Inside Out People

Well, it’s about that time again: time to pick a new president. Love it, hate it, couldn’t care less about it, it’s here.

If you’ve turned on your television at all during the past two weeks it’s likely you’ve seen representatives of each of the two political parties bad-mouthing each other’s candidates: he’s too old, he’s too young, he doesn’t get it, he doesn’t have what it takes, and on and on it goes, back and forth.

Of course, it has been a wild ride,

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Nearly a year and a half ago I started my job as a caseworker with refugees from Cuba. Today is my last day.

I knew this day, August 22, was coming for quite a while, and at times it seemed like it couldn’t get here soon enough. But here it is, and yes, it has snuck up on me.

This afternoon after hauling a desk/cabinet/shelf/monstrosity from one house to another, and after dropping off a couple of food baskets for recently arrived clients, I’ll come back to the office(…)

This week I had a small epiphany. Amidst the craziness of trying to keep dozens of refugees alive and happy and under control (with my two coworkers temporarily in Africa and South America, respectively), something set in that I normally don’t experience a whole lot of: stress. Bona fide stress. I’d been coming into work early, leaving work late, and waking up in the middle of the night wondering if so-and-so’s rent had been paid. Increasingly, the thought of my upcoming trip to Costa Rica and then, this fall, returning to school and leaving my job behind began to seem(…)

So I was at the clothing bank this morning, waiting in the fluorescent-lit, plywood-walled hallway as some of our newly arrived refugees filled trash bags with a hodge-podge of hand-me-downs. I had taken along a book to read, as is my custom - this time the brand new miscellany by Frederick Buechner. I found it hard to focus on the book, however - as engaging as Buechner’s writing always is - because down the hallway was a single mother with two children, both of them vying for her attention, both of them picking fights with each other.

“Mommy, he poked me in the(…)

“I stood there holding my gun and felt special because I was part of something that took me seriously and I was not running from anyone anymore.”These are the words of Ishmael Beah from his book A Long Way Gone, in which he tells his story from his days as a child soldier in the army of Sierra Leone, which he was(…)

I’m currently reading three books. First, Being White, which explores ethnicity and the implications for those of us who, for better or worse (but not by chance), are white North Americans. Second, The Heart of Racial Justice, which as the subtitle suggests, is about “how soul change leads to social change”. Finally, I’m also reading Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, the heart-breaking account of unspeakable brutality against the Native American peoples at the hands of our European forefathers upon arrival in the New World.

Even as a white guy who has spent a great deal of time in multi-ethnic(…)

Two facts and a conclusion.

Fact one: half of the world’s population now live in cities, and the percentage is growing.

Fact two: the story of the Bible begins in a garden, but ends in a city.

Conclusion: cities are really, really important to inside out people.

In Signs of Emergence, Kester Brewin writes that cities clearly embody “all that is wrong and right with humanity, precisely because it is in cities that engagement with ‘the other’ is unavoidable.”

Engagement with “the other” - whether it is someone from a different

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Missional people recognize that the story of the Bible is the story of God on mission, redeeming the world through his son, Jesus Christ, forgiving sin and restoring shalom.

All through the Old Testament, beginning with Abram being blessed in order to bless all the nations, we see a missionary God on the move. Then, following the Gospel accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus we have the book of Acts, in which followers of The Way, in the words of N.T. Wright, attempt to live lives of “faithful improvisation.” The Bible ends in the book of Revelation with a

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I wrote last time in ancitipation of our FLOWING event, which was scheduled for April 5. We were very excited and were bracing ourselves for all the impending logistical issues when 80-90 people show up on one city block on a Saturday morning to pick up trash. When April 4 came along, however, it had been raining for a few days and we were forced to postpone our trash pick-up. A few folks still headed downtown to help serve breakfast at the mission as scheduled, but the rest of us had to wait a week.

The down side is that only about(…)

This Saturday a bunch of us are going to be heading downtown to the Water Street Rescue Mission for FLOWING, a morning of community service - both in the sense that we will be serving the community of Lancaster and in the sense that we will be serving in community with each other. We’re really excited about it.

We plan to spend a few hours serving breakfast to residents at the mission, sorting donations in their warehouse, and spreading out around the mission grounds and into the surrounding neighborhood, picking up trash. If you’re in town Saturday morning, look for(…)