The Backyard Abolitionist Tour is Thursday Night at 8 pm. Door open at 7:30. Come here about our efforts in fight sex trafficking, child exploitation and how you can find your role in this issue. Its free and will have representation from the Not For Sale Campaign, StreetGRACE and several other community partners. The event is in the sanctuary. Look forward to seeing you there.
Yesterday, Katie Salmons, a Columbia Theological Seminary Student and current NAPC intern, delivered a wonderful devotional at the Pine Street Shelter. She left the men with a great message about when Jesus heals us we are to move forward, even if the world continues to view us as our former self. Great message for guys holding a lot of stigmas.
Thanks to the faithful few who made sandwiches yesterday to take over to the Pine Street men.
If anyone can play the piano or guitar and would be willing to help lead some hymns at the Cup we need your help. We had a pretty steady music leader but have come to face some circumstances that hasn’t allowed for him to be present. We need some new leadership to step up. We typically sing old gospel standards but are open to new styles. Let me know if you or someone you know would be willing to help.
Now for a story:
Herb is becoming a fast friend of mine. He stays at the Pine Street Shelter. He has been there for a number of years. He comes to our Wednesday Night Bible Study regularly. He’s 62 years old which makes him unique. Most of the guys staying at that shelter look 62 but are actually in their 40s. Their lifestyle and life experiences ages them very quickly.
Herb has been asking a lot of tough questions as we study Scripture together. He’s a believer but is actively seeking the deeper truths of what God has for him. We haven’t quite gotten to the point where I know his full history. We’re going to have to grow the relationship further, but he has a plan for his life at this point. My guess is he has some serious stuff in his background, and has held most information about himself close. Yet, with every meeting he’s opened up to me. I’ve never made any big promises to him. He’s never asked for any big promises from me. For now we’re just friends that enjoy laughing together and talking about life.
So what is the point? The point is that I don’t know where this will go. There is no manual for it. But I feel called into friendship with Herb. We get along, and we’re having a good time getting to know each other. Herb is teaching me about what its really like to be in his position and I in turn in giving him someone to talk with that isn’t a social worker or fellow homeless person. All our ministry is going to be built around relationships. And relationships happen in earnest one person at a time.
I’ve had several families approach me in the past week about serving during Thanksgiving. They have asked for help in setting up opportunities to reach beyond themselves during a time when most North American families focus on themselves. I mean we gather together as families and eat lots of food and do special activities together. There is nothing wrong with that. I’m going to do that myself during Thanksgiving. Yet, something is pushing these particular families to break the comfort zone. To reach beyond the normal American routine.
I believe it is what God is calling these particular families into to help them cut through the noise of the world. God calls us to be different from the world, yet for the most part Christianity has been an exercise in retaining a belief system while keeping up with the world, though that hasn’t been done particularly well. Most of the time, the worldviews clash to the point that we have to make choices and most American Christians choose the world.
I’m really excited to help these families connect with a service opportunity that will allow them to further explore God’s call on their family unit. As they continue to grow together they are going to have shared experiences that will enrich their faith more than anyone on the outside will ever know.
I think the question for all of us to ask is how is God going to call me to live out the faith and when am I going to have to make the choices no one will understand or even join me in?
We’re in the home stretch before the Not For Sale Campaign’s Backyard Abolitionist Tour presented by StreetGRACE. This is going to be an awesome event Thursday November 12th at 8 pm. David Batstone, founder of Not For Sale, is an incredible speaker and modern day abolitionist. I guarantee you will have a great time at this event. Please tell all your friends to come. We’re going to have some local partners on site to tell you more about how you can get involved.
This past week at the Men’s Community Bible Study I was sitting next to a gentleman that’s been coming for a long time. He normally is very quiet. He’s very kind and respectful but very quiet. We were discussing the 2 Samuel Chapter 13. The bible study is set up so that we have about four tables of men each discussing questions around our passage of study. It makes for a very open and free to share environment. Yet, this guy had never been one to share much. Well that night I leaned over to him and asked him his opinion on our current discussion. He started “I’m afraid to share this because I think you guys are going to call me out, but this is what I really am thinking. I don’t know how you can say this is a loving God when we’ve been reading about people being killed and murdered all over the place. And now we read about a baby being killed because of David’s sin. This stuff is messed up.” The other men at the table weren’t really sure what to do. I said “That’s an excellent point, and I don’t have a good answer for you.” Which was true in that moment.
I bring this story up for a couple of reasons. After the initial statement this gentleman added some more thoughts that called up stories we had read in previous weeks. He may have doubts, but I know God and the Holy Spirit are at work. He’s really tracking and processing with this stuff. He also felt safe enough to share his honest thoughts. That is a recent development. This group is giving us a vehicle for true deep discipleship with these men. Here is a guy who is homeless, and his struggle is wrestling with the character of God. Physical needs were totally put aside. That is significant to me. I’m not sure where this will go, that’s in God’s hands, but it gives me encouragement that our efforts to foster deeper relationships with these men are starting to produce fruit.
Finally, thank you to everyone offering encouragement and thank you to everyone doing kingdom work whether it be “official NAPC” work or not. I’m starting to see some really cool stuff happen.
Today’s post is selfish. I’m going to just put that out front. I’m married to an awesome woman. Her name is Stacey. She is first year Resident Pediatrician at Emory. In being married to me she gets to hear about all the issues North Avenue Urban Ministry is involved with. One of those issues is the sexual exploitation of children. She is on the frontlines of this issue in our medical system. When she was a third year medical student she came across a couple of exploitation victims and didn’t have any options on how to help them. Thus started a journey for us as a couple.
When Stacey came home and shared the story with me of what she’d seen I thought “what could she have done to have helped this victim?” I didn’t have an answer, but knew that we could get an answer with some work. Fast forward to this week.
Through the work of StreetGRACE and many built relationships through North Avenue’s efforts I was able to get a meeting set up between the new state funded care network for victims and Stacey. Why this meeting? The care connection folks are now putting together training for medical professionals to be first responders and reporters for exploitation and trafficking victims. However, they aren’t medical professionals. Stacey as a first responder didn’t know what resources are available to these victims. I’m just a guy that sets up meetings. But with everybody in the room, we discovered that the training plan was targeting the wrong group of pediatricians. Not anymore, Stacey told them which group serves these victims and which hospitals are covered by which doctors. Stacey was able to tell them the length of time a training could be, how it needed to be scheduled and who would most likely attend. Finally, Stacey gave them the key contacts in the area for adolescents dealing with medical issues around sexual activity. 1 hour, probably saved many hours of failed training approaches.
Why this story? Its to show you that amazing lifesaving work can happen by simply listening and contributing in our own unique way. I saw the value of Stacey’s experience. I knew the people planning the lifesaving work. I didn’t assume someone else would do it. I took action. If they already knew the information, so what, we meet for an hour. But they didn’t and now those victims are that much closer to being helped because the medical professionals are that much closer to being equipped.
One more thing. Not only did we get some great work done around the exploitation issue, but I got to work hand in hand with my wife to answer God’s call to Justice. I was so energized! That’s so cool to me. You talk about marriage building! All of you have something to contribute, it just takes being creative and action oriented. Find your role!
Jeff is ordained! That was the big happening of the week. I told him this morning that he didn’t have to wear the robe during the week. I guess he just likes it.
Last Thursday we had a great Parking Fundraiser to cover the cost of the Not For Sale: Backyard Abolitionist Tour. That event will be happening Thursday November 12 at 8 pm at NAPC. Its going to be a great event. Thanks to all the volunteers who came out to help us park cars. We need more volunteers for the event in November. If you can help let me know.
I got a chance to speak to the Christian Medical and Dental Association Thursday Night at Intown Community Church on behalf of StreetGRACE. Its been great to get a bunch of opportunities to spread the name of StreetGRACE to different groups around the city. We’re a part of a movement much bigger than ourselves.
We celebrated the 60th birthday of our own member Prince Davies-Venn yesterday at The Cup. We sang him happy birthday and prayed for him. Prince works as a case manager and chaplain at Clifton Sanctuary Ministries, one of our community partners. He preaches each week at The Cup. He is truly a servant of the Lord and does a great job working with the men of Clifton.
Finally, Mark your calendars for Sunday, November 8th. Sandwich making for Pine Street at 10 am in the Dining Room.
“Mike” was sitting to my left Wednesday Evening at the Community Men’s Bible Study. The question before him was “Have you experienced highs and lows in your life like King David?” This question came from our ongoing study of 1 and 2 Samuel. Mike sat back in his chair and thought for a moment. He then slowly leaned forward and said:
“I had a great job working at Budweiser. I was rising through the sales department and then into management. I was king of the company in my mind. I just lost sight of life’s priorities and it all went away. I have a college degree man. I played college football at NC State. I was an outside linebacker.”
I don’t know what exactly “Mike” did when he lost sight of priorities. I don’t know if it was bad financial decisions, drugs, or something else. But the reality of his story mirrors those that aren’t homeless. College Grad, great job in sales at a major company yet it all went away and now he’s homeless. The Mike’s of the world are great reminders of why developing settings for storytelling and relationship are the real way to end homelessness. I don’t know how to help Mike if I don’t get to know Mike and the chances of me getting to know Mike in a crowd of 20 is far better than a crowd of 300.
Its through relationship and we need more of the congregation to engage in meaningful relationships with our neighbors in need.
Anybody available Thursday Night for some flag waving fun? We’re doing a parking fundraiser Thursday Night. We’ve got some event costs associated with hosting the Backyard Abolitionist Tour for Not For Sale here in November. Having the ability to raise money off of Fox Events is such a blessing, but it requires some volunteers to make it happen. If you are available Thursday evening from 6:30 till at least 8:30 please let me know. Whitney Meadows, our communications director, is going to be the staff point person, and I will be joining the fray later in the evening after a speaking engagement. We’re going to provide pizza for dinner and have a good time hanging out while we wave flags, park cars, and show some NAPC Urban hospitality. This is this Thursday Night so email me if you are available: phil@napc.org
We were in a big red truck. We being myself another ministry colleague named Steve and Pastor Paul. Pastor Paul runs a ministry called the Atlanta Dream Center located over on Linden Street. As the big red truck pulled through the old fourth ward just blocks from the church, Paul had his window rolled down and he called out to the people we passed. “Hey Lennie, Hey Mike, Hey Donnell!” On and on we went and he knew everybody and everybody knew him.
And these weren’t just anybody’s. On one occasion he leaned over and said “that’s Donovan, he’s a dope dealer, runs this block over here. Hey Donovan!” To which Donovan nodded and waved back. So why take the time to know the drug dealers? As he explained to me, the drug dealers control the neighborhoods and money and power is there motivation. Pastor Paul doesn’t care about that. He cares about the kids suffering through the consequences of those things. So he reaches out to the kids and builds enough of a relationship with the drug dealers to keep them from interfering with the ministry. In fact part of his to do list while we drove around was to build support for a lunch he was going to host for the drug dealers in the neighborhood. That class isn’t offered in seminary, but I’m pretty sure that’s approved ministry by Jesus.
But the most compelling experience of the day was with a street prostitute. I can’t remember her name, but Paul knew it. He lovingly chided her to come out of the lifestyle. The ministry could help her get her life together. She deflected the statement with a smile and polite rebuttal that she was doing just fine. He leaned back over to me and said “she has money in her purse and drugs she’s ready to smoke. Life is good for her right now. She’ll come to us the next time she gets beat up.” This exchange had occurred at the corner of North Avenue and Boulevard. We pulled into the little strip mall parking lot at that corner and went inside the laundry facility. Paul introduced me to the manager, who was a former major crack dealer among other things before she had turned from the lifestyle. She spent about 3 minutes telling us how she used to be a part of the problem and was now leading a productive life thanks to the ministry.
We thanked her for her time and story and went back outside only to be told by a bystander that the prostitute had been mugged. We found her around the corner crying and bleeding from her face. Paul told her to get in the truck with us and we take her back to the ministry office and get her cleaned up. We pulled into the office on Linden Street and she went inside to the bathroom. Her eye was swollen shut. He gave her a pair of sunglasses to cover it up and then we prayed for her. She then went back on her way. He said “she’ll eventually get tired of this and come away from that lifestyle for good. This helps build the trust so that she’ll know where to come when its time.”
On my way out of their office, another former prostitute came up the street and gave him a hug. She was clean almost a year and in school.
Not everybody is called to ministry like this. Pastor Paul has a clear annointing and protection from God to build the relationships he has built. However, he and his ministry are our neighbors and we will be looking for ways to partner in the future. I came away from my time with him truly inspired and motivated that with God involved any situation can be redeemed.
As promised here are my thoughts from day two of the forum.
One panel I attended was about social entrepreneurship. Amazing insights. The reason for such a panel is because we’re running into a major problem with trafficking victims: they have no sustainable plan for the future. If you pull someone out of sex slavery for example, they need a vocational skill and a market to earn a living in. They have a life to live. The same thing goes for manual labor slaves. They have to have a marketable skill to sustain their lives going forward.
This same challenge applies to men and women coming out of homelessness and prison. Many times they can’t get hired because of things in their background so they need a market to work within that is sustainable. The takeaway from this thought is I’d like to begin gathering entrepreneurs together for brainstorming. Let’s get some creative innovation flowing towards creating a solution.
The next thought comes from the issue of bonded and slave labor. There were two former corporate executives that now work for non-profits fighting labor exploitation, that told our gathering that the complexity of supply chains for manufacturing and production are so deep that no corporation can know for sure if they have any slave labor involved. Because the raw supplies are coming from so many different sources, they can’t monitor everything. That was a sobering thought. There is progress being made in more standardized monitoring and certifications but we have a long way to go.
Finally, we got a charge to continue to be a part of this real movement to end modern day slavery in all forms. There is real momentum building and it will continue to build if we all do our parts.
Our part at North Avenue, is to support StreetGRACE. We are fighting the sex slavery and exploitation of children. Each of us has a role to play in that battle.
