Hi all. I just returned from a visit and learning and
missional work in New Orleans in the lower 9th and the Seventh Wards with
grassroots groups like ours providing hospitality to their neighbors, struggling
to make ends meet themselves, and making visible Love and Justice in the world
in small ways in a truly abandoned place of Empire where most of this country
has again forgotten them, moved on, and think that someone else must be taking
care of all the destruction caused by the flood and broken levees that
inundanted the least of these.
It is Inspiring to see what they are still doing, simply
living for others and with others, even as their areas like ours continue to
"get better and get worse" at the same time. As what we give of ourselves
through our shared life called a government to those growing numbers in need
continues to be reduced, and the gap grows between those of priviliege and those
without grows wider, and we look for more and more ways to distract and distance
ourselves from the life and people around us, every simple small thing we can do
to turn our world toward one another, especially toward those without, is a
witness to another world possible, and is a way to "part the waters" of despair
and desperation and deprivation that repeatedly keep swirling around the necks
of those in our neighborhoods.
And so....on Wednesday, we started up our food pantry again,
and participated in a new community organizing group emerging, and worked with
OU students learning about issues in our area, and Thursday we were part of the
community advisory group helping to support the new Health Dept. North Regional
Wellness Center. Last week even from New Orleans we were supporting the
important Taste of North Tulsa Event at McLain School. And this coming weekend
is a special time full of days when we will be working with others here to make
a difference in the growing gap.
You are invited to come stand in the gap with us:
Friday, Oct. 18 from 9 am to Noon during our Mobile Truck Food
Pantry event where we will be serving families of students from Gilcrease
Elementary School here serving much of our area. We will offer free healthy
lunch afterwards to all volunteers. Come to the community center, 5920 N. Owasso
Ave.
Friday, Oct. 18, 5:30 to 8:30 pm, we will hold another of our
ongoing Community Art Events at the Community Center here. Art is essential to
healing, to resisting the forces that seek to turn people into objects
themselves, and it unleashes the kind of power that creates spirit that changes
the world.
Saturday, Oct. 19, from 10 am to Noon, our regular twice a
week Food Community Day here at our Corner Store in the Center,
plus from 9:30 am on we need people for a big day of working with
others coming in to make a difference in our Community Garden and Park and
Orchards, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave., as we are building a children's area of
vegetable playhouse village, and finishing clearing the park of remaining trash
and debris from its original condition as a block of abandoned trash-filled
homes and properties.
Saturday, Oct. 19 from Noon to 3 pm visit with us at the
family oriented Food Glorious Food event at the North Regional Wellness Center,
56th and N. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and take part in the fun and educational
events as the new Center continues to launch itself and expand services for our
residents. Until it was built we were privileged to host the OU health clinic in
our space and now are committed to trying to get more residents knowledgeable
and comfortable with using the new health department offices and programs.
Saturday, Oct. 19, 6:30 pm we will be supporting one of the
greatest non-profit operations in our neighborhood, Sarah's Residential Living
Center, just north of McLain High School, as we attend its fundraising dinner
and awards presentations. We were pleased to be able to nominate Nola Robinson
for a Senior Service Award in recognition of her years of service to the
children as part of the clothing ministry at area schools, for her work in the
Turley Community Association as moderator and active participant in many litter
pickup days and drives, to her support of the MS Bike Ride and her many private
neighborhood actions helping people.
Sunday, Oct. 20, we will gather for worship at Church of the
Restoration near Pine and Greenwood at 11 am and then eat together and we will
also be hosting more volunteers and need more volunteers for a big work party
again in the Community Garden and Park and Orchard. We will also be planning the
Halloween Party for the following Sunday. Stay tuned for announcements about
prayer and worship opportunities and study groups coming up as we approach the
holiday season. On Sunday morning, Oct. 27, come with us as I will be preaching
at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Bartlesville.
One of our biggest community events of the year is coming up
Sunday, Oct. 27, here from 4:30 to 6;30 pm as we host our 8th Annual Old
Fashioned Halloween Party. In the past several hundred persons, especially young
persons, have enjoyed a free fun time at this event. You can help be a part of
it. We need financial supporters for it, volunteers during it, decorators
before. This year we are holding the Party as a Haunted Orchard up at our
GardenPark and Orchard, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave. weather permitting (at the center
if not).
Looking ahead, we are pleased to announce that we have been
named a finalist for the Environmental Excellence Award by Keep Oklahoma
Beautiful and will be attending a dinner in Oklahoma City on Tuesday, Nov. 19 to
find out if we won, and to meet others nominated, and celebrate the work of
creating spaces of beauty and sustainability in Oklahoma. We were the only one
of the groups nominated for this statewide award which is completely voluntary
without paid staff to help it, and yet our accomplishments this past year and
more on the community garden park and orchard and its programs and what it
stands for where it does, all means we are already a kind of winner to have our
project put in the same category as some where millions of money and much paid
staff have been working on. Here is the link to the Awards Event: http://kob.schoolauction.net/2013eec/
It was just a year ago that we received the Anita Hill
Foundation Pioneer Award, and last year we also received both the Oklahoma and
the Southwest Parks and Recreation awards for our new gardenpark and orchard.
This year we also received an award from Sarah's Residential Living Center
during their anniversary celebration. Each time we are recognized it is really
our neighborhoods being recognized, and so we are looking forward next month in
Oklahoma City to be able to tell the story of our very invisible to most
neighborhoods.
Looking further ahead, we will be hosting a national missional
church gathering, LifeonFire, here from Feb. 28 to Mar. 2 next year, but we are
already beginning to work to get ready for it, and to work on it, and those
interested should let me know. We are excited to keep learning from others and
to show what happens when you turn church upside down and inside out in order to
fulfill the mission of making Ultimate Love visible in the world, following
freely in the walk of Jesus to do so, and sharing in the Spirit that cuts across
all boundaries.
Next up will be letting you know of our End-of-the-Year
Donation Campaign that will literally decide if we can keep going, hopefully
keep growing, and diverse ways people can be a part of our community of mission
and story and worship.
www.turleyok.blogspot.com www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com
www.missionalprogressive.blogspot.com
blessings, thanks and more soon, Ron
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