Photos of the Week: Catching Up and Running it Out

So this week has been a pretty eventful one that is certain! I had an awesome opportunity to  go to Chicago, IL. So a Megabus trip later and I was able to catch up with several really great friends in the Windy City. I would say most of the pictures are from an office party that a friend was able to snag an extra ticket for and I was able to crash. It was absolutely beautiful and to be honest somewhat strange feeling, cruising around the harbor on a yacht, while usually I am looking at the yacht. 

In addition to seeing friends I was able to run the Chicago Half Marathon and I must say it was an awesome race where seemingly half of Chicago came out to, cheering and making signs for. It was a great time and topped off with Chicago style pizza afterwards for each runner! Who says you can't have pizza for breakfast?!

Pictures of the Week!- It's a Birthday!

So this week was a pretty easy week when it came to choosing a picture of the week topic, it was my Birthday!! So of course I have a few pictures from August 28th! The day was pretty awesome and sadly I don't have pictures of everything, for instances after work about 15 coworkers, friends and neighbors got together to celebrate at a local resturaunt. While the food of course was fantastic there I was somewhat overwhelmed with the group that showed up. To consider this time last war these were all acquaintances if that and now to call them my friends and family here in Detroit was a powerful moment. Beautiful time to have everyone together!

So I thought I'd show some of the more interesting gifts:

Toothpicks!

A Painted Rock

Banana Pudding!

Some lovely decorations for the office, high class!

Avalon and a present to start the day off!

The Ego of Volunteering

Before reading on into this post I ask you to recognize how this story comes from a very vulnerable part of my own life. I have done my very best to be very honest, open and tactful. I believe this is an issue that has come up in my own life, perhaps in yours too, or maybe these are just points to ponder.

I have mentioned a couple times in past newsletters and blog posts that upon getting into Detroit I immediately looked for a service opportunity outside of NOAH where I could get to know another organization, get to know the people I am working with better and just have a place where I can get to know others who are working with the homeless. So the search was on for a dinner program that I could easily get involved with volunteering my time and that I could get to directly from work via bike. It took me until late September to find such a place, but finally after hearing about this church from several of my friends who come through NOAH and actually referring some to this church for a hot meal and a warm bed, I decided to check it out.

I will just use the church's initials MBK, I am not sure it matters about being confidential with the church, but just in case. Anyway, I have been working with MBK for quite sometime now I think it has given me a fantastic avenue to see familiar faces in another setting, do what I am told and see another way of service. It was at MBK on Thursday of this past week that I had some painful realizations.

See at MBK I never know who is going to show up to volunteer, sometimes there are 40 sometimes there are 3. Anyway, this was one of those days where I walk in with nearly 35 people present to volunteer. I kept busy cleaning up after people and serving the food when asked, but it was in some downtime between when everyone had been served and seconds being passed out when I sat down to take a break. 

While sitting in that chair overlooking the gym where people were eating I saw several people that I had already talked to, that I would say that I know fairly well through N.O.A.H. Some of these men and women in front of me I am striving to learn more about, get to know even better and learn from. This is when a stinking feeling slowly snuck its way into my head.

I realize that as much as I feel volunteering is a humbling, eye opening and overall a "good" experience in this situation there was a sense of pride still in present. I strive to build relationships with the people that I am giving a meal to yet I do not sit down and eat with my friend. It was in this moment where I could feel a still present barrier. While I was willing to step into the same building, work with, talk to, joke with, learn from and build community with many of these people I was still secretly adamant about keeping a small buffer built to separate us. This barrier was that of being a volunteer and the ego involved. 

The ego that I find that we find with volunteering is the notion in the back your head saying, "I am giving my time, your welcome" or "my 'daily bread' doesn't depend on this place." While I never, ever dreamt of saying this to anyone I believe this is a consistent sentiment held by those who volunteer in different settings and it is divisive to the two parties interacting. This ego ruins mutuality. This ego keeps differing power dynamics and socio economic status' alive and well. And worse we even see people gaining a certain amount of pride off of this power differential, when someone volunteering simply does not see those being served as an equal. This hurts.

It hurts to realize that if we are not constantly vigilant to keep the mindset that each party has something to gain from the interaction of volunteering. One party may bring 14 pans of lasagna, while the other may come to the table with a couple plastic bags of clothes, each still arrives with a story to share, lessons to be learned and a common humanity and need for relationship. Maybe if I can keep this fact in mind this ego barrier can slowly become smaller and smaller (and possibly begin to disappear).

I must finish with a recognition of reality. I understand that there probably will never be a time where I can completely eradicate the barriers between myself and the homeless that I work with, but if there is ever an opportunity to make this differential smaller then I hope to work towards that. I feel that as we make our differences in experience, beliefs and status between each other smaller, it then leaves more room for us to get to know one another on a deeper more authentic level. Maybe that is more along the lines of community and the community that we see preached with "love your neighbor" as a central tenant.

Photos of the Week! - OASIS Conference

This past weekend I had the awesome opportunity to share about the US-2 program at a conference called Oasis by Restoration Generation. The conference was in Washington DC for the Northeast jurisdiction young adults. While at the conference I had a chance to get up in front of the group and explain the program along with field questions. However, more importantly to me I was able to meet several people who were very interested in applying the US-2 program. This just once again gave me motivation that if people at least hear about the awesome opportunities with Global Ministries, they would be interested in short term missions. 

One such case was from one girl that I was able to speak with saying this program of the church is something that has been missing. She mentioned she has grown up in the church but found at the age of 23 that there is so mug more the UMC that she wish she would've known. Such a great chance to share what opportunities I have been granted and hopefully encourage others to go for it also. 

In addition to the weekend l was able to reconnect with an old friend from training, Lorenza! Lorenza is still going strong with her ministry to share the love of Christ at all times. She has been on the street for the past 2 years, giving up her salary, pension, benefits and home in solidarity. It was a great time to catch up and talk about other issues and I am so thankful for these opportunities!

Most of the event took place at Mount Vernon Place UMC, a beautiful place to learn more about urban ministry in an area experiencing gentrification in a huge way.

This is Lorenza!

Of course cannot be so close to the mall and not see some sights! I was able to go for a run to see MLK and the Lincoln Memorial, kinda awesome to visit!

Detroit, A Love Song

The massive flood of articles about Detroit continues. But hey what is this? In a July 29th NY Times Op-Ed piece writer Frank Bruni describes Detroit and his experience (very different from mine) in the city for 5 years. After seeing reactions to this article from different people I really feel it has a certain emotion to it that so very many people in Detroit can identify with. One thing can certainly be true, there is so very much pride in Detroit, pride and aspiration to make it even better.Check this article out if you have a moment:

Detroit, a Love Song

Making Headlines

Check it out! I was recently interviewed by the United Methodist Church to talk about some of what we are seeing here in Detroit as a US-2 with the different bankruptcy procedures! It made the homepage of the denominational website, check it out!

www.umc.org- It was the largest frame, but I'm not sure that it will stay there, it is a "Featured Article"

Also here is a direct link to the article!
The People Behind the Headlines

Photo of the Week- Produce Creativity- Blueberry Edition

As a part of my service here in Detroit I have added to the tenants of my service "living simply." This has encompassed my eating habits. Sense moving to Detroit I have experimented making more vegetarian dishes and more local produce and groceries. This has been an on going learning process learning to make everything from my own bread to how the heck do you cook eggplant? I have thoroughly enjoyed this adventure moving away from chicken on a Foreman Grill with a side of Ramen and on to the items from my own garden and Detroit itself. I believe I could go on for days about stories of failed recipe attempts (who knew I could mess up cooked collard greens so bad) and we'll call them less conventional recipes.

However, this week's photo of the week is of one of those experimental times. I was gifted 10lbs of fresh blueberries from outside of Kalamazoo, MI this week! While they were delicious I think I would have turned into a blueberry if I ate them all (straight off of Willy Wonka). Therefore I set out trying to find different uses and preserving methods. Check them out! I have to admit I am both surprised and pretty darn proud of how everything turned out.

From left to right we have:
-Dehydrated Blueberry- Soon to go into some granola!
-Frozen Blueberry- Holy smokes better than ice cream aaaannd I found an interesting recipe for them to go into a smoothie along with a bit of the mountains of kale that we have.
-Fresh Blueberry- No explanation needed, these are just awesome right!
-Accidental Blueberry Jam- Well it started with boiling some blueberries slightly to allow them to dehydrate faster after the skins crack...one thing led to another and BOOM- Blueberry Jam!