07660
October 16, 2007
Getting to know you
Workshop goers told there is much to learn about hospitality, community from the poor, marginalized
LOUISVILLE – The Rev. Glenn Balzer thought by moving into his economically disadvantaged, largely Hispanic and black neighborhood in Denver he’d make a difference.
But things didn’t quite happen as planned. Instead, the white male who originally hails from Canada discovered “it was the difference that my neighborhood made on me.”
“By moving to where I did, I think my soul was saved,” said Balzer, national director of Discovering Opportunities for Outreach and Reflection (D.O.O.R.), an urban service learning network that partners with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to help facilitate the denomination’s Young Adult Volunteer program.
Balzer said what happened to him is precisely what can happen to others the more they interact with poor and marginalized members of society.
“There is much we have to learn from the poor,” he said during a workshop at the recent PC(USA) World Mission ’07 conference here Oct. 2-5.
Throughout the workshop, titled “Realizing the Gifts of the Poor,” Balzer outlined several characteristics of the economically challenged that he’s experienced.
Among those learnings he shared are the experiences of community, kindness, honesty and awareness — which Balzer said he’s experienced first hand in the low-income neighborhood, where he, his wife and their two boys moved several years ago to the chagrin of some.
“Community has something to do with looking out for each other,” he said. “I have witnessed that in my neighborhood.”
Balzer told the story of how during a visit some years ago by his parents, his mother’s blood sugar dropped significantly, panicking his father. Balzer’s neighbor, Jesus, came into the house, picked up Balzer’s mother, took her to the hospital and “made sure that my mom got the care that she needed.”
Balzer credits Jesus with giving him extra years to spend with his mother before she eventually died. It’s that kind of interaction that one doesn’t get in neighborhoods in the suburbs where there are six-foot fences and front-facing garages that people drive into and close behind them, he said.
In neighborhoods like Balzer’s, there’s an awareness of what’s going on and “you get to know each other,” he said.
The poor and marginalized also often have the ability to reach for the unreachable, Balzer said.
Poverty “drives us to see the impossible,” he said. “Sometimes I wonder if wealth takes away our vision.”
And then there is “healthy inefficiency,” he said. “How we show that we value people is the time we choose to waste with them.”
Sitting back and relaxing are essential elements, Balzer said. “We don’t spend enough time just visiting.”
Balzer challenged the workshop participants, as they interact with the poor and do mission, not just to do so because of what they can bring, but for what they can learn.
It’s about allowing other people “to speak into our lives,” he said. And it’s understanding what it means “to be a presence and to learn.” |
