Thanks, Beck, for this encouraging word; it means so much coming from you as one of our alums who is also a leader in the justice space. Your work with Restore NYC confronting the injustice and trauma of human trafficking is so important–a crucial space for partnering with God in doing justice and loving mercy. So grateful for you and your co-laborers…God be with you strongly.

Thank you for sharing your journey and your witness, Wayne. I know it is deep, true, and full of integrity.

Some of these things really are too deep for words, even though we try. I will, of course, receive your words whenever you have them or we can hold together in that beyond-words place.

My short comment is “preach it sister.”

The longer version is that roughly 50 years ago our congregation decided to stay. White folks and white churches were leaving our neighborhood. As a result, we ended up hosting 7 other churches: white, black, Lao-Prai (they no longer exist), Laotian, Hmong, Cambodian and Hispanic. The latter remain strong, continuing to reach their own language groups. It was through them that I finally learned to take seriously the fact that most of the New Testament in written in the second person plural, in other words, it is community oriented & not so much individualistic in focus.

Over the decades I had a Black assistant pastor and a Black youth pastor. Believe it or not, I’m the lone white pastor that is part of our police department “clergy council” which now also includes our county sheriff’s department and the CA Highway Patrol.

I could go on and on with story after story but suffice it to say that my contact with brothers and sisters in Christ who are from different cultural backgrounds has allowed me to see that God is a whole lot bigger than I imagined, even after four years of a Christian college and 3 years of seminary.

My intial response is simply in the words of Wordsworth: “Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears,” and words. Perhaps, I ‘ll have a few more thoughts and words to share a little later.