Spirit in Action
Good Neighbor Project
Interview with JoAnne Juett of Eau Claire's First Baptist Church regarding the Good Neighbor Project and much more.
Music Featured:
God Bless the Child - Blood, Sweat and Tears
Here I Am
Cowboy Dan - Andy & Terry Murray
Immigrant - John McCutcheon
- Duration:
- 1h 0m
- Broadcast on:
- 14 Aug 2005
- Audio Format:
- mp3
I have no hands but yours to tend my sheep No hand could cheat but yours to drive the eyes of those who weep I have no eyes but yours with which to hold Once from me we've found the struggle For we will grow and hold I have no voice but yours with which to feed To let my children know that I am lost and love is everything I have no way to feed the hungry spouse No clothes to give the needed, the fragrant and the bone No being my heart, my hand, my tongue For you all will be done Fingers have I none to have one time It tangled my twisted chains of strength Welcome to Spirit in Action My name is Mark Helpsmeet Each week I'll be bringing you stories of people living lives of fruitful service Of peace, community, compassion Creative action and progressive efforts I'll be tracing the spiritual roots that support and nourish them in their service Above all, I'll seek out light, love and helping hands Being shared between our many neighbors on this planet Hoping to inspire and encourage you to sink deep roots and produce sacred food in your own life I have no way to open people's eyes Said that you will show them how to trust me tonight Today on Spirit in Action We'll be talking with Joanne Jewett, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Eau Claire She's a relatively new neighbor in Eau Claire, having spent quite a while in Louisiana and Georgia landing here about three years ago She'll talk to us about the Good Neighbor Project, an effort to help our kids and families in the neighborhood of Lakeshore and Longfellow Elementary Schools She'll also share her history with the American Baptist Church, a relatively liberal and progressive variety of Baptist including issues of women in the ministry, attitudes towards gays and lesbians and the basis for outreach and missions She'll introduce herself after we listen to Blood, Sweat and Tears sing "God Bless the Child" [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] We actually met in a very different experience, but then found we had all of this in common, which always makes it an easier thing. So that's been a very good foundation for me, continuing my ministry with American Baptist. Just so I'm clear, did you meet him, Mary, and then both do seminary together? Is that what I heard or did I get that transition right? Well, no, actually Sam has never done seminary. He actually took some classes when I was there, but he's very adamant in telling people that he's not the theologian in the family at all. We actually met when we were undergraduates in college in Indianapolis, not even at the same college. We just met through similar interest and got married right out of college, which is not the recommendation I would make to most people, although it's been very successful for us. And then I at that point really felt called to go to seminary, and he was very supportive of that, so he continued his master's work at the University of Louisville while I was doing my work in seminary at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. So we continued with our education supporting each other, but certainly not in the same areas. You're obviously a female pastor, senior pastor here. What percentage of American Baptist ministers are female, and is there a completely different number for Southern Baptist or for other Baptist groups? I don't know what other Baptist groups there are. Senior pastors among Southern Baptist, if they didn't say 0% that somebody is going to be in big trouble because they have made absolute pronouncements voted on resolutions that women will not be senior pastors, so that just doesn't happen in Southern Baptist life. Very disappointing to me because I went to a Southern Baptist seminary at a time 20 years ago, at a time when women were going into being called into senior pastor positions and were good, they certainly were called by God to do this. And ultimately were run out of their churches, churches were disfellowshipped, horrible things that I could spend a whole show with you talking about. As far as American Baptist, the story is very different. Now we don't have a huge percentage of senior pastors, maybe 12 to 15%. However, in Wisconsin, I want to brag on Wisconsin, that in Wisconsin, over 30% of our senior pastors in American Baptist congregations in Wisconsin are women. So we really are moving ahead and looking at that God can call anyone in any situation and use people with the gifts that they have to further the gospel, to bring the good news to the people. And it's not based on gender and biology and all those kinds of things. And so I'm very blessed to be in Wisconsin in a place where being a female pastor is celebrated and is seen as a great thing, and that's growing in our American Baptist denomination. We have ordained women for almost 150 years now. Are there other Baptist groups besides Southern and American? Oh, there are plenty. There are about 150 of us, I think, all together, and we break off all the time and make new ones. We may see a new one coming out of American Baptist here pretty soon because we're in the midst of, and maybe we can talk about this on another show. We're in the midst of a group splitting off from us over the welcoming and affirming issue, the gay and lesbian issue. We have a group that wants to make it a doctrine that this is sin and unacceptable, and we as American Baptist won't have any part in this. We fortunately have, for the most of us, agreed to disagree, and that's been fine, but there's a group that's not willing to do that. So that may give us, what, 151? I don't know something like that. But there are an awful lot of us out there. Even here in town, we have Southern Baptist churches, we have independent Baptist, we have general Baptist, conservative Baptist, American Baptist. We just have that in the Eau Claire and Chippewa Valley area, let alone across the United States. About how big are the American Baptists as opposed to the rest of the Baptists maybe in the US? We are probably the second largest Baptist denomination. Of course, Southern Baptist are the biggest of all Protestant denominations with about 14 million. We are, I think probably about 15th or so now in size, in Protestant denominations, we have about 1.5 million, something like that. We actually as American Baptists are the fastest growing Protestant denomination in the United States have been, for the past two or three years. We are growing by a rate of 3 to 4% a year, which is a lot bigger than most of the other Protestant groups. In fact, many of them are declining. Unfortunately, declining, I say that because I'm very sincere in that. There is room for all of us to grow. We have a great ecumenical fellowship among all of our ministers and some exciting things that we do together in our neighborhoods and citywide. A lot to be celebrated as far as ecumenism goes. We're a great model, I think. I wish other cities would look at us for what we're doing. [MUSIC PLAYING] I am the Lord of sea and sky. I have earned my equal pride. All who dwell in deep descent. My hand will sing. I will make the skies of night. I will make the darkness bright. I will bear my light again. Who shall I send? If I am Lord, is it I know? I have heard the calling in the night. I will know. If you feel free, I will hold the people in my heart. I am the Lord of snow and rain. I have earned my equal pride. I have heard from all of them. They turn away. We're the great in their hearts of snow. Give a voice for the Lord. When the sweet one runs to them, who shall I send? If I am Lord, is it I know? I have heard you calling in the night. I will hold the people in my heart. If you feel free, I will hold the people in my heart. Joanne, I think you were the person who spearheaded the plan for the Good Neighbor Project. Can you tell me what that project is and if you were one of the leaders? The Good Neighbor Project is an effort by several churches in our neighborhood here in this historic district of Eau Claire. To help children in our two neighborhood elementary schools at Lakeshore and at Longfellow that we knew, especially by virtue of many of the redistricting efforts over the past few years by our school board, we knew we were really kind of getting lost in the shuffle that students were moving from school to school and that's disturbing enough without the fact that we know that the poverty levels and I'm saying that in regard to the definition of who gets reduced and free lunches is a pretty significant percentage at both schools. And when I found out about this from a friend of mine who works in the school system and she was basically lamenting what are we doing to kind of help these kids who are getting lost in this whole shuffle. The first thought that came to my mind was churches ought to be doing something, you know, that if we're supposed to love our neighbors ourselves, then what better way to do that than to work with the schools who are our neighbors. So I met with Joe Kristofferson, first of all, from first congregational and then called some other friends of mine and other churches such as First Lutheran and Lake Street and said, would you be interested in doing this project with us and then Mark I know I sent an email to the Quakers and said that we share a building. You know, we share these neighbors. Would you like to share this with us? Everyone responded positively to this and said, yeah, just let us know. What can we do? So it began to grow by taking collections and let me back up and say, I did need to go to the schools, of course, and say we want to do this. And we don't want to proselytize. I really want to be clear about that. This is not an effort to go in and say, you need to come to our church. In fact, we try to be anonymous with all of our donations so that families, they may know that it comes from churches, but they just kind of know out there that this help is available. There's not a direct connection. So there's never a sense that there's any kind of coercion, proselytizing, anything like that that happens in the situations. And we try not to know the families because if by chance they're in one of our congregations, we don't need to deal with that kind of tension. We just need to help them. So I went to the social workers and said, you know what the needs are. So the easiest way is for you to tell us what you've seen witness firsthand. What do you need? We will meet those needs as a response. And so the social workers begin to come to us and say, we need underwear. We need socks. Kids need boots in the winter. They need coats. We've got kids who are getting clothes at good will that they're getting whatever sizes they can. They don't have belt to hold up the pants. Just things that you don't really think about if you're taking care of your own kids, but the help needs to come from someplace. And the response has been amazing. This outpouring of just filling up tubs and baskets and giving us money. We've probably collected over $3,000 over about a year and a half now of just working with the schools. And so we've been able to help with paying dental co-pays or doctors co-pays when maybe they have badger care, but that doesn't cover everything. Or we had one family who's washing machine went out and the kids were coming to school with dirty clothes because the family just really couldn't get it fixed and they didn't really want to say anything. And the social worker found out and we said, we can do that. So we just sent a repair guy in and took care of the washing machine and bought some detergent and got that taken care of. No child should have to have some stigma that they have to deal with beyond the pressures of school itself. And that's really our goal is to make school the best experience it can be for these kids so they don't have to worry about the social stuff. They can be educated and have the same opportunity that anyone else can have to use that education to the best of their ability. I found it interesting that you try to keep anonymity in both directions. I was wondering if I had intended to ask you the question if you actually include these people then in prayer lists that you do. We include the project in our prayer list but because we don't know the people then of course we can't do that. If someone wanted to call and ask for prayer requests we will certainly would do that. We keep a prayer board for spabtas so you come into our four-year area and you'll immediately see the prayer board and we always print that in our bulletins. And we think of ourselves as a people of prayer that we try to engage the power of prayer in all that we do and so certainly if someone would want to have us pray for them we want to do that. We would encourage that but we try not to know who these people are because I just think it helps down the road to do everything we can to take a stigma away from a child or from a family. What's the organizational structure of the Good Neighbor Project? It's pretty loose sparks. We are not incorporating for instance as a non-profit organization or something like that. It really is a neighborhood project so in a way it's almost kind of like when neighbors get together and have their potlucks and barbecues in the backyard it really has almost that kind of feel to it. That we have representatives that people who've just said this is on their hearts to help in this way. We get together when we need to and we meet when we need to with the social workers two or three times a year probably just to assess the needs and find out what we need to do and what we can offer to encourage each other so that we can go into our congregations and encourage them to support the project. Otherwise then that it's basically we find out about the needs and we set around a table and say can your church do this, can your congregation do this, let's donate this money, let's work with the social workers this way and we make it happen. So it's it actually has been very successful in having that kind of loose organization has been real comfortable. Do you have a chair person who's in charge, do you have a leader of some sort like that or do you just let God run at all? Oh, I hope God actually runs most of it quite frankly. I guess that I'm the one who heads up most of it I do call the meetings and I'm the liaison with the social workers and there is another person along with myself and our names are on the checkbook. And so that's what I do I get with the other the social workers and write the checks when I need to but I don't do anything without email dialogue the wonders of technology. And so we do a lot through email conversations and so I suppose if anyone kind of has oversight to this that would be me but I don't see myself as particularly the leader of this group or chair of it or anything like that. The social workers you're referring to are they all engaged with the school or are they part of the city county. They work for the schools one social worker is assigned solely to Lakeshore and then the long fellow social worker actually has a couple maybe three other schools at which she works. So she's at long fellow one or two days a week but that seems to be enough to help us know what the needs are and that sort of thing so they do work for the schools and that solely is their job is to identify these needs and help the kids and families. I know when the idea was first floated you had a wide range of possibilities of what one might do and I think one that you mentioned is maybe we could volunteer as tutors obviously not doing that you couldn't do anonymity in that respect but maybe those requests have come. I don't know tell me about possibilities for service rather than just donating goods and money are there possibilities for service. There are possibilities and certainly tutoring is a huge one and Dr. Seitz at Lakeshore would talk to anyone who is interested in coming and tutoring and I'm sure that the principal at Longfellow would as well. I've talked to Dr. Seitz about this at Lakeshore and they always have a need for that. They get some university students for instance who volunteer but if they could get people from our congregations that would be very, very welcome. And you're right that's not necessarily anonymity on the other hand that's a pretty private relationship tutor and child and so we would certainly encourage people to do that but not necessarily that that had to be something really public in which they were involved. So I suppose it's a little bit of both when you talk about anonymity and as far as service goes I know that there is a fairly new effort for advocacy for children's mental health going on. And I know that Ellen Higley who is at Lakeshore would welcome talking to anyone about their involvement in that level of advocacy. I think that another level of advocacy that we haven't started that I think certainly could be done. People attending PTO meetings, school board meetings, trying to discern needs that we're hearing in those forums that might not necessarily come through the social workers but needs that we could address. So just that kind of presence, that kind of listening ear in the community could be a real help to us. So if there are people in our various congregations here in this neighborhood who would like to do that I think that would be a welcome contribution. I do think that the Good Neighbor Project is a great idea for Eau Claire. I'm wondering if it's original with you or had you witnessed or been part of any such thing elsewhere? Well, I can't say that it was necessarily original, I'm sure it must be going on other places, but it certainly was a new idea to me to start this. I really didn't have a model from any place else. I know that there are a variety of, especially inner city. I suppose I was inspired in many ways by the urban ministries that I was involved in in Washington, D.C. We had a lot of tutoring effect, we had a wonderful after school program that had been going on for generations, literally at our church. We set eight blocks from both the White House on one side and the Capitol on the other. So that kind of inner city, urban ministry was a necessity there. And so I think that kind of inspiration really is what brought this to mind for me here, thinking that you could really see the poverty where we were in Washington, D.C. You don't necessarily see it here. Things look neat and clean and well taken care of and that sort of thing. But the poverty is there, whether it's here in Eau Claire or whether it's in Washington, D.C. And it still needs to be addressed. So that helped guide me in deciding that something needed to be done to help our neighborhood schools. ♫ You've seen in the pictures shows I'm sure ♫ ♫ The cowboys of Ireland ♫ ♫ Walkin' tall and to carryin' ♫ ♫ A gun close by their hand ♫ ♫ Mean and tough ♫ ♫ 'Cause that's what it means in this tough world to be a man ♫ ♫ Oh ♫ ♫ I tell you about another kind of cowboy ♫ ♫ A cowboy I like to call him cowboy Dan ♫ ♫ Workin' given simple livin' cowboy Dan ♫ ♫ I never carried a gun ♫ ♫ He didn't need one to be a man ♫ ♫ Bring old out a lot hunger in ♫ ♫ That was his plan ♫ ♫ Workin' given simple livin' ♫ ♫ A workin' given cowboy simple livin' cowboy ♫ ♫ Workin' given simple livin' cowboy Dan ♫ ♫ Old hunger is so big and loose ♫ ♫ Men set the step aside ♫ ♫ Figure they can't take him away ♫ ♫ So they never even tried ♫ ♫ Complexity never bothered ♫ ♫ And he was a simple man so ♫ ♫ He took out his pencil and decided right ♫ ♫ And I figured out a simple plan ♫ ♫ Workin' given simple livin' cowboy Dan ♫ ♫ Never carried a gun ♫ ♫ He didn't need one to be a man ♫ ♫ Bring old out a lot hunger in ♫ ♫ That was his plan ♫ ♫ Workin' given simple livin' ♫ ♫ A workin' given cowboy simple livin' cowboy ♫ ♫ Workin' given simple livin' cowboy Dan ♫ ♫ Dan knew there were so many people ♫ ♫ That he hadn't enough to be ♫ ♫ He figured a cow or two might help ♫ ♫ Sorta put them on their feet ♫ ♫ He went all over this great big country ♫ ♫ To the farmers that he knew said ♫ ♫ Hey brothers I've got a plan ♫ ♫ Could you spare me a cow or two ♫ ♫ He took goats and pigs and cows and sheep ♫ ♫ And he loaded them on a boat ♫ ♫ And he put them on the Atlantic Ocean ♫ ♫ And he sent them out the float ♫ ♫ He sent them to the people in Spain ♫ ♫ Didn't have enough to eat ♫ ♫ He said to maybe my friends ♫ ♫ You could use some goats or pigs or cows or sheep ♫ ♫ Well take this cow, milk it friend ♫ ♫ You know you don't have to pay ♫ ♫ But on a winter's morn when you're a first calf's born ♫ ♫ Which kindly give it away ♫ ♫ And take these chicks on gather eggs ♫ ♫ You know you don't have to pay ♫ ♫ But take a few eggs, hatch 'em race 'em ♫ ♫ Baby chicks and catch 'em and kindly give 'em away ♫ ♫ Hold out, law hunger is big and mean ♫ ♫ We may not bring 'em in ♫ ♫ We'll surely deal him a mighty blow ♫ ♫ We'll have to take it on the chin ♫ ♫ And it might help a lot of hungry people ♫ ♫ So to get back on their feet ♫ ♫ If we keep on keep on passing on ♫ ♫ Those goats and pigs and cows and sheep ♫ ♫ Goats and pigs and cows and sheep ♫ ♫ All work and give it simple living ♫ ♫ Cowboy dang ♫ ♫ Never carried a gun ♫ ♫ He didn't need one to be a man ♫ ♫ Bring all that law hunger is ♫ ♫ That was his plan ♫ ♫ Work and give it simple living ♫ ♫ And all work and give it cowboy ♫ ♫ Simple living cowboy ♫ ♫ Work and give it simple living cowboy ♫ ♫ Day ♫ I want to tread on some delicate ground here. Just give you fair warning. My sense is that a lot of fundamentalist conservative churches emphasize giving tremendously. They start with a tithe of 10% and then they go beyond that with offerings. What's your experience within the American Baptist Church? How do people relate to those kind of calls for giving of their money and time? Our people are some of the most generous people I've ever worked with in my life. Giving is essential to certainly the baddest way of life, but I would hope any Christians way of life. We certainly emphasize the giving to continuing and supporting the ministries in our own church. So that goes across the board, administratively, facility wise, but also supporting the ministries that we do. We take a lot of mission offerings. In fact, that's a part of what we do with our Lord's Supper. We celebrate that once a month and we always take up a mission offering when we celebrate communion and come to the table together. We feel that that's a part of what defines us, is that as we're renewed by Christ, we must give. It has to flow out from us as well. And so we give our mission giving each month to go to local, whether it be the community table perhaps, or a care link through the Salvation Army. We have a divorce care ministry in our own congregation, the Good Neighbor Project. Those are just a few of the kinds of mission giving that we do. It's true that over the years, Mark, many churches take up their offerings to take care of themselves. And we all would admit to that, that we've not been as good at the outreach as we are called to be. But I think that's changing. So it's not a particular end of the theological spectrum that defines mission giving at all. It really is a Christian calling. And so I think whether you're very much liberal or whether you're a fundamentalist, that mission calling seems to be essential across the board. And what are the roots of this? In this case, you've chosen to help, I guess, poor people, and specifically children or their families. What's spiritual, maybe biblical roots for you for that? Well, I think that the biblical roots certainly come from the words of Christ in Matthew 25. Get that right. When basically Jesus says to be a disciple of mine, you're going to feed the hungry. You're going to give drink to the thirsty. You're going to clothe the naked. You're going to visit the people in prison. And when you have done this to the least of these people, you have done this for me. And we take that calling very, very seriously. And the fact that Jesus only gave us two basic commands beyond the great commission that we have at the end of his ministry, that he says, "Love God and love your neighbors yourself." So if we are to follow the commands of Jesus, his words of what it means to be a disciple, and which he certainly showed throughout his ministry, then we have to do this. That taking Jesus Christ as our personal Savior is the first step, is not the only step. And I think that's where sometimes some of us who find ourselves a more moderate or progressive theologies might differ a bit from some of the more conservative thought, because I do find that there is this sense among some that once Jesus becomes my personal Savior, Jesus is my personal Savior, for many of us, that's just the beginning, that once I recognize that relationship, my ultimate responsibility is in sharing it in every way possible, physically, emotionally, mentally, financially, whatever way it is, with everybody else. That once Jesus becomes a part of my life, I better not keep it to myself. That my calling is to share that with everybody that I can in my community and beyond. That's essential to at least American Baptist theology. I do find it interesting, as you talked about the Good Neighbor Project, that you carefully avoid trying to convert them. I think that for a lot of perhaps conservative or perhaps for all Christian churches, it's the major call to go out and convert the world, I guess you'd say. So you've designed a project here that specifically precludes you from converting them. My sense is that if we're not meeting people's basic needs, they can't see that Jesus would do anything else for them in their lives. So I think that's why we, biblically speaking, we get what Jesus tells us with the commands and with Matthew 25 and feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. We get it before we get the Great Commission, that at the very end of Jesus' ministry, when he's leaving and he's saying, "Okay, now you're going to go out into the world, and I've already taught you all these other things, then the last thing for you to know is make disciples and baptize them." But that's the last thing he says. And I think that there is this progression that we really need to take seriously, scripturally, that we've got to take care of people where they are, what needs they have, and when we do that, they don't just see a handout, but that they see us as people motivated to help make their lives better, and that they see there's a reason for that. And what I would love to see would be some doors open and somebody say, "Why? Why did you do that?" What would prompt you to take care of somebody you don't even know? That opens the door then for us to say, "Well, because Jesus is a part of my life, because Jesus has done this for me, then I need to help you, and then maybe that will be something that becomes important for you too, that Jesus, then you see what else Jesus can do in your life." But that can't be the first message, or I don't think they'll see Jesus, or at least they won't see the same Jesus that I do. So, Joanne, I certainly have had some discussion with people of fairly conservative theological points of view, including one of my brothers, and he says that there's a lot of the good things that we don't need to do, including working for peace, because in fact what the Bible foretells is the end of times, and we're supposed to be coming up on that time, so he really kind of wants to hurry it along. In my Quaker practice, I would say that one of our objectives is primary objectives, I'd say, would be to bring the Peaceable Kingdom present on Earth. That doesn't speak about afterlife or something. My brother wouldn't agree with that. He's focused on the afterlife, and he says, "That's what happens after Jesus comes." It seems to me like the good neighbor project is a part of bringing the Peaceable Kingdom to fruition here on Earth, and less involved in just waiting for the afterlife. Can you talk about your perspective on that? Is it valid to talk about bringing the Peaceable Kingdom, the vision that Isaiah had, you know, swords into plowshares, and all of that, or does that have to wait until after Jesus comes? I think that's a great question, and actually just plays right into, I think, speaking to an American Baptist, and we would tell you that we do both. I think that, well, one of the things we do in our worship service, for instance, is that when we pray the Lord's Prayer together, we pray that God's will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. So we have this perspective that when Jesus says the Kingdom is at hand, that indeed it is, that we are responsible for doing God's will on Earth, for creating this Kingdom as imperfect as it is here on Earth in as many ways and in as many good ways as we possibly can. And so certainly it is working for peace. There is a group called the Baptist Peace Fellowship that I know members of our congregation have at various times been a part of and been active in. I'm good friends with many of the people. I'm actually not an active member, but I do attend some of their functions. And so that's obviously an important aspect of our lives as Baptist. And we believe in the Kingdom meaning that we have good relationships with other people and we try to share what we have and that God sees us as good people and we need to see each other as good people and work for the best for everyone. There is that sense of justice and kindness and all of those good fruits of the spirit things that we think should happen here on Earth. Now Jesus also talks about what's going to happen next. And he's very clear in the scriptures about the next life and about what's going to happen and separating the wheat from the tears and all those different stories that Jesus tells. I don't think Jesus foretells when that's going to happen or how that's going to happen. That's purely up to God. So we have to make life the best we can here in order to enjoy what is yet to come that I think is really beyond what we can imagine here. I don't think that's for us to spend our time speculating about, imagining about, preaching about anything else that God expects us to do what we're called to do right here and now in the great hope of something so beyond what we can imagine happening later on. And I think that we as American Baptist do our best to emphasize the importance of both. The Good Neighbor Project is obviously dealing with neighbors that are pretty close by a few blocks away basically. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus grabs this idea of the Samaritan, this kind of outcast fringe, not well respected branch of Judaism and holds up that person as a saintly person, standing our view of neighbor from our local community on outward. How does your Baptist Church here, the first Baptist Church, how do you reach out to those neighbors wider in the world, as well as the ones who are right here in the neighborhood schools? We do a lot of international missions. We have actually a missionary family who came from the genesis of our congregation anyway. Actually historically we've done that. We have a picture of a family of missionaries who unfortunately were killed in the Philippines, several generations back, and we keep a picture of that family in our fellowship room. And Jim Wigner, Jim and Sarah Wigner, Jim's father was actually a Baptist pastor here in Eau Claire for many, many years, and we support Jim and his wife. They just have come back from a mission in Costa Rica. We take several offerings during the year that go to international ministries. In particular, we have supported ministries in India. And as I said, in Central America, those are closer to us because we know we have personal connections there. But we give to what's called a world mission offering through our denomination, and we have missionaries literally all over the world, and that's growing. In fact, we just found out that we have enough money that the giving has gone up enough that we actually are commissioning lots of new missionaries who now, this next year, will be going out. So it's an exciting time in the life of American Baptist when we collectively can put together our resources in ways that we can't go personally. But we can send those resources out. We collect what's called a white cross gift here, and it's money but goods and things like that that go to places like the Milwaukee Christian Center that works with disadvantaged youth in the urban ministries of Milwaukee. So we have quite a few things that we try to do. We support colleges such as Bekon College in Oklahoma that has the largest percentage of students there are American Indian, and we try to support them with our dollars for scholarships and educational funds and that sort of thing. So we do try to find a variety of ways that we reach out beyond our local community to offer our kind of support and help in whatever way we can. I'll confess to a negative twinge I felt when you were speaking about missionaries because my view of missionaries has been that their purpose, you give them money so that they can go live there and convert people to your religious ideas. What do your missionaries and the ones that your funding actually do? Our missionaries, for instance, have schools and help with education and not indoctrination. And let me be very clear about that. This is not indoctrination. This is truly helping people so that they can contribute positively to their own communities. And it really is a way of helping people, whether it's basic skills of reading and writing, it might be skills of farming. One of the things that we as American Baptist have done, which I think is marvelous, is that we have supported women with their own businesses using their own skills to create whether it's sewing or making some kind of pottery or jewelry or something like that. And then we have a store actually located in Green Lake and then they travel throughout the United States, selling all of these goods that the women make. And then this money goes back into their communities. Just little ways of helping people have a meaningful existence. And that's really what our mission work is all about. Recently there were tremendous floods that took place in Costa Rica, not long after the tsunami disaster. And so our missionaries, all in the Central America region, came together to help these families, everyone who was displaced and lost so much with all of the flooding, that kind of got lost in the news with the tsunami effects. And so I'm not sure that people knew a lot about what was happening in Costa Rica, but it was tremendously devastating to the whole northern part of that country. But our missionaries went with dollars and resources and everything they could to help rebuild and put life back together for those people. And what missionary work are the weekners doing? The weekners are actually working with the seminary and kind of a college education forum in Costa Rica. And in fact our church sent a good bit of money to help build a new building on the campus of the seminary. So some really, really good things were happening, but they were also working in the community. A lot of work goes toward helping orphans in communities. Human trafficking is an epidemic tragedy in our world today. And we think about it maybe in Thailand or something like that, what's happening all over the place. And especially as AIDS is becoming a greater epidemic, even greater than I think we realize at this point, but also just the economy, the devastating economy in third world countries right now. And now that the dollar is weakening, then that even changes the whole economic balance of things so that our missionaries are really going in and trying to help the people who only see that they can deal in drugs and human trafficking, selling themselves, really horrid things that are happening. And our missionaries are not going trying to say, "This is a sin, don't do it anymore." Like I think we saw generations ago. Our missionaries are going in saying, "Your life is worth something." That God created, all of us created us as worthy people, and we're here to help you see that in yourselves and to help give you a leg up so that you can have a better life than what they're envisioning for themselves right now. But how big is the congregation here at First Baptist? And I believe you're growing by more than 4% per year. Yeah, we are. Actually, I'm excited to say that, Mark, we are growing. I would say probably on our rolls we have about 225 or so in membership. That's not all local membership, by the way. We have a lot of people who don't live here who very much consider First Baptist their home. On the other hand, I'd say we're actually bigger than that because I have an awful lot of people here whose names aren't officially "on the rolls" but who come here regularly, who feel very much at home in our congregation without necessarily having to go through the ritual of membership, which is not something that I think is necessary to be an active participant. Are there any further comments you have about the Good Neighbour Project? In particular, are there any future plans for expansion or changes that you're aware of? Right now, we're evaluating what needs are there. I think there's a financial need because of this recent decision by the school board to basically assess a fee. And as a parent, I'm not sure I really can do well at speaking to this other than saying that there is a fee that we pay as our children enter school each year. And I know that it's significant enough of a fee that it is a hardship on families, especially with more than one child. So we're looking at is there a possibility of helping in some way meeting, even if we can't meet that financial need, which may not happen. That means that that money is taken away from, let's say, paying for lunch. So we've got to look at the realities of how far finances can go among many of our families. And so how can we begin to fill whatever gaps present themselves? So we'll be looking at that very significantly this fall. We welcome donations anytime. You can send them to First Baptist Church and just mark on your envelope or on the check that it goes to Good Neighbour Project, and we'll make sure that that gets taken care of. I do want to say that we don't do specific projects such as at the beginning of the school year, and we don't do specific projects over Christmas. There are lots and lots of groups who do that anyway. So our goal is to help fill the gap in that time between the beginning of school and Christmas, and that time after Christmas to the end of the school year when other groups aren't necessarily picking up those needs, and we can fill those gaps as well. So I would encourage people to think about in October and November, or in March or April, that if they would like to help us continue meeting these needs, those are prime opportunity times to donate resources. We'll take packages of underwear and socks anytime, as well as monetary gifts. So anyone who would like to help us in that way or just want to know more about it, just call First Baptist Church and I'd be happy to talk to anyone. And for the record will you say your phone number or maybe even your email address depending on what you'd like? I will do that. First of all, our phone at the church is 832-0642, and the easiest way to contact us is to write, it is First Baptist EC altogether at SBCGlobal.net, and just send us an email, give us a phone call, and we'll put you in the right direction for contributing to the Good Neighbor Project. I want to thank you for enriching Eau Claire by coming here. I'm so proud that you've brought about this project, and I can see that you're not about to stop with just one project. No, I don't think so. I hope this will be the genesis of a lot of other great things to come. I wish I could say, Mark, that there were no needs for us to meet. Wouldn't that be a tremendous celebration? But even Jesus said the needs are always going to be there. And so knowing that, then we just have to open our eyes and open our doors and open our pocketbooks and everything else and say, "We're going to do this because it's the right thing to do." And I think it's a great celebration that brings a lot of people together for the right reason. So I'm looking forward to whatever opportunities come down the road. Thank you, Joanne. Thank you. ♪ I am an immigrant. I am a stranger in this place. Here but for the grace of God go I. I am an immigrant. I have left everything I own. To everything I've known I say goodbye. She said, "Give me your time. Don't you know I'm weary?" She said, "Give me your porn." She's talking to me. One of your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. And I never have lost sight of what this journey has been for. See how she lifts her lamp beside the golden door. ♪ I am an Irishman. When the famine put us to the test. Weigh into the West like wild birds flyin'. We put our backs to the wheel. With a heart that always yearned for home. We have made this place our own and about died tryin'. She said, "Give me your time. Don't you know I'm weary?" And she said, "Give me your porn." She's talking to me. One of your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. And I never have lost sight of what this journey has been for. See how she lifts her lamp beside the golden door. ♪ I am Chinese. I have worked your mills, your yards, your mines. I have laid your railroad lines with my two good hands. I am a Chicano. In your orchards and your fields, I have gathered in the youth in this hungry land. She said, "Give me your time. Don't you know I'm weary?" And she said, "Give me your porn." She's talking to me. One of your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. And I never have lost sight of what this journey has been for. See how she lifts her lamp beside the golden door. ♪ I am Nigerian. I am Iranian, a Jew, from Laos, from Kathmandu. I am your story. I am a long, long line. One you have forgotten that is true. I am everything you know I am your glory. She said, "Give me your time. Don't you know we're weary?" And she said, "Give me your porn." She's talking to you and me. We are the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. And we never must lose sight of what this journey has been for. As we lift her lamp beside the golden door. ♪ My thanks to Joanne Jewett of Eau Claire's First Baptist Church and to all the sponsors of the Good Neighbor Project. Music you heard on this program includes God Bless the Child by Blood, Sweat, and Tears. Here I am Lord, Cowboy Dan, a song about the founder of the Heffer Project sung by Andy and Terry Murray, and Immigrant by John McCutchen. The theme music for Spirit in Action is "I Have No Hands but Yours" by Carol Johnson. Thank you for listening. I welcome your comments and stories of those leading lives of spiritual fruit. You can email me at helpsmeet@usa.net. May you find deep roots to support you and grow steadily toward the light. This is Spirit in Action. I have no eye upon who you've been made. The love and fervent neighbor, enjoy your breathless day. The love and fervent neighbor, enjoy your breathless day. Music