Trick or Treat
Smelly Feet
Chicken or Ham
In a red and green can
I thought I'd throw in a little Halloween humor (okay, maybe humor is a stretch). since today is October 31 (otherwise known as Halloween in the US). My kids are out of school today. Teacher workday, the school system is calling it. To the kids, I'm sure it feels like a holiday. In my house, we don't celebrate Halloween. Okay, we are going to a fall festival tonight but I've convinced myself that by going out at night to collect candy and play carnival games is not celebrating the day as holiday.
Halloween has always been a strange 'holiday' to me. I didn't grow up celebrating Halloween (or going to fall festivals on October 31st). That's right, I never dressed up in a costume on the last day of October and begged for candy in the dark.
In my little girl mind, only white folks celebrated Halloween. Black folks didn't do such foolishness. Now Halloween is totally integrated. Equal opportunity. Fully reconciled!
There must be something about the costumes or the candy that brings folks around the table of brotherhood. Maybe this is the key to reconciling American Christians.
Okay folks, dress up in your favorite (non-threatening) sitcom, blockbuster movie, or Bible character, grab a sturdy (reflective) plastic container, and go door-to-door collecting food. Then go back to your homes, dump everything on the kitchen table and split it up evenly.
Everyone would be filled with awe and many wonders and miracles of multiplication would be witnessed. They would have everything in common. And everyone who have what they needed for months and months. Steak, potatoes, corn, beans. Chicken and ham ... you name it.
Yes, it would be great. The First Church of Halloween.
About 17 Seeds
Hi. My name is Linda Hargrove. I'm a North Carolina native. I write (fiction mostly), I design things, and I'm an adoptive mom of three boys.IN THE BEGINNING
Around 1992 I became involved in an urban ministry called Building Together Ministries (BTM). As a CCDA ministry, BTM has racial reconciliation as one of its tenets. My husband and I became co-leaders of racial reconciliation discussion groups that we called 'supper clubs.'
The clubs were made up of blacks and whites from various denominations throughout the region. Each month we met in homes and church basements to discuss how we, the church, might better address racial problems in our country. We used books like More Than Equals by Spencer Perkins and Chris Rice and Breaking Down Walls by Raleigh Washington and Glen Kehrein.
THINGS GOT RADICAL
In 1995 I began a personal Bible study of John. When I started John 17 it was like I was reading a new Word. Jesus's prayer for oneness struck a cord with me. In my eyes, we Christians weren't living out that prayer. It saddened me.
I felt God's leading to do something 'racially radical' so that, as John 17:22 states, the world might be drawn to Him. Around that same time, God was leading my husband to become involved in a predominately white church. I gladly followed. Within a year, we became members and started a racial reconciliation prayer group. In time I began speaking at the church's women's conference on racial reconciliation.
THEN CAME ISAAC
In 1996 I started writing my first novel, The Making of Isaac Hunt, to help Christians better relate to the principles of racial reconciliation. In 1997 my husband and I moved our highly educated selves into the 'rough' part of town around BTM, striving to live out one of the three Rs of Christian community development--relocation.Reconciling faith and race is not an easy thing. This blog is my attempt to understand race in this country (a mighty big task) but more importantly, to plant seeds of oneness within the Body of believers across racial lines.
2 comments:
Hi Linda,
You posted on my blog just after CCDA and it has taken me a bit to get over here and say hello. I've just spent the past 45 minutes reading your book excerpt and your blog. I'm really interested in your book now and I'd like to read it! I'd also love to get in touch and hear more about your experiences with reconciliation and with relocation. My husband and I are new to the CCDA and we are hungry to learn from others who are further down the road on this journey.
My e-mail is singamiga at yahoo.com if you'd like to get in touch. Thank you for visiting my blog and starting the conversation!
Karlene
Karlene, thanks for visiting. I'd be more than happy to share my experiences. Reconciliation and relocation are two things that need to be looked at from all angles/viewpoints.
Thanks for your email. I'll be in touch.
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