So here’s the tricky part about McElderry Park.  There are amazing people here.  Lots and lots of dear wonderful people.  Oh, I know, there are amazing people everywhere.  But from the outside.  From the outside when you look at this neighborhood, when you read about the sadness, the violence, the challenges.  I mean, yes there are challenges.  Yes there are drug dealers.  Yes the unemployment is over 50 percent.  Yes  there are too many boarded up houses.  But there is also this rich tapestry of people.  When I arrived in August, I met neighbors out on the front steps visiting about the day.  I ate at the market and shared a meal and a blessing with some folks on lunch break who graciously shared a spot at their table.  I’ve dug in the dirt and shared a cool glass of Iced tea on the bench in Port Street, learning about growing up in the city of Baltimore.  And of course, I’ve broke bread with God’s people of Amazing Grace, who pray and serve and love and laugh and even cry sometimes as we walk together in Christ.

So while from a distance, it may seem like McElderry Park  is a place to avoid, a place to drive around and seek an alternate route, I would suggest its a unique kind of place.  And more than that, I would suggest it is a place worth visiting.    Yes, there are challenges…lots and lots of them.  But Jesus is present in this place.  Jesus shows up all the time, in people and circumstances where no one would expect.  Who would imagine God would show up in a feeding trough in the middle east?  And the first ones Jesus birth was announced to?  A group of shepherds-not the most highly esteemed folks at the time.  Jesus shows up all the time in McElderry Park, along with shepherds too.  I hope to see you sometime for a visit.  You just might meet Jesus.