Thoughts on Poverty

Through the course of these past weeks, the topics of the poor and/or poverty have come up in several conversations and my understanding of the subject has expanded and shifted. There is no doubt more to poverty than meets the eye. Most often we think of poverty in terms of material lack. But is that all there is to this brokenness called poverty?

This past week at our Wednesday night gathering at “The House” (Kris, Jeudy and my house) with our  neighbors, Jeudy and Becca shared about their experience on short missions trips to Mexico. They touched on how through connecting with individuals in the communities they visited in Mexico, they saw incredible faith and intense joy in a place one might not expect; in lives gripped by the unyielding hand of material poverty. A place of beautiful reliance on God, when they had nothing else to rely on. Maybe Jesus know what He was talking about when He shared the beatitudes with us…

A second conversation about poverty occurred at our bi-weekly Community Fellows training where we  discussed a chapter out of the book, “When Helping Hurts,” by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. (I would recommend this book to EVERYONE) The chapter was entitled “What’s the problem?” and included a whole new perspective and definition of poverty. A perspective shared from the material poor themselves. They shared about poverty primarily in terms of, “shame, inferiority, powerlessness,
humiliation, fear, hopelessness, depression, social isolation, and voicelessness.” This starkly contrasted my initial thoughts on poverty and the poor. For them it was less about the physical things they lacked and more about the mental and perspective repercussions of the material lack. This is a HUGE and necessary paradigm shift. I realized that for me, as long as poverty remained cornered in the physical realm, I could ignore the true relational poverty I was dwelling in.

“Poverty is the result of relationships that do not work, that are not just, that are not
for life, that are not harmonious or enjoyable. Poverty is the absence of shalom in all
its meanings”
-Bryant L. Myers

Poverty can look just like me… or you.

Sin is the root, and inceptor of this prideful perspective I so often can have of myself.
I love being self-sufficient and okay--- ALL THE TIME. It is underneath that façade
of collectedness and self-sufficiency that my poverty is exposed. I am really good
at convincing myself I don’t need anybody. This is my brokenness and my struggle.
I was made for community with creation, others and myself, yet I make choices
every day that deepens and widens the chasm between myself and the shalom God
desires.

Thank God for my neighbors, the needs they have exposed in me, and the
opportunity to live in community with them.

I need them.

-Rob VerWys

Bella 2012

This past Saturday, August 4^th, I saw two months of phone calls, emails, volunteer meeting, coordinating, assigning jobs, hoping & praying finally come together.  I am pleased and humbled to say that Bella was a success! I had so much support from different members of the community, and it was a huge blessing for me to see so many aspects of the city of Bellflower come together on that day.

After the craziness of a 3-hour setup process in the blistering heat (thank you to my 12:00 PM volunteers!), running around making sure all of the artists and musicians had everything they needed, and about a hundred phone calls asking me, “Where are you? Where’s the extension cord? Are we out of tape?” etc., there was a point during the event where I got to sit down.  Sitting still, I saw people milling about that I didn’t know, which was comforting after weeks of fear that only my friends and family would show up.  I saw volunteers putting painstaking effort into giving kids the perfect, intricate face paint creation they were asking for.  I saw the members from InJOY Life Resources, Inc. (injoyliferesources.com) performing on stage and getting to be stars—a rare occasion for them.  I saw neighbors playing tag on the grass and others sitting in the shade enjoying the music, still others at one of the booths learning how to paint on canvas.  Through all of this I realized, after so much planning and preparation, “Today is a fun day!” 

Looking around at all that was going on, I saw people having a good time, and that was enough for me.  As I reflected on the event, I knew that Bella 2012 may not have been the same Bella we had in the past—different coordinator, different event.  It may have been smaller and it may have had a different vibe—I really don’t have anything to compare it to.  But this is good for me; a friend once taught me that comparison is the thief  of joy.  So I rest in the fact that summer is over, I put my heart into Bella, and I saw the Lord bless our work in multiple ways—for that I am so thankful.  Glory to Him!

Building Community at the Friendship Manor

For this summer, my main focus was to promote community outreach at the Bellflower Friendship Manor. Once a week, I planned social activities for the residents to get acquainted with new people that live within and outside the Manor. At first, I was intimidated by meeting the residents from the Manor because I didn’t know how they would feel about me coming to visit them. I also felt worried that I wouldn’t have anyone come to the activities. I stopped myself from thinking these negative thoughts and just prayed because I was worrying too much and not leaning on my all powerful God. 

On the first day of social activities a group of 8 people came, and that was more than enough for me :). As the weeks continued, more people came to each activity. These activity days were my chance in getting to know the residents and developing new friendships. By the end of my internship I was able to plan a Talent Show for the residents... and it turned out to be a huge success! I had plenty of participants and it was an awesome feeling to see how much talent my new friends had. My internship at Kingdom Causes was an amazing time in which I was able to develop relationships, serve, and minister the Bellflower Community. This summer my heart got overfilled with joy and something I will never forget!

-Janet Melara

Big Things Are Happening in Bellflower

Kingdom Causes Bellflower (KCB) has hosted many community building events this summer. Just this last weekend KCB’s Bella Art Fest 2012 took place. It was one of those picturesque summer days where kids laugh as they run about, local bands play in the background, and the warm sun caresses your face making it impossible to not smile. People came from blocks around to join the giant community party with musical performances from InJOY, five artist’s booths, and art competitions. Seeing Bellflower’s community members come together and use their talents for everyone’s enjoyment was inspiring.

Events like this one is just another reason why I am so thankful to have had been part of KCB’s internship team. This organization has allowed me to see God’s movement through the city of Bellflower and how he transforms lives in ways that only He can. I will surely miss this place.

Written by: Jannelle Aguirre

Is It Really Over?

As last week came to an end, it finally hit me that our art class for the summer was over. I had spent 3 weeks getting to know some of the kids in the community and building sweet relationships with each one. I wanted to be excited that the stress and overwhelmed feeling that came each Tuesday and Thursday was finally over, but all I felt was sadness and uncertainty not knowing if I would ever see these kids again. Each child that attended our art class brought something unique to make the class feel so alive and full of life. And without knowing each one helped me grow each week. Some kids with their quirky sense of humor would make me laugh in the midst of chaos, others with their over-dramatic complaining taught me patience, and some with their gentle and quiet spirit taught me to remain calm. My wish is that I could tell each one how special and unique they truly are and how they helped me grow, unfortunately I do not think they will ever know how much they impacted my life this summer.

Written by: Cori Aguayo

Keeping Our Hands to The Plow

“This grass is pretty much DEAD.” I heard my neighbor mutter to herself from my open window.

As I peered from my upstairs window, I saw her struggle in our front yard to set up the sprinkler.

A little context about me and Laura’s place in the lovely Ramona neighborhood. It’s located at the very end of a town home complex. What makes our building unique is that we share a big lawn with a couple of our neighbors.

When we moved in June. The grass was completely dead. Brown and dry. No signs of life. I figured it was pointless to try to bring it back to its former glory.

So here I stood watching in amazement as my neighbor is watering our grass! I thought it was pretty cool, but I wasn’t sure it would work.

Later on in the week when I ran into her again, I asked her what prompted her to start watering the grass.

This neighbor in particular has lived in the complex the longest (over 10 years) She explained to me that the lawn used to be beautiful and well taken care of but recently it has fallen into despair and neighbors just stopped caring for it. She just wanted to make it look nice again, even if it meant watering it every day.

A light bulb went off in my head. I talked to her about us making a schedule to water the grass together.

Since we moved in, one of my biggest struggles and questions when it came to building authentic relationships with my neighbors was How in the world do I get past that initial awkwardness and small talk?!

You know what I’m talking about. The awkward moment when you see a neighbor and you stop to make small talk and it lasts for a minute or two and then you completely run out of questions to ask or things to say so you stand there in awkward silence. Then you awkwardly excuse your self and retreat to your house and cry over that horrible experience over a giant tub of chocolate ice cream and try to regroup?

Wait. Is that just me? No, this scenario doesn’t happen to me all the time. Okay, if you can’t tell, I like to incorporate sarcasm and humor in my writing (often I do a poor job!) so please bear with me! J

But the point is, overcoming this has been at times very, very frustrating.

But working out a schedule to water the grass with my neighbor gave me an opportunity to potentially develop a deeper relationship with her just by taking the next step and offering to DO something with her. And when you think about it, aren’t the best relationships formed when you work towards a specific goal?

I will share that the first couple of weeks in the Ramona neighborhood had been rough. New people, a new environment. We were the new kids on the block. It seemed hopeless. I had a beautiful vision for this neighborhood. A thriving neighborhood where people felt known, loved, and cared for. Where relationships were based on empowering and encouraging each other. I wanted to pour into others as well as learn from my neighbors. I was confused how God would work through Laura and I to achieve this vision. 

But he is. Even in the past two weeks alone, God has blessed us with amazing opportunities to interact with our neighbors. And what is even more amazing is that many our fellow neighbors are believers who have encouraged us to keep our hand to the plow and strive and preserve to provide a glimpse of kingdom in our own back yard.

So how does all this connect with community development? Just like our dead grass…we must tend to it. Taking the time to care for it by watering it, assessing its needs, getting our hands dirty etc. But most of all we must have patience.

I do desire for one day our neighborhood to be a thriving place just like those I read in all those amazing community development books. But just because I can’t see it yet, doesn’t mean that God isn’t in the Ramona neighborhood. He’s been here long before me and Laura moved in.

My prayer is that we can work along side our neighbors tend to the ‘yard’ and make it a place of growth and life.

And just for the record, it’s only been two weeks since we started watering the grass daily and it sure is green!

Keeping my hand to the plow,

Rachel

Front Desk Nerves

When the interns and I entered into Kingdom Causes and Our Place Housing Solutions’ offices, one of the weekly roles we were given was to run the front desk. When I first heard about this role, I was very anxious about taking calls and matching the right resources to their needs. But through time, support from others in the office, and familiarizing myself with the massive resource binder, that front desk went from the nerve-racking front desk to simply the front wooden desk.

That desk has become a place where I can get to know members from the community of Bellflower. Sometimes that looks like just listening to their stories, other times it is helping them troubleshoot with the computers in the front room. But no matter what, I can always look forward to meeting someone from Bellflower who will change my day and has something to share with me.

Written by: Jannelle Aguirre

Accepting Community

I am sitting here thinking how I can’t believe this internship is about to come to a close, how working two jobs has made this the fastest summer of my life.  Each time I finish a season, I try to reflect on what I learned, what was valuable about that time & what I discovered about myself.  I feel like as I continue to “grow up”, it seems I need to learn the same things over and over again.  This summer, my supervisor here at KCB gave me the charge of planning Bella Art Fest 2012.  I was slightly terrified, but decided to be optimistic and hit the ground running.  Bella is this Saturday August 4^th—we’ve held volunteer meetings, purchased supplies, created layouts and rounded up volunteers, artists and musicians in a frenzy to pull this thing off, and here we are two days away! In the craziness of sending what feels like a thousand emails a day, getting excited, disappointed, stressed out, and calmed down, what I’ve learned is that it is really difficult for me to ask for help.  I think at my deepest point, my truest self, I believe that I am Superwoman.  Even though I know how much I need to rely on others and rely on Jesus, the simple humility of needing help is difficult for me to accept.  I want to have it all together, to be the capable one, to be excellent at everything I take on (can you tell I’m a firstborn yet?)  But what happens when I seek to do everything myself is emotional breakdowns, fear of failure, and distance from Jesus.  I think this summer it “clicked” for me, that if I want to be involved in Kingdom work, I need to accept and understand partnership.  I need to not just say that I need others, but get really comfortable in the position of needing others, and work on identifying the places where I lack in order to accept help, to accept community. 

Written by: Michelle Roberts 

Overwhelmed, Yet Blessed

 Just a few weeks ago I had my first art class for the children in the community. I had spent most of my time in the beginning of this internship preparing for this day. Words could not express the enthusiasm and anticipation I felt as the first day approached. I could not wait to see how everything was going to turn out. I had heard from a few parents how excited their children were to attend the class. But Abbey and Manny, my supervisors, had sweetly warned me not to worry if only a few students showed up the first day. In the past years the class average was about 10-15 kids. Naturally, I only prepared for about 15 kids at the most.

As the day arrived I was praying that at least 5 would show up, especially since I had 10 volunteers. Manny kindly reminded me throughout the day that the kids would show up and not to worry. The time finally came for the class to start. I had 10 eager volunteers staring at me, then at the door, then at me again. Panic was slowly starting to set in. As we waited patiently the kids started to trickle in one at a time. Then out of nowhere there was a line outside the door of the KCB Community Center. I had a total of 33 kids the first day of the art class, but I was only prepared for 15! The entire hour and half I was overwhelmed trying to make sure every kid knew what he/she was doing, talking to parents, and making sure all the kids were signed in. It must have had a frantic look on my face because Manny continuously reminded that the only thing that mattered was that the kids had a fun time. As I kept this in mind, I would step back, take a breath, and just watch as the kids colored with oil pastels with giant smiles on their faces. It was then that I realized that the feeling of being overwhelmed, stressed, and anxious was completely unnecessary but worth it to see the smiles and hear the laughter that surrounded me.

   

 Written by: Cori Aguayo

Trucks, Equipment, and Fresh Beginnings

Today Kingdom Causes Bellflower’s (KCB) office was buzzing with commotion and swarming with Good Soil Industries’ (GSI) green shirts. The energy from the sixteen GSI employees’ excitement was spreading quickly through the office.

They were briefed and before sending them out to their project sites, Joel, the program leader, spoke about the simple philosophy behind that day’s work, “God created us to work, and that is what Good Soil Industries is equipping you to do”. That to me was a perfect illustration of the kind of work done through the initiatives at KCB; an infusion of faith and community-building efforts commonly shared by the body of workers.

Written by: Jannelle Aguirre