Urban Resurrection

Fighting to Keep Our Community

Laurie Cook — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 05:09:12 +0000

Destruction of our community- The site where the trolley garage is being built, right behind a home we helped restore last year. ” title=”Gentrification2″ width=”490″ height=”316″ class=”size-large wp-image-815″ />

Destruction of our community- The site where a trolley garage is being built, right behind a home we helped restore last year.

One of the things we do in our community is to work together with residents to advocate in housing and development issues. Our community of West Coconut Grove is constantly facing the threat of being taken over by those with money and power, displacing the current residents; many of whose families have been here for generations.

Background:
Our community is very historical, being the first Black community in Miami and one of the pioneer communities of Miami, settled by Bahamian sailors in 1873.

Once again, we face a development that has torn down a restaurant (putting the woman who ran it out of business, after 25 years of providing service to our community). It also tore down three more houses and is replacing them with a trolley repair garage.

This repair garage is actually for the wealthy city of Coral Gables, which borders Coconut Grove. Their trolley does not even provide service to our community. Basically, they don’t want this in their own community and so they are dumping it in ours.

Our residents were not informed of this project until it was already approved by the city. We [community residents] wrote a resolution months ago, opposing the project, but it was ignored. We also met with city officials and the developers themselves to express our concerns with the project. Again, we were ignored.

We decided to fight harder rather than give up. We contacted local newspapers and the story was featured on the front page of the Sunday Miami Herald! (Read the story here)
We are now seeking wider support to oppose this project. We need to get moving on this quick. PLEASE JOIN US BY CLICKING THE LINK BELOW, READING THE PETITION, SIGNING IT AND PASSING IT ON!

*Link to petition to stop the trolley garage from being built in our community.

God in the Small

Laurie Cook — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 18:56:17 +0000

Neighbor kids on our porch, tasting fresh coconut water for the first time.

In our community, we have learned to celebrate the small things- three new people coming to our community Bible study (two of which recently got out of prison), a woman from our community rising up to take leadership over our community vegetable gardens, a twelve year old girl stating that she is a part of our team, a young man coming to church with us and saying that he has been feeling the need for something more in his life, spontaneously singing worship with a group of girls gathered in our house, a ten-year-old boy not getting kicked out of school after being kicked out of the last five, a couple that was once homeless now giving to others who are in need, our first wedding in the community in seven years, a young mother’s hard exterior coming down enough for her to say “I need help!”… These are the simple stories of hope that we hold onto in the midst of much else that speaks of despair. It is these things that I think about after reading this Advent excerpt from Henri Nouwen:
“ ‘A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him…’ (Is. 11:12).
…Our salvation comes from something small, tender, vulnerable, something hardly noticeable. God, who is Creator of the Universe, comes to us in smallness, weakness, and hiddenness. I find this a hopeful message. Somehow, I keep expecting loud and impressive events to convince me and others of God’s saving power; but over and over again, I am reminded that spectacles, power plays, and big events are the ways of the world. Our temptation is to be distracted by them, and made blind to the ‘shoot that shall sprout from the stump.’
When I have no eyes for the small signs of God’s presence- the smile of a baby, the carefree play of children, the words of encouragement and gestures of love offered by friends- I will always remain tempted to despair.
The small child of Bethlehem, the unknown young man of Nazareth, the rejected preacher, the naked man on the cross, He asks for my full attention. The work of salvation takes place in the midst of a world that continues to shout, scream, and overwhelm us with its claims and promises. But the promise is hidden in the shoot that sprouts from the stump, a shoot hardly anyone notices.”
Let’s take a moment to celebrate the small things and to consider how we can be a part of these ways in which God shows His salvation.

*If you feel led to give to the work God is doing in our community, you can click on this link:

Kristy’s Story

Laurie Cook — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 17:45:49 +0000

Where are you originally from?

This question is never a simple one for this military child. I was born in South Carolina and throughout my childhood lived in four other states and two other countries; from South Carolina to Texas to Spain to Alabama to England to Massachusetts then to Virginia where my family retired from military service.

I grew up in an African American household where “Church” was part of the culture of our home, but our regular weekly “Church” rhythm was not enough to penetrate my heart with Gospel truth. I knew of Jesus Christ from a young age but never knew Jesus Christ. However, in the midst of the mess of my early twenties as a student at the University of Maryland, God stepped in as if to say, “Kristy, that’s enough.”…

Read full story.

THE MERCY OF IMPOSSIBILITY

Michael — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 15:15:42 +0000

This is another great article from our LA Team sharing a bit of what they are about. It is amazing to be a part of an order which can celebrate alongside our extended family even from a great distance. Just another glimpse of what IC lives daily.

InnerCHANGE LA Article

Grove Community Mural Project

Laurie Cook — Wed, 09 May 2012 18:39:52 +0000

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.

Big News for the Philip Family!

Michael — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 00:42:37 +0000

Hey everyone check out the latest news from the Philip Family at the link below. Enjoy!

http://mim.io/675e82

Hope for a Life Transformed ~Michael

Michael — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 19:11:15 +0000

Another great report from one of our InnerCHANGE teams! Check out the article written by Birgit in Caracas for one more glimpse at how InnerCHANGE brings the love of God to those we live among and share the Gospel with. It is amazing to be a part of a group of people like InnerCHANGE and know that Jesus is on the move all around the globe. Enjoy!

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

G.W. Carver gets a face lift! ~ Michael

Michael — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 02:35:50 +0000

Urban Resurrection brought together the G.W. Carver Elementary School (where many of our neighborhood kids attend), the Carver PTA, and University Baptist Church to do this great beautification project as part of our City Serve project and the West Grove Beautification Project that Nate Donaldson (currently and intern with our team) has lead. There were over 100 volunteers that came out. Just one more way we are seeing a sign of resurrection in our community.

(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.

Why we do what we do…. From Michael

Michael — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 21:09:48 +0000

Hey friends, I know some people ask us this question of “Why do you do what you do?” So I thought this article written by one of our own InnerCHANGE members Darren Prince would help put it into some context. I would write the entry myself but why do that when Darren has put it so well from his perch in London. Read it and enjoy…http://www.crmleaders.org/seeds/darren-prince?utm_source=CRM+Internal&utm_campaign=477141424b-SEEDS_Mar12&utm_medium=email

Some Thoughts on “Why?” ~ by Michael

Michael — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 21:38:10 +0000

People often ask us what our vision for InnerCHANGE teams are and why we choose to “move in” to some of the places our ministry teams go. Though there are many solid answers to this question I think that our founder/general director John Hayes captured part of it well in a recent article he wrote for his team in London so I will share an excerpt here. He states:

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.