Friday, December 28, 2018

Can you make a donation to DOC for my birthday?


Dear Family and Friends,

Each year on my birthday I typically draw attention to a matter that has captured my heart and ask for you to donate.   This year I’m asking for you to help us get DOC (Diaspora Outreach Community) off the ground.   We’ve been very candid and I’m going to be even more candid.


Let me start with basic missionary theology.   It’s called incarnational ministry.   The predominant text it comes from is John 20:21 where our Lord says, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”  Missionary theologians interpret this text to mean that the Son of God left all glory in heaven. He came to earth to live in human flesh.   He learned all the pain and suffering of this earth.   That perfected Him for His death to atone for our sins.   In a similar way, those who leave their homes as missionaries must take on the pain and suffering of their host community.  They must live amid the people they serve, experience their experiences, and be perfected.

In many ways, our family has had that journey.   Our return to American has been humbling.   Our past success, degrees, skill set, and connections have had little value to most American decision makers we have known.  We’ve had to start at the bottom when we are old.   Our bodies have failings of our age.   We’ve at times worked 4 jobs.   We’ve been greatly disappointed.  We’ve had times in the past where we couldn’t pay all our bills for months upon months.   We’ve been threatened.   For a time, we were on food stamps.   We’ve at times been humiliated and degraded. 

  In the contemporary American Church, there is no longer a scarlet letter of “A” for adultery.  Now, the American Church’s scarlet letter is the” P” for poverty.  If you wear a P the American Church will rarely give you credibility and at best sees you as a prop or a project.

In one of our dark seasons in America, Jana in her studies found a Harvard Business School paper on the phenomena of “Food Stamp Entrepreneurs” (https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50692.)    It was well reviewed and picked up by leading magazines (https://harvardmagazine.com/2016/07/food-stamp-entrepreneurs, https://www.inc.com/kimberly-weisul/the-surprising-connection-between-welfare-and-entrepreneurship.html, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/03/welfare-makes-america-more-entrepreneurial/388598/, https://www.forbes.com/sites/hbsworkingknowledge/2014/09/02/food-stamp-entrepreneurs-how-public-assistance-enables-business-bootstrapping/#18d94e7f2579.)  It made us laugh.   It gave us an intellectual tool to find hope and to be gracious to the American Church.   Food Stamp Entrepreneurs are those who after working many dead-end jobs realize their only hope for middle-class viability is to start something.   They are poor.   They have no significant credit.   They have no significant savings.   What they have is a good idea, initiative, and hard work.   They take in every program they can find to get viable.   They are fed by food stamps and food banks.  They get medical care through Medicaid and cheap clinics.   They find programs to help with utility bills, school expenses, and any other need they can imagine or find.   Then with the savings to their limited budget by the programs they invest into their idea.   Many Food Stamp Entrepreneurs are immigrants.   As time goes along, they have the typical immigrant success that outpaces the native-born Americans.  Everyone in the family pulls together.   The kids stay out of trouble.   The kids have success in most matters.   Their family stays strong and goes to church.   Some of my successful immigrant friends have been Food Stamp Entrepreneurs.

As we try to get DOC off the ground that is also our path.   Theologically, it is the path of incarnational ministry.    

Yes, we could try to keep working 3 to 4 dead end jobs.  Yes, we could keep hoping that some mythical church or organization will rescue us.   Yes, we could keep hoping that one of the mythical entities would see the Diaspora we see and act.   Yet, as business writers tell us repeatedly, we must take in the reality and then find hope.   Our hope is in the Lord’s return.   He uses the humble to prepare the path.


Our hopes for DOC are the agendas of Diaspora communities we know.   We are not working our own agenda.   

In order to get DOC off the ground, we need resources to do things like pay our phone bill, car expenses, internet, legal fees, etc.  We don’t need help with food, housing, or medical care.   We do need help with the extra expenses that come with having a disabled child.   If you want to make a donation that will matter now is the time.   If you want to support a ministry that truly is immigrant-focused, immigrant-led, and a well-researched model of immigrant success DOC is a great option.  

If you would like to contribute towards DOC for my birthday, simply write a check to Cornerstone Christian Church and put Diaspora Outreach Community in the memo.   Send the check to 

Cornerstone Christian Church
312 Geneva Road
Glen Ellyn, IL 60137

Asante sana.   Webale nyo.   Murakoze cyane.   Thank you very much.

Dave

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