I no longer felt stressed about the building. It was as if something had broken free in my spirit and I knew everything would be fine, that God was going to make a way.

The next day I had a meeting scheduled with Alderman Burnett. I had asked for the meeting several weeks before in hopes of getting him to use his position to get a blue light police surveillance camera at the corner of our construction site to stop the vandalism. We talked about the construction and the gap in funds. He immediately got on the phone and made some calls and it looks like we will be getting one million plus from the city!! It was unbelievable. The same people and departments that had turned us down for funding suddenly did an about face and basically told us that if the alderman wanted a million dollars for this project, we would get it!!

We still have hoops to jump through, but it is looking really good that we will get this building built, on time, and entirely paid for. I can't stop sighing and saying "thank you" to God.