Uffizi Mission Project

I can see now, that perhaps there hope for a movement (though I am still hesitant).  The mirror has been placed within the institution and people are beginning to wonder why they have been sitting so long… the mirror is not for the individual but for the community, to see its neutral posture in a time of cultural need.  It is the Disneyanic mirror of reformation, perhaps not building the happiest place on earth, but maybe the most blessed?

I told a friend at Pershing Park last night, that we are getting better at this, though we have miles to go.

We now know that a band of people who want to follow in the way of life can get Victoria off the streets, into housing, so she can give birth to her girl and keep her.  She can also have visitors in her new home town who watch over her and update us on current needs.

We know that one other street pal has friends who will find him at the park and get him into a sober living home before he relapses.  Another will finance his first month there, and others will write him letters, pray for him, etc…  He wrote me a letter from prison saying that because of those who wrote him and visited him He has hope and heard the voice of God.

Bart Tarman recently gave a sermon and repeated the words of Jesus – well, you call me Lord Lord, but why don’t you do what I say?  Listen at http://www.shorelinechurch.org/index.php?s=bart+tarman&x=0&y=0.  That is the mirror on the wall.

The summer of love is coming, when a few will go out in twos and just see what awaits on the local streets.  I look forward to a new learning adventure.  It is simply a road trip to befriend and to bless.  It will be interesting to see how these groups of men and women do it differently, and hear their stories.

Some people will still want to take the mirror down, so people don’t have to reflect on whether orthopraxy has anything to do with orthodoxy.  Those big words that mean can our practice really be separated from what we believe.  I don’t think so.

I see good things coming as we reflect on our true image in the mirror.  It has started a local movement, and fostered some new dreams, such as:

*A tutoring center and library at the Village Apartment

*A summer camp for West Side kids

*A free four day detox for our friends without homes

All this makes the tension worth it, being in the church and out of the church at the same time, some people thinking I am truly not orthodox while others saying I am truly orthodox and honestly I am not sure myself.  I am not sure Jesus was fully one or the other in the eyes of his culture either…

Thanks for all your support during the journey, we all looked in the mirror didn’t we…

I was originally going to write about one less person on the streets, when I realized we are actually talking about 2, because Victoria is carrying a little girl.  And so I can write about (despite all the usual setbacks and difficulties) a success story for a moment.  Over the past several weeks, Jesus followers came together in different ways to help a mother and child find shelter.

Another reason to celebrate is now that Victoria has housing, she can have her child and keep her child.  If she would have had the child on the streets, the child would have been taken from her.  Surely there will be issues still to be faced, but now she does not have to worry about being separated from her baby at birth.

She is currently with her boyfriend’s aunt and uncle in Colorado Springs.  I talked with her on the phone and she was going to breakfast with some of Michael’s family, she was explaining to me how nice it was to have her own room – her own space of peace.  I take the moment to celebrate with her.

Yet, there are many others still forgotten and neglected…

One of my favorite movies is Koyaanisqatsi (from a Hopi word meaning “life out of balance”) – a documentary which illustrates society’s speeding up ills.  I see Santa Barbara as being a city out of balance.  In a community of outrageous wealth and such poverty in other ways.  I am not just talking about where I see financial ruin on the streets or on the West Side, but our own poverty birthed from consumerism.

Jesus would poke and prod at our lack of balance.  He would weep a bit over our riches.  He would point it out to us – not to make us feel guilty but to free us.  Which one of us truly wants to be free?

My richest friends over the past two weeks were the ones who gave generously to Victoria and people like her.  If you are doing so – you know what I mean.  I don’t have to explain it.  It is gospel validation.

We are rediscovering the historical Jesus by obeying Him.  We take seriously the parables, the parties of compassion and being not so “religious” as to not be the good samaritan.  Thanks to all you 21st century good samaritans – for you together purchased bus tickets, put on a baby shower, purchased a gift card – recognized Christ in Victoria.

This is how we are supposed to roll…