“No One Here Does That…”

A few weeks ago, as Halloween was approaching, my room mates at the Micah 6 House and I decided that we should do something for Halloween. The obvious conclusion was try to get some of our friends out here to hand out candy with us. A few days later, our friend Cole at Rochester College volunteered to bring about 40 students out for a trunk-or-treat.  And that’s how it started.

Leading up to the event, the three of us printed out flyers and knocked on every door within three blocks of our house.  We told anyone who was brave enough to open the door (we did get several people shouting, “I paid my electric bill!”) that we were going to be in front of our house handing out candy.

We stopped by the house of an old friend that I mentioned before.  He answered the door, and asked what we were up to.

“We’re going to be handing out candy at our house tonight.  We’ve also got some friends coming and handing out candy with us.”

He, in a moment of real honesty, said “You know, no one does that, right?”

I asked for some clarification, and he explained “no one trusts this neighborhood enough to let their kids out at night, and no one trusts their neighbors enough to open the door when someone knocks.”

“Well,” I said. “We’re going to do it!”

“I’ll bring my kids over, because I know and like you guys.”

We got the same kind of reaction from people all over our neighborhood.  Many of them said, “We weren’t going to take our kids out, but we want to come.  Is it okay if we don’t have costumes?”

“Totally!”

Our friends from Rochester college pulled up, opened their cars and started getting ready to hand out candy.  Kids trickled in, most without costumes, but all excited for candy.  Parents stopped off, said thanks and walked back home with their kids.

In the end, we probably had the same number of volunteers as we did kids–close to forty.  We had a good turn out on both the volunteer and kid front.  It was a good time had by all and hopefully an event that we can build on in the future as we continue to establish our house as a place of peace in this neighborhood.

 

No Black and White

We like organization, structure and lists.  We like to be able to say, “this goes here and that goes there.” In movies and I think in life we like to know who the good guys are and who the bad guys are.

Real life, as I am learning, isn’t that easy.

 

Navigating Dependency

We have a neighbor that has taken a liking to us.  By taking a liking to us I mean she calls, comes over or catches us on the street and asks us for help.  Sometimes it is a ride to the grocery store, sometimes it is asking us to buy her a phone card, other days it is asking us for furniture, to buy food she is selling our of her kitchen, etc.

That “etc.” is a funny thing to add because from day to day we never know what it is going to be with her.  Initially, we were open and glad to help.  Driving her around town to fill our this paper, helping her find clothes at this place and helping her wasn’t a problem.  We love Jesus and we’re glad to help.

 

Just a Helper

We all have our Bible heroes.  We think of Peter, Paul, David, Moses and have our mental favorites.  But, some of my favorite characters are the ones who show up for a minute to do what they can, then disapear.  There weren’t chapters devoted to them, you’ll never see Charles Swindoll write a book about them with a plum-colored cover and very european depiction of them on the cover.  But they are extemely important.

They are folks like Pricilla and Aquilla.  Or the ladies who were funding Jesus’ ministry, or John Mark’s mom who offered a room for Jesus and his disciples to meet.  They are just good people who do their part so that the gospel can move forward and the church can grow.

 

Getting Known in Our Community

We want to be a positive force in our community.  I know that.  Everyone in the house knows that.  Many people in Rochester know that.  But how do we let our neighbors know that?

This has been something that has been rolling around in my head for a little while.  Now that we are all moved in to our home at 32 Newberry, how do we begin to get to know the neighbors and start plugging in to our community?

I will give you a few examples of things we are doing here at the Micah 6 house that may be insightful.

 

Vacant Lot Spirituality

Vacant land is the common bi-product of shrinking populations.  These vacant lots can be places of blight and despair or affordable ways to make a positive impact in the neighborhood

Pontiac’s population is on a slow decline.  As people leave the city their houses often sit empty, to be reclaimed by nature or torched by squatters.  Eventually, the city comes in and will level the house, leaving only a vacant lot.  The city owns many of these, the county owns others and they are looking to unload them for reasonable prices.

The Micah 6 house is actually located next door to one of these lots.  The house was recently demolished and folks have begun using it as a place to dump their garbage.

 

Micah 6 House

Hello everyone!  I wanted to give a quick Micah 6 Community update…

WE HAVE OUR HOUSE!

From now on, Micah 6 Community will be living and working out of 32 Newberry in Pontiac.The house is 2,800 square feet, six bedrooms and in great shape.  We bought it, taxes included for just over $12,500.

Today Kim and I spent a good amount of time moving things in, tearing out carpet, cleaning the floors and meeting the neighbors.

But there is one problem…we’re broke.

Some time ago we started the 1000×20 fundraising campaign where 1000 of our friends donated $20 each.  Well, we have currently raised just enough to buy our house, but we are tapped out.  So much so that we can’t even turn the power on just yet or hire a plumber to fix some things in our basement.

We’re looking for more of our friends to step up to the task and donate $20 to finish getting us into the house and begin the work of meeting neighbors, planting gardens and most importantly showing Christ in our neighborhood.

All donations are tax deductible because Rochester Church of Christ is helping to handle our funds for us.

If this is something you can help us with, please do!

Checks should be made payable to Rochester Church of Christ with Micah 6 Community in the memo line and sent to:

Micah 6 Community
P.O. Box 431704
Pontiac, MI 48343

Thank you in advanced for the love, support, help and encouragement!

 

Why Africa Matters to Your Community

I wrote several days ago about people’s strong feelings about missions as sponsored by their local congregations. I have talked with preachers, elders and lay people alike who constantly wrestle with what portion of the church budget to send to workers overseas and how to answer people who ask questions about African missions and what relevance that holds for a church called to be a local expression of  Jesus.

First of all, I don’t really care for the local-foreign division in how we see missions.  I would rather see missions thought of as the outgrowth of a Christian life and devotion. Just like we don’t think of local-foreign peace or local-foreign study, there is just peace, just study, there should just be mission.

 

No Straight Lines

I have a married couple in my life who are quickly becoming spiritual mentors to Jenny and me.  They’ve been around since we began really conceptualizing and moving on Micah 6 Community and our work here in Pontiac.

They are quite fond of mentioning (usually when I am not in the mood to hear it) that God rarely works in straight lines.

This was true of our house today.  For the better part of a month we have been negotiating the price of a house we were hoping to buy on the southeast part of the city.  Meanwhile, a pipe broke in the basement, spewing hot water and filling the house with steam.

 

Micah 6 Community Website is Up

For the past week or so I have been building the lay0ut for the new Micah6 Community website.  It has forced me to think a lot about where I want Micah 6 Community to go, look like, focus on, do and become.  Are we community development that has an intentional community?  Or an intentional community that does community development?  I opted for the ladder.  Are we hoping to grow outside of Pontiac? Yes.  How much Jesus is too much Jesus for the website if we are applying for grants?  Too much Jesus, is there such a thing?

In the end, building the website and filling its various pages have made me confront and pin down my hopes and dreams for this project that I plan to give my life to.  If you have any ideas or suggestions, please feel free to pass them along.

Here it is:  www.micah6community.com