The wall where we plan to do the mural.

A few weeks ago I was at one of our community’s Home Owners And Tenants Association meetings where we were discussing yet another development that tore down two historic houses, a business and a vacant building. You could feel the low morale in the room as we got up next to present designs for a community mural project for the residents to vote on. As they looked at the three designs, created from their own input, they saw symbols of what they take pride in, in our community and dreams for the future. They saw pioneers of our community depicted, the words “One Grove”, a family standing united for our community, tropical plant life, and other symbols of the Grove’s Bahamian roots. I saw heads nod as we talked about the potential of putting the mural on a building right across the street from where they just tore down the buildings we had been discussing earlier. We talked about this being a statement of ownership. I watched their faces lift into smiles. Afterwards I got a call from the President of the Association saying, “This is such a great project. It’s a chance for us to put on stamp on the community that says we’re going to be here!”

*The Grove Community Mural Project is in partnership with the MLK Mural Project. Our goal is to start training youth and begin painting by the end of this month. We need to raise $10,000 to do so. This covers the cost of materials as well as paying the staff and artists involved. The youth artists will receive stipends as well.
To find out more about this project and/or contribute, click the link below.

http://mim.io/675e82

http://www.crmleaders.org/stories/hope-life-transformed

(Though the clip looks like its from the 90’s it really was made a couple of months ago

Click here to view the embedded video.

Long term, we hope to see a transforming movement shake the foundations of our community (in his case the East End of London) that is:

• Bottom up—beginning with people in poverty. This is critical both as a Kingdom value reflective of the upside-down nature of God’s reign, and as a strategy. We are living in an age when it is apparent that the top-down, institutional approaches to addressing poverty, borne out of ‘aerial’ views have let us down. It is time to posture ourselves for precision of insight, relationally, incarnationally on the ground.

• Inside out—that is, will generate leaders in the community such that the it becomes a springboard for mission, not simply an object for mission.

• Church-led (as opposed to State-led). As I wrote in my last email, there is no institution so perfectly suited to reach people caught up in poverty and dependence as the church is. We have the mission, mandate, and parish presence on the ground in the micro-communities where change needs to take place. And we have the Spirit. Let me rephrase that: too often we get in trouble when we think in terms of having the Spirit—we should think in terms of the Spirit having us.

• Personal. Our efforts have to connect with people in poverty personally, not ‘clinically,’ in relationships that are mutual.

Finally, just as the abolitionists sequenced their battles, so must we. We want to begin locally, in our contexts, and work for transformation in ways that other communities can imitate.

Just as John is stating this referring to a movement stirring in the East End of London it could easily be said about our team in the West Grove of Miami or in any of our other 13 teams around the globe. That is one of the benefits and securities of being a part of an order like InnerCHANGE. We know that all of our teams are working along common principles and values (of which these are just a few). The outward expressions of these values may look quite different according to the context in which we live as each is built with these values in one hand and the context in the other but they are still at the core centered around Christ and lived out with these in mind.

Please continue to pray for the movements of the Holy Spirit in us and around us as we respond to His lead and take or retake ground in His name.

Four years ago, the Carter Street Block Club (CSBC), which is an initiative of Urban Resurrection/InnerCHANGE Miami, determined that they wanted to tap back into those farming roots; they wanted to grow gardens on their street.  Since that time, we have watched as interest in gardening has grown.  People began not only showing an interest in planting gardens, but also an interest in learning how to garden well in order to develop healthier eating habits.  In the midst of this growing interest in gardening, an organization approached Urban Resurrection/InnerCHANGE Miami about helping neighbors in West Coconut Grove plant edible gardens.  Slow Food Miami (www.slowfoodmiami.org), a group of volunteer gardeners who are passionate about good food, supporting local growers, and celebrating Miami’s diversity, proposed a gardening starter project where six West Coconut Grove neighbors would be given a garden (raised bed, soil, plants, and all) in their own yard.  When we surveyed neighbors to see whether we would have enough response to move forward with such a project, the response was overwhelming.  We had more interested neighbors than gardens to go around.

After the tough task of narrowing down the garden recipients, Slow Food Miami called in Ready-To-Grow Gardens (www.ready-to-grow.com) to install each neighbor’s new 32 square foot raised garden bed.  As I visited each neighbor at the installation of their raised bed, I could see the obvious excitement in their faces.  On Saturday, November 5^th, each new gardening neighbors crowded into my backyard eager to learn and to plant; thus Resurrection Gardens was birthed.  Resurrection Gardens is a collaborative initiative through the partnership of West Coconut Grove neighbors, Urban Resurrection (www.urbanresurrection.org), and Slow Food Miami (www.slowfoodmiami.com) for the purpose of planting edible gardens in the West Coconut Grove neighborhood in spaces where gardens do not already exist.  Through the sharing of gardening experience and harvest, Resurrection Gardens will produce fruitful community.

It is very easy for a person to pass through West Coconut Grove and never notice the gems hidden in the fabric of regular life here.  I’ve even found myself trudging through life day in and day out without taking the time to appreciate the beautiful elements of my neighborhood.  When I do take the time, I see the precious picture of father/grandfathers riding children to school on the handlebars of bicycles, hear the soothing sounds of laughter floating through the cracks of my open windows, smell the sweetness of unclaimed mangos left in neighbors’ yards, and feel the tight embraces of neighborhood kids tackling me with hugs.  Then I remember the richness of witnessing life through the lens of incarnational ministry.  Scenes and events such as these have the power to carry me in gratitude and encouragement for quite a distance.  One recent event in particular has made my heart smile and my eyes water at every remembrance; it has truly been a priceless treasure.

One of our weekly rhythms as a team is called Learning Community (LC).  LC is a spiritual formation tool in which our team comes together in our context/neighborhood to study curriculum and listen to/learn from one another as a community.  Coming together for LC usually means group discussion over assigned reading.  Last summer’s LC was all about discussion over the new Living Mission book.  During one of our summer LCs, we were discussing chapter three entitled “Incarnational” written by Craig and Nahouy Greenfield.  The chapter spells out the value of incarnational ministry and describes the different kinds of workers you find in incarnational ministry:  relocators, “those who were not born in the neighborhood but moved into the area to live incarnationally and to tie their well-being to that of their neighbors”; returners, “those who were born and raised in the community and then left for a better life.  They are no longer trapped by the poverty of their neighborhood, yet they choose to return and live in the community they once tried to escape”; and remainers, “the ones who could have fled the problems of the community but have chosen to continue living there incarnationally, becoming a part of the solution to the problems surrounding them” (pages 40-41).

Sitting around the table this particular evening, Rick, Erika, and I were representation from each of these groups.  We talked for a couple of hours about the joys and challenges we have each experienced sharing laughs and frustrations.  As I shared about the challenges of communicating to others why I would choose to follow Christ into places of poverty as a returner (because I grew up in our cultural context) or relocator (because I didn’t specifically grow up in West Coconut Grove), I was encouraged by a simple pat on the back.  Rick, a 62 year old African American man and retired Vietnam veteran who grew up in the hay day of West Coconut Grove and witnessed the recent deterioration of the neighborhood he calls home, had gotten up from his seat at the table and walked over to pat me on the back.  As I sat with a puzzled look on my face, he explained that he was patting me on the back for choosing to move into his neighborhood (now my neighborhood as well) to help pursue community transformation.  When I tell people that I chose to move into West Coconut Grove, their immediate response is always, “Why?”  On this particular day, Rick’s response was, “Thank you.”  Not only did he get the “why”, he genuinely appreciated it.  That was a first for me.

* If you would like to join Kristy Wallace’s financial support team please click on the GIVE tab on the upper right of this page scroll down to the tab that says Make A Donation below her name and follow the directions there. Thank you,and as always donations are tax deductible.

I recently heard a quote, “The man who has forgotten to be thankful has fallen asleep in life” (Robert Stevenson). So today, I choose life… to be thankful for one of our neighbors, our friend, our dear brother.

It is said that once a man is a hero he is always a hero. Every once in a while I listen to his stories, though he never goes into much detail. He seems to want to protect me from them. War is always full of hurt and pain. Men and woman have sacrificed more than I can imagine for our country. He is a decorated veteran, a man of sacrifice, bravery, honor, and valor.

During this veteran’s day, I spent time thinking through the qualities that often are attributed to a war hero. As I sat down to write these things on a card for him, I realized that the words I was using also described him NOW. I realized he still is a hero. Despite the ups and downs of life, he has chosen to rise. Though he has been knocked down, he has gotten up. In courage he has reengaged in community work. He is a man of dignity, honor, and courage. He is a sign of hope in our community, a sign of God’s redemptive work.

We often say in our line of work that neighbors become friends, and then somehow they become family. This has been more than true over the history of our friendship with this man. Once a neighbor we prayed for… then a friend we walked with… and now a brother we live life with.

So today, I celebrate Nate. Our friend, my kids “uncle”, our co-worker, our brother. More than I am capable of expressing in words, I am thankful for the gift of his life!

Nate Donaldson: A life long West Coconut Grove resident and decorated Vietnam veteran, Nate is an invaluable community leader. As part of the Urban Resurrection team, he is a natural community organizer stepping into more prominent roles especially in the last year. Nate currently heads up the West Grove Beautification Initiative, which restores homeowners’ homes and brings community partners together to strengthen the fabric of the community. He recently traveled to South Africa with Urban Resurrection (InnerCHANGE) where he engaged and participated in a series of meetings regarding our curriculum for reading new communities for new team plants. He recently received a Local Hero award from Door Miami, a partnering organization of Urban Resurrection. He is also helping with the Resurrection Gardens and serving on the board of Fathers to the Rescue.