grace covered, full of hope.

i spent this weekend in south minneapolis with a group of 30 or so young people. The goal of the weekend was to get us immersed in urban culture and people, diversity- and looking at the face of the poor- to get us really thinking about our own stereotypes and challenging us to put those into the light.

my feelings going into the weekend were mixed. i knew this was where i needed to be, but there was a fear and anxiousness- my own selfishness vs. humility and sacrifice. “What do I have to offer these people?” I was afraid of getting lost. Afraid of being taken advantage. Afraid of being alone in a place where I was not comfortable. I was not yet a friend of south minneapolis, only an acquaintance.

we slept on the floor of hope community church, an old powerhouse near the light rail and metrodome. the group first traveled to the Global Market, and spent some time at a panel of 20-somethings talking about life in the heart of the city. On Saturday morning, we woke up with the quiet of the morning sun and sang simple worship chords to God and shared with each other a prayer of hope. We were told about a mysterious “spiritual exercise” that we’d be doing. mark called it ‘listening to the city’ and he told us to either go alone or in groups of two and jump on the light rail and just go anywhere- walk around, pray, listen, respond, journal…. and at the end of it, based on our time of meditation and prayer for the city, he asked us to write a poem- our style.

We were asked to prayerfully meditate over these questions:
- What do you see that is out of the ordinary?
- Where do you see signs of injustice or evil?
- Where do you see glimmers of hope?
- Look into people’s faces… What look do you see on their faces?
- Notice the church buildings…do they seem like inviting places? Or distant places?
- Where are all the people hanging out?
- How would Jesus connect with the people there?
- How many different sorts of people do you see?
- As you experience South Minneapolis, how do you feel?
- What do you think God thinks about what you’ve seen?

I jumped on the light rail with Helen and we went down to Hennepin, as far as it would go, and got off. We walked and listened and thought out loud and observed. I was beginning to get to know her, this beautiful city inside a hard shell- was really beautiful and fragile and intricate. but we were not yet friends, only acquaintances.

We came back in the afternoon to get together with our ‘Urban Experiences’ groups. We had about seven opportunities to choose from to spend our Saturday afternoon. Here they are:

Take a ride on the “Hospitality Train.” The Hospitality Train is an exploration of street hospitality where folks load up bike trailers and trikes, bringing fresh ingredients and high quality portable cooking equipment to feed people delicious vegan food.

Help prepare the Missio Dei Urban Garden for planting. The Missio Dei community operates a city-plot sized urban garden where they grow food for their various hospitality ventures.

Help with the Marie Sandvik kids club–a South Minneapolis program offering meals, bible lessons, crafts, games, and singing to local children.

Join a small group going to a park to play basketball with local youth.

Spend the afternoon meeting area homeless on the street and buy them lunch.

Experience one of the most diversely populated places in the US as you take a learning tour from the West Bank to Little Earth, a 212-unit housing development for Native Americans.

Students have the option of going on a resource-less scavenger hunt. Without any money or anything of value, students would go off on their own to accomplish things on a list like “go to a restaurant and get some food” or “try to get $5 from a person on the street” or any number of things that help students understand what it is like to try to live well without any resources.

I chose to go to Little Earth to do service learning. Alot of the experience involved walking- and listening as we took a guided tour with the people who live and breathe this culture. This is one of the most diversely populated places in the US. We began near the Riverside Plaza (the heart of the West Bank…known to locals as the “Crack Stacks” or “Little Mogadishu” to Little Earth.

Little Earth is a 212-unit housing development for Native Americans. We met two wonderful people who took time to share with us their experiences and wisdom. Margaret is the executive director for the Dakota Ojibwe Language Revitalization Alliance. Here were some of the things she shared:

During the 1865 treaties, the Ojibwe nation was being forced to move west into Dakota land (MN, SD, ND), and there was strife over these areas. There are 11 tribes in MN (4 Dakota, most on the rivers, and 7 Ojibwe tribes). The Dakota people use the same word for “mother” that they use for all of the mother’s sisters- so you can imagine how well the children are cared for. They have many mothers.

In 1862, during the Dakota wars, Governor Ramsey forced many native tribes to leave MN, they were forced into areas of South and North Dakota, and Canada – and many live there to this day. Christian boarding schools began trying to assimilate native people to the European/Christian culture and forced many children to change their names to Christian names like ‘David,’ or ‘James’ or ‘Peter.’ Speaking the Dakota language became illegal- many children had fingers cut off or were beaten for speaking Dakota or Ojibwe in their classrooms.

Margaret is working now to protect what she calls an “endangered language.” The Dakota language. There are only 9 fluent Dakota speakers in the state of Minnesota, so she believes it is essential to teach and train children to speak it with freedom and pride.

We met another man named Kristian who is the Youth Director for the youth drop-in center within Little Earth. He was an eloquent man, with alot of charisma and passion. He talked about the difference between enabling people and empowering them. How handouts are different than life skills and education. He said that alot of the young ones hide behind culture to excuse their wrong behavior. When they do something wrong, they say, “It’s because I’m Indian, isn’t it.” He always says, “No. It’s because you made a choice that was wrong. Your culture has nothing to do with that choice.”

It was interesting for him to hear that we were students from InterVarsity, a Christian organization. He talked about the the scars of the past that were placed on his people in the name of this tainted form of Christianity, about grandpas and grandmas who are still pissed because they are missing fingers. He said one thing very profound:

“Religion and spirituality are two very different things. Religions is all about specifics. You go to a specific place at a specific time for a specific reason with specific people. But spirituality is about getting up in the morning and thanking your Creator that you are alive and have been given another day.”

He warned us that the hurt is still there, but encouraged us to keep doing what we doing, changing stereotypes and working with the kids.

After this the group as a whole came back to the church and spent time sharing our experiences and reading our poems to each other. Then Helen, Anna and I jumped on the light rail and went over to the West Bank, to an African restaurant called Tam Tam’s. We ate like queens- Ugali, chapati, injero ‘n’ wot, lentil sambosas, goat stew, mmmmmm….. it was wonderful.

we spent the evening with the whole group in the theatre district- we went to a show at Bedlam Theatre called “You’re No Fun,” and it was just wonderful. I could not stop laughing- it was simple and cute- but there was so much talent on that stage, I was really impressed.

This morning, the three of us girls decided to go to a church called “Sanctuary Covenant.” It was so fun. The worship team was huge, so diverse, so many people groups represented, people with so much joy and flavor and passion and excitement. Two people on the drums, one with a set and the other with bongos, a keyboard, saxophone, guitars, singers- it was just so alive. I had so much fun, I was dancing in my seat. Pastor Efrem Smith shared about the importance of being Christ-minded, driven for his purposes in a culture that wants us only to look to ourselves and our personal gain. It was wonderful. I was so encouraged to see the distinct beauty of reconciliation in action. God so placed that on my heart for Seattle. I want that so much for the people of Seattle, because God’s heart IS to reconcile people to each other, and to reconcile people to Himself!

A- stinkin- MEN!