Dreams -- ours or HIS

Ok, are we saying that we are led by dreams?  Often what we are dreaming about in the daytime becomes clearer when expressed through our dreams.  I have found myself waking from a dream early in the morning and jumping out of bed to continue to clarify what the dream may have been pointing towards.

Lucretia and I are striving to follow where God's Spirit is leading us.  While driving, especially on long trips, we are in the habit of reading from books that we found or that have found us through suggestions from friends.  We have often felt led by the Spirit through the thoughts and writings of others, even more so in direct conversations with others as we discuss the directions of our lives.  To imagine that people only randomly enter our paths at the right time with the right words would say that we control the world around us or even that God has no plans for us.  We believe that He does have plans, often made clear through our interactions with others who are walking in Him.  We have set our goals toward living in the Solms community.  The momentum and flow of life is leading us there, we believe through the guidance of the Spirit.

 An example of our day dreams being crystallized by our night dreams into a solid vision of a Spirit step is seen in our embrace of the term HIS in our life.  We have struggled some with a few middle school boys who express their rebellion through their strut.  The clothes they wear, the attitudes they reflect point toward boys on the cusp of following in the culture of gangs or thugs with little respect for authority or parents.  Some of these are the same boys we have taught for years.  We see the influence of peer pressure leading them down the wrong path.

While this was apparent to us, the urgency of the situation wasn't made clear until one of the mothers of a boy in this age expressed her frustration with the rebellion and disobedience her son was showing as he sought to fit in with other kids in the neighborhood.  The next morning I awoke to the clear vision of what could be done.  The term HIS echoed in my head.  My dreams or waking thoughts had outlined that we needed to reach these boys in other ways from what we were trying.  Our structure to this point was to organize the vans to pick up around 43 kids for the Wednesday night classes.  The boys who were most at risk really didn't seem interested in these classes and actually when they did come were often a serious distraction to the teachers and other students.  But all of these kids were HIS (belonging to God).  My thoughts dwelt on how we could keep them involved in other ways that would benefit them.  What could guide them away from the disrespect which they now so often displayed?

It seems that they could be guided toward respecting others again using peer pressure but for good this time. What for me has meant that I am HIS was now also revealed in this "dream" to mean:

         Honoring God In Solms
         Honoring Family In Solms
         Honoring Others In Solms

We could start our own "gang" of sorts with subtle direction toward HIS.   I felt these boys would respond best if men would lead them in adventures and explorations outside of their experiences.  Not so hard to do as many of these young men have not been hiking in the woods, or driven to nearby state parks, or gone down into one of the nearby caverns, or taken a trip to the coast.

And so HIS began.  We invited 13 boys to come out to our 5 acres for an afternoon.  Eleven were able to come.  I recruited three other adults to hang out with the boys, and we had a blast.  A day spent away from the apartments and trailers that they are so accustomed to became a real outing.  Our promise to them is to continue this regularly and extend the distance and degree of adventure depending on how they as a group showed respect to others.  My good friend Jim had described earlier how respect can be modeled and ensured by having all of the group experience consequences when any one person steps out of line.  We didn't discuss our new notion of HIS during the day, but this did begin that day.

Lucretia and I were able to expand on this concept a couple of weeks later by bringing 12 of the middle school range girls to our house for an afternoon and then involving them in a memorial 5k stroll in honor of Madelleine, a young lady who had died this summer.  We felt it again went very well and helped to bond these girls in our HIS model.  The following week, 13 of the younger kids from these neighborhoods were brought out to our house for a day play followed by Christmas lights viewing on our way home.

I fixed up a small, rough sign to hang outside our new home which is to be built in Solms.  It reminds us of our reasons for moving, giving of our time and money, giving up our quiet life in the country.  In one word it expresses that what we give isn't ours to give. The sacrifices we make don't even start to compare to the one that He made on the cross.  This isn't our new land and new home -- these aren't our kids and new friends-- this isn't our new neighborhood --- it's  H I S

He did Interrupt us

After finishing the last Adventures for Kids and cleaning the facilities until 10:30 pm the night before, Terry and I left early the next morning on a trip to the east coast to visit two of our children. We spent a lot of time at first talking about the Adventures - what we liked, what we didn't like and would we ever do it again. We were exhausted, but it was hard not to talk about the kids. We also began reading Jen Hatmaker's Interrupted. We finally agreed to not talk about the kids after we crossed the Mississippi River, because it was so hard not to focus on the Tuesdays of the last few months.

In January 2012, our Pastor had stated that someone needed to move to the Solms area to work with the families we were serving in our Wednesday evening children's program.  I looked at Terry and said, "We could do that." He looked at me and said, "Don't you ever say that again." We smile a lot about that. But the spirit was talking to both of us through Jen's book. Sometime after crossing the Mississippi river, Terry looked at me and said, "We need to move to Solms." My immediate response was, "Yes, we could move into the apartments there." We discussed what this would mean and continued reading the book until we arrived at our son's home in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

While there we took our four-year old granddaughter to church on Sunday. She received a memory verse, Joshua 1:9: "Do not be afraid. I will be with you wherever you go." It was a perfect one for her. Her life was in turmoil with her parents divorcing, her dad getting custody and moving to go to school, dad finishing school and looking for work.

The next Sunday, we were visiting our daughter in Chesapeake, Virginia. We went to church with her family and the pastor preached on......Joshua 1:9: "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid: do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." Do you think God was encouraging us to follow his earlier leading to move to Solms?  We must believe it. Our trip home was spent in talking about plans and marveling over hearing God speak to us in this manner.

Our pastor was excited when he heard and asked us to tell the elders of our church. We assumed they would be excited too, but they were a little discouraging. One elder asked if we had counted up the cost and encouraged us to wait until we had. Another asked us if when we tire of this mission, if the church would have to help us financially. He did not want the church to be responsible for any finances. We assured him we are financially sound.

"Be strong and courageous...do not be discouraged..." We were still too excited to let the naysayers bother us, so we began looking for a place to buy. We had both decided the apartments would not be a good way to use our money or big enough for us to entertain the families. There was only one house available in the area and it needed too much repair. We looked for land and there was none advertised so we began knocking on doors of homes that had large parcels of land. We finally purchased about an acre of land right across the street from one set of apartments where many of our families lived and down the street from the other set of apartments. Thank you God for blessing us so much.

Adventures for Kids

Lucretia had discussed with several others the need for a summer reading camp.  Many of the kids we were working with once a week seemed behind in their reading and writing skills.  We all feared that taking the summer off from school would result in loosing some of the abilities that they had worked so hard for.  

As we came to know these families more, and as I try to learn to speak Spanish, we discovered the great disparity that comes when kids grow up in a Spanish speaking household versus those from an English speaking background.   I had assumed from working with second grade kids that some were just a little slower in learning than others.  Later, I would discover that these same kids were really very bright as they were able to show once they had mastered the English language.  Still, while they were learning a language, their peers were learning grammar, math, science, history, etc.

This difference was and is a constant issue in our classes.  Church kids and their parents resented classes taught a a basic level of bible knowledge even though all kids can benefit from learning more about the essentials of the bible.  In our 5th grade class, we had adopted the Easy to Read version of the bible to keep lessons simple.  The resistance came often from parents and kids from a home schooled setting which voiced opposition to a "dumbed down" presentation of gospel facts.  We tried to emphasize for kids and parents who had grown up with the Bible in their homes that these were an ideal setting to model outreach and ministry to kids who had lacked their training in the home.  We also tried to say at the same time that we should be especially welcoming to families who didn't have the background of our denomination or heritage.  This would include families of all cultures, education levels, and race.  Still this discussion continues.

Discussing the summer program with Cassandra we decided to check out an existing program called Kids Club.  The staff who greeted us were so supportive as they showed us how they reached at-risk kids in several of the Elementary schools.  As we compared our ideas for applying this to the kids we were reaching, we were totally surprised when, after checking with the board overseeing Kids Club, we were offered the use of their facilities without a charge for one day a week for the summer.  In addition, they invited us to join in their one week "Summer Camp".  And so, as we continue to experience, when HIS Spirit is leading our actions we are put in touch with others who are led in the same direction.

Our program was called Adventures for Kids.  We invited about 25 of our 2nd through 5th grades from our Wednesday night classes.  Another 10-12 older kids were asked to serve as staff to join others in the same age group from church.  Each Tuesday during the summer we picked up these kids and spent the day at the Kids Club facilities.  We played, read, sang, studied math, had devotionals, and went on field trips.  For kids who had few opportunities away from their apartments or trailers during the summer, this day of Adventure was a treat.  At the same time, the kids had instruction from volunteer adults and older teens.

These days spent with kids gave us the chance to know them better.  Our contact previously had been limited to either in the classroom with its necessary structure or on infrequent and short van trips while taking them home on Wednesday nights.  We also witnessed more closely the distance that existed between these "van" kids and the "church" kids who came to volunteer.  Our labels and distinctions continue to separate the kids and their parents from others in our church settings.  Not only is language a barrier but also the economic and cultural differences make it hard to relate to each other.  We judge each other with stereotypes which only prolong misunderstandings between us.

For Lucretia and I, as these prejudices became more apparent, our own protective instincts made us resent attitudes expressed by our "rich, white" church members.  We quickly began judging others for their biases while ignoring our own toward both the families of these Hispanic kids and also families who sought to protect their own kids from the rough, unchurched nature sometimes seen in these "van"kids.  About this time, in part as an effort to eliminate labels, the van program as a whole was given the ministry title, SEEDS.  It was an acronym but I still can't remember what it indicated.  So, another label was added to the existing "bus" or "van" label that distinguished these kids from "our church" kids.

Every Tuesday, we would pick up two van loads of kids for our Adventures.   Among the outings we included swimming at the city pools, Jumpy Castles, bowling, and a trip to the Children's Museum.  It was on this particular trip that another of our personal life changes began.  On this day, our Adventures kids were mixed with others from the community who were enjoying the Museum.  We assigned small groups of kids to our older helpers while the adult volunteers roamed among them keeping eyes open for kids' opportunities for mischief.  I noticed a woman there with two kids who to me seemed obviously from Ethiopia though I have really never had known anyone from there.  When I got the chance I asked her if her kids were adopted from there.  She smiled and said that this boy and girl were really not hers.  Yes, they had been adopted from Ethiopia but by her friends, Brandon and Jen Hatmaker, who were pastors of a church in Austin, Texas.  She suggested that we might want to read the book that her friend had just written titled: Interrupted.  We discussed our summer program and the kids that we were with and promised to read the book as soon as we could get a copy.  That became our read on our trip later that summer and is the source of the Spirit's further moving in our lives.

Although the summer was exhausting for us to organize and facilitate, the result was that we got closer to the families of a larger community.  This community is more and more part of our lives.  We are seeing ourselves as part of HIS family.

Our journey has begun

OUR JOURNEY by Terry and Lucretia Burton

Lucretia and I have begun a journey without a clear view of our destination.  We can look back to see the direction that we are going, but the future and our life to be is in God's hands.  So we rest in this and find peace in taking each day trying to follow in the path shown us.  We will reflect on our steps and stumblings in the recent past as a way to illuminate for us and you where we see ourselves being led -- by Him -- as HIS.

It has been five years now since the two of us became teachers in our church Wednesday night 2nd grade class.  Our church has had an outreach into some of our poorer areas of town for years which involves driving vans to pick up kids, mainly on Wednesday nights.  Lucretia and I thoroughly enjoyed the time spent with these young kids, mostly Hispanic, who were blended in with the church kids, mostly white.  So began our first step of this journey.

Years before we were married, Lucretia had spent 3 years with a missionary team in Guatemala.  There she learned Spanish which she later was able to apply as a Social Worker.  My only experience with the language was from high school classes and only practiced minimally since then.  In our class, there were a few kids who were marginal in their English.  Some of them were comforted by knowing that one of their teachers could speak well in their home language.  This was to become a major factor as we became more involved with the parents and families of the kids we taught on Wednesday nights.

I recall Lucretia's brother-in-law Doug suggesting that we read the book Shack.  We were both taken by this writing as an expression of God's grace and love.  We heard about an Austin church which was hosting a weekend with the author and were able to actually listen to his explanation of the working of the Spirit in bringing that book to life.  Later we were able to see the authors of the book, Same Kind of Different as Me, at the same church.  Eagerly we passed on copies of both of these writings to those close to us.

We had to step back from our involvement in 2009-2010 to help care for my sister and mother who both died in 2010.  In October of 2010 we were able to attend the OUTREACH convention in San Diego with others in our church.  Listening to various speakers brought into focus for us where we were being led by His Spirit.  We were influenced by reading a book called Under the Overpass about lives of homeless, street people.  I felt especially impacted listening to the author of Mosaic in discussing church that reflects the love of Christ in  the blending of cultures, races, economic diversity, ages, and spiritual maturity within the body of Christ.  Both of these books and writings led us more toward an outward looking model of Christianity.  We were being led toward a more active walk in this direction.  Actually, we only maintained our role in picking up our three kids on Wednesdays until the Fall of 2011 when I began assisting in a 5th grade class.  In January of 2012 I began co-teaching with another friend for this class.  Lucretia and I felt a need for increased leadership and organization for this outreach ministry and volunteered to guide it.  Our next step begins.