Unprepared, by Brady

 Jules: We should have shotguns for this kind of deal.

Vincent: How many up there?
Jules: Three or four.
Vincent: That's countin' our guy?
Jules: Not sure.
Vincent: So that means there could be up to five guys up there?
Jules: It's possible.
Vincent: We should have Bleepin' shotguns.

Most of us remember this scene(slightly edited) from the movie Pulp Fiction- it usually pops into my head at least once a day no matter what I'm doing at work. This short scene could sum up the general experience of anyone who works at a non-profit organization, especially one focusing on homeless services. Not that being a hitman is comparable to homeless services in anyway, but often times we're just so ill-equipped and poorly informed to back up what we're promising our clients, and in this way fail to effectively help them. At least on a basic service level, and by that I mean food, clothing, toiletries, showers, phone, information and directions to emergency shelters, and so on.

Imagine if you worked in a day care and you were told to cheer up all the children with a rusty can full of live centipedes and old stinky cheese, or maybe more believably promising everyone ice cream and then only a quarter of the group gets some. In either situation you might be able to please a few, but definitely not everyone...unless they're like really into centipedes or maybe cheese enthusiasts, in which case by all means roll with it because making do with what you have at the moment is all you can do sometimes. If you run out of shampoo then you're just going to have to hand out soap and towel. If you run out of towels then you're just going to have to stop the showers and wait for more, and get as many showers in after you get more as possible. If you run out of razors you're just going to have to say you ran out and offer something else. So why bother doing something if we can only help some and not all? Why do something if it's not going to be the absolute best? Should we even still attempt to? Does the world really need a bunch of B+ efforts?

In the movie, Jules and Vincent go into the situation despite being ill-equipped and with inaccurate information, and make it out ok. This, however, is only possible by what Jules is convinced is divine intervention. One day at work I was trying to convince a client, who had walked in a few minutes before close, that we had no shoes. He wouldn't have it though, he'd been walking all day and his current shoes(black dress shoes) were ragged and hurting him. First of all, we never have men's shoes where I work and, if we did, what were the odds we'd have his size? Second of all, I just didn't have anything left in me to deal with the disappointment that we both would have when I checked for shoes and came up with nothing. Finally, we were closed, and I was supposed to be going home, every else was booking it like they usually do and I wanted to be among them, not having one last insult to injury as I wasn't able to help another client among countless others this year. So to appease this guy I walked behind the counter to where the clothing and shoes are kept and what to my surprise was there but three massive bags of slightly used New Balance and Asics athletic shoes. Needless to say I was a little embarrassed (or ashamed, or maybe I felt selfish and lazy that I wouldn't even go to the counter and look) for a while, having been so convinced and trying to shoo off my client, and then happening upon bags of shoes. Not only was this guy getting shoes, but nice shoes that were intended to be walked in- a lot. So like Jules and Vincent, me and unknown client went into a situation not knowing the outcome, and then somehow dodged everything the situation could throw at us.

I know God is everywhere, but I really wasn't really aware of his/her presence at work until then. Until someone else, maybe not knowingly, told me to look and I did(reluctantly), and saw. I consider that day my own "divine intervention".

An Idea

You pass it off as a small thing, but it's anything but that. 

Yeast, too, is a "small thing," but it works its way 

through a whole batch of bread dough pretty fast. 

So get rid of this "yeast." - 1 Corinthians 5:6, The Message

Last Wednesday, two speakers from Homeboy Industries visited La Casa de la Comunidad.  These men shared their lives, both past and present, and how the compassion of Homeboy helped them to step away from the patterns of gang life in East Los Angeles.  At one point in the presentation, a very poignant line from Father Gregory Boyle's book, Tattoos on the Heart, was referenced: 

New Friends from Homeboy Industries meet our neighborhood.

"The wrong idea has taken root in the world. And the idea is this: there just might be lives out there that matter less than other lives."  


Indeed.  It's not only taken root, it's produced poisonous fruit.  It's infested our daily bread.  This idea allows us to walk around dirty homeless folks sleeping outside a 7-eleven with no more than a "what-a-lazy-wretch" sneer across our face.  This idea is the seed of the notion, "this side of the tracks, that side of the tracks."  This is the idea that allows slavery, inhumane treatment of prisoners, allows us to look at people as problems, issues, statistics in a world population explosion, and not, as we all were intended to be seen: as the image of God.

One of the Homeboys spoke quite eloquently about the internal damage an idea like this causes.  He said that he had no problem with people calling him a monster, a f*!&-up, a no-good menace to society.  He believed himself to be all those things.  But call him worthy of kindness, call him useful and helpful, call him beautiful even, well, his entire body rejected it, like an allergic reaction.  He said, at first, he would become so angry with a compliment that he would retaliate and work to regain the more comfortable status of being a "low-life."    The idea manifested in our sense of self, maintaining the lie that we can lose God's affection and can't hope of winning it back.  Or, more to the truth, can't believe that we never lost it in the first place.

Dwellers, Neighbors, and friends from Oasis came out.

What if being a "Christian" was, at the very core, simply about waging war with this idea?   I looked around that evening at all the faces listening, together, in kinship.  From different backgrounds, sure, but a gathering of people responding to the gritty truth of God's desire for restoration, as poured through these two former gang members.

I've been following the blog of an incoming Dweller, Ben Adam, who will arrive this fall.  This quote is part of a larger work of his on the politics of the Resurrection, but I found myself feeling the resonance of it during the Homeboys' talk: "The Jesus movement, unlike Marxism or the Cuban Revolution, did not seek to make a poor person into a rich monarch. It was a movement that believed G-d was bringing down the powerful and raising up the powerless so that they could meet in the middle as equals."  Meeting in the middle.  It's the heart of what we're attempting here in Hollywood.   God-willing, bridges of understanding, equality, and a kinship that only God could create, can continue to be built and nurtured.

I turned and looked at our current Dwellers.  I thought about some of the ideas they are starting to share, starting to blog about.  I'll leave you to ponder them, and I pray you are blessed in the thinking:

"God has called us to be present: to love His people as much as we possibly can, despite who they are or where they come from." - Alex

"I think that we all feel deficient, not just when standing in front of God but in many of our relationships, and that we all spend far too much time working to hide these deficiencies instead of handing them completely over to the One." - Robert

"Whether or not he stays does not detract from the fact that we cared enough to keep visiting him, find him help when he asked, and will continue to work with him, no matter the outcome of rehab.  He knows we care about him." - Alayna

"I started thinking about how many people are truly involved in this process of volunteerism.  This is not a one-man show.  If I had to list everyone involved in the process, I know that it would take up pages in very small font."  - Josh

"It's also hard for me to see what good a system is if it can only help some, but not all.  I even get angry that people have to be homeless or that there's such a thing as homelessness." - Brady

"Help [homeless people] feel not invisible as they have been walked [over] by so many people ignoring them.  We are all the same in Christ." - Kyle

May God meet you in your middle today.  Thanks for reading.  - Matthew

"He knocked tyrants off their high horses, pulled victims out of the mud."
- Luke 1:52, The Message

Welcome Alayna, Alex, Brady, Josh, Kyle, & Robert!

"God doesn't come and go. God lasts.
He's Creator of all you can see or imagine.
He doesn't get tired out, doesn't pause to catch his breath.
And he knows everything, inside and out.
He energizes those who get tired,
gives fresh strength to dropouts.
For even young people tire and drop out,
young folk in their prime stumble and fall.
But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.
They spread their wings and soar like eagles,
They run and don't get tired,
they walk and don't lag behind." - Isaiah 40:29-31, The Message

Tonight, when I got home from orientation activities, I found my 11-month-old daughter eating beets. In some people's minds, possibly and odd baby food, but she loves them. She studies their deep purple-red, kisses them, offers to share them with you, and delights in the purple stain on her fingers that lingers after she eats slice after slice. I marveled in how beautiful beets actually are: such a rich, deep, and pure color. And after a day filled with excitement, a little stress, and the newness of all that is initiating a new Dwell year, I saw the face of God in my baby's love for beets. And it filled my spirit.

From Indiana, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, and North Carolina, our six new Dwellers came together this week. It is such a swirl of newness, all the excitement of witnessing Los Angeles and Hollywood for the first time, all the intrigue of slowly getting to know the people who God has lined up as the members of an intentional community for, at least, the year. There is something so pure about it all, something so honest, human, and beautiful. And even though reality dictates that as the "rubber hits the road" and the work of the ministries begins, conflict will most certainly arise. My prayer for these six is that they can work to see those conflicts as opportunities, as chances to learn even more deeply who God is and who God can be. My prayer is that they constantly seek the courage to "wait upon God," as the Scripture urges, and that God would infuse them with energy and joy in the struggle and challenges they've been called to this year.

Won't you join me in praying for them? That God would walk alongside each of them every step of the way, and that each one of them and every neighbor they connect with while living here is richly blessed...

Please click on any photo to see more about how the year is coming together and how to connect with any Dweller personally to offer encouragement and requests to learn more about the ways God is being witnessed here on Gregory Avenue and in Hollywood!

Stepping Back to Allow

"Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God's way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us." -2 Timothy 3:16, The Message

For more photos from the week, click above

DOOR Hollywood, as with any DOOR City, is very busy in the summer time. We have Discover groups coming in each week, Dwellers coming to the end of a year while others are preparing to embark on theirs, and the neighborhood kids are off from school, looking for fellowship and fun at all hours of the day. It's easy to feel over-stretched, overwhelmed, and over tired!

This passage from 2 Timothy, though, calms me down. When we root ourselves in the Word, really lean up against it as a solid rock, we find that our energy levels are restored to the tasks God has put before us. And, for over-achievers like myself, we can better discern what God is NOT intending us to do by noting where our energy is not present. The beauty here is that, we can step back sometimes and allow others to take part in the action, the growth, and the joy.

LEAP365, from Eastern Mennonite University, on a tour at PATH.

So it would be that this week, fantastically energetic high school and college kids came to serve from the East Coast through a program called LEAP365. They sorted materials, met with and served the homeless, and explored Los Angeles all along the way. Wendy is taking on many of the repair and maintenance projects at the house before she leaves later this month by connecting with members of Hollywood Presbyterian, friends from the neighborhood, and other skilled folks like herself. And our incoming Dwellers: Alex, Josh, Brady, Alayna, Kyle, and Robert are beginning to connect with agencies, sending in resumes and holding phone and Skype conversations with potential supervisors for next year. All this is happening at once, by the grace of God, and when I step back and allow, rather than let my need to be over-involved prevail, I learn just how good our God is, and just how amazing it is to be a part of the body of Christ. Just a part, not a whole.

May God humble and bless you this week as well.

Matthew

Dweller Wendy allows her fix-it gifts to bless both the physical DOOR House as well as fellowship building opportunities with neighborhood kids.

Dwellers 2010-2011: from top left: Kyle, Josh, Alayna, Alex, Brady, and Robert

Together Because of Me

Kyle, from Tennessee, Dweller 2010-2011

"When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action. And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I'll be there." - Matthew 18:19-20, The Message

Robert, from North Carolina, Dweller 2010-2011

Dwell is, literally, all about coming together in service and community in the name of Jesus. Trusting in the Word, all Dwellers can celebrate that if they surround their coming together in prayer, God will also be there. God is already here, and God will be here for these new young people when they arrive in the fall.

Our current Dwell unit is adjusting to the early departure of Curtis, and we are united in prayer for the new possibilities in his life. Alex, Will, Wendy, Kenna and I also prayed for Kyle, Robert, Alex, Alayna, & Brady, and the potential others who still might join this upcoming unit. It was a profound moment for me, as it was last year with Alison, Sara, Steph, and Mary, to envision this growing family of recent and current Dwellers united in prayer for one another. That God might be present for each group, and will also be present as a bridgebuilder from one team to another. It really enhances my understanding of what it means to be a part of the body of Christ.

Alex, from Pennsylvania, Dweller 2010-2011

So we ask for your prayers for all Dwellers, for God to be molding and shaping them whether they be in preparation to step out of this life of service on 5486 Gregory or in preparation to step up and into it.

Alayna, from South Dakota, Dweller 2010-2011

If you would like to find out how you can be more involved in prayer and other support, please click on any of the photos here.

Blessings and thanksgiving. May God continually bless these young people and this neighborhood through what it means to come together.

-Matthew

Brady, from Indiana, Dweller 2010-2011