Inspired moments, new opportunities

Recently, I joined several members of the Shaw Community Ministry board in interviewing several finalists for our annual scholarship competition.

It turned out to be one of the most inspirational moments that I have spent since coming aboard last fall. Despite all the bad news one hears about the state of DC public schools, I saw rays of hope that night as I listened to young people answer our questions about their dreams and why they desired scholarship support from us.

Two of the most inspiring examples were young women who had only come to America a few years ago from Cameroon. It was amazing to hear both of them speak fluent English, when they knew little or none of the language before arriving on our shores. It was also amazing to see that among the students we interviewed both had managed to post the highest scores on the Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT), which is among the chief factors colleges use to determine admission to freshmen classes. 

My amazement was fueled in part because both young women spoke of how their families had made the decision to bring them here because they wanted to expose them to better educational opportunities. Clearly, both of them had taken to heart the opportunity to study here in the United States. Moreover, both of them spoke of wanting to get a college education so that they could one day return to their homeland and help literally to build the medical community. They spoke of the dearth of medical facilities and opportunities for people in Cameroon to get good medical care. They saw themselves as part of the solution.

This touched my heart, as well as those of the other members. When we completed our deliberations that night, we decided that both of these young women deserved scholarships. We awarded each of them a $1,000 award to help pay for their tuitions.

Three other young people also were selected to receive $1,000 awards. One of them was a young man who had become a teen-age father but was determined to make a better life for himself so he could provide a good life for his child. Still another was a young woman working seven days a week to help save money for college while also helping her family make ends meet. She talked about how she was both tired and determined. And there was a young man who had finished second in his class thanks to his own hard work and the support of a network of uncles who had encouraged him to seek excellence in all he does. He was completing an internship with the FBI and had been appointed supervisor over dozens of his peers.

All of these young people hailed from families with meager means and attended schools that probably would never show up on any “best of” list, but they had been inspired to dream beyond what they did not have. This fall, they will take their dreams to the campuses of Temple University, Deleware State University, Penn State University at Altoona, University of Maryland at Eastern Shore, and University of District of Columbia.

I am inspired by their examples and the opportunity to sit in on a chapter of their lives in the making. I think we all were on that night. It is this kind of work that makes Shaw Community Ministry what it is — a ministry with the community at heart.

On June 24, we will hold a dinner to honor these young people and their families, along with other children and youth who have been participants in our after-school programming over the course of the year. These are inspirational moments that symbolize the new opportunities that we seek to facilitate and encourage. I could not be more proud of the ministry and the young people. None of this would be possibile without the faithful support of our donors.

We are ever grateful for the support. You are helping us help others.

   

 

Embracing my new mission

By Robbie Morganfield

It became very clear to me recently that Shaw Community Ministry serves a vitally important role in the lives of children and teens who come into our space most afternoons once they leave school.

Three of our youngest participants got into a game of cat and mouse in which one was trying to catch the others. They were laughing and screaming and grunting as they ran all over the place trying to avoid capture. It wasn’t the kind of thing that we normally encourage, but for some reason it seemed ideal in that moment.

The children were simply being children, and they were having a ball.

Several people looked at me as if they were wondering when I would put a stop to all the commotion. But I simply started moving chairs out of the way so they would have more room to roam without hurting themselves.

Moments earlier, I had entertained requests from our after-school participants as I prepared to make a food run. I had not shopped in a while, so they wanted me to pick up ham and turkey and cheese so they could make sandwiches. And they wanted cheddar-flavored Sun Chips. It was a rainy afternoon, but I decided to walk to the nearby Giant supermarket to pick up the goods because walking and rain are therapeutic for me.

As I stepped outside to head to the store, I noticed a parked police car nearby with lights blinking. In recent days, that car had become a fixture as concern mounted over shootings in January and February that left several teens wounded and area residents wondering what the incidents meant for their neighborhood.

I found myself wondering, too.

Who were these young men doing all of this shooting and why? Why has this kind of problem persisted for so long in so many urban communities? What could the ministry and I do to help make a difference?

These are the kinds of questions that have been on my mind for much of my professional life. In my earlier years, I primarily sought to answer them through the work I did as a newspaper journalist in various cities across the country. I usually was involved also in my church and in my fraternity, exploring those same issues and supporting efforts to make a difference.

Along the way, I began to get a sense that I was being called by God to play a more significant role in addressing these and many other questions that often troubled me about the state of life in many low-income neighborhoods.

I began to answer in baby steps what I perceived to be my calling about 17 years ago, leaving a job as a reporter in Detroit to attend a ministry training program in Tulsa, Oklahoma. While there, I attended classes in the mornings and worked at a daily newspaper in the evenings.

After a year of study, I went on to teach at a university in nearby Fayetteville, Arkansas, and began my ministry as an assistant pastor in a Baptist church. I had some fruitful experiences, working primarily with young adults and families, and saw the difference that caring ministry makes in the lives of people.

Over the years, I continued my bi-vocational commitments – working as both journalist or journalism educator and minister. In Houston, I taught Bible studies – both at the newspaper where I worked and to a group of church leaders each Sunday. I eventually decided to pursue a more formal seminary education. After three years of study, I started working again at a newspaper – this time as a religion editor and columnist – and preaching on the side every chance I got.

During this time, I saw my professional career soar to new heights, doubling my salary in about six years. In Nashville, I directed a journalism fellowship program that allowed me to teach individuals from all across the nation and to extol the virtues of diversity as a trainer and speaker at conferences and workshops. All the while, I still was wrestling with those difficult questions about life and pondering my best role in the process.

Last summer, I decided it was time to take my involvement to a new level.

I quit my six-figure job, accepted a fellowship that would allow me to pursue my Ph.D. at the University of Maryland, and took this job as executive minister of a small non-profit in the Shaw area of Washington, DC. I left my beautiful house (which I still own) in a quiet, bucolic neighborhood and the decisively middle-class United Methodist Church where I was serving as a pastor to youth and young adults.

It has been, at times, a bumpy transition.

My income is about half of what it was, and the demands on my time probably have increased two-fold. I have often asked myself, “What on God’s globally warming earth am I doing here?” (That’s the G-rated Christian version). I no longer have my own personal assistant in a fancy office complex. Nor do I have a fat budget that allows me to do pretty much whatever I can envision. I have to do my own secretarial work, and I must raise money to support the ministry. At times, our after-school program seems to fail because several kids continue to earn poor grades.

Still, I and the Howard University student who coordinates the program continue to work each day to build hope in the children and families we serve.

And I can truly say that I have not once regretted leaving my job in Nashville.

Recently, we sponsored a dinner for parents to talk about how to improve our efforts. We were encouraged by the turnout and the feedback we received from those who attended – mostly single moms and grandmothers who had stepped in to take up the slack for their own children who had failed at parenting for one reason or another.

What they told us that night — along with the image of that patrol car parked near our building — reverberated in my head that recent afternoon as I moved chairs so the little ones – all second graders at a nearby elementary school – could try to get away from the cat as they assumed the role of mice.

For all that we have yet to accomplish, one thing is clear: We provide a safe place for young people, a place where they can come and get a snack and just be kids in a world where such a rite of passage is often overshadowed by violence and vice.

On some days, I’m convinced that’s good enough. On the others, I continue to imagine ways to have a greater impact and take steps to implement new initiatives.

Throughout the year, I’ll share more information about those and other activities that help me know every day that I am in the right place right now because this ministry is doing work of vital importance.

With continued support from our friends and donors, we will do even greater work.

Stay tuned.