The month of May is officially designated as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The Library of Congress explains, "The month of May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. The majority of the workers who laid the tracks were Chinese immigrants."
We invite you to learn more about the many contributions of the AAPI community with the following resources.
Urban Impact holds a monthly conversation on racial reconciliation on the first Thursday of every month. Anthony Ballard, Discipleship Associate for Justice and Reconciliation at BelPres, was featured on a panel at the March meeting. You can watch the recording at March 4 Wrestling with Reconciliation. If you'd like to attend future events, you can find information at Wrestling with Reconciliation — Urban Impact Seattle.
By Heather Hedlund
Paul often compared the Christian life to running a race. In 1 Corinthians 9:24-25 he says, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever." As we've learned in the last few months, God has given us the ministry of reconciliation. This is the race he has assigned us to run, and it's not a sprint, it's a life-long relay.
Have you ever had someone apologize to you, but you weren't sure they really meant it? Was that apology healing for you, or did it leave you angry and confused? I think John the Baptist may have felt this way when the crowds came out to be baptized by him. When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming, he said, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance" (Luke 3:7-8) I think he was skeptical of the sincerity of their repentance. He challenged them to follow up their statement of repentance with actions that proved they meant what they said. We show the sincerity of our repentance when we work to fix what's broken.
by Heather Hedlund
I don't know about you, but I was really happy to say goodbye to 2020 and ring in a brand-new year. So many things in 2020 felt off-course, and the new year brings a chance to set a new course, a new trajectory. The next step in our exploration of racial reconciliation is all about changing course.
We've been using the acronym GAPS as a framework for the important elements of racial reconciliation. The G stands for "Go to the person you're in conflict with," and we talked about the importance of having relationships with people of races or ethnicities different from our own. The A stands for "Admit your part of the conflict," and we looked at the importance of telling the truth about our history. The P stands for "Pray," and we've spent a lot of time on this section.
In my journey to understand and try to live out racial reconciliation, there has been one step that I think was key to my progress: admitting my own racism. I remember vividly the moment it became personal. For several years, my understanding of the persistence of racism had been growing through personal relationships with people of color, through news reports, and through magazine articles and books, and I was starting to recognize that racism was a real thing that people of color were experiencing regularly. But I hadn't yet implicated myself.
It's that time of year. The Pumpkin Spice Latte returns to Starbucks and suddenly pumpkin spice products are popping up everywhere you turn. This year, you can even find Pumpkin Spice Mac & Cheese. Last year at this time, my son Erik was attending Confirmation Class at BelPres. His favorite week was when Anthony Ballard came to talk to the group about justice. Anthony was sharing that racial reconciliation is a popular term and it feels really good, but a lot of people don't really understand all that it involves. We tend to want to jump ahead to the part at the end where we all get along and skip all the work it takes to get there. At which point Erik coined the term "Pumpkin Spice Reconciliation." It's ubiquitous and it makes you feel warm and fuzzy, but it's fleeting and there's not a lot of substance.
King 5 is currently airing a series called "Facing Race" on Sunday evenings at 9:30 pm. This is a great opportunity to learn more and see connections to our local community. You can use these episodes as a springboard to have conversations with your family, friends, and neighbors. Here's the description from King 5 along with some links to the episodes that have already aired.
"As America grapples with racial injustice and inequity, we're talking about race. In the series 'Facing Race,' we are having brutally honest conversations and answering questions you may be too embarrassed to ask. In episode 1, we examine how we arrived at this point in American history and explain why race and white privilege matter. 'Facing Race' is a 13-week series that airs on Sundays at 9:30 p.m. Pacific on KING 5 in Seattle. See more coverage here: Facing Race on KING5
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