I have no idea if what I am about to say is answering the questions, but it is what I felt I should say, so here goes…….
Charlie and I live in San Antonio, Texas. San Antonio in recent years has been called “the city to raise a family” BUT we also have one of the largest socio-economic gaps in the U.S. We have one of the highest poverty rates and an alarming rate of children in foster care. It is literally the tale of two cities. On one side are the rich and on the other side are the poor and the two do not cross often.
We moved from the richest zip code to the poorest zip code 10 years ago. We worked to become a part of a historically black neighborhood that had been forgotten by the city. What we found was acceptance, love and an interdependence that should be celebrated. What we found was home. Yes, there are a lot of problems but there is more beauty.
When we first moved here on our call from God, we had a name for our non-profit and that was about it. We came in as learners because this neighborhood and its customs and rules were as strange to us as if we had moved to another country. And as we learned and built trust and relationship, we found great injustice. We found a neighborhood that the city either ignored or worse yet, decided it had valuable land to take. We have watched over the last ten years as the city had taken land and built “affordable housing” that no one in our community can afford. We have watched new people move in and not try to learn about the customs and cultures of our friends and instead call the police at everything that they did not understand.
This injustice is hard for us. How do we know how to use the power that we have been given to help our neighborhood? How do we know which fight we are supposed to fight and how to do in an honoring way to our friends when the fight has been beaten out of them long before we met them?
For me the only answer is to take it to God. This is His mission that He chose us for so we try hard to take everything to Him so we are walking with Him. Oh, we mess up, we miss step and like the loving father He is, He will direct us back. I know that sound simple but for us, for me, that is the only way I know to do what we do. Without God at the center, we would have crashed and burned a long time ago.
4 comments
Jen, I have so appreciated hearing more of your (and Charlie’s) story of courage to follow a call to a new kind of “country” and culture. Your humility as a learner and openness to inevitable pain that immersive love opens your heart speaks loud. I am curious about the questions your pose above, about using what you have for your neighbors and choosing your fight. What does your learning process look like? How would you describe the landscape of choices you are having to trust God to lead you in?
Jen, I’m so appreciative of your courage. The fact that you guys followed a call to make such a move is pretty remarkable. Something many couldn’t do. And I love your stance of being a learner. I’m curious to know what have been some of the hardest lesson to learn about/from those you have immersed yourselves with?
Jen, thank you for this glimpse into your story. I was struck by your reflection on how years of injustice have beaten the fight out of your neighbors. How has that impacted your fight with and for them?
I truly appreciate your approach to be firsr learner rather than a changer –
that you sought to understand and know and trust the culture, rather than center yourself and your own cultural experiences as you’ve noticed that some others moving into the neighborhood doing. I identify with the struggle to know how to move forward, and which fights to take on. I want to know more about the balance of your work- I know a lot of it is personally engaging, are there also areas where you’re engaging systems and government?