[this post originally appeared on March 14, 2010 on the website Purple Pastor, and was written by Laurie Hadley, a member of Lake Forest Community Church, and North Mecklenburg H.E.L.P.]
“Sojourn into acting for justice locally” -by Laurie Hadley (baptized at LFC’s one year anniversary, wife, mom, athelete, community leader, kick-butt soccer player sunday nites for lfc)
Sojourn, defined: (n) a temporary stay; (v) to dwell temporarily.
Some of us seem to be born knowing our mission. I live among some of those people and am in awe of them, I envy them. I listen to the teachings of Mike and others, soaking it up and agreeing, yet I have yet to feel laser-focused for God’s purposes.
So it is indeed by definition that I am sojourner with HELP (Helping Empower Local People), supporting the steps that Chad described (in previous blog). But I did not arrive here because I had set my compass on this destination and so aimed to travel here; instead I have wandered here more haphazardly, more on a journey of attempting to discover who I am in God’s kingdom.
My journey of social justice began like many of us at LFC with Room in the Inn. Through that ministry my eyes were eventually opened to some important insights about others, and more importantly about myself. I saw that everyone has a story, and most have fibers of social or familial circumstances woven into their fabric that they would not necessarily have chosen had they been given choices. I found myself restless after serving, imagining conversations with the homeless that delved deep into root causes, their experiences. Room in the Inn left me wondering and curious about systemic issues versus personal responsibility and choices. As much as I loved knowing that these folks were taken care of for one night, there was something inside me nearly screaming to do more, to understand more.
It was during one of these seasons of restlessness for me that a woman came to speak from International Justice Mission at Lake Forest on a Sunday, telling stories of freeing people from lives of slavery and human trafficking. I went home frustrated that my life was so – NORMAL. Empty the dishwasher, make lunch, sit in a heated house to do my Bible study without the risk of anything, blah, blah. I wanted to pop. It was shortly after this day that Mike emailed about the formation of HELP and asked if I was interested. I confess to showing up at the first HELP meeting thinking that we were going to save all future Filipino generations from the threat of sexual slavery or some other grand and compelling mission, yet I believe that there are no coincidences. (note to self….do better preliminary research. HELP stands for Helping Empower LOCAL people…duh!!) I was interested in HELP’s mission, their methodology, so I listened and agreed to participate in HELP’s local listening campaign.
The listening campaign, as Chad described (in the previous blog), involved HELPers asking the simple question of our friends and neighbors about what concerned them, about their fears for our community, about what they would be willing to do to change things if they could. This was an ironic beginning in itself because I am notorious for talking and a shamefully poor listener. The listening campaign was at first difficult for me to embrace. I felt that, in relation to many situations in our world, we simply don’t have problems so what would I hear if I asked people? I imagined a conversation in which someone told me that their biggest concern was that their neighbor’s grass was too long, that their dog barked too much, or that they didn’t take their garbage cans in from the curb in a timely manner. In my imagination, my response to this was neither Christlike nor helpful.
I was delighted to find that there were many people thinking similar, bigger things. Their concerns resonated with our own: “What can we do to stop the exodus from CMS into charter and private schools that is draining money from CMS and making matters worse for the majority?”, ”We would like to believe in public education but don’t want our own children being the martyrs for our cause.”, “We want to send our kids to high school here but not at the risk of them being unsafe.” The idea that HELP may embrace big, honkin’ issues like schools and teen centers inspired me.
So I learned that my issues, frustrations, fears as a parent were similar to others. When all HELPers submitted the responses that they had collected from the community, it was an enlightening compilation of real thoughts (from 15 diverse churches, with 900 people in LKN). More importantly, I was once again in a position to sit back and listen and learn, to have a window into the lives of some of the people that live here. I was surprised to learn about what concerned others. Frankly I didn’t even know what weatherization was, much less that it was a top concern for some of our population (see Chad’s previous blog, that we acted upon last Saturday).
Because HELP has identified weatherization as our first focal point as a group, I find myself standing shoulder to shoulder on this journey with the power and collective voice of HELP and the faith community. For now, it quells the frustration and allows me to labor alongside and learn from my fellow journeymen.
