My dad has a strange job

I grew up in Fresno, CA, a city with the highest level of concentrated poverty of any large city in the U.S.. My parents still live in Fresno's highest crime, highest poverty neighborhood, once called the Devil's Triangle, pursuing God's shalom kingdom there through relational, urban ministry and community development activities.

But my dad has a strange job. He directs Bakke Graduate University's international Doctor of Ministry Degree focusing on transformational leadership for the global city. Which doesn’t sound strange…but that means that he travels all over the world teaching and inspiring leaders to bring God’s shalom to the world's harshest and most broken cities.

Right now, he is in Manila, Philippines….here

Here is  a recent update from him:

"We went to the Pataya Dump site to tour the government facility that displaced scavengers and then to the site of the Pataya Christian Church that is led by a bi-vocational pastor who runs a few businesses to employ scavengers. We saw scavengers standing waste deep in foul water "washing" plastic bags to be sold to recyclers...We meditated on the fact that thousands of children know no other reality. They and their families understand this as normal. But this is not God's normal; his shalom plan for their lives and community is beyond their dreams"

Thanks for doing what you do, dad!  May God's normal come to pass through every leader you support and inspire.

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven...