Neighborhood and Youth
I went up to DaySpring on Saturday so Marie and I could work on Christmas planning during the men’s breakfast. Ken got there early to help cook, so I had nearly an hour to kill (it’s a MEN’S breakfast, ergo I did not help cook! 
So I took the hour to walk around the neighborhood and pray. As I did, I became so very burdened and passionate about the neighborhood the church is in, and the middle school up the street.
The neighborhood itself is typical of “old” Greensboro - small homes built 50+ years ago. Nicer than mill housing, but still small and dark. Around half of them are rentals; those that are not are mainly owned by older folks who’ve always lived there. Some of the homes are nicely kept up, but others are beat half to death. It’s a racially diverse neighborhood - mainly black, Hispanic, and Asian, with a few whites and Lumbees that we’ve spotted.
A few years ago, we started homeschooling so we wouldn’t have to send our kids to the middle school in this neighborhood. Historically it’s been filled with gangs, violence, drugs, and sex coupled with poverty and very poor academics. Something like 75-90% of the kids are on free or reduced lunch. The school is a Title I school - they get federal funds because of the poverty and poor academics. The school had a score of 16 (out of 100) on one study I read yesterday. 
I think that’s turned around - their website says that they made AYP last year (it’s based on test results; schools must make progress every year academically under No Child Left Behind). The principal has been nominated for Principal of the Year. Those are signs of improvement!
So - part of my plan is to start making strategic contacts in the school and the neighborhood. I might start volunteering at the school (and get other church members to do the same) - tutoring, or chaperoning, or something - so the kids get to know that there’s people who love them because Jesus loves them.
November 17th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
What’s a Lumbee?
November 17th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Eesh. Just been reading about James ‘Catfish’ Cole and the Battle of Hayes Pond. It beats me how someone with those kind of Christian roots, who was ordained Baptist and served as a tent evangelist, could be so utterly hate-filled and ignorant. I guess it was a different era back then in the Jim Crow days.
November 17th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Lumbee = a local Native American tribe that is not “officially” recognized by the US Government (but certainly should be). They’re very dark-skinned and are often mistaken for being of African descent. Culturally they’re the sort of people that would not only give the shirt off their back, they’d give you their shoes and hat if you needed them too.
Never heard of Cole and Hayes Pond? Do tell?
November 18th, 2008 at 12:03 am
Search for ‘Battle of Hayes Pond’ on Wiki (this blog isn’t too keen when I add URLs). 1958 confrontation between the Lumbees and the Ku Klux Klan in Robeson County - the KKK led by Cole were sent away with their collective tail between their legs after a year-long terror campaign against the Lumbee; they had to escape through nearby swamps after only 50 of them turned up instead of the expected 5000. Apparently it’s an annual celebration for Lumbees in memory of the rout.
Just been reading more history - seems to be discussion over whether they’re descended from the Cheraw and/or Tuscarora tribes, or from African slaves. Ooh and you’ve got the idea of England’s ‘Lost Colony’ - interesting stuff. Bet Ken knows about this and its links with the Civil War.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:18 am
Great idea, Kathi!
When I still worked at the library, we enrolled as part of a program to give high-risk youth in high schools a co-op job at the university, to show that there was a brighter world out there. Earlier this year I ran into one of those kids in the hall of the Ross Building, and she’s a York student now!
I guess some of these kids feel like their lives are spelled out for them, like the only chance they have at success is on the kind of terms likely to get them dead or in jail. All we did with this girl was work with her, talk with her, relate to her like we did to each other–I mean, I hadn’t even known she was “high risk” until months into the program–but that was apparently enough for her to realize that there was a better world within her grasp and do what she had to do to get there.
So–yes! Go there, find folks, and gently be Kathi with them for awhile. Whether you get converts or not, you’ll be doing really, REALLY good work.