The funniest moment yet of the Fall of 2011 goes to Andrea Millheim defeating a crew of teenage boys and children at a game of knockout during our After School Program.  If you don't know, knockout, or bumps, as we used to call it, is a basketball game with a row of people who take turns trying to make a shot, using two basketballs.  If the person behind you makes the shot before you, you are out.

The teenage boys were not warned that Andrea was a small college All-American and Hall of Famer at her college.  So...they were all mystified and amazed when she beat them all three times in a row.  Soon the younger boys started teasing the teenagers for losing to her.  One young man said that I should have warned him and his feelings were hurt (he was kidding, of course, or at least we think).  It was a fun day for all of us.

We just got back from the first annual Camp Shalom!  Approximately 50 people spent the weekend at Golden Valley Christian Camp, and it was a special experience.  The young people from East Oakland had new experiences such as archery, night hikes, s'mores and camp songs.  Our theme, "God is our Father, and we are loved" was woven throughout the weekend.  It really couldn't have been much better of a weekend.  New friends were made by all of us...rich and poor, black and white, silly and serious, young and old, boisterous and shy, urban and suburban, fabulous dancers and the awkwardly uncoordinated (that would be Nate, as pointed out by Troy to the whole camp).  We sang, danced, hiked, climbed through obstacle courses, prayed and talked.  Thanks to everyone who contributed to make it happen!

In April we'll be hosting a camp for young people from East Oakland.  On the weekend of April 8-10 we will head East to the woods at Golden Valley Camp.  Many of the children involved in our after school program have never been to anything like this, so it will definitely be an exciting trip for all of us.  We're hopeful that this sort of retreat and camp experience can help our young people encounter their Creator in a new way.  We also have the privilege of making the camp a partnership with our friends from Creekside Community Church.  We are planning the camp together and staffing the camp together as another step in helping two Bay Area communities come together to learn from one another and bless one another.

Just yesterday we took a trip to visit the camp and solidify the plans.  It's a beautiful place, and we hope and pray that our plans go smoothly.  Hopefully this will be the first annual Spring camp of many.

Peace,

Nate

In case you haven't heard, we're about to launch a whole new basketball league for young men in cooperation with our friends from Trybe in East Oakland.  It will be called the Oakland Independent League (OIL).  Young men ages 16-25 will make up the five teams in the league.  This Saturday morning, Team Shalom will scrimmage Trybe, and the following Saturday we will start league games at Roosevelt Middle School.  Team Shalom has been practicing on Monday nights for several weeks now.  We're excited for this new venture and the connections with young men from East Oakland.

From the new website of our good friend and Board Member, Harry Williams...The statistics are startling but there is hope!

Welcome To The Movement

Did you know that America’s incarceration rate has risen 500% in 30 years.  Did you know that today there are 2.3 million Americans behind bars?  Did you know that the Sentencing Project predicts that 1 out every 3 black males can expect to go to prison in his life time if current trends continue?  Did you know that Latino incarceration rates rose 16% between 2000 and 2008?  Add to those startling stats the fact that gang membership has migrated from the hardcore inner cities to villages and farm towns all over America.

20th century answers will not work in an age where gang members plot and recruit through the internet.  In the absence of fathers and positive male models, many young girls are drawn to “thug niggas” who settle disputes with 9 millimeter pistols.

Most traditional churches exist far outside of the hip hop/street culture where inner city young people live.  Class issues have separated most mainstream churches from their mission field.  The poor and elderly live in terror as stray bullets blast out in the streets of the hood.  We are living in turmoil and heading for disaster.

Can this hell on earth be healed?  Yes.

Welcome to the movement.

Our Youth Director, Troy Bryant, and I were able to attend the CCDA (Christian Community Development Association) Conference in Chicago a couple of weeks ago, along with approximately 3,000 other people.  We had a wonderful experience, connecting with fellow leaders from across the country, being inspired from some phenomenal speakers and gaining some new ideas about after school programs, hip hop culture, multicultural organizations and more.

The CCDA was started 20 years ago when John Perkins, a Mississippi sharecropper's son, and Dr. Wayne "Coach" Gordon, an inner-city Chicago transplant from Iowa, invited like-minded people together for fellowship and training in best practices for work in under resourced neighborhoods.

The CCDA philosophy began with the three R's that John Perkins first articulated: relocation, reconciliation and redistribution.  There are now 8 Key Components in the CCDA Philosophy: Relocation (living among the people), Reconciliation, Redistribution (just distribution of resources), Leadership Development, Listening to Community, Church-Based, Wholistic Approach and Empowerment.

John Perkins like to quote an ancient Chinese proverb...

Go to the people.  Live among them.  Learn from them.  Love them.  Start with what they know.  Build on what they have.  But of the best leaders, when their task is done, the people will remark, "We have done it ourselves."

Far too often middle and upper class Christians try to help people in under resourced neighborhoods, but the efforts have little or even negative impact, because it is too easy to underestimate the gifts God has given people in those neighborhoods.  People need to be empowered and given a voice in the process.  The CCDA has helped people understand this for 20 years now, and as our country evolves and changes, I hope that the CCDA can keep the passion and key parts of the foundational vision while adjusting to the times.  Things like gentrification, the suburbanization of poverty, immigration debate, globalization and social media are changing our country and our world, and I hope that the CCDA can continue to provide friendships and resources to workers in these changing times.

Check out this video filmed right here in East Oakland.  Yes, good and beautifully creative things happen here too.

We recently learned that we will be using the same space we used for our Summer Program for our After School Program in September.  We're very grateful to have a much bigger space than last year with the potential to better serve our young people.  We'll be at 7721 MacArthur Blvd.