We had a great time today heading out to Market Street in Downtown Durham and handing out some very tasty Locopops to about 125 neighbors!!  If you haven’t tried them yet you should, and even more you should know that Summer and Connie who own the place are all about Durham.

We’ll plan more events like this so you can meet your neighbors in Durham, check out a cool local business that loves Durham, and meet us here at DurhamCares and learn a bit more about what we do.  Fan us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on the 4-1-1.

What should be next?  Free taco from Guajillo’s?  Free pastry from Daisy Cakes? Free Only Burger?  Send your favorite suggestions our way! Thanks Connie and Summer and Locopops for a great afternoon!

Join us for the next one. http://www.durhamcares.org/index.php/trips

That's right! We're going to do it! We have the opportunity to get the word out about the DurhamCares Success Grant program that's revolutionizing the way people give money to non-profits in the community, and if we're successful Henry's hair will be sacrificed for the cause and our entertainment.

Next Friday, May 8th, at 3pm we will shave Henry's hair down to almost nothing, and if you have seen how long it is lately you'll know this is no small undertaking!! We'll video the whole thing and post it shortly after the deed is done.

However, the clippers only start clipping if by Thursday May 7th we mobilize and get 300 people to make one or more Success Grant pledges at www.durhamcares.org/index.php/grant

No money or credit card is required now, and any pledge amount is great but there have to be 300 new people participating by the end of the day next Thursday 5/7. This is all about getting the word out about the Success Grant program and the new way to give money locally and connect its impact in the community. Henry has a video blog explaining Success Grants that you can check out.

So, game on. Tell your friends, neighbors, loved ones, and anyone with access to the internet and let's get at least 300 people pledging so that Henry needs a little extra SPF on his noggin this summer. 

This past week was a great encouragement to me as we powerfully experienced the diversity and unity of God's ongoing handiwork in Durham. Wednesday, September 10th was a marker for us in Reality Ministries. We somewhat stumbled into the school season at our new Reality Center (at the corner of Gregson and Lamond), having made just enough improvements to welcome our adolescent friends. For the first two weeks a few after school visitors came by every day to shoot hoops, play ping pong, get tutoring, etc. The regulars were white, middle class students; we were thankful, but not satisfied, especially since our desire is to reach kids on the margins. We were convinced that before we got too far down the road to homogeneity, we needed a trajectory-altering event to introduce The Reality Center to a wider and more diverse population.

Last Wednesday's Grill and Chill event was everything we hoped for and more. Dozens of kids showed up after the half-day for Durham Public Schools; they were young people of all types from all different schools. It looked like a microcosm of Durham in the Great Room during the basketball tournament; the racial demographic was reflective of the city.

But one of the most gratifying parts of the day to me was the representation of at least five different groups who want to help kids in Durham. On that afternoon at The Reality Center we had youth workers from Urban Hope, The Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club, Child Evangelism Fellowship and our upstairs tenants New Horizons working alongside our Reality Ministries staff. What a collaboration, what a joy!

We didn't have to compare notes to see if we preached the gospel the same way or had similar theologies of conversion, we didn't have to ask one another if infant baptism was preferred, we simply didn't have to make a point of distinguishing ourselves from the other. All of us want adolescents to know Jesus Christ; all believe they are hopeless without him.

In our efforts to reach the multitudes of teenagers in Durham, we have two choices, uniformity or unity-with-diversity. Uniformity is easier, although severely limiting, because the goal is to find other groups who get to the same end in the same way. Unity-with-diversity is much more difficult and downright messy at times, but the effort to love one another in spite of differences in the body of Christ is itself a great testimony to the Lord. Sometimes we adapt to become more similar in order to make things work, other times this is not possible. What is possible, however, is the ability to follow our mutual leader and head and to march under his banner. It's messier, but it's worth it, and it smacks of the Kingdom of God.

The Grill and Chill inaugurated the beginning of my memorable week, but perhaps the very best picture of the Kingdom of God at the Reality Center came six days later. Almost forty of our young friends with cognitive disabilities, African-American, Caucasian, Asian, Indian, Latino - they all gathered for the first of our Tuesday Night Live meetings. Each of our guests was matched up with an able-bodied "buddy." These buddies provided a beautiful tapestry of service; they are Durham's church people from an untold number of denominations and congregations. All present joined in a cacophony of worship and listened to Susan McSwain talk about the Spirit of the welcoming Father and the gentle invitation of Jesus. The diversity was rich, the unity was thick, the joy was deep. If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and in purpose (Philippians 2:1-2).

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.

He talked about Durham’s great past…a past he implored us all to derive inspiration from and to work hard to resurrect.  I asked him what he thought it would take to restore the level of civic pride that Durham once had.  His answer surprised me in its simplicity and in its delivery, as he replied without hesitation.  

He said that the return of civic pride, particularly from economic resurgence would come from a work ethic instilled in Durham’s youth from a very early age.  Just so that we got the point, he quoted a famous nursery rhyme and did so in a way that only a 78 year old man can really pull off.  In his deep, resonant voice with a distinctive Mississippi accent weathered by a life time of struggle and conquest, he said, “Early to Bed, Early to Rise.  Makes a Person Healthy, Happy and Wise”

That’s not all that John said on the subject.  He also commented on the responsibility we have of teaching principles within the community from the pulpit and outside of church and the importance of home ownership.  But, it was his simple message of hard work that resounded.  We need to work hard to instill the value of hard work in our young, but just as importantly we need to nurture it and encourage it.  On one hand, we need to model that behavior ourselves, on the other we need to make investments in basic job skills, vocational training and entrepreneurial development so that we can make it rewarding for our young folks to enjoy the fruits of “the hard work” that John espouses.   With these programs in place, and with a general shift back to the work ethic that was embodied in the success of the Duke, Carr, Watts AND Merrick, Moore and Spaulding, we will be much, much closer to the time when Durham was an economic juggernaut and when all aspects of community life flourished.  

Can it be as simple as “hard work”?  Maybe not, but it’s a great start.