Thoughts on Immigrant/Refugee Communities

Lately, I have been volunteering at a local library with the Adult Learning Center here in my neighborhood in Minneapolis. I have greatly enjoyed being able to help people seeking to improve their lives through language learning, GED preparation and citizenship exam preparation. Since this neighborhood is comprised of a large number of Somali, Hmong and other non-English speaking people, much of my time is spent in working on their abilities to read, speak, grammar and vocabulary all in English. As I have been working with these people, I am always curious of their personal stories of coming to this place. Many of these people have left their countries alone and with almost nothing. Often, the reason they have left their countries is because of unsafe conditions through civil wars, political conditions and inhumane economic conditions.

I met one young man who left Somalia four years ago because of the civil war. He first arrived in Fargo, North Dakota in late October. He had never touched snow, but had only seen it in movies. He had no idea it was even cold or wet. If you know what winters in North Dakota are like, you understand that this young man was going to be about as surprised as possible once winter came. He told me of one other young Somali man he lived with in Fargo who broke his arm falling on ice as he was chasing after a bus to take him home. This is just one story of the countless accounts of immigrants and refugees who have come to the U.S. to better their lives (or even survive past 30 - the median age in Somalia is 17.6 years old as compared to the 36.8 median in the U.S.)

Instead of offering compassion and help, many of the people in this country will, at best, turn away from these people, and at worst claim they are all criminals and demonize them. I have seen the people of this country debate such things like having closed borders to "prevent" terrorism, rounding up all undocumented immigrants in this country to send them back to their country of origin, police that feel it is their responsibility to end immigration and even guarding the border with Mexico and killing anything they see. I just don't understand this attack and real hatred. Unfortunately, the human condition is flawed and we are taught to hate "the other" out of fear and mistrust.

When are we going to move beyond this as a country? We can we actually come to see the beauty and love in these people who are different than us, but certainly are deserving of our hatred?

In every community we might find ourselves in in this country, there are people in need around us - people who are different and cause anxiety within us. Reach out to them in love as we are all those who share this world.

Bike Ride of the Day

(and Minneapolis Exploration)

Earlier today, I went for a three hour bike ride around South Minneapolis. There are all these really beautiful lakes and a wonderful bike path that connects them all. I was amazed at how much people love bikes here and how the city has really invested in the bike-friendly infrastructure. I have added a screen shot of the bike path around the lakes and the path that goes horizontally through the middle of the picture is this old railroad track that has been paved over and is only for bikers and people walking/running. So cool!

So, I went down south along the Mississippi (still know how to spell that word right...yes!) river and the path heads west toward a couple of lakes. It continues around west and north around a couple more lakes and finally, I headed back east toward the river and closer to where I am staying. If you are wondering where that is, it is in this neighborhood.

There was this beautiful stream going from the lakes to the river and the path followed it for a long time. I enjoyed stopping alongside it and taking pictures and enjoying the shade of the trees.

This is from the bank of one of the lakes and the picture below is of Downtown Minneapolis. It's a nice city and I've enjoyed the significantly more laid back posture of the people here as compared to LA.

Book Reflection – Costly Mission: Following Christ in the Slums

This book, written by Michael Duncan, is a story of the author and his family’s story of struggle and relationships while living in the slums of Manila, Philippines. Duncan additionally offers his reflection of ministry among the poor from his perspective. The book is full of successes and failures as they struggle with the complexities of ministry among the poor of Manila’s slums. I was caught by Duncan’s openness to share of real and deep struggles. Often when I read these books on working among the poor, I am left with an idealized picture that clearly is not realistic. I have spent enough time in this type of environment to know most of the time is less than glamorous.

I really appreciated the candidness of Duncan in one section on the failures he had experienced throughout his time living in the slums. He speaks of the need for a theology of failure (or a theological framework for working through failure). I found this interesting. Failure is something that every person experiences and everyone tries to minimize. When we experience failure, we often try to do everything we can to avoid that experience again. Duncan offers two different pictures of failure from the Bible. He notes that the Bible is full of stories of failures and by individuals and their faithfulness to continue following God. Duncan offers Paul as a man of many failures. Paul never united the Jews and Gentiles (Gal. 2:11-13), his friend and partner Barnabas split from him over an argument (Acts 15:36-41) and the church of Corinth, where Paul spent a significant portion of his time, had repeated moral failures and significant hardships.

Secondly, Duncan notes the failures of Joseph. As Joseph was in charge of the stockpiles of Pharaoh, he took the money, land, cattle and flocks from the people and gave them to Pharaoh (Gen. 47:14-21). This paved the path for his own people to be brought into slavery. These are both men who are regarded highly; and rightly so, because they continued to be faithful to the Lord and his calling. Duncan quotes Michael Riddell in how loss and failure affect the individual. He notes:

The dark days are just beginning. Before you emerge into the light again you will be stripped to the core. You will rage and scream at God. You will retreat into a cocoon of sorrow and breathe in slow motion. The colour will drain from the sky, the meaning from life. As a plough tears through hard earth, your heart will be broken up. You will make friends with pain, nursing it as the child of grief. Utter emptiness fills the earth, and the valley appears to contain nothing but the echo of your own cry. Surely God has left you. The road which seemed to be heading somewhere has become a dead end. A mocking maze with no exit.

Then, one morning in the distant future, you wake and hear a bird singing…

One other important section was in a chapter on the connection between community development, mercy and evangelism. As a person who would love to be involved in community development in the future and as one who follow Christ, I have struggled with balancing these things. Often development fringes on humanitarian activity, which can be very disconnected from spiritual elements. Often those who are involved in this type of work pour all their energy into it and have little left for sharing of how Christ has called them and met them throughout their lives. One the other hand, a large focus on evangelism leaves a gap between the Christian and the people who are struggling with deep issues and needs. Many of these things cannot be solved with mere words. The focus can be on making sure people have a better life after death, but not a better life before death.

Duncan suggests that our “mercy ministries must be developmental and our development must be merciful” (103). Duncan speaks of the difficulties of the creation of disempowered individuals through the actions of mercy ministries. Restraint, the lack of knee-jerk reactions and a focus of empowerment must guide the actions of these types of ministries. He states that we must learn “to give in a considered way so that people [can] move on from relief to a degree of self-sufficiency” (105). Duncan, in looking at their response to the need for evangelism, notes that social concern aids this process to get to evangelization. He states, “We believed that social concern takes us into the world of the non-Christian – into their issues, debates, networks, gathering places, felt needs and heart cries, and into their sin and dark corners” (110). In this place, they were able to see the things that were keeping the people from coming to Christ and worked to rectify those things. There is definite benefit for a balance to be found between these areas. My hope is that we are all able to work at seeking this balance in our lives.

Book Reflection - Welcoming Justice: God’s Movement toward Beloved Community

As you can possibly imagine from the title, this book is a reflection of the vision toward the beloved community as envisioned by Martin Luther King Jr. One way King describes it is, “The end is reconciliation, the end is redemption, the end is the creation of the beloved community” (17). The process toward the beloved community is through actions of reconciliation and redemption. As stated before, this book is a reflection on the beloved community through the eyes and experience of Charles Marsh, a professor and historian, and John Perkins, an activist, community developer and inspiration to millions of people like me. This book is a wonderful inspiration and motivation for people who are seeking greater and lasting transformation in their community and are willing to step out and take it upon themselves to make the change happen.

In a chapter titled “The Next Great Awakening,” John Perkins notes that he sees this awakening coming from a generation of youth that seek for a transformed church where instead of there being a weekly gathering to recharge the individuals personal faith, there will be a seeking of “authentic relationships in a reconciled community” (82). I agree with this assessment of the future of the church. As I was reading this, though, I thought of the news of Ann Rice rejecting the forms of church that she is aware of due to its anti-gay, anti-democrat stance. Obviously, there is a church that this is a large part of, but I see a much larger body of Christians that are seeking these authentic relationships. What is missing is the reconciled community. As Perkins notes earlier, “The world needs a church that does something to interrupt business as usual where we are” (48). There is so much division and mistrust of each other in this world. It is so much easier to remain in the safe and secure homogenous communities we form, but is this what is best for the world around us? Instead, I agree with MLK, Perkins and Marsh that what is needed (and hardest to do) is to step into the void toward people in true and desperate need and seek this reconciled community through the creation of authentic relationships.

I appreciated one of the latter sections of the book where John Perkins refers to Zechariah as a prophet that God spoke through in a very applicable way to urban situations today. Zechariah is one of the post-exilic prophets, so he is prophesying to a people that are back in the land God gave them and they are dealing with all the issues that come with a broken city and society. In chapter 8, Zechariah is prophesying over the desire of God toward the city. He states:

Thus says the LORD: I have returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts, the holy mountain. Thus says the LORD of hosts: Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of great age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets (8:3-5).

Both the old and the young (the most prone to neglect and abandonment in times of distress) will be cared for. Laughter, wonder, the passing of wisdom and love will permeate the society from the most powerful to the lowest.

For there shall be a sowing of peace. The vine shall give its fruit, and the ground shall give its produce, and the heavens shall give their dew. And I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things (8:12).

God will provide all that is needed as the people respond in faithfulness and peace.

And as you have been a byword of cursing among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and you shall be a blessing (8:13).

“If we are faithful, God will be faithful, and we will become a blessing to the nations” (112). As we strive to become a blessing to others, we follow the path set forth by Martin Luther King’s vision of The Beloved Community.

Perception

Per-cep-tion: "The process by which an organism detects and interprets information from the external world by means of the sensory receptors."

For many of us, how we are perceived by others is very important. For some of us, it might be of extreme importance. We work hard to develop ourselves into something that we want others to see and develop their perceptions of us based on. Unfortunately, no matter what some people do, perceptions are made of them regardless. Often these are quite negative and drastically change how they are treated. As you all know, I am in Minneapolis for the next six weeks spending time finishing up my practicum for my master’s degree from Fuller. I am spending time with the InnerCHANGE team here as well as with a number of people working with Somali immigrants living in Minneapolis. There has been a lot in the news lately about Somali immigrants in Minneapolis. Regardless of whether there is any truth to any of it, the perception of Muslims living in the United States and much of Western Europe is described in the following picture.

I was walking through the neighborhood I am living in while I am here my first night and saw this written on the side of the mailbox. For a little context, the neighborhood is comprised in large by Somalis, but does have some diversity in African Americans, Native Americans and Latinos. The mailbox is on the corner of one street with a Lutheran church across the street. I imagine that this was written by someone with a perception that all Muslims are terrorists. I think this sentiment is rather strong in the United States. I have been following the news regarding the Islamic cultural center being proposed to be built two blocks from where the World Trade Center stood in New York. I have had a number of conversations with people regarding this and often the reaction is rather strong against the Islamic center. I am not surprised, though, because as much as this country loves to pride ourselves on freedom and an openness to other people, generally we are very closed to things that we have already developed negative perceptions toward.

Freedom of practicing religion and cultural expression are only allowed when it is something we agree with and it doesn’t infringe on us. Let me give a big shocker here: NOT ALL MUSLIMS ARE TERRORISTS. Most are very loving and caring people who don’t hate and judge nearly as much as we do.

Learn how to see this man…

…and this woman…

…for who they are – people just like us…

How would you like to have no control over how you are perceived? Where everything good that you do does nothing to improve your perception, but instead people call you a terrorist?

Develop a heart for the oppressed…

‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’