Murals in the Mission

Lots of great murals in the Mission District of San Francisco. The photos on my facebook photo album called "Murals in the Mission" are from Clarion Alley and Sycamore Alley as well as the Womens center on 18th street and a few other places like McDonald's (of all places) down on 24th or so.

YWAM Belo Horizonte Brazil

I was recently in Brazil speaking at a couple of urban missions conferences. While I was in the beautiful city of Belo Horizonte I took time to visit the various ministries of Johan and Jeanette Lukasse from YWAM. In their 25 years of service in this nation they have focused their energies on children. Through their micro focus on a specific sector of society they have seen a macro application in the development of multifaceted ministries amongst children. Below is a pictorial tour of their ministries. If you want to know more about what they do or you would like to get some training in working with children at risk you can check them out at http://www.bhcentro.ywambrazil.org

The City of Belo Horizonte. This city has a population of 5,454,971 people in the metropolitian area.

The City of Belo Horizonte.

Reborn Hope House, The team works in the area of prevention of teenage pregnancy in the slums, and with pregnant teenage girls, or young teenage mothers; counseling and accompanying them.

Light House - The team works with the children, teenagers and families in one of the largest slums in Belo Horizonte, offering a variety of clubs. The goal is to offer the children and their families a better option for their future in all areas of life: a transformation on the spiritual, intellectual, physical, emotional, social and economic level.

Sower House - The team shows the love of God to deaf children and helps the children with their education and in family relationships.

Swimming pool inside the compound of the Lighthouse

The View from the Sowers House

Football/basketball court at the Lighthouse for the kids in the slum

Rock House - The team works with children, teenagers and families in one of the most violent slums in Belo Horizonte

Johan and Jeanette Lukasse at the Lighthouse. Pioneers of Children at Risk Ministries in Belo Horizonte

Rescue House, The team works with children on the streets, their families in the slums and in juvenile delinquent centers.

The slum of 147,000 people at the doorstep of the YWAM Lighthouse

In the Rescue House during certain days of the week, the children and teenagers can come to shower, eat, wash their clothes and hear the gospel. Other days are reserved for helping young people and adults addicted to drugs and/or alcohol, who live on the streets.

Looking out the DTS lecture hall window at the LightHouse. Mission at your doorstep

When the children or teenagers first arrive at the house they are interviewed as part of a social study and have a time of counseling and prayer. The team makes contact with the child’s family and authorities and helps to re-integrate the child/teenager back into their home and regular

visits are made to follow up.

Refuge House, The team works with abandoned children and teenagers who have HIV/AIDS who are cared for in a family environment, coming to know the love and acceptance of our Father God.

Johan and Jeanette hosts many guests here as they come to observe and learn about this work.

Recanto House: The team works with street girls and girls at risk situations.

Restoration House, The team works with street boys from broken homes, they go through the various phases of the RESTORATION HOUSE program, until they are ready to be completely reintegrated into society.

Looking out the window of the Recanto House....

For almost 20 years the girls came to Recanto House after completing a trial period in the Rescue House. The vast majority of the girls had a very painful past with a lot of trauma and responsibilities way beyond their years. In the Recanto House they could go back to being girls again, playing and dreaming, like girls their age normally do.
Recently this ministry is going through some changes, as they decided not to take girls into the home anymore, (with an exception for crisis care), but instead to come alongside them in their actual situation, counseling, accompanying and helping them in various ways, with the goal to stimulate a healthy development in the spiritual, physical, emotional, intellectual, economical and social areas of their lives.

Music in the Tenderloin

One of the things I love about living and working in the Tenderloin is going to the Cadillac hotel for their occasional free concerts that are sponsored by North of Market Tenderloin Community Benefit District. The Tenderloin's history used to be one rich with music and Elaine Zamora and Dina Hillard are trying their best to bring that back to life.

In the mid-1900s the Tenderloin provided work for many musicians in the neighborhood's theaters, hotels, burlesque houses, bars and clubs and was the location of the Musician's Union Building on Jones Street. The most famous jazz club was the Black Hawk^[7] at Hyde and Turk Streets where Miles Davis,^[8] Thelonious Monk,^[9] Gerry Mull

igan, and other jazz greats recorded live albums for Fantasy Records in the late 1950s and early 1960s. From Wikipedia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenderloin,_San_Francisco,_California)

The Tenderloin's rich history still hosts the Hyde st. Studio http://www.hydestreet.com where such greats like Bonnie Raitt, Tupac, Pharoah Sanders, Willie Nelson and many others have been their clients.

The other day Nelson Lunding played at the Cadillac Hotel. http://www.bluesinthepocket.com He is an accomplished New Orleans blues piano player and put on a great concert. The Cadillac concerts do not attract a huge crowd but the quality of musicians that they bring in are great. Check out the video clip below for a sample of Nelson's music.

Pete Yellin Quartet

Pete Yellin and his quartet gave a great show on Sunday October 18th at Noe Valley Presbyterian Church. The church hosts what is called a Jazz Vespers about 5 times a year. The shows are free and it makes a nice venue for a jazz concert. Check out the video clip of Pete Yellin.

Friends of the Urban Forest and Wonderland Art Exhibtion

Check out the article at Livinintheloin about how YWAM San Francisco is working together with the Friends of the Urban Forest at http://livinintheloin.com/2009/10/10/tenderloin-tree-planting

Also check out how YWAM San Francisco is working together with the Wonderland Art Exhibition by hosting one of their exhibits at our facility. You can read about it at http://wonderlandshow-7.blogspot.com

Swing Low Sweet Chariot by La Vonne in The Ellis Room

La Vonne put on a concert the other day in the Ellis room. She is a regular drop in from the Tenderloin and got the place swinging. She is known in the Ellis room as a mean pool player and good at chess as well. Pray for our ministry in the Ellis room as it is a great hangout for people from the street in the Tenderloin. The Ellis room is open every weekday from 9:30am to 4:30am for people in the Tenderloin to hang out in a safe environment. We have pool tables, ping pong, foosball, restroom facilities, phone, couches and lots of space so people are jammed in a small room. Every Tuesday afternoon we show a movie with free popcorn, on Wednesdays we a Bible Study in morning, on Thursdays we have a food pantry in the afternoon and an AA meeting in the late afternoon. Got a new piano you want to donate to our Ellis Room? Give us a call...we can use one as this old one gets used a lot and it's great therapy for our drop in friends and staff during off hours. Check on the Video below where La Vonne sings Swing Low Sweet Chariot....

Religious Diversity in San Francisco

San Francisco has a host of many religions and is a city of many spiritual interests. Over the recent weekend of August 14-16th you could witness that religious diversity right at City Hall. Posted below is a picture of the Carlos Anacondia evangelistic rally that was held August 14-15th. To my estimate they had placed about 2000 chairs in the plaza and about 3/4ths of them were filled and there were quite a few people on the fringes. So you could safely say there were 2000 people present of which most of them were from a hispanic background. It is evident that the main growth of the church in San Francisco is within the non white section of society.

Immediately following this event was Pakistan Independence day celebrations on August 16th at the same location. It was a curious mix of Pakistani's who have settled in the Bay Area. Some in their very traditional garb and others mixing with western culture. The event had a range of music that was both western and Pakistani. I took a short video clip of a call to prayer that took place which was quite a contrast from the Carlos Anacondia meetings the preceding day.

San Francisco is really a melting pot of many relgious beliefs and peoples and that is what makes it such a great city. The smallness of the city and the close living quarters provides a real "mashing" of religions and cultures. It would not be an exaggeration in some places of the city to say that at least every 10 blocks the texture of the neighborhoods change and run over into one another. You have Chinatown flowing over into Little Italy and Mission flowing over into the Castro. And the diversity of cultures is quite an amazing social phenomenon. The Tenderloin police station operates in 12 languages with the diversity in the small district that they patrol. In all this San Francisco does maintain a very friendly atmosphere broadly speaking. There are no doubt racial problems but overall it is a city of tolerance.

One last picture to show the cultural mashups of San Francisco. Here is a photo of a group of Pakistani's playing American football and the smaller boy in his kurta! Cricket yes. American football....that is a real cultural bridge that they have crossed over as you must know people from the Subcontinent hold cricket very deep in their hearts and American football...well it is very American!