From Pastor Bernice

 Last week we looked at the story...

... of a Detroit man who walked 21 miles to work every day for nine years.  Well, since then he has been given a new Ford Taurus by a local Ford dealer and his social media account has grown to some $300,000. Thank goodness he is not still walking!
 
This week there’s another amazing story, aired on PBS a week or so ago – the story of a student in Brownsville, New York who was asked “who has influenced you the most in your life?” by a blogger who writes about New Yorkers. His response? “My principal, Mrs. Lopez,” adding that, “when we get in trouble, she doesn’t suspend us. She calls us to her office and … tells us that each time somebody falls out of school, a new jail cell gets built. And one time she made every student stand up, one at a time, and she told each one of us that we matter.” Wow.  What a testimony from 13 year-old Vidal Chastanet, who is a student at Mott Hall Bridges Academy in Brooklyn.
 
Now Brownsville is in one of the poorest parts of Brooklyn – the highest income community wide is about $28,000 and about 85% of the community is African American.  Less than half of the population has finished high school or above. It has low proficiency rates in its schools, high pregnancy rates.  Brownsville residents also have high unemployment and the highest incidence of HIV/AIDS in central Brooklyn.
 
So Vidal’s answer to the question is quite amazing in and of itself.  The fact that this young man has been so touched by his principal might just inoculate him against all that is going on around him and give him the impetus to finish high school and pursue higher education.  And that would be a great story in and of itself.
 
But the story doesn’t end there. The principal, Mrs. Lopez, had entered the field of education after she had her own daughter and realized that she wanted for her – and for all children – a school of high expectations and support from teachers and administration.  But just before she learned of Vidal’s comments about her, she was ready to quit.  “I was done and my mother told me to pray on it and I just felt like I didn’t want to pray on it, I just wasn’t ready to pray,” she explained.  That was on the day that the post was put up on the blog. 
 
Later that evening she had to turn off her cell phone because she was attending a Broadway play and by the time intermission came, her daughter told her she had to turn on her phone and see what was happening.
Mrs. Lopez says, “I’m a faithful person, but I was angry at that time.  I did pray about it Monday and God showed me how much of a significance I was, not only to Vidal but to people around the world who could identify what it was like to know someone who was their champion and pushed them through.”
 
But the story doesn’t end there.  Inspired by the young man’s response, the blogger/photographer, Brandon Stanton, not only had put up Vidal’s story, but he also set up a fund-raiser for the school on crowd funding site Indiegogo that has raised over a $1.2 million for the school, hundreds of thousands of dollars over its original goal.  They’re taking the students to visit Harvard with the funds raised and setting up scholarships for their students.
 
Sometimes, when we are most broken, most despondent, most empty and we reach out to God, we will find answers beyond our wildest imagination.  Sometimes the words and dreams of our children can pierce our cynicism and lack of compassion and move us all towards the Beloved Community.

In Love, Justice and Peace,

Pastor Bernice                                                                  
 
revbpjackson@ucctampabay.org