Not long ago Lelah and I were teaching a group of folks some of the “How To’s” of reaching out to those in their world. One of the things I communicated to them was that all around them in their neighborhood and their workplace there were people who did not know Christ, but these same people might be open to relationship with others.
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This year I was a CIT 2 (a
Counselor-
In-
Training is a former camper who assists counselors at the Urban Hope summer camp. The goal is to help them learn to become counselors themselves). This portion of the CIT program consisted of an exchange from Urban Hope to an internship at the Spencer Perkins Center in Jackson, Mississippi.
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Three years ago, I met Daquan (not his real name) at the park. A friend and I were teaching basketball skills and running drills. I invited him and his best friend to join us. My immediate impression was that Daquan was shy but also very attentive. He became a member of our Walltown Wildcats basketball team, but usually stayed off to the side and didn't fully participate.
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This year has seen two "firsts" for Urban Hope's teenage leaders. In October, our team took seven high school students from the Young Leaders Group hiking, rappelling and tent camping at Hanging Rock State Park. It was the first time any of the "city kids" spent the night in the woods. There was a lot of anxiety about snakes, bears and sleeping on the ground but everyone had a lot of fun and the guys were energized by the physical challenge. They want to do it again!
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When Trez Drake was a high school student at the North Carolina School of Science and Math, instructions about the Walltown neighborhood were clear: she was not to go there. The four by six block community, nestled between Duke University’s East Campus and Northgate Mall, was deemed unsafe for the promising young students who live on NCSSM’s campus.
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Nav staff Bahari Harris is living in Walltown,a low-income community within Durham, North Carolina. A lot of drugs, crime, and gang violence swarm the neighborhoods, but Walltown is also an area with a lot of kids, churches, and hope. Bahari moved to Walltown in 2003 with a vision for getting involved in the lives of the people there. God had given him the name Urban Hope for his ministry (in reference to Jeremiah 29:11) and a passion for the inner-city.
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