Updates from June, 2008 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Mark 5:41 pm on June 23, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

    Urban Reflections 

    I’ve lived the suburban life in Indianapolis, and the slightly rural life of West Texas. Now Katrina and I are living in one of the biggest global cities in the world. Here are a few things that we love from our first weeks of living the big city life:

    Getting to know our neighbors – within the first week of our living here, I had met not only ALL our neighbors in our building, but also the neighbors in homes and apartments all around our building, the clay guild down the street, members of a church nearby, and most of the coffee shops and businesses on the block. It wasn’t some conspiracy of mine to meet every neighbor on the street – I just kept bumping into people walking to and from work, the beach, or the grocery store. Its just the culture here, you get to know your neighbors.

    Spending a little more for groceries – I know, something strange to enjoy, for sure. But if you factor in that we don’t drive to the grocery store or out to eat out or basically anywhere else, we end up saving hundreds NOT driving to the grocery store and restaurants with a local farmer’s market, 3 nearby grocery stores, shops/etc – we’ll pay a few cents more for bell peppers.

    Block Parties – there are more celebrations and festivals than any one person could possibly attend. In a city that prides itself on working hard and playing hard, we’ve been invited to our neighbor’s backyard block party, and an art fair.
    Public Transportation – You can get ANYWHERE with a mature public transportation system. And we do! :) It does take a little more time, but its clean, fast(er than a traffic jam) and stress free (no gripping the steering wheel)!

    Diversity – I’ve never heard so many languages spoken on the street anywhere else in my whole life. The other day I had an hour long conversation with my Babylonian banker! I’m doing my best to learn bits of Spanish, and I’m experiencing more lifestyles and worldviews than ever before. I’ve fully enjoyed learning in the alcoves of academia in the middle of the desert, and I’m thankful for the person it helped shape me to be. I’m also super pumped about entering a diverse culture and sharing what I know/who I’ve become as well as learning/changing as I interact in the world’s gathering place.

    There’s more – like reducing our carbon footprint, the Cubs-Sox inter league series, great radio, live bands, free events, beaches, parks, ministry opportunities…

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    • chad 10:10 am on June 24, 2008 Permalink

      Wow, dude! Sounds like y’all have been busy. Glad to hear y’all are getting settled in so well so quickly! Hope to get in touch and catch up with ya soon.

      BTW, Kate and I will have to check out the WWJB movie…I love the 30 Days tv series he has on FX.

      Blessings

    • thepriesthood 3:09 pm on June 24, 2008 Permalink

      most righteous.

    • Mark 7:26 am on June 25, 2008 Permalink

      great to hear from you guys! hope life in CA/AL is cooking right along. keep in touch!

    • Jenna 11:56 am on June 27, 2008 Permalink

      so jealous. post of pics of your new digs soon:)

  • Mark 12:01 am on June 23, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

    Just a few pics from our first few weeks… 

    Here are just a few random pictures taken from my cell phone during our first few weeks in Chicago:

    Try finding this combination in the South!

    Go ahead, just ask this guy about his views on politics…

    Last week, I took a bike ride on the Lakefront Trail from our place down by the beach, to the loop and back.  It was long but well worth it!

    Always-fun Navy Pier and my half way point on the bike adventure.

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  • Mark 9:20 am on January 18, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

    Singing Freedom on MLK’s Bridge 

    Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day; for most the first chance to fire up the grill after December snows. For others, a chance to stand up to current injustices and pronounce a new Kingdom economy in the United States of America.

    singing-bridge.jpg

    In Abilene, there is a large bridge that crosses HWY 80 over a large, undeveloped, wooded lot. Nearby there is an abandoned energy plant with busted windows, teetering smoke stacks, and weed-smothered fences. I know that about 350 homeless frequent this “Hobo Jungle” as the locals call it. Many of its inhabitants are children. A little village of the mentally ill, socially discarded, and abused live right underneath and around one of the busiest bridges in the city.

    This bridge has two names:
    1. The Martin Luther King Jr. Bridge
    2. The “Singing Bridge”

    Why the “Singing Bridge”? It got this nickname because of the rivets in the street to help drain the rainwater off the bridge. These rivets, as tires drive over them, create a “hum” that sounds eerily like a choir of human voices singing.

    What in all of this might God be saying to his people in Abilene? What obvious (or unfortunately, not so obvious) connection might there be in these circumstances?

    MLK was a saint – “an incarnated capsule of the Kingdom” that I talk about in this post – I imagine his cries for freedom and justice and equality in this land, and I mourn. I see such devastating prejudice, such insurmountable inequality, and I wonder if MLK failed completely. I wonder if anyone can see or is willing to do anything about the irony of the situation on HWY 80′s “Singing Bridge”.

    On Martin Luther King Day, how will we spend it? I know that every year there is a small parade that march across the MLK bridge. Maybe I’ll go this year. Only maybe I won’t just walk over the top of the bridge, but head down underneath it – and meet someone new…maybe Martin Luther King himself.

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    • Agent B 11:01 pm on January 18, 2008 Permalink

      Good words.

      Local poet Sam Pendergrast wrote a poem of note about that bridge:

      “Sonnet Towards Ennobling an MLK Bridge”
      (for Abileneans who venerate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., despite contrary local official indications)

      It had to be a joke: to mark a bridge
      Of honor twixt a sewer plant and junkyard
      With lip service to 400 years of carnage
      To nurture words “You count” that sprouted so hard.
      Oh, those who’ve been to the mountaintop with Martin
      Know that someday we all shall overcome
      When blind allegiance to Only Usism’s departing
      And racists are finally struck appropriately dumb.

      And as Viet Walls create their own emotions,
      We’ll ennoble the MLK Bridge with our devotion.
      Instead of cursing bigotry, let us start
      With flowers and notes and tokens from the heart.
      But take care: Catclaw Abilene near here
      Grew up to see itself as Cristendom’s bier.

      *August 19, 1993

    • Sean 2:14 am on January 19, 2008 Permalink

      Good post it was very relevant and easy to read.

    • Sean 2:17 am on January 19, 2008 Permalink

      In all honesty I needed to hear your perceptions of the injustice in our city. It is everywhere. I struggle alot with seeing the difference between a man who won’t work and many others who are homeless becuase of our own injust systems.

    • Mark 9:03 am on January 19, 2008 Permalink

      Good poem…

      It’s interesting how a man as dangerous and prophetic as MLK has turned into a sterilized holiday icon. The other day I saw his disembodied head floating over a graphic of Monday’s extended forecast. They did the same thing with the Easter Bunny and a Jack-o-lantern for their holidays.

      The disrespect that MLK receives on a “his day” makes me wonder if holding a holiday and building bridges, etc devoted to him is the best thing this nation could’ve done to honor him. It seems this only neuters his message. Actually, this reminds me of what happened with CHRISTianity…

    • Mark 9:11 am on January 19, 2008 Permalink

      Sean,

      Welcome! Can you tell me a bit about yourself? I’m gonna guess that everyone reading this has struggled with what to do with the guy with a sign on the street corner. How can we be followers of Christ and not care that someone is out peddling for coins?

      In small and big ways, I’ve gotten to know many of the poor and/or homeless here in Abilene, and I’ve learned that for me, I have to take their situation one person at a time. I cannot assume that if I don’t give money to one guy, I won’t for the next. It’s not a perfect systematic solution, but it feels more “spirit led” I suppose. What have you done about it in the past?

    • Mark 12:22 am on January 20, 2008 Permalink

      by the way – the MLK Abilene march is happening at 2pm at the bridge this monday. FYI

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