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Contact Us the Ol' Fashioned Way:
The Parousia Network
P.O. Box 18793 Spokane, WA 99228
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An On-Line
Community of House Churches, Simple Churches & Assorted Sojourners
The Off Broadway Family
Outreach
Perhaps you have read or heard Mark Twain’s account of his move to Carson
City, Nevada in the mid-1800s. According to Twain he had never seen such a
wretched hive of sin, corruption and villainy. “I concluded that it was no place
for a Presbyterian, and I did not remain one for very long.” Mark Twain would
have felt right at home in the West Central neighborhood of Spokane. The West
Central neighborhood of Spokane is the second poorest neighborhood in the state
of Washington. Over the years it has become the “containment zone” for drugs,
gangs, ex-felons, parolees, sex offenders, drug-related crime & domestic
violence, the impoverished and the dispossessed of the city. Generations of
dysfunctional behavior had raised up successive generations of families for whom
drugs, domestic violence and poverty has become a way of life. A handful of
traditional churches have struggled for years to establish a foothold for the
Kingdom of God with only occasional success. Feasibility studies conducted by
church planting organizations had concluded that planting a successful new work
was simply not feasible. In the words of Mark Twain, it was no place for a
Presbyterian. But then, God does love a challenge.
It is important to understand that the West Central neighborhood of Spokane is a
microcosm of our Post Christian Post Modern culture. Most of the predominant
characteristics of Post Modernism are on display. This is not the Post Modernism
of the philosophers or theologians with their gilt-edged arguments. It is the
Post Modernism of the street where people live out the hopelessness and despair
which Post Modernism has created. Post Modernism’s emphasis upon subjectivity is
lived out by people in search of personal fulfillment through alcohol, drugs and
sex. Post Modernism’s rejection of universal truth (spiritual, moral, etc.) is
expressed through lifestyles which recognize no boundaries. “Getting loaded”
(using drugs) is recreational, sex is indiscriminate, sexual assault is a form
of personal intimidation and domestic violence is generational. Post Modernism’s
doubt and skepticism toward institutions manifests itself in distrust of
institutions ranging from organized churches (several of which have started and
folded in the neighborhood) to government, welfare and law enforcement. It is a
Post Modern culture of personal hopelessness and despair.
A Man of Peace Named Larry
It was into this rich soil of hopelessness and despair that God planted a man of
peace named Larry Whiston. Larry had recently spent six years in prison for a
crime of violence. In the depth of his own personal prison of despair and
hopelessness, God had touched Larry’s life, transformed it and turned him into a
man of faith and of peace. Upon his release from prison Larry lived for two
years at the local Union Gospel Mission while participating in the Mission’s
various rehabilitation programs. Afterwards he moved into a small duplex in the
West Central neighborhood on West Broadway. With help from Christian friends,
including Jan Foland (an art teacher at a local Middle School), Larry began
reaching out to his new neighbors and offering a weekly Bible study. The Bible
study quickly grew until it filled the small apartment. A meal was added and the
outreach became an evening of food and fellowship. By the spring of 2003 the
meal and study moved outside under white pavilion tents in the front yard where
more people from the neighborhood could attend. It quickly grew, by mid-summer,
into a weekly neighborhood barbecue and Bible study with nearly 100 people
attending every Monday night. The local area Youth For Christ staff began
helping out with the neighborhood children who began showing up in need of
attention. |
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By the Spring
of 2004, the Off Broadway Family Outreach (as it was now “officially”
known), represented a coalition of people and ministries who had come
together to partner with Larry in order to see the West Central
neighborhood spiritually transformed by the power of the gospel and the
practical outworking of the Kingdom of God. These included The Parousia
Network (Maurice & Gale Smith), S.I.S.T.E.R. Ministries (Larry Whiston &
Jan Foland) and several other ministries who were partnering together to
bring the Kingdom of God to the West Central neighborhood (known
throughout the city as “felony flats” or “the war zone”). This amazing
story of kingdom ministry could be seen every Monday evening throughout
the summer of 2004 at W. 1817 Gardner in the heart of West Central.
Larry had become a Luke 10 “Person of Peace” in West Central, and
Larry’s front yard had become “ministry central” every Monday. I thought
it might be helpful to describe what a “typical” Monday night has been
like. A “typical” Monday would begin as early as 8 AM as Larry Whiston,
Maurice Smith and Jan Foland begin their rounds to pick up food from the
Union Gospel Mission, Tidymans and Safeway (all of which were donating
food items to the outreach). By early afternoon volunteers begin
arriving at Larry Whiston’s house. On any given Monday during the summer
of 2004 (actually we started outside in April!) white pavilion tents
begin going up by early afternoon, the signal to the neighborhood that
Monday night has arrived. Food for the evening meal is already being
assembled in the Kitchen. Local neighborhood kids (and some adults) are
fanning out through the neighborhood, handing out flyers to invite and
remind residents that tonight is the night for food and fellowship. A
passing car stops long enough for someone to ask what time dinner will
be. “Six o’clock!” one of the volunteers shouts back as the car moves
on. By 4 o’clock people are starting to arrive and talk among
themselves. The music team is setting up their equipment and tuning
their instruments. Volunteers scurry around setting up chairs (there are
always more people than chairs), but before the evening is over it will
be standing room only. More people arrive. Jan Foland, an art teacher
from Salk Middle School has arrived (usually bringing ice, punch,
desserts, and people) and is busy getting the evening’s children’s
lesson ready (by late summer she was joined by Jeanne, Joan and Lori to
form the core of the children’s ministry). The kids flock around Jan
like bees around honey! Soon Larry arrives bringing a car load of people
who come from outside the immediate neighborhood. The evening is already
hectic and it hasn’t officially begun yet! Gale Smith and Kitty Shipley
are busy overseeing food preparation in the kitchen. Maurice will teach
the evening lesson out of the Gospel of John, but for now he is applying
his seminary degree to the fine art of barbecuing hot dogs. More people
have arrived including volunteer help from various local area churches.
By 6 o’clock you would have thought that someone had rung a dinner bell.
People begin coming from all over the neighborhood for a dinner of hot
dogs, chili, chips, salads & dessert. By 6:30 there are 200 (or more)
people crowded into Larry’s front yard. Over the more relaxed atmosphere
of dinner, people open up with each other and our team members about
their struggles: addictions to drugs & alcohol, struggles with domestic
violence, poverty, drug deals in their front yards at night accompanied
by gun shots in the dark. The list of struggles and needs seems endless.
Because of county health department rules (several of our helpers have
gotten their food handler’s licenses from the local county health
district) we couldn’t let people take prepared food home. But our dinner
rule is simple, “No one leaves hungry.” There is also free bread
(compliments of a couple local super markets who donate) for people to
take home. By 7 o’clock nearly everyone has had something to eat, but
the “kitchen” will remain open as long as anyone asks for something to
eat. Shortly after 7 the worship team hands out song notebooks and the
worship time begins with numerous praise and worship songs, led by
Bobby, Daniel and others who join them. Around 7:30 the worship winds
down. Larry takes the microphone to share his amazing testimony (there
are always new people who haven’t heard it yet, and those of us who have
are still amazed!). Maurice follows Larry and begins by asking people to
share what God has been doing in their lives over the past week. There
are always testimonies of God’s goodness and faithfulness. For several
weeks Maurice shared from the Gospel of John about “Seven Reasons To
Believe” based upon the 7 great signs of John’s Gospel. The message was
simple but profound: “God cares about the circumstances and situations
of your life, and He has the power to transform whatever you are going
through.” It’s a message that resonates with the crowd. After 30 minutes
of teaching and interacting Maurice asks everyone to break into four or
five smaller groups to talk about what they are hearing and to pray for
each other. Now the serious work of the evening begins as people begin
opening up in these small groups, sharing their struggles and asking for
prayer. There is prayer, weeping and rejoicing, and for this evening the
cloud of hopelessness and despair, which seems to hang over this
neighborhood like a perpetual fog, is broken as the Presence of God
settles over the people gathered in the front yard of W. 1817 Gardner on
this particular summer evening. Somewhere around 8:30 PM the evening
comes to an “end.” People begin leaving, while others remain to talk,
ask for prayer or just “linger” a while longer. Volunteers begin the
process of “tear down,” stacking chairs, folding tents, collecting
garbage and cleaning the kitchen. Although the evening is “over,” people
remain standing on the sidewalk, talking about what has transpired this
evening. God has been good, and a small foothold for the Kingdom of God
is growing in the West Central neighborhood. The Off-Broadway Family
Outreach is an extended house church family. And families are made up of
people who do things together! Earlier, in January of 2005 our house
church family walked one of its members, Fred, to jail as he turned
himself in to "do his time" on an old charge which had finally
caught up with him after he came to the Lord. We had prayer in his
apartment and then, as a family, we walked him to jail to start his 5
month sentence (Picture on left below). In June Fred was released and
Maurice drove to Seattle to pick him up and bring him home.
Now, in 2007, The Off Broadway Family Outreach is
working to establish a "Lighthouse of Hope" outreach center in the West
Central neighborhood! |
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