NorCalUrban

This bill just passed the house. It would make it illegal for anyone to provide assistance to illegal immigrants. This is scary stuff. Priests or clergy, nurses, social workers and others could face 5 years in prison for helping immigrants. Not sure if this will pass, but it is an indication of the climate in America. Maybe these folks should read the inscription on the Statue of Liberty! Read the article here.

Read the article here.

Christmas Eve morning.... Finally. I'm glad to have a week of somewhat down time. What a week it was last week - what a year it was! Calvin came back last week from Hampton university - James from Tuskegee. What a joy to see them! Both came through BCM's programs and now are studying in university. I love both of those guys. The are awesome examples of emerging leaders. Now if we can just keep them in school! Most of the BCM staff is headed out of town: Amy in Washington, Andy H. in Texas, Emily in NY... Our staff work so hard, when the down time comes they scatter. We had a great strategic planning meeting for the Credit Union project last Thursday for most of the day. The good folks from Stanford CU hosted. Michael Hilliar from their staff facilitated. The goal is to have an operational CU by the end of '06. It's an ambitious goal to say the least, but with the quality of folks that are behind this project, I think it's do-able. I've been really impressed by...

KInd of disappointing - we had another homicide and shooting this week. More lives ruined by violence. I know we have to keep praying, working for change. Please pray for our city. Read about the incident here.

Jim Wallis, John Perkins and others were arrested in a protest in Washington yesterday. Check it out here. They were protesting the propsed cut of $50 billion dollars out of social services.

Yeaterday we participated in a prayer walk in EPA. It was one of the 'tangible' action items that came out of the EPA Summit on Violence we participated in a couple of weeks ago. While we will work for social change - in the end we believe that our efforts must be infused by the power of the Holy Spirit. We walked in scilence from City Hall to a location where there was a triple homicide earlier this year. We spent a few moments praying for the city, the families of those who have been lost. We had the chance to pray specifically for the Chief of Police and his staff. The violence in our community has slowed down somewhat in the last month - praise God. The Christmas holiday has traditionally been a violent season - we're praying that this year peace will reign.

Bradley asks some great qustions. Check it out!

Haven't read it yet - but Phil and Efrem are quality folks... Pick the book up here.

Over the past months a group of us have been workign on a summit for preventing violence in our community. The ultimate goal was to call pastors and leaders of faith to take responsibility for the community on a 'street' level. The summit was a resounding success! We had over 75 people attend - including three city council members, the chief of police and others. We received a good amount of press for the event, here are a couple of the articles: MEN OF CLOTH, MEN OF BADGE UNITE Police tap religious groups in campaign to stem violence By Rebekah Gordon, STAFF WRITER Inside Bay Area EAST PALO ALTO, CA Fourteen homicides here this year have sent the Police Department into overdrive to stem the violence, and on Saturday they looked to some 75 local religious leaders for help. "We've got a high level of violence and we need a different outlook," said Lt. Tom Alipio, a patrol commander who helped organize the day's summit of leaders. "We've never done any...

I just finished Billy Crystal's book 700 Sundays. I picked it up in Indy for the trip home from CCDA. I REALLY want to see the play now - the book is at times laugh out loud funny. While certainly not a Christian book - it hits on some interesting points - family, priorities, grief and loss, perspective. He likens the grief to a 'boulder' that you carry around with you. Many of us have seen people carrying boulders around -some of us carry boulders. Good book...

Melissa and I went to see Ozomatali last night at the Fillmore in SF. What an amazing show! Noel C. always talks about the concept of Mestizo - the mixing of cultures and experiences. I couldn't help but think of this during the show. Ozo has latin, funk, eastern, hip hop, rock... It's kind of what we've been envisioning as we've planed AUF. check out Ozo.

I've been in the Bay Area for over five years now and in Northern California since 1995. The contrast from Modesto to the Bay has been start. Rick and the guys at YFC in Modesto had great success in creating a level of synergy and community amongst youth leaders in the area. Here in the Bay there seems to be a real disconnect between churches and ministries. We've seen it present in our little community of East Palo Alto (although things are getting better here through the work of Larry Moody and others). So - sort of by default I've been involved in a couple of regional events, working with Larry Acosta on Reload (http://www.uywi.org) and Noel with the CCDA Institute (http://www.ccda.org). I've been surprised by a couple of things: 1) The amount of transition / burnout in urban leaders in the Bay and 2) How difficult it is to get folks to the table. Now - I have a couple of working theories. The first is that we are a region of 'micro-climates'. The weather is...