Prayer Support

I realized I haven't posted ANY prayer requests on here! HOW LAME!
here they are!

- That God will be preparing my heart and mind for the 12 weeks of research. I've never done anything like this before and it's what I'm majoring in, so hopefully I'll enjoy it.

- For friendships with the FCFC and Amachi Mentoring staff as well as those whom I'm living with.

- For eyes to see the furthering of God's Kingdom in Miami. and to be encouraged by the brothers and sisters in Christ who are fighting against the dark presence there.

- For my family, primarily my parents. This is the second summer I'll be away from home and they're use to having their college students come home for the summer. Pray for peace for them.

- For health and safety.

- I still need to raise $300 before the 16th of May. Pray for a heart to trust that the Lord will provide.


I'll continue to keep you updated.

the dates

I finalized the dates of my internship with my host. I will be leaving Sunday, May 16th and be leaving Sunday, August 8th.

One more detail figured out! YAY!

ch..ch..ch..chaaannges

Well, I had an interesting phone call with Delia, my internship host at P4CT and unfortunately, they will not be able to host me as an intern.

BUT!

Rick and Yvonne Sawyer at FCFCFL (Family and Child Faith Coalition of Florida) have offered me an internship position with their organization. I will still be in Miami, but instead of working on asset mapping with the CCAMP program, I will be creating a network of mentoring programs; And instead of working in Overtown and West Coconut Grove, I will be looking at the Maimi-Dade County. Thankfully, that only changes about 2/3 of my research design (aka, a VERY large paper I have to write throughout this semester).

Continue to pray for support to come in. I still need $255. and pray for the changes, that I'll have time and energy to dedicate to more research.

In Christ,
Becky

ALMOST THERE!

$800-$545= $255 LEFT TO RAISE!!!

Also, I'm setting up training for the Connecticut Community Asset Map Program (CCAMP) which is a recent computer program that came out that helps process the data I'll be collecting and make it available to the community.

So far

I've raise $245! and only after a week of sending out my support letters!

Lost in Translation

Yep. It's already happened. Urban Resurrection of West Coconut Grove, Miami has their website ALL in Spanish. Guess that's good motivation to get the ball rollin' on my language training.

If you want to check out their website, it can be found here http://www.urez.org/web1/index.html

They Paved Paradise, and Put Up a Parking Lot

Except, It's interstate 95. My internship host sent me some resources to learn more about the communities I'll be working in this summer. One of those communities is Overtown. Overtown started as a segregation community in the 1890s. It grew into a very well developed area with thriving businesses owned by the residents of Overtown. By the 1950's, Overtown reached it's peak. Over 40,000 members of the population and 318 established businesses were there.

In 1965, an "urban renewal" project constructed interstate 95 and State Highway 836 right through the heart of Overtown. This unfortunate addition to Overtown caused a lot of displacement and cut the population in half. Many churches and businesses closed including the Lyric Theater, the pride and joy of the Overtown community that once featured Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, and Aretha Franklin.

Now, 51% of the population live in poverty. The median household income is $11,314. There are only 41 businesses. The part of Overtown that is under the highways is completely abandoned. The homeownership rate is 3% (the national average: 60%). I looked it up on Google Maps and sure enough, the view was from the center lane of the highway. I saw nothing but cars and some of the downtown skyline.

The economist in me wanted more statistics. I wanted graphs of this. What was the supply and demand like before and after the highways were built for Overtown? For the rest of Miami? Were the opportunity costs that low that they were fine with building through this community?

The Community Developer in me wanted to see what organizations, churches, and individuals did to try and prevent this and see what they're doing now to get the city back on it's feet (which is basically my internship).

But the most dramatic reaction was in my heart. I'm excited to hear the stories of redemption going on in Overtown.

For more info. on Overtown and Touching Miami with Love (the community development organization there) go to http://www.touchingmiamiwithlove.org/pages/overtown.html