Christmas in Walnut.....building capacity and community

The world's ways keep us separate, isolated, competitive, and categorized in a hierarchy of the world's values. There always seems to be an "in" group and an "out" group; somebody on top and somebody on bottom. Race, class, religion, denomination, physical features, education, job status....you name it, someone is always the "worthy" and someone the "unworthy".

God's design for Christian community is a design that draws people together in a way that breaks down divisions and helps us to see one another all as fellow unworthy neighbors...all created by God and made worthy only through Jesus Christ.

One of my favorite, favorite, favorite things about "Christmas in Walnut" is watching how God draws diverse people together in Christian community to begin breaking down divisions through this togetherness experience. See a few stories below of how God has been using the whole of our community in this effort.

-Some of our shoppers for tomorrow's Christmas Store are also leaders and volunteers helping to run the store.

-Two other churches in our community have contributed to Christmas in Walnut through donations of toys, money, and/or volunteers.

-My husband's office at UNI passed around an envelope and contributed a financial donation for the store.

-Several retail stores gave wonderful discounts to our shoppers when they learned about the Christmas Store.

-Children from Orchard Hill Cedar Falls, Orchard Hill Grundy Center, and Harvest Waterloo colored and wrote messages on the back of bookmarks. A bookmark and Bible will be handed out to each Christmas Store family who shops.

-Teenagers/young 20's from our student ministry program (which is a collective of churches) provided 350 gifts over the past week to the Christmas Store. Their joy and enthusiasm in the giving was electric. Also, several young adult small group leaders modeled sacrificial giving as they took their high school small groups out shopping. One small group leader had been saving his giving money for this event and put forth $400...their group of 4 came in with toy purchases totaling $580. What an amazing act of giving and generosity!

-One shopper from last year has started a ministry in Waterloo. She loved last year's Christmas in Walnut experience and rallied her congregation this year to contribute several gift cards for this year's Store.

-Two family support workers from local schools have done an outstanding job sharing the vision and getting tickets to families in need of assistance this Christmas.

-Over $14,000 and 2,200 gifts have come in over the past four weeks for Christmas in Walnut. A leadership team of 18 people has been stellar. Somewhere around 310 volunteers are signed up to be at the Boys n' Girls Club and Harvest Vineyard tomorrow. 500 tickets have gone out to families who could use some assistance this Christmas. aMAZING!

God's goodness is so evident through his design for relationship...community.

Ephesians 2:14 "For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility..."

teenagers and toys

Teenagers got it goin' on! These teens from Big House Wednesday Night went shopping in their small groups tonight for the Christmas Store. As they generously opened their hearts and their pockets, these small groups brought in a mountain of toys that pushed us over our goal of collecting 2,000 gifts for Saturday's Christmas Store. Don't underestimate what God wants to do through the lives of teenagers to make a huge difference in our world! One thing's for sure...they made a huge difference here tonight!

gatekeeping

As I watch and listen and work around our community and around our church, I've been thinking a lot about the following notes on "gatekeeping" that I took at an Undoing Racism workshop I attended last February...

What is a gatekeeper? Someone who has access to information, opportunities, knowledge, resources. He/she tends the gate and determines what gets let in and what gets let out.

Generally, how have gatekeepers worked in our under-resourced communities? They often are the ones who define what is helpful. They tell the community what it needs. They control, analyze, write grants for, and define what the community needs. They measure, interpret, evaluate, often without getting permission or involvement of the community. They define the rules, hide the rules, define the needs so often that the community might not even know what it needs anymore or believe that they can make a difference in their own neighborhoods. Gatekeepers often make all the demands on the community, and the community often has little voice or power to make any demands on gatekeepers. Without mutuality, there's abuse. Problem solving and creativity get silenced. Healthy relationships and community does not get built.

However, an empowering, liberating gatekeeper will give tools to the community as he/she works WITH the community in defining their needs and creating solutions. The organizing piece is so critical for the gatekeeper. To create collective power...that's real power.

This is becoming an increasingly important filter for me as I consider what to get involved with, who is involved, and how I should participate.

more Christmas Store rationale...

"One-way mercy ministry, as kindhearted as the giver may be and as well intentioned, is an unmistakable form of put-down. On the other hand, everyone loves to engage in the process of exchange. Everyone loves to find a bargain. There is something life affirming when someone comes to the bargaining table with a resource to barter. The playing field is leveled. The eyeing of each other's commodity takes place from both sides of the bargaining table. Both sides have a choice; both sides weigh the worth of the other's commodity. A deal is struck and an exchange is made. And remarkably, both parties leave the encounter feeling like they have gained more value than they brought."

"The Kingdom reserves a special place for the poor and for those who show compassion toward the poor. But how we demonstrate our compassion has everything to do with whether or not the poor actually feel valued. This is very good news indeed to Kingdom-minded people who are also bargain hunters, entrepreneurs, wheeler-dealers and creative types who know the magic of exchange. Our is the unique opportunity to use our know-how and our creative energies to design methods of exchange that enable those with little as well as those with much to come to the table, participate in the excitement of making a deal and leave satisfied. With dignity."

- Bob Lupton, from his book Compassion, Justice, and the Christian Life

Jesus Storybook Bible

What an amazing Bible storybook. We are currently selling this Bible to families at church, and we plan to give one to each family that shops at the Christmas Store on December 10.

I decided to buy one, read through it over the next several days, and allow my reading to serve as a reminder to pray that God would...

*supernaturally prompt those who take home the Bible to open it and read it.

*prepare the hearts of the readers, children and adults alike, to receive His love and truth in Christ through this Bible.

*use this Bible to create a longing for Himself and spur people on to go deeper in their journey of faith.

I love, love the illustrations and the language of the Jesus Storybook Bible. Every story ties in to God's Big Love Story of rescuing His broken and sin-stained people through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus.

youth development learnings

Here are 3 key learnings we have discovered as we delve into the youth development component of Christian Community Development work:

1. Cross-cultural friendships/teams are important if we are ever going to break down racism.

2. A strong adult:child ratio is critical if we hope to actually get to "development" and not just "crowd control".

3. Students have more God-given ability than we often believe possible. We are learning that we need to learn and do hard things. Challenging students to higher level thinking, creativity, and action is producing some outstanding contributors as we join Jesus to create a more just community.

Last night was our fifth and final night for Youth Art Team's 3rd session. The students did some research on The Five Sullivan Brothers, and teams created a framework for the play that they are writing. I learned so much about The Five Sullivans who grew up in Waterloo, enlisted in the Navy together, and who died together in WWII when their ship, the U.S.S. Juneau, was bombed. My study group had fun learning about the brothers as boys. The brothers stuck close together, hung out by the banks of the Cedar River...hunting, fishing, and making a boat that capsized while they were trying it out. Their brave dog paddled over to save the youngest brother, Al, from drowning.

We also learned about "The Great Banana Heist." One day the boys skipped school with some friends, saw a railroad car full of bananas being unloaded at the Hoxie Fruit and Produce Co., climbed on in the boxcar, only to get locked in while the produce company employee called the truant officers and had them come find a boxcar full of boys who should have been in school.

The boys were also known to watch out for their neighborhood and help to keep it safe and strong. It was great to talk about how Jesus wants us to be good neighbors like that as well.

Christmas in Walnut '11