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d your kids save the planet zondervan 2010 i have the joy of joining her each month as part of the redbud writers guild a writing community of women s voices that engage our world you can catch her musings and information about her book at here i called colorado home for a few blissful years a native of chicago and the prairie state my little soul came to life as a graduate student in the rocky mountains my classmates and i were a devoted tribe of skiers who would study greek and hebrew words en route to a ski resort mostly broke we would skip a meal or two in order to scrape together the cash for a lift ticket or season pass i once took a ten day course that was designed to open my eyes to the complexities of urban poverty we spent each night in a shabby hostel on the corner of a intersection where white skiing types like myself did not spend much time we visited correctional centers dined with the homeless at nearby shelters and enjoyed hours of lectures by community leaders seeking to bring peace reconciliation and hope to the most beleaguered citizens of denver one afternoon a local pastor stepped up to chat with us the fleece and hiking boot crowd who sipped from high end water bottles and chattered away about recent hiking adventures as we waited for our session to begin behind his podium was a huge glass window offering a sun drenched view of the rockies he began by fanning his arm toward the window remarking that indeed it was a gorgeous day up in the mountains we nodded several of us letting our minds slip to a desire to be up in the hills rather than in a lecture then this pastor captured our attention quickly he asked did you know that most of the children in this neighborhood have never been to the mountains the foothills would take less than one hour to reach the resort destination of breckenridge barely two hours they look every day at those peaks yet have never stepped foot into a mountain stream or experienced the joy of hiking in the backcountry i was stunned i looked around at the motley crew of seminary students assembled for this lecture we were shabby and broke but for most of us this was a choice we made a decision to pay tuition over a mortgage and even on our worst days could scrape by enough cash to cover gas and hiking boots to be a child living below the poverty line in denver to look upon those mountains each day yet never take them in was ludicrous to me eight years later i find myself championing the cause of our environment from chicago i urge my fellow urbanites to walk when they can shop smarter compost recycle and such but my mind still settles on that room filled with yuppie hikers and an urban pastor what is the point in saving this planet if the very people who inhabit it cannot all enjoy its bounty environmental injustice runs deep in our culture the poor find themselves on the losing end of multiple transactions first they unfairly receive waste landfills and serve as toxic receptacles since many communities lack the funding and education to fight these initiatives second the poor rarely get to relish in what is good and beautiful about this planet to live in denver yet never set foot in the mountains is a grave injustice millions of visitors from across this nation and the world fly into denver s international airport every year they drive through these neighborhoods past children who are native to colorado and these tourists experience a rocky mountain high while the very children who stare at that vast space each day do not know the first thing about john denver as we engage in conversations about urban poverty let us do our best to be sure we get children out of their urban settings on occasion let us fund initiatives that take children to summer camp the mountains the beaches or wherever it is that those with more income dash off to for peace and rest even if it means planting a patch of wildflowers in a local park moving urban children toward wilderness experiences is to treat their lives with justice and fairness it is to bring their hearts a glimpse of the wild vast expanses of god s world it is only seems fair to share the planet posted by arloa sutter at 12 04 am 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest wednesday september 22 2010 a map of race in chicago i got this map of where people live in chicago by ethnicity from this web site could we be more segregated posted by arloa sutter at 6 05 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest tuesday september 21 2010 new trier or fenger high where would you want your kids educated thanks to jean mine yang for pointing me to this video full length video from united we learn on vimeo posted by arloa sutter at 5 05 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest saturday september 18 2010 what is poverty rupert roop13 asked me a series of great questions via twitter that i can t answer in 140 characters here s his tweet arloasutter define poverty do u really consider poverty in the us to be poverty do u really think we have it that bad in the us justcurious here is my response rupert let me know your thoughts poverty is very complex and can be defined in many ways the first thing that usually comes to our mind is economic poverty in my book the invisible i mention that even economic wealth is relative here is a quote from page 62 clearly economic poverty is relative a family living on 20 000 per year in bolivia may be quite comfortable while a family of four in the us would be living in poverty and the family would be in crisis if they lived in europe when i traveled to addis ababa ethiopia in 2005 i was amazed to learn that 40 per month was considered a pretty good salary for teachers there while you may not consider yourself to be financially rich i am going to assume in a world in which half the population lives on less than 2 per day that most of you reading this book are extremely wealthy a web site www globalrichlist com will tabulate your income relative to the rest of the world a salary of 50 000 will put you in the top 1 percent of the world s wealthiest unless your income is significantly less than that you can be pretty sure that nearly 99 percent of the world s population is poorer than you economically yes rupert i believe there is indeed poverty in the us and lots of it according to a recent article in the chicago tribune the census bureau said 14 3 percent of the u s population or 43 6 million people lived below the poverty line last year compared with 13 2 percent in the previous year and 11 3 percent in 2000 the poverty threshold last year was 10 956 for one person and 21 954 for a family of four in the us this poverty is compounded by what i call a poverty of purposelessness hopelessness and despair there are millions who are left out of any income generating activities while i don t want to discount that some people are just lazy i would suggest that for the most part these are individuals who have simply given up on ever having the opportunity to get ahead they often come from families that have been burdened by poverty for generations have attended under performing schools and have lived in environments burdened by crime and violence poverty has become a way of life for them they are trapped with seemingly no way out there is also a kind of poverty that burdens the economically wealthy the church of laodicea was told in revelation 3 you say i am rich i have acquired wealth and do not need a thing but you do not realize that you are wretched pitiful poor blind and naked we can have economic wealth and be trapped in a web of self centered consumerism that stifles our soul and compounds our greed a few years ago i asked a group of young men who had spent time in a refugee camp in kenya what they were given to eat they rounded their hands to form a bowl and said they were each given one bowl of meal to last an entire month i asked if it lasted that long and they said it didn t that sometimes they had to go several weeks with nothing i don t think the poor in the us experience that kind of extreme poverty the fact that millions in developing countries go hungry and die of malnutrition and other diseases should disturb us i think we all need to be involved in poverty alleviation at home and abroad in some way through our investments and advocacy emerson smith and snell in their book passing the plate discovered that if 90 percent of committed christian households in the united states would give away 10 percent of their after tax income we could raise 85 5 billion each year above what is currently given what a difference this could make in alleviating poverty the sad fact is that one in five us christians give literally nothing to church para church or nonreligious charities jesus told a group of pharisees in luke 11 you clean the outside of the cup and dish but inside you are full of greed and wickedness give what is inside the dish to the poor and everything will be clean for you jesus was the greatest advocate for caring for the poor in dignifying ways that ever lived those of us who choose to follow him will follow him to the poor posted by arloa sutter at 12 45 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest myths of homelessness breakthrough adult services from breakthrough urban ministries on vimeo posted by arloa sutter at 10 34 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest saturday september 11 2010 memories of a five year old i ran into ann healing at river city community church last sunday ann is the director of intern and fellows program for the international justice mission she and her husband dave were on staff at breakthrough before they moved to the east coast two years ago she told me about a comment her son made that i asked her to put in writing so i could post it we just moved back to chicago after living in the dc area for 2 years when my 7 year old son finally got over his sadness about the move back he asked me if i was going to work at breakthrough again i told him someone else now has my old job but he continued to beg me to work there clearly a little confused about how employment works when i asked him why he wanted me to work there so badly he said mommy i loved it when we served meals in that big kitchen to the people who live at breakthrough he was 5 years old when we moved from chicago much of what we did the first time we lived here he doesn t remember on top of that he only actually joined us 2 or 3 times in the year that we served meals monthly at breakthrough despite all that he remembers that there was something special about serving and having a meal with others like we did at breakthrough it was unique and forming for him we hope to begin to serve there again now that we have returned to chicago posted by arloa sutter at 9 42 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest thursday september 09 2010 staying refreshed how do you stay refreshed i ve been asked that question twice in the last few weeks how do you stay positive in the midst of such crippling circumstances and devastating need admittedly we can run dry if we are not careful to put practices in place that sustain us for the long haul in my newly released book the invisible i wrote an entire chapter on a principal that has guided my life work at breakthrough early in our work we learned to be led by the spirit rather than driven by need in order to be led by the spirit it is essential that we spend time with god in prayer and meditation before we rush in to meet needs and attempt to solve problems we are led to joyful action when we first listen to the promptings of god s spirit when we spend time with god each day we recognize how big god is and that god is the salvation of the world not us we don t overestimate our own importance instead we let the love of god flow through us as we cooperate with the work god is already doing in the lives of others another important principal that sustains us is the fact that we don t work alone we are part of a larger movement a caring family of believers who work together to create a network of support for those who have become isolated and alone this network also nurtures us as we engage in reciprocal relationships we are part of a caring community that is reweaving the fabric of god s shalom i am blessed to be surrounded by so many amazing people who are led by the spirit to reach out with great acts of sacrifice and love in tough places thanks for being part of this great movement your contributions of time encouragement and financial support keep us refreshed and joyful posted by arloa sutter at 8 27 am 3 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest sunday september 05 2010 green faith and the poor last week i preached the second message in a series at river city community church entitled green faith i realized as i prepared that god has been bringing me on a journey of sensitivity about environmental stewardship and especially the affect of environmental injustice on the poor you can listen to my message below posted by arloa sutter at 8 51 pm 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest older posts home subscribe to posts atom about me arloa sutter i am the executive director of breakthrough urban ministries in chicago and the author of the invisible i have two adult daughters monica and teri and two beautiful grandchildren jayden and naomi i am on the staff at the river city community church click here to visit my personal website view my complete profile http links i like email me rss feed breakthrough urban ministries my church river city community church paul luikart writer justice and the limits of charity dr david hilfiker here s life inner city another pebble the other journal the just life social justice quiz global rich list a girl like me a video about skin color and identity christianity today sojourners ccda christian community development association build breakthrough urban institute of leadership development harvard implicit association test white privilege unpacking the invisible backpack gentrification with justice by bob lupton ten paradigm shifts toward community transformation dove beauty video center for public justice my tweets twitter updates follow me on twitter favorite blogs ihope blog daniel hill melinda schmidt playing house jennifer c grant the green mama tracey bianchi murph s place mike murphy anita lustrea missional moms helen lee caryn rivadeneira theology mama shayne moore continuing education david clark into the wilderness paul luikart big girls don t whine yolanda fields from where i stand james dalton the christian vision project the margins erika carney haub through a glass darkly maggi dawn one hand clapping city grace joel 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