God’s Kingdom Network Around the City
From Amy Malskeit
Norma is one of those people whose appearance gives no clues to the difficult road she has walked. Her sparkling eyes, tall slender figure and graying hair belie her battles with cancer, with confusion, with how to live. However, this story isn't about just one person, but about a network of people practicing practical faith. It's about people living into their Kingdom-callings that extend out far beyond accepted definitions of "ministry."
Norma grew up near Seattle and decided to settle near her roots, pursuing a job as a teacher. A while later she decided to move to California to pursue a graduate degree in Special Education. All went well at first, but gradually she began to withdraw from classes and contact with friends, manifesting signs similar to those of a mental illness. She was often profane, had gained a significant amount of weight, and, according to one friend who didn't know her but had seen pictures of her at this time, she "looked like a bag lady." Life was one overwhelming mess. After losing her house for failing to make mortgage payments, she moved back home with her mother.
Norma's mental state continued to decline. One day she was found at her doctor's office, sitting in the waiting room for hours. When the staff asked her what she needed she said "I know I have a doctor’s appointment, but I don't know how to get there." The staff registered just how concerned they were for her, and fit her into the schedule to be seen. Her doctor called her in and gave her a check up and a diagnosis: Norma had a slow-growing brain tumor the size of an orange that had been there for years. Immediate surgery was necessary, but there would be no guarantees of the outcome.
The surgery ended up being a success, and Norma began to journey on the road to recovery. A year later, she went back to see her doctor for a check up and was told that her brain tumor had not returned. However, she received a new diagnosis: this time she had breast cancer. She was devastated. A few days later, she went to a previously-scheduled podiatrist appointment. When this doctor asked her how she was doing, she was honest: her life was falling apart and she didn't know what to do. He asked her if she had any faith traditions and she said yes; she was raised Lutheran. He listened with care to her burdened heart, and told her he had some friends on the Eastside who he’d like to connect her with - if she was willing. He gave her their number, unsure if she was in a place to take such a risk. The very next day, she called Nav Staff Jon and Pat Sween.
Jon and Pat were leading a class at their church (Northshore Baptist) that was for people at any stage of belief or unbelief. No question was off-limits and this eclectic group became like family for each other. Norma fit right in. Not long after joining this group, Norma said that she felt like God was trying to get her attention…and she had begun to listen. John and Pat encouraged her to get involved in some of the opportunities that the church offered. Norma would still be heard asking someone "What the hell?!" sometimes, but no one told her to get lost. This was a safe place.
Recently the church took a team of people down to New Orleans to help provide disaster relief. One day Norma turned to Jon and Pat and said "I think God wants me to go to New Orleans." That trip offered her a platform from which to share the radical changes she is experiencing in her life. Norma longs for an opportunity to share her faith with her brother, and began to do so as a result of inviting him into her experiences in New Orleans. Jon knows her brother through his time teaching public school, and has offered to sit down with them together. They are praying.
Norma wants people to know the hope she has found because of Jesus, and as she journeys she finds that opportunities naturally arise. She tried to return to teaching, but her brain was unable to handle the organizational demands such a job entails. In time, she found a job at a tutoring center. Her heart went out to a Russian woman who brought her niece to the center. She had garish red hair, and as the doors swung closed behind her, the staff would begin to make brutal fun of her hair. Norma felt deep sympathy for her, but didn’t know what to do.
Recently, the same woman came in, frantic. She had recently had a mastectomy, and had lost her prosthesis. Norma volunteered to help her look for it, and was able to find it in one of the center’s trash bins. As they talked, the woman told her that she was in chemotherapy, and that she wore a wig—that bright red hair--to cover her bald head. Norma shared with her that she also was a breast cancer survivor and the woman was astounded. "How do you have so much energy?" the woman wanted to know, despairing of being able to return to life as normal. Norma listened to her, and offered to pray.
Over the years, the Sween family has adopted Norma for holidays and other family happenings and she is loved by the whole family as if she truly were kin. When they're in church and Norma gets excited, she grabs Pat's hand and hangs on, offering a picture of the necessity of companionship as we journey together toward hope. Norma's life was touched by two believing doctors: one whose excellence in diagnostics saw the clues for a brain tumor, one who intersected with her the day after her world fell apart. She was welcomed by people who were themselves searching for truth, and given a place regardless of not having it all together. She now joins with friends living out their callings without a big "ministry" label, building the Kingdom one mustard seed at a time.
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