The Longest Week Ever

Hello everyone! I can't believe that it's only been a week!

This past week has felt like a month, and I think our team is all feeling pretty drained- physically, emotionally, relationally, spiritually. Please pray for us to have the strength to continue engaging with this project.

Some details:

From last Sunday evening until Friday morning, my team and I were staying at Patten college, a tiny Christian college hidden away in the heart of East Oakland. Throughout that time, our students heard from a myriad of speakers and urban ministry leaders on a variety of topics, such as drug addictions, youth violence, contemplative prayer, intercession, community, and systemic inequality. We also went through various simulations to learn more about the effects of poverty and systemic racism on our society and we got to visit different ministry sites in Berkeley, San Francisco, and San Jose.

On Friday, my team and I moved into a quaint 2-bedroom apartment on 9th Street in West Berkeley, located between Addison and Allston. We spent much of the weekend getting acquainted with the neighborhood, running errands, and walking around our community, trying to learn more about the place we'll be living in this summer. We also were able to take a community Sabbath after our long week of orientation and then visited The Way Christian Center on Sunday. Sunday night we had a movie night with 2 other teams in West Oakland (Campfire and World Impact), where we got to watch "Freedom Writers" and talk about working with youth in urban contexts.

Our team has been blessed to meet some of our neighbors. Upstairs from us live Matt and Rena Crocker, who both attend Church Without Walls, as well as their kids Naomi (10 months) and Noah (3 years). Next door to them are an Eritrean family with 3 kids- 2 girls and a boy. Downstairs from them is Rosa, as well as her two daughters (Jennifer and Jessica) and their two dogs (Paco and Brownie). We've even met one of our neighbors in the apartment building next to us- Stan.

What We've Been learning:

Our team has already gone through some pretty interesting and tough experiences. On Tuesday, during our drive to San Jose, we witnessed a pretty terrible car accident on the 880- a crash that happened right next to our car. We were pretty shaken up by it. We also have gone through some tough experiences within our team, including a conflict that needed some group resolution and confrontation. Through these things, we are learning what it means to take joy in our suffering and to know that it produces perseverance and maturity (James 1).

Food has also been on our minds a lot. We all have a budget of $15/week for food, which comes out to less than a $1/meal for an entire week. While God has been sufficient in providing for our team, many of us are trying to learn what it means to have to ration food and eat just enough. God has definitely been challenging us about what true "Hunger" is and what it means to spend our money and labor on what can truly satisfy and to delight in the "richest of fare" (Isaiah 55).

Seeing Berkeley With New Eyes:

I think it has also been hard for our team to believe that God can really show us a different side of Berkeley. Living in West Berkeley makes it more difficult for us to really feel like we're in a "new" environment, and that is definitely something we must pray for. However, I think through looking closely enough, there are many new and unfamiliar sights in the midst of many familiar ones.

There are a lot of strange juxtapositions in Berkeley. Just like the physical fences that divide and separate many of the houses and apartment buildings in our community, there are many invisible fences that seem to separate the different communities in Berkeley. You can walk down one street lined with huge trees and beautiful homes, and then walk down the next block that has no trees and only apartment buildings. Look closely and you might see boarded up homes and empty lots next to newly renovated buildings. Observe the skyline and you notice that one street is lined with large telephone poles and electric wires while another street has none. Drive on San Pablo and you might see Mexican grocery stores standing right next to Indian grocery stores. Our team even came across a lawn bowling center (filled with mostly old, white men) located just around the corner for Berkeley Youth Alternatives, a center for mostly African-American youth.

Somehow, I think we're trying to learn how we fit into this picture, and what it means for God's shalom to come to this neighborhood filled with so many spiritual and relational fences.

Prayer Requests
-Please pray for God to continue opening our eyes to the spiritual realities of this city that we might know on a physical level.
-Pray that God helps us to go deeper with each other and with this project, and not be afraid of being challenged and uncomfortable.
-Please pray for opportunities for our team to hang out with our neighbors and deepen relationships with them
-Pray that God would give us patience and love for the kids we work with. Pray that they would learn to trust us and that we would learn to trust them.
-Pray for our stomachs, as we learn how to go through life on less food than we're used to. Pray that God would give us deepened insight into the hunger that we're feeling.
-Pray for our upcoming weekend retreat on Race and Ethnicity, that we would be open to what God might teach us- about ourselves and about each other.


Thank you all!