Planning for SUMMER!
Wow today is sunny warm (36 degrees) Buffalo winter day!!
We had our first preliminary meeting yesterday with Ron and Sue at Victory Assembly for Riverside Family FunDay! Planning for summer is a fun process in when you live in Buffalo and its only January… especially when you get to see the sun.
My hope and pray for us as a leadership team at renovation is for us this year to deepen the relationships we have established in our first year… to continue to nurture these relationships. It is so easy to forget about others no matter what context we are working in. We normally just get at accomplishing our agendas but if we are going to accomplish much of anything we are going to have to think with others in mind and carve out time to talk… listen… reflect… then respond.
CCDA has been such a great help for us as we develop a blueprint for doing ministry in our context… NW Buffalo.
It is exciting to think about what God wants to accomplish and how He wants to do that in our community.
Had a great time talking with Mike Smith this morning… he is the Director of the Buffalo City Mission… a part of Renovation and a great friend. Mike is HIGH capacity and always blows me away when he tells me what is happening at the mission both with the men and women. Hearing stories of people who are up against incredible odds and how they are trying to make a difference in these people’s lives… even young kids who are living with their moms at Cornerstone.
Empowerment is a word that often comes up in discussions with people who are really doing the hard work of transformation in impoverished areas. We as churches and parachurch ministries must continue to fight the natural bent to simply help… it is much easier to give to the poor than to know the poor. Part of empowering is getting involved in the lives of those who most have given up on… or those who seem to have little “chance” of making it ( most of our kids in NW Buffalo) and investing long term into their lives knowing their are no short cuts… years of loving our neighbors… kids… adults… poor… marginalized…
So this summer we are planning on trying to partner even more with other churches… city officials… groups… block clubs… to make NW BUffalo all that it can be and should be… bringing some of “up-there… down-here!”
