I'm gonna level with you about our local Inner city high school, the Hughes Center. We had 2 girls (zara and pia) there from Turkmenistan and Thailand in 2004. They had a wonderful year and really got a great exchange experience. We were proud of all that the urban center had to offer...
now, our exchange son, Marcelo (Brazil) attends... it's not the same as it used to be. I knew it right off the bat as I was pulled aside by 2 of the teachers who have known me since 2004 and told that the district's policies and slavery to testing and national standards have stripped it of educational power... not to mention the overwhelming tide of fatherlessness that has destroyed the ability of the school's faculty to reach the minds and hearts of the kids...
look at this clip from youtube. This is literally what it's like around there, adn in my neighborhood, all the time. Today, the teachers just let the kids go to Arby's or something... most days at least 2 periods are spent in watching movies...
here's that clip
and here's another
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Yeah, fatherlessness. We see it here, too. Can the people of God witness enough so that someone might say, "Maybe I can let God be my Father?"
ReplyDeleteoh aaron, yes we can. first we have to find love for Jesus by receiving His great love for us... then we have to let that flood wash us of love for this world. then on to staying under the flow, tipping out to neighbors who don't know father, loving one another...
ReplyDeletethis life just goes deeper and deeper... we're really going to be "grubbykupps" like 2 cor 4 and following... death will work in us, but life in others...
God is father to the fatherless. Who heeds Isaiah 1 and 2 and takes up their cause? Certainly moving into the hood is a good start, church! What if a flood of people awoke to the simple reality that we are all being sent by God into the world? What if a small percentage of American christians really did sell all and go? Go 20 minutes toward downtown? and live more cheaply and keep our jobs and have our hearts transformed by the presence of Jesus in daily neighborhood interactions?