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| Farr & Kimberly |
This past Sunday Farr and Kimberly Curlin shared about their work in urban Chicago with the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA). The National Conference for the CCDA is coming to Raleigh September 24-27. To learn more about how you can become involved with the conference either by attending or volunteering (or both!), visit our website.
Here is Farr and Kimberly's story:
Farr:
Kimberly and I lived nine years in Chicago’s
Lawndale neighborhood, just a few blocks from the offices of the Christian
Community Development Association (CCDA).
CCDA is a network of Christians who live in some of America’s
neediest neighborhoods so that people can be restored to God and each other.
In Lawndale we observed among our friends and neighbors many
examples of what CCDA is about: Ordinary Christians choosing to live and become
good neighbors in somewhat tough neighborhoods, and in
many cases seeing God do extraordinary things. We’ll briefly describe just two
examples:
Rob and Amy Castaneda moved into South Lawndale in 1998, the
same year I moved there, to be near the public school where Amy would be
teaching. Shortly thereafter, Rob observed gang members flashing guns outside
their home. When police arrived, Rob showed them where the gang members had
hidden their guns behind a car. Over the next two weeks, gang members twice set
fire to the Castaneda’s house and repeatedly threatened to kill them. Rob and
Amy refused to leave in the face of the threat. In fact, they doubled down to
get more involved in our community.
Rob started coaching the basketball team at the school where
Amy taught. He got permission to open the school gym on Saturdays and
weekday evenings, where he began to host what quickly became a nearly constant
schedule of basketball clinics and leagues for youth. As Rob and Amy tell it:
"A community was formed within that school space—a safe
place where rival gang members played together, and kids sat on the sidelines
talking about life. Friendships were made across racial and cultural lines. The
relationships with youth that began on a court grew deeper and spread
throughout the neighborhood. Thriving under the influence of positive role
models, youth discovered how to participate in their community in a responsible
way. Beyond the Ball was born.”
Out of Rob and Amy’s insistence on loving their neighbors,
an organization has grown up that has changed the face of our old neighborhood,
involving more than 1000 children last year. And Rob and Amy are giving those
children a vision for coming back to Little Village, as our old neighborhood is
called. Several of the boys who I played basketball with 12 years ago when he
started his after-school basketball program are now school teachers and
professionals who have chosen to live in the neighborhood and continue to serve
its members together.
Notably, Rob and Amy have lived this adventure while working
in the marketplace—Amy as a school teacher, Rob as a low voltage wiring
contractor.
Kimberly:
Our friends Laura and Brent Michel have lived on
Avers Avenue, a block south of the CCDA offices, for over ten years. As
Neighbors on Avers Avenue, they began by inviting kids into their backyard to
play basketball and yard games. Backyard games grew into summer VBS in
partnership with another like-minded neighbor, and then into an after school
club. While running these activities Laura felt called to invest in three
young girls, sisters, for the long haul. She has mentored them, helped
them seek out opportunities in and around the city, and channeled monetary
donations to the girls’ tuition at a local private Christian school. All this
while working and raising her own three children.
Of note: A few years ago Laura rallied her neighbors to turn
three vacant lots into a community garden. The property had become a trash
dump. After trying to contact the legal owner to clean it up, she and her
neighbors took matters into their own hands. It is a beautiful garden
today, full of fruits and vegetables, a track around the outer rim, and even
playground equipment which she and her neighbors won through a local news
contest for people making a difference in their communities.
These are just two of the many examples we saw of people
discovering extraordinary grace to be good neighbors and becoming true salt and
light in an underserved neighborhood. If you attend the CCDA conference, you’ll
hear meet many people like the Michels and Castanedas and perhaps discover your
own call to love your neighbors in one of the more underserved neighborhoods in
Raleigh.
For the last few weeks we have been reading through the book of Philippians together. One of the marks of Paul's letter to the church at Philippi is that he is proud of them and finds great joy in the way they are living out their faith. C.S. Lewis wrote, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” It seems as though the church at Philippi lived this quote. They allowed their faith to impact the way they viewed everything about their world. Yet, Paul encourages them to "work out their salvation with fear and trembling." How does that exhortation hit you? What does it mean to work out your salvation? 
