My first 13 hour day...

As Erin and I sit in the mission house after our incredibly long day, I cannot help but marvel at how much we've experienced so far. This weekend, the interns and Mission Indy staff along with a few others went to Camp Allendale for a retreat. Throughout the weekend, a miraculous transformation occurred in which relative strangers managed to share their lives together and overcome great obstacles. Specifically, we went through a "low ropes course" and conquered the wall, which, if you don't know, is a thirteen foot wall in which every member of the team needs to get over by using their own strength and bodies. There are no ropes, ladders, or footholds; we had to rely on the strength of one another. Erin also helped to coordinate a prayer labyrinth, in which we prayed for various components of the summer. This really helped me to regain my focus for the mission at hand. Fast forward to today, our first training day. Today was instrumental for us learning more about Mission Indy and about the plight of the inner city. There are really too many experiences to recount, but let me leave you with this. We were all assigned various businesses to go into and interview about their services. These businesses tended to be on the "shady" side, and in fact served to extort people who live here. Some in the group compared grocery prices between convenience stores and chain stores, since many residents do not drive and shop locally. Some explored the seedy underbelly of pawn shops, while others interviewed an employee at the local Rent-A-Center. Abby and I went to learn more about the check cashing/cash advance stores. If you want to really understand how shady these places are, we were turned down by two different stores before we finally went to someone who was willing to answer a few simple questions. At the first store, we were routed around a bit until we finally spoke with a lady who looked incredibly uncomfortable the entire time, continued to refer us to corporate, and eventually told us that she couldn't answer any questions. All I wanted to know was how they worked. At the second store, the guy told us he was too busy: there was nobody else there! Finally, we were able to speak to somebody, and it was somewhat revealing. The tie that bound all of these places, though, was this: each of these businesses serves to keep poor people poor. We talk so much about how everyone has an opportunity to pick themselves up and blah blah blah. Let me tell you this: you cannot pick yourself up very easily in a system designed to hold you down. If you live in a neighborhood with no jobs, no banks, no affordable grocery stores, no affordable housing or places to buy appliances, and every business that is in the area is going to charge you outrageous fees or interest or prices in order to obtain the basic necessities, and you don't have a car to go anywhere else, you are being held down by the system. You do not have the same opportunity as someone living outside of that neighborhood. And it has nothing to do with money; if money were the issue, you would just live with less. But if everyone is stealing the little money that you have, than there is a problem. I'm not saying that urban folk are innocent victims; however, I am challenging the belief that they are simply making poor choices. Rather, they are making the same poor choices that we make, but they are not given the choice or freedom to live with even the convenience of fairly cashing their checks without somebody taking a percentage.
I shall end with this thought: we speak so much of justice in this country. We believe that we should have the right to enforce our brand of justice on other nations. We believe that we should receive the utmost justice, so we sue everyone. Yet the greatest injustices are happening all around us, when we allow for legal businesses to oppress those who cannot afford or do not have the opportunity to turn elsewhere. And that is just wrong.

Not so culture-shock

So, I am back in Indianapolis. After only a few short months, I have returned, and to be honest, not much has changed. Homeless people, prostitutes, drug runners, and children without much of a future still roam the streets. I have experienced all of this before. In fact, I have done this twice now. For the past two years I have spent my spring breaks up here with Erin and some friends from Milligan experiencing the plight of the inner city and learning how to serve as Christ would have us to. And yet, I still felt a little bit of "not so culture-shock" as I entered the city. There are homeless people and drug issues in Johnson City, TN, but the liquor store/check cashing store that was still open as I cruised into the city late Wednesday night hailed a different kind of despair than what is present down south. As I consider the warning to stay inside of our house after dark, I wonder how much I really understand the fear and violence that this environment contains for the people living here every day. After all, I've never been held up at gun or knife point. I've never had my car or house broken into and my things stolen. This summer is going to be different, but its going to be good. And I pray that God opens my eyes and heart to what I believe he calls me and the church in general to do, and that is to love and serve others as ourselves, which includes the businessman and the heroine addict. I pray that I am challenged, stretched, and that I go from here and use what I have been taught.