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Let me see if I can frame this quandry that I find myself in as I try to understand how to best position my (our) faith within the context of DurhamCares.
Maybe its best if I take this back to how this all got started. The idea was to apply the lessons learned at Bandwidth.com to more directly glorify His Kingdom. These lessons included: Read the rest of this entry »
As many of you know, DurhamCares, got it’s start this year. We’ve been remarkably heartened at the response that we’ve gotten from the community and are doubly committed to continuing our work as we all seek to serve and transform Durham. Recently we’ve gotten together to talk about further defining and refining our mission, vision, values and strategic objectives. It’s of course very important that we, who insist on this from the organizations that we promote on this website, practice what we preach. I should note before I go much further that we’re still a relatively small group…….There’s Henry and David (co-founders of DurhamCares and of Bandwidth.com), Heather Jones (Senior Program Manager for Workplace Outreach) and Mike Schneider who fills many roles but principally focuses on content along with our web developer Pete, and on college outreach.
As we’ve gotten together to talk about long term planning, resource allocation and the mission/vision/strategy mentioned above, we thought that it might be helpful to document this process, and in fact much of what happens at DurhamCares in a blog. The hope here is that others from the community will weigh in on what we’re discussing in our internal meetings and what we are seeing and hearing in our external meetings. We haven’t yet really turned on the promotion engine so our expectations on how many folks will contribute is in check, but we’re hopeful that as folks spend time on the site that they’ll let us know what they are thinking, seeing, hearing and doing in Durham. What’s working and what’s not, etc. etc. So without further adieu…..welcome to the new, much more frequent, and hopefully very interactive blog!!! Please let us know what you think!
Durham has it’s challenges, but the number of non profits doesn’t seem to be one of them. A trip to your mailbox or some basic internet research will tell you that there are hundreds of organizations in our city that are all looking to address some need as they vie for our checkbook. Most, if not all, of them are run with people with great hearts. Are they all being run with great minds, though? God tells us to love him with all of our hearts AND our minds. The Parable of the Talents talks about how a sound mind helps us to make the most of the opportunities that God has given us. This lesson seems to be missed too often, but those who try to apply it/teach it are met with understandable resistance. Criticism of folks that give their lives to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless and educate our youth, of course, is never popular. Read the rest of this entry »
John Perkins is in town for an event hosted by the New Beginnings Outreach. For those of you who don’t know Dr. Perkins, he is a famous Christian veteran of the Civil Rights Movement and the author of the famous book, “Let Justice Roll Down.” He is widely considered to be an expert in the realm of racial reconciliation and urban communities. He was born in 1930 and grew up on a plantation as a sharecropper in Mississippi. The man is inspiring. He is humble and most of all, he is wise.
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I recently met a great woman. I know how that sounds, so I’ll be clear….Not the GREAT woman that I met 14 years ago that’s become my wife, but a great woman nonetheless. Her name is Lydia Baker and she works for Durham’s Parks and Recreation Department in Gang Outreach and for Reality Ministries at their new Community Center across the street from the Durham School for the Arts.
I am just back from a trip to the Holy Land. David and I took our fathers for a week tour of Israel and Jordan; an absolutely incredible adventure. I can’t properly describe (and it’s not just because I’m a novice writer) what it felt like to see and be in the places (Capernaum, Nazareth, Canaa, Jerusalem among others) that Jesus walked in. It made me have a much greater appreciation for the humanity of Jesus. One thing I now know absolutely is that he must have been in shape with some great quads…the hillside surrounding Galilee and Jerusalem is remarkably steep…think San Francisco steep.
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I’ll never forget this Thursday.
It started with an event for Durham Business Leaders during which UNC’s Bobby Jones shared his testimony and led us all in prayer. He’s a wonderful man. I didn’t get the official count, but I think that attendance was nearly 1,000.
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It’s our hope that today, Opening Day, April 11, 2008 will mark the date for an inflection point in the heart and spirit of our wonderful city. We don’t think for a second that we’re going to be able to make this difference on our own, but together with YOU we very much think we can. We’ve got great aspirations for DurhamCares, but many of those hopes ultimately come from our belief that we’re all a part of something much greater. We believe that God is moving in our great city and that we have an incredible opportunity to honor Him by heralding some of Durham’s great charities and encouraging our citizens to give of their time and money in a way that stretches them AND rewards them.
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DurhamCares.org | Address 3708 St. Mark's Road, Durham, NC 27707 | (919) 246-5444 | care@durhamcares.org
