Planning Ahead

 Meet "Russell."  Russell is now a fourth-grader in our program and speaks Cantonese better than anyone else in the program, including staff.  This makes Russell very useful to us, as we have several families with parents who speak only Cantonese or mostly Cantonese with very limited English.  As he is also a very helpful child, he is always willing to jump in and translate when necessary.  He has helped me explain to one parent that our program is full, to another that we had food she could take home, and I stationed him at our "Adopt A Family" table to explain how the program works and how people could sign up for their kids to get presents at Christmas time.One of the mothers who speaks mostly Cantonese told me "His Chinese very good!"  Of course, his favorite thing to translate is when he gets to tell on his little sister, but that's just human nature.

Not too long ago, Russell asked if he could talk to me.  He seemed a little nervous and said he had something important to ask me. He continued, "Bronwyn, I know this is a long time from now, but when I'm in high school... do you think you would maybe hire me?"

It was asked seriously so I responded in kind.  I said, "Well, Russell, you know, I have to interview applicants and you'd have to fill out an application.  But the things I look for are responsibility and hard work and working well with people, so I think you'd have a good chance.  And you already translate for me, so that's been really helpful.  I can't promise you anything, but I think you seem like you'd be a great employee."

He looked incredibly relieved and said he'd apply when he was in ninth grade.  I'd love to have him as an employee.

Partners in Giving

At Harbor House, we are largely funded by private donations.  Consequently, we have fundraising events and demonstrate to donors that we are, in fact, a worthy recipient of their gift.  In fact, one purpose of this blog is so donors can see the impact they are making every day.   I think that transparency is good for the donors.  I also think it's good for the kids of Harbor House to know that these donations allow us to pay for everything, in spite of several people asking if we "shielded" the kids and interns from knowing that people donated to them, as it may reinforce the kids' sense of inequity. 

Practically, it would be hard to conceal:  we bring donors through on tours frequently and children (just like the rest of us) are curious about the people walking through their program.  But it's a conscious choice, not an expedient one.  We do not shield them, we celebrate the donations and use them as examples. I have seen incredible responses from the children when they know that complete strangers want them to have a good program.  The idea that other people, most of whom haven't met them, would like to help them out, thrills them.  Let me explain:

Announcements happen right before devotion time and some of my favorite announcements are about fundraisers and donations.  We talk a lot about all being part of God's family, whether we are related by blood or not. They love to hear of creative ways people help us: supplying cakes for the cakewalk at our carnival, bringing volunteers to clean the house and provide snack, setting up and paying for field trips, tutoring kids right here, and raising money for everything we need.  And the kids are good at thinking of what takes money! When I asked them, the list included "water to flush the toilets, snack you buy us, paying the interns, pencils, field trips, phones to call our parents..." and on and on. 

A recent announcement was fun to share with the kids.  One of our volunteers whom the kids know and love chose to include a request for donations to Harbor House on his wedding registry.  I first explained what a wedding registry is, and then how he and his wife are passing up some extra presents so that people will donate to Harbor House instead.  The kids thought that was amazing and so incredibly generous.  

 But our kids are not only the recipients of generosity.  Although they are primarily low-income, they are themselves very generous people.  They have great hearts and  love to share (most of the time - they are still children) and help each other out.  I have seen countless examples of kids giving pencils or toys to each other, or choosing a prize and passing up their first choice so someone else can have it.  In addition, when we pray for people who have had something difficult happen, the kids often ask if they can make a card or picture for that person.

And that is another reason why I think it is good for the kids to see the generosity that they receive, so they reflect it in their own lives.

A Faithful Partner

Every month, Harbor House gets a small check from a World War II veteran with a note saying that he's sorry he can't give more, but he's on a fixed income.  He adds that he's praying for us and wishes us the best.

We invited Gene to come talk to our older students and, much to our excitement, he accepted.  He told the kids about being a paratrooper jumping out of a plane into France on D-Day.  Although they have little knowledge of World War II, they got the idea of what he was telling them and asked questions like if he was scared, if he missed his family, and if he knew people who died (his answer was yes to all three questions).  He showed them a piece of his parachute, which he had kept, and pointed out the bullet hole in it.

The kids saw a picture of American soldiers that had captured a Nazi flag and recognized the symbol on it immediately.  Although they had very little idea of what the Nazi party actually was, they knew that the symbol on the flag was a symbol of hatred and racism and they asked about that.  Gene explained to them that there is no glory in war but that it was necessary to stop a greater evil.

Gene didn't tell us how old he was, but most of these kids' grandparents weren't old enough to be in World War II.  It was an invaluable experience for them to be able to talk to Gene and find out about his, and our country's, history.  

Saving the World

I started the training for my school year staff this evening by taking them out to dinner.  I think very highly of my mostly teenage staff, and believe they have one of the most important jobs around.  A favorite moment from the summer was at our staff barbecue when I had the chance to offer affirmations about each one of them.  I am so privileged to work with and direct these young adults, who stand out in their dedication to helping children.

I have never seen another group like the one at Harbor House.  Oakland is extremely diverse, but in my experience, people tend to stay with their group.  When I was teaching, the third graders were so used to being separated by language and ethnicity that an African American boy punched a Mexican American boy in the nose on the first day of school, saying "He ain't supposed to be in my class."  Teachers were constantly on the lookout for racial tensions, not just between students but also between parents and even teachers.  Some students had friends of a different ethnicity, but they were the exceptions and not the rule.

At Harbor House, the kids all play and learn together, and rarely do I see any form of racial tension.  I attribute most of this success to our staff.  This summer, our staff included young adults whose families come from Mexico, Cambodia, Jamaica, the Philippines, Thailand, Laos, Japan, Burma.  We also had staff who are white, black, and Native and have been in the United States for long enough to make it hard to trace their roots further, as well as biracial staff in any combination you can imagine

.  They were also extremely diverse socioeconomically.  We have teenagers who had been and are currently homeless, staff who share a bedroom with way too many family members, and people who live in very nice houses in tony suburbs.  We have some who went to elite private schools, some who went to enviable public schools, and some who went to schools that I wouldn't want to teach at.  

And they are all equals.  They have their squabbles and their tensions but none of it is about race and none of it is about inequality.  They work together and, even more importantly, they treat all the kids fairly.

School teachers receive a variety of professional development trainings on multiculturalism and race relations.  And yet, I've watched teachers yell at a male black student for running in the hall and then talk sweetly to the Asian female doing the same thing.  I've seen teachers try to trade black students for Pacific Islanders because "they listen and have respect."  Although these young interns have had only a brief workshop I offered at Harbor House, they didn't have these problems.  

I'm not saying that having a teenage staff is always easy, and I take their training seriously.  But in these ways, they have astounded me over and over.  I have never once seen one of my interns give preferential treatment to a student of their own ethnicity.  I have never once seen one of them treat a parent differently because of their race.  Our kids are learning from that example.

It's been a rough time in America lately for race relations.  Really, when has it not been?  But I firmly believe what I told my staff on the last day. They are saving the world.  Not all at once, and not the whole world, but these are the kinds of relationships and respect that I think will save us.

Gathering Them Up

When I was a third-grade teacher, I had a wonderful student in my class named Roxana.  Twelve years later, I was looking for young adults to hire at Harbor House, and I reached out to Roxana and some other former students on Facebook.  Roxana said that she was going to UCLA now, but she had this friend we'll call Lisa who she thought would be a really good fit.

I am so grateful to Roxana.

Lisa is quiet and unassuming. She is also efficient, determined, loyal, and incredibly caring in a very practical way.  We quickly promoted her and she now has quite a bit of responsibility in several different departments at Harbor House, although she hasn't turned 21 yet.  She saved my sanity during the school year with her computer knowledge, reliability, and ability to deal with anything that came up, with absolutely no drama.

I was feeling quite stressed out one day and was talking to my executive director about all the things I had to do.  I briefly mentioned that I had asked Lisa to make a flyer to put up on the front door when she walked in to deliver it.  She had not only made the flyer I had asked, she had translated it into three languages, printed two copies of each, put it in the shared files, and emailed them to me. I immediately felt better with this kind of competence and efficiency around.

However, this summer was when I truly realized how fortunate we are to have Lisa in our Harbor House family.  Lisa was in charge of our youngest group of children, ages four to six. She was also responsible for five young staff, mentoring them and managing them, and she did this beautifully, helping both children and staff realize their full potential.  She never lost her temper, even when she had children who bit and threw tantrums, but dealt with all situations fairly and patiently.

In addition, Lisa ended up having her own flock of children who she transported to Harbor House every day.  It began when we hired her younger sister and then she enrolled her nephew in our program. She added another student who lived nearby and her cousin to the list as well.  Next, with her car full to bursting, we found out that a child in Oakland (at the school I used to teach at) had been caught in the crossfire of a shooting and was paralyzed.  As this student's mother was in the hospital all day with her, the younger brother needed somewhere to go, and he happened to live near Lisa.  Lisa went with our executive director to talk to his family, providing Spanish translation, and agreed to borrow a different car every day in order to fit yet another child in her car.

As I was thinking of affirmations to share at our end of the summer staff barbecue, I just kept thinking of Lisa driving around East Oakland, picking up children who aren't hers to bring them to Harbor House.  I kept thinking about Jesus saying "Let the little children come to me," and Lisa bringing them, literally, to a place where they can learn that Jesus loves them.  Bringing them to a safe place where they can feel loved and free to be children.  When I brought this up at our barbecue, a long-time staff member mentioned that this is how Harbor House started. Olive Freeman, our founder, saw the needs of children in Oakland and started the program out of her car.  I feel like it's a modern-day parable: this young woman driving a huge truck around Oakland, gathering up children to come be loved.

From this you might assume that Lisa comes from a privileged background, the product of strong schools and parental support.  The reality is even more impressive: Her parents came from Mexico and are hard-working but speak limited English and I suspect that she and her older sister have had to provide a lot of translation and other help for their parents, beginning at a very young age.  She probably navigated her education alone, and she was not in neighborhoods with good schools that would provide a lot of help.  She is also essentially raising her younger sister, and shares a room with this sister and their nephew.

This growth, transformation and opportunity to excel is a strength of Harbor House.  Although Lisa wasn't in our program as a student, I can see young "Lisas" in our classes today.  Despite the significant difficulties they have in their lives, these children are learning from staff members like Lisa.  It's not just learning to read and write or their multiplication tables:  Lisa, like the other Harbor House staff members, is a living example of how to be giving and loving.  And it's clear that that even the young fives in Lisa's class are watching and learning.  I can't wait until they're ready to be the next generation of the Harbor House staff.

Because You Love Us

For two weeks during the summer program, we have groups of intrepid high school students (and their extremely brave, good-natured adult chaperones) come stay at Harbor House to live and serve with us.  Two weeks ago, we had a group from Yuba City, California and this week we have a group from Keller, Texas.  They spend their mornings helping with upkeep or cleaning in the house or helping out at other local organizations, and they help with the summer youth program from 12-5 pm.  These groups are called TOTAL (Transforming Oakland Through Action and Love) and tend to come every year.

Today, our very youngest kids, entering kindergarten and first grade, were in the cooking center.  They were making salad for the TOTAL group's dinner, which mostly consisted of ripping lettuce into very, very small pieces.  While the kids were happily shredding lettuce, one of the adults asked the kids if they knew why the group was there.  Hakim, age four, shouted excitedly, "Because you love us!!"

The group wondered if the kids understood why they were making a salad that they weren't getting to eat.  When the same group member asked the kids if they understood why they were making the salad, they all yelled, "Because we love you!"

The kids are beginning to understand that we're all part of God's family; whether we're from Texas or Oakland, regardless of our race, and whether or not we even know each other's names.

Does God Love Vietnamese People?

That is what "Jeffrey," a Vietnamese first grader asked me after a devotion in which we talked about how much God loves us all.  He seemed very concerned, and it came out that his brother was moving to the US from Vietnam and he had to make sure that God loved him.  When I assured him that yes, God loved Vietnamese people and specifically loved his brother, he asked me if God speaks Vietnamese.  When I said yes, he looked slightly incredulous. Then he pulled himself together, "I just had to make sure, because my big brother is coming from Vietnam, so I needed to know if God speaks Vietnamese."

Jeffrey then leaned in close to me and kind of whispered as he asked, "But does God speak Chinese?"  I said yes, and that God loves Chinese people too!  Jeffrey beamed.  
"No way!!"  He smiled to himself for the rest of the day.