From One Hill to Another

I spent the early part of Friday morning reading on a park bench in Trowbridge Square, in a neighborhood of New Haven known as "The Hill."  Right across the street, my car was getting a check-up at SKF Auto.  And a few blocks over was the Boys&Girls Club, where I work this summer.

In my hands was a book about the history of religious learning at Yale.  Flying onto my face and hands were little green insects--harmless but annoying.  Surrounding the square was a residential neighborhood, and every now and then people crossed through the square.

A couple occupied a nearby bench, talking and squabbling as couples do.  As they left, four men speaking Spanish entered the square, carrying plastic bags filled with recyclables.  They smiled at me and plugged in their cell phones to an outlet in a lamppost, blasting music into the morning air.  As they eventually got up and left, three young women came and occupied another bench, and I overheard one of them talk about her child recently getting adopted by a foster family.  A man walked across the square several times, checking on his laundry in the corner laundromat.

I drive through the various neighborhoods of New Haven from time to time, always with my car doors locked, out of habit.  I learned to do this as an undergraduate at USC in downtown Los Angeles, and as a woman in general.  Sitting in Trowbridge Square, however, I was completely out in the open--although I did have pepper spray in my backpack.  I have to admit that it took me a little while before I became more comfortable in my surroundings.  Gradually, I realized that I was a guest in a neighborhood.  Perhaps some of the kids at the Boys&Girls Club lived here.  There was nothing to be nervous about.  This was an opportunity to listen and observe.

According to Wikipedia,

The Hill neighborhood contains the majority of buildings of Yale-New Haven Hospital and Yale Medical School. The expansion of this Medical campus area is a continual source of tension with the bordering residential areas. The residential areas of the Hill are mostly working-class and minority neighborhoods; crime and poverty remain problems, though to a far lesser degree.

The Hill is also home to New Haven's railroad station, Union Station, and some light-industrial businesses such as the Lupi-Legna Bakery. Public schools and libraries include; Roberto Clemente Leadership Academy and the Wilson Library.

Our church has been encouraging us to get to know New Haven's neighborhoods by spending time in each one.  Each Sunday, we spend time praying corporately for the peace of the city.  I love that the Elm City Vineyard is committed to being both a prayerful and a participatory part of the community, and I'm sure that this has influenced my mindset for the good.  On top of that, my summer fellowship is designed to introduce Yale students to the City.  We've learned about its history, some of its neighborhoods, and the work that is going on in its various communities.

There is something special about being around people close to where they live.  I realized this when I worked at a residential treatment campus for teens in Pennsylvania and when I worked in low-income housing in California.  Those settings may not have been home for my clients, but it was where they lived.  There is something to be said about observing people in residential settings--I rather enjoy it.

We call the Divinity School area "The Hill" as well, and it occurred to me that I'm spending my summer days going from one Hill to another.  Sitting on that bench in Trowbridge Square, I thought about how I still have much to learn about what it means to be truly invested in one's city.  I began to pray for the surrounding neighborhood, and to ask for more of an understanding of God's heart for the city of New haven.

James 2:14-26 Revised Standard Version (RSV)

Faith without Works Is Dead
14 What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

18 But some one will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder. 20 Do you want to be shown, you shallow man, that faith apart from works is barren? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works, 23 and the scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness”; and he was called the friend of God. 24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead.