Urban Farming - Will Allen

I am really interested in doing urban farming in East Garfield Park. As Will Allen says in this NY Times magazine article, there are 77,000 vacant lots in Chicago. One out of every three lots in East Garfield Park is vacant. The time for urban farming is now. Let me know if you want to be included in the planning task force.

Being Spiritually Well

We serve the world by being spiritually well.
The first question is not, “How much do we do?”
or “How many people do we help out?”,
but “Are we interiorly at peace?”
The distinction between contemplation and action can be misleading.
Jesus’ actions flowed from his interior communion with God.
His presence was healing, and it changed the world
In a sense he didn’t do anything!
Everyone who touched him was healed.

—Joseph Campbell

Jerry

“Arloa!” I was in the center of Chicago striding toward the train. I swung around to see who was calling my name.

My heart nearly leapt out of my skin. It was Jerry with his rugged tan face outlining crinkly eyes and a huge white toothed smile. It had been nearly ten years since I had seen him but he looked just the same, the story book picture of a gypsy man, his worn hat doffed to the side, curly brown hair wafting from underneath, good wrinkles patterned from years of smiling just like he was doing now.

Jerry always rode a bike, an old, thick tire one with a horn and baskets, lots of baskets stuffed with little happy teddy bears and toys and trinkets, gadgets and widgets hanging everywhere.

He had been part of the early Breakthrough family and had moved on, not wanting to be tied down to anyone’s rules. He never asked us for anything and didn’t really want any assistance into housing. He prefers to live off the land, sleeping and finding food where ever he can and occasionally stopping in to visit family and friends. He doesn’t drink alcohol or use drugs to my knowledge, and is one of the happiest people I know. He is at peace with just his bike, the shirt on his back and his love for God and people.

Sometimes I envy him.

Regarding the garbage? It's easier to blog about it!

"Why don't you just go out and pick it up?" someone asked. The problem of trash in our neighborhood becomes discouraging and as I said in my first post on this, there is a strong tendency to just give up.

There is often loose trash in the alley and we get used to seeing it there. There is a constant stream of people who go through the garbage to take anything useful. What is left gets strewn about. When one of my neighbors did neatly bag the items shown in my first post, the bags were ripped open and the trash strewn about again. We also have a problem with "fly dumping". When someone has a lot of garbage, rather than putting it behind their own homes, they put it in someone else's alley. That way they are not responsible for the fines. In this case the sanitation workers didn't take the garbage even after it was bagged, saying they needed help loading it into the truck. Eventually, after nearly a month, that garbage has been removed, but there is a similar pile of loose garbage a few houses down from us.

In order to "just go out and pick it up" we have to supply the bags, put the garbage in the bags, watch over the bags until the garbage truck comes, and then go out and help them load it into the truck. That's what eventually happened, but it's a lot of work, so we tend to look at it for weeks. It's a lot easier to blog about it.

OK,I'm going to go out and bag up some garbage now.

Whenever I get discouraged...

I look at this.


My grandkids have my heart!

Trash Removal

After I published my last post there was a google ad on my "successful post" page for a trash removal company. Coincidence?

The garbage in my alley

My daughter has my camera or I would post another picture of the garbage in my alley. After weeks of seeing the image in my June 13th post, one of my neighbors finally went out and gathered the pile of garbage into a neat line of about six large black bags. Since then the garbage trucks have been by twice but they have not taken the garbage. One of my neighbors said the garbage collectors said they only pick up the garbage from the black dumpsters and they would need help from someone from the neighborhood to lift all of the extra bags into their truck. Somehow, I guess, we are supposed to know when they are coming and be out their waiting for them.

In the meantime, alley scrappers have ripped the bags apart to go through them and the garbage, once again, is strewn throughout the alley.

Here is the dilemma. If I call Streets and Sanitation, they will ticket my neighbor who I know does not have discretionary funds to pay fines. I also don't want to be targeted as the neighbor who complains. So the garbage remains. There is another pile of garbage just like it a few houses down.

Walter Brueggemann on Preaching

"I believe that many preachers finally get around to their sermon in their fatigue from everything else, and if imagination is the key to good preaching, you cannot be imaginative when you are exhausted."

Pray for peace in Iran

Listen to the desperation in this poem from one woman, alone in the dark on a rooftop in Tehran. I pray today for freedom from tyranny and oppression in Iran. That God's shalom will prevail.

The worst question to ask a charity

Rosita Cortez, one of the people I follow on Twitter, linked me to this article by Dan Pollata on the Harvard Business Publishing blog. He writes about one of the most frequently asked questions that affects a nonprofit's rating with Charity Navigator, the Better Business Bureau, and the American Institute of Philanthropy. The question is "What percentage of my contribution goes to the cause rather than to overhead?"

His point is that because these watch dog groups make this the only question in determining an organization's effectiveness, they don't lead donors to consider the more important question, "Is the organization making a difference?"

How can that be, you ask? Well, the media, the watchdogs, and the sector itself have done an amazing job of training the public to think that the two things are the same, i.e., that if a charity has low overhead, it must be making a difference. Major studies on the relationship between organizational strength and impact find otherwise.

A strong organization needs a strong infrastructure. By continually forcing charities to scrimp on such things as operational management, fund raising, human resource development, marketing and information technology, misinformed funders are weakening the potential of nonprofits to diversify their funding base and ensure for the welfare of their staff.

Here's a link to another article from Bridgespan entitled, Nonprofit Overhead Costs: Breaking the Vicious Cycle of Misleading Reporting, Unrealistic Expectations, and Pressure to Conform, that makes a similar case. the authors write, "When nonprofit organizations are able to invest adequately in staffing and infrastructure-- “overhead”--they are better able to carry out their missions."

At Breakthrough we try to stretch every dollar. Funding for overhead is the most difficult to find and yet it I believe adequate funding for overhead is essential for us to carry out our mission effectively. Here's what I would suggest you do before you give to any organization.

• Visit the organization to witness their effectiveness
• Meet the leaders of the organization
• Ask to see an audited financial statement
• Spend time observing operations
• Volunteer so you get to know the staff and observe how they relate to the program participants
• Ask about the accountability structure of the organization and the involvement of the Board of Directors
• Ask how the organization measures outcomes

If you like what you see and you determine that you can trust the organization to use your donation wisely, give an undesignated gift so it can be used where it is most needed.

Skid Row LA

After awhile you tend to give up

This is a picture from my back door of the alley behind my apartment. It has looked like this for weeks. So why don't I clean it up? Probably for the same reason none of us on the block do. After awhile you get used to it, overwhelmed by it, and just give up. Maybe tomorrow.

Laughter is the Best Medicine

Interesting facts about Warren Buffet

Here are some very interesting facts about Warren Buffet, the second-richest man, who has donated $31 billion to charity.

He bought his first stock share at age 11 and he now regrets that he started too late!

He bought a small farm at age 14 with savings from delivering newspapers.

He still lives in the same small 3-bedroom house in mid-town Omaha, that he bought after he got married 50 years ago. He says that he has everything he needs in that house. His house does not have a wall or a fence surrounding it.

He drives his own car everywhere and does not have a driver or security people around him.

He never travels by private jet, although he owns the world's largest private jet company.

Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns 63 companies. He writes only one letter each year to the CEO's of these companies, giving them goals for the year! He never holds meetings or calls them on a regular basis.

He has given his CEO's only two rules:

Rule number 1: Do not lose any of your shareholder's money.

Rule number 2: Do not forget rule number 1.

He does not socialize with the high-society crowd. His pastime, after he gets home is to make himself some popcorn and watch television.

Bill Gates, the world's richest man met him for the first time only 5 years ago. Bill Gates did not think he had anything in common with Warren Buffet, so he had scheduled his meeting only for half hour, but when Gates met him, the meeting lasted for ten hours, and Bill Gates became a devotee of Warren Buffet.

Warren Buffet does not carry a cell phone, and he doesn't have a computer on his desk.

His advice to young people: Stay away from credit cards and invest in yourself and remember:

A. Money doesn't create man but it is the man who created money.

B. Live your life as simple as you are.

C. Don't do what others say, just listen to them, but do what you feel is good.

D. Don't go on brand names; just wear those things in which you feel comfortable.

E. Don't waste your money on unnecessary things; rather, spend on those people who are really in need.

F. After all it's your life, then why give chance to others to rule your life?

G. The best investment you can ever make, is to invest in the Kingdom of God.

Cause Marketing vs. the Virtue of Giving

Here's a link to an interesting article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy asking the question, "Does Cause Marketing Replace Virtue with 'Mindless Buying'?" Writer, Brennen Jensen, refers to an article by Angela M. Eikenberry, assistant professor in the School of Public Administration at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, in the Stanford Social Innovation Review,in which she makes the case that

"the short-term benefits of cause marketing—also known as consumption philanthropy—belie its long-term costs. These hidden costs include individualizing solutions to collective problems; replacing virtuous action with mindless buying; and hiding how markets create many social problems in the first place. Consumption philanthropy is therefore unsuited to create real social change."

I think she makes a great point. Do we encourage more consumption in order to fund causes that have become causes because of consumption?

Faith Leaders Are Green Mapping Harlem

“Faith leaders are responding because we have a mandate from our faith to protect the poor and to protect human life… Sojourner Truth had her watch. Martin Luther King, Jr. had his watch. This is our watch, and on our watch, this is the issue. On our watch people are dying. Whole communities are being held captive to environmental injustices and it’s our mandate to do something about that.” -- Lisa Sharon Harper, NY Faith and Justice

Prison, Drug Crimes and Racial Disparities

Here are some facts posted recently by Protestants for the Common Good.

• The United States leads the world in the number - 2.3 million - and percentage of residents it holds in prison. One in every 38 individuals is involved with the criminal justice system through probation, parole, prison or jail.
  
• About 78 percent of Illinois drug offenders are African-American, vastly higher than their 15 percent share of the overall population.
  
• A Human Rights Watch study from 2000 found that Illinois ranked first in the country with respect to racial disparities in prison sentences for drug crimes.
  
• The number of African-Americans admitted to prison in Illinois for drug offenses grew from 1,421 in 1990 to 9,088 in 2000 - a six-fold increase. During this same period, there was virtually no change in the number of whites admitted to prison.
  
• This difference exists despite the fact that rates of illicit drug use vary little by ethnicity.

Is incarceration the new slavery?

The Importance of Preschool

Because my grandson was not talking very well at age three he was eligible for free preschool in Will County. My daughter and I talk all the time about what an incredible blessing it was that preschool was made available to him. He will start kindergarten next fall with a much better chance of success.

Unfortunately, in my community on the west side of Chicago and other low income Chicago neighborhoods, most of the children do not have this advantage. Recent research conducted by Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI), found that 40 to 64% of preschool aged children in low-income communities are not in any early education program. The report, “Why Isn’t Johnny In Preschool?” is based on over 5,000 interviews in 19 low-income African-American and Latino neighborhoods across the city.

The Catalyst Notebook blog noted, "Factors that kept children out of preschool included lack of transportation, scheduling conflicts, immigrant families’ fear of deportation and a shortage of slots."

We were encouraged to learn that the students who participated in our Breakthrough Beginners program tested at 72% in the Bracken Kindergarten Readiness Assessment, compared to 17% for those in our after school program who did not attend Breakthrough Beginners. What a difference good early childhood education makes! We plan to open a licensed preschool in our new FamilyPlex facility scheduled to open in 2011.

School Attendance and Academic Success

Research conducted by the University of Chicago shows that a student's attendance is 8 times more predictive of failure than prior test scores.

This is especially significant for us at Breakthrough because we learned recently that at our local high school, John Marshall HS, the average number of days missed by students is 95 out of 180 days in the school year. Is it any wonder that in 2008, only 4% of the 11th graders at Marshall met or exceeded the state standards in the PSAE (Prairie State Achievement Exam)?

Here's a link to a Catalyst Notebook post about what not-for-profits should do to help students graduate. “There are a lot of really good programs out there,” said Elaine Allensworth, a co-director of the Consortium on Chicago School Research. “But if the people who work with kids don’t know how they are doing in class, they’re working blind.”

Garfield Park Preparatoy Academy

We are excited to welcome Garfield Park Preparatory Academy , a new contract school to our neighborhood. GPPA is the result of a two-year effort by the Applied Behavior Analysis Department to establish an elementary school that would improve elementary education in unique and powerful ways and also leverage the talents of Chicago School faculty and graduate students. It is slated to open in September and will share space with Faraday Elementary School, 3250 W. Monroe St.

PS22: You make me smile

NYC public school children singing Landslide by Fleetwood Mac



Who is that teacher?!!!

Bring Your Lunch

My message at River City Community Church on 5-24-09.

What the warm weather brings

Two people were killed in our neighborhood last night. The shooting occurred near Horan Park at Kedzie and Van Buren, where our Breakthrough kids play t-ball, soccer and softball. While most of us are happy to see warm weather finally descending upon Chicago, the sad fact is, when the weather warms up, the violence escalates. Please pray for the safety of our neighbors, staff and program participants and that God would give us grace as we minister to people who are facing extremely difficult situations.

Truth, Soul and Social Justice

Thanks to Breakthrough Youth and Family staffer, Robin Rankin, for linking me to this great Commencement Speech from John Legend, University of Pennsylvania, College of Arts and Sciences May 17, 2009.

The High Cost of Poverty

There was a great article in Monday's Washington Post about how expensive it is to be poor. The poor pay more for a gallon of milk, pay more for inferior housing, for transportation and health care. Prices at the corner stores are higher. You spend time waiting for the bus and at the laundromat. You spend money at check cashing and pay day loan joints, etc. etc.

Here's another link to an article from a paper in Texas that makes the point that the poverty line is set too low.

Consider the current U.S. “poverty line” amount for a single-parent family with two children. According to the Census Bureau, the 2008 amount was $17,346. Would this annual income cover a family’s basic needs?

According to the Economic Policy Institute’s Web site, this three-person family in the Kerrville area (rural Texas) must earn $31,320 annually to pay for key necessities, without setting aside any money in savings or investments.

Is this our country's way to keep the number of people living in poverty down? Just don't change the "poverty line" level even though prices go up?

North Lawndale Churches: More Harm Than Good?

There was a challenging article in the Sunday Chicago Tribune about the proliferation of churches in North Lawndale. I thought the article was kind of on target. As the community experienced disinvestment in the 60's, businesses moved out and storefront churches moved in, often side by side in the heart of the neighborhood's business district. If businesses are going to be brought back into the community, it makes sense to me that the churches should be given incentives to move off the business strip and into the residential communities. Tax revenue from thriving businesses would do a lot to turn the community around.

The article also mentioned concern from some community leaders and even some pastors that the churches aren't doing enough to heal the community's ills.

What is disheartening to me is the raw anger expressed in some of the 95 comments that have been left on the site. Here's what one commenter had to say...

Wow. I live in this ward. From many years of Neglect, I must say that it's depressing. We have almost "200" Churches in our ward and at least 90% of them are Powerless beyond their own front Door. It's depressing that many of these churches are constantly getting Grants, Tax- exempt Status without giving back to their community. How can you have this many churches and still have a ward that has to be almost one of the worst to live in? It's Deprived, Depressed and our entire make-up are Second Class Grocery Stores that hike Prices because most of their make-up are due to Link Aide, Mounds of Liquor Stores who's bottles are picked up by residents DAILY (Yea even the liquor stores have no respect for the community that they do business in. Mostly "Dollar General Stores" ... Forget Coffee Shops, Dry Cleaners, places to sit and eat. Those don't exist here but hey How about ALL OF THOSE CHURCHES

Another wrote:

One would think that a community that has received the attention of so many "men of the cloth" would have no need of a police force.

I'm thankful for Lawndale Community Church. They are on the Ogden Avenue strip too, but they have Hope House for recovering addicts, a thriving Community Health Center with 241,000 annual visits, and a Christian Development Corporation which has generated over $14 million of investment in the Lawndale community. They are being the true Church in Lawndale.

What Doesn't Go Away

Here's a link to a very real and pithy article by our own Breakthrough Housing Specialist, Paul Luikart, published by Burnside Writers Collective. He writes...

It’s good work, very good work, but being involved in the lives of these men and women takes its emotional toll, believe me. Of course there is a lot of joy in the work, but the moments of pain tend to stick to my psyche a lot longer. Some days I come home and sit on the couch and stare and stare at nothing, having completely retreated from the day into the darkest depths of my brain...If I believe (I do believe this, you should know) that an essential element of this kind of work is identification with the poor, then what elements of the lives of these men and women will never leave me? It’s sort of like I fear transference of the emotion of their experiences.

Paul expresses eloquently the challenges of hearing the troubling stories of abuse over and over and carrying that burden as well as the tendency to feel proud.

It’s not like a real overt sense of superiority, but just a little something I carry around in the back of my mind so when I meet somebody new at church, let’s say, and I ask him what he does and he says something like, “I’m in finance,” I can dip into that little sack of pride in the back of my mind and think at him, “Finance, huh? Well, who gives a rat’s ass? I know a guy with a huge crack problem and it’s my job to help him. Finance? Please. Come on, ask me what I do, you sucker.”

I'm trying to whet your appetite with these quotes, but you really need to read the entire piece. Great writing, very honest, profound.

"Good News?! You can’t handle The Good News!!" - Raffi Shahinian

Check out JR Woodward's blog. He has posted an article by Raffi Shanhinian implying we really don't want to hear the good news about "the first being last, and the most powerful being slaves."

Do you really wanna hear about allegiance to a Master? Do you really wanna hear about ultimate justice for the poor and the oppressed?

I mean deep down, in places you don’t talk about at parties, do you really wanna hear about serving others as a lifestyle? And not just friends and family, I mean others, you know, those uncool, unwealthy, unsexy others, or as some people put it, “the least of these?”

Indeed! The gospel Jesus taught in Luke 4:18 is good news for the poor.

Prayer for Children

Listen to this beautiful audio of Pastor Daniel Hill and the congregation reading one of Marian Wright Edelman's A Prayer for Children during the benediction at River City Community Church this morning. You can listen to Daniel Hill's dynamic sermon about children at this itunes podcast link.

A Prayer for Children

By MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN

We pray for children
Who sneak popsicles before supper,
Who erase holes in math workbooks,
Who can never find their shoes.

And we pray for those
Who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
Who can't bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers,
Who never "counted potatoes,"
Who are born in places we wouldn't be caught dead,
Who never go to the circus,
Who live in an X-rated world.

We pray for children
Who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
Who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money.
And we pray for those
Who never get dessert,
Who have no safe blanket to drag behind them,
Who watch their parents watch them die,
Who can't find any bread to steal,
Who don't have any rooms to clean up,
Whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser,
Whose monsters are real.

We pray for children
Who spend all their allowance before Tuesday,
Who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food,
Who like ghost stories,
Who shove dirty clothes under the bed and never rinse out the tub,
Who get visits from the tooth fairy,
Who don't like to be kissed in front of the carpool,
Who squirm in church or temple and scream in the phone,
Whose tears we sometimes laugh at and whose smiles can make us cry.

And we pray for those
Whose nightmares come in the daytime,
Who will eat anything,
Who have never seen a dentist,
Who aren't spoiled by anybody,
Who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,
Who live and move, but have no being.

We pray for children who want to be carried and for those who must,
For those we never give up on and for those who don't get a second chance.
For those we smother ... and for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it.

Blacks hit hard by the recession

Here's a link to an article from BBC news about poverty and the profound effect of the recession on the African American community in Chicago.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, black unemployment has risen to 13.4% since the recession began in December 2007. The national unemployment rate is 8.5%.

You will see pictures of the Greater Chicago Food Depository produce truck. When the truck comes to our neighborhood, East Garfield Park, on the west side of Chicago, a line circles the block. Fresh produce is difficult to obtain in our neighborhood. East Garfield Park has been labeled a food desert by a researchers. The study indicates that Chicago’s food deserts are nearly exclusively African-American.

What I did on my personal retreat

I've been asked by several people what I did during my personal retreat day last Thursday. I hadn't taken a personal retreat day in a long time, much too long. Every time I do it I wonder why I don't do it more often. I really want to make it a more regular practice. I really needed this time for restoration and direction. "He restores my soul". Psalm 23:3

If I don't block out time on my calendar far in advance and guard it ferociously, it just doesn't happen. In fact, there were several things that came up on Thursday that seemed pretty important. It almost seemed like a test to see if I would cave and not follow through. But, of course, I was able to delegate everything, which I think is part of the benefit of taking the day. It is kind of like fasting. It reminds me that the world and Breakthrough go on just fine without me. I get untangled from my co-dependence on my work.

By the way, isn't it interesting that the Israelites were told to "deny" themselves and take a sabbath of rest (Leviticus 16:31)? I would think a sabbath of rest would be considered self-centered rather than self denying, but it really is about withdrawing from the many things that hold our focus and about presenting ourselves, instead, to God, for reflection and renewal.

I started the day in my usual place where I light candles and sit in prayer, meditation and Scripture. For this special day I followed several of the retreats from the blue Upper Room Guide to Prayer. There are 12 monthly retreat models in the back of the book. They involve 30 minutes of silent listening followed by Scripture readings, readings for reflection, reflection, prayer, journal writing, recreation, rest and then repeating the cycle.

At one point in the retreat I felt led to get out my acrylic paints and try to put on canvas what I was experiencing. I created this painting.


I'm not sure what it is exactly. There is the sense of being carried on water which is a bit turbulent. (I often feel carried.) Then there is definitly new green growth, sprouts, shoots of new life coming out of something that looks like a heart on fire, or a germinating seed or an egg. Anyway, I have never done a painting like this before, so it was an experiment for me and I actually kind of like it.

Then I did another retreat cycle and then drove out to the Morton Arboretum in Lisle. I hadn't been there for years. It has changed a lot (great new kids play area). I walked several miles until I found a place to sit and did another of the retreats.


I was affected in several ways by the day. My soul, which had begun to feel dry, was definitely stirred and restored. One of the themes of the day for me was power. Luke 6:12-19 describes the effect a night of prayer had on Jesus. "One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God." After the night in prayer Jesus chooses his disciples and a large crowd gathers around him and it says in verse 19, "the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all."

Power was coming from Jesus. He would later say in Acts 1:8 "you shall receive power".

Zech 4:6 "Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord. Spirit = Ruwach = breath

Acts 17:28 “For in him we live and move and have our being.”

Ephesians 3:16, “strengthened by his Spirit in your inner being”

Joshua 3:5 “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.”

Consecrate - sanctify, prepare, dedicate, be hallowed, be holy, be sanctified

Amazing things, wonders = alp, pala, paw-law’

• to be marvellous, be wonderful, be surpassing, be extraordinary, separate by distinguishing action
  
• to be beyond one's power, be difficult to do
  
• to be difficult to understand
  
• to be wonderful, be extraordinary, marvellous (participle)

Psalm 20:7 "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God."

Anyway, there was lots to ponder. I ended my time by refocusing on my personal mission in life and did some planning. It was an amazing day. I really want to make this a monthly practice.

Do you have personal retreat days? Where do you go? What do you do?

Why we need to focus on education

The schools in our community are in bad shape. There are 2,265 grammar schools in the state if Illinois and all four of our local schools are in the bottom 100. At John Marshall, our local high school, 3.5% of the juniors are at or above their grade levels in math and science and only 6% in reading. The average PSAT school is 4% at or above their grade level. There are 180 days in a school year. At John Marshall High School the average number of days missed is 95! Westinghouse High School, just a block away from Breakthrough, will open a new facility in the fall and none of the kids from the community grammar schools have been able to test into it.

On a positive note, we gave the Bracken test for kindergarten readiness to the kids in our Nettie Bailey Student Achievement Program. The kids who attended our Breakthrough Beginners (preschool) program tested at 72% compared to those who did not attend who are at 17%. This is strong evidence that what we are doing is important and is working. Twenty of our program graduates started college last fall. While this is significant and encouraging, we recognize we have much work to do.

Click here to support Breakthrough's academic program.

The stress of poverty affects kids' learning ability

Here's a link to an interesting article in the Washington Post that discusses recent research on the affects that the stress of living in poverty has on the cognitive ability of children.

Now, research is providing what could be crucial clues to explain how childhood poverty translates into dimmer chances of success: Chronic stress from growing up poor appears to have a direct impact on the brain, leaving children with impairment in at least one key area -- working memory.

Food as art

I had a wonderful dinner last night with dear friends at "Arun", a Thai restaurant at 4156 North Kedzie in Chicago. Breath taking taste and presentation! Check out the Nemo fish below made from a carrot!!

Let all the earth PRAISE THE LORD!!

Race still matters

In tomorrow's Chicago Tribune, Clarence Page has written an editorial entitled, Race still matters for poor blacks.

Mainstream black leaders tend to blame black poverty on external barriers like racism, discrimination and the disappearance of low-skill jobs.

Conservative critics tend to blame black poverty on black behavior, attitudes and other "cultural" conditioning.

Page suggests that Obama and other lawmakers should work on legislation that recognizes the power of both culture and racism. He writes, "Obama won the presidency by insisting that racism was no longer powerful enough to stop him. But is it still powerful enough to stop those whom the civil rights movement left behind in poverty?"

Putting things into perspective

You Can Fly!

Check out this inspirational video about Jessica Cox who pilots a plane with no arms...

Big Dreams

Listen below to the kids from our neighborhood expressing their dreams and feel their struggle to change the community.

Jim Collins on Distinguising Great Talent

How do you distinguish the truly great talent from the rest?

The right people don't need to be managed. The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you've made a hiring mistake.

The right people don't think they have a job: They have responsibilities. If I'm a climber, my job is not [just] to belay. My responsibility is that if we get in trouble, I don't let my partner down.

The right people do what they say they will do, which means being really careful about what they say they will do. It's key in difficult times. In difficult environments our results are our responsibility. People who take credit in good times and blame external forces in bad times do not deserve to lead. End of story.

Click here for the full article.

CompassionArt: A Creative Attack on Poverty

Martin Smith from Delirious brought twelve top Christian singers and song writers together in Scotland for a week to produce a CD of new music called CompassionArt. Included were Michael W. Smith, Darlene Zschech, Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Tim Hughes, Paul Baloche, Israel Houghton, Graham Kendrick, Steven Curtis-Chapman, Andy Park, Stu Garrard, and Martin Smith. All of the proceeds from the album and the use of the songs will go to charities that care for the poor. I downloaded it through iTunes. Not only does this project strike a blow at poverty financially, but it is really great music! I love Highly Favored, King of the Broken, Friend of the Poor and Fill My Cup which features CeCe Winans and the Lakewood Choir.

Notes from Breakthrough donors affected by the economy

I am blown away lately by the faithfulness of the Breakthrough donors... and I mean they are putting REAL faith into action. Here are excerpts from two notes I received just this week.

I have been studying Elisha and the story of the man in 2 Kings 4 who brought 20 loaves to Elisha. It was probably his tithe, and Elisha was able to feed the one hundred people with him and there were leftovers! -- during a famine!! Don't you love God?! He can take even the smaller amount of money and make it go farther than we ever dreamed it would go!! We love you guys!

Here's another note that came with a large unexpected donation!

We have certainly been impacted by the financial decline in 2008 (but that doesn't make us special!) but continue to be challenged by God to give generously and faithfully. We have been meditating on the story in Mark of the "Young Rich Man" and have been following Jesus' simple and clear words "...you have only one thing left to do... sell your possessions, give to the poor and follow me." "Only one thing left to do" is the mantra that we are focusing on when we are worried about the scarcity of money and want to keep it for ourselves -- it is encouraging us to give.

Another of our supporters has decided to restrict herself to $176 per month for groceries which is what Illinois Food Stamp (Link) recipients receive so she can continue to give. She is practicing intentional "self regulation".

This is the real deal. I am humbled and inspired. I'm not sure what God is up to right now, but I have a feeling it is very good for us as we learn to activate what Brennan Manning calls, Ruthless Trust!

Waterfront Community Church is giving it all away!

Here's a video from NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams about Waterfront Community Church in Schaumburg, a church that gives all of it's weekly offerings to help the poor!

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