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.

Just in time for Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday we are really excited about our coffee fundraiser so far and have used it to raise over $450 in profits so far! This is some really great coffee. Now our coffee supplier Just Love Coffee is having a great sale made through our online store just in time for Christmas! So if you want to get some great coffee and help us grow our business this is an easy way for us to grow our support, support Ethiopian orphan projects and for you to get high quality coffee and coffee related products to complete your Christmas shopping.

So show your support even more by purchasing online in the next 30 days and you get some great coffee!  If you want to try out our great coffee the check out our online store here…www.justlovecoffee.com/thephilips ]]> http://www.urbanresurrection.org/2011/11/25/shop-at-u-rez-brew/feed/ 0 http://www.urbanresurrection.org/2011/11/13/u-rez-fathers-to-the-rescue-help-clean-up-the-grove-by-michael/ http://www.urbanresurrection.org/2011/11/13/u-rez-fathers-to-the-rescue-help-clean-up-the-grove-by-michael/#comments Sun, 13 Nov 2011 17:37:39 +0000 Michael http://www.urbanresurrection.org/?p=715 The morning started out cool and a hint of the winter weather was in the air as the U Rez team and Fathers to the Rescue members gathered along with other community leaders and organizations for the 1st Annual Coconut Grove Community Health & Education Fair.

To kick off the events of the day the U Rez Crew and Father to the Rescue (FTR) members helped take charge of several groups of neighborhood volunteers and led them through the streets with trash bags, gloves and colorful bandanas to identify their teams. Michael & Nate of U Rez/FTR lead the yellow clean up team and were  joined with Alfred of FTR, Chris Hudson of St. Matthews and Ms. Sherry of Carver Elementary along with 13 youth from the Grove. It was a great time of cleaning up the neighborhood and helped raise awareness of just how important it is for the dignity of the community and the health of the environment to put the trash in the trash can and not on the ground. It was also a great time to connect some of the adults from the neighborhood with the children and strengthen those much needed bonds.

The Yellow Clean Up Team

After picking up trash for a couple of hours the clean up teams all came back to Armbrister park where they took part in fun games, bounce houses, free food and booths of many different health and education organizations in and around the Grove. It was a great event and we hope to have another one next year.

The video below shows “the dramatic changes one small community in Miami Undergoes when Big development and rising real estate prices threatens to displace and forever change the face of a historic Bahamian Immigrant neighborhood. Residents struggle to cope with the gentrification while attempting to maintain West Grove as one of the historically oriented strongholds of African-Americans in the City of Miami.”
* Note: this was filmed several years ago with a past developer in the picture, but the situation is very similar.

West Coconut Grove: A SENSE OF PLACE from Chad Tingle on Vimeo.

This Little Girl
Now with her own
Little girl
Who watches Mama
For guidance in her world
Blind leading impressionable eyes
Down a road
That goes in circles
Traveled by fatherless generations
Seeking but never finding
But who’s to blame
When there is no guidance?
The media willingly
Stepping in to take the lead
So she watches closely to MTV
Showing her what a woman
Is supposed to be

Oh, Little Girl
Let me tell you the truth
You mean the world
To the very One
Who created the world
You don’t need any  man
To validate this fact
You don’t need to put on any act
To show that you’re all that!
You ARE all that
Because you ARE
Because He IS
LOVE
Yes He IS LOVE
Any other love
Is just a sip
Of the endless ocean
He offers that will fill
Your heart that’s broken

So Little Girl
Cover some of that skin
Your worth  has already been established
In Him
Show off
What you have within
Stand proud
That you are a daughter
Of the King
Who is everything
You could ever need
Don’t let anyone
Tell you otherwise
Stay close to Him
And you’ll quickly
Detect the lies
Let Him be your guide
Follow closely
And after awhile
People will see
That in Him
You are
What a woman should be

I don’t have to tell you all of the statistics out there about the lack of solid men and fathers and positive male examples in our world today. Many of you have seen these things firsthand and in many cases experienced them personally. In the African American community this issue is an acute one that is felt every moment of every day. In fact, one recent study showed that over 70% of African American households are lacking a father in the home!

I believe that God is beginning to move in a more powerful way in my neighborhood than I have seen in a long time. The potential for His Fatherhood to reach in and transform many boys and men into solid pillars for the development and transformation of their families and community is enormous.

In March, a group of men approached me to ask if I would be a part of this movement that they have called Fathers to the Rescue. The first things that struck me about them was their size (they are former football players) and the first sentence that came out of the main leader’s mouth. He said, “Mr. Michael, I have been watching you and your team for three years and you are the real deal. I want you to be a part of this and for you to help us put fathers back in focus.” These men are the “real deal” as they have turned their lives around and are stepping up to take back the streets and set a positive example of what men can and should be doing.  I don’t think I need to tell you this but this is a missionary’s dream! To have 10 solid men from the context step up and take the initiative to start a movement of this kind is rare. I am honored to be counted among these men and they have asked me to help them get organized into an official nonprofit that will focus their entire effort on recovering some of the men from the streets and changing our community from the inside out starting with the men and their families.

The mission, goals and objectives for Fathers to the Rescue can be seen at our new website www.fatherstotherescue.com so that you can see more of how we plan to do this. We are focusing on the development and implementation of the curriculum and training processes that are needed for the men who want to join this movement but who need to grow in their own manhood and fatherhood. We have found some great materials to start with, proven to work by the National Fatherhood Initiative, and we are adding our own materials developed over the years to supplement and keep it focused Biblically.

This is an opportunity that comes around only once in a great while and has been the focus of my prayers for 6 years as we have labored in our neighborhood. Our cry to God has been for men to step up and lead more effectively in this community and most importantly in their homes, it is finally happening.

**If you would like to support this effort please send checks made out to Fathers to the Rescue to 114 Oak Ave, Coral Gables, FL 33133.

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