The Blessing of Such Sweet Sorrow

“Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow,
That I shall say good night till it be morrow.”
Romeo and Juliet (Act 2, Scene 2)

It was the end of the last day of the final week of STEAM Camp. My daughter was sitting on the stage, and she told me, “It’s kinda’ sad that some of these kids we might not see again.”

I told her that she was right, and that I try to not think about it. I gave a half-hearted smile and big hug, and walked away with those thoughts.

Connecting Allendale, Summer Camp, and You

My son Elijah is excited about going to Camp Grace Rock Band camp, in less than a month. And he’s excited that five of his friends from Allendale want to come, too.

Read the story of one of his friends, Ardoine (“Doc”), who made a connection at a spring break camp that went beyond sports or activities. It was a connection with a Grace Church member, Ryan Voelkert.

“The reason we tell stories like this is not to promote Spring Break Camp in Allendale or Elementary Camp in Greenville. If we’re honest, a week at camp is not going to change a child’s life forever.

We tell these stories because they reflect the importance behind the Espinosa’s and Grace’s involvement in Allendale. Through the avenue of camps, a boy in Allendale gets connected with a family in Greenville.

The children in this family learn that friendships don’t have to depend on similarities in circumstance, race, or demographics. Lasting relationships are built. The gospel gets shared. Life change happens.

All because of a willingness to be a part of a community instead of coming in from the outside.”

That is exactly why we think camps are important.

You can read the full article on the Grace Church Pastor’s Blog or the Grace Church Kids Blog.

Will you support a camp experience for a child from Allendale?

Related Links:

• Reunited (And It Feels So Good)
• Positively Contagious

The Most Important Thing in Missions (Sharing Our Story with CBC — Part 3)

Finally, I’m concluding this series. As I wrote over 2000 words in these 3 posts, I’m amazed that I was able to share all of this in 12 minutes at CBC – Savannah. I could be an auctioneer.

You can listen to the complete podcast of the sermon, including my talk, on the CBC Sermon page. Try this link or this one. My part starts with about 12 minutes left.

In the last two posts, I explained the Context for Hopelessness in Allendale and then how we can engage that hopelessness through true hospitality and incarnation. I will conclude this topic with a quick explanation of missions done well, then a few examples of “random” opportunities to teach, and then some additional inspiration for you.

Missions Done Well

For missions and being missional, the goal must never be the event or the project or the program. Those are good things, but life change doesn’t happen by a project or program all by itself.

The primary means of missions is engaging others in meaningful relationships, for the purpose of helping others worship God. Life change always happens best in the context of community.

When it comes to “missions” programs, most churches use the relationship as the means to get the project done. They connect with certain people, get the team there and back home, and then they are happy. But this is wrong, and often harmful in the long-run.

Hospitality Is Not What You Think It Is (Sharing Our Story with CBC — Part 2)

In this three-part series, I am letting you know what I shared with the congregation of Community Bible Church (in Savannah, GA) a couple of months ago. I was asked to share our story of living in Allendale, as a part of their teaching on James 1:26-27 (regarding looking after the vulnerable of our society).

Here is the second part of my talk.

Last time, I set the context of Allendale, with respects to its demographics. Then, I focused on the issue of how generational poverty involves a lack of hope. When our “neighbors” don’t have a hope that life can or will change for the better, what do we need to do?

We need to be the body of Christ, and share the good news of Jesus Christ.

Your Presence, Not Your Presents

A lasting hope does not come by writing a check, or donating your used clothes, or by telling people, “You need to work harder and get an education,” or even by teaching a Bible story and doing an altar call. Yes, those things may be needed, but you can’t start (or stop) there.

What is needed is for the body of Christ to come alongside and to show love. People need your presence more than they need your presents.

14 Can’t-Fail Principles to Earn the Trust of a New Community

Three years ago, we moved to Allendale to be a part of the community and to work with kids. And we really had no idea what we were doing. We were running towards the unknown, full of zeal without knowledge (or at least, a minimal amount of know-how).

As we look back, we are amazed about how much we were accepted and trusted. If they only knew how little we knew!

Thanks to the grace of our Lord, the power of His Spirit, and the counsel of many friends (from Allendale and from other places), we were able to earn the trust of many people in this community. If you would have asked us in 2011 how we were planning to do this, the best we could have done was shrug our shoulders and guess.

But now that we are looking to transition to a new community this summer, this is especially important to us. These ideas are a reminder for us.

So, as we reflect on our season in Allendale, I can tell you 14 things that we did to help us earn the trust of people in Allendale. If you find (or will one day find) yourself in a new community, take note.

Circles: Equipping Families and Communities to Resolve Poverty

If a single parent is living on minimum wage, how much does their salary need to increase in order to get off of government assistance? The answer may surprise you:

Want to learn more about a becoming a part of the solution? Watch this video about the Circles Initiative:

You can check out the Circles USA website, especially the How It Works page. I love the concept of how community and meaningful relationships are the central part of this program.

And you can bet that I’ll make it a point to learn more about this program.

Related Links:

• How Would You Define (and Solve) Poverty?
• Poverty Cure
• Stop Serving the Poor?
• Poverty: A Simple Problem and No Solution?
• Always a Coach   
• Mentoring: A Gameplan for Poverty
• College and Finances

Reason #26 Allendale Is Better Than Where You Live: Home Cookin’

It’s been just over one year since I last gave a reason why Allendale is so great. Trust me — my lack of not posting to this series is not because I’ve run out of reasons. I have a handful of ideas that I’ve considered writing about, but I’ve been busy writing about other things. (140+ posts on this blog alone in the past 12 months, but who’s counting?)

Two related incidents in the past couple of weeks reconfirmed to myself how much we have loved living in this community. And they both have to do with my favorite hobby — eating.

Now when I talk about “home cooking” in Allendale, you may be thinking of fried chicken, collard greens, ribs, barbecue, rice, spaghetti with a sweet meat sauce (beef, sausage, and sugar), and so on. And you better believe that I’ve enjoyed all that in the past three years.

But I never expected that we would get two other kinds of home cooking in Allendale — authentic Mexican and Chinese dinners.

Thankful: The Best 2 Years of My Life

I posted this on Facebook last weekend, but I wanted to capture my words on this blog. Mostly for my sake, not yours. Maybe it’s because I want to make sure I have a permanent home for these words, or maybe it’s because I still need to process my feelings. (Honestly, I didn’t expect the end of the season to hit me so hard.) Maybe it’s both of these reasons, and more. But I posted them today since I don’t figure I’ll get much blog traffic. That’s fine, because if you left a comment, it’ll probably just make me cry all over again. So actually I am thankful whether or not you leave a comment.

Several of you have been asking about an update on last night’s game, since I didn’t post it as I usually do. As many of you have figured out, we lost in the Lower State Championship game. I was not ready to share that information last night, but here are my thoughts….

We are sad, and hurt. I am hurt, especially for the seniors and especially for the ones that I got to coach every day. I hope they can reflect on the fact that so FEW people, even so few high school football players, will ever play in a state semifinal game. I hope they can reflect on their successes & hold their heads high.

As for me, mostly because of coaching football, the past 2 years could be the BEST 2 years of my life. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I wouldn’t trade the relationships which God has brought about.

“How Are You Getting Along with Your Co-Workers?” — Questions You Can Ask a Missionary, Part 8

Our friends (and fellow missionaries) Keith and Lori Doster recently linked to an article about stressors that missionaries face. The original article is called 12 Questions You Can Ask a Missionary to Help Them Stay on the Field. Missionaries are not unique to these stressors; however, they do face them in situations where they often feel vulnerable and lonely.

If you know any missionaries, I encourage you to support and encourage them by asking one or more of these questions (but not all 12 at once!). For the sake of our friends, supports, and blog-readers, I wanted to proactively answer these questions over the next few months. (Of course, feel free to ask us these questions personally.)

Question 8:   “How are you getting along with your co-workers?”

Short answer: Great.

Of course, you can never really know what someone thinks behind your back, but I guess everyone else could say the same about me, right? So, putting aside my paranoia, I’ll remain confident that my co-workers like me. We really do all get along wonderfully.

Who Are My Co-Workers?

As you may know, I have two official paid jobs in Allendale:

Undefeated [Movie Review]

Do you want to know a little of what it’s like to coach at Allendale-Fairfax High School? Watch Undefeated.

This movie is a documentary of a football team from an inner city school in Memphis.  From what I was told, the original idea was to follow a specific player (O.C. Brown) who was being recruited by top schools, but the producers realized that the story was about the entire team.

Right off the bat, I need to point out a couple of differences between Memphis and Allendale:

1. Memphis is urban, and Allendale is rural. (This distinction should be obvious if you know anything about either town.) Urban and rural areas have unique strengths and weaknesses
2. There seems to be a lot more violence and crime among the teens in Memphis, compared to Allendale. Allendale seems to have a stigma about crime among youth, but I don’t see it. (Then, again, I may be blissfully ignorant or naive.)

But despite these differences, there is so much in common for the lives of people in these two communities.