RefugeNOLA

Fear of Hebrew Roots

2011-08-25T21:26:00.000-07:00

It has been interesting as of late to meet with some friends here and there to talk about life with Christ and the community of believers. I am amazed at how fearful Christians are of the world. I believe the only thing we should be fearful of is the Lord himself.
I listened to a great sermon the other day from Tim Mackie at Blackhawk Church about the beginning of Jonah. In this sermon he discusses the notion that those who are striving the hardest to be righteous are often the farthest from it.
Tim does a great job explaining how Jonah should be viewed and I think it is very important to understand the old testament into the new testament. Some people when they hear of Hebrew Roots they think of a cult and of following covenant laws, dietary laws, etc... When evangelicals reference Hebrew Roots they are wanting reinforce viewing the bible as a whole from Genesis to Revelation, not just Matthew to Revelation.

NT Wright says this about Jerusalem and the Ministry of Jesus, “It was in this world that Jesus grew up, and to this world that he addressed his preaching. If we are to understand the thrust of Jesus’ ministry, we must project ourselves as far as possible into the worldview and mindset of a first-century Jew”.8

For some people they may elect to follow dietary laws or other Jewish traditions in order to gain true knowledge, but even a statement like that is not needed if we knew what Hebrew culture was like. Many of those laws and traditions were worship to God and were done joyfully.

8 In recent studies of Jesus, see S.C. Neill and N.T. Wright, The Interpretation of the New Testament, 1861- 1986 (2nd ed., Oxford, OUP 1988) 379-403; on this whole section see my forthcoming Jesus and the Victory of God (London, SPCK, 1994).

The Egocentric Church = Idolatrous Church?

2011-02-09T19:20:00.000-08:00

For those of you who know me or have heard me talk about my neighborhood I think you know that I am very passionate and loving of people and places that have crossed my path. I tear up and emotions easily well up as I feel that I am so inadequate at sharing my experiences. I think sometimes this passion can be perceived as idolatry of my neighborhood, especially if it seems to come up all the time in conversation. So is this actually idolatry?

I think almost anything and everything can be an idol to us at times, Robert Lupton, reminds me that idolatry in America it is actually called MATERIALISM. Sometimes it goes beyond material things, sometimes we hold our safety, our comforts, our lives as idols. There are many things that we think are too risky, crazy, or stupid to give up sometimes. In Luke 9:59 - 60 Jesus tells a man that wants to bury his father to let the dead bury the dead. By this statement I am not diminishing the a human life to the worth of a piece of paper, I am merely alluding to the fact that we “hold” onto them like “materials”. As I get older and more mature, I am cherishing the moments I get to spend with my dad more and more so I realize that a statement like this is gut wrenching. Christ calls us to some big gut checks sometimes. Phillipians 4:13 States that we can do all things through Christ, so if you feel that you cannot do without some of your materialism or idols then there is something wrong.

I believe that we learn to let the dead bury the dead in little bites over time. In high school for me it was getting over the desire to be “popular“ so ended up being the awkward kid in class that wore polyester golf pants and butterfly collared shirts to high school from 2000 -2002. In college I abandoned the pressures of my parents to be the typical Chinese male that studied math or science and became a Sculpture major. Eventually giving up bits and pieces of what was me brings me to where I am today. I am in Central City, New Orleans and love it. When we begin to face challenges and overcome our fears we build confidence and character that allows us to more fully enjoy how God has created us and His creation. I wish I could say that I fully understood Romans 5 early on but as life goes on, my understanding grows much deeper.

As we go through life tackling one idol or idea after another there may come a point where you know sense a very distinct call to your life that God has prepared you for. This Calling becomes your breath, it’s you being the hands and feet of Christ. At this moment we are emotional wrecks when we get to talk about our passion, and everything begins to revolve around what God has called us to. We often begin to be evangelical about Christ and the calling. Sometimes our passion is mistaken for Idolatry of ministry because we shout it from every rooftop. It is sad to say but it is probably frequent that ministry does become an idol at times. I know at one point a year or two ago, I was recruiting for some help for an event on Halloween and a friend responded to me in a very profound way. She said ”how about you do your event in your neighborhood and I’ll be apart of things in my neighborhood.“ It was at this point that I realized that I was being egocentric of my experiences. I feel very fortunate to have had a friend that phrased things the way that she did. Though it hurt a little because I felt that it was a rejection, it was also a rude awakening to me. I realized that I may have been close to placing ministry before God, or God’s call on their lives. Moments after my initial feelings of sadness, I felt great relief because it really didn’t matter that she was not partaking in my event because she was being the hands and feet of Christ to her neighborhood. When we develop ministries or churches its very easy for us to get wrapped up into ourselves and become very egocentric about the church and the ministry. Sometimes we don’t realize that we are placing the church or ministry as an Idol.

There is egocentric shrapnel when ministry becomes an idol. This usually this occurs when there is over confidence and a loss of humility. Often an egocentric leadership will easily get angry when people depart to chase after God and leave the ”prized“ environment created. I know I have often felt the saying ”It’s your loss,“ go through my mind at times when people aren’t interested in what God is doing through me. My response should me more like, ”May God bless you in your pursuits and let me know if I can help in any way.“ If you didn’t know, we have supposedly been disciplined by a church that we attended in October 2010. The supposed basis of our discipline, revolved around us not being committed to their church, ”holding our neighborhood as an idol to the church“. Situations like this occur everywhere, in church, work, and even at home. My parents wanted me to study engineering or mathematics, and we had a pretty rough fight when I chose to pursue art. The difference, between instances of family issues and work/church issues is that I believe that there is more true love in a good family that is more caring and restorative. When churches and businesses fight, whomever has more money or power usually ”wins“ and cuts the relationship/love off immediately. The american culture has developed a cut-throat business mentality, and sadly it has also permeated into the church and families. The solution is to continually try to love as He first loved us. Christ allowed people to make mistakes, He led taking risks, He led challenging injustice, He led with innovation, He led humbly.

For those of you who want to know what is shaking down here in the Wong Household:
Since we were married a little over a year ago, and thrown into a whirlwind with church issues last fall. We have been laying low, grieving, processing, and recovering. Rachel and I were very emotionally and spiritually hurt through it all, and change like that within our first year of marriage made things emotionally and spiritually draining. Through our tough time their has been great joy in sorting through our thoughts of church and our neighborhood. We are very thankful for our awesome employers and jobs here in New Orleans, they have been a great stabilizer for us. Rae and I are becoming more like one everyday. We used to have two very individualistic ideas about loving Christ, and loving others, and now those ideas are starting to merge into our ideas, thoughts, and passions. We believe that there is a growing movement that should be of an ordinary tale of people truly bringing Christ’s love and compassion locally to family, friends, widow, orphan, and even prisoners.

Our current dream: to start up a solid business to employ, educate, and train our neighbors so that they can be leaders in our community..... Step one: save money, and find partners, woohoo!

A long time over due.

2010-09-01T15:35:00.000-07:00

To my great family, friends, and acquaintances I am thankful, very thankful for you.

3 years and 4 months ago I committed to chasing a dream. That dream was a deep heartfelt desire led by the Spirit and planted by God to reveal God’s Glory and His Kingdom to neighborhood of Central City, New Orleans. The time that I have spent here have been filled with many pains, sorrows, and joys. Part of me wishes that I could say that my plans for this place have not changed or morphed at all but they have. I am completely ok with that as well.

I knew that in moving here there would be a vast adjustment in transitioning from being a nomadic student of all things, to becoming a more defined man. I needed to switch from thinking month to month, to years, and then decades. I had to learn how to guide, instruct, and inspire others to be responsible, honest, and genuine. I needed to create those exact changes in my life because I realized the culture around me needed guidance in those areas as well. I find myself constantly learning, applying, and teaching. I forget that there were many times where I realized that I had to sacrifice many simple comforts, and find new loves.

A lot of change has been happening. March 20th, 2010 I married Rachel Gillen who is now Rachel Wong. We merged lives into the house that I purchased 2 years ago in Central City. It was a great and beautiful event. Marriage in the past 5 months has awakened me to understanding how long of a process helping Central City become a thriving neighborhood through Gospel transformation will be. My wife has helped me understand this to even greater depths as she has been teaching 1st grade in a similar neighborhood. When we see or hear statistics or rankings of how schools are performing here I don’t think that we understand the severity of the conditions in the “hood.” Test scores just show us that there is a deep issue to be solved, and not all of it is within the realm of education, education is one tool of many that is needed. Education does not solve home-life problems, and neither does Child Services. My friend that is getting his Doctorate in Special Education once told me that he was tutoring high school kids over the summer and he never knew what to expect day to day when he would arrive at his student’s homes. One story that disturbed me the most was of when he was tutoring the student in one room while his older brother was having sex with a girl in the next room. Keep in mind this is New Orleans, the land of shotgun houses, where there are no doors from one room to the next. Childhood home life of many in the poor and impoverished neighborhoods are like this. This breeds a lot of distrust, anxiety, ill education, and disposition to always being in survival mode. This is the context that we are learning and living in to inform decisions and methods of what would create the most impact in this neighborhood.

These are the top 3 three aspects that I believe would create the most impact in the neighborhood right now.

A limited number of longterm investors and families in the neighborhood, buying and moving in scattered throughout the neighborhood to learn and walk alongside of us.

Development of a Refuge NOLA intern house - a Safe Space- This is to be a community space, that would be a place for kids to do homework and hang out with supervision and guidance. This would also be an informational hub with access to the internet. Interns, and learners will primarily run this place.

Development of Sustainable Business- This is to provide an extended educational experience and training grounds to help people define who they are, who God is, and what is needed to excel. We want to create a safe place to make mistakes in a business environment so that one can eventually work up the ladder and into the regular corporate work world. We are unsure of what this business can actually be, and we need someones help to pull this together. I completely feel that I am terribly too young to understand all that it will take in this arena, however I know it it probably the most important aspect to helping this community long term.

Confession of a wayward heart

2009-07-04T21:03:00.000-07:00

The stillness of the air is pierced.
Wailing of a heart chasing lovers less promising.
Echos of the past, cling dear only to distract.
Where is the purpose of the heart?
How easy it is to forget the basics of how we start off.

Return me to where I should be.
In simplicity, in love, in mercy, in grace, in discipline, in Christ.

Help me to be a child once again to learning about your people that you passionately love and care for.

Mercy Justice

2009-06-12T06:25:00.000-07:00

        As life goes on I grow in love. I grow in love with a God that seeks to allow me to live a life full of joy and understanding. Christ allows me to celebrate in the good times and the bad. There is not a beat down or wippin’ but acts of mercy and grace from God. He passionately desires to interact and love us in the midst of the terrible things that we do. This should move us to repentance, but we often have hardened hearts formed by culture to be selfish and taught continually receive rather than give. This selfish notion feeds our fallen state of being pushing us toward more resentment and broken relationships; building hopelessness and depression in our minds. We fill voids in our lives with thoughts and things that will not last.

        We have established a current culture that often fills void with immediacy, and consumerism. It seems as though the culture is starting to realize the consequences of our “get it now” and “have it your way” state. We have not built up disciplined minds to say no and seriously evaluate the consequences to our tiniest actions. Do I bask in the shower too long? Must I eat food when my stomach doesn’t tell me its hungry? Am I willing to do something for someone that doesn’t directly benefit me? Am I willing to do things that may hurt for for the possibility of growth?

        All of our shortcomings separate us from right relationship with God, and right relationships with people. In light of each and everyone of us having problematic relationships we are all on a level playing field regardless or race, class, and gender. This is what demands, and sets the standard justice. Today I was reading some of Exodus, and the account of the Israelite’s fleeing egypt to a hand full of chapters past the 10 commandments. In thinking of how the text flows, there is such a great sense of community. Much of the text after the 10 commandments is all about how one should interact or behave in certain circumstances. All of these DOs and some DO NOTs reflect a greater sense of caring for one another and the community as a whole rather than self. What makes this greater is that the sense of community does not stop within the confines of Israelites, or just within Christendom. We are to love all and care for all even when it is not easy. We are to develop and seek the things we desire for our kids for the poor and the oppressed. We cannot want something for ourselves, and not desire it for the community.

Or can we? Is that just? is it equal?

Simply Human

2009-04-30T15:55:00.000-07:00

Each day I live I learn more about myself, my flaws both good and bad. It’s the end of a semester and it is finals time, and a transition into the summer. I am taken back by my conversations with friends of things that are happening shortly after school is over. There is a lot happening in a short while in my life and in the lives of many of my friends and colleagues.

I am oddly aware of a tension, and anxiety that is rising within me to finish school well. However, this thought is hard for me to accomplish at the moment just because there are many other things that I would like to be doing or planning. It is almost as if I have to put everything on hold so that I can get my brain to concentrate on the things I need to focus on with school.

It’s really hard when I just want to be able to take a couple of days and hang out with the kids in the neighborhood, or hang out with a neighbor and let them use my computer to fill out an employment application online. I will get to do this soon, my finals have deadlines hopefully I won’t fail anything.

It’s hard to not feel like a failure when my grades aren’t the best thing in the world. I guess I’m just not an academic research type of student. I’ll be a black sheep.

Response to 3 killings in the neighborhood

2009-04-05T21:07:00.000-07:00

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/04/two_men_shot_this_afternoon_ne.html

Do we really care? I love, actually I get pretty disgusted by the "Yes We Care" because we only really care to the point at which it begins to infringe on our personal lives.

Pastor Keen - "6 months of peace" That is the most ridiculous statement to reflect Central City. I know that in February during Mardi-Gras season a corner store owners brother was shot and killed.

http://www.wwltv.com/topstories/stories/wwl021509cbshooting.1cb411eb.html

The people that lead many of these Rallies/Marches are ineffective and are wasting time and money. They are trying to put band-aids on problems that need surgery and suchers. These "leaders" also are very disconnected from the true community, and problems within the neighborhood.

The city is plastered with Ghandi's statement of "Be the change you wish to seek." But we barely take any steps toward that. If we seek to "be change" we cannot live in places in which we are not seen. The community needs to learn how to take care of one another, and how to love one another. That is hardly represented at night time where it is needed the most. We do not place lights under a basket! If we truly want to see illumination to Central City, you have to be a light within it, not in a nice suburb or outside the city. So non-profits, and other leaders please come to learn your neighborhood in a different way.

I am a proud resident and homeowner in between the 2 blocks where everything throws down. I have lovely neighbors that watch out for me and my house. We enjoy sharing meals, and discussing our frustrations. I love to learn their needs, and love to think creatively on how to fill in the gaps to them receiving the hand-up that they need and not just a hand-out. I don't like the crime, drugs, and blatant disrespect. If a place like this can foster it gives me hope to help 3rd and 4th world countries with similar problems but no resources.

We need to quit being so selfish over our selves and give up some comfort so that others can live.

This was another response to another user

They do not know how to take advantage of opportunity. There are many people and non-profits that try to help out and offer assistance out here all the time.

The problem is trust, and relationships. And the fact that they have to be "grown" or often responsible like adults by the time they are 12-14. Would you trust anyone when you grown up in a very broken home in which your momma, would take your last $5.

These kids and adults have grown up and lived in odd unorthodox environments where there is inconsistency all over the place. This compounds their trust issues. If one has trust issues, and larger life problems they have no clue how to take advantage of opportunity, and they often don't have some one to coach them.

This type of person also does not often carry the confidence, and self esteem because they have been told that they are "bad" for much of their lives.

The problem of excessive drinking and smoking is also a larger problem here. As long as Alcohol is abused in the city at the scale that it is the problems in the hood will probably continue to stay. The Alcohol culture socially promotes, and creates social peer pressure and encouragement. Many of these families are broken because they cannot kick an addiction, in order to pay their bills and take care of their family.

Many of the drug dealers in the hood are also almost forced to sell. Think about it. If you are a business owner would you hire someone that was a convicted felon? Someone that needs mentorship and is inconsistent? NO! What do you do if you cannot land jobs and have no community support from within?
Mexicans, Vietnamese, are a lot tighter knit to each other and have a totally different sense of community and corporate responsibility. Hood life is different, and a culture that many have no clue about.

For anyone that is native this is the Big Easy... So the culture here is all about doing as little for the most gain. There is not an idealism of purely enjoying work, toil, and knowledge in and of its self. For Mexicans,Vietnamese, Arabs, their culture and mentality is in a very different mindset.

Hood culture-
It is sad that there is a misconception of what it is to be a Man in the hood. For most, it is being "Hard." Tough, nothing effects you, a girl doesnt mean anything, if someone disrespects you set them straight, if someone seems smarter or is competition you take them out because they are a threat to how you are viewed as being on "Top." I work with at risk youth in Job Training for Environmental Science. I push their brains really hard often. I get cussed at and get threats, only because i challenge them and push them to work hard. The saddest part of the whole thing is that many dont have the confidence, and are too afraid to make mistakes. It is hard for them to be different, make mistakes, and just try. The non-profit and kind hearted people often dont allow them room to make mistakes either.

We as caring people want to give, but that is the wrong approach. We have to learn how to receive. We must begin to learn how to restore dignity by allowing and creating empowerment and opportunities for them to give. This is not an easy thing, and is no band aid. It is also not something that can be started from the outside, it must start from inside the community. So if you want to help solve the problem don't just give, figure out how you can receive

No more Band-aids or just talking about justice

2009-03-28T10:46:00.000-07:00

After being exposed to ways that Christians are beginning to address deep issues of humanity, I chase after learning and grasping better ideas and stories of how people have helped solve simple basic deep issues that are only known by people that understand their local context.

When I say local context, I am usually discussing within a extremely small vicinity of a half mile, or mile radius. Sometimes even within a quarter mile.

I just read about a story of mountain folks in Rich Christians In an Age of Hunger, by, Ronald Sider. The story is about a small village at the base of a mountain that has winding, slippery roads with hairpin turns without guard rails. Instead of the government, or outsiders intervening, a group of Christians in the village pulled together to run an ambulance service that would rush to the injured and take them to the hospital. This service was also purely voluntarily run. I thought this was an amazing notion of an innovative way for the church to meet the needs of humanity! I am sure this took a lot of hard work, and people gave to an extent to which it hurt.

Which, this was a great act of service, but there is more to be done. There is more to the story. One day a visitor questioned why they haven’t put in a tunnel, or close the road. One possible reason why they didn’t do either because the road had been there a long time, and that the mayor would not approve. He wouldn’t want to approve because he owned a restaurant, and service station halfway up the mountain. The Christians of the Volunteer Ambulance service were shocked, and probably didn’t think twice about forsaking the restaurant and service station for the sake of others.

We often want to be ignorant of societal structures that we subtly benefit from. In the case of the Volunteer Ambulance folks they probably didn’t think twice about it being a problem because it has been apart of their lives for so long that it was accepted and ok. They were not awakened to the injustice of the situation, they subtly bought into the lie. It often takes outsiders to see issues, but it is from within that can make the change possible. If the road had changed since that time, then this would be a great case of not just teaching a man how to fish, but teaching him how to restock the pond.

Lets think a little bit harder, and be ok with tough questions and persecution!

Property and Wealth is not evil! Starving is!

2009-03-28T07:34:00.000-07:00

In an age of materialism, and a fairly dominant but fading North American culture I often have forgotten or misunderstood why the abundance of Property and Wealth disturbs me.

God has made all things good, so there’s nothing wrong with prosperity, wealth and materials correct? Correct.

I feel like my internal struggle has been to reduce for the sake of simplicity, less possessions to worry about, more money to send out. This was my biblical theological grasp of why I should have less. This doesn’t apply very easily. I am working on another house, that is mine, I have use of 3 means of transportation, could this really be my belief? It isn’t really and it has been great to put together the words and ideology to convey what and why my heart believes.

My real motivation that I have picked up not from within Christendom is that I must do all possible to figure out how to spread my wealth/possessions to other people. Christ has called us to love Him, and to Love others. I think it is easy for us to view food, clothes, and property as evil things. This is the way most probably think, when talking about possessions, and get really defensive. It is not that things are evil, but it is because people are starving. Some of us have no clue what that really looks like, and have no idea how fortunate we are to even have the opportunity of welfare from our government. In the Old Testament biblical culture is all about community and caring for one another, it is very much of the same way in the New Testament. OT examples, Jubilee, Sabbatical Year. NT examples collection of money to spread to other churches that are hurting (Gal 2:10) (Rom.15:22-28). So if you have been blessed, do not give up on finding ways to give back, even in the littlest ways. We have been called to share the wealth, that many of us can easily attain in America.

Americans consume most of the worlds natural resources, how selfish is that? Do we really attempt to share, give, or spread out our wealth so that others may get to enjoy even some of the simplest things in life such as adequate nutritional diets of protein and carbohydrates. Are we willing to share just so that little kids can have brains and bodies that can actually develop into well thinking adults? When kids are between 0-2 many are malnourished and are not able to have good brain development because their nutritional needs are not met. By not sharing we are somewhat purposely creating adults that will not be able to function at their fullest potential. We need band-aids and doctors to figure out what’s wrong not ignorance.

If you have always visited nice places for vacations, please go visit some slums. Whether stateside or overseas. There probably are some just on the other side of town. Then think of what its like when there are no resources, or strong buildings.

Support Worldvision

2009-03-23T20:25:00.000-07:00

Tears washed her dark, sunken eye sockets as she spoke: “ i feel so sad when my children cry at night because they have no food. I know my life will never change. What can I do to solve my problems? I am so worried about the future of my children. I want them to goto school but how can we afford it? I am sick most of the time, but I can;t got to the doctor because each visit costs two pesos [28 cents] and medicine is extra. What else can I do?” She broke down into quiet sobbing.
~ Stan Mooneyham (Mooneyham, Hungry World, pp. 38-39)

The father makes 70 cents on a good day as an ICE vendor, She will stay up all night to make coconut candy to sell, which will make her 40 cents for her toil.

1977 still relevant today

2009-03-23T19:55:00.000-07:00

From Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, by Ronald Sider.

“ In an Age of Hunger most Christians (regardless of theological labels) will be severely tempted to succumb to the liberal heresy of the following current cultural and societal values rather than biblical truth. Society will offer demonically convincing justification for enjoying our affluence and forgetting about a billion hungry neighbors.
But if the Christ of Scripture is our Lord, then we will refuse to be squeezed into the mold of our affluent, sinful culture. In an Age of Hunger Christians of necessity must be radical nonconformists. But nonconformity is painful. Only if we are thoroughly grounded in the scriptural view of possessions, wealth and poverty will we be capable of living an obedient lifestyle. ”

Tent maker or Failure

2009-02-09T18:17:00.000-08:00

The past few weeks have been tough for me emotionally, physically and spiritually. I the tensions within my heart are hard to put words to. I believe I am most likely suffering from relief fatigue as well as being in an emergency mindset.

These are just not good conditions to be going through school with, nor wanting to interact with anyone. My stress level is pretty high, and my heart feels pretty deep in pain and conflict between finances, work, study, ministry.

I am just pretty broken at the moment and wonder why the heck God has called me to be the hands and feet, and to have the dream and vision that I have. Right now I am just frustrated at my inability to create stability for my life, and wonder how the Apostles dealt with their lives. I have a fair degree of entrepreneurship but find it still ridiculously hard to balance this work, ministry, time problem. It still boggles me a bit when I think of Paul and how he supported himself in proclaiming the gospel of Christ.

“Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.” 1 Cor 9:12

Paul makes this statement in part of the defense of his ministry. I think it’s quite beautiful and hopeful, yet probably filled with a lot of pain an agony within. The mention of a “right” in this is referring to Paul stating that it is ok for the Apostles and teachers to reap material things. I can almost feel frustration in having to defend himself and his ministry. I wonder what Paul’s life was like leading up to himself doing ministry, and what business was like for him to be able to continue in ministry and work. The latter part of this verse makes me want to scream, and shake people. I have not often been one to see a need or a vision that Christ has given me and waited on someone or something else as a prerequisite to going and doing. I have pretty much tried to work my tail off in order to proclaim the Gospel, and I don’t want to be a burden to the church as a whole. If I don’t create my own secular means of income, that means someone else could be put in more of a hurting position. I do not want to become a burden to someone else, and I could see that toil and labor was an obstacle that Paul was willing to endure.

"With toil and labor, we worked night and day that we might not burden any of you, and to give you an example to follow" (2 Thess. 3:8)

It has been interesting, how easily the American Christianity mindset can consume my brain. I believe in lies that I am almost entitled to, or should be receiving support in order to do ministry. I have also fallen to the lie in belief that for me to be successful I should be supported by other churches. The part of this that has the ugly head is that I can get easily jealous of people/places that receive, or have abundance of resources. What makes me jealous it that there are often many entities that receive funding, that mostly just goes straight into paying salaries.

Either way I am glad to have rediscovered the ministry of Paul, and it is possible that I can endure through this. I guess God wants me to also operate much like Paul and expose such issues like this within the church.

What makes Tent Making hard in America. In my local neighborhood context, no one trusts anyone. Especially if they are new, and if they are obviously going to be transient. New Orleans has become a giant transient and non committal city. This is probably typical in places post natural disasters, and probably in many 3rd world areas. This culture is created by people only coming to a place and only thinking of being there for a year or two. Thats just enough time for the newbies to build relationships, and get to know people and then rip them apart by leaving. Yes we supposedly live in a time where there is technology to help with connectedness, but that is purely from a American Dream mindset. Phone calls, e-mails, myspace, facebook messages are nothing like real interaction, nor consistent interaction. In Urban America, and from being within the school systems i have seen many kids move and get uprooted, and I know that there are some that many move to a different house once a year. This idea is also well represented in Apartment life and culture, how often do you move if you are an apartment dweller? Each time there is a move it results in more broken relationships. When this is combined with bad family life that could be falling apart, trust within oneself toward others is severely broken. There’s not much Trust even within the family.

If you can image the gap of trust that needs to be bridged here, it is humongous. You have to prove that you are there, and there to stay. This is terrible for us twenty-somethings because this means that you must find your home to settle, or you can just not deal with this population. So where this gets rough is figuring out how do you show your longevity and not just talk about staying. This for me was Buying in, the conflict with this now for me, is that it increases my expenses, and consumes time in maintenance. I know that I could probably live free at a family’s house but that is a tough find, and its too late. Buying in has also been great because it just gives one a little more clout to push for city, and educational reform.
So if trust building is somewhat my goal at the moment, and what stresses me out at the moment is my work, and school. If either of those start to impact the quality of my life and breaks down relational trust with my neighbors I get stressed and get headaches and shut down. Then I am removed from the vision God has given me and try to figure out what’s wrong so that I can correct it. I remember talking to a friend the other day, in which we came to a conclusion that money buys time, and that allows us to make wiser decisions. Right now I feel like I am in an emergency mode, with limited resources, and I am scared that I will soon start to make bad and unwise decisions.

Taking one for the team. The past couple of weeks have also been tough because I have sacrificed my private space to share, with a previous student of mine that was pretty much homeless. It has been tough, to want to just listen to him when I have 500 things to do, and it has been hard to find peace and quiet.

Pray that I can sort out the junk thats in my brain and stressing me out right now. So that I can be effectively used by God. Pray for my student that he may come to know and trust in Christ, and that my roomates and I can be good witnesses of the faith.

and for Chris Westbrook, writing this makes me think of you and how we would always do ministry and talk about doing ministry for free. Stay strong, and I hope to get to worship with you soon sir.

enough venting and writing time to read...

Forgot a big need.

2009-02-03T22:55:00.000-08:00

I need time, space, and place to rest, recharge, and get away from everything for a day, or two, or weeks . This is tough when finances are already tapped out, I already barely spend money on food. So this is something ultra hard for me to accomplish that is very much needed.
Yes you can offer a place to stay, the kicker now is how the heck do I get there, and will I go hungry?

I heard today that probably about 90% of the people that I work with or are in regular contact with deal with PTSD. That means they are going to be uber draining on me emotionally, mentally, and psychologically. I also just need times of refreshment and to be reminded of life that others live.

Help me have sabbaticals.

Thanks,
Michael Wong

Admitting Need! I need HELP!

2009-02-03T20:34:00.000-08:00

I know that I have always struggled with doing too much, and creating stress and things to do for myself. I know many of you reading this know this, and some of you know that this is pretty normal and that it will somewhat always be apart of me.

I must admit that yes, this is very much apart of my lifestyle and probably is favored by my innovative and creative technical brain. There is a big flaw in the way I operate. The flaw is that I get easily overloaded and pretty high strung and stressed at times. This issue I know eventually will probably blow up in my face and destroy any sense of respect that people may have for me. I do not want that to happen, but I also know that God is redemptive and can dish out some amazing corrections.

I don’t think that it is within Christendom, for it to blow up. So, I am putting it out there for you to step up to the plate and help out. I think that the reason I often do too much is probably because I don’t know how to communicate the need or task well enough, or that people are not committed enough to actually help and get the job/ministry done well, concise, and holistically.

I know that I need less on my plate, unfortunately I have a lot on my plate because I have financial needs, and ideas that need to be developed for met to carry out God’s vision.

Where it hurts is the game of “getting the church to buy in.” I don’t like wasting time or resources or playing traditional business games. I don’t necessarily want to get big, and be heard about all over the place. I think that there is probably a fair chance that my life will be pretty big, but hopefully it will be just because I am doing something that is innovative in how we become the hands and feet of Christ.

Some of you are settling for a very boring or complacent life, and that may be because you aren’t doing anything! your plate has some room, and your not excited because you ate all that was the best thing on it. You want a bit more but its scary for you to get up and go get it.

Some Ideas of How to meet Needs....

For you Thinkers, Intellectuals, Suburbanites, and Everyone else:
        How can we empower the inner city/urban poor. Many wealthier churches/people often come to serve places like my neighborhood. How can you give us the chance to serve? How can they afford it? It is much easier for us to be the receivers, and for you to be the givers. How can we get to be empowered to give/serve?

Use your gifts and some ideas I have:
        You all have gifts, figure out what they are, and lets find out how they can help out. I know I cannot take on anything else, and need you to fill up some of your empty space on your plate!

*Businessmen/ women investors: I would love to develop a coffee shop/ washeteria (laundry mat)/ community info/tutoring center.

*Lawyers, Accountants, Real Estate, Grant writers: I know that I need you! I know there’s going to be issues with acquisition of properties, running businesses, and how to fund these thoughts. I know I will need a business license, and navigating to become a non-profit and what not.

* Businessmen/women, Builders, Contractors, Electricians, Carpenters people with trade skills: I dream of a transitional housing/rental homes in which people pay lower rent, and have special savings accounts that are dedicated toward them purchasing homes and teaching financial literacy.
        *There’s a house I have the tax deed on, and want to renovate and turn into housing.
        *There’s always odd jobs that people need help with in the neighborhood.
        *The underside of my house is not insulated, if anyone would like to spray foam up under the house that would be amazing. I know I can get Crossroads Missions to spray for $1.30 a sq.ft. which the footprint of my house is about 900-1000 sq.ft.

*Businessmen/Women: consider figuring out how to create a business mentorship program, to not just employ neighbors, but to mentor them in faith and build their skills and resumes at the same time.

*Photographers,Grant Writers, and Organizers, Artists this is you! - I want to host an Night time in the Inner City: Family Portrait night. I think that many have probably not had the chance to get family portraits done, nor have there probably been artistic/creative family portrait shots created. So I would love to organize a big family portrait event.

*Outdoorsy Folks- Many of these children and youth get to see mountains but never get to experience them. Lets get them out, don’t forget the gear. If any one has any connections to good gear lets get some, and take them out. There’s a lot of confidence and leadership building that can happen when your in God’s great creation and existing in a different environment

Move in:
        come join in the neighborhood, and be another consistent believer before us. The consistency in joy and faith in Christ sets a beautiful standard that is not often seen. Help paint the picture of the fullness of life. I also just need help organizing/thinking/setting up. I want to do after school tutoring, but I cant be at my house enough, and my jobs steal away from me wanting to interact with anyone.

Our first Ride & $5 for all

2009-01-27T15:16:00.000-08:00

So the past couple of weeks have been really tough for me, with school starting, and jobs picking up. It is just an odd time of transition and trust in Christ for His provision in my needs of life. There are many amazing and great opportunities to share the love of and hope in Christ.

I am not sure if i talked about this yet, but I got a new car a couple of weeks ago. It is has been a blessing, and a very interesting thing to interact with. I know that this maybe a big red flag to many of you because, I always talk about tight finances, and here I now have a new car. It has totally been Christ lining things up for me so that things can happen in the neighborhood. When I first started to look at purchasing my house, I got accepted into a special savings program with the United Way in which they matched me $4 to every $1 dollar. I could save up to $1,000 and it had to stay in for 6 months and had to go toward a certified used or new car purchase. The time had run out on me saving in the program, and I decided that I should use it sooner than later because funding could or would run out. So I purchased a new Mazda 3. It has been an interesting time in venturing into learning the car buying and ownership world. The car puts a new burden/implication on my income needs, but it creates a great opportunity in serving my neighbors, and the kids in the neighborhood. When I first got the car, my kids in the neighborhood talked really loud about it, almost in a boasting fashion. I pulled them aside to talk about the car, and what it is for and it was an amazing discussion. We talked about how now we can all goto places together, and take trips to go, camping, swimming and all sorts of other places. They come up with some other awesome places to go as well. They also understood the concept behind not talking about it boastfully, or flashing around the car, so that we can make sure that it stays in decent shape and that I wont have to waste money on un-neccessary things. The car was just as much for them as it is for me. It was a beautiful time...

Our first ride together was for a lunch gathering at Middendorfs with Sojourn-Lakeview Church. Middendorfs is about an hour away from New Orleans, but is a great place for fried catfish. I picked up Stephen, Roger, and Anthony from around the neighborhood, and we obviously ran late. Then we convened with the church folks and headed out. The lunch experience was great, I only wish I could have not felt the squeeze of my budget. Things like this though are great, because I get to dialogue with them about getting soda, dessert, and money requirements. It hurts me that I can’t give them those things sometimes, but I think they understand why and still hang out with me regardless which is awesome.

I killed my budget for the month, because I paid for insurance all at once, and also had to pay for tuition this semester. It will be fun trying to recuperate over the next few months, in the midst of trying to find a way to now work my regular job for income, so that I can actually do ministry well, and not freak out all the time.

God’s Providence is good though, I received some dry food from friends last week, and today I received some meat. This month just seems to be a big test on me being faithful in giving and receiving. I had purchased a bus ticket from one of my students the other day, and now he is crashing on my couch. I made dinner with donated food last night: pasta with spaghetti sauce and red beans. My friend could only stomach a hand full of bites, and desired some meat. Today I was given some meat! So thats amazing, and so it will be awesome to share with him about God’s provision.

I also received a $5 check the other day in the mail. I am pretty excited to see what the kids in the neighborhood can dream up to spend it on. Maybe themselves, or food for dinner, or to get something for someone else. We’ll see what they want to do.

Dinner for 2 please

2009-01-22T18:07:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I just get tired of what I am doing and want to just settle for a comfy life working the standard american dream. My brain and my heart is hurting at the moment for just an ounce of support other than just mere words. It has recently been really tough trying to do ministry in the neighborhood because I have to work like crazy, and study, and make ends meet. I know that I probably make close to the average income for my neighborhood, which is not a whole lot.

The other day when I went and worked out at the school I weighed in at 135 lbs. Which isn’t a whole lot for being 5ft 10in. I was quite stunned, because I have weighed 145lbs since 8th grade. This peaked my interest, and made me think about what I eat, how often, and what I want to eat. I usually eat at home, because its the cheapest thing to do. I try to eat a variety, but the cheapest things are usually forms of starches and fiber.

This month I am starting to have to be ridiculously tight on my budget, and cannot spend a whole lot of money at all, because of car payment, car insurance, taxes, health insurance, tuition. My budget has been destroyed for the month. So it looks like every meal will have to come out of my cupboard of mysterious foods I have left in there.

I am not sure if I have any problem with this, well yes I do. It’s makes me sad because I have neighborhood kids that come and hang out and have dinner and I can’t feed them well. It’s also tough because I want to take them places that they haven’t experienced, like to the mountains, museums, and parks. Anthony asked me the other day when we were going to get Chinese food again, and I can’t tell him when. After our first time out, he learned how to use chopsticks. He now eats with them almost every time he eats at the house, its beautiful.

It also gets tough when I hear of people talking about different restaurants and their greatness. I just get sad, because I can’t relate. It’s tough for me to justify feeding myself for one meal, when I can feed 2 more kids if I cooked.

Unexpected Surprises

2009-01-19T18:23:00.000-08:00

Well today has been quite an interesting and surprising day. The day started off normal and as expected with painting a mural for school. There’s always the big scramble to get the job done. It was finished and it turned out great.

When I got home, I was washing my truck and a neighbor that I had met 2 months prior stopped by and asked me to teach him more about the bible! That is not something that happens too often.

I started to make my simple dinner, cheese, eggs and some toast. I busted the first egg open, and there were 2 yolks in it! I was quite shocked and amazed. Yes, I questioned if it was something I should eat. As I was elated over the double up on yolks, I hear loud footsteps up to my door. A few hard knocks on the glass, and i scurry to the door as i knew it was going to be one of my neighbors. I opened the door, and hear a loud grunt of “here mike!” in a loud raspy voice. A deep pot roast pan was shoved into my hands. In the pan laid a fresh out of the water Sheephead fish. I told Turk, thanks, and he scurried back across the street.

I packaged up the fish and put it in the freezer and then proceeded to make my egg and toast dinner.

Heart issues

2009-01-11T21:19:00.000-08:00

In Matthew 15 Jesus is asked questions about traditions, and what makes a person bad. Jesus makes a statement that “What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, witness, slander. These are what defile a person.”

It is interesting to really take this passage in the context of Jesus’s time. Jewish tradition is pretty strong, and I imagine that back in those days not many would break rank from the standards set. This is much like American Culture today. That we often want to fit in, who doesnt? We set up traditions, that help us unify, and establish a normal standard. Churches do this too. Tradition is often a place of identity for many of us, but it isn’t always a place that relates well to the messiness of life.

We all know that life is a bit crazy, and that we all have pretty jacked up parts of who we are. These parts of our lives are not friendly to traditions. What is friendly to traditions, is buying into accepting thoughts that are not necessarily from your own internal development, but just accepted thoughts because we want to buy into the system and have a little comfort and credibility.

All I can think about now is the bar scene, and how awkwardly, and ridiculously many guys try to pick up girls or get their phone numbers. This odd social phenomenon to me is a classic case of people buying into the wrong set of tradition. The culture that this practice is derived from breeds from within mostly packs of males conjuring up what they think women want. I don’t know about you but why would I try to learn about women from a middle man, and not the source? The sad thing is though that some of you ladies give in, and settle for something less than what you actually deserve.

So back to the text. I have mostly talked about traditions, and things that we buy into without really questioning. Sometimes we accept a tradition and have actions or lingo that may contradict what we actually can articulate a belief. Some of us say that we have no fear. What about the times when you are afraid to talk to the gay or lesbian person that is sitting next to you staring at you? What about that man that looks grungy, and possibly homeless? What about that person that you’re not interested in, but they may be interested in you? What are your adjectives that you use to describe them? Do you make sounds of disgust? These are all notions of the heart that speak about your true character.

I catch myself all the time, getting disgruntled or frustrated with the rich, with authority, and even with some of my neighbors. I miss out on the opportunity to see the beauty that God has actually placed in everyone. I fail miserably throughout the day in the way words come out of my mouth. May I recognize, and be mindful of the expressions I use and the condition of my heart toward all of God’s creation that Christ has called us to love and bring hope to. May I break through traditions and established norms, and follow The Way of Christ in Loving His People.

Heartbreak Road.

2009-01-10T23:04:00.000-08:00

Well I rarely ever write twice in a day. The past few days have been odd because I have just been asked a lot of questions about what people think, or what they are doing. It is a blessing that people trust me and can confide in me. Tonight outside of a bar a man came up to me and told me his name and shook my hand. He told me,“ You just have a good aura, you can tell there’s just something there.” This was quite intriguing. I just wonder now what made me stand out, or what that was about. I made sure that I analyzed the way he was looking at me. I questioned internally whether he was gay, and came to the conclusion that he was not hitting on me, and that he truly just saw something in me. Maybe the love of Jesus just exudes.

I was also asked about what I thought of Shane Claiborne, and a lot of the issues within Irresistible Revolution. A lot of people get pissed off reading that book because it definitely goes against american consumerism to the Nth degree and challenges many people to give up things that they are not willing to part with. I think there is a balance between it all, that the poor and the wealthy are both needed, and I think that Shane would really like for us to just be mindful of the poor and oppressed since we are the wealthiest nation in the world. Who are we really if we do not attempt to share the wealth, most of the time we dont even think about that.
While I was driving, i thought of that question, and thought about what the heart of the matter is really about. I came to a conclusion that ultimately we need to truly be willing to sacrifice anything and everything for the cause of Christ if we really believe that He is our ultimate provider. I believe that I trust and know God at a higher level, because of my abandonment of comfortable things while Cycling across the state, and being willing to move to a scary neighborhood, that is not surrounded by much of what I naturally loved which are still Mountains, Snow, Cold Weather, and Rocks to Climb. So if you were to write down your favorite thing in the world, would you be willing to give that up? are you a true giver of life to the point of where it actually hurts?

Will you exchange your car for a hurting heart? My heart just thrives to see others awakened to finding life with purpose and meaning that is holistic. I believe it is only through Christ that this can happen. It has been a joy to see friends really begin to understand and come alive over the years. It is also really hard at times when people are hurting and are doing really bad, in turn I hurt and my brain gets disheveled and hurts as well. I also almost just hurt all the time because I see a great sleeper in everyone, and it often takes something terrible to wake them up. I see big dreams in people, and then they fail in a little way, and retreat back to something comfortable. They go back to sleep in accepting the standards of American Culture. Its funny how people dream of being someone like Martin Luther King, or Ghandi, or some other big figure, but many do not act anything like these people and expect to get there. The people that leave a mark on the world are not rule followers, but rule breakers, they challenge the traditional norm.
Some of you reading this, may think you are the Bomb Dot Com, because you think you are a rule breaker. You may actually be a Zero because you follow the crowd of normal individuals within your own sphere.
Preppies buying into The North Face clothing which actually isn’t that great of gear. High Schoolers, and College Kids think that alcohol is necessary to have fun. That is all a LIE! Those are normal things and it doesnt make you special!
Girls, you should never settle for having sex, making out, or having to dress skimpy to meet the man of your dreams. Guys you should not think that you have to have the nicest of everything to win a girls heart.

People that are often the greatest leaders often are outliers with unique abilities

ok i am done ranting, now i need to try and sleeep

The power of NO

2009-01-10T18:39:00.000-08:00

Well today and yesterday, friday, have been interesting. I’ve had my doorbell rung about 5 times, and had multiple kids walk up to my door and knock about 10 times. Each time I was a neighborhood child asking “can I come in and hang out?”
        “NO, you can’t I am sorry. When did I tell you that you can begin coming back to the house?”
        “Ummmmm.....”
        “Sunday. Do you remember why?”
        “Yeah, it’s just me though not everyone else.”
        “Well remember all of you need to start working together as a team, and help each other so that you can hang out here. You can’t come over today, but you can try again tomorrow afternoon if I am home.”
        “Okay... See ya mister Mike.
        “See ya, have a good day, try again tomorrow.”

On Thursday, I cooked dinner for some of my neighborhood kids. It was rice, and a chinese broccoli, guylan. They actually liked it and ate most of it. I was greatly impressed and was super excited about eating dinner with them. When we were almost done, things started to fall apart. Some more neighborhood kids came over to the house, and they started running around and hiding. This made me uncomfortable, and the kids know they shouldn’t act this way around the house. This kind of activity results in everyone going home for the day. They continued to play around a little bit, resulting in them not being allowed back until Sunday.

So friday and today have been interesting in dealing with the kids. I am glad that they still so want to come over and hang out. I am trying to instill an idea of discipline and self control to their lives. It is tough to turn them away when they look so lonely coming over by themselves. I know that if I just gave in, it would almost be like everyone else in their lives that are pushovers, and may never develop self control. It is almost like when I had my first dog and was learning about how to train dogs. I know that many of my friends fall prey to my dogs cute little face and allow her to jump up on them, or let her out of the cage when she whines. It takes everyone to play their part to help train my dog, I almost think its the same way for kids. I hope that I represent good parenting skills for the neighborhood, but I don’t believe that the community as a whole does. That makes it even tougher to help the children of the hood learn well.

How do you begin a holistic approach to helping the children in the neighborhood?
Community Development- which is way too much to describe, and hard to figure out.

Adopt the Hood

2009-01-07T21:45:00.000-08:00

        So, I have never been one to love fundraising, nor one to ask for help unless necessary. It is quite odd for me to have recently really come to grips with the fact that I really need help now, and that ministry here has grown into something that needs more of my time. It has been tough lately working then teaching art or going to school, and finally to arrive at home with atleast one neighborhood kid that wants to hang out.
        I find myself not spending as much time outside my house, and in the neighborhood as much. This is probably due to the intense nature of my line of work, as well as just needing quiet, and decompression time to myself. I love the 6 kids that often come to hang out at the house, and wish I had the energy to spend time with them. We often cook a crazy meal that I have schemed up, and I make them eat their veggies. It is awesome to get to expose them to new foods, and to take them to different places. I need and want to begin to really engage their families as well, but I don’t currently have the energy or time to do that properly. So I am attempting to reach out to the church, friends, and family, to help me tell the stories of my neighborhood and how Christ is creating positive social change.
        I am going to start sending out stories, newsletters, and tidbits of what is happening in the neighborhood so that you know what is going on, and that I can be your connection to the most dangerous neighborhood in the nation. You can be apart of the story of God’s sovereignty and restoration in this neighborhood by being engaged through prayer, experience, finances and conversation. I am on a mission to think innovatively about how the church can truly help us as the neighborhood, and reestablish opportunity for jubilee with the residents in Central City. Will you help? More info on the neighborhood at www.Refugenola.org

Peace outside, and don’t break your New Years resolutions..... just trying to hold you accountable
~michael

This is a New Year

2009-01-01T21:24:00.000-08:00

Well, today is the first of the year. It was pretty amazing to have the day off and get projects done around the house. I figured I should take a moment to reflect upon this year and notate what has happened this year. In 2008, I bought my amazing house in Central City. I was featured in Sundance Channel’s: Architecture School, and Ordinary Radicals. I also spoke at a meet and greet with Eddie Izzard after one of his shows. I started Seminary at NOBTS. And I turned 25.

This year has been interesting, God has blessed me with creating some ridiculous events this year, even in the midst of my failures and frailties. I thank Jesus for the grace given to me when I think I can do things on my own. There is no way i could have orchestrated the events that allowed me to purchase my house, and to be able to tell the stories of my life with my great neighbors.

Final Remarks for 2009 : Have peace, do not be afraid!

In John 14:27 Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

I believe we are often afraid of what lies ahead, or that we may be afraid of parts of our past. We may be afraid of people, our sins, our neighbors, sinners. We are to not be afraid, but to rest in the peace of Christ. To rest in His arm in the messiness of the crazy world that we live in. We should not be afraid of people that drink, smoke, dance, do drugs, deal drugs, cussing people, black people, white people, cops, terrorists, or the overly happy neighbor. We should have peace in Christ that we do not fear death, awkwardness, or hatred. The love of Christ can overpower death and destruction, that though my body may die, my thoughts, ideas, and soul will carry on through the minds of others.

It has been profound this year living in my neighborhood, because I came to grips with accepting death. When my life was threatened I felt pure joy, in being ok with dying for the sake of my neighborhood. It was so joyful because I knew that if i happened to die, that it would cause quite a big uproar locally, as well as nationally. That my life and ideas that Christ gave me would not die alongside my physical death. That was a momentous realization.

May peace be with you before death.

Do not wait another year to begin living the life where your passion meets God’s calling!

Filling the void

2008-11-29T22:37:00.000-08:00

It is sad to sometimes feel that I have to “sell” a worthy cause of loving others and to recognize your neighbors. I think that many of the people that look at the extremist lovers think we are only about inner city poor, and think we are glamorous rock stars fighting for a worthy cause. I wish the latter part would be true just because I feel like some would begin to really listen, but we aren’t. Most of us are just people who are tired of saying, tired of the same old thing, and tired of people not being able to live life of joy and hope.

I am in search of trying to figure out how to pass on the redemption of Christ, that sets us free from condemnation, and the worry of today. Everyone needs to hear about the love God has for us in the Old and New Testament. A life of regulation, compassion, justice, acceptance, and love. I have been called to the scary places where there is a lot of violence, but I know there is worse. I know that sometimes suburbia terrifies me sometimes, but they have just as many issues as inner city poor. The system is broken all over the place, and most of us “ordinary radicals” just want to help people feel empowered to chase God’s heart, to drop everything and follow Him. Where you’re passion meets God’s calling in your life is what you are supposed to figure out. Many of us are asleep to awaking to the riches of God’s glory because it is daunting to take a leap into unpredictability in chasing after God’s heart.

It all starts with baby steps, but you have got to move! Go serve someone. Go! Spend time outside of the walls you are confined in most of the day and meet people. These are your neighbors. Go expose yourself to others, share your life with people you do not know. Buy them coffee, bring them cookies, just say hi and find out what they do.

Everyone is dying for community, meaning, and purpose. They just need to be shown the way. Are you going to invite them in? That requires you talking to them. Everyone is talking about the effects of the information age, and saying that we are more connected than ever. Are we really, divorce rates have increased, there is a lot of miscommunication, there is a lot more relationships to manage. There is still the same amount of time in a day, and more relationships to deal with. How thin are you going to spread out? Are you neglecting your immediate neighbors?

Where ever you are, live a life filled with Christ bringing the hope of glory to your neighbors around you. Jesus never gathered the masses, but he met them outside the walls and on other peoples property.

Just in case I Die.

2008-11-19T20:05:00.000-08:00

There in an ever present reality of the possibility of getting shot or something crazy happening to me as I exist on the earth that God has filled with great beauty. I feel like there is an odd intensity arising in the neighborhood. I am not sure what it is from, or what to think about it at the moment. There has been a lot of shootings and murders lately just a handful of blocks away from the house.

While a friend was down here, and as I showed him around the neighborhood, we received a little bit of hostility. This has been the first time that it has been a bit aggressive. The reality of it all is that this aggressiveness exists in the neighborhood, and that many have accepted it as normal life. There are a few who are tougher and will challenge some injustice, but most let it slide. I am boggled by the fear and scariness of the potential of being in a volatile situation that could result in my demise. In the end my neighbors, friends, and I need help. The aggressors need to be shown love in great and profound ways, as well as ways out of the cycle. The movement of love, peace, hope, and reconciliation in Christ. It should not fade in the event of calamity. It is the prime time for grace to be shown abundantly and for light to prevail in dark circumstances.

In all, love abundantly, give abundantly, and do not be afraid to hurt a little. My life has been wonderful, and amazing so far, and I do not regret a bit of it. I have lived life to the full, and hope to continuously do so until I die. We are called to bring hope to the world, and we cannot do that in fear. The dark will not shut us out.
It is my wish that my work started, and the people inspired, are to continue to be the hands and feet of Christ Jesus, to the rough and scary places of the world. At the least, just please get to know your true neighbors and share life’s hurts and pains with them.

Chris Jones, Jean please be ready.

Hopefully I will, get to read this, and that we will get to talk about it when I am old and gray haired with a fu-manchu. However many crazy radicals don’t get the chance to live that long.

If you could see what I see

2008-11-16T19:16:00.000-08:00

Why is this road, so long and narrow?
Why does my heart cry?

Your people surround me, and my soul gets crippled.
People that bear the cross, sometimes cease to see.
Your beauty is all around us, we often don’t see it right by our side.

My neighbor doesn’t walk like me, talk like me, live like me, but I see beauty in him.
I see beauty in him!

God is before us, waiting for us to recognize him.

He wants to live with us, work with us, shop with us, spend with us, dine with us, walk with us, scream with us, cry with us, hurt with us.

There is no place with us, that He should be absent.

Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ is in me.

He is with me when I awake, He is with me all day.

He tells me stories when I am asleep.

Though he is there, I am scared, I am fearful, and I hurt, not for myself but for others.

The injustices i’ve created by some of my American Dream habits.

The loneliness of standing out from the crowd.

My walls crumble, and I am broken.

explicit topic: SEX

2008-11-13T19:03:00.000-08:00

So It has been interesting living immersed within urban inner city culture. Seeing some of the stark contrasts in the way the community lives and life according to Christ. Often at work I get picked on for desiring to live for Christ and being a believer in abstinence and waiting to have sex until marriage. They often make it seem that sex is a must have interaction in the immediacies of life. I sometimes forget why exactly I am waiting, and sometimes just need to be reminded of the issues of sexuality, and physical intimacy. I am always excited when churches seek to talk about explicit issues such as this. My friends at Trinity Vineyard had a forum type of discussion about it a week ago. Check out their town hall recap, and list of resources.

http://www.trinityvineyard.org/articles/Town%20Hall%20on%20the%20topic%20of%20sex

Be blessed

Fathering the Fatherless

2008-11-09T13:46:00.000-08:00

Well, everyday that I get to spend in the neighborhood my brain expanded a little bit more to the unknown issues and injustices within the neighborhood. Today, I had a neighborhood kid, Roger that waited for me all morning to get back home from church. He’s an awesome kid, and just wants someone to invest in him. He left with some other friends around 4 pm, and they showed up again 5 pm.

When they arrived the spirit in the air was not happy, something was up. Roger ran inside, and sat at my kitchen table. He buried his head into his arms. 2 other friends came up to the door. They seemed tense about the whole thing as well. I knew bad feelings were in the air. I was kind of in bewilderment about what was happening, and started to question what was going on. I asked the eldest kid, and he denied anything happened. The youngest ran out the door and came back with a big chunk of a cinder block and said, “ He threw this at us.” I felt disappointed in Roger, but knew that couldn’t be the whole story. I asked why he did that, and found out that the eldest was tried to hold Roger in place so that the youngest could hit him.
I asked the eldest if this was true a few times, and got a negative response, and eventually he confessed to it all. It was like pulling teeth. They apologized and walked away somberly.

It was a bit weird to somewhat have this relationship with some of the neighborhood youth in this manner. It is like I am their father. I am a place of comfort and trust with them. It’s beautiful, I want to be able to do so much more for them but its tough because they are not my kids. My heart wants to provide for these kids, and to father these boys into growing men. I am fearful that they will be forced to move away, or that I will not have the time/budget for them.

I need a wife too, I am sure there are girls in the neighborhood as well that are probably having similar issues as many of these boys.

Halloween Injustice! Broken hearts

2008-10-31T23:00:00.000-07:00

So today was halloween, it is obviously a day get decked out in a costume and be really awkward as a sober adult. This afternoon, I was working in the yard trying to set up my raised garden beds for fall crops and my neighborhood kids came to hang out, they are all about 9 years old. Yesterday they helped me a ton by spreading out cardboard and newspaper on the surface of the ground so weeds wont grow through. After I finished loading the beds with dirt at about 5 pm the kids, Anthony, Stephen, Roger, and I went inside the house and made some food. We had Bok Choy, smoked sausage and some Dirty Rice. It has been a blast getting to hang out with these kids, and its fun to teach them things they aren’t going to learn in school.

After we ate it was starting to get dark so I went and put on my costume. I was a big fuzzy Tigger, a costume I made about 6 years ago. I grabbed Eavie, my dog, a pillowsack , and headed out the door to wait to gather the kids. This begins our Halloween adventure, or flop.

New Orleans within the city is a tough place to trick-or-treat there was maybe 1 house on a block that gave out candy. (my neighbors across the street gave out candy for me) We eventually made a choice to walk in the Garden District side of St. Charles, It’s the nice side. We meandered around, and stumbled upon a very active party that was for people in the Garden District Association, www.gardendistrictassociation.com. It seemed like a happening place, except for if you were a black kid! As we walked closer to the event, my kids saw kids playing football. They got a bit excited, and as we got closer they found a gate that they could open and enter discretely through the back. I stood outside the fence because of my dog, and didn’t find any harm in my kids sneaking in to play football with the other kids, that were all white. My kids jumped right in, and the other guys seemed totally accepting of it. They played a little rough, “soft tackle”, I thought that it was ok, and that I played like that when I was a kid. Everything was going great, I was afraid that one of my kids would start talking trash, or fighting, but they just played along with the other kids. I was surprised and very proud of them. Then came along an adult that realized that there were some kids that were obviously not from the neighborhood. It seemed they they automatically had a stigma that they must be bad kids. They asked if they were with me, and I claimed responsibility, and we left.

I am quite disturbed by the whole thing. It’s just tough to see kids get along so well, but adults often ruin the party. My neighborhood kids need the exposure to that different culture/lifestyle. They won’t probably get to partake in many events like that because the yuppie adults are afraid of my hood kids, that can play well with others. My kids are smart, charming, hilarious, and they are black. I am chinese. We will stick out like a sore thumb anywhere.

My heart was also broken again shortly after we left the “yuppie white folk party,” and headed back to our neighborhood, two blocks past the Garden District border street. As we somewhat split ways, I walked with Stephen he went toward a house with a hand full of people out in front of it. He was asking for candy, but along his way an older guy started to converse with him. I couldn’t tell what he was saying but it just didn’t feel good. We walked to the house next door, and talked to 2 old ladies that Stephen knew. We had to walk back by the guy that was being confrontational with Stephen, the man started to threaten him, and started to be mean to him. The guy just told him that he is a bad boy, and that he is going to beat him up. Stephen actually stayed with the issue, and put his hands up to fight. I told him to put his hands down, and asked this way older guy, 17ish, “Why the heck are you picking on such a little kid, you know he cant do anything to you?”

The guy said, “His brothers jumped me!”
In my response I questioned why he would take it out on such a little kid that had nothing to do with the situation. And why do you want to destroy such a little kids life, you’re supposed to encourage them, and love on them. Not destroy them and put fear in their hearts. You have to offer them hope, and be positive. The guy kept saying that Stephen was a bad kid, repeatedly, Now I realize that it is no wonder many of these kids don’t turn out well. It is going to be a tough challenge to help change the attitude of my neighbors about these friends of mine that I have the privilege of hanging out with. I wish I could spend move time with them.

Epicenter of affection

2008-10-24T19:18:00.000-07:00

My neighbors consume my life, my heart beats for the safety and well being of my beloved friends whether they are good or bad. The line of justice is in tension, and my brain is overwhelmed. What do I do with drug dealers that are friends of friends, or drug dealers that allow Mrs. Betty to make her house payment. How do I create jobs that would entice a dealer to not sell drugs but to come work with me and run my business. How do we begin to understand that we are really simple human beings without a whole lot of needs. How does a little man like me get to be a part of such a big thing. Why do I get to meet urban planners, and begin to really live a life of risk in hopes of healing injustice and oppression. What a joy it is to attempt to empower, and restore lives in a beaten down neighborhood. When will we cease to neglect our neighbors, that we live next to and show them love. I have a dream and it scares me.

Everyday, I am blessed to see my neighbors and friends love and care for one another. Today I arrived home, during my mid day transition, to Turk cutting Twopop’s hair. For some reason after I went inside and was about to depart again Twopop was sitting on the stoop with this patch of hair on the back of his head. It was a hilarious sight and I could not stop laughing. Eventually Turk emerged with a razor to finish making Twopop bald.

ATL and Catalyst Reflections

2008-10-13T19:36:00.000-07:00

Well, I have spent the past few days in Atlanta for Catalyst and to spend time with some old friends. It was a fairly good and refreshing time. I feel that my brain is filled with so much that I am immobilized now. I am now just trying to process and focus on a few of the greatest things that I can begin to work on.
        It was interesting to hear about people talking about leadership, and to be reaffirmed in many of my perceptions. One is that our character/leadership ideals must be consistent in all spheres of life whether at home, work, or at the bar. Another is that one characteristic that is normal within leaders is rule breaking. I have always somewhat defied tradition in hopes of representing authenticity and freshness. This makes me realize though that, I am getting older and I too will soon be out of touch with the younger generation so I must begin to replicate myself and empower those younger than me to be the next great leader.
        I was also able to help a friend of mine(Erin Lee you Rock! ) that works for a great coffee company, Land of A Thousand Hills, that is pretty much a dream in which I would love to replicate in Indonesia. I wish my brain functioned a bit better so that I could pull that off.
        Time in Atlanta was also great just for the sad reminder that there are some really amazing women out there that are a lot more courageous that some of us guys, but it at least gives me hope that there is a girl out there that would want to join my adventure in the craziness of New Orleans

What am I doing?

2008-09-27T09:56:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was a crazy weird busy good day. I drove in circles around the city atleast 3 times yesterday, which felt so bad. The seminary I goto received Hurricane relief food, and they distributed it out on thursday and had a bunch left over, and I was able to take a bunch of it. To deliver to my neighbors in the neighborhood. It was awesome. I got to catch up with people in the neighborhood that I haven’t conversed with in a long time. It was good to reconnect with some and find out that they still remembered the time when I boiled Crawfish in the neighborhood. Now I need to get back to working on my paper thats due on monday so peace out for now

Striking the cultural nerve!

2008-09-10T07:31:00.000-07:00

“The challenge is to critique our culture with the Bible and not vice versa.”
Duvall and Hays _Grasping God’s Word.

        Today I have read about context, particularly about the context and baggage that we bring to things. Like how we often want to bring America to the Bible and not Bible to America. What I read today was a great expounding of thoughts I was already formulating but had no clue as to how to put it to words. They talked about stories like Jonah and the whale, and how we often think Jonah is inside some big belly cave. This is totally false though, well I believe it is though. I imagine the belly of a whale, to be mushy and abrasive and pretty confining and constricting. The authors of this book thinks the idea of Jonah in a big belly of a whale stems possibly from childhood memories of seeing Pinocchio sitting inside a whale.

        So I have been sorting through many ideals, and cultural norms of american life through my brain for the past couple of years. I have begun to critique a lot of our american standard thoughts and traditions and sifted them through a filter of the Bible. I feel like Irresistible Revolution has also played a role in this thought process, as Shane Claiborne challenged many many aspects of life in which we as americans feel content with. Many Christians are starting to question justification of war. If we are against abortion, can we be pro war in which many suffer and die.

Another is Romans 13. If we are to submit to our authorities, why are we so reluctant to pay, taxes, rent, bills, and or respect to those that we owe it.

        Duvall and Hays bring up the notion that people get pretty steamed up about challenges to their train of thought. In particular, they questioned whether the American Revolution is justified biblically because it was a blatant disrespect to authority. They hoped that there would be some inner emotional reaction within reading of a normal biblical text. They suggest that we should ask ourself “ Why did I react so strongly?”

        Duvall and Hays weren’t even trying to really challenge the thoughts of the American Revolution, but to help us be awakened to the many ideas that we accept as standard, in which they may not be biblically just. The response to being challenged over our traditional ideas is often to become defensive and get riled up instead of introspectively looking at Why something stirs us so deep, and questioning if our thought is biblically sound.

Our culture should never dictate the Word of God,

“We often become closed-minded to any understanding of the Bible that conflicts with the status quo of our culture.”

I often feel like a prick to always bring about hard questions, and judgments to the status quo of culture, but I feel it is a necessary trait that we need to start picking up. Many always talk about us buying into the lies of the world, however there are very few that try to figure out what lies they believe.

Back in NOLA - Gravity of Sorrows

2008-09-06T07:50:00.000-07:00

So the past week has been tough. Evacuation, anxiety, confusion, close quarters. We are back! We arrived on Wednesday in the dark and cruised around the eerie dark streets. We rolled into the dark city to my truck, and found it unharmed and unmoved. I was relieved. We then came home and unpacked the car some and took off the panel that I blocked the door with. While settling back in with no electricity I realized that I had left a crucial box up at the farm house. The box contained all my school books.

        So we have been without power up until yesterday afternoon, friday afternoon. I have been unsuccessful at getting work done in the one school book that I have. The rest of my books will hopefully be arriving today with my other housemate. I feel the pressure of school, work, and bills getting to me. It’s getting a bit hard for me to manage my time. I am grateful for having good employers, and housemates. I have become very much of a hermit by nature, I like to spend time at home sitting in quiet and reflecting.

        I just watched the movie Transporter, not that great of a movie, and the main character doesn’t often say much and is yet still a very strong character. He enjoys quietness to think, and He silently knows a lot by instinct. We have a flaw though in transferring knowledge, I think that sometimes I think its too much trouble to get someone else to understand what is going on, and just give up and stay recluse. Inside I deeply want someone to take part in my life helping piece together the fragments of my mind and building “us” into being able to do more than 2 people.

        So in the above paragraph, at the end I was really thinking in terms of a significant other, and now I am thinking of people in general. I know that God has gifted us deeply and very differently, but I wonder if the depth at which we think is all apart of the mystery of it all. I hope it is, we often say the “older the wiser” and I partially wonder if thats true. I check out some of my friends brains, actions, trends and progressions, and sometimes am not too impressed. Yes this can just mean that I just have a very big head, and even if that is true I am ok with that, as long as I want to see others think better than I do. I feel like some people always wander around aimlessly wanting to become something, whether you give a weak, surface, ambiguous answer like, “I want to serve Christ,” or the american high school standard of “I want to make a lot of money!” I think there are people that are older that still respond with those same answers their whole life. To me that doesn’t show a lot of progression, and might just show that they aren’t that much wiser, because they haven’t come close to meeting their goal. God has given us very big, awesome, intricate brains to think very powerfully with, and the only kind of things we often think are ambiguous. I fall into this trap sometimes, and it just pushes me to think harder. The American life sells us so many ambiguous lies as to what success is often drowning out dreams and ambitions that make us feel worth something. These lies are often shown with some truth, but the truth on how to get there isn’t spoon fed to us like we think it is going to be. Dreams take work to get to, and often it takes work just to find out your dreams. Take joy in pain, hurt, and sorrow because Christ can use it all to redefine who you are in Him.

        Help empower others to do the things that you can, and learn how do to things from people that know more than you. Ladies, let your man learn how to cook, and be at least somewhat neat, clean, and tidy. And may the Lord help me with that as well!

Headed out! Fleeing GUSTAV!!!!!

2008-08-30T19:19:00.001-07:00

To all my friends, and people that worry about me. For those of you so
very concerned about the possibility of me staying, you can be
relieved since I am now in Huntsville, Alabama staying at a farm house
with my roomate Josiah. Eavie my dog is here as well, and we are
possibly waiting on a family that lives 2 houses down. I feel that
this family will probably not rendevouz with us here, but will
probably opt to stay at a hotel or something in Huntsville.

Today we woke up and Josiah went to check on 2 of his co-workers on
the Westbank to see if they needed rides, he knocked on their door but
did not answer. At that point I decided that I was going to ride with
Josiah since I needed to read for a class I am taking. We left around
10 with minimal traffic. My house is all boarded up and things are
tied down. Almost all of my neighbors have left or were planning on
leaving, so I felt at ease to leave. I parked my truck on a street
that did not flood during Katrina, and my house should be ok and not
flood.

The thought of the storm creates a lot of anxiety. There are many of
us who leave life and things behind, hoping that things dont get
destroyed. This is very much of a time of dependence on Christ and
trusting in him and being able to see that all things can be used
toward His glory whether things are hard or easy. I am worried about
my truck, we almost turned around at 5 hours out to go back so I can
move it! We didn't though and now I slightly worry about it, If it
goes though it will be ok I know the Lord will provide. I just don't
want to tell my parents. For some reason I haven't grown out of that
part of become a small man of adult that I am.

Parting pictures, in preparation for Gustav

2008-08-29T19:36:00.000-07:00

So today, I was at work for a little bit, and then they dismissed us
early. This was a blessing because I needed to board up my windows,
and also read a lot. I have a book test on Sunday, in which I am
behind, and preparing for the storm does not help. Here are some pics
of whats happening as of a few hours ago. I will probably take some
other pictures tomorrow. I have also decided to head on out, as
almost all of my neighbors are departing so I feel more at ease about
leaving. Some of which I believe are actually coming with us tomorrow.

Breaking down barriers: My beautiful neighbors

2008-08-28T19:22:00.000-07:00

So everyone is at wits in contemplating the possibilities of Gustav. I am in that mix tossing between do I stay or do I go. I still haven't decided yet. I have almost gotten to the point of letting my neighbors decide for me. If any of my neighbors stay, I really want to stay here for them, and to go through the storm with them. I know there are ones that are headed out tomorrow toward some unknown destination at the moment. For the ones that don't know where they are headed, I hope to offer them a place to stay with my roomates that will probably evacuate tomorrow. As for me I am still undecided

So here is the story of today, that I figured I must share.
Today I arrived at home, let the dog out, and went out to go shoot the breeze and talk to my neighbors about their Hurricane Gustav plans. I went to check on my neighbor Edwin, who has a wife and a two year old daughter. He was washing his car, and another neighbor had just left from conversing with him. Edwin and his wife are Filipino, and his family, and possibly one other family live on his side of a block caddy corner to mine. We are kind of the typical oddball Asians in a predominately African American neighborhood, however I am more of an extrovert and over the top.

While we were conversing our other neighbor, Calvin came back by and for some reason I thought of asking him if he would like to pick up a job helping me install a fence. I didn't ask Edwin because he usually has to watch his daughter, because his wife has to work and someone needs to watch the baby. Calvin mentioned that he was already helping out some other person and that he wasn't available.

Calvin said, " What about him!" and points at Edwin.
Edwin responded, "Yeah! What about me!"
Calvin responds, "Give it to him!"
I said, "Ok, I have a fencing job to work on after the storm stuff."

I eventually learned that Edwin can do work on the weekends, when his wife can watch the baby. So I thought that it was wonderful that one neighbor would pass up a job and push it to someone else.

Earlier this week, I also found employment for another neighbor of mine in which he will go through an environmental science workforce program and get a few certifications to make him more employable in the environmental science world.

This side of my life is pretty exciting to me so far, I hope to be able to establish some system or type of business to employ people and treat them well.

Should I stay or Should I Go NOW!!

2008-08-28T12:42:00.000-07:00

So there is hurricane Gustav coming! I am unsure of what I am going to do now.
Part of me would like to flee, but is that too safe for me? How do we, and how should we react as leaders of the church.

I have thought of a series of questions?

What is our perception of destruction?
I feel like I often view things radically different than the normal. I don't see the ugly head of destruction, instead I see beauty, strength, creation, and the complexities, and irregularities of life. I see a chance to take part in a restoration process that is not selfish but of pure love.

Why do we flee?
We flee for, our safety. Our, a word meaning I and you disturbs me. I know who I am, but our defines some sect of people, but not everyone. I think when I say our, it's me and my small circle of people I revolve around. As a believer in Christ I believe that God has called us to place the needs of others before myself. The poor and the needy, are the least likely to flee, so what am I to do? How should the Church represent in the midst of destruction. I have not been through a hurricane before I do not have the experience, and even if I had I hope that Christ would not let me be fearful of it.

Why do we not want it to hit New Orleans(us)?
The typical response, "Pray that it doesn't hit us!" This statement inherently gives the impression that we are somehow better than any other place. It's almost the same as the conflict between the ideas of being anti-abortion and pro-war. I choose to fight against death of little kids, but I am ok with killing those other people. Who am I to say that I am better, or have more value than someone. God has created us with equal value.

Here we go!

2008-08-19T20:38:00.000-07:00

So this is my first blog its not that exciting. I started Seminary this week, its going to be tough when my jobs start, I want to make sure there is enough time for me to learn and process but i am not sure if that will happen with the jobs i need to pay the bills and house note.

Funny story, well... funny to me atleast. I was cooking out for a lot of people at the house the other day, and a neighbor came by to get some food. On his way out we both stepped outside the door, and saw a guy, a block down, shoot at someone or something 3 times down the street. Then he took off running toward my house and up the street. Mean while me and my neighbor stood there. I was bewildered and looked at him for some kind of affirmation of what to do, but he stood just as bug-eyed in amazement as me. It was quite interesting. He went home with some food, I went in and called the cops.

I was also told that i have the gift of prophesy today, because i made a statement of i am driven to make people feel awkward. I also like to help people !