A THIRD PLACE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION

The Miracle Among The Ruins: A Third Place Community Foundation: Creating The Welcome Table Community Center, GardenPark and Orchard, Corner Store Free Pantry, Art Studio, Clothing/ThriftStore, and Supporting Renewal in the 74126 and 74130. Click on the Donate button or Subscribe button below for options to support our projects. We are a grassroots volunteer 501c3 nonprofit. Center located at 5920 N. Owasso Ave. Gardens at 6005 N. Johnstown. Contact us at 918-691-3223, 430-1150, 794-4637

Friday

Who We Are/What We Do/Why Summary

The Welcome Table Missional Community/

A Third Place Community Foundation

Renewing The Far Northside: Volunteer Grassroots Response

History:

2002-03 Epiphany Church began in Owasso, suburb of Tulsa

2004 moved to 6305 N. Peoria Ave. Turley/McLain School area

2005 became The Living Room Church and began partnering with Turley Community Association and Cherokee School on beautification projects

2007 Opened A Third Place Community Center at 6416 N. Peoria Ave. and moved in it and began working with OU Graduate Social Work program on community forums;

2008 hosted OU Health Clinic;

2009 created A Third Place Community Foundation and began demonstration gardening with Turley United Methodist Church and providing school gardens and landscaping for Cherokee Elementary School and helped form McLain School Foundation;

2010 bought a block of abandoned houses and trashed property at 6005 N. Johnstown Ave. to begin transforming into a community gardenpark;

2011 bought an abandoned church building at 5920 N. Owasso Ave. and moved the community center into it and planted the community orchard;

2012 created The Welcome Table Free Corner Store Food Pantry.

Area We Serve:

Primarily from 46^th St. N. to 76^th St. N. and from Highway 75 to Osage County Line; all within the McLain School boundary; far north Tulsa and Turley community area but our food store also serves the Sperry area. We are located in 74126, one of the lowest income zipcodes in the Tulsa area with a life expectancy 14 years lower than midtown Tulsa. We also serve 74130.

Current Offerings:

Twice a Week Free Food Store;

4-5 times a year Mobile Pantry giving out 5 tons of food in one hour;

occasional Mobile Eatery from Food Bank

Computer Center/Free Wifi

Free Books

Clothes and More (take what you need; leave what you can)

Community Art Studio and Art Events

Washer/Dryer and Shower

Community Recycling Bin

Weekly 12-Step Recovery

Community Holiday Events and Festivals

Monthly Community Planning

Monthly Turley Area Seniors

Community GardenPark and Orchard and Free weekly meals at the Park

Current Community Projects

Abandoned Properties: Demolition or Upkeep

66^th and N. Lewis Intersection Transformation

Welcome to Turley Sign Project

Roadside Wildflowers/Trash Pickup

Prairie Trails Wildflower Preservation Rest Area across from our park

Planting Project Seeds: In Conversation or In Vision

Cherokee School, closed in 2011, Repurposing

Scattered Site Low Rent Housing Program, plus “Relocation Homes” transforming abandoned homes

Osage Prairie Trail Awareness and Appreciation Event(s) and Community Info Kiosks

Far North Main Street from 46^th to 66^th St. on N. Peoria Ave

Community Lay Health Advocate Program (turning health clinics inside out)

Village Post Office to replace closed post office

Current Partners

University of Oklahoma-Tulsa

Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma

Tulsa Health Department North Regional Wellness Center

Tulsa Food Security Council

Tulsa Community Gardening Association

McLain School Foundation

Turley Community Association

Turley United Methodist Church

Turley Fire and Rescue Dept

Tulsa County O’Brien Park and Recreation

Sarah’s Residential Living Center

Newsome Community Farms

Oklahoma State University Extension Dept

The LightHouse Charter School

Gilcrease Elementary School.

www.turleyok.blogspot.com www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com www.missionalprogressives.blogspot.com Follow us on Facebook

Wednesday

Join in Growing Community....

We will have our regular monthly planning lunch for partners and residents working together in the Turley/McLain area. Lunch meeting at the community center, 5920 N. Owasso Ave. Agenda and info below. All are welcome.

We had a good meeting last month; thanks for State Rep. Seneca Scott calling in from the state house in oklahoma city, and to two representatives from Indian Nations Council of Government to update us particularly on transportation needs and issues and plans affecting our area; we talked about the rapid bus plans and whether or not they would make any difference for riders in our area of north Tulsa north of 46th St. by McLain, and about the Trail and its security needs and how to promote both it and the communities along it. Also at the community meeting last week we had a good report from the Tulsa County Sheriff's office on crime stats in our area (see below) and we are planning to get more from them so we can do a comparative and more thorough analysis. We also had a good update report on the Turley abatement properties project from the Tulsa Health Dept. and we will be talking about all these things and more at the lunch meeting at noon tomorrow, all invited. come find out how you can connect with leaders and residents working to improve the 74126 and 74130.

Agenda:
1. Update on Turley Fire District election plans: at the last planning meeting we got an update from the Fire Dept. about their activities, about how they have grown in their number of volunteers, how the dry burn ban has kept them busy, and they will be starting the petition drive soon to get the needed fire district board set up to help grow resources and keep improving services.

2. Update on the Turley Project with the environmental health division of the Tulsa Health Dept. Scott Meador of the THD told us that of the 1400 properties and more than 400 buildings in the unincorporated Turley area, that courtesy letters about property neglect were sent to some 225 owners, and of that amount some 25 percent responded and began working with the health department. Some of the worst sites we had identified have been cleaned up or are in process since then, though some remain. We talked about our priorities for the properties to get the urgent attention of the health department, and some of the properties will need to have the county inspector notified. A few of the properties might benefit from neighbor's pitching in to help clean up and haul things away as the owners are physically or economically unable to do so currently. The second round of letters, past the courtesy letters status, are being sent out now. What we really need is more county funds to remove more of the burned out or abandoned structures as we had with federal stimulus funds that made such an impact in our area in cleaning up properties.

3. Crime reports: The Sheriff 's office is still getting us the needed five year look at crime reports for our area, but we got the data for the 2013 years and so far in 2014. In 2013, 259 total reports. No homicides were reported, four rapes, four robberies, 24 felony assaults (mostly domestic violence though they no longer carry those as a separate category), 36 other assaults, 81 burglaries, 77 larcenies, and 33 auto thefts. They said particular high areas were burglaries and car thefts. There was much discussion about the possible influence of the metal crushers in the area on the thefts. We mentioned some reports of particular crimes that were to be looked into that might not have made that report. We hope to update with more crime report details and comparisons year to year to see if it is climbing or declining or remaining stable.

4. Economic Development: We discussed the new Family Dollar store and restaurant in the area. We will discuss other economic plans and projects such as the Welcome to Turley sign.

5. Continuing Discussion of Cherokee School possibilties for repurposing, and reports from other local schools; all representatives invited.

6. Announcements and Partner News and New Neighborhood Needs

Upcoming meetings and events

Community Days at the community center, 10 am to noon Wednesdays and Saturdays
Saturday, Mar. 8 community breakfast, Odd Fellows Lodge, 6227 N. Quincy Ave.
Saturday, Mar. 8 noon lunch and garden planning at the community gardenpark and orchard, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave.
Sat. Mar. 8 free living longer, living stronger program lunch at The Welcome Table.
Wed. March 12 noon seniors lunch at Turley United Methodist Church, 6050 N. Johnstown Ave. and Wed. March 19 noon seniors lunch at The Welcome Table Center.
Community Legislative Forum, Saturday Mar. 15 at 10 am at Rudisill Library, near Pine and Greenwood.
Fri. Mar. 21-Sun. Mar. 23 Oklahoma City residents will be here working on projects in our community through the community center.
Monday, Mar. 24 Tulsa Food Security Council meeting, 11:30 am Indian Health Care Resources Center, 6th and S. Peoria Ave.
Turley Community Association public meeting, Tuesday, Mar. 25 7 pm at O'Brien Park Recreation Center, 6147 N. Birmingham Ave.
Every Saturday from Mar. 15 community gathers for breakfast at the gardenpark and orchard.

Thanks and if you can't make it pass this on to someone who might be able to come be with us from your group or neighborhood.

Come enjoy, connect, eat, and plan.

Life on Fire in McLain/Turley Area This Weekend, and More News and Projects

Please share these invitations with your groups and communities, and know we value your partnership with our community renewal mission and passion, and hope to see you soon. Even more than the events we value the relationships and the way they help us grow spirit of hope and purpose here with our neighbors. We recently had some 100 Tulsa University students working in our community gardenpark and orchard for the 74126, students who had never been in our neighborhoods before, and who as they worked with us and the volunteer fire department were also getting an education about poverty and health, the way of mutual transformation.

Come join www.lifeonfire14.blogspot.com a national gathering for missional church seekers will be a retreat held here on Friday, Feb. 28 to Sunday, Mar. 2. A free open to public panel will be held at 7 pm Friday in the sanctuary of the United Methodist Church at 6050 N. Johnstown Ave. across from our gardenpark and orchard. It will feature Ellen Blue of Phillips Theological Seminary moderating and talking about the work of the New Orleans churches and the women of St. Mark's UMC during the civil rights era there; Justin Pickard of Crossover Impact here in North Tulsa; James Patrick Hall, BSG, an Episcopalian friar serving with and to friends in the homeless community of Tulsa; Demalda Newsome of Newsome Community Farms and the North Sheridan Road Church of Christ; Charles Beard of the Tulsa Catholic Workers; and me. Come for worship too at 6 pm at the church. See the link above for all the other details.

Thursday, March 6 at noon we offer a free lunch for residents and partners to connect with us in our planning and projects here at the community center, 5920 N. Owasso Ave., www.turleyok.blogspot.com. We are working in the coming days on abandoned houses projects, and holding our regular days of giving food and water (especially to those in our area without running water in their homes) and clothing and more, following up on crime reports for our area, hoping people won't forget the abandonment of the Cherokee School on North Peoria in our area, getting out information from the recent community meeting we hosted to get updated on the neglected properties project. This is a clearinghouse meeting where we help organizations in our area of McLain School such as the fire department, senior living center, the Tulsa Health Dept. north regional wellness center, the schools, the parks, and others.

Saturday, March 8, we launch a special Living Stronger, Living Longer Healthy and Good Free Lunch and Program at the Center from Noon to 2:30 pm. Email me or call 918-691-3223 to sign up as it is a space limited event that will run each Saturday through April 12, with the Area Wide Aging Agency; geared for those 60 years and more and for any of their families or friends regardless of age helping with their health support. And that day also begin with a community breakfast at the Lodge Hall at 6227 N. Quincy from 7 to 10 am; our food and more community day from 10 am to noon at our center; a gathering of community gardeners and others interested in food issues for breakfast at 9 am at Ollie's Restaurant in west Tulsa followed by a garden project behind the Dept. of Human Services on North Peoria Ave., and here we will host a special lunch at our gardenpark and orchard, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave. beginning at noon, first of our weekly garden lunch and serving meetings weather permitting.

Looking forward to missional visits later this month from members of an Oklahoma City church, and in April from Dallas.

This Sunday March 2 we will be worshipping with the Turley United Methodist Church, 6050 N. Johnstown Ave. at 10 am for monthly communion service. On Sunday, March 9 we will worship at 5 pm in the Taize and Communion service with Trinity Episcopal Church downtown. Sunday, March 16 at noon we will have our own common meal, communion, and conversation on the purpose of church.

Thursday

What's Coming Up in our Community

We have got some great stuff coming up around here: Coming Events for the McLain/Turley area:

Every Saturday, 9 am, Community KitchenGardenPark and Orchard, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave. Grow Food for Free, help us build a new community space.

Every Wednesday and Saturday, 10 am to Noon, Food and Clothing and Art Days and More Community Days, Welcome Table Community Center, 5920 N. Owasso Ave. serving the 74126, 74130, 74073 zips. Library, computer center

Friday, Feb. 14, cosponsoring with Turley United Methodist Church, a Parents Night Out for Valentine's Day, for children between 3 and 12; cost is just to bring two cans of food for our free corner store; to be held at the church, 6050 N. Johnstown Ave. in the evening 6:30 to 9:30 pm.

Saturday, Feb. 15, 10 am Area Legislative Forum, Rudisill Library, near Pine and Greenwood

Tuesday, Feb. 18, 1-3 pm volunteering at our park and center with Riverfield School students

Wednesday, Feb. 19, 12:30 pm Monthly Turley Area Seniors free Lunch at the Center, planning field trips programs and activities

Saturday, Feb. 22, 8:30 am to 3 pm participate with us in the TU Turley Day of Service at the park, the center, and community. Thanks to the University of Tulsa. Put this one on your calendar. Turley and McLain area becomes blue and gold this day.

Monday, Feb. 24, 11:30 Tulsa Food Security Council, at Indian Health Care Resource Center

Tuesday, Feb. 25, 7 pm Turley Area Community Association meeting and Town Hall, this month at the Welcome Table Center; other times at O’Brien Park Center, 6147 N. Birmingham Ave. Hear what's happening in the community, meet with area officials; a focus on the neglected properties project with the Tulsa Health Dept. and on the Fire and Rescue Dept. upcoming campaign to create a needed fire district to improve services and for most residents to reduce costs from the current fire dues.

Friday, Feb. 28, 7 pm Free to the Public Panel on Missional Living at the Turley United Methodist Church, 6050 N. Johnstown Ave., part of our Life on Fire gathering that weekend. See more at www.lifeonfire14.blogspot.com. People coming in from all over the country.

Thursday, March 6, McLain/Turley Area Planning Free Lunch at Noon at Center.

Saturday, March 8, 7 to 10 am, Community Breakfast, $5 with Kids 10 and under free, Odd Fellows Lodge, 6227 N. Quincy Ave.

Every Saturday 6 pm 12 Step Recovery Group, at the Welcome Table Center.

Last Thursday at 6:30 pm, Turley Area Alliance Against Crime, at the Center.

Each Thursday, 7 pm, Turley Fire and Rescue Dept meetings

Upcoming: Join with a group from Oklahoma City coming to stay with us and serve in our area with us Friday, Mar. 21-22; and another group coming to our area from Dallas on Saturday, April 5 to work with us. And we will be hosting a return trip from a youth group from Shawnee in March, and then going there, to help them launch a community garden. And we have had recent contacts from both Kansas City and New Orleans about coming to see and serve with us.

A Third Place Foundation 918-691-3223

Tuesday

Ways To Come Be With Us in Coming Events

COMING UP IN THE COMMUNITY

Community Center, 5920 N. Owasso Ave. GardenPark, 6005 N. Johnstown Ave.

918-691-3223 Third Place Foundation

Wednesdays and Saturdays, 10 am to Noon Community Day, free food and clothing and books and more at The Center….Saturdays 6 pm 12 Step.

Second Wednesdays, Jan. 8 10:30 am bingo and Noon Potluck at Turley United Methodist, 6050 N. Johnstown Ave.

Thursday, Jan. 9 Noon Free Planning Lunch for Neighbors, Partners at Center.

Second Saturday, Jan. 11, 8 to 10 am, Odd Fellows Lodge, 6227 N. Quincy Ave., Community Breakfast, $5 all you care to eat, kids under 10 free.

Sundays Noon Prayers and Meal and Justice for the Poor Videos Class.

Third Wednesdays, Jan. 15 Noon, 55 year plus Group Free Meal and planning.

Friday, Jan. 17, 9:30 am to Noon, Mobile Food Truck Day at Center. Free lunch.

Sunday., Jan. 19,10 am Special Missional Event. 10 am talk on our work; Noon Worship Meal; Afternoon projects.

Mon, Jan. 20, 9 am to Noon at The Welcome Table, MLK, Jr. Day Party, Meal, Service Project, Watch Parade Together on TV.

Tuesday Jan. 21, 9:30 am volunteer help us unload and stock food.

Wednesday, Jan. 22, Noon at The Center. Mobile Restaurant Free Hot Lunch Day for 250 neighbors. Get your special ticket in advance at one of the event above.

Tues., Jan. 28, 7 pm Turley Area Public TownHall O’Brien Park Recreation Center, 6147 N. Birmingham Ave.

“Growing Lives and Neighborhoods on the Northside”

Christmas in the 74126 in 2013

This time it was an older woman, her first time in our community center I believe, who had mingled into the crowd that had braved the ice and cold to come to our annual Christmas Meal and Party (the first of two we held this past weekend because of the weather; instead of cancelling, we expanded); she had come into the warmth of our place, just for food she'd hard about, and ended up meeting others, singing, eating, watching the children's faces light up when Santa arrived;

She had come in past the lack of decorations along North Peoria which at this time of year is so dark here, so few street lights, lack of sidewalks driving people walking to the store and to us to have to walk in the street itself, and she had seen our old abandoned and vandelized church building being repurposed into a community center because we had put up a modicum of decorations and lights outside and a big tree;

And we had decorated again the community welcome sign and the evergreen at the arch at Cherokee School that had been closed three years ago, and ever since we have continued to decorate and light it up at this time of the year for the community passing by, just as the school system had done when it had used it as a school; and we this year began decorating the gardenpark and orchard we created for the community from a block of homes that had been abandoned and burned and neglected.

She came up to me at the end of the Christmas Party, and almost just like the four year old who had done so a year ago, she needed to hug me and say what an amazing day it had been here for her; she had come for food, heard about the party and stayed, and was in tears by how much it meant to her; it would be her Christmas with others this year.

There are so many pressing issues and problems that we engage with all the rest of the times during the year: the latest is the news about another abandonment here in our community (school, post office, businesses, now the possibility of closing the pool at O'Brien Park Recreation Center--instead of trying to rally forces to get the funds to improve it and get it used more often); the low income, the low life expectancy, all of the data that documents the struggles people have in our neighborhoods (see the stories atwww.turleyok.blogspot.com). The abandoned houses, the still vacant school building, the neglected properties, the fragmentation of the schools and no community infrastructure and gathering and organizing places as people drift further and further apart from one another living right around them. Our semester's work this semester with another group of graduate students from OU partnering in service learning with us further documented how many students in the same neighborhood go to so many different schools so they have none of the traditional ways for families to meet and organize and have common ground and purpose.

And yet, though we will work on all those issues all the other times of the year; as that is how we find and define our purpose as a people of faith coming together for others, this time of the year we find fulfillment, and joy, and peace, and hope, and the love that endures all the fragmentation, we find it all in the way one person exemplifies the many who find their moments of connection here. This is the time of year when we rest in the way that we are surprised by the help of others, and are so grateful for all the support we have received from you all during the year. This is the time when it only matters that something is born.

We say each year that Christmas begins, not ends, Dec. 25. There is a season beyond the day’s furious activity; an alternative rhythm of celebration that the church offers to us that shows up the paleness of the commercial marketplace Christmas. Christmas is about what happens when the angels leave, when the spectacular is over (even when the spectacular struggles can be set aside). We have decisions to make about what roads we will take, what kind of new year we are moving toward; where are the Bethlehems in our lives and communities that we need to go witness holiness where others would see despair and desperation? Year after year we have the Christmas story “made known to us” and never know how the story will find us; this time in the quick embrace and story of one older woman; and yet how often do we leave our comfortable fields and the people who are like us and find ways to discover the mangers, and the resident aliens, waiting for us too.

Matthew 2:23 says: “There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazorean.”

The new book, Zealot, by Reza Aslan paints a good realistic picture of the historical Nazareth, the small marginal town, the fragile community bearing the oppressive violence of the Roman Empire, suffering from the sprawl of the construction of nearby cosmopolitan Sephorris, encroaching the peasant’s land, driving them into insecurity and subsistence living. In Nazareth, Aslan says, it is the opposite of the city built for an Emperor, there are no public roads, no public buildings. There is a single well for all hundred or so families. At the time it does not exist on a map. Aslan says that the name of Jesus was such a common name, that it is the name of the town, so striking in its obscurity, that is linked to this particular Jesus of Nazareth. In fact, Nazareth is the main thing about Jesus’ birth to many of the early followers, as only Luke and Matthew dwell on the birth narratives. Nazareth, “where nothing good can come from” is not only home to Jesus but it indicates the kind of prophet, Messiah, that he is, a scandalous one. Aslan says there is little in Nazareth for a woodworker to do, so it is a place where even a craftsman would be marginalized, accentuating the powerlessness of anyone calling this place home.

For those of us in a faith community and tradition that lives on the margins of society and of theological and cultural worlds, simultaneously deep within a Christian sphere and walking together with those of other spheres, and with those who have been left behind by the American Dream and so turn to God's Dream, and those of us who live in a story that calls us to remember we are at heart a marginal people and move toward the margins to be with others, the Christmas story of the birth of “The Nazorean” should feel like home to us too. Like the older woman who came to us, and revealed Christmas to us, we come to the story again and again year after year and it is home to us.

Here is how we keep Christmas going; you are invited to come help with us:

On Sat. Jan. 4 from 10 am to Noon the Food Store will be open again, and then each Wednesday and Saturday.

On Sundays from Jan. 5, Meal and videos and prayers and conversation on Justice for the poor here at The Welcome Table,5920 N. Owasso Ave.

Each Second Wednesday, this month Jan. 8, 10:30 am bingo and noon potluck lunch at Turley United Methodist Church, 6050 N. Johnstown Ave. across from our gardenpark and orchard.

Usually First Thursdays but this month, on the Second Thursday because of New Years activities, Jan. 9 at noon lunch and areawide planning for the McLain and Turley neighborhoods here at the Welcome Table.

Second Saturdays, Jan. 11, 8 to 10 am, the community breakfast at the Odd Fellows Lodge, 6227 N. Quincy Ave.

Each Third Wednesday, this month Jan. 15, our new Turley Area Seniors, Inc. lunch and planning, here at the Welcome Table. For those 55 and over and their family and friends.

This month come help us during another of our wonderful Mobile Food Truck giveaway days with the Food Bank, here at the Welcome Table, come 9;30 am to volunteer sorting food and preparing on Friday, Jan. 17 and then help us load food into neighbors cars from 11 am to Noonwhen we give out some four to six or more tons of food in one hour. Free lunch for volunteers afterwards as well.

A Special Monday, Jan. 20 event, on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as we hold a service project in honor of Dr. King and then have a party for all to watch the local parade on television. We will be here and on the community service project of reconciliation from 9 am to noon.

The last Tuesdays of each month, this timeJan. 28, 7 pm. the Turley public townhall and community association meeting will be held at O'Brien Park, 6147 N. Birmingham Ave.

During January we will also host groups fromWichita, KS and from Fayetteville AR coming to work with us and learn with us how to engage in anti-poverty neighborhood and lives renewal missional church and community work.

Monday

Thanksgiving: Common Life Common Good

A Third Place Community Foundation

a 501c3 nonprofit grassroots all volunteer organization

growing healthy lives and neighborhoods in the 74126 and northside areas.

Center: 5920 N. Owasso Ave. and Park: 6005 N. Johnstown Ave. 74126

918-691-3223

offering The Welcome Table Community Center, Free Corner Store Pantry, Free Books, Free Clothes and More, Community Art Studio and the Community GardenKitchenPark and Orchard

follow us on facebook

Hi all.

First, our news and then our Thanksgiving message...

1. We were named a finalist for the statewide sustainability award for nonprofits serving communities with more than 45,000 persons by the Keep Oklahoma Beautiful organization; we were in the category with the Tulsa M.E.T. and Tulsa Young Professionals, who won the award last week, and were proud to be in such company and to have our story told of our gardenpark and orchard created from a block of abandoned houses. We are hopeful of continuing to grow our presence of healthy food and nutritiion here where there is a 14 year life expectancy gap from other parts of Tulsa and will try again next year. The park has really been taking shape in the "Vegetable Village" and play area for kids thanks to visits from Riverfield School and LifeChurch. We are still harvesting the cold crops of greens and the edible roots of Jerusalem Artichokes (sunflower plants).

2. This Wednesday, Nov. 27, from 10 am to Noon at one of our regular Food Community Days we will have a Thanksgiving Pie and Ice Cream Fest at the community center; and use our newly received Espresso machine from the Food Bank. Come have dessert first before your Thanksgiving Day meals....And this Saturday, Nov. 30 from 10 am to 2 pm we will have another of our weekly Community Art Days at the Center for all ages, including free lunch...Stay tuned for an important news announcement soon from here as we will sponsor a Free Meal Giveaway next month from a Mobile Food Truck from the Food Bank coming here.

3. Why we are here and why we do what we do was driven home this month in a study that we participated in with OU and the Food Bank has just been released and puts statistics to what we have known: so many in our local area we see here are sick, especially with mental illnesses, with high degrees of food insecurity and hunger, and the food we are giving is both not enough even as emergency supplemental to their "food stamp" supplemental assistance each month, and it is not the kind of healthy food they particularly need. And yet the food we do give them, as well as the community support we create and offer through relationships of mutuality does help reduce a little bit the stress triggers that help them to make better decisions, to make responses not reactions. To get the full report on the statistics and my report go to http://www.turleyok.blogspot.com/2013/11/why-we-are-here-and-needed-revealed-in.html.

4. The Turley Area Community Meeting will be held tomorrow evening, Tuesday Nov. 26 at 7 pm at O'Brien Park.

5. You and all are invited to a "Justice For The Poor" video series and meal discussion will be held at the Center on Sundays Dec. 1 through Jan. 5. It is produced by the Sojourners in Washington, D.C.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYeGLaosTg0 The topics include: Dec. 1: Burger King Moms: Being Poor in America; Dec. 8: Is there something wrong with the prosperity gospel? [answer is yes]; Dec. 15: Standing at the Corner of Church and State; Dec. 22: The Gospel according to New Orleans; Dec. 29: Outside the Gate: The Poor and the Global Economy; and Jan. 5: From Serial Charity to a Just Society.

6. Share with others our 4 Project Winter 2013 Mini-Capital Campaign designed for individuals or church groups or others to be able to easily make a specific small-but-huge transformative action with us here: 1. $500 creates both an outdoor hospitable rain garden permaculture area and will prevent flooding, working with Green Country Permaculture; 2. $500 for the women's restroom and $500 for the men's restroom to help put in showers and stalls in time for our visiting groups to use next Spring for the Life on Fire national conference that will come here; 3. $600 for copper tubing and coolant to match the donated air conditioning unit we received and the matching free labor donated to install it; and 4. $350 for supplies for a new Central Grand Entry Gate and Sign for the GardenPark and Orchard. Please share for those looking for end of the year giving opportunities that make a difference on the ground here...We also have our membership support campaign going for operations and are a fifth of the way to achieving our goal of 60 people giving at least $5 or $10 a month (15 or 30 cents a day), but the mini-capital campaign will propel us to being able to serve more people and host more people. See www.turleyok.blogspot.com for our story, our statistics, our spirit.For just 15 or 30 cents a day, we can broaden our base of support to break out of our cut-off notice to cut-off notice putting it all into mission, no salaries, budget. At the website you can choose either one time donations for the capital campaign or subscribe for small monthly figures to be ongoing operations support.....Consider Yourself Asked!!!

7. Thankful to be a part of recent community events: Taste of North Tulsa feeding 400 in our area; Food Glorious Food Day at the North Regional Health Dept Wellness Center connecting with more than 100 residents, many youth here; and our 8th annual community Halloween Party held for the first time for some 150 residents at our gardenpark and orchard; hosting service learning projects with Riverfield Country Day School high school and middle school students, and with Diversity classes at the OU Graduate Social Work program who are working with us on research projects in educational issues, housing issues, abandoned properties project, and other issues facing our residents. And supporting the local nonprofit Sarah's Residential Center in its mission to provide small community living for seniors...Also the McLain High School Homecoming Weekend...hosting a reunion of one of the first integrated junior high basketball teams in our area in the mid 60s at Monroe Junior High...And sponsoring a Mobile Food Van giving out several tons of food in one hour here partnering with the Food Bank...And meeting monthly with others in the Greater Tulsa area to forge connections for community organizing....Also Look for further updates from me on some of the OU graduate paper research topics related to our immediate zipcode areas.

8. The Wish List of ways to be a part of our Miracles Among The Ruins projects of blight to beauty, despair to hope, can be found also at http://www.turleyok.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-wish-list-for-fall-2013.html

9. We are pleased to be hosting a national conference Feb. 28-Mar. 2 for those seeking to live more missionally, for and with others. See more and register at www.lifeonfire14.com.

Thanksgiving Message: CommonWealth/CommonLife/CommonGood

I have been fortunate this month to travel to Pennsylvannia and to Massachusetts and to talk with people about our mission of community here in the 74126; I got to do the same thing in October in New Orleans, and the same thing in September in Tennessee. At each place I expressed thanksgiving for the many partners in our area, and for the people who come and serve with us, and receive from us and giveback at the same time; in short, for the experience of a community that is turned not inward toward itself and for itself but turned outward always looking for others to connect with. Every week we are blessed to connect with some new person or new group; new volunteers finding through us a way to give their own gratitude back to life itself; new groups from schools to churches who bring us food, who listen to our stories, who match their mission with our mission.

Last week we got to provide a common meal to our regular volunteers and supporters here to tell them thanks and to tell them about the recent survey results of the work we do here (see above and the link) and why what they do here, even though they think it is such a small thing in their life, is literally a life-giving action. We are extending people's lives; we are making it just a little bit easier for them to make just a little better decisions; to take next steps. One of the things that our gratitude now leads us toward is to foster advocacy on the conditions and decisions people in power make which are making it in fact harder for people to live, shortening their lives, adding stress to already burdened lives. We plan to do this not only by making information available, and avenues for responding, but inviting people to go deeper into their own lives and life of their family and their neighborhood in order to see where the stresses are coming from.

I am grateful above all for the blessing of being able to live in the McLain School area. I just listened to a public radio report about the increasing re-segregation, and sometimes deeper than ever segregation, of our communities splitting apart people by not only race but by economic levels and educational levels. There have always been these tendencies, but the growing wage inequality and abandonment of the cities and of common institutions have created wider gaps of where people are interacting and getting to know people of different life experiences than themselves (which is why again we called our Foundation "A Third Place" for the movement to create spaces in public that counteract this tendency). Our schools, churches, parks, businesses, transportation means, entertainment venues, all are segregating across some of these lines in ways never before. Against all this, the blessing of living here and working here is draining at times, challenging and growing and learning, but an immense pleasure and adding of meaning to life.

This call to common good coming from common life is best summarized for me in the words by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haws in "Common Prayer" when they write, for this time of the year:

"Independence is a value of our culture, but it is not a gospel value. Jesus lived in community and was part of a village culture...Jesus' culture was more like the Bedouins than the Burbs.

The Scriptures teach us to value interdependence and community more highly than independence, and tell us that we are to lose our lives if we want to find them. Forming our lives around something other than our own desires, jobs, and goals is radically counter-cultural. Even our architecture is built around individual families, not around community. But for many Native Americans and tribal cultures, society and architecture are built around a village. Individual dwellings...are very small, and they are built around a central common space where people eat, dance, sing, and tell stories. The rampant individualism of Western society is a relatively new thing, and its emptiness is increasingly evident. We are wealthy and lonely. But God invites us into a common life with others.

Rather than build our lives around the individualistic dream of a house with a white picket fence, we can build our lives around God's vision for community.

We dream of a holy village in the middle of the urban desert, with a little cluster of homes sprinkled about and a neighborhood where folks are committed to God and to each other. Some folks are indigenous to the neighborhood. Some are missional relocaters. Some have gone off to school, trained as doctors, lawyers, social workers, or business folk, and then returned to the neighborhood to offer their gifts to the work of restoration. The houses are small, but that is all we need--a place to lay our heads--because most of our lives are lived on the streets, on the stoop, sweating in the practice of resurrection. Village life begins by greeting the day in morning prayer, and in the evenings we share a meal or grill out on the street. Maybe there is a village center where folks can cook healthy breakfasts for the kids as they head off to school. Perhaps in that center there are laundry machines that we can all share and a game library where kids can borrow a game for the afternoon. Maybe there's a tool library so folks can check out a saw or drill for the day; maybe there's an exercise space for lifting weights or taking an aerobics class to keep our bodies healthy. It's a dream for a village that shares things in common, a space that makes sure possessions and privileges are available for all, a place on earth where there truly is a "common wealth."

Shaping a life together sometimes begins simply by creating a space for community. For many intentional communities, that means that we work only part-time so that we free up time for things we don't get paid to do, like welcoming homeless folks for a meal, helping neighborhood kids with homework, planting gardens on abandoned lots, or praying together each day. Sometimes we have to remove some of the clutter that is occupying our time and energy, like getting rid of the television. But then, as we say no to some things, we say yes to others--cooking meals, painting murals, playing games. And most people don't miss the old life much anyway. A reporter once told Mother Teresa, "I wouldn't do what you do for a million dollars." She responded, "Me neither." We live in community and among the suffering because it is what we are made for. Not only does it give life to others, but it gives us life as well."

This is a vision far from the realities of our mission here, and always will be I am sure, as visions tend to be, but this is the time of the year for casting Visions, reminding us of our possibilities, together. And what falls from the movement toward Vision is enough.

If you would like to see a couple of videos from talks I gave in Dallas last year they have recently been published at this site: http://www.ntuuc.org/sotsol2012.shtml, a keynote and a followup q&a workshop. And from the recent trip to Pennsylvannia: http://www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com/2013/11/life-on-fire-sermon-living-missives-of.html

Finally, thanks for you, blessings, and more soon,

Ron

Thursday

Why We Are Here and Needed Revealed in New Study, and Why We May Close

The past few months we have been part of a study of nutrition and health of the folks in our area who use our Welcome Table Corner Store, in increasing numbers. Today we found out the results. Actually these results may be worse here because they also include stats from two other places in the Tulsa area (but based on the survey of our folks done in 2009, these stats seem pretty close to those; we will update when we get the ones for just our space.). This wasn't just a survey where people circle answers as quick as they can; it was more lengthy and conversational, and then the food they select from us was inventoried, and weighed, and its nutritional value assessed. Thanks to OU doctoral program and the Food Bank for working on it with us, and to our neighbors who took the time and vulnerability to participate.

But first before I list the results, let me repeat what I have written on before here after a recent OU presentation, and was reiterated by the survey leaders: the health and life expectancy of people is affected only 10 to 20 percent by care received in a medical clinic or hospital setting (access is very important but it is still, even if all had equal access, only a small part of what makes us healthy). Instead, what we do, working on what people eat, increasing their sense of community and connection, improving the environment, and the renewal of neighborhoods where they live, that counts for the highest percentage of someone's life and health expectancy. But as a society we spend 80 percent of our dollars on what contributes 10 to 20 percent of health. This financial irony, or tragedy, is important and I will return to it after the survey results.

What we found out about our neighbors here who come to our free corner store:
60 percent experience low food security, and 34 percent experience very low food security, meaning they show physical symptoms of hunger and have not eaten that day or regularly.
61 percent say that their health is fair or poor, which is an indicator that within a year they may be hospitalized or die. They are on the bottom rung of health.
In answer to a question posed routinely by the Centers for Disease Control: how many days out of a month do you have bad health days, the answer was a high 11 days; it gets worse when asked about mental health, with the average being 12 days of bad mental health.
41 percent have been told they have depression or anxiety illnesses.
52 percent don't have the kinds of social support necessary for healthy living and especially recovery.
51 percent suffer from depression, 49 percent anxiety, 49 percent high blood pressure, 47 percent high cholesterol, 47 percent chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and 33 percent diabetes.

(An aside on mental health: I often tell groups that when we relieve a bit of food insecurity, even when it is not with the best healthy food, or give away our free clothing, or host a free community party, or help to get abandoned and neglected areas fixed up, we are making life just a bit less stressful to struggling folks without the resources others have in other areas, and for people with mental health issues helping reduce triggers and stress makes a big difference.)

66 percent are obese and say they want to lose weight. The food insecurity leads to binge eating, which along with the kinds of calories available are indicators of the obesity.
A significant number report having to choose between buying food and paying for medicine and medical care; also a significant number rely on more than one food pantry during the month and still have food insecurity.
The average amount of food we give out to our folks who are only allowed to come once a month will last three to four days (the amount we give out all depends on the amount we can pay for at the food bank in our shared maintenance fees or we get for free from the food bank or can get donated to us, or can grow in our own gardenpark and orchard, which is seasonal). And this 3-4 days is actually less if there are men or active children in the family as studies show that while on average 2,000 calories per person is needed, for them it is at least 3,000 calories per day. So we may only be helping them relieve food insecurity for a few days a month.

What we give out is not always a good contributor to health either, even though it has the other benefits I mentioned of reducing food insecurity. We give out 2600 milligrams of sodium per day in our food and only some 1500 mg is needed per day. We give out 88 grams of sugar and only 32 grams is recommended. We are giving out daily amounts of 300 mg in cholesterol when 200 or less is needed, and this would be worse when we have meat that we can give out; it is at this amount because we haven't been able to purchase meat to give out, even when we can get it for 20 cents a pound through the food bank, when the food bank has it. We are giving out about the right amount of protein, but people report that they feel they need more protein, more meat, so we need to do more education and habit forming so people will feel better about the adequate amount of protein, and how to prepare meals with this level of protein.

Knowing this is why here at our place we also have formed relationships and have present a nutrition counselor from the OSU Extension Center, and why we have representatives from the North Regional Wellness Center of the Tulsa Health Dept to visit with people and help recommend resources; and it is why we have a spiritual director listening to people tell their stories, and to provide the ministry of presence and encouragement of "a listening ear." And above all it is why we have worked in just the past three years to create the GardenPark and Orchard for the community, a park where abandoned houses and trash once was dumped, and now is a place for healthy education, community spirit, and connection, a place that has received state and regional awards, and this month is a finalist for a Keep Oklahoma Beautiful Environmental Excellence Award.

There is the need. There is the response. Here is the tough news; Because of the loss over the past year of financial contributors who had been giving to us on a regular monthly basis the past few years as we were expanding and growing our presence at the park and the community center, wonderful folks who have been our leaders but who have died or moved away or shifted giving to other local groups, we now face a monthly income shortfall of some $600 just to be able to pay the barebones but rising utility bills; we have enough for the mortgage and for phone and internet, but that's it. That doesn't include what is needed for food and program expenses.

So we need to get 60 people to become monthly supporters giving $10 each through our online donation buttons on this page (at www.turleyok.blogspot.com), and thats an average, or 30 people giving $20 a month, or just 20 people giving just one dollar a day, or $30 a month. Actually we would rather have 60 people giving $10 or 120 people giving $5 because that increases the shared support and ownership and means if one or two people stop giving we won't be back in the same situation.

We think we are saving lives, making life a bit easier for people struggling, and are bearing witness with our neighbors to many of the inequities and injustice and oppression faced by people here in the low income lowest life expectancy area of the Tulsa area. We hope no matter where you are from you will see value in what we have done, are doing, and can do in the future, and will become a part of this movement of grassroots all volunteer 100 percent mission neighborhood renewal.

Wednesday

Photos of Recent Events: Taste of North Tulsa, 8th Annual Community Halloween Party, Food Day at North Regional THD Wellness Center, Food Truck Day, FoodPantry, FunFest, McLain Homecoming This Friday

Friday

Mission and Renewal in the Lowest Life Expectancy Zipcode in the Tulsa Area: Stand in the Gap With Us. Donate to Help Us Stay Open.

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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Friday

Who We Are/What We Do/Why Summary

Wednesday

Join in Growing Community....

Life on Fire in McLain/Turley Area This Weekend, and More News and Projects

Thursday

What's Coming Up in our Community

Tuesday

Ways To Come Be With Us in Coming Events

Christmas in the 74126 in 2013

Monday

Thanksgiving: Common Life Common Good

Thursday

Why We Are Here and Needed Revealed in New Study, and Why We May Close

Wednesday

Photos of Recent Events: Taste of North Tulsa, 8th Annual Community Halloween Party, Food Day at North Regional THD Wellness Center, Food Truck Day, FoodPantry, FunFest, McLain Homecoming This Friday

Friday

Mission and Renewal in the Lowest Life Expectancy Zipcode in the Tulsa Area: Stand in the Gap With Us. Donate to Help Us Stay Open.

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