Community 4:12

All It Took Was a Team

For the past couple of years, I have received an email every month or so letting me know about the need for volunteers to help at citizenship workshops in the area.  These workshops help immigrants with green cards navigate the complicated process of applying for US citizenship.  In order for volunteers to help at a workshop, they understandably have to go through a training to learn about that complicated process.  Every time I received the email I would think, "I would really like to do this . . . I really should do this . . . it is such an important issue in my community."  But, alas, month after month it felt like I didn't have time to give both a Friday night and a Saturday, so it remained on the "should do" list.

Until this month. 

Last Friday night, most of us on the East Aurora Restore team attended the two hour training and then on Saturday went to East Aurora High School to help residents attending the workship fill out the long and rather confusing application.  It was a fantastic experience, and now that we have been trained, any of us can (and I am sure will) help at future workshops.

So, why was this month different?  What motivated me to take action after all this time?

Having a team to do it with.  And not because I was scared to go alone or felt intimidated by the process.  Doing it with a team was simply more fun and provided more accountability and incentive to move from thinking about doing it to actually doing it.

And that is exactly the reason we needed to form this East Aurora Restore Team.   Not because we need to come up with a grand new vision about how to impact our community.  But because as a Team, I believe we are 100% more likely to do all those things that as individuals we've been thinking we "should do" or "would like to do."  But, I do suspect that as we do those things we will develop a bigger vision for how we can impact our community. 

All it took to move from thinking to doing was having a team. 

Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one heart and purpose.--Philippians 2:2

 

Meet the East Aurora Restore Team

Last week I presented a brand new team we are forming in East Aurora--the East Aurora Restore Team that will be made up of 10 - 15 families living in our focus community in East Aurora. These will be families that have relocated to the neighborhood from more affluent communities, and families that have lived in the neighborhood for years. This Team will exist to engage deeply and relationally in the neighborhood, to identify community assets and challenges, and to work with people inside and outside the community to tackle those challenges.

I'd like to introduce you to the 5 families committed to launching this team:

 

Scott, Kirsten, Erik (14) & Brian (12) Strand
  We moved to East Aurora from Naperville in 2007, and our kids have attended the public elementary and middle schools in District 131.  Kirsten directs Community 4:12 at CCC, and Scott teaches 3rd grade at one of our partner schools, Bardwell Elementary.  While we've worked and served in East Aurora since 2003, it has only been since moving here that we have built deep and lasting relationships that have quite honestly been life changing . . . from a teenage girl we've been able to mentor to a single mom and her kids that have become like family to us. Our boys have experienced cultural and economic diversity and learned "life lessons" that can't be taught in even the best of schools.   We absolutely love living in East Aurora!

 

Obe & Jack Arellano

  We moved from Villa Park to Aurora in 2007 with the plans of planting a church.   We felt God leading us to do so in the East Aurora community.   We first got connected with what was going on there, volunteering with not-for-profit organizations like Community 4:12, which led to Obe doing a Leadership Residency at CCC. We started a bilingual campus in the heart of East Aurora in January, 2010. Obe is the campus pastor and Jack works with Emmanuel House, an organization that helps low-income families in East Aurora purchase their first home. We have recently moved just down the street from the campus and love opening our home to the community. 

 

Drake, Josie, & Grace (9) Schopen

  We moved to East Aurora in July, 2011, and Grace is currently attending Bardwell Elementary. Drake owns his own Pest Control business (which he hopes to move to East Aurora in 6-8 weeks) and Josie works at CCC-EA campus as the Kids' City Director. We began helping in East Aurora with several Community 4:12 events and after helping and building a relationship with Kirsten and hearing her story we decided to move to the community. We continue to help with events, but I have now begun to help and become a permanent fixture in Bardwell School. I am trying to build relationships with staff and parents. And now by living 3 blocks from the church and 4 blocks away from the school has made it a great middle point for the kids that we have built friendships with to stop by and hang out. We look forward to the day when their parents join them!!

 

 

Mike, Jeannene, & Amanda (21) Miller

 We have spent the last year physically (you know, all those ongoing home repairs), mentally and emotionally preparing (ourselves & families) for our move to East Aurora, which we are praying will happen in 2012.  We have served for many years in the East Aurora area; from the events through Community 4:12, being a part of the EA Campus & their launch team, to being a part of the Tuesday night Kids City program.  It has been through this continued involvement and evolving friendships, that we have felt the prompting to take the next step.  We really want to get to know these kids, their families & this community.  It is extremely difficult to build true deep relationships when commuting from Naperville to EA , without sacrificing one or the other.  We are looking forward to being a real & constant part of this community.  I can't wait to see what happens when families and cultures are blended and our "family" is extended.

 

Lou Peryea
  I spent the first third of my 63 years growing up in an affluent suburb, assuming that I knew a lot about the real world.  Going off to college in the late sixties introduced me to a world filled with color, diversity, excitement and injustice.  These last 4 decades have been spent in a variety of diverse settings - raising our family in a small but multi-cultural city - being blessed with friends from a broad range of racial, ethnic, educational and economic diversity - helping to raise children who have experienced challenges that break my heart  - and traveling to nations, thus witnessing the profound faith of the truly impoverished.  Jesus continues to stretch my comfort zone and open my eyes.  Life is good........ being a neighbor on the East Side of Aurora is good....... understanding that I can truly contribute to the healing of the world is good!

 

Restoration Depends on Incarnation

If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time.  But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.  –Australian Aboriginal Activitst, Lila Watson

 

Since 2003, Community 4:12 has been working in East Aurora with the goal of creating a model of community development and restoration that can be replicated in other communities.  We’ve established programs around educational and housing challenges that many under-resourced neighborhoods face and have replicated some of those in Joliet.  A large part of our strategy has been to mobilize Community Christian Church attenders to come and serve in lower-income communities.  While this has been effective in many instances, it has not created a model that depends on truly coming along side and partnering with the people in the neighborhoods where we work.  And we believe that significant and lasting change absolutely depends on that type of incarnational ministry.  So this year we are launching a new effort in East Aurora to help us better achieve our hope of truly uniting people of different races and cultures and economic backgrounds to restore communities.  I am very excited about the launch of this new East Aurora Restore Team.

 

The East Aurora Restore Team will be made up of 10 - 15 Christ-following families living in the focus neighborhood in East Aurora.  These will be families that have relocated to the neighborhood from more affluent communities, and families that have lived in the neighborhood for years.  This Team will exist to engage deeply and relationally in the neighborhood, to identify community assets and challenges, and to work with people inside and outside the community to tackle those challenges. 

 

In my next post, I will introduce the 5 families that are committed to launching the East Aurora Restore Team.  All of us are people who have intentionally moved to East Aurora to be part of community restoration efforts.  We have been praying for several months that 3 – 5 more families would feel—and respond---to God’s call to join us.   Would you join us in praying for that?  And if you have any sense that God may be tugging at YOUR heart to consider a missional move, or to be part of a focused incarnational ministry team, I invite you to join us for dessert and to hear more about the vision and dreams of this Team.  We will meet at Community Christian Church, Naperville Yellow Box Campus, on Monday evening, February 13^th at 7:00 pm.   Leave a comment, or send me an email at kirstenstrand@communitychristian.org and let me know if you’d like to join us or want more information—no commitment or obligation, just come and learn!

My Convenience = Their Oppression

I recently read this book that chronicles the experiences of five Latina immigrant mothers in Oakland, California as they become informed and engaged advocates for their children's education.  It has generated a lot of thought and reflection, but one statement in particular has really stuck with me:  "whites . . . have become so used to speaking for the 'Other' that they are not aware of how their speech silences those who most need to be heard. [There is] deep paternalism underlying many progressive change efforts initiated by whites, where people of color are spoken about, rather than invited to speak as experts of their own experience."

I know and believe in the value and importance of speaking "with" and not just "to" or "for" a community, but if I am really honest, I know this statement is true of me at times.  Not all the time, but there are times when it is easier and more convenient to "speak on their behalf" rather than coordinating challenging work schedules and getting translators when I am involved in meetings and discussions about programs and activities we are doing, or want to do, in the community.

This was a potent reminder that avoiding inconvenience fosters the exact kind of oppression we are working to alleviate.

Immigration--the Civil Rights Issue of Today

 
Four years ago my family moved from an upper-middle class, mostly Anglo neighborhood to a low-income, predominantly Hispanic community.  Four years ago, “illegal immigration” was a nameless, faceless issue.   Today, undocumented immigrants are neighbors, friends, and students in the third grade class my husband teaches at a local elementary school.  Enelda, Raul, Jose, and Rosa have made it impossible for me to think of immigration as simply a political and social issue anymore. (Names have been changed)

Enelda is part of a parent mentoring program I lead.  She has lived in America, undocumented, for almost 15 years.  Her children were born and raised here, and she and her husband have worked hard to help them get on a path out of poverty.  She was recently pulled over for driving with a burned out tail-light.  She was arrested on the spot for not having a driver’s license.  She sat in jail for three days and was then released with a court date to come back in three months, at which time she has been told she will most likely be deported back to Mexico.  Enelda & her husband have 3 months to decide whether they will all go back to Mexico, or whether Enelda will leave her children behind to pursue that “better life” for which they have worked so hard.

Raul is a sophomore at our local community college.  A talented artist, musician, and student, he was accepted at several excellent universities.   But, without papers, he is not eligible for financial aid.  So, he lives at home and is working his way through community college.  We all prayed recently that the Dream Act would pass so that Raul could have the opportunity to transfer to a university when he completes his AA this semester.  When Congress killed the Dream Act a few weeks ago, they killed Raul’s dreams of going to college and graduate school.

Jose recently had a friend drive him across the country to one of a couple of states in the nation that allows undocumented immigrants to get a drivers license, because he hated not being able to drive legally and get insurance.  He came to America as a child, and has lived a “secret” life ever since.  As a Christ-follower, he lives with the constant guilt of knowing he is breaking the law by being here.  But, to return to Mexico would be giving up everything and everyone he knows.  So, he prays for a pathway to legal residency while enduring the guilt and shame of knowing he is a “criminal” in the eyes of many.

Rosa was a third grader in my husband’s class last year.  Part way through the year, she started having trouble concentrating and was often teary-eyed.  When Scott approached her, she shared that she was afraid to go home each day because she might find out that her mother had been sent back to Mexico.  Reading and math became irrelevant to her . . . all she could think about was loosing her mom.

I know there are countless Eneldas, Rauls, Joses, and Rosas in my community and around this country.  To many, they are simply illegal immigrants . . . and criminals.  But I just can’t believe that that is how Jesus sees them, or how he wants me to see them. Every day when I look around my neighborhood, I am more convinced that our immigration policies are broken.  Daily I must watch God’s children suffer the consequences for our lack of urgency in addressing this broken system, and I can’t help but think we are not loving our neighbors as Jesus would.

To learn more about the plight of undocumented immigrants, go to http://UnDocumented.tv

Justice for All--Is it worth it?

It was bound to happen.  Questioning whether we made the right decision to move our family from one of the best performing school districts in the state to one of the worst.  In three and ½ years, I have pondered, but not seriously questioned our decision.  This week, I have questioned.  Not regretted, but definitely questioned.

We are blessed that neither of our kids struggles to learn.  In Naperville, they both tested as “gifted.”  There is no “gifted” program in East Aurora, but we hoped the general education would be sufficient if we supplemented with some work at home.  And through elementary school, that was the case.  But now, with a 6^th and 7^th grader, it’s not that simple.  Between the schedule of after-school sports, music, and church activities and the growing desire for cyber and in-person connection with friends, there is little time for much academic “supplementing.”  And after 7 hours at school and the bit of homework they have, it is understandable that they would have little tolerance for extra work that isn’t impacting a grade.

But, in those 7 hours at school they seem to be missing something Scott and I believe is core and essential to a solid liberal arts education---analytical reading and writing.  There is no reading of the classics, no essays, book reports, or critical analysis about what they read.  We believe that critical thinking and learning to formulate thoughts and ideas, both verbally and in writing, is an essential skill.  We have become increasingly concerned that they are not learning that skill at school.  After doing a little digging into what middle school kids in Naperville are doing and having some discussions with the boys’ current teachers, we are now sure they are not getting that . . .at least to the point we believe is necessary.  And that really concerns me.  Concern is Satan’s playground, so he is having a jolly time with me. . . causing worry, questioning, doubt.

We knew we would face challenges when we moved.  And going into this, we believed strongly that we couldn’t just think about our own kids’ education.  We were moving in part to fight for a more just and equitable educational system in general.  But now that our kids are being directly impacted in a noticeable way, the success driven, “upwardly mobile” American mentality is fighting its way back into my thinking.   I find myself questioning whether fighting for “justice for all,” is really worth the risk to my own children's success. 

But what if everyone let the concern for their own children dictate the risks they were willing to take for all of God's children?  I don't think there would be any hope for justice.  And THAT really concerns me.  I'm pretty sure Jesus would say that there are more important lessons for our kids to learn than how to write a critical essay.  I'm not going to be satisfied with the status quo.  Scott and I definitely have some work to do in addressing this concern--for our boys, and for all of the kids here in East Aurora who dream of going to college and being competitive in our American society. But, I guess it is time to really practice what I preach.

"Love your neighbor as you love yourself."  I think that means I need to love my neighbors' children as much as I love my own.  I know working for "justice for all," is the right thing . . .even when it means my kids aren't getting the best.  That doesn't feel good.  But, I guess dying on the cross didn't feel very good either.

 

Lifting Families Out of Poverty Through Homeownership

 
Homeownership is one of the biggest "hand-ups" you can give to help lift a family out of the cycle of poverty.  Community 4:12 is replicating the Bryan House model through Emmanuel House to help families in East Aurora become homeowners.

Homeownership Builds Successful Children (compared to children of renters of the same age, income & race):  Children of homeowners are:  25% more likely to graduate high school; 116% more likely to graduate college; have higher math & reading scores.

Homeownership Builds Wealth for Low Income Families: Homeowners are 12 times wealthier than renters of same income, age & race; and accumulate an average of $44,000 in home equity in first 10 years of homeownership.

Homeownership Builds Stronger Communities: Homeowners are 28% more likely to repair or improve their homes; 15% more likely to vote; and homeowners will live in the same community 4 times longer than renters--providing both community & family stability.

Thy Bryan House model allows families to rent an apartment for 12 - 18 months.  The rent they pay during that time is re-invested for them so that at the end of their lease, they have enough money saved for a downpayment on their own home.  We aim to acquire more than a dozen apartments in East Aurora in the next year that will be used to help families break the cycle of poverty.

Join us for the Bryan/Emmanuel House Silent Auction on Friday, November 19th at 7:00 pm at the Yellow Box in Naperville to help us raise money for the purchase and upkeep of apartment buildings in East Aurora.  A great way to buy Christmas presents AND support a life-changing cause!

 

Transform the Community or Transform the Church?

Community 4:12 has come to the point in its journey where it is time to evaluate what it is going to take to move us to the next level of deep community development work.  We've been working with some wonderful people at Aspen Group to help walk us through that process.  One of the questions they asked us last week when we met was whether our primary goal is to transform the community of East Aurora or to transform Community Christian Church & its attenders.  From the beginning 7 years ago, the goal has been to do both.  Bob Lupton cautions that at some point, those two goals begin to compete with each other.  I am still deeply committed to working towards both of those goals, and believe both of them must happen, but have been feeling that tension for awhile.  Sometimes the things that are most impactful for a mostly white, suburban, upper-middle class congregation are not what is most helpful for an under-resourced community.  Introductory service projects, one day events, and non-relationship building activities that are so important for helping people start the journey of engaging with people of different cultural and economic backgrounds, are not always so helpful, and can even be detrimental to empowering people in an under-resourced community to be agents of change and transformation.

One of my greatest joys is helping people to start and continue the journey of discovering what it means to love the poor and care about justice issues.  And an equally great joy for me is watching a low-income, non-English speaking mom who feels like she has nothing to contribute learn that she CAN make a difference at her child's school and in the community.  Those two don't have to be mutually exclusive, but they both take a lot of time and energy and intentionality.  And that's where the tension comes.  In a world of limited time and energy (at least my world!), where do you focus the attention?

I'm not willing to give up on either one, but I know I need a lot of guidance and wisdom that can only come from God's "aerial perspective" about how to be about both.  So, I am at the annual CCDA conference this week trying to learn from others further along on this journey and to hear God's voice about how best to be an empowerer of the "poor" and an agent of change for the "rich."

Kids Hope Mentoring

Kids Hope is a phenomenal mentoring program that we started doing at Brady Elementary School last year.  We'll continue and expand the program there this year, as well as start one in Joliet.  The Naperville Sun ran a nice article about the program today.  District 131 in East Aurora would love to have the program at each of their elementary schools.  If you are part of a church in the area and would like to partner with a school, let me know!

Harlem Children's Zone

 Over the past few weeks, I've learned about about a few different models for working in under-resourced communities.  The one that keeps rising to the surface is The Harlem Children's Zone.  Obviously the size and scope of what they do is a bit overwhelming, but I love the philosophy and relentless commitment to providing a "safety net" for kids 0 - 18 so there is no way they can "slip through the cracks."  While HCZ attempts to do that themselves, I wonder what it would look like to rally many different organizations and ministries around that common vision, with each of us "owning a piece" of it.  Definitely lots to think about and consider as we continue to evaluate and plan our next steps in Aurora.  Clikc here for an interesting article about the Harlem Children's Zone in the New York Times Magazine.