Why Move In? A Story from Lindsy
Since I do not yet have my own stories to share about the ministry of InnerCHANGE in West Coconut Grove, my teammates have offered to write guest posts for my blog. In this guest post, my teammate Lindsy Wallace reflects on some of her experiences in West Coconut Grove and what it means to do incarnational ministry.
“The extreme dichotomy between beauty and violence is not one I ever want to grow accustomed to, but it is a sweet reminder that God is present even in the midst of extreme darkness. A few days before I took this picture there was a shooting just below these trees, where a family of blue and gold macaws regularly perch.
The shots came from teenagers - warning shots according to our neighbors - and didn't claim any physical victims.
A few days prior there was a shooting a couple houses down from our teammates. The caution taped was tied to a lamppost in their yard and the police camped out out front all night. This shooting occurred between older men who got into a disagreement and decided to solve it with bullets.
When the teenagers started shooting a few days later, I kept asking myself, "If fathers solve disagreements with guns, why wouldn't sons?"
When we see something with our own eyes, we can give testimony to what we have seen. Tragically, the young men in our neighborhood have seen violence, drug abuse and absentee parents. They have seen oppressive poverty and injustice. They have seen arguments settled with bullets... like father, like son.
The common thread weaving all InnerCHANGE missionaries together worldwide is our approach of sharing Christ by living among and ministering alongside the poor. In West Coconut Grove our specific focus is family restoration.
In a neighborhood that has experienced generations of trauma, marginalization, & broken families, many kids have never been to a real life wedding and typically assume any man in a household is only around temporarily.
One piece of our ministry in West Coconut Grove is modeling healthy family. My husband William feels specifically called to disciple young men before the cultural norms of parental abandonment and avoidance of responsibility are ingrained, ultimately pointing them toward God’s “good, pleasing and perfect will” for their lives.
On Tuesdays our team hosts a Book Club for young kids in the neighborhood. It's a great joy to get together with the kids, learn about their lives, play, and help them with their reading skills. William is dyslexic, and because of this, was a little apprehensive the first night he joined our team for Book Club.
"How could God possibly use me to help kids read?"
Christopher* is a seven year old boy who is small in stature but big on energy. Christopher has been given many labels and struggles in school academically and behaviorally.
But this past summer, our trauma camp counselors discovered he does not in fact have a learning disability but rather, his inability to focus and “behave” is due to traumatic events he has witnessed and experienced.
On William's very first night at Book Club, Christopher was wrestling with another child when he got hurt and had a complete meltdown. It was uncomfortable, challenging, and even scary for the Book Club volunteers. As William stepped in to try to calm him, he recalled the hours and hours of training we have received for our own children who have been adopted and experienced trauma in their own short lifetimes.
In a clear moment of grace, William was eventually able to help Christopher calm down.
Since that night, he has gradually become less hardened - and even affectionate - towards William. He is excited to greet William when he arrives to pick Christopher up for the book club. As their relationship with has grown, we've come to realize God has placed William in his life to be a safe, responsible male presence and He is using our experience with our own kids to help boys and girls like Christopher become men and women of God.
In Jesus we see the one-of-a-kind glory of God. We give testimony to who Jesus is because through him, we have seen God with our own eyes. But when you haven't seen something with your own eyes, you cannot give testimony to it. Similarly, the young men and women in our neighborhood have so rarely seen healthy men, women, and families, they simply cannot become them for themselves and their own future children.
This reality is why moving into the neighborhood is so important. It's not as radical as some would suggest, but simply the next step towards living like Jesus lived and loving like Jesus loved. He moved into the neighborhood and showed the world the love of his Father. Jesus gives us and our neighbors a Heavenly Father to behold and we are honored to walk alongside them as we seek Him together.” -Lindsy Wallace
Lindsy Wallace’s Blog: Light Breaks Forth {following Jesus. seeking justice. journeying downward.}
