At Home......

at my local Springville PW meeting I began my research about services in Utah Valley?  Kathleen Bowen is a great resource.
This morning. I read this: Luke 19:20. "If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out".   I read this from The Hour of Land by Terry Tempest Williams
Cesar Chavez wrote during one of his hunger strikes, "When we are really honest with ourselves, we must admit that our lives are really all that belong to us. So it is how we use our lives that determine what kind of men we are. It is my deepest belief that only by giving our lives do we find life.  I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally non-violent struggle for justice."

USAME day 8

Our group remained at the Mercy Center.  We had speakers from Puente community resource center and Booker T Washington Community Service Center come to share their work. 

Puente serves rural agricultural south coast areas through community advocacy leveraging resources to foster economic prosperity and security.  This region has many of the problems of the larger communities however the resources are more spread out.  Puente a services are a health clinic, dental care, education child care driver education , legal services and counseling for victims of domestic violence and mental health.  The help the hard working people dream and achieve their dreams.  They are funded by county grants, foundations and individual donations.  Housing is a major concern.  A rent for a trailer is $1000 a month.  They have a ESL cafe where people gather to share customs and conversation while learning language.  They also have a tradition of Posada where Joseph and Mary look for shelter just as people today search for room at the inn. 

  In the afternoon Patricia Scott from Booker T Washington Community Service Center came to tell us of the progress of building an affordable housing development and community center that will provide academic, career services recreational and health support services as well as a youth radio station. There will be 24 units for youth  who have grown too old for the foster child program but still need to transition to life as adults.  There will be 24 units of affordable housing for adults.  She told us of the years of struggles with law suits and neighbors that make this center a reality.  This is also a project that has changed to provide service to a changed community as gentrification has pushed out African American and Japanese American residents.

   In the late afternoon each of the synod representatives shared their plans to interpret and act as a result of this experience....to be compassionate.  

    We had a final Bible study out of Matthew.  The story is of Joseph, Mary and Jesus as refugees hiding from King Herod.   Farewells and hugs abounded with a promise to meet again in Louisville at the church wide gathering. 

USA Mission Experience day 7.   Our group boarded the BART train for the Tenderloin district and a meeting with the San Fransisco Department on the Status of Women.  Emily Murase gave us information and an explanation of the work since 1998 of San Fransisco as the first city in the world to adopt the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Domestic Violence Against Women, CEDAW.  The three requirements to become a CEDAW City are 1. Analysis of the city 2. Establish an over site body 3. Allocate funding.Their grants programs funds 24 community based agencies to address domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking.There are 6 staff members and a budget of $7 million which is a fraction of the $9.6 billion  city budget.  Emily emphasized that a proportional part of the budget should be dedicated to the needs of women and we need to hold the government accountable notable to this standard.  Because of the work of the department on the status of women in San Fransisco a homicide of 95 women in 2005 was improved to 0 homicides in 2010-2014.  She talked about the profit a pimp could make with four women in a year $600,000 tax free.  Selling of guns and drugs is less lucrative because they are gone after the sale.

In the afternoon we met with Glenda Hope the founder of San Fransisco Safe House and Jessica Lee the Executive Director.  Glenda heard the call to create the safe house and began the quest by applying for a PW Birthday Offering of  $.5 million.  She bluffed her way into purchasing the land for $ 850,000 with only the promise of the Birthday offering.  Glenda's idea became a reality affordable housing that has beauty, safety and is a place of dignity and healing.  The key she said was to grow to the place where your love for women is greater than your rage for their abuser.  "We must remember that the ground at the foot of the cross is level."
Jessica told us about the ten bedroom facilities that allow women to heal and grow for 18 months, services on the street for women on the waiting list.

We end d our day with Bible study on Joseph and his brothers a sibling rivalry that involved selling of a human.  We reflected on our experience think of how to interpret this experience as we travel home to our Synod sisters.

Day 6  of the USAME brought the group of Presbyterian Women to Oakland.  The first stop was the Alameda Country Family Justice Center.  The concept of having multiple services for victims of domestic violence under one roof began 15 years ago in San Diego.  The Oakland area quickly developed a center using funds made available by President Bush.  The center houses the police, district attorney as well as counseling and safe spaces for women, teens and children.  They provide safe inviting spaces encourage reading and skills that encourage women to transform from a survivor to a thriver.  One of the program's teaches computer coding to women leading to a good job with pay of $20-$40 an hour.  Bay Area Women Against Rape, BAWAR, is also housed in this complex.  It is a  24 hour rape crisis hotline.  We were urged to locate a family justice center in our area.

In the afternoon we visited Primeria Iglesias Presbyteriana Hispana which began in 1999 with 20 members. Now they have 150 members.  They have ESL classes three evenings a week of 2 hours each.  Oakland Consolidated school district cut their adult ESL classes due to budget restraints.  The church has been trying to fill the gap.  They have 50 people on their waiting list.  Immigrants into the area had been around 15,000 but have tripled to 60,000.

We heard from Reverend Deborah Lee the senior director of Immigration with Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity.  She works with faith communities to advocate for the fair treatment and dignity of immigrants.  She explained that Refugees have been accepted through official channels and are given $250. A month and a monthly bus pass.  However the process takes years to complete.  Illegal border crossers are refugees who risk everything to come to our country.  The US government spends $18 million a year on immigration enforcement.  The U.S. Is also giving Mexico $80 million annually to deport Central Americans before they reach our border.  She told us that Central Americans are driven to immigrate because their land is being given away to Canada, USA and China for mining, hydroelectric, bananas and palm oil.  The profits enrich a few and take away from the many.

Day 5

Today we went to San Jose.  We visited Emmaus House which provides a safe shelter for women and children who are victims of domestic violence.  The have ten bedrooms and areas for each family to have their own space to cook and bathe.  The house was the recipient of the Thank Offering, $20,000.  In 2015 the served 177 clients.  They offer counseling and parenting education and strive to help women regain power in their lives to become self sufficient.

In the afternoon we visited The Immanuel House, a transitional home for refugees arriving in Santa Clara Valley.  It has opened in 2015 serving refugee men from Iran, Syria, Eretria, and South Congo.  Immanuel House came into being at the close of Immanuel Presbyterian church who found it's self to be unsustainable.  The gave their church building to a Tawainese congregation and but their financial resources and time into remodeling a home making 6 bedrooms, and an apartment for a live in manager.  There were many battles to fight but the had faith that "God's house would come together to serve.  The house is handsome with a nice patio and vegetable garden.

Our day ended with a Bible study on Micah 6:1-8 followed by a conversation about our impressions of  the projects we have witnessed.  We have begun to think about how we will interpret and act upon our mission experience.

Day four of the mission experience is a Sunday.  I was in the half of the group that worshipped at Ingleside Presbyterian Church.  Rev. Gordon has been working on a collage project for 30 years.  He has covered almost every inch of wall and ceiling in the church with images of heroes and heroines of the Civil Rights Movement as a cloud of witnesses to inspire his church family.  He also has a project to have students recite St Fransis of Assissi  every morning and evening.  "I am an instrument of Peace.  Where there is injury, pardon.  Where there is doubt, faith.  Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light.  And where there is sadness joy!  I shall not so much seek to be consoled as to console.  To be understood,as to understand. To be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that I receive and it is in pardoning that I am pardoned.  The service featured a beautiful soloist and a special blessing for a birthday of a one year old girl who has had a rough first year.  Our group joined the congregation for lunch.
  We toured around the city, Land's End National Recreation area, the wharf the Chinese Presbyterian church a bit of shopping and dinner at Chef Hung's cafe.

The third day of the mission experience merged with the Snyod of the Pacific Gathering.  We began with the first part of the Horizons Bible Study looking at who Jesus is through the lens of trauma in the Gospel of Mark as well as in films and visual art.  We heard an amazing presentation from Sister Mailyn Lacey from Mercy Beyond Borders.  She lead us through three steps to extreme compassion: 1) Be amazed 2) Let go 3) Resist in justice in every form.
Next we heard from Beverly Upton of the San Fransisco Domestic Violence Consortium.  Several agencies have come together to work for the elimination of domestic violence to ensure the basic rights of safety, self determination and wellbeing of victims of domestic violence and their children.

We also heard from BrianWo Bay Area Anti Trafficking Coalition sho is working to achieve a slave free Bay Area.  He defined trafficking and explained how we can be aware of the signs of coercion, fraud and exploitation and how we can be involved in prevention, intervention and after care.

In the evening we participated in a cultural humility workshop given by Doreen Der-McLeod. We rejoined the Synod Gathering for some crafts and refreshments.