Archive: Mission: Mississippi

MISSION: Pilgrimage of Love and Learning
PLACE: Voice of Calvary, Jackson,Mississippi
AUTHOR: Duffy Robbins, Director, UMYF, Wilmore, Kentucky
PHOTOGRAPHER: Keith Koteskey, Member, Wilmore UMYF

June 25, 1982. …Conversation is humming around a Memphis motel room as 15 members of the UM Youth Fellowship (Wilmore, KY) scatter about on the usual array of motel furniture. It has been a hard day of driving in hot summertime temperatures, but a quick swim in the motel pool has made us feel human again. We are ready now to begin the first of several nightly debriefing sessions.  A quick glance around the room shows expressions of enthusiasm mixed with curiosity as we contemplate what the next 10 days will hold.

Mission: Mississippi has been a dream of mine for the last three years. The more I heard of John Perkins’ strategic work of black Christian community development, the more I was impressed with the practical implementation and Biblical integrity of Voice of Calvary Ministries (VOC) in Mendenhall and Jackson Mississippi.

All group participants have had to complete a Scripture memory project, read the story of the founding of Voice of Calvary in John Perkins’ book, Let Justice Roll Down, as well as read the booklet, Blacks and the White Jesus by Salley and Behm (lnterVarsity Press). One of the more difficult dimensions of this orientation work was the writing of a one-page paper entitled: “What It is Like to Be Black in Jessamine County” (our home county). It wasn’t easy to put ourselves inside the skin of another person.

The motel room is quiet as the team members share their expectations and hopes for the trip. Bruce, a high school senior, stuns most of us with his honesty: “I’ve grown up in the deep south—lived 13½ years of my life down here where it’s easy to grow up with racial prejudice. One of the things I’m looking for on this trip is for God to work me over … help me to see blacks not for what they are in terms of their differences from me but who they are as people.”

Melissa, a ninth grader, shares, “I have been struggling with spiritual laziness lately. I’m hoping that the Lord will use this trip to set me straight and I’ll become consistent in my growth again.”

Matt, whose father is a seminary student, explains, “I’ve been considering the mission field as a possible place for me to serve in the future. I’m looking for God to help me see His plan more clearly this week.”

Saturday, June 26. … Memphis to Jackson—a hot four hours. Typically, our church van has been running hot.

We arrive in Jackson by midafternoon and work our way across the city to West Jackson—a grim stretch of decaying, neglected real estate between Lynch and Robinson Streets where most of the city’s blacks live. It’s raining, and the mood is one of discomfort.

I wonder what our team members are thinking as our van passes run-down homes, dilapidated buildings, and vacant lots. Perhaps our feelings would be different if we were just passing through.

We pull up in the driveway of the Samaritan’s Inn (aptly named), the place where VOC volunteers are housed.

The neighborhood, despite our resolve and faith, scares us. Across the street from the house in which we are staying is a bar which boasts a remarkable diversity of graffiti on its walls. One which certainly caught our eye is a prominent sign which announces, “No Weapons Inside.” For a group of middle-class teens who are used to seeing restaurant signs no more foreboding than “Kiwanis meets here every Tuesday,” this scene heightened our sensitivity to the real need of this area.

Just to cool off, our group goes over to a mall in the center of town. We soon notice that there are no other whites around. A bunch of blacks spot us and call out, “Look at all that white meat. ” Our youth feel intimidated, in the minority, treated as others have been treated for centuries. The tables are reversed.

Sunday, June 27. … Today we attend worship at Voice of Calvary Fellowship, which meets in the Masonic Lodge on Lynch Street. We are all impressed by the warmth of these brothers and sisters toward one another and toward us as well. The VOC Fellowship is an interracial fellowship, a testimony to what can happen when emphasis is placed on preaching, living, and serving in the full context of Biblical evangelism.

The VOC Fellowship choir sang and it was super. Most of our group had never heard a black gospel choir before. They believe what they are singing and they enjoy singing it! The classic commentary on the morning worship service came from one of our group members who exclaim with a ring of wonder: “I can’t believe it! We’ve been in church two hours and I didn’t even notice.”

Sunday afternoon we receive a phone call from Janis Palmore, director of volunteer services for VOC. She informs us that we will be moving to the John Perkins International Study Center.

We get settled in at the Study Center with ample time to meet several of the residents- summer interns working in various capacities with VOC. After supper most of our group went outside to play with neighborhood kids, who had spread the word that there was fun to be had. We found ourselves surrounded by about 30 children.

One of our girls was to remark at the debriefing that night: “It was neat today the way the kids came to us when we went outside. They have not yet learned to fear whites or dislike them.” We promised the kids in the neighborhood we’d be back.

Monday, June 28. … Up early this morning, we are off to the VOC Fellowship House on a nearby block. We sit in on the weekly VOC staff meeting. Lem Tucker, executive director of VOC ministries begins with a thoughtful devotion about cheerful and obedient servanthood.

Part of our morning is spent touring Jackson, visiting several of the VOE ministry sites. Besides the Study Center, a Child Evangelism Ministry House organizes activities for about 250 children every week of the summer. A health center provides much-needed, low-cost health care. A newer dimension of VOC is Horambe House, a discipleship ministry for young men.

Tuesday, June 29. … Today is our first full day of work at the VOC Co-op stores. Our group is split into two teams: one works at the Thriftco store in Jackson while the other works about 30 miles away in Edwards, Mississippi. Both teams begin the work they will be doing most of the week: painting shelves, sorting clothes, pricing items.

Wednesday, June 30. … Our days are falling into a pattern.

Last night we were part of an orientation meeting at the Study Center where we saw a movie about VOC’s mission of building black leadership. One of the visiting black workers asked this disturbing question, “VOC keeps telling us your goal is building black leaders, but how come I see so many white leaders everywhere?”

It was a good question, and this young girl was apparently voicing the concern of several in her group. A significant amount of black leadership is visible at VOC, but it is not all black. The response to her question was that in time there will be more black leadership, but that VOC in Jackson is still too young to see the full harvest of its labors.

Friday, July 2. … The last work day. All projects are finished by lunch time. We spend the afternoon touring the VOC operation in rural Mendenhall where the whole operation began. This place holds some special feelings, for all of us had read Let Justice Roll Down, and knew the blood, sweat, and tears (literally) out of which God raised this work. It is fitting that our week at VOC should end where VOC began. It is as if we have been working in a tree house and now we are being shown the roots of the tree.

We leave with mixed feelings: thanksgiving for what God is doing, and guilt for what has been done and not been done in the name of law and order. Too often whites have not only not “let justice roll down,” but have “let justice roll away.” Insights from team members vary. Paul felt he had learned not to fear blacks automatically. Kathy felt that God had been speaking to her about the strength of her commitment. I am going home with a sense of accomplishment, satisfaction, and gratitude to God that we could have a hand in what God is doing through Voice of Calvary Ministries. That is one chunk of the Kingdom that I wouldn’t have wanted to miss!