Crosscombes

It’s all relative, isn’t it…

joyce — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:56:07 +0000

I was sitting around Christmas Eve feeling a bit sorry for myself. I kept telling my family I was boycotting Christmas because it was cold and Christmas should be warm. I had been thinking back over my favourite Christmases… barbecues, beaches, bikes, and picnics… getting together with my family. Christmases have always been hard for me in Philly… cold, winter, being inside. It seems to just come and go so quickly.

This past Christmas Eve we were over at a friend’s place, where we usually spend Christmas Eve. It is always loud and crazy, with great food, presents and everyone eating as they come and go… no structure. The phone rings… my young friend tries to answer but misses the call. She is upset and her Mum gets frustrated. It was one of her brothers, calling from prison. Finally, he gets through and obviously he is hurting, locked up at Christmas… and here I am complaining about the cold! They talk a while, and then as we start catching up on family and friends all things come into perspective. A few friends are missing this year. One is at work…another isn’t allowed to cross the bridge because of probation (he was just transferred into New Jersey to be with his wife because they were both on probation, in different states). A young man who I began to talk to for the first time shares about how he is trying to help his younger brother. He wonders if he will be put in placement soon, like he was at that age. We catch up on a nephew who has been placed, another one running the street. My young friend is doing okay, been clean for a bit.
In the other room, my daughters show love (which they excel at) by sitting with an older lady, conversing with her in Spanish. Tony and his little friend seem to keep finding more presents to open, playing with their gifts. Conversations turn to a granddaughter who lives and goes to school in a Children’s home. Her brother is recovering from chemo (a few of us got to visit him not too long ago in the hospital). Grandma wonders how she can develop a better relationship with her granddaughter.

So what was it I was complaining about again? God seems to always put my complaints into perspective. What do I tell my young friend who just lost her baby…. who blames herself for the loss? Or what about the young man raising his kid brother… who was himself raised by a lady he calls “grandma”… or for the mother whose son is locked up?
While this exchange continued my “broken” friends keep feeding me crab cakes, the best pork, and rice and beans. I open my present from them… a trendy new duffel bag.
This is life in our community. By the end of the night some will be drunk, others high but I understand why…
This is Christmas. As always, my kids leave with bags of clothes and gifts from our friends…
This is love.

December update

joyce — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 17:22:48 +0000

Dear Friends,

I think the only way that we can truly understand what is happening in the church in Philadelphia is through relationships. Often when we see the extent of the needs on the street it can seem as though the church has abandoned the community. We read about the disastrous schools, the crime and the broken systems. But as Joyce and I both get out into the neighborhoods we see God at work through His people, amazing people doing amazing things.

More from Simple Cycle

joyce — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 01:22:29 +0000

We wanted to share the latest newsletter from a ministry that we have been incubating. Please take the time to read and see what God is doing….

Hello from Philadelphia,

You are receiving this second newsletter, because I want to report the progress God is leading in our community since my last newsletter.

A friend of mine from the Simple Way, a ministry partner here in Philadelphia, needed a bicycle. One of their neighbors and friends, Kareem, moved out of the community and found it difficult commuting to and fro. So they asked if Simple Cycle (SC) could find a bike for Kareem. I tuned up one of our donated bikes, a beautiful green Raliegh, and delivered it to Kareem. I typically don’t give away a bike. There is very little time to build a relationship in a quick exchange. However, Kareem belongs to a loving community and a bike would help him reconnect. So I was very happy to hear from our friend Shane that since Kareem received his bike he has be attending morning prayer regularly, participating in the community more frequently and in general enjoying the freedom of his bike.

Simple Cycle exists to use bicycling in an urban landscape as the means to promote the transforming power of Christ, employment opportunities, sustainable lifestyles based in community, and lasting relationships.

SC uses bikes to build bridges and overcome obstacles to Christ, community, and personal growth. We celebrate every mountain, hill, and fortified wall being made low before the Lord. (Isaiah 2:14, 15) We achieve this using the tool of bicycles. At times it seems foolish that bicycles could be used to change the tides of inactivity and isolation in our neighborhood. However, stories like Kareem give us hope and proof that God is moving through us according to his good purpose (Philippians 2:13).

I hope that each newsletter encourages you to break cycles of inactivity and isolation in your community. Likewise, I hope we inspire you to join and support the work SC is doing in NorthPhiladelphia. As it says on the back of my business card:
Helping the city of brotherly love back on two wheels!

October Update

joyce — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:09:05 +0000

Dear Friends and Family,

First off, I know you are most eager to hear how our support raising is coming along. Since our last newsletter we have added 2 new supporters and an existing supporting church has increased their monthly giving, taking us to 66% of our target. It is exciting to see God bringing more people to partner with us and moving us closer to the goal of 100%. We would like to get there by January, an ambitious goal I know, but one I think that, together with you, we can meet. It requires an additional $2200 a month in giving, which will then mean that we begin receiving our full monthly salary, instead of the stipend we have been living off of, and we can devote more time to working with people.

Introducing…Simple Cycle

joyce — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 01:29:43 +0000

Newsletter #1

Dear Friends, Family and Strangers,

You are receiving this newsletter either because we know you or because we thought you should know about us. We want you to tell you some of the great things God is up to around us and also share ways that you could become involved.

Read more on Introducing…Simple Cycle…

August update

joyce — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 15:25:39 +0000

There are many reasons why some of you might already be supporting our ministry work in Philadelphia and Australia. It is an exciting thing to watch our support grow, edging closer to our 100% goal, knowing that we are part of a team and serving a God that makes this all possible. It can also be discouraging when a church or individual decides not to support us, which leaves us wondering if we will ever make full support and move from receiving a stipend to a full salary. Though I don’t think I ever “enjoy” the challenges of support-raising, I certainly appreciate the way it has shown God’s love for us in a tangible and unforgettable way! For those of you who have been supporting us, those thinking about it, and those who just love hearing some things God is up to, here are some highlights…

Part of the Village

joyce — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 15:09:28 +0000

by Coz Crosscombe

Our experiences of loving children in our neighborhood have transformed how we think of family, and it began long before Joyce and I decided to share life together. In 1995, Joyce was happily single, enjoying her space and freedom, directing an urban children’s ministry involving hundreds of kids on a weekly basis. She developed a special relationship with nine-year-old Jazmine. Jazmineʼs mother was a drug addict and her older brothers were drug dealers. She had been taking care of her younger brother for three years.
When Jazmineʼs mother decided to enter a fifteen-month rehab program, Joyce agreed to take Jazmine for a few months until she could be placed in a group home. To share her bedroom with a nine- year old who’d had almost no structure in her life was a huge shift. Joyce kept reminding herself it was only temporary.
Then Jazmineʼs five-year-old brother and his father appeared at her door. “I have to go to jail, Miss Joyce. I donʼt trust anyone but you to take my son.” Joyce, now a single mother of two, began making plans for Jazmine and Luis to be moved to a children’s group home–until God decided to get involved. It became clear that God’s will for these children was that they be in a family, not a group home, so Joyce decided to take on the role for the next fifteen months. We married in the middle of that time, and quickly learned a few essential truths: Having two parents really does make a difference. We need the help of our community to raise children. And, most significantly, kids need to know that they are deeply, unconditionally loved by someone.
Though Jazmine and Luis transitioned back into the care of their own family after those fifteen months, they changed our concept of family forever. We have had many children live with us over the years, and our own family of six is a blend of biological children and a child that we chose to be part of our family. This is how God intends for family to be, and if all Christians would begin to participate in this vision, every child in our city could find a home and a place where they are loved unconditionally.
On any given day in Philadelphia, there are roughly 660 children waiting to be adopted. An additional six thousand children are under the care of child protective services, an entity whose annual budget is approaching $600 million. There are also about 2500 churches and 150,000 people in church on a Sunday. We are no great theologians, but a few parts of the Bible seem incredibly clear. One refrain is God’s constant injunction to care for the “orphans,” the children who have no parent providing the basic necessities. How many families have the capacity to care for another child? How many have space in the house, room at the dinner table? I’m sure that in my city, there are at least 660. Which leaves about 145,000 others to help those families with the struggles of providing a permanent home for a child, provide stable environments for the 6,000 kids in transition, work with biological parents on reunification, and save the my city enough money to totally reform the school system.
When we began taking children into our home, we were warned “not to get too involved.” Our communities are full of children who need to be loved in an unconditional way, without the selfishness of the systems we have created to protect us, the adults. As we shared our struggles trying to parent “other peoples kids” with family and friends, we were told, “Don’t worry, it will be easier with your own kids.” They were wrong. They are all wrong. Warnings not to get attached are not to protect the children, but to protect us, the adults, from the inevitable pain that comes from loving a child not born to us in situations we cannot control, often in a labyrinthine system that would never exist if we simply opened our homes.
If you met our eldest daughter, Saiyeh, who came to us at ten months, you would know it is all worth it. At thirteen, she is a talented musician, filled with empathy and loving the unlovable. We have maintained a strong relationship with her Puerto Rican family, and her biological grandmother often looks after our children, especially our young son. She proudly shows off her “grandson” to friends and strangers alike (and don’t dare question the obvious lack of family resemblance).
Many of our good friends who grew up in this neighborhood act as mentors to us as we learn to raise our children in the community. What we couldn’t give to Saiyeh was her native culture. Although we’ve lived for quite some time in our Latino community, we didn’t know much about Puerto Rican heritage and spoke limited Spanish. We were blessed to have a public charter school with an emphasis on bilingual education open its doors just as Saiyeh reached school age. Because we wanted all our children share this heritage, our other daughters also attend the school. (It’s fun to see reactions when our fair-skinned, Australian children speak fluent Spanish.) Our middle daughter was the first Caucasian in the school and has been made far more welcome than what we hear often happens when the first Latino or African American child enters a “white” school.
Yet this unconditional, very attached love has also brought heartbreak. It still pains me to read my journal entries of the time when our three-year-old daughter Aniah, was taken from us by court proceedings.

June 2011 Newsletter

joyce — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 13:41:06 +0000

COZ’S RECENT TRIP TO AUSTRALIA
From BBC News, 22nd March 2011: “A study using census data from nine countries shows that religion is set for extinction, say researchers.” Australia was identified as one of those nine countries. With church attendance still in a decline, having a professing atheist as the Prime Minister, and knowing from church history that Christianity has almost entirely disappeared from some places that were formally centers of our church, this study would seem plausible. Unless of course, you were to come on a trip to Australia with me….
In March I spent two weeks in Australia. The first week I was invited to travel with Shane Claiborne, from “The Simple Way”, as he was asked to speak in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. We were honoured guests of an exciting Gospel- centered movement called, “Surrender”, and I was deeply moved by Shane’s passion for “my people”. Traveling with Shane opened up new opportunities for the ongoing ministry Joyce and I have been a part of in Australia. Shane and I met with many of the senior indigenous leaders (aboriginal) and were both pained and overjoyed to hear their struggles, and matchless grace. For a people persecuted so often, marginalised and discounted, separated both legally and illegally, their one desire of the “white leaders” was to kneel together, side by side, in front of the Throne of Christ. They weren’t asking for money, power or status, only that we be One in Christ.
Shane, Billy Williams,Coz, Goma Conlon

April 2011 Newsletter- “Shiny Shoes”

joyce — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 17:33:29 +0000

When I was in High School it was never a good thing to turn up at school in new sneakers. The shiny white color would attract immediate attention and your classmates would proceed to step on your feet, scuffing the shine. I never gave much thought to why this might be; it just was one of those things…. Fast forward not too many years and I find myself in Kensington, where shoes were perhaps the single strongest status symbol. You had to have “new sneaks.” I on the other hand would wear sneakers that kids were going to throw out; I didn’t care if I wore shiny shoes. I remember a kid one day while at camp, breaking down in tears. “How can they just run through the mud in their sneaks?” he asked. He was from one of the poorest communities in the US, and we were at a camp with mostly affluent white suburban youth. He couldn’t understand how someone could have so much money that they could treat their shoes in this way. It was then that I realised just how far apart certain cultures were. My good friend Hector recently confirmed this in one of our conversations saying that it didn’t matter so much what your house was like, or even if you had money for clothes and food, but you had to have nice sneaks.

Where I’m From

joyce — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 03:24:59 +0000

I am from my Aussie dad and my American mum.
I am from the hills in Australia to the buildings in America.
I am from my tree house in my great auntie’s yard in Australia to my tree house in my own yard.
From the chicken chips there to the barbeque chips here.
From my special breakfast on my birthday.
From the great animals in Australia to the USA.
I am from the memories in both places.