A City in my Heart

"If you read the Bible cover-to-cover, you'll read that it all starts in a Garden and ends in a City." -Brother Stan

(A view I've grown to love)

This past week I got to serve with a church in the middle of urban Philadelphia. (Walking distance from the Art Museum and the famous Rocky statue.) The church we were working with is planted right on what's called the socioeconomic fault line of Philadelphia. This "fault-line" divides two very different classes of people. To the south of the dividing line (which is literally just one road.) is a group of mostly mid-upper class people/higher income, primarily Caucasian, and to the north is low income, lower class, primarily not Caucasian. Our pastor, (Brother Stan) has a heart to create community and UNITY in that location, because his church is located right on the line of division. He had our team split into two groups, and the other group was sent to University City. (An area near downtown Philadelphia that has two major college campuses and a few community colleges.) My group got to spend a lot of time prayer walking, which is something I had never done a whole lot of. We did a lot of walking in both the north and south sides of the line, and walking around in Fairmount Park (one of the largest urban parks; bigger than Central Park in New York). The park is a hotpsot, and where we had a lot of interaction later in the week.

The most incredible moment of the week, was prayer walking. I've never done a whole lot of that, and what it did, was open my eyes to the needs of the community. When we were walking around the south side, my heart was so burdened for the people, because they had so much. Everything had it's place, everything was neat and orderly, and they were far above their northern neighbors, and you could tell they felt that way. There was just this air of superiority. They had so much, why did they need Jesus? And that's how they feel for the most part. As far as they're concerned, life is pretty good.

When we headed north, it was heart breaking. An environment I would expect to see in third-world countries was all around me. Trash, all over the place, and a stench to match it; side walks that were so hazardous and neglected; children playing in the streets with no adult supervision; houses falling apart; steps literally falling off the front of houses with trash crammed down into them; houses that don't meet code, housing more people than they should. It broke my heart to pieces.

I met two men (and based on our limited conversation, I assume they were brothers) who prided themselves on the fact that their street was "safe". Why? Because of was 2*th street, and all the murders happened on 2*th street, two streets over. These poor men were mad, however, that they were so stereotypically thrown into a trouble making category. Based on race alone, they had been "picked up and spent the morning in jail because authorities in the area have tendencies to 'harass'". One of the men shared that a few years back his wife was "murdered in a crossfire." And these people can't afford to live anywhere safer or better.

To make matters worse for this area, a major budget cut was made, that closed two high schools, a middle and an elementary school. And the remaining schools for the area cut anything "extra", keeping only teachers and food servers. Nurses, coaches, counselors, club leaders, teachers' assistance, etc. As if that wasn't bad enough, major amounts of money was granted for new jails in the area. Why would powers in authority would put money towards failure instead of success is beyond me, but that's how the score has been settled.

God is working in the city, and my prayer is that He lets  me be apart of it. I truly fell in love with this city, and I hope God directs my path back there soon.

In the mean time, I encourage each of you to pray for your city, and ask God to create in you a heart for where you live.

(Pictures to come! :))

~Mal