Take Back Vacant Land

The Campaign to Take Back Vacant Land has been hard at work over the past few months to get a land bank bill community members can trust. Our Compassion Team working with the campaign has been showing up at council regularly, sharing testimonies, and fighting to win the version of the bill that Philadelphia neighbors can benefit from and be invested in. Among the 100 people that gathered in council last week, Jonny Rashid, one of our pastors, spoke to the vitality of the land bank. An amended version of the bill has been passed and with some more effort will be won by the end of 2013! Keep praying with us and our neighbors for our communities across the city.

See Jonny speak at City Hall here.

Reporting: Sara Semborski

Organizing for Environmental Justice

On Saturday, 70 people came out to Broad & Washington to be inspired by Lisa Sharon Harper—Director of Mobilizing for Sojourners—to organize for environmental justice. Lisa explained that environmental justice is beyond just caring for creation. It is mobilizing for clean air, water, and land for everyone, not just those who can afford to live wherever they want to. She explained that in the United States, the poor consistently live in areas that contain higher rates of environmental toxins and less access to fresh food, resulting in lower life spans and more disease.

In the face of this racist and classist policy, Lisa encouraged us with evidence that people of faith are fighting for change. Our work with the Land Bank Bill here in Philadelphia is evidence of that change. Lisa helped us to identify "core spiritual lies" that keep people accepting of the status quo here in Philadelphia. Some of the lies that groups identified included "affluent people deserve better" and "without a commitment to profit we won't survive" and "it doesn't matter what I do—I'm too small to change the system." Lisa said that if we can confront spiritual lies with spiritual truth, we can unlock a movement. She gave us spiritual truth to stand on from the Bible that is confirmed by the movement of the Holy Spirit among us. Reporting: Rachel Sensenig

Multiplayer Mode

Joining the international fundraising efforts of Extra Life for the first time, Circle of Hope Marlton & Crescent hosted a Sponsor-a-Nerd 24-hour gaming marathon on November 2. Twenty-one gamers registered online as part of the Circle of Hope team and then raised money for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (and a couple of other children’s hospitals) by finding donations through sponsors, just like their more athletic counterparts might do for a charity run.

On the day of the event, participants started arriving at MC at 8am where we had repurposed the space into a gaming haven. We brought in extra couches, hooked projectors up to gaming consoles, set up several tables for board games, and created an area for the computer gamers. The variety of games stretched from bestselling titles to bins of obscure tabletop games to stacks of NES cartridges that still smelled like the 80s. People were free to play whatever they wanted at any given moment, but we also held tournaments for which participants competed for donated prizes and tried to unlock achievements. If you would have walked in Saturday night, you would have seen a room of forty to fifty people variously watching the Power Rangers Movie projected onto a wall, battling it out in Super Smash Brothers, demoing the Occulus Rift, facing off in Magic the Gathering, concluding a five-hour Settlers of Cataan tournament, or trying to destroy one others’ towers in the PC game Tower Wars. And many of these gamers were playing with/against people they had never met before.

By the time we emerged with blurry eyes at 8am the next day—actually 25 hours later thanks to Daylight Savings Time—there were only about ten of us still standing. The more important number, though, was the $2,330 our team ended up raising to help kids at CHoP receive treatment regardless of their family’s ability to pay. And remember, we weren’t doing this alone. Through the collective efforts of other gamers in the region, CHoP raised over $71,000. And as if that number isn’t mind blowing enough, over $3.8 million dollars was raised for various children’s hospitals throughout the world as a result of the Extra Life event in a simple reminder that what we can do alone pales in comparison to what we can do together. Reporting: Randy Ribay

October Love Feast

On Saturday, October 26th, Circle of Hope celebrated its October Love Feast, a time of looking over the past quarter as well as celebrating new people who have decided to partner with us through making a covenant. 

Before the Love Feast began, several people—John Geating, Brianna Serrano, Anna Rhoades, Stephanie Carter, Cameron and Becca DeWhitt—were baptized in the cold waters of the Wissahickon.

The Love Feast was a time of celebration where we worshiped Jesus with original songs by our music leaders, pop songs, and songs from around the world. We also heard from Aaron Foltz and Tricia Fussaro. Aaron shared a story in his life regarding a time he saw great gentleness in a co-worker, and Tricia shared a personal account of anxiousness due to pregnancy, all of which was related back to a theme of overcoming fear and seeing beauty around us by resting in and celebrating Jesus.

The night of celebration and sharing ended with Communion, a breaking of bread and serving of juice, for those who attended, and a emotional finale of worship and prayer.

All told, 10 people covenanted with Circle of Hope, which included:

From Broad & Washington: Brianna Sérráno, John Geating
From Frankford & Norris: Stephanie Carter and Cameron DeWhitt, Becca DeWhitt, and Lindsay Li
From Marlton & Crescent: Stevie Neale and Juan Rodgriguez
From Broad & Dauphin: Tori Hayes, Donovan Hayes

Mark Van Steenwyk

Last Thursday about 50 people came together as we teamed up with the Alternative Seminary and The Simple Way to host our friend from the Mennonite Worker in Minneapolis in a time to consider "Liberation from the Gospel of Empire." Mark Van Steenwyk ran out of copies of his new book "The UNkingdom of God: Embracing the Subversive Power of Repentance." Mark was funny and sincere as he urged us to keep encountering Jesus as the center of who the church is while unmasking the powers that have co-opted the gospel as a tool for domination.

Reporting: Joshua Grace

Baby and Kids Goods Exchange

I love the Free Baby/Kids Goods Exchange, one of our compassion teams. We opened the doors to our space at Broad and Dauphin this weekend, and welcomed our neighbors to share and receive clothes, toys, and books for babies and kids. It was a joy to see so many participants and volunteers. We felt God's presence there!

-Steve Hess

Leadership Training: Getting Unstuck

On Saturday, Joshua Grace offered some wisdom to cell leaders (and anyone else interested in being trained!) on how to move through the "sticky places" in spiritual development and leadership. His goal was to convey that we get "unstuck" by participating in the work of the Gospel and by proclaiming the Word of God. He cited an example of Moses's persistent frustration with the wayward Israelites in the Genesis story and Moses's constant choice to either trust and obey God or be led by his limitations and frustrations.

Joshua guided us to consider different ways we perceive leadership when it is going well and when it is difficult. He reminded us of Jesus' instructions to his disciples to proclaim the good news of Him throughout every town, and he pointed out the difference between following Jesus and simply expecting Jesus to help us do "whatever." Joshua also explained the various ways by which we can proclaim that Gospel around us and how that loosens us up, gets us unstuck, to lead more effectively. He ended the training by suggesting simple practices for getting unstuck in our thinking and leading, as well as further reading for effective leadership.

Reporting: Luke Bartolomeo & Rachel Sensenig