Recently,
Youthfront partnered with Generation Alive and Able Works to mobilize
450 high school students in East Palo Alto to package 100,000 meals for
our Something to Eat™ initiative. East Palo Alto is divided from Palo
Alto by a freeway. Palo Alto is a very wealthy area fueled by the
success of the Silicon Valley. Apple, Google and Facebook are some of
the corporate success connected to Palo Alto. East Palo Alto lies in
stark contrast to Palo Alto. About 65% of the residents of East Palo
Alto are Hispanic/Latino, 16% are African-American, and 10% Pacific
Islander/Asian. Several years ago, Michelle Pfeiffer starred in the
movie Dangerous Minds as a teacher, teaching a classroom of East Palo
Alto high school students whose lives were being destroyed by drugs,
gang involvement, illicit sex, crime, etc. For a young person, living in
East Palo Alto can still be a dangerous reality. In the few months
before our Something to Eat™ event several young people were killed
through drug and gang violence. The names Something to Eat™ and
Something to Drink™ come from Matthew 25 when Jesus led us to imagine
that when someone is hungry or thirsty and we give them food or water it
is the same as giving food and drink to Jesus.
More
than 450 young people from this under-resourced community moved outside
of the dominating and destructive script many of them feel trapped in
and instead worked to raise money to provide food for those around the
world who are suffering from starvation. Most of these young people
have grown up with a script that imprisons them into thinking that they
are stuck forever in a story that centers around poverty, drugs, gangs,
crime and violence. I wish you could have been an eyewitness to what
happened in this Something to EatTM event. We worked hard all day and
yet, these teenagers didn’t even want to take a break. We stopped for
short five minute breaks throughout the event to talk and reflect on
why we were doing what we were doing – information about the world
hunger crises, about the importance of taking care of each other along
with inspirational thoughts. We had local artists perform Street Poetry
that was uplifting and spiritually rich. It was amazing to see what was
unfolding.
The East Palo Alto Police Captain spent the day with us. He was so
enthused that he was on the phone talking to the news media reminding
them that they were all at the recent murder scene involving young
people and they needed to come and see the good things young people were
doing. I got into a conversation with the Police Captain, an East Palo
Alto School Board member and a former mayor of the city. We talked
about how important it was to provide the opportunity for these young
people to participate in an alternative script to the broken scripts
that they had grown up with and ensnared by. We agreed that these young
peoples’ imaginations were being unleashed and this has the potential to
alter their life scripts forever. It was also cool to learn that the
Police Captain grew up in Kansas City and had served our country for
many years as a presidential appointed U.S. Marshall
Albert Einstein declared, “Imagination is more important than
knowledge. For while knowledge defines all we currently know and
understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create.”
I believe Youthfront’s mission to bring youth into a growing
relationship with Jesus Christ happens because we embrace the most
powerful script of all – the Gospel. The Gospel unveils a story that unleashes the imagination of those who have
ears to hear. The Gospel story has the power to render other scripts
impotent. Think of Jesus’ own disciples. They fled in fear when he was
arrested. They witnessed his crucifixion. They were hiding in a state of
dreadful trepidation. And when a few of Jesus’ followers, mostly women,
went to his tomb the Gospel story breaks forth with the declaration “He
is not here, he has risen!” Still the disciples hid in disarray and confusion. Although a few were convinced
that Jesus Christ was resurrected, some, Thomas for instance still
didn’t have the imagination to believe that the Gospel proclamation that
Jesus was risen could be true. And then he saw Jesus. Thomas declared,
“My Lord and my God!” I believe the Christian story properly told
stirs the imagination of the listener.
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