Milkshakes

I’ve been a little light on the postings this week.  I apologize.  I got so busy with great things that I failed to sit down and write about them!  But here is a great happening that occurred this past week:

On Wednesday Night we had our usual men’s bible study.  It’s for anybody but especially targets homeless men.  We purposefully have limited the size of it to show a commitment to the men and ask they make a commitment to us.  Its worked really well this fall.  Going into the Thanksgiving Holiday we knew we weren’t going to meet this coming week.  So I wanted to do something special for the guys to give them a blessing.  What could I do?  Then it hit me. 

During the Thanksgiving holiday I usually head home to my parents house.  My dad is a big milkshake fan.  During the week we will get multiple milkshakes.  It’s what we Cobbs do.  I shared this story with the Bible Study.  The men listened intently and smiled at the warm thoughts of a tradition with my father meant.  Then I pulled out my surprise.  My favorite milkshake in Atlanta is a hand spun Chick-Fil-A milkshake.  They are awesome.  So I got giftcards for every Bible Study member.  I told each of them that I realized spending over two dollars on a milkshake was a luxury that most of them could not afford.  So I thought they might enjoy a holiday treat after their Thanksgiving dinner.  Then I encouraged them to get together in groups to share in the experience. 

The smiles in the room were universal.  They were pumped!  Its a small gesture but to them I think the creative nature of the gift really proved our care for them.  We didn’t just hand them another pair of socks or transportation fare.  Both of those things are needed, but we wanted to do something out of the ordinary.  Allow them a special moment.  Afterall, we think they are special guys. 

This coming week if you get a milkshake, smile knowing you’re sharing it in spirit with some men who don’t normally get to smile very often.

Monday Morning QB

As a followup to the post from Sunday about sex trafficking, it was suggested to post the tipline number.  Great idea.  Here it is: 1.888.3737.888.

I wanted to suggest a book that our urban ministry team is reading here at the church.  It’s called “When Helping Hurts: How to alleviate poverty without hurting the poor and yourself”  by Steve Corbett and Brain Fikkert.  http://www.amazon.com/When-Helping-Hurts-Alleviating-Ourselves/dp/0802457053/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258418954&sr=8-1

I’d love to know of traditions that exist within our congregation of holiday service.  Does your family go to a soup kitchen every year at Thanksgiving or Christmas.  Do you hand out blankets?  Whether its in Atlanta or not I’d love to hear about the things you do around the holidays to serve others.  I know we have many people at NAPC doing things around the holidays that aren’t official NAPC activities yet they are making a difference for the kingdom.  We want to celebrate that.  Email me those stories and traditions if you would.  phil@napc.org

I forgot to mention that at the Backyard Abolitionist Tour Thursday night we had a celebrity in the house.  The drummer for Third Day David Carr attended.  He is committed to the cause and told us about an upcoming event that International Justice Mission is apart of.  That was fun for all of us Third Day fans.

The Presbytery of Greater Atlanta has invited Scott and myself to come and share about StreetGRACE at the next meeting.  We’re really excited about having such a large forum to present the issue of sexual exploitation of minors to all our denominational partners.  Hopefully we can get many more churches to sign on to the cause.

Reality Hits

Thursday Night was a great night.  We hosted the Backyard Abolitionist Tour and it was awesome.  We had a great crowd and people were inspired to take action.  We heard about how we can each play a role in the battle to fight modern day slavery in our own backyards.  How each of us can be abolitionists.  The event was fresh on my mind throughout the weekend which made an experience Saturday Night all the more sobering.

My wife Stacey and I went to the  Atlanta Hawks game Saturday Night.  It was a 7 pm start and so we headed down to the Marta station around dinner time.  We got on the train going south and talked about what we were craving for dinner.  As we passed each stop on our way to the Five Points transfer, the seats on the train began to fill up around us.  At the North Avenue stop three teenage girls got on.  They sat directly in front of us and were clearly excited about the latest gossip.  They giggled and talked back and forth.  This continued on until Peachtree Center station, when a man got on the train who was not well kept.  He had a hardened look on his face and began looking around the train.  He sat down a few seats from us.

As we neared Five Points he got up and began pulling fliers out of a manila envelope.  They were neon green and he looked directly at the teenage girls and handed each girl one of the fliers.  I could read the first few lines over their shoulders.  It was for a modeling call.  Red Flag! Red Flag!

We all got off the train at Five Points the girls went in one direction and we went in another.  I didn’t get a chance to say anything to the girls but I began praying they would toss the fliers in the trash.  Nothing good was going to come from them following up on the contact.  They were clearly minors.  The guy handing them the information was not reputable.  My opinion: At best it was going to be for some kind of adult entertainment literature at worst we would never see those girls again as they would be swept into a trafficking ring.  Its all around us.  Step one is opening our eyes.  Step two is knowing what to do.  I don’t have the tip line programmed into my phone.  I will now.

This Thursday Night!

Monday Morning QB

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.

 

Against the Grain

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?

Monday Morning QB

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.

Out of the Box Marriage Enrichment

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!

Monday Morning QB

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”

“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.