This past week at church the community was told there was to be an important informational meeting for the congregation following the service. Third Pres has been in the process of determining their missional priorities over the past few months, and last Sunday they came to a point where they could share their decisions. To the excitement of those of us who love the East End, Third announced that this area of town would be their priority in ministry for the next years. This brings with it all sorts of creative thought, funding, people, and programming (not in order of importance) that will possibly make a huge impact down here. All in all, it’s something to be very excited about – and I am, certainly.

So, it’s my second summer as a CHAT intern. A new year, a new position, and new people working alongside me in this journey have made the start of this summer exciting, but also challenging. On top of the usual struggles and frustrations that accompany a cultural shift and working in a very broken environment, CHAT is undergoing many transitions. Indeed, it seems like transition is my word of the month…

So, I haven't posted in quite a bit. So... I've been struck with the importance of sitting on porches again. Twice in three days wild things have happened while some of us have been hanging out on a porch.

The first was that I got a new picture of poverty, or messed up money situations, in the area. I saw a person offer to sell their personal possessions for money for food, until pay day came around. Now... I guess I can't be sure the money went straight to food... but I still think the desperation that is clear in this picture is moving. I've never been that desperate for something. And this person was. To the point that they were willing to offer up meaningful belongings for petty cash to get it.

Let's see... what's been happening lately. Well, this past week, two men were murdered - one on Friday night, the other early Sunday morning. It was just sort of a stark reality, when I thought about it. In my little suburban hometown, in all of 10 years I never heard of a murder happening in our town. Here, in Church Hill, over the course of two months there have been at least 4. That's new...

We worked at a Vacation Bible School this past week - that was a blast, although rather draining. There were so many kids, and they were all having a great time, and learning, more importantly, about Jesus. Murray and I lead worship for them all week, and it was really wild - I wish more people, myself included, danced like they did.

So, today at our intern lunch, we were discussing a book we recently finish, called "Being White," by Paula Harris and Doug Schaupp. It addresses the need for racial reconciliation in our country, and many subjects that sort of flow out of this. I'd love to say that I embrace this with an open heart, and am wholly fired up by the ideas they discuss. I can't though. I'm really struggling with it. I am beginning to see different parts of the picture, like that multi-ethnicity is a part of the Kingdom of God... Revelation chaper 7 shows a diverse community, worshipping God. I like that. I think it's beautiful, and I want to become more culturally sensitive, and more appreciative of the different cultural stories that people around me have.

There is this guy who has been coming to CHAT lately. He's great - one of the warmest people, calm, usually positive, and has a heart to help out. He's fourteen, I think. The thing I can't seem to fathom, though, is that he's the father of a baby. At first my mind says that it's a bad thing - as a group, we really can't portray getting pregnant as an unwed teenager to be a good thing. Past episodes have shown that even a little bit more significant attention for a pregnant girl is enough to make the other girls consider pregnancy... for attention, it seems... which, in the end, sucks. Back to the idea - after I see his fatherhood as a bad thing, then I'm confronted with who this guy is... a child. And this child now has a child. Does he know what to do with it?

I'm going to start putting in some Grade A dialogues from the day... for a little taste of the personalities of these kids, because they're just ridiculous. And charming. Here's the first, from our boy Manny -

Jack Bell: "Manny, what do you write about to your girlfriend?"
Manny: "Oh, friendship, and science... and food."

If that doesn't win hearts, I don't know what does. Here's to you, Manny Fresh, man of our dreams.

So my family is a mediocre camping family. We used to go every year, but when we went, we made sure the place our tents were staked had certain amenities, such as showers, arcades, happy hour for the parents, etc. Then I came to college, and my camping experiences became a little more "woodsy" - my friends and I have camped and hiked in the Shenandoah Valley for our Fall Breaks the past two years. However, nothing I've done has compared with this past weeked, camping in North Carolina with the CHAT kids.

One of the most wonderful things about life in Church Hill is the simple, but majestic, presence of the front porch. It is a truly communal place, where people will just gather and sit for hours at a time, and already has been a place of treasured times for me. I love sitting there in the late day, and watching the neighborhood. It's so busy, and there are so many people around. Even if I'm the only person on the porch (which isn't usually the case), it's fantastic. More often are the times when people congregate around it, stopping by randomly. People share stories, or just chill... I love it. We fool around, we lie on the porch, we tell jokes and stories, we talk about serious things. We share our lives, bit by bit, and lots of those little bits are shared on the porch.

No one really enjoys funerals. Obvious thought, perhaps. Some, however, are powerful, and can offer hope in the midst of what is at times a dark and hopeless situation. I was able to witness a funeral this past week in Church Hill. The young man who passed away was Jeremy Henley, a veteran of the CHAT program. Veteran as in someone who used to attend, but made choices that led him further and further away from that community, or so I've been told. Jeremy seems like he must have been a fun kid - I've heard he liked to laugh, and I've heard he loved fun. Percy has some fond memories of the days that Jeremy used to be involved with CHAT. However, the Jeremy Henley who was in that casket was someone who found himself in a really awful situation.