If I haven't mentioned it before, we go to a very diverse church. 17 years ago our pastor felt called to plant a multi-cultural church and was told by "experts" all over the country that it was impossible. Well he pursued it, believing God desires racial reconcilation, not division, and God has done it! Our church has over 2000 people and is definitely a mixture of colors and cultures. Not only are many races/ethnic groups represented but there are a lot of mixed-race couples like us. Our pastor is African-American and his wife is Korean so their kids represent one of the many "shades of peanut butter" you see a lot around our church :-) It's awesome to have to
look hard to find Ella in her Sunday school class because she's not the only brown kid. In my own experience being biracial, you're
always a minority, wherever you go. So to have a place where you can see other kids "like" you is a rarity. There's something about being with people like you that frees you up to not have to try to be something you're not. I'm excited to have a place to give that gift to Ella.
Ironically, the same place that helps give Ella a feeling of being "like" other kids is where she gets to learn all kinds of things about what makes cultures different! She's learned all kinds of fun (sometimes funny) cultural lessons. That said, we've been developing deeper friendships with friends from church and our playgroup is really starting to gel as a group and hang out more and more! So, of course, here are some recent pics :-)
make-up time with Hanna
A few of the girls hanging out on a hammock after swimming
Chik-fil-a!
A bunch of the group!
Love it!
ReplyDeleteAwesome! What's so impossible about that?!
ReplyDeleteThis is such a lovely post. It actually made me feel sort of sad, because as much as we love our church (and even our kids love it!) it is not diverse at all. There are a handful of interracial couples, but I'm finding that slowly our group of friendships is becoming more and more white, and that really concerns me. Our MOPS group at the church is white, so naturally the kids that have playdates with are mostly white. Thankfully our neighborhood is very diverse, so Holly has lots of "peanut butter" kids to play with, but just recently I was wondering aloud to Mike if there will come a point when our kids will want to be in a church where they are not the only brown ones in their class! Ironically, the reason we started going to this church was that our kids loved it so much (had a really hard time at Bridgeway for some reason) and we were so relieved to finally find a place they couldn't wait to go to on Sundays. But they are also young and I don't think they fully realize that there aren't many kids like them (Michael certainly doesn't). Your comment about enjoying being in a place where you're not the only one like you made me wonder about all of this again. I do feel like God directed us to this church very clearly, but neither Mike nor I know for how long. I guess I just need to trust that God has a purpose for us being there (I was the one initially who didn't want to go because it was too white, but Mike was the one who convinced me to give it a second chance)and if he wants us to move somewhere else, he will clearly show us. Sorry this is so long, but it's nice to have someone to share these thoughts with.
ReplyDeleteHey Corinne, when does your play group meet? Is it open to anyone or just Bridgeway people? Could you email me about that?
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