Beginnings

For months, I’ve wanted to write a blog, accounting my journey through living in Vickery Meadows with all of you. And yet, for months, I’ve just not known where to start. So here I am, still unsure of where to begin, but ready to delve in, regardless.

I guess, with anything, I’ll start with the beginning. For me, it began on Easter of 2010. I had just began a “fast from planning,” having spent months toiling over what I was going to do for my next life step (Get a Masters in Social Work and focus on refugees? Move overseas and try to work in refugee camps? Stay in my current apartment or move to another with roommates? Stay working with the government? Find a teaching job?...); getting nowhere, I felt the Lord telling me to just stop worrying, stop trying to control things, and just allow Him to work in my life. The fast had been freeing (and difficult), to say the least.

On Easter morning, I had breakfast with a group of people from my church who I was just starting to get to know. Like any ‘get to know you’ conversation, I found myself asked to describe “what I do.” I explained my job, and also felt the desire to share that I had been volunteering as a mentor and ESL tutor to a refugee family from Burma through International Rescue Committee. At that, the conversation took an unexpected turn; the gentleman I was talking to shared that he used to live in Vickery Meadows (a very urban, low-income, high-crime neighborhood where my Burmese family lived) and do ministry there with his neighbors. That got me excited, as I had often thought, on my ventures to Vickery Meadows “I’d love to live here!” (and dismissed the thought just as quickly with a “don’t be ridiculous! You’d be raped and robbed the moment it got dark outside!”). In all my months visiting the Burmese family, I had never met or encountered anyone (I hate to say it) white in Vickery Meadows, so the very idea in and of itself was exciting! I listened to him recount his tales of living in one of Dallas’ most dangerous neighborhoods, careful to guard my heart from getting too excited, knowing how easy it is for me to start to daydream/plan, and I was, of course, fasting from planning.

After breakfast, I went to Easter service at church, where the sermon spoke beautiful things to my fasting heart. I remember finishing worship with a sense of absolute freedom. I wasn’t ready to leave church, wanting to just sit in the Lord’s home for a while. As I was wondering whether or not it would be a good idea to sit through a second service, my good friend Daniel turned to me and said “you know what you should do? You should go volunteer with the African Refugee Fellowship that meets in our church – they’re always looking for children’s volunteers.” I jumped at the opportunity.

Stepping into the African Refugee Fellowship’s (ARF) room, I sat down beside two volunteers, Emily and Jessica, who were readying plastic eggs for an Easter egg hunt. I went to work with them, and as we were sitting there, the girls started talking amongst themselves about the preparation they need to make for their upcoming move. I casually asked them where they were thinking of moving, and, sure enough, they said “a place called Vickery Meadows, but we’re not sure yet because it’s dangerous.”

I hid my shock, but couldn’t help but wonder, “God, is this you telling me something?” I immediately dismissed the though, confident that no, God wouldn’t put this kind of temptation in front of me while I’m fasting from planning – surely not!

Moments later, another volunteer, Danny, came in. We started talking, he asked me how I got involved with volunteering with ARF, and I shared with him how my heart has shaped towards refugees for some time and I was looking at various avenues to work with refugees in the future. Danny casually mentioned that he was running a ministry “in Vickery Meadows, an area of Dallas where refugees live.” He then shared that he lived there – there, in Vickery Meadows – amongst the refugee populations. This time, I couldn’t hide my shock, asking him what it was like to live in Vickery Meadows. Danny picked up on my excitement, and said if I ever want to volunteer with his ministry, they’re always looking for help. We exchanged numbers, and then went about the day.

Following volunteering (this is all still on Easter, mind you), I went to a friend’s home for a giant Easter lunch and party. It was a great time, allowed me to meet more people from church, and just have a fun, relaxing day. While sitting around the table getting to know a few new people, it came up in conversation that one guy just got licensed as a real estate agent, and his job was to help people find apartments. I laughed and told him my short-term lease was coming to a close and I was going to be looking for an apartment soon. That turned the conversation towards apartments and my desire to have roommates for the first time in ages. One girl at the table, Esther, said casually, “well, we’re looking for a roommate, but you’d never want to live where we live!” I asked her where she lived, and, sure enough, she stated “a place called Vickery Meadows – have you heard of it?”

By this point, I was certain something was going on. “God, is that you?”

That night, Miah (who I met and befriended in my first year living in China – she lived below me and taught at the same Chinese university-- and who just happened to be living in Dallas upon my moving here) came to my apartment to spend the night and re-celebrate Easter together, for old time’s/China’s sake. I started telling her about my crazy day with all of these connections to Vickery – Miah then gasped and said she had been thinking of my apartment search, and wanted to propose I think about moving to an urban area to do “intentional living.”

I was convinced, at this point, that the Lord was talking to me. But I was still scared, so I asked Him to show me the way, if this was His will, and open the door wide.

And open it wide, He did. God hadn’t finished showing me that this was His will for me. All of the events thus far had all been in one day. The next two weeks to follow continued in such an overwhelming manner. A former professor who I hadn’t had contact with in a while mailed me a book on refugees and people’s duty to reach out to these populations, Danny called me and offered me a position within Love is Vickery Ministry, daily conversations with even the most random people (including a jewelry seller in Wyoming on a work-trip) suddenly turned towards refugees and intentional living. The final kicker was when Esther contacted me and offered me a place to live with her and her roommate, Rachael.

So I moved in. May of 2010.

That move rocked my world in the most amazing way. Almost immediately (Day 1), neighbors (primarily Nepali/Bhutanese) started coming up and introducing themselves to me; I was immediately connected and found purpose living within the community, particularly with the youth, but also with families needing assistance meeting their daily needs. Whether it was taking someone to the hospital, helping prepare the way for a new baby, teaching people how to drive, assisting with filling out food stamp/welfare renewal forms, helping people fill out applications for employment, hosting a clothing drive or a job fair – the Lord immediately began moving in and through my life, getting me connected, building relationships, and showing me how to better love His people living in Vickery Meadows.

But the youth – oh, the youth – are what have captivated my heart in the most amazing way. The youth I work with are primarily Nepali (Bhutanese refugees with Nepali heritage), which is appropriate, considering my best friends in college were all from Nepal and my heart has always yearned for that country. Prior to moving in, I wasn’t even aware that there were Nepali/Bhutanese refugees in the community. But God knew, and it was His desire for me to enter into their community; this I now know without a doubt.

So I’ve been befriending and living life with primarily Nepalese (and continue to work with my initial Burmese family, as well as a few Congolese). Almost immediately after moving in and beginning my “work” in Vickery, I determined it wasn’t fair, as was it a conflict of interests, to continue to claim my “hours” as a volunteer with International Rescue Committee, so I asked them to remove my name from their database of volunteers and just became another individual living in the community. The youth (primarily boys) came and came, and before I knew it, I was (and continue to be) helping raise/mentor 20+ middle school and high school boys.

I continue to work full-time; my life, during the work hours, looks quite normal. But the non-work hours are what fill my heart and life with purpose, joy, and excitement. Every morning, at 7:15, my home is occupied with 4 middle school boys who come over to have breakfast and pray with me before school. I drop them off at school on my way to work, and then when I get home from work, I have anywhere from 1-12 middle/high school kids waiting at my door to greet me and begin an evening of working on homework, hanging out, going somewhere fun (like a movie theatre, the lakes, a tree farm, etc.), eating a meal together, etc.

There are so many amazing stories and testimonies of God working in Vickery Meadows and with this amazing population, who I now call family, but this entry is already quite long, so I’ll try to break the stories up throughout the blog as I work on being faithful and catching up with my entries. These 7 months (has it really been that long?!) have been such a time of growth, of experiencing God’s love, grace, and mercy, of showing Christ’s love to my neighbors, and deeper fellowship with members of my church. Within a few months of living here, Emily, Jessica, and Miah all moved into Vickery, as well, to begin their own “intentional living” journeys with populations here (!!!). My roommates, Rachael and Esther, have been tremendous assets to my life – blessing me beyond measure, putting up with my crazy hours and welcoming “my kids” into their home without protest or resentment, allowing me to cry to them when I feel overwhelmed with burden for a family or person… It’s been a tremendous – TREMENDOUS – 7 months.

It is my desire, through this blog, to allow each of you to be a part of this amazing journey; to allow you to join in prayer, in praise, and in witnessing the incredible work God is doing in this community. It would be selfish of me to keep this to myself. J