Nights of Terror

This week is our Church's outreach for Halloween, called Nights of Terror. Many of our young people are involved in the production, similar to a walk-through "haunted house" for the sake of displaying the consequences of our actions both here on earth and continuing into eternity.

How do you feel about "scaring" kids into believing in God? Is it wrong? Can it be done graciously? Feel free to make comments.

Home

We're finally home tonight after a long day of travel. Our alarm went off at 4:30am this morning in the Miami Hyatt. Angel Pittman drove us to the airport for our initial flight to Charlotte. We had a 3 hour layover, so we got to visit with Vaughn Lamer at his new home in uptown for a while. Good fellowship before flying home to Detroit. Then we hopped in the van to drive to Lansing to meet Mom VB and pick up the kids. Finally arrived home at around 5pm. Good to be in our own home.

I'll write more about CCDA after I catch up on sleep, email, work, and seminary homework.

Bienvenido a Miami

We are in Miami this week for the Christian Community Development Association annual meeting. If you are not familiar with CCDA, please visit CCDA.org since their principles are what we base most of our ministry upon. Especially instructive are the 8 key components of CCD.

1. Relocation: Living Among the People
2. Reconciliation
3. Redistribution (just distribution of resources)
4. Leadership Development
5. Listening to the Community
6. Church-based
7. Wholistic Approach
8. Empowerment

I get to spend much of my time focusing on Leadership Development, but definitely lean heavily on all of these principles in developing our ministry here in Detroit. It is an incredible blessing to be with like-minded people from across the world for a few days to worship, fellowship, and learn about how God is working in the under-resourced areas of our world to bring about justice, righteousness and ultimately the fullness of His Kingdom.

This is like my week of summer camp.

President Plantinga

These words are marinating in my mind from one of my mentors in a meditation we heard Tuesday night. (not a direct quote)

Gratitude needs to be like breathing for a Christian. We inhale God’s good gifts, we exhale thanksgiving. Just like children, we need to be taught to be grateful, but with God’s grace, it can become as natural as breathing. Even in intense hardships (beatings, imprisonment, hunger, oppression), the Apostle Paul never wavered in the necessity of giving thanks, even stating it 3 successive times in his beautiful chapter of Colossians 3.

Quote

"You must be a strong man to volunteer in the Detroit Public Schools. If I was white like you, I'd be scared as Hell."

Vehicles

Please pray with us. I mentioned last week that someone had attempted to hotwire our bus. Well, this weekend someone stole one of our ministry's vans on Saturday night and attempted to steal the other last night. We are definitely fighting a battle here.

Divine Appointments

Last Spring when I volunteered at Central HS, there was one boy who repeatedly tried to upstage me in front of his friends. He tried to belittle me to the delight of the crowd that had gathered. I liked him because of his creativity and enthusiasm, but was saddened by his need to demean me in order to get attention.
Skip to Friday night, driving the bus around the neighborhood, and who should step up onto the bus, but this young man from Central. He recognized me immediately and waited to see how I would respond to him. I greeted him and proceeded to give him as much positive attention as possible through the evening.
God has such a sense of humor. It's good to see my consistency in the school and neighborhood rewarded with relational connections that allow the gospel to be fleshed out and spoken over time. Thanks for praying.

1/2 Marathon!

Who are these runners coming down the road? It's Kristen and her sister-in-law 11 miles into the 13.1 mile Detroit Half-Marathon. Don't they look great? It was a fun morning of celebration for the agonizing months of training. They actually run across the Ambassador Bridge into Canada and then under the Detroit River in the tunnel back to the U.S.A. We met them with just 2 miles to go to encourage them with their children cheering them on. Way to go Mom!

Soccer

The older boys played their last soccer game of the season yesterday. They had the privilege of playing in front of their aunts and uncles and grandparents on a beautiful fall morning. Ty had some great passes and Jamison had some nice goals. They look to be far advanced from their parents youth soccer days. We're just happy they enjoy the game and get to learn some teamwork in the process.

Fun on Pingree 2

So while Kristen was hosting her Bible Study Fellowship group for lunch today, the drug house on our street was raided by the police. Fortunately, it happened in such a way that it went unnoticed by the guests (mainly women from the suburbs). Now I need to make the call to the police station to thank them for their service.

In other news, I had the privilege of being in the middle of a fight at the high school today. I was just about ready to leave when I saw two girls arguing. I decided to step between them (maybe not a good idea) and their words became flesh as they crawled over me to get to each other. I might be on youtube later today since the fight drew a crowd of about 75 kids who crowded around and videotaped the entire thing on their cell phones. I managed to get out with only a small tear in my shirt. I proceeded to leave the school for a meeting, but I wonder if there were/will be paybacks or other flare ups later today. In contrast, I did have some good conversation with the usual gambling suspects today, so I still leave encouraged.

CDC Club 7:37 Video

Here is a glimpse of the fun we have on Friday nights.

Question from Jamison

"Why do people need to paint big words on the side of empty buildings?"

Fun on Pingree

A new drug house has opened on our block, right next to the one that got shut down and eventually burned to the ground last spring. So I called the Police Drug Unit and reported the house two weeks ago. Then I called the next day and reported it again (the same tactic I had used last winter). The officer replied "this house was reported yesterday, why are you calling again?" I told him that I thought persistence would help to get the issue addressed more quickly than last time (about 3 months). He replied, "Would you like me to call your work and remind me of your daily tasks each day?" which kind of made sense to me, so I listened as he described their process a little more. I apologized for my impatience and asked how long I should wait before calling again. "Two weeks" he said.

I'm pretty sure I'll be calling again today. Not with arrogance, but with gentleness and firmness that display my care and concern for my neighborhood. We press on.

Last time we went through this, we prayed for redemption and salvation to come from the drug house being shut down. Then we saw one of our church members coming out of the house and felt sick. So I prayed about it, and eventually confronted her about it the next Sunday. She responded with remorse and the next week enrolled in an in-patient treatment facility for 120 days. She is since back in town, taking college classes and serving in our church again. To God be the glory. He answers our prayers beyond our wildest imagination.

Jungle Party

We had a beautiful day for Ty's outdoor Jungle Party today. We had a variety of jungle foods (including peanut butter and banana sandwiches), jungle games, and a snake cake. Kristen really did a fantastic job of preparing a fun day and Ty was so excited.

How time flies. I remember the Thursday afternoon that he was born like it was last week. We are thankful to God for the gift of Ty.

Friday Nights

Strange things seem to happen on Friday nights. Like the 5 student leaders who either called (or I called them) to let me know they couldn't make it to club tonight. Or like when I went to start up the bus to pick up kids for club tonight and someone had tried to hotwire our 20 year old bus. The ignition was torn up so badly that I couldn't drive it. So I changed plans and we drove the 15 passenger van instead. We managed just fine and actually had a really good club. There were only about 25 kids there, but the energy was good and they were really listening closely by the time I started giving my message from John 4. It was one of the most attentive club audiences I can remember in my three + years of doing club here. Then we went to the gym and one group of kids (and me) played basketball while some of our other leaders led a came of Catchphrase (think Charades) with the kids who didn't want to shoot hoops. At one point, I stopped and looked and almost every kid in the building had a smile on their face. That was an accomplishment. It was a good night despite the challenges.

Birthday

Ty's birthday was yesterday and we had the opportunity to spend the afternoon together at Greenfield Village celebrating together as a family. We rode in a Model T, took the 1860 train around the park and observed many pumpkins lining the streets. The day was completed with a Slumber party in the basement for the boys while eating popcorn and watching "Mary Poppins" one of Ty's birthday gifts.

Court

I'll be in court twice in the next two weeks supporting friends twisted up in the legal system. I'm realizing how complicated it can be to sort through the paperwork and details even as an educated, well-read adult, let alone, a young person with limited life-experience and education. One of these cases had me attempting to post bail at 1am in the morning and walking through a casino and the streets of Detroit with a significant wad of cash. Ask me if you want the full story. My life is rarely boring.

Terrible Tigers

The Tigers have been bad this summer, but our boys still loved going to the ballpark. Thanks to some good friends, we got to go to 3 games in September alone! These were the best seats courtesy of the Vermeulens. Quentin was most intrigued by the Tiger Mascot, Ty is enamored by the ferris wheel, and Jamison likes to see the Tigers hit home runs (which didn't happen nearly enough).