Our final day at Urban Ventures was also our busiest. After fighting the rush hour traffic and making are way back to South Minneapolis, we got right to work helping to paint some soccer fields on a parking lot. The soccer program is so popular that they were making new fields on pavement just to have enough space!
From there it was hauling 900 lbs. of aluminum to the scrap yard (which involved flying sparks as we cut it in half) which will help fun the organization. A quick lunch and then off to run the “Olympics” with some of 1-7th grade kids in the area, it was chaotic but fun.
Finally we went and picked up some more lumber for the skate park and haul it back to the Hub. In between, Brian spent some time learning how to drop-in on a quarter pipe. He did really well. He also did the splits a lot and spent a fair amount of time on the ground.
After we left Urban Ventures we walked around Downtown for a while and talked about the pulse of the city and how odd it is that we were within a couple miles of a half million people, yet it still felt calm and relaxed. We watched a band in the park, saw some ladies performing Norse dances on the Stone Arch Bridge, walked the SkyWay through the tallest buildings, and checked out various sculptures and landmarks.
The day was long and full, but one lesson seemed to stand out. In those last few hours, as we wandered around the metropolis, we saw almost every kind of person you could think of. We passed a multi-million dollar penthouse and a homeless man on the same street. We saw people of every color. It was a giant mix of culture, perspective, and lifestyle… all in this same giant space called Minneapolis. It was a far cry from the row after row of beige houses and giant malls we are used to in our little corner of the Twin Cities. Our status as ‘outsiders’ was pretty obvious.
But the lesson was this. As Christians we are supposed to go out and effect every people group on the planet with the love of God, and invite them into the relationship that we have with Him (I just paraphrased Matthew 28:19). It turns out that we can effect most of these groups and still be back in time for dinner. The Bible says ‘Go and make disciples,’ but that doesn’t mean you have to go very far.
We will certainly be back to Urban Ventures. I can only hope that this was the beginning to a long partnership between NSL and the inner-city. There is a GREAT work to be done… and the three of us who went invite you to come with when we return!
