Hey everyone. I’m sorry that I’ve been a bit lax on the the blog posts. I’m getting ready for the Cornerstone Festival, June 27-30. I’ll be doing a three-part seminar based on my book. I’d appreciate your prayers, if you think about it. The music festival setting is different from some of the other types of events I’ve been speaking at, so I’m feeling some extra nerves this time. But I’m excited about the idea of sharing the reconciliation message with a new audience.
If you’ve ever attended a Cornerstone Festival, or something similar, feel free to pass along any advice or helpful hints you might have for me. And if you’re planning to attend Cornerstone this year, I look forward to seeing you there.
What a great setting for you to do a seminar! My thought is that you will reach a group of people you might not otherwise reach. I’ll pray that God will bless you and use you mightily for the sake of His name and reconciliation!!
B”H
Hey Ed,
The Cornerstone festival is mostly populated by youth as I’m sure you know all to well. My prayers for you are that you will find open minds and hearts to this extremely vital aspect of the Peace and Justice perspective.
Blessings,
Shlomo
Ed, I just finished your book in one long evening’s sitting. Fantastic. I would say you have a gift, but obviously you had to invest much of yourself through the years to reach such a level. I wanted to leave a general comment but couldn’t figure out how to work the AOL. Computer dummy. I’m white, 52, Saginaw (”Little Detroit;” all the same troubles), early retired from our daily paper. When I was 19, I volunteered for VISTA or AmeriCorps type of community service. It wasn’t exactly those, but similar. I was assigned to organize in what was then Saginaw’s only virtually all-black neighborhood. So I hadn’t said, “Hey, let me go help the blacks,” but when the assignment came I took it, and stuck with it seven years. Door to door, asking people what they wanted to work on, not really an advocate but neutral almost like a journalist. Dozens of neighbors came in. Quickie example: A bunch of vacated lots are overgrown. Strategies: (1) People bought tax-reverted lots next to their homes. (2) People volunteered to help clean t hem. (3) At the same time, people told the City Council is had to do a better job of mowing and billing negligent owners. (4) People lobbied (and won) for weekly trash pickup instead of every two weeks………Sir, I gained so much from this! Made me a better reporter and more importantly, a better person. And I think it could contain ideas for what you are trying to accomplish with reconciliation, finding a way for churches to get involved organizing neighbors to work on common grassroots issues. Church members of any age could get involved, and young adults could give a year or two of service in exchange for living expenses, maybe even college credits. I would love to share more with you on this topic and if I had your e-mail without going t hrough AOL, please send it along when you have a break from your busy schedule……..I’m writing a memoir and instead of calling it reconciliation, I have tentatively selected the title of “REPARATIONS: How whites can give back and GAIN at the same time.” Like I did. Would love to share the book proposal. Finally, I’m a free-lancer and here’s the start of an article I have written about a local evangelist, let me know if you are interested. Thanks for your attention. Here goes the article:
By Mike Thompson (989) 525-0189 mwtsaginaw@yahoo.com
She’s a scavenger, a furniture and appliance repair specialist, an interior decorator, a professional social worker and an evangelist.
Somehow they all go together.
In a nation that struggles to find answers to poverty, Leslie Bacon offers an original approach to uplift troubled young single mothers.
She spies discarded household items on street curbs, or obtains donations. She gathers her 5-foot-2, 115-pound frame to load the items onto an old truck.
“People think I’m a junk lady,” says Bacon, a youthful 56, with a modest laugh.
But she has a strategy. She repairs everything into clean and working order, and heads for a client’s apartment. The twosome work as a team to perform a top-to-bottom makeover – not just the basics such as a couch or a washing machine, but pictures on the walls and vases on the end tables.
Bacon gains the client’s trust in a manner that a regular counselor might not, opening the door for the subtle encouragement that she mixes with prayers and hugs.
Annie, for example, is a 20-year-old mother of two who is overjoyed with her new surroundings but speaks of deeper thoughts.
“Leslie has helped me learn to love my kids more,” the shy young lady tells a visitor.
Bacon’s 17-year-old effort, “Gleaning for Jesus,” is named for the Bible’s story about collecting food overlooked in the regular harvest. In her case, the crop is household castoffs.
Clients need not know about her four-year college degree. In fact, she prefers that a young mom view her simply as a helping friend in jeans and a sweatshirt who is dragging a mattress through the door.
“I know I’m not your typical social worker, but these young ladies don’t want to be
downgraded or feel they’re being judged,” Bacon explains.
Their troubles may range from budgeting to parenting to drugs.
“We need other ways to reach them,” Bacon says. “I grew up in Saginaw’s projects with no pictures on the walls, no carpeting, just a cold concrete floor. This contributed to a negative view that I carried all the way into my young adult years.
“When we do a makeover and transform a house into a true home – a true home like I never had – it affects someone’s whole outlook. That’s what is happening with Annie.”
Retiree George Barrett, a long-time Gleaning volunteer and donor, remains fascinated.
“Leslie’s approach is ingenious,” he says. “She takes these items and uses them as part of her counseling, but to the people on the receiving end, it doesn’t seem like counseling.”
Praying for you, Ed!
B”H
Hey Ed,
I was hoping that you might tell us something about your experience at Cornerstone. How well attended was your seminar? Was there a lot of feedback, positive or negative? Do you feel that this was a topic of much interest to the Cornerstone audience? Etc. I could go on and on.
BTW, did you have a chance to interact with Prof. Bacote? I saw on the brochure that he was going to be there and I sort of hoped that the two of you might be willing to share some of your insights in reverse ( things you learned from the Cornerstone crowd) with your cyberspace comrades.
Blessings,
Shlomo
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