Thank you South Aiken Presbyterian Church!

This weekend we had the privilege of hosting South Aiken Presbyterian Church for a weekend of service in the city. The group was divided into three work teams that each served in a different non-profit or ministry in the morning and afternoon. One group participated in the monthly "Clean and Green" at Piedmont Park. They then headed to Medshare, an agency that collects leftover medical supplies from local hospitals and distributes them to hospitals around the world. The group worked to sort supplies that are headed to Haiti to help in the aftermath of the earthquake. Another group spent the day at Open Hand, an agency that provides 3000 meals per da to those with long term illness or senior citizens. In the morning the group delivered meals and in the afternoon they prepared meals which were delivered on Tuesday. The third group spent the morning at the Atlanta Community Tool Bank, a tool lending library for schools, churches, and non-profits. In the afternoon, the group headed to Southwest Christian Care to provide respite care for caregivers of children with physical disabilities. The group was able to play one on one with the children who were staying at the center for the weekend. This was a gift to the primary care givers of these children who often don't have much time to do things for themselves or even do simple errands.

In addition to some great service opportunities, the group saw the "Face of God" in Atlanta in some unexpected ways. Each group had an interaction with a stranger in the city where they saw the "Face of God" through that encounter. They also saw the "Face of God' in the diverse groups of people they were able to serve with during the weekend. On Saturday night we heard the words of Martin Luther King Jr. in his last sermon preached at Ebeneezer Baptist Church. We discussed the call to use our life as a testimony to our belief in Jesus Christ and what that life might exhibit. The weekend closed with worship at Ebeneezer Baptist Church, the church where Martin Luther King Jr. was pastor.

Thanks South Aiken for a great weekend!

~Jannan Thomas, DOOR Atlanta City Director

Sometimes its easier to hear the gunshots, than to see the hope

Over the past five weeks, I have been sharing the stories of our Capitol View Dwell House participants. To learn more about our Dwell program, please check out our website. If you are interested in financially supporting our Dwell program, you can donate on our website. Please make sure to indicate on your donation that it is directed toward the DOOR Atlanta Dwell program.

Our last Capitol View Resident is Aline and she has taken on the leadership role of “House Leader” in our program. Last year she lived in the Grant Park Dwell House and will reflect on her desire to spend a second year living in intentional Christian community. Aline shared during a common dinner and several other community members chimed in on her reflections. I’ve shared their reflections as well.
~Jannan Thomas, DOOR Atlanta City Director

Last year when I lived in the Grant Park Dwell House there were a lot of difficult times. When I was considering another year in community and looking at being a part of this new community, I was a little burnt out from all that had happened at the Grant Park house. But I believed so strongly in community that I couldn’t give up on it. For me, giving up on community is equivalent of buying a house in Sandy Springs. It would be like selling out. I realized that because I was tired and stressed, there was no other option for me, then to keep living in community.

I was excited to live in Capitol View because of the neighborhood. I knew that there was a desire of the folks in the Capitol View Community to be “in” the neighborhood. I also knew that by living in Capitol View, I would not be able to ignore the struggles people experience. I also knew this would change me somehow.

When I moved into the Grant Park Dwell community last year, I had always wanted to live in community. But I wasn’t very intentional about why I was doing it. I made a really quick decision to live in that community and moved in quickly after I made that decision. I was a complete conflict avoider when I moved into community. As I have been a part of the Dwell program I am seeing the difference in my reactions. I am able to handle conflict and be O.K. with it. Living in community has made me understand and be confronted with my selfishness. My desire to be completely independent in my schedule, my desire to not want to clean up after someone, my desire to do my own thing and not have to do something for someone else. These desires seem out of place when living in community.

Having lived in both the Grant Park house and the Capitol View house has been interesting. Living in Capitol View makes my heart break so much more. In the neighborhood of Grant Park, people look like they are going somewhere. The people around our house in Capitol View break my heart all the time. Living in Capitol View has given me a different perspective. But despite the need that I see, I also see signs of hope. I see people who have lived here for long enough to make the decision to move away, but instead decide to connect with neighbors. Anyone can do something for a year, but when I see people committing for the long haul, that gives me hope. I also hope that if somebody else can make that commitment, than I can do it. Where I struggle is with seeing hope for those in need in our neighborhood. I know there is always hope, but I don’t know how that hope will manifest itself. Hope is found in very small ways. I haven’t seen that hope personally yet, but I believe there is some. Hope is my act of faith…the evident of things not seen.”

As we were talking, Steve, another Capitol View member, chimed in on the topic of hope. He asked: “Is Hope about economic activity?” He then answered his own question. “No, if hope is only about money than people would leave the neighborhood. Hope is when relationships are built across lines of race or socio economic status. People like us tend to think that hope is about getting better economic activity, but that isn’t the whole picture.”

Aline responded to Steve by saying: “Hope is the breaking of destructive patterns. But I know personally how hard this is.”

Steve: “One of the ongoing discussions in the GED program is about students who cause trouble for other students. I believe that if they are holding back other students than we should let them go. We should do what is best for the group. But The Apostle (one of the other leaders of the GED program, along with Steve) will not let those people go. She is much less willing to give up on those folks than I am willing to. She has the tenacity to grab on. She is going to be the person who is not going to give up on you even though you are being a complete jerk. There is hope in that."

Sharon: “I find hope in programs like the GED. I find hope that the GED program will be there over the long haul and God will be there too.”

Kari: “Seeing the hope is sometimes difficult. Sometimes it is easier to hear the gunshots then the peace. “

Living and Serving in Capitol View

The past several weeks, I’ve been sharing the stories of our Dwell House participants. DOOR Atlanta’s Dwell program seeds intentional Christian communities where young adults can put their faith into practice by living together, serving the neighborhood in which they live and creating a routine of spiritual disciplines. The majority of our Dwellers are local folks who are either working or are in school and are creating the space in their lives for exploring their faith, developing deep relationships and being a neighbor as described in the Bible.

Sharon, another one of our Capitol View Dwell house residents, is serving in the Americorp program of Hands on Atlanta this year. Her program places volunteer teams in schools across the City of Atlanta to help with tutoring and other activities for the students in the school. Sharon’s school placement is in Sylvan Hills Middle School, which is the middle school that serves the neighborhood of Capitol View. Below are some of her reflections on living in the same neighborhood as the school she works.

~Jannan Thomas, DOOR Atlanta City Director

“It’s intense living in the same neighborhood where I serve the school. It’s intense because the reality of my students situation does not go away at the end of the day. However, it is also a benefit because I have access to the community where we live in a way that lets me learn more about our neighbors way of life. By “way of life” I mean everything from language to learning styles to religion to emotional needs. Neglect is a really big thing that I see around the school. Especially the attention that a child needs from their parents. When I interact with the community outside of school, I am aware that folks can be part of the extended family of these children. GED tutoring shows me another side of people who didn’t make it through the school system. It helps to gives me perspective on both sides.

Working at Sylvan Hills Middle School is tiring. I frequently lament the emotional pain and the generational violence that seems to plague our community. I am grieved and not able to escape many times the heavy weight of struggles of the community and with my colleagues’ interaction with the community. My housemates have been a great support system as I work in this intense environment. The fact that they do not work in the community helps to get me in a different mindset when I am with them. They have a different experience working in a different part of Atlanta. The community has also been an outlet for me to discuss issues with which I am faced at school and walking on the street.

Despite the struggles, I also see signs of hope in the school through the teachers. They are very patient and have mastered the art of teaching in this community. Teachers in a school like Sylvan Hills Middle School go through a period of having to adjust. Teachers that have adjusted are able to say: “The problem is greater than me, I cannot save everyone, but I have found my niche.” Good teachers enforce discipline but they do it fairly and are able to give positive affirmation. They are able to have a professional demeanor. When the teachers have the students respect it becomes much easier to teach them and they are also better able to discipline them once they earn this respect.

The Principle of Sylvan Hills Middle School, Ms. Atkins, brings in a lot of excellence. Sylvan Hills Middle School has single gender classrooms. Students wear uniforms: Black, white, and gold depending on grade level. The students walk in single file line to class. Many students are eager to learn and I see a lot of hope in the students’ eagnerness to learn. I tutor math, and even though my students are way behind in Math, there resilience in them and I see positive growth in their desire to learn. Even when the resources are limited, they continue to come back and keep trying.

Violence is a way of life in the school. There are a lot of problems with fighting in the school. Students want to be in gangs, they idolize gang members. Teachers have an opportunity to interrupt that cycle. But I’ve learned that gang culture is complicated. Gangs can be a way to survive for some, but gangs can be more and more violent. Guys have to fight their way into a gang. Girls have to have sex to get in. There are always a couple of girls that are pregnant in 8th grade. I always see students who lack guidance and hope, but there are also always teachers who care and want to care for students in a wholistic way.

At first the violence in disciplining students in the school was difficult for me to see. But the longer I am in the school I recognize that some kids need structure and guidance. That kind of structure and discipline seems to work. It is surprising to me that violence is effective, but there is research that supports that kids in poverty responding to more violent types of discipline. I think my surprise around this issue comes from a class difference. At first I was offended by violence because I came from a white, upperclass seminary and we like non-violence practices. But working in a school like this you need to find your inner backbone. You have to be so on top of your game. You have to be an expert in structure. An expert in lesson plans. An expert in getting students from point A to point B. An expert in order to be effective. As a white teacher in an all black school, I needed to find my strengths. My strengths are goofiness, and silliness, but I still need to learn to switch into very strict mode quickly. Teachers that have learned how to do this are most effective.

~Sharon, Capitol View Dwell House Resident

A different way of poverty

I am continuing to share the stories and reflections of the young adults who live in our intentional Christian community program, Dwell. If you are interested in learning more about Dwell, please check out the information on our website.

Also, if you are interested in supporting our Dwell program financially, you can make a donation on our website. Please make sure to indicate that your donation is for the DOOR Atlanta/Dwell program when you donate.

In the last post we met Steve Andrews, one of our Capitol View house members. Steve and his wife Kari both live in our Dwell house. They are newlyweds who got married at the end of August and are living their first year of marriage in intentional Christian community. I asked Kari, who grew up in rural upstate New York, how her experience of rural poverty differs from the urban poverty that she is experiencing while in our Dwell program. Here are her reflections. ~ Jannan Thomas

“Poverty looks very different in rural areas versus urban areas. There are not trailers in the city. The racial diversity is very different. Poverty is more concentrated here. Being able to see trees and large amounts of green grass represents wealth in the city. In the country, there is green space all around, no matter your wealth. This lack of green space makes Capitol View’s local park, Perkerson Park, an oasis in the midst of the desert. Even going for a walk is different in my urban neighborhood. I worry I may get accosted by people here; at home I didn’t have those concerns. Another difference is the role of race in poverty. In upstate New York I don’t represent wealth because of the color of my skin, but here I do. Here, the color of my skin represents so much that I don’t even understand. I don’t understand the social scripts of my new neighborhood yet. I know that my presence at the GED tutoring program can make the participants uncomfortable. There are several people at GED that will never ask me for help. They seem to be afraid of me, but I don’t know why. It has been surprising to me to know that I represent something but I don’t know what it is.

I am also learning how hard it is to actually leave the streets. I want folks in the neighborhood to come to the GED tutoring program, be able to earn their GED and get out of the neighborhood. But I recognize there is an irony in that desire because I have decided to move into the neighborhood. But I think my desire is that they escape a place that has been a trap for them. The trap is not the neighborhood, but the trap is knowledge. For example, not knowing the proper clothes to wear for an interview or having no idea how important it is to get a high school education to do anything. Growing up in upstate New York, I knew there were other options such as culture, literature and history. But the students in the GED program don’t have any perspective on the variety in the world. They are not shown it. Their lack of education prevents them from experiencing the world in a way that is idealistic. Some of the students are so pushed down, that they don’t know anything but crime.

I recognize that my reflections draw broader strokes than are there really. I understand that it is complicated. But I am starting to understand that there is a system that oppresses people and I am starting to understand that that system limits some peoples understanding of their options. I think that the limiting of choices and models gives people less opportunity to be fully human. It is important to know what we are capable of, no matter our socio economic level.”

~Kari, Capitol View Dwell House community member

Our Dwell communities seek to welcome all folks, regardless of their income level, into our communities. If you would like to support our Dwell communities financially, you can donate by credit card on DOOR’s home page. Please make sure to indicate that you are supporting the Atlanta Dwell program.
Steve Andrews is a third year student at Columbia Theological Seminary. He is newly married to Kari Pellegrino (who you will meet in the next blog post). He and Kari attend Ormewood Park Presbyterian Church. Steve is one of the organizers of a GED tutoring program in the neighborhood. Steve will share about how his studies at Columbia Seminary intersect with life at the Capitol View Dwell house and what he has learned from being involved in the GED program. Steve talks a little bit about New Monasticism. Both of our Dwell houses follow the 12 Marks of New Monasticism.

“I am currently doing an independent study about the eschatological views of living in intentional Christian community and I am using the readings that the entire house is doing in that study. I am especially interested in the intersection of how the desert mothers and fathers viewed the desert and how the new monastics view the city. I’ve found that both the experience of living in the house and reading and discussing about new monasticism fit right into my work at the seminary. Most seniors live off campus, so it is not strange that I live in a different neighborhood. But it is important to me to live in a place where I thought that I could do some good. And living in the neighborhood of Capitol View gives me that opportunity. What I’ve learned about Christian faith at seminary tells me that Jesus is a challenging Messiah. Among the things that he challenges us to do is to live in closer community with other people, to conserve our resources, and to be in places where others don’t want to be. Living in the Capitol View house allows me to do all of those things.
My work with the GED program is interesting. There are three of us who are the main organizers of the GED program. One young white Presbyterian male and two middle-aged black women. One of the organizers has a seminary education and one with no seminary training and who is an apostle. We have different experiences that we bring to the conversation. Working with these two women has taught me not to make any pre-judgements about what type of packages people come in. I didn’t see myself working with a charismatic pastor; I didn’t see that we would have a common cause. But we have a really great relationship. Working with the GED program has allowed me to see the things I have learned put into action. In a place like Capitol View things can seem kind of hopeless. But there is all kinds of hope peeping their heads out. In GED class, community happens, relationships are built, Kingdom of God stuff is happening. For awhile I have been interested in intentional Christian community and different and more prophetic ways of being a Christian in the world. I have tried to put those values into action before and haven’t been able to. To be in the Capitol View Dwell house and to be involved in this neighborhood is an opportunity to have the rubber meet the road and see what happens in all of its glory and non glory. I have always seen myself as someone who in ministry would be working outside of the normal places…going to places where other people aren’t going and doing things other people aren’t doing. My experience in Capitol View is confirming that call.”