xPosure

This spring break I spent most of my time in Memphis, TN. I was on a mission trip with an organization called SOS. We worked on a home in the Binghamton neighborhood. This area was once a thriving community that has since been left to crack dealers, prostitutes, unemployed, and unfortunate people. It could be called a 'white flight' neighborhood and was an interesting experience. While the neighborhood isn't extremely different from neighborhoods on our own doorstep in places like Decatur, IL, what is changing is fascinating. A high concentration of ministries have teamed together and exist separately to influence the community for the message of Christ. Many of my thoughts that will come to you soon come from that trip.

One of the most eye-opening experiences was our xPosure visit (I know, cheesy spelling, right?). In this time on Tuesday night, we went to the home of a 'strategic neighbor' in the community. These are people that are passionate about building up the community and are willing to live there despite gunshots and killings only blocks away. The family we met moved from the suburbs of Memphis to this inner city neighborhood in crisis. Their passion for their neighbors is a fantastic witness to the power that God has in this place. They built a new home with wide open rooms so that they can host a house church and truly build up the community. They have Burundi refugees in their neighborhood and in their church. Their neighbors are people with real struggles and in this neighborhood all problems are out in the open.

Witnessing their lifestyle choices truly gave me a sense of how much God can move when he puts a passion in our heart and we follow it. They are helping to bring this neighborhood back to a place to be proud of by encouraging those who go off to college to return and help people believe in Binghamton.

I wish I could better articulate how incredible these people were. They chose to leave a life of American dreams in the suburbs to live in a neighborhood where they, white middle class people, should not fit in. Their daughter just graduated from college and had as much passion for her neighbors as her parents. The father still works in the swimming pool business and is an encouragement to those who don't work in the neighborhood. They have brought hope to Binghamton through Jesus. They also were able to do so without traveling thousands of miles on a mission to Africa or some far off land. There are people on our doorsteps that need Christ's compassion as well. Let us be aware of them.