Little Victories

I got a phone call this week.  In an of itself a phone call isn't a big deal, but what was a big deal was who made the call.  I got a call from a woman in the community who had some theological type questions.  I had met her and she kept my card, which is how she got my number.  To me this was really awesome because it demonstrates to me that I was able to make some sort of impact, and a pastoral impact, on the neighborhood.  No, I suppose a phone call isn't a big deal, but this was a little victory for me.

With the cold weather I haven't been in the streets too much.  I have been able to visit people in their homes.  This is another little victory.  People invite me in and ask me to stay.  I've had some pretty bad coffee, but I've had some pretty deep conversations with people.  This is really fantastic as I haven't been at this too terrible long and I've been able to make these relationships.

The community development organization that I've been working with is starting to come together.  I spent some time researching this vacant and abandoned housing situation, contacting code enforcement and looking at options.  I met last night with the president of TAP and he asked me to head up this initiative.  We both thing this issue will provide a rallying point for the group and stimulate the organization.  This will be a quick and easy victory upon which we can capitalize to build momentum for larger and longer term issues like education.

God is using me in this ministry.  I was pretty impatient in the beginning, but I'm beginning to see fruit from my labors and that is fulfilling.  I'm also looking ahead to see how this effort can be sustained.

TAP

I am getting more and more involved in TAP, which is Transforming Action through Power.  This is a Gamaliel project active in South Bend.  I am active in their clergy caucus and have met several times with their organizer.  TAP is faith based community organizing, building on the principals developed by Saul Alinsky.  Interestingly, what I learned with Hopeful City is coming in handy as are some of those relationships.

This Saturday there was a big gathering of TAP clergy folks at Indian University South Bend.  We started the day off with a drum circle lead by RythmWorks of South Bend.  This group group was awesome!  They will do all sorts of things around team building and I would recommend them to any group or organization.  A rhythmically challenged white guy, even I was able to take part in the drum circle.  This exercise was used to demonstrate the importance of all the parts in an organization and emphasize both the wealth of diversity and the strength of individuality.  The drumming set the stage for the rest of the day and was a good way to ease into what turned into a long meeting.

The goal of the meeting was to build cohesiveness and remind the group that there is a lot of power in organizing.  There were about seven congregations represented by both clergy and lay folk.  We talked about what the organization is and how we can meet our goals.  We also talked about funding, increasing membership and future training opportunities for TAP members.  A lot of ground got covered.

One thing the conference did not touch on was the issues.  To me, there is no clearly defined issue in front of the group.  There is talk about education, but the issue is not cut in a way that it can be clearly stated.  I am attempting to form a coalition around the vacant and abandoned housing issue.  This situation is very obvious and so far I have gotten several folks on board with the issue.  Most everyone I talk to is disturbed by the situation and now I have to do my homework, cut the issue and develop some alternatives, as well as the alternative that most speaks to the TAP group.  I'm further challenged to get folks from Memorial and Westminster churches involved.  These are primarily commuter churches and so they don't have the investment in the neighborhood. 

A challenge of my position is the development of a congregation or following.  Without a church or home base this is harder to do than a traditionally called clergy.  There are people in the neighborhood upon which I can call, but TAP is more used to working with congregationally based groups and my more unorthodox group throws them off.

Winter gardening

It is getting cold and winter is arriving.  Already the days are getting shorter and shorter, but there's work to be done.  The community garden is moving along.

 Thanks to Patrick the utilities were notified.  I couldn't read this scrawl at first, but Lou pointed out that it's OK to dig.  We were hoping to do some tilling, but there doesn't seem to be an available tiller except for what can be rented.  Renting is a cost I hoped to avoid so we might be turning the soil by hand.

I was outside two hours today working on staking out the garden.  It's hard to make out, but there are string lines marking the beds.  It wasn't until I had half of it done that it occurred to me that I should measure the lawnmower.  It turns out that our mower is 27" and I spaced the beds 24".  I figure we can make allowances when we make the actual beds.  I also found that we're going to have to cope with some shaded areas unless the church allows us to cut some limbs.



I spent much of last week completing the INSPIRE Grant.  This isn't a huge grant, but they have several requirements that need to be met to satisfy the grant.  I thought that it wouldn't be all that tough to complete the grant, but I was wrong.  Diana Hess of the Neighborhood Resource Corporation who reads the grant, was really helpful making suggestions and offering some direction.  If the grant isn't approved I think I have a could other sources to which I can turn, but I wanted to get the grant resources so I could begin some work on the garden.

I had submitted a program to the South Bend Housing Authority, but it has yet to be approved.  I think that things are good to go and then I'm hit with another hoop to jump through.  This seems sort of disorganized, but it is a governmental agency and I don't figure that many people offer their time and talents to assist that program.  We'll see what happens.

I'm putting together a neighborhood association in the far Northwest come spring.  Ryan Yazel in Keller Park wants to work with me to put together an association there and we hope to start work on that this winter.  I've been talking to members of TAP (Transforming Action through Power) and hope to take a larger role in that organization.

While I thought that I would have a lot of down time in the cold weather, so far that hasn't been the case.  There are enough little odds and ends to keep my pretty busy.  Keep me in prayer as I brave the cold and please pray for Westminster and Memorial churches as they deal with some issues touching their ministry.

Community Garden Party

 The garden gang

 Saturday was the organizational meeting of the community garden initiative.  Pat wasn't optimistic, but he was proven wrong.  We had a good turnout and there is hope to add even more to this venture.

This is the group!  I was really excited by our meeting on Saturday.  We have a good group of highly invested people from the neighborhood.  Even more than that, these folks want to meet again next month because they know of several more people who would like to be involved in the garden effort.  Many of those present have experience with gardening and LaRena, the woman behind the big book, is a master gardener.  This is gonna be great.

We surveyed the site and talked about next steps, of which there are many.  We hope to get some roto-tilling done before the freeze and even talked about building some beds so we're ready for summer.  Valerie stepped up to be the secretary and Sydney is willing to be one of the storytellers.  Gene had said that he would be another story teller, but he couldn't be at this meeting.

We discussed the future plans for this group and talked about creating a neighborhood association.  I thought there would be a lot of resistance to that idea, but people were on-board.  I believe God has blessed this group and our purpose.  There's a lot to do and we pray for ongoing good weather in which we can complete those activities.