E N I Z A G A M
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BEYOND BELIEF HOW A MENTORING MINISTRY IN NASHVILLE IS EMPOWERING YOUTH TO BELIEVE IN THEMSELVES
WINTER 2016
C O M PA S S IO N IS THE CHURCH IN A C T IO N
THIS DECEMBER, LET’S COME TOGETHER TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. To download free resources for Compassionate Ministries Month, go to ncm.org/month.
Contents DEPARTMENTS 4 Connection Points 27 Called to Compassion 28 Love in Action 30 Snapshot
NCM Magazine Winter Issue, 2016 NCM Magazine aims to tell the stories of the church living out Christ’s compassion. Our hope is that all of us would hear the call to compassion as a lifestyle. Magazine Design: Paul Kinsman Cover Photo: Timothy Scott
NCM MAGAZINE IS A MINISTRY OF N A Z A R E N E C O M PA S S I O N AT E M I N I S T R I E S
FEATURES
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Building Confidence A Nazarene Compassionate Ministry Center in Nashville, Tennessee, provides a safe space for kids growing up in a tough neighborhood. Through relationships, both youth and their mentors are learning the power of believing in yourself.
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Relationship Rekindled As a boy growing up in the Philippines, Sherwin wrote letters to a couple from Arizona who helped pay for his schooling. Then, after years without contact, they met in person and have stayed in touch ever since.
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20 Following the example of Jesus, NCM partners with local Nazarene congregations around the world to clothe, shelter, feed, heal, educate, and live in solidarity with those who suffer under oppression, injustice, violence, poverty, hunger, and disease. NCM exists in and through the Church of the Nazarene to proclaim the gospel to all people in word and deed. n
Nazarene Compassionate Ministries 17001 Prairie Star Pkwy, Lenexa, KS 66220 (800) 310-6362, info@ncm.org n
To sign up for a free subscription, please visit ncm.org/magazine or call (800) 310-6362. For subscription changes, email info@ncm.org or write to NCM Magazine, 17001 Prairie Star Pkwy, Lenexa, KS 66220.
Welcome to the Table When a church in California started listening to their neighbors, they kept hearing the same stories of struggles with immigration. Now, their Immigration Resource Center helps people navigate the confusing and difficult process.
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Restoring Resilience For years, rural areas of Sri Lanka have been shut off from any sort of assistance. Through the Justice Movement, Nazarene youth are coming alongside communities to help provide safe water, sanitation, and hygiene.
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Questions? Comments? Email info@ncm.org. n
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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Connection Points.
The Future Is Now by Brandon Sipes
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ren’t they cute … all the kids who populate these pages, fill our churches, and touch our lives? My wife would say that she just wants to pinch their cheeks. It’s easy to get behind a program that supports children and to pray for those sweet kids and their lives. We believe the future of the church belongs to them, and rightfully so. But what if it also belongs to them now? In my role coordinating a national mentoring initiative for the Nazarene church, I’ve been meeting all sorts of incredible adults and kids who partner together to talk about character development, set goals for themselves, pursue service opportunities in their communities, and develop a meaningful relationship with each other. I’ve watched as mentors encourage youth to speak out, to be confident of their voice, and to believe in the impact they can have in the world. Often, we tend to view our role with youth as a teaching role, where we continually prepare them to lead the world we live in. And while much of that is true, especially when working with youth who come from very difficult circumstances, what if the best thing we can do for the Kingdom of God is to prepare a place for youth to speak into it here and now? In Matthew 21, we see Jesus and His disciples entering Jerusalem. The scene is chaotic. People are shouting Jesus’ name and praise in the streets, and He enters the temple to throw out the merchants who were defiling the sacredness of that space with their grown-up schemes. Verse 14 says, “Now there was room for the blind and crippled to get in. They came to Jesus and he healed them” (The Message). Within a day, Jesus has entered the Holy City and reclaimed the purpose of the temple: to provide sanctuary, healing, and a place to worship the Lord. Meanwhile, children are running in the temple and shouting, “Hosanna to David’s Son!” It seems like a typical Sunday morning in children’s church! And who is upset? The religious leaders, who don’t understand what’s happening, are upset that their tidy world has just been taken over by the jubilation of kids.
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Jesus affirms the voice of the children, who seem to understand who He is and what He is doing. “Yes, I hear them,” He says. “And haven’t you read in God’s Word, ‘From the mouths of children and babies I’ll furnish a place of praise’?” All the children in the pages of this magazine, in our churches, and in our lives—the Kingdom belongs to them now, as it will in the future. The youth at places like CrossBRIDGE in Nashville (see “Building Confidence,” page 12) and at countless other mentoring sites, churches, and compassionate ministries around the world, have the opportunity to experience God’s Kingdom and to add their voice to it. And when we recognize their value, their voice, and their place right here and now, that is perhaps the greatest action we can take to usher in the reign of Jesus. Brandon Sipes is a program coordinator for Nazarene Compassionate Ministries Inc., focusing on youth mentoring, conflict mediation, and refugee support. He and his wife, an ordained elder and pastor, live in Ohio with their two children.
“Jesus ... said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.” — Mark 10:14
Photo courtesy of Timothy Scott
OPENING NOTES
CHILD SPONSORSHIP SPOTLIGHT
Committed to Sponsorship THE BAKER FAMILY (NORTH DAKOTA, USA)
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hen the Baker family heard about Child Sponsorship through Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, they knew it was something their family had to do. At the time, the family was living in Backus, Minnesota, where Greg Baker pastored the Backus Church of the Nazarene. “At our district assembly … Dr. Jerry Porter made such a wonderful plea, we just couldn’t say no,” says mom Kelly. The family began to sponsor a boy named Alex from Guatemala in the summer of 2009. Then, in 2013 at the Nazarene General Assembly, they watched as Sherwin Rulloda met his sponsors for the first time during an evening service. (Read Sherwin’s story on page 18.) Again, they were inspired to sponsor a child. This time, they chose Vadi, a young girl from Sri Lanka. “It’s making an investment in the life of a child and their eternity!” Kelly says. Soon, though, the family began to struggle to cover the cost of their sponsorships each month. The oldest Baker daughter, Jordyn, left in January 2016 to join Extreme Nazarene in Ecuador, and the family was supporting her costs. Kelly and Greg talked about going back to sponsoring just one child, but their younger daughter, Ally, rejected that idea. “When Mom and Dad started talking about having to drop one of our sponsored kids, I felt like we were picking which child we would have to abandon. However, there was no possible way to sponsor both Jordyn and our kids, so I decided that if there was nothing that Mom and Dad could do, then there must be something that I could do,” says Ally, who was 16 at the time. Soon, Ally interviewed for a job at a restaurant called Pizza Ranch, which was owned by a family in their church. She says she could see the way that God had it all planned out. “When I went to the interview, I found out that the hours that they needed me were the hours that I wanted to work,” she says. “When I started working, I found out that a friend of mine worked the same shift that I did! Isn’t God awesome like that?”
Now, Ally covers the sponsorship fee for one of the family’s sponsored children, while Kelly and Greg cover the other. In the summer, Ally continued to pay those fees by babysitting for a family in the church while taking a break from her job at Pizza Ranch. The Bakers now live in North Dakota,
where Greg serves as lead pastor at Mandan Church of the Nazarene. Ally is now 17 and hopes to pursue acting when she’s older. And what does living compassion look like to her? “Doing all that you can to help others and show them the love of Christ,” she says. Winter 2016 | 5
Connection Points.
Photo courtesy of Wanda Couzens-Smith
Part of the Family: A Former Sponsored Child Meets His Sponsor where Wanda lived in Colorado, but it was significantly closer than Chinsinsi’s home in Malawi. So Wanda decided to go. She and her son, William, took off on a road trip. They were on their way to meet the man William considered to be a like a brother, but had never had a chance to see in person. “I recognized him right away,” Wanda says. Chinsinsi says, “The first words that came into my mind when I met Wanda for the first time were, ‘This is my mother who broke my illiteracy cycle.’” Over a shared meal, the trio talked about sponsorship, family, church, their children, and their lives. “It made me really humbled to think, ‘In my mind, I really wasn’t doing that much, but what God did through it is so p i h s r tremendous,’” Wanda says. o r spons g u o y e r Chinsinsi grew up to beSha mailin e y b y r come a pastor in Lilongwe, Chinsinsi says, sto .org. Malawi, where he also serves as “I remember letters cs@ncm the country coordinator for Nazthat sounded like serarene Compassionate Ministries. He mons, letters with [Bible] verses that later became my favorite vers- and his wife, Euster, have three children, es. Most of these verses were from Prov- ages 8, 3, and 1 month. “She is a mother to me,” Chinsinsi says. erbs. She was very interested to know the “She is updated in our day-to-day life in activities I was involved in at the church and how I was growing spiritually. … She the family and ministry. She is a prayer would ask what I wanted to become when partner. She stands with us in prayer just I grow up. She wanted to know how I was as we pray for her every day. After the reconnection, she has played a bigger role of performing at school. “ In January 2016, Chinsinsi contact- supporting my family emotionally.” In fact, Wanda now sponsors Chinsined Wanda to tell her he was coming to the United States that summer to attend si’s son, who is now in third grade, through NCM’s Compassion Conference on the NCM Child Sponsorship. “Our kids know Wanda and Willie as campus of Olivet Nazarene University in Ohio. That was a 16-hour drive from part of our family,” Chinsinsi says.
TO WE WANT OU! MY O R F R A E H
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n July 2016—30 years after their sponsorship relationship began—Wanda Couzens-Smith and Chinsinsi Phiri met face to face for the first time. Wanda and her family started sponsoring Chinsinsi through NCM Child Sponsorship in the 1980s, but when he turned 18 and graduated from the program, they lost touch. Years later, they were reunited by email when one of Chinsinsi’s teachers visited Wanda’s church in the United States. “Her contribution towards my education, spiritual life, and her love made me to seek her out,” Chinsinsi says. Wanda and Chinsinsi exchanged letters throughout the sponsorship. Those letters were important to Chinsinsi, a connection to a person who was formational in his life.
QUOTABLE
“Children are the hands by which we take hold of heaven.” — Henry Ward Beecher
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FIRST PERSON
Free to Lead: A Story of Purpose
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started coming to the Lingap Bata Church of the Nazarene nine years ago. Around that time, the church began a child development center to minister to children, and I was given the opportunity to volunteer. I was not a natural leader, but the church gave me a chance to grow by giving me an opportunity to serve and lead. And it has helped shape who I am today. I still tutor at the center, and through that role, I am able to mentor children who are at risk because they are living in poverty and are vulnerable to gangs and addiction. It’s a background I understand because I experienced a similar childhood. As a child, I did not have much family support because my parents were not together. I lacked self-confidence, but the church helped me realize that someone cared for me. I heard I was created in God’s image, and I felt special. I heard that God made me with a purpose. The church helped me to know Christ. Then the church gave me an opportunity
to lead other people, to lead the kids. That helped me to serve Jesus in different ways, and it helped build my confidence. Life is not easy for children in this neighborhood. Many of them start working as early as 8 or 9 years old. They are selling vegetables or begging for food and money. Then they are hanging out in the streets. The child development ministry focuses on teaching children about their abilities and strengths, and it teaches children and youth to lead even from a young age. For example, when I was a youth, they gave me the responsibility to lead the games. Then they asked me to speak in front of the children. This helped to give me confidence. So children learn to lead, even in small ways like leading games or deciding who is on the teams. I believe that without the church, I would be without direction, like my father and his father. It was like a curse, generation after generation. But now I know that Jesus can free us from any chains that are holding us, through His love and sacrifices.
Photo courtesy of Aisling Zweigle
by Mark Nepacina as told to Aisling Zweigle
MEET DREW. Like many 7-year-olds, he loves to draw. He lives in Jordan with his parents, brother, and sister. Right now, Drew’s parents are barely scraping by, and they can’t give him everything he needs. For $30 a month—just 99 cents a day—you can provide Drew with nutritious meals, quality education, life skills, and an understanding of God’s love for him. Through sponsorship, you aren’t just giving the gift of much needed resources—you’re giving the gift of a future.
Will you help Drew draw a future filled with hope? To inquire about sponsoring Drew, email cs@ncm.org or call 800.310.6362. To sponsor another child in Jesus’ name, go to ncm.org/sponsor.
Connection Points.
CHANGED LIVES
A Much Different Story: New Scholarship Offers Future for Survivors of Human Trafficking by Callie Stevens, NCM Communications
In the fall of 2011, Crystal enrolled in a community college and started pursuing a life that was dramatically different from the one she had been living. “I was a 35-yearold single parent with absolutely no job skills and no work experience to speak of,” she wrote. “It was a humbling process to say the least, and challenging as well.”
“I am the exception to the rule. Leaving the life is by no stretch an easy task.” Then, in 2016, she became the first recipient of Point Loma Nazarene University’s Beauty for Ashes scholarship, which was created to provide educational opportunities for survivors of human trafficking. “If it hadn’t been for the Beauty for Ashes Scholarship, I would never have been able to attend PLNU,” Crystal says. “I never would have even dreamed of applying. I could not have obtained an education of this quality without the scholarship. It’s a game changer for me.”
THE BIRTH OF A DREAM
Photos courtesy of Brooke Jones
A survivor of human trafficking, Crystal Isle is working toward a social work degree at PLNU.
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rystal Isle says she feels like she has something worth contributing, and for her, that feeling is fairly new. For nearly 20 years, Crystal was a victim of sex trafficking in San Diego, California (USA), and was exploited in ways no one should have to experience so her traffickers could make money. During the first eight years, her trafficker was also her husband.
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In 2011, Crystal took control of her own life for the first time, realizing after an arrest that if she didn’t, she would lose custody of her young son. “I am the exception to the rule,” Crystal wrote in an op-ed for The Guardian. “Leaving the life is by no stretch an easy task. Oftentimes victims never have the chance to make it as a survivor; they die trying.”
In 2014, a group of PLNU students, professors, and staff at wondered if they might be able to do more. What if survivors could see a future beyond the current reality? “One of the things we kept hearing is that survivors dream of an education,” says Kim Jones, program director at PLNU’s Center for Justice and Reconciliation. As the group began to dream, they wondered if they could crowd-fund a scholarship. In October 2015, that dream became reality when an Indiegogo campaign raised enough to fund the first Beauty For Ashes scholarship. Additional donations continued to come in, and two additional scholarships were awarded to students who began their studies at PLNU in August 2016. “People are finding out about the scholarship, and there are many survivors out there who are ready and wanting to complete their college education,” Crystal says. “We need to find more people who are willing to support the fund to give other survivors the same chance I have,” she says.
After finishing her degree in social work, Crystal hopes to work in victim services with others who have been trafficked.
LOOKING BACKWARD Crystal grew up in a home that was, in her words, “riddled with family dysfunction” that included domestic violence, neglect, and sexual abuse. The summer she was 8 years old, Crystal was sexually assaulted almost daily by her stepfather. She says this abuse “set the stage” for years of exploitation and forced prostitution. A history of abuse is extremely common among survivors’ stories, according to Jones, who says she hasn’t met a victim yet who wasn’t abused in some form as a child. The vulnerability that comes from past abuse is exactly what recruiters look for. “Traffickers can sense when someone is vulnerable, and I was no exception,” Crystal notes. “I think that’s really important to know, because nationwide people are starting to take notice of this kind victimization, because for so long it was seen as a choice by a rebellious teen,” says Charisma de los Reyes, a policy analyst with San Diego County’s Child Welfare Services and an alumna of PLNU. Many women, like Crystal, are recruited by someone they consider close, often a love interest. Then they stay because of coercion. “The bonds that hold victims are not always physical,” Jones says. “In fact, most of the time they’re not. They’re almost always psychological.” According to Crystal, that was the case in her situation: “Although I did not know it, I never even had a choice.” She adds, “Fortunately, today I have a much different story. One that is full of hope and potential.”
To learn more about the
BEAUTY FOR ASHES SCHOLARSHIP,
visit the PLNU Center for Justice and Reconciliation at pointloma.edu/cjr or pointloma.edu/beautyforashes.
6 Ways Your Church Can Fight Human Trafficking A common misconception in the United States is that human trafficking happens only in other countries or that victims in the U.S. were all trafficked from other countries. Yet research shows that human trafficking* affects every U.S. state, according to PolarisProject.org. These are six things your church can do to fight against the problem of human trafficking:
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RAISE AWARENESS. Learn about the problem of human trafficking and educate your congregation and community. You can find well-researched information from Polaris Project (polarisproject.org) and specific ideas for raising awareness at NCM’s website (ncm.org/trafficking).
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PRAY TOGETHER. Human trafficking is a dark form of evil. Ask God to break through the forces of darkness and break the yoke of bondage. You can find prayer guides at ncm.org/trafficking. You can also host a Freedom Sunday event at your church. Visit ncm.org/freedomsunday for free resources.
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STUDY SCRIPTURE. Open the Bible together to learn what it says about God’s heart for people who are oppressed and God’s heart for justice. Free Bible study downloads are available from the Faith Alliance Against Slavery (faastinternational.org).
4.
EQUIP CHILDREN’S AND YOUTH WORKERS. Recruiting happens in middle schools and high schools. Many traffickers pose as friends or boyfriends, or
they use other students to do the recruiting. Give pastors and volunteers tools to identify signs of abuse and steps to take, as well as age-appropriate resources to teach children and youth to identify signs of trafficking recruitment. NetSmartz.org also has tools to teach kids to protect themselves online.
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RESEARCH YOUR LOCAL CONTEXT. Learn about the issues in your community and partner with anti-trafficking organizations in your area. The Engage Together website (engagetogether.com) serves as a virtual community to connect organizations and individuals or groups. The site also includes a free toolkit for how your church can create an anti-trafficking action plan in your community.
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FIGHT THE DEMAND. Human trafficking is a big-money business, and our actions can drive the demand for slave labor and commercial sex. Learn more about the connection between pornography and sex trafficking at pornharmsresearch.com. There are many resources to help people who struggle with addiction to pornography: Defenders USA (sharedhope.org), X3Network (x3pure.com), and the SATP Institute (satpinstitute.com). Learn about the connection between consumerism and labor trafficking from the Global Slavery Index (globalslaveryindex.org), Slavery Footprint (productsofslavery.org), and Free2Work (www.free2work.org). *This list addresses the problems of sex trafficking and labor trafficking.
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Connection Points.
COMPASSION CONNECTION
Life After the Landfill: A Panama Church Helps Families Make a Move Reporting by NCM Mesoamerica
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Photos courtesy of Flint Central Church of the Nazarene
he community of Playa Chiquita, Panama, used to sit on the edge of a landfill. Tin houses provided little insulation from the filth of garbage and the pain of hunger. Marisol de Arenas, pastor of Playa Chiquita Church of the Nazarene, describes it as a place “where children and their families lived submerged in poverty, surrounded by a giant wall of garbage.” Drug trafficking was also rampant. Children were exposed to violence, and their extreme poverty and lack of basics such as food and clothing sometimes drove youth into a life of crime, too. Thankfully, many of those problems are in the past. With the help of the Nazarene church, the community has relocated to a safer area. Still, food and employment remain hard to come by.
The dream shared by parents in Playa Chiquita is a better life for their children. “My dream is that my children will graduate and can study at a university, and [that] they can be professional and meet all their goals and have what I cannot give and never had,” says Lucia, a mother of two girls and three boys. Along with helping the community relocate, the church is providing a way for children to attain those goals through a Nazarene child development center (CDC). There, 80 children go to learn, get help with schoolwork, and eat nutritious meals. They also receive dental and health care, opportunities to play sports, and lessons from the Bible. “I like to come to the center because I paint, sing, and learn the Word of God,”
says 11-year-old Carlos, “and also because they help me with homework and give me a warm lunch.” For many parents, it’s a relief to know that their children are getting at least one good, healthy meal a day. The ministry isn’t just for children, though. The church has also been providing job training for parents. “The center has helped me get training, learn to sew better, know God, and be a different person,” Maritza says. “My children go to the center to sing, do homework, do crafts, [and] get lunch—something that helps our family a lot. For that I thank God.” The church has also shown love through assistance with safe drinking water. Before water pipes were installed last November, the congregation had been praying for a solution to the polluted water for 14 years. Parents and children alike understand the impact that God has had through the church in their community. “I had no other place to learn about God,” says 11-year-old Carolina. She adds that she and her twin sister both “like to come to the center because we like to sing, pray, and learn more of the Word of God.” Lucia adds, “When we lived next to the dump, I remember the church was there. I never imagined that our life would change, but now in the new land our life is different. … I know God will bless Playa Chiquita.”
W e want to hear
your stories!
How are you or others you know living compassion as a lifestyle? 10 | www.ncm.org
We’re listening at ncm.org/story.
PRAY WITH US
He called a child, whom he put among them, and said, “Truly I tell you, unless
Photos courtesy of Flint Central Church of the Nazarene
you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” GOD, through Jesus’ words and actions, you remind us of your love for children and of the lessons we as adults should learn from them. Lord, give us eyes to see the children who need us to see, listen, and love. Give us eyes to see children who are living at risk in our communities and around the world, and give us hearts that are moved to action. For children in our homes, our communities, and around the world, we pray for …
HOPE. God, we pray especially for children
living in hopeless situations of poverty, abuse, exploitation, or violence. Give them Your hope to believe things can be different (Romans 15:13). COURAGE. God, for the children who feel
afraid or weak, we pray for courage and strength to persevere through difficulties and to choose Your ways (Deuteronomy 31:6, Hebrews 10:36).
— Matthew 18:1-3
OUR GIFT TO YOU!
LOVE. God, may they be rooted and PROTECTION. For children who are vulnerable, we pray Your hand of protection. For children being abused and exploited, we pray for a way out. For children living on the streets, we as You to keep them from harm (Psalm 32:7; 46:1).
Photo courtesy of Aaron Phelps
grounded in Your love, and may they know how deeply and unconditionally You love them. May they come to understand the breadth, length, height, and depth of Your redemptive love (Ephesians 3:16-19). COMPASSION. Lord, may the children in
our lives be clothed with your compassion (Colossians 3:12). May they have eyes to see others in need and hearts that move them to action (Matthew 25:31-40). GRACE. God, may the children we’re thinking of now grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus, and may those things change the way they live (2Peter 3:18)
GROWTH. God, would You give us eyes to
see children in need of encouragement and the patience to invest in them? Would You use our churches and ministries to remind children of the value You place in them and help them grow into the people You created them to be? (1 Timothy 4:12)? May it be so, Lord. AMEN.
Go to ncm.org/December to download free prayer videos. The set of five videos features prayers for those who are vulnerable in our world. They can be used in church worship services or for your personal prayer time. Winter 2016 | 11
BUILDING C
Through mentoring, Malik and his friends Stephen and Jordan (pictured right) are gaining the confidence to overcome difficult circumstances.
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ONFIDENCE A Mentoring Ministry Empowers Youth to Overcome Their Circumstances by Jessy Anne Walters for NCM Communications
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hree boys clamber on to a no-longernew school bus and are welcomed by cheerful greetings and high fives. Wearing ripped jeans, faded tees, and worn-out sneakers—the uniform of childhood—the boys begin chatting away to their peers and leaders about homework assignments, basketball games, and siblings who bring stray cats home. Out the bus window, a sea of identical brick buildings, children running around, and used furniture scattered on lawns begins to fade from sight. It’s hard to imagine that just over two miles away from Nashville, Tennessee’s world-famous Broadway—where rhinestones, cowboy boots, and bright lights take center stage—this neighborhood is struggling with drug abuse, gang activity, and a surging rate of gun violence. Stephen*, age 11, Malik, age 10, and Jordan, age 10, are all from this neighborhood, known as Napier Community. All three live with fear of bullets flying into their home or family members not returning from a simple walk to the corner store. Children living in this community are not only under the daily pressures that
come with school and growing up in general, but they’re also under the pressures that come with living around violence. “This boy was in a gang and he was
messing with my brother,” Jordan says, “so he got a pistol and shot our apartment.” Sitting together, the three boys discuss the most recent hardships of their
neighborhood as easily as some kids discuss sports and video games. “My sister isn’t allowed out of the house,” Stephen says, matter-of-factly. Why? Chances are that she will become a victim of gender-based violence. The other boys nod in agreement. “It’s nasty stuff,” Jordan says. “That’s why my mom always keeps my sister in the house. She lets us go outside, but she only lets my sister out if she’s with us, so if someone tries to get my sister we can defend her.” Ducking at any loud noise that sounds like gunfire, moving from home to home due to poverty, and sisters not being allowed out of the house due to fear of attacks are all part of daily life for these boys. J.C. Napier Homes is a governmental housing project that sits in a district with Nashville’s highest violent crime rate and one of the highest rates of poverty in the city. The vast majority of homes here are headed by single mothers, and the average annual income is about $9,500, compared with the city’s median household income of $53,400. “It’s not the worst place to live,” Stephen Winter 2016 | 13
The reality that youth in the Napier community face is tough, but YouthPOWER is giving them tools and confidence to believe they aren’t defined by their circumstances.
YouthPOWER gives youth in 5th to 8th grades a safe space to grow and learn, knowing they are loved unconditionally.
says, thoughtfully considering his neighborhood, “It’s kind of good and kind of bad. It’s bad because most of the time people are doing negative and violent stuff, and the good side is that people have homes and they have food to eat and a place to live.” It’s here that CrossBRIDGE, a Nazarene Compassionate Ministry Center connected with Trevecca Community Church, has created KidPOWER and YouthPOWER—comprehensive after-school programs to address the chronic effects of generational poverty.
WHOLE LIFE INVOLVEMENT After a short ride, the boys climb off the bus and rush toward a squat building shining in the afternoon sun. Once inside, all offer helping hands as leaders begin serving snacks. KidPOWER, which is for students in grades 1 through 4, meets every day after school, and YouthPOWER, which is for students in grades 5 through 8, meets Wednesday and Sunday afternoons. Both programs seek to give children and youth a place where they can focus on their personal growth. This growth takes place within a safe space and in relationship 14 | www.ncm.org
with caring adult mentors, but it begins by considering students’ current context. Anna Byrne, a mentor at YouthPOWER, explains that when students become emotional or out of control, she might suggest they calm down by drawing a picture that represents their week. “I’d get pictures back of guns, pictures of shootings, pictures of them laying in their bed crying at night,” she says. YouthPOWER is adapting to needs. The program focused on younger children started in 2010 with only second graders and has grown a grade level each year since; in 2013 when the children finshed fourth grade, YouthPOWER was developed to make room for older children. “We used to be in KidPOWER,” Jordan explains proudly, “But now we’re in YouthPOWER. It’s like the older version of KidPOWER.” Hayley Shaddix, director of KidPOWER, explains that the acronym POWER stands for purity, others, wellness, excellence in academics, and reconciliation. The programs focus on healthy lifestyle choices, schoolwork support, service, and
healthy relationships. YouthPOWER takes these concepts to a deeper level. A student who may have learned about peaceful conflict resolution in KidPOWER is then equipped to apply it to everyday life through YouthPOWER. “Most of these kids have multiple adverse childhood affects [or trauma],” Byrne says. That means the first step isn’t necessarily helping with math or reading homework. In order to accomplish academic success, students first need to learn tools such as coping with emotions or persevering through failure or disappointment. Shaddix shares one example: When Jordan first came to the program, he had very limited skills in dealing with his emotions. He would often shut down and shut others out until the suppressed feelings would erupt into anger. Now, Jordan is using the tools he has learned to handle his emotions differently by using words to express his anger or frustration. KidPOWER and YouthPOWER were both created by Tina Mitchell, executive director of CrossBRIDGE. The programs
both seek to help children within the community realize their full potential and make the most of their futures. They teach children and youth that generational poverty and current circumstances do not have to determine the trajectory of their futures or affect God’s plan for their lives. “We’re really trying to be involved in the whole life of the child,” Shaddix explains. These programs work to teach the children how to make healthy decisions in all areas of life, from what they choose to eat and caring for others to working hard in school and choosing reconciliation over violence. The program is working to help students see different lifestyle options than the ones they have grown up around, and guide them to make decisions that will help them as they mature. In a community where 87 percent of students don’t meet grade level reading expectations, 77 percent of students are failing to meet grade level expectations in math, and 23 percent of students miss more than 18 school days each year, YouthPOWER is working hard to help students from the neighborhood change
these statistics. Program participants take part in one-on-one academic tutoring as well as engage in group academic goals and individual academic goals. “YouthPOWER helped me with reading,” Malik says, sitting up straighter in his beanbag chair, “I graduated my reading level, and now I’m on a higher grade with my reading level.” Last year the boys worked hard to complete different levels of math assignments and had an ice cream party to celebrate their achievements at the end of the year. Each assignment was worth different toppings, and if students finished all of the assignments, they got to pile their ice cream high with bananas, hot fudge, whipped cream, and more. “We did multiplication worksheets, and at the end of the year we got ice cream,” says Stephen happily reminiscing about the celebration with his friends. “I got a banana on mine.”
ONE ON ONE Through each activity, students are also taught the importance of dependable,
“The thing that gets me the most is seeing the transformation. I’ve been here four years, and I’ve watched kids change and grow—and I’ve watched all the change in my life.”
Mentor Trae Smith (right), pictured with Malik, says the best part of mentoring is “seeing kids and mentors come out of their shells.”
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According to mentor Anna Byrne (center), mentoring starts with understanding a student’s current reality.
“I think whenever the kids start to see that they are loved and are worthy of love and are valued … a change really happens.”
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healthy relationships. One way the leaders encourage this is by assigning each child a mentor. These mentors volunteer their time to help the children with their homework and different academic goals. They also take this relationship past an academic realm and get to know the children personally, talking with them about their lives, helping them with service projects, and encouraging them to develop strong character traits. In everything, mentors and leaders at YouthPOWER aim to show youth the love of God through their own actions and words. They believe that being a part of the community and a part of students’ lives is an opportunity to reveal God’s light even in difficult circumstances. “For us it’s about building that foundation of relationships and showing the love of Christ,” says Zac Shaddix, director of YouthPOWER. For youth like Stephen, YouthPOWER has been a door into a church community as well. He not only attends the after-school program, but he also attends the youth events at Trevecca Community Church.
“Sometimes we learn about Bible stories,” Stephen says, with a wide smile. “My favorite is the first one, that’s when God created the earth.” Through their time together, students, mentors, and leaders alike have the opportunity to create relationships based on trust, dependability, and faith. Trae Smith, who started out as a mentor and is now a full-time staff member, explains how students come into the program withdrawn and reserved, and how it takes time and hard work to gain their trust. Smith spent an entire semester telling one youth every day at bus drop off that he was loved, but the child never responded. Then the last day of the semester, the student came running back before the bus pulled away to tell Smith, “I love you, too.” Smith emphasizes that mentoring is not just a one-way relationship. “The thing that gets me the most is seeing the transformation. I’ve been here four years, and I’ve watched kids change and grow—and I’ve watched all the change in my life,” he says, tears glistening in his eyes, “It would be a struggle to see my life without being here.”
When asked what he considers the best part of mentoring, Smith answers, “Seeing kids and mentors come out of their shells.” As proof, he pulls out his cell phone to show a photo of a boy with his arms wrapped around a mentor’s neck. “The students sometimes have a hard time expressing emotions, but that student leapt into his mentor’s arms at our end-ofthe-year bash,” he says. The mentoring programs is working to help youth who are at risk change their futures by showing them new possibilities and equipping them with the tools they need to thrive. In many ways, mentors serve as mirrors that reveal what already exists. As mentors walk alongside them, youth begin to see the things they need to work on, but they also begin to see the gifts and abilities they already possess. “Students recognize they are each beautifully unique and become more confident in who they are,” Hayley Shaddix says. “Stephen is an awesome example of this. He’s come to recognize he has an ability to make others laugh and bring so much joy to those around him.”
CHANGE HAPPENS The bus comes to a stop outside the J.C. Napier Homes, and the three boys step out. The sun is just setting as children are chasing half-inflated basketballs, groups of adults walk together in quiet conversation, and women hang out their laundry. As they rush off, Stephen, Malik, and Jordan turn to wave, their smiling faces full of hope. They know the fears and struggles of life in their neighborhood, but they also know that their dreams can be reached, life can be changed, and hard work can pay off. “We love our kids, and we believe in them, and I think whenever the kids start to see that they are loved and are worthy of love and are valued … a change really happens,” Hayley Shaddix says. “Our biggest transformation is when kids start to believe in themselves.” n *Children’s names have all been changed for their protection. Jessy Anne Walters is a journalist and graduate of Trevecca Nazarene University.
CrossBRIDGE is a Nazarene Compassionate Ministry Center in Nashville, Tennessee, that exists to build future leaders, restore lives, invite people into healthy relationships, develop life skills, give back through service, and expand opportunities. To learn more or to support the ministry, visit crossbridgeinc.org.
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Winter 2016 | 17
In the 1980s, Bettye and Jim Happeny (left) began a relationship with Sherwin Rulloda (right) when he was in 4th grade. Today, they are still in touch.
R E L AT I O N S H I P A Sponsorship Story Decades Later By NCM Communications
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REKINDLED
herwin Rulloda was in third grade when his sponsorship through Nazarene Compassionate Ministries (NCM) Child Sponsorship started. Initially, a youth group helped fund his education, but after a year they couldn’t continue. That’s when Sherwin’s relationship with a church in Tuscon, Arizona (USA), began. Bettye and Jim Happeny were members of Catalina Vista Church of the Nazarene, a small congregation in Tuscon. When a group there joined together to sponsor children, they thought that sounded like a good idea. “The church—it was a small church— banded together to sponsor a young man in the Philippines,” Bettye says.
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That young man was Sherwin. His father worked hard as a pastor and professor at what is now Philippine Nazarene College, but both were ministry positions that brought in little income. “Even when my dad was teaching at the college, there were times we were kids when for lunch, for dinner, all we had was rice,” Sherwin says. “We didn’t have any other food. So my mom would sprinkle salt on the rice, and that’s what we would have for our meal for the day.” Child sponsorship meant one thing the Rullodas didn’t have to worry about was how to pay for education. Notebooks, pencils, uniforms, and anything else Sherwin and his siblings needed was covered
through sponsorship. Their mother often reminded them to be thankful for the fact someone else was helping provide for them, and she encouraged them to give thanks in their prayers each night.
A LASTING IMPACT It is easy to see that the schooling he pursued made an impact in Sherwin’s life. In high school he didn’t want to follow in his father’s footsteps. Whether he was considering pursuing a career in physical therapy or dentistry, the one thing he knew is he didn’t want was to live on a pastor’s salary. “There were moments growing up when I thought, ‘I don’t want my kids to experience this,’” he says.
Thanks to sponsorship, Sherwin finished high school, but when it came time to apply for college, doors kept closing. The only one left open was at Luzon Nazarene Bible College, the former name of what is now Philippine Nazarene College. And there, he says, God truly captured his heart. Later, Sherwin started seminary in the Philippines, but when his father was offered a pastoral position at a church in California (USA), he moved with his parents. After working as a youth pastor for three years, Sherwin moved to Kansas City, Missouri, to finish his degree at Nazarene Theological Seminary. After several years of ministry, most recently as youth pastor at Marysville, Washington, Church of the Nazarene, Sherwin recently moved to Bremerton, Washington, with his family to serve as lead pastor at Bremerton Church of the Nazarene.
MEETING FACE TO FACE While Sherwin, the Happenys, and others from the Catalina Vista congregation sent letters back and forth, what Sherwin remembers most is a photograph the Happenys sent of themselves. When the Rullodas moved to the United States, his mother brought the photo. Maybe, she thought, they would have a chance to meet. Sherwin wrote it off, though, sure that his sponsors had passed away by that point. After all, they started sponsoring him in the 1980s, and it was now nearly 30 years later. Then, at Nazarene General Assembly in 2013, Sherwin had been asked to come onstage to share about NCM Child Sponsorship. What he didn’t know is that the Happenys had also been invited, and they would meet for the first time that evening. “It was pretty humbling to meet the people who helped get me an education,” Sherwin says, “knowing they were the ones who shaped my education and made me what I am today.” After their initial meeting, they went to dinner together, where they each talked so much that they hardly touched the food they ordered. Since then, they have continued to stay in touch. Bettye and Jim regularly pray for Sherwin and his family, and they exchange photos back and forth.
Sherwin calls them his prayer warriors. “This whole thing is a God thing,” says Bettye. “If any of these pieces had been left out, we wouldn’t even know Sherwin. And he would just think, ‘Thank God for my sponsors who are in heaven.’”
THE LEGACY CONTINUED The Happenys continue to sponsor through NCM Child Sponsorship today. So do Sherwin and his wife, Megan. They’ve sponsored a boy from Nepal, now 14 years old, since he was 7. “Child sponsorship has a big spot in our hearts because it changed me,” Sherwin says. “If it’s done that for me, why shouldn’t it do that for another kid?” Ultimately, Sherwin and Megan hope to sponsor children who are the same age as their three young daughters. For the past decade, Bettye has served as the Nazarene Missions International
president at Tucson Central Church of the Nazarene. During that time, the church has come together to sponsor 19 children. “If you can do full sponsorship that’s terrific, but don’t say, ‘I can’t,’” Bettye encourages. “Just see who you can get on board to do it with you.” Sherwin’s reconnection with the Jim and Bettye has inspired others to sponsor children as well (see the Bakers’ story on page 5). Of course, that inspiration is just a small part of the full story. Because of the commitment of the Happenys and their church family, Sherwin’s parents didn’t have to worry about how they would afford school, and through that education, God captured Sherwin’s heart for ministry. “The ripples in the water just keep going, and the blessing,” Bettye says. “I can hardly even talk about it. It’s just God’s blessing in allowing this and being a part of this.” n
“Child Sponsorship has a big spot in our hearts because it changed me.” Above: Sherwin and his sister went to see their childhood home on a trip to the Philippines. Left: Sherwin and his wife, Megan, would eventually like to sponsor children the the same ages as their three daughters.
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welco The immigration ministry of Mountainside Communion Church of the Nazarene began through relationships and a posture of listening.
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ome T O
T H E
TA B L E
What Happened When a Church Opened Its Doors to Immigrants By Callie Stevens, NCM Communications
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lejandra Nuñez used to be afraid to go outside. If immigration officers discovered she was not yet a citizen of the United States, she could have been deported. And if she and her husband were deported, her children would be left alone in Southern California. Coming to the U.S. wasn’t a choice that Nuñez made. She arrived with her parents when she was 4 years old. The only life she really knows is the one she has lived in the U.S., yet she still couldn’t get a Social Security number, a consistent job, or the feeling of belonging in the only country she knows. “I was scared,” she says. “I would lock myself in my house and not want to go outside.” Immigrants like Nuñez who live in the U.S. without legal documents talk about feeling “invisible”—living as quietly as possible, often resulting in disconnection, loneliness, and fear. In Nuñez’s family, they didn’t talk about the future. She didn’t ask her children what they wanted to be when they grew up, just as her parents hadn’t asked her. There was too much uncertainty.
Two years ago, though, her story began to change when she attended an event hosted by the Immigration Resource Center of
they would help her file an application for a legal work permit. So Nuñez came in for a consultation and began the process. Just 15 days after submitting her application, she received a letter approving her to begin the process to obtain a work permit. For the first time, she felt like she could begin to hope for the future. “Now that I have my work permit, things changed 180 degrees,” she says. “I started talking to my kids about the future.”
LEANING IN
Photos courtesy of IRCSGV
San Gabriel Valley, a ministry of Mountainside Communion Church of the Nazarene in Monrovia, California. That day, she learned
The Immigration Resource Center is about 20 miles from downtown Los Angeles in a corner of the building owned by Mountainside Communion. Josh Smith, who pastors the congregation, says stories of their neighbors spurred the center’s creation. “We could name a number of people who vulnerably shared their stories throughout,” Smith says. “Friendship transformed how we read our Bibles. … God is using the IRC’s mission to shape us.” A topic like immigration can become polarizing. Part of what Mountainside Communion wants to do is help people explore Winter 2016 | 21
,,
it through the lens of Scripture alongside the stories of their neighbors and friends. Bella Mercado volunteers at the IRC. Part of what drew her to Mountainside Communion is their immigration ministry. “Because the basis is God, the humanizing aspect [of the ministry] is very empowering,” she says. The IRC, which is certified through the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals under
The center’s staff and volunteers regularly work with people who, like Nuñez, arrived in the U.S. as children. The center helps them file applications through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, a legal policy that allows undocumented immigrants to apply for work permits allowing them to pursue legal employment. “Those stories are what brought us to investigate this issue in this area,” Scott
the U.S. Department of Justice, provides low-cost legal counsel on immigration-related matters, including green card replacement or renewals, adjustment of status, naturalization, referrals to lawyers, and document translation are just a few. Since its inception in 2013, the center has served clients from 17 different countries, representing nearly every continent. They have helped more than 50 people file successful applications for legal immigration status.
Haskins, the center’s director, says. So far, Mountainside Communion’s IRC is the only center of its kind that offers services continuously in the San Gabriel Valley, which encompasses a large, amoebic swath of land in east L.A. Without accessible local services, people who live there could be facing hours of travel time to find the help they need. According to Nuñez, the other thing that makes the IRC unique is that the staff and volunteers stuck with her from
Without them, I don,t know ,, , what I would ve done.
Through the ministry of the IRC, Alejandra Nuñez (left) received her work permit. Here, she celebrates with Scott Haskins, IRC director.
The IRC does regular outreach into the community to educate people about legal issues and available resources.
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beginning to end. “We represent throughout entire process, which is a big deal because people have been burned before,” Haskins says. It’s true: Too often, hopeful applicants seek the assistance of notarios, who are akin to lawyers and able to provide legal assistance in Mexico, but in the United States, they illegally offer advice for a hefty price. Others find people who are qualified lawyers but who have questionable ethics and take large sums of individuals’ savings without providing the services promised. Even trustworthy attorneys can charge a base fee of $1,000 (USD), and then tack on more fees as the process continues. Mountainside Communion’s IRC charges $30 USD for a consultation and approximately $100 for applications. Those fees ensure the center is able to continue functioning and serving.
A LONG-TERM FUTURE Cristy Lopez, who helps with translation and interpretation at the IRC, came to the US. as a child. Her family came on vacation from Mexico, and then a family emergency kept them here. At 10 years old, Lopez went to her first day of fifth grade at a school in a language she didn’t know.
Years later, her fear had turned from not knowing the language to not knowing the future. She applied for colleges as she neared the end of high school, but since she didn’t have a Social Security number, none of them accepted her. She knew that if she couldn’t go to school, she couldn’t go to work either. “It was really hard and scary,” Lopez says. “[It was] not so much of getting caught and getting deported but that it felt like my life would stop after high school.” Through a DACA application, Lopez was able to get a U.S. work permit just in time to accept a full-time job from a company she had interned with after high school. “I couldn’t believe it. I was going, ‘I have a legit job!’” she says. “A lot of people hate taxes, but … I don’t hate paying taxes because I have a job.”
TRAINED TO SERVE Mountainside Communion’s Immigration Resource Center is one of a handful of Nazarene-affiliated centers of its kind that are recognized by the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). Others are associated with the Iowa City Church of the Nazarene in Iowa; Missio Dei Church of the Nazarene in Wenatchee, Washington; the Connexion Compassionate Ministry Center in Orlando, Florida; and First Church of the Nazarene in Medford, Oregon. The process for an individual to become a BIA-accredited provider of legal services requires several weeks of assessment, 80 hours of training in immigration law and shadowing of an approved legal practitioner, and an application process that takes three months to a year. To learn more about the process, visit theimmigrationalliance.org, the website of the Immigration Alliance. Nazarene churches interested in learning how to start an immigration resource center can contact the Multicultural Ministries office of the Church of the Nazarene by emailing multi@nazarene.org.
ENGAGING A COMMUNITY Mountainside Communion recognizes that the issue of immigration is a complicated one. “It needs to be communicated as thoroughly and wonderfully and beautifully messy, because that’s what it is,” Smith says. The congregation at Mountainside Communion understands the complexities, and they cling to what they see as a Scriptural call to say, “Everyone is welcome at the table.” “It is really special to be in a church that is so accepting. That’s really unique, especially in a time like this in people’s fears,” says Toni Jones, program coordinator at the church’s immigration resource center. Other congregations and organizations in the area have also come alongside the center and its mission. The Hispanic Ministries of First Church of the Nazarene in Pasadena, California, is involved in both spreading the word and garnering support. Marcos Canales, Hispanic ministries pastor, says part of what the center is doing is helping bridge gaps, even between generations. “Part of our hope and desire is that as we build these bridges, people will learn more about it,” Canales says. Maria Aguilar has called the U.S. home for nearly 30 years. She came from El Salvador as a young adult, and was here without documentation for a few years before she got a work permit. She was anxious to be documented so that she could travel and work. “I know I belong here because pretty
much my whole life has been here,” she says. Aguilar volunteers at the center and is also a client. For the first time, she is hoping to be able to vote in U.S. elections as a citizen. A lot of people she knows are frightened and don’t want to seek out documentation for fear of deportation. Part of her role at the center is helping people feel safe and comfortable. “It’s very important that people know that they … can feel safe that [the center is] not going to take their money,” she says. Monrovia has been home for a long time, and Aguilar knew that she wanted to get involved in the community. “Helping the community, helping people, that’s serving the Lord,” she says.
LIFE WITHOUT FEAR Along with Lopez and Aguilar, Nuñez and her family now can live without the kind of fear she used to experience. In fact, her oldest son is beginning college this year, something she never would have dreamed possible. “Being an immigrant, I was never thinking it would be possible for my kids to go
to college,” she says. “But now that I have my work permit, I’m able to help my son get involved in college. … Without them [the IRC], I don’t know what I would’ve done.” That sense of family that Nuñez and others have noticed can be traced to the church itself. The congregation has poured time, money, and prayer into the immigration resource center. “They’re family, you know,” Nuñez says. “When someone treats you like family, that’s what counts.” n
To learn more or to support the work of Mountainside Communion’s Immigration Resource Center of San Gabriel Valley, visit ircsgv.org. Winter 2016 | 23
RESTORING
RESIL IE NCE
How the Justice Movement is Coming Alongside Communities in Sri Lanka By NCM Communications
F
or years, people in a rural village in Sri Lanka have gathered water from the river winding close by. Along the banks, they dig shallow holes for water to rise into, collecting it into metal pots. Their only filter is cloth stretched over the mouth of each pot, which does nothing to prevent harmful bacteria from hitching a ride. Everyone knows this water is not good. They know that it’s the same water they bathe in, the same water they wash laundry in. But their options are limited. About six years ago, Sri Lanka was taking begining to piece itself back together after the end of a vicious, years-long civil war. More than 250,000 people had been displaced, and even after the end, tens of thousands couldn’t return home due to landmines or because the government had not authorized it. In many cases, the government created new communities to relocate people, but they also closed off those communities to external aid. In these areas, government-sponsored wells
Even if the work of transformation is slow, growing resilience will win over despair. were drilled to provide water access, but with no way for community members to maintain or repair broken pumps, the water systems fell into disrepair. The war destroy lives, but it also destroyed the social structure. People in these newly created communities have been uprooted and feel completely disempowered. Many widowed women have been left to raise children on their own, and alcoholism 24 | www.ncm.org
among men who did survive the war has become rampant. Safety is also a concern, as women are vulnerable to gender-based violence when out gathering water. It’s too easy to watch hope drain away. But this is a story that ends with resilience, not despair. DESPAIR ISN’T THE END As outside groups are allowed into formerly closed areas, Nazarene Compassionate Ministries in Sri Lanka is walking alongside community members. Together, they are identifying the holes in knowledge and systems through participatory assessments, conversations, and a hands-on approach. In August, a group of young adults travelled to Sri Lanka to help build that partnership through the Justice Movement, a youth-led movement that aims to express Christ’s compassion through the church. The work in the villages of Tharavi and Poolankaadu is being funded through the Justice Movement’s Just Water campaign. Through conversations, community members expressed the desire to accomplish things for themselves, whether that’s repairing water pumps or educating neighbors about healthy hygiene practices. Brooklyn Lindsey, who visited Sri Lanka in her role as global justice advocate for Nazarene Youth International, observed, “[Community members] didn’t want someone to come in and give them a solution. They wanted help finding their own.” MOVING FORWARD The process of restoring a community to health doesn’t happen overnight, but when well equipped, community members can move forward together. Over the next few years, NCM in Sri Lanka will walk
alongside communities as they learn to repair broken hand pumps on existing and soon-to-be installed borehole wells, create committees to do hygiene education, and dig pit latrine toilets for healthy sanitation. These efforts will be paired with newly established child development centers to provide education for children and selfhelp groups that will train women in methods to save money and provide loans to one another for small business development. Through partnership and training, resilience is being restored. Community members are learning again what it feels like to say, “We can do this.” And even if the work of transformation is slow, resilience will win over despair. n
(Left) Mrs. Kumar and her family go to the river in their new community together—a mother, two sons (ages 10 and 6), an aunt and a grandmother. They spend hours bathing, washing clothes, and gathering water for the household. The water source for drinking is the same water they use for bathing and laundry, and while they know this isn’t
healthy, they have no other options. Through partnership with NCM and the Justice Movement, the Kumars and other families will have safer, healthier options in the near future. (Below) Several times a day, women and girls gather water from the river in pots. They use cloth to filter it as best they can and then carry it home.
Photos courtesy of Jeffrey Purganan
(Right) In August, several young adults visited rural communities in Sri Lanka as part of the Justice Movement in partnership with Nazarene Youth International and Nazarene Compassionate Ministries. Their goal was simply to listen and learn. The Justice Movement’s Just
Water campaign has been mobilizing youth and young adults to support the implementation of WASH (water, sanitaiton, and hygiene) programs in South Asia as a way to partner with communities in need in Sri Lanka and other parts of South Asia.
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JUST WATER
This river in Sri Lanka is the source of much life. It’s a place where women and men alike go to fish so they can put food on the table for their families. It’s where families go to get clean and where women go to wash clothes. But this river is also the only place
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that many women and children have to gather the water they need for drinking and cooking for a household. This water may foster life for fish, but it brings illness to people. In order to restore resilience, communities need access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene.
The Justice Movement started more than a year ago with the goal of helping young people to help others through the church. The movement’s inaugural global campaign, Just Water, equips young people to provide safe and healthy water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) to communities in need in South Asia. Free curriculum, resources, videos, and activity planners are available at justicemovement.com.
Called to Compassion.
Little Black Dress What I Learned in My Campaign Against Human Trafficking by Bethany Winz
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hen I was in middle school, I learned that slavery didn’t end with the Civil War. Instead, millions of men, women, and children wake up every day trapped in a system of human trafficking. The more I read about it, the more I wanted to do something with what I knew. As a teenager, though, it didn’t seem like I could make much of a difference. I was still in school, and I still had so much to learn. Enter: a little black dress. At the end of my sophomore year of high school, I watched through my computer screen as a young woman named Elaini began a 100-day journey of wearing the same dress every day to raise money for orphaned children. For three months, she wore that dress with different accessories and shared her project and her heart on her blog. In that time, she raised $50,000. Shortly after, I found myself in the living room lamenting to my mom that I wanted to do something but didn’t know where to begin. I had a half-dozen ideas swirling around in my “Therefore, as head, but I was far God’s chosen better at ideas than people, holy and action. She, in her dearly loved, clothe wisdom, had me sit down at the table and maybe I could do someyourselves with write out each one— thing to help those who compassion, what it was, what it were. Another woman, kindness, would cost in time who had inspired Elaini humility, gentleness and resources, and and her project, had and patience.” what the end result worn a dress for a year would be. and raised $100,000. Colossians 3:12 (NIV) It was only after I’d Since she had done it, it written out all of my seemed reasonable to other ideas that I even voiced this one me, so I decided to set that as my goal. out loud: “What if I did a fundraising projOne Dress. One year. $100,000. For ect like Elaini’s?” I asked. “Only, I could freedom. do it to raise money to help end human Four months after that first conversatrafficking.” tion, I found myself putting on a dress that I couldn’t be on the front lines, but I was planning to wear for the next 366
days. (Of course, I picked a leap year.) I blogged about it, sharing photos of my variations on the dress and asking other people to give to support anti-trafficking organizations. It was like a walkathon, only I was wearing instead of walking. The year had its ups and downs. Putting together a different outfit with the same dress was a fun challenge, and I enjoyed getting to talk about the project as well. Still, as the year wore on, I grew discouraged when my fundraising goal proved to be wildly unrealistic. I couldn’t help feeling that I wasn’t doing enough— or maybe even that I wasn’t enough as a person. The year I spent in the dress changed me in ways I never expected. The most important lesson I learned is that I couldn’t save the world. More than that, I wasn’t supposed to try. My job was to be faithful to what God placed in front of me. It was this understanding—and some good old-fashioned stubbornness—that saw me through all 366 days in the dress. Now, as a student in the social justice program at Trevecca Nazarene University, my perspective on how we should respond to things like human trafficking has changed quite a bit. My understanding of what it means to seek justice and live with compassion has, I hope, deepened through classes, conversations, and experience. Sometimes seeking justice looks like commitment to wearing the same dress for a year or some other major project with a goal of making a big difference. Other times, though, it looks like loving the people around us well—something that can often be more challenging than dramatic gestures but is so deeply needed. What hasn’t changed, though, is my belief that God has called us as the Body of Christ to respond in ways both large and small to injustice in our world. Bethany Winz is studying social and environmental justice at Trevecca Nazarene University, where she’s falling in love with the city of Nashville. She already loves Jesus, hot tea, good books, and bacon. Co-author of One Dress. One Year., Winz processes the world through writing and sometimes blogs about growing up and life with a chronic illness at www.bethanywinz.com.
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Love in Action.
A Family of Compassion How One Church Created Community for Adults With Disabilities by Callie Stevens, NCM Communications
t David’s Promise, family means more than relatives. It’s also the staff, volunteers, and adults with intellectual and physical disabilities who gather bi-weekly to learn, tend their garden, and experience community together. The ministry is one of the many programs run through Compassionate Ministries of Jackson County (CMJC), a service of Jackson First Church of the Nazarene, or “JaxNaz,” in southern Michigan (USA). A sprawling garden is, in many ways, the hub of the ministry. It covers more than 15 acres, which are owned by the church. There, David’s Promise participants, volunteers, and staff grow produce that ultimately goes to supply the CMJC food pantry—another large outreach—as well as a forthcoming organic store, which will be staffed by David’s Promise participants. According to Dianne Kean, whose son Tim, is part of David’s Promise, the active nature of the ministry is part of what makes it ideal. “Our son is 35 and he’s got multiple disabilities,” she says. “[But] he’s
very upbeat and functioning, and he loves to get out in the world and do stuff.” The garden is just one of the many ways that Tim and others are able to participate. David’s Promise purposefully incorporates projects that enable participants to use their gifts to serve others. They have hosted supply drives for a shelter for victims of domestic violence, created decorations for a Valentine’s Day party at a local nursing home, and made sensory blankets for children with autism or other sensory disorders. Participants also regularly serve at the CMJC food pantry. “We always focus on ways we can give back to the community and use the gifts that our guys have,” says Rebekah Moilanen, director of David’s Promise. “When people think of special needs ministry they think what can we do for people, but they’re used to having things done for them, and we want to ask what they can do for others.” Jackson County offers educational services for people with special needs through age 26, but after that, services end. That’s
Photos courtesy of David’s Promise
“You see church working the way it was meant to work, with people loving each other so much that they would do anything for each other.”
Above: Twice a week, Tim Kean (above) and other adults with disabilities come to David’s Promise, where they use their gifts through gardening and serving others.
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exactly the gap David’s Promise aims to fill. While their long-term goal is to provide housing for adults for with disabilities, for now they’re providing a space where friends can become family. Moilanen shares an example of a David’s Promise participant who had just lost his father and was unsure about coming to the gathering. At the end of the day, he said, “You guys are my family now.”
CREATING COMMUNITY Word about the David’s Promise family is getting out in the community. To accommodate their waiting list, David’s Promise will soon start afternoon programming in addition to the bi-weekly morning services they have been running since May 2014. Moilanen estimates they will have 40 adults who regularly attend. “As parents,,” Kean says, “we have watched our children grow up with the pain and heartache of trying to fit in, and here there’s no pain to watch because they already fit in.” Kean’s family has been involved in David’s Promise since its inception. They were new in town and found out about the program when they went to a Sunday service at JaxNaz. When they saw a David’s Promise table requesting volunteers, they jumped in with both feet. “They have a camaraderie, these adults,” she says. “There’s no judgment. There’s friendship, there’s companionship, they help each other out and are teaching each other all the time.” Along with time spent on the garden— and subsequent projects like making jam and salsa from the produce—David’s Promise also partners with organizations in the community. “I never want our people with special needs to be tucked away to the side,” Moilanen says. The program started with a Bible study and has now expanded to weekly activities, outreach programs, and support groups. Volunteers and team members also run support groups for parents of children with disabilities and hospital outreach programs for new parents.
Friends from David’s Promise participate in other ministries of Compassionate Ministries of Jackson County, including the food pantry.
DAVID’S PROMISE, a ministry of Jackson (Michigan) First Church of the
Nazarene, is named after a story from the Bible about King David and Mephibosheth, the son of his best friend, Jonathan. As a child, Mephibosheth’s feet were injured, and he lived the rest of his life unable to walk. After Jonathan died, David brought Mephiboseth to live with him and promised him, “[You] shall always eat at my table” (2 Samuel 9:11). David’s Promise seeks to create a place where people with disabilities can be a part of ministry, farming the land together, living in community, and taking care of one another. Visit davidspromise.org to learn more, or visit ncm.org/mag/cmc to support the ministry.
“You have these adults all over the place that are sometimes just sitting and doing nothing—nothing—all day long,” Kean says. “And to get these adults involved in anything is just spectacular. They’re learning music, they’re learning sign language. It just goes on and on. It should be in every community, something like that.”
A WAY OF LIFE David’s Promise is one of many programs under the church’s compassionate ministry center. Both stationary and mobile food pantries, fresh food initiatives, community meals, blood drives, and school supply collections are just a handful of the other services.
The sense of family within David’s Promise also permeates these other programs. Part of that is the commitment to what First Church calls “First-Century Christianity,” or viewing church as a way of life rather than a building. The other part of it is the commitment of the church itself to ministries of compassion. Terry Williams, executive director of CMJC, estimates that nearly 70 percent of the church is involved in one of the ministries in some capacity, whether through volunteering or giving. “You see church working the way it was meant to work,” Moilanen says, “with people loving each other so much that they would do anything for each other.” Winter 2016 | 29
Snapshot.
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Photo courtesy of Steve Jeter
Since the war in Syria began five years ago, millions of people have been forced from their homes through violence and persecution. Almost a million refugees have found safety in neighboring Jordan. The Nazarene churches in Jordan have been faithfully ministering to hundreds of refugee families by providing food, education for children, and friendship. This year’s NCM Christmas Project will support scholarships so that even more displaced children who have been caught in the conflict can hold on to hope for a brighter future.
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