 Good afternoon friends. Great to see each of you in your Hollywood squares on this momentous day. I'm glad that you've taken a bit of time this afternoon to come together. You know, for the better part of this last year, as we all know, the church has faced a number of different adaptive challenges. And one of those is how we in the church can connect with our neighbors when the safety of our neighbors calls us to practice social distancing and other kinds of safety measures. You know, how can we build relationships and connect meaningfully with our neighbors and ways that help us to witness to the love of our God in this season. And that's a question that again, all of us have wrestled with and that's the focus of our call today. We have a number of different folks on this call who have been experimenting boldly and faithfully with how to answer that question. And looking around briefly introduce each of you and offer a prayer, and then turn it over to Andrew to kind of facilitate our panel discussion. I'm grateful to have with us today, Reverend Amy spore of Christ Foundry United Methodist Mission. Chelsea white the executive director of the Dallas Bethlehem Center. Michael Melrose of the Ubuntu project. Janna Grimone Christ UMC in Plano and Reverend cake nations of glow by open worship, which is a ministry out of first United Methodist Church in Denton. And so, again, we're grateful to have these panelists with us to share out of their experience and grateful for this opportunity for us to be together to listen and to learn from one another. So, let me offer a prayer for us. And then Andrew, I'll turn it over to you. A good and gracious God. We pause in the midst of this important day in the life of our nation to give you thanks. We are grateful for what turned out to be a smooth transition of power and we're grateful and look forward with hope to the leadership of the incoming administration. God is much as we are hopeful about that, though, we know that our hope ultimately does not rest in elected leaders or political parties, or the rising and the falling of nations but God, it rests on you. And we reaffirm this day, our faith and our hope in you and your presence among us them in the way that you continue to move in and through us to bring forth signs of your kingdom. God, we're grateful for the leadership of the people on this call and the ways that they do that in small ways and big ways every day. And God, we're eager to learn from them and from one another. We are deeply challenged in the season, but we continue to be hopeful about the new ways that are emerging, that we can continue to be your people, to connect with the neighbors that you call us to care for and love, and the new ways that we can continue to give to who you are, and the way that you transform our lives and you can transform our communities in our world. So God be with us as we share today. We offer this prayer in Christ's name. Amen. Thank you Andy and it's good to be with all of you this afternoon on this especially important day in our country's history. So we have been about the work of ministry with and transitioning toward a real focus on how do we build relationships with with new people but also just building relationships in general through what we, you know, oftentimes term outreach ministry has been realizing that the whole purpose of the church is mission is being sent out to build relationships with new people. One of the things that would really be helpful as we get started and dive into talking about what, what do we exactly mean by relationships and what are our expectations or that we should have and shouldn't have about that, but also how, you know, in the pandemic of anti black violence, the pandemic of income inequality in this country have affected and been highlighted in this time how those affect the way we go about building relationships. I'd love for us to be able to start off by just sharing those of you who are on the panel. Your name, where you are in service and the, and it's a couple sentences. The work that you've been about that was in part funded by this ministry with grant program. So, Amy, once you go off here the first person on my alphabetic list. Sure. So my name is Amy spore and the lead pastor missionary at Christ Foundry United Methodist Mission, and we're located in Northwest Dallas in the heart of the immigrant community, and we originally started launched a ministry with with help from the Center for emotional outreach to reach out to the apartment complexes near us we had originally started in the apartment complexes we were able to build our own building a few years ago and so we wanted to be sure that we were still connecting and that our movement as a church was always back out of our doors and so we applied for for funding to help with a program that we called festi kids, which was going to apartment complexes and providing children's programming dancing music drama skits, things like that, as well as at the end of the time. There was food and snacks and toys for the kids and things like that, and, and an opportunity to meet the families. I don't know Andrew you want me to go into how we had to adapt it or just just a brief introduction. That'll do for now we'll get into that in just a few minutes I appreciate it Amy. You get to pick who's next. Okay. How about, how about cake. Hi friends. I'm cake nations. I'm here in Denton. And I'm a spiritual director and pastor on the deacon and currently unappointed but affiliated with first United Methodist Church. I received an appointment and came to serve at open worship, which is a kind of a worshiping community within and beyond First Methodist here. And about that time the ministry with opportunity came to us as they were looking to expand offerings to the LGBTQIA plus community. Exactly what its name says and had already drawn an incredibly diverse constituency of people, seekers, and their families as well who had come it come to be known as a safe place and so more and more people were coming in there, many unchurched or many who had been harmed by the church in different ways. And what we proposed and began is a self proclaimed queer Christian creative community. The language that I use and the name glow all came from our folks from our constituency. We identified a group of leader potential leaders, and we have a team of four who began our plans for gathering to share our gifts and our intention is to share talents with each other, knowing that they are innate God given and reflections of our image of God created in us and by exploring our gifts and sharing those with one another and through creative experiences of all kinds. We not only come to know each other but we learn more about who we are and our belovedness. So we have done things we started with vision boarding, which is collage in my, in my language. Who, who are we and what, what is our dream of what this community could be the sacred space, and, and be an immediately bonded and beyond that have taught each other cooking different kinds of skills. We had a clothing smash up called gay apparel in the fall, the previous year, which was everything from doing creative things fashion design to some, there was a lot of recall request for a delting one on one. How do you sell on a button, how do you use an iron. And had a lot of community meals and gatherings in homes. And it's also intended to move beyond that into mission outreach which we did very quickly as well. We have met in a studio space at a large visual art center near the church downtown that was made available to us. And also in homes. So that's how we've started and that's who we've been. I'm going to invite the next panelist. Um, it's Nicole, Nicole. All right. Hi. Sorry, I was kind of bouncing it out. I couldn't hear anything. So how to what extent would you like me to introduce a been to because I missed a lot of that I'm really sorry. Just briefly yourself in the moon to and, and briefly what the grant was able to help. Okay, otherwise. Perfect. Okay, well, my name is Nicole Melrose and I started a been to music project. I'm seven years ago. And he's Dallas and so it's a program that is for underserved Hispanic children. And our mission is to empower students through playing string instruments. So, um, I have my music and major and I have my master's degree from Perkins and the vision of this was to not just put instruments in students hands and in children's hands and then ourselves in the back and say, look, they've got instruments in our hands, their hands. We did a good job. But to teach them to play at a high level, and to give them an opportunity to have a voice and a platform to protest lies of racism and lies of stereotypes that infiltrate their lives all day long. And so the purpose of this program was to bring them hope to create a pathway to a better life and to have options and futures that they choose for themselves. And that came out of my own story. As a first generation Arab in the United States and having a father that came here and flood the Civil War and playing violin in the public schools. It saved my life. Because my family faced immense struggles I had siblings who had been pulled into the school to prison pipeline I had had family deported I had had my father incarcerated in different struggles that came specifically, you know with growing up in a home that had the trauma of the poverty and these circumstances. And so playing the violin. It gave me an opportunity to look beyond what was happening at the moment, and to have hope board. And so that was the purpose of a been to music project. And so the grant gave us the opportunity to do to expand our work and to do some things some things are really cool. One of the things that I boast about, I'm very proud of is that a been to music project 100% of our graduate program graduates have been admitted into magnet art schools. And so that means that their, their futures now are defined by the next step which is a high school that's going to want really good players and to bring them into that space and then to have a trajectory to go on to higher education. So the grant allowed us to do a really cool side by side concert that brought in professional musicians. And so the students got to play on a stage with some of Dallas's top top string players. And it was beautiful wasn't like little kids that play my kids when they play I say this really probably they play, and they play beautifully. And so, shortly after that the Dallas Morning News did a story about us which was so awesome and to be able to have that feature. And as a result it got the attention of the this concert got the attention of fellow universities around and so what that led us to now currently during the pandemic, because obviously shortly after we were hit by a pandemic, and that we couldn't do in person. We had a lot of challenges and which we'll talk about later on but what we were able to do is get creative. And so we brought the University of North Texas music at majors to come in and they have partnered in, and have been giving lessons to our students online. So that is where we're at right now and the grant has enabled us to go that far and some very grateful. Thank you Nicole and I think we have left Jana and Chelsea Chelsea would you go ahead and go. I'm Chelsea white the executive director of the Dallas Bethlehem Center. We are a nonprofit that serves South Dallas Bear Park for the poorest most violent neighborhoods in Dallas. And in short, we're, we consider ourselves the fabric part of the fabric of the South Dallas community. And if you want to work with the people in South Dallas that relationship is important. So we felt like it was important enough for us to do a few different things, but basically create a community liaison role to help us carry out different initiatives to connect intentional intentionally and meaningfully with the neighborhood to make sure that we're offering things that they want and that we're able to listen to their needs, and then long term, so that we can work with them to create social change on a larger scale so the the ministry with grant allowed us to create that role, and also to get training so that we could do this really well through the good neighboring experiment. That's great. And Jana. I'm Jana Ramon. I am a social worker at Christ United Methodist Church in Plano and our grant helped us to pay for a certified teacher we did an after school program at Julie elementary school. And we had one on one tutoring there and the it in the focus mainly was on reading and comprehension and that was the main focus. And as students better their skills they would move up with different groups is very intentional very intense. And it's been a great partnership. And I think we're going to talk about what's how we've kind of morphed in the minute it sounds like. And I think it was instrumental as far as building relationships with those teachers with those administrators in that area. And that same certified teacher also did a program here at the church and it's called school on Sunday and that's an after church and tutoring program that we do with our project toke families as well. So I'm kind of a combo deal there. Thank you, Jana. So, what I'd like to kind of dive into now is trying to understand wrap our heads around what we mean by relationships so we have pivoted to a language of maybe mutuality or ministry with because we know that there are ways of relating to others that are not what we want. First of all, we would like a relationship with our neighbors, because we're the United Methodist Church. You know we work primarily with local congregations, and one of the main issues that occurs in a lot of our congregations throughout the last 20 or 30 years is the distance between the congregation that meets inside a the walls of a particular church. And those who are in their immediate neighborhood. That may be a racial difference that maybe socioeconomic differences, all of those differences are abound. And so churches out of a sense of survival sometimes know that they need to build relationships with people outside of their four walls and outside of their current constituency. We also know that perhaps the United Methodist Church, many of us find a home in this tradition because it at least attempts to have a way of moving in the world that is not a bait and switch type of ministry or mission so we're not going to require people to go to say prayer service in order to get food at a ministry just for the sake of example. But going from further than that and understanding what we mean by a relationship is something that I think we need to continually be in conversation about knowing that you know the Christian tradition. And sometimes kind of used relationships to colonize others and kind of impose will upon others. And so I'd really like to use y'all's expertise y'all are part of what I'd like to call the the missional brain trust, because you've got time on the ground, doing the work that you do. And it's really hard about this. And so my question to you is, what qualities. Do you think should be a part of a relationship that we're talking about building in your given ministry and others. Can we just jump in. Please. Um, so I think the language we use is important just like we're using here at Dell step by center, you know we're a nonprofit and many nonprofits refer to the people they serve as clients. We don't refer to them as clients we refer to them as neighbors and friends and so we always have that hat on. And a couple of things about a neighborly relationship is first of all, it's mutual. You know, it's, I guess, back in the day when when everyone knew their neighbors, you know you come over and you've asked for a cup of sugar and they give you a couple sugar and then the next day they, you know, bring you a pie with the sugar you you make. And so for us, we actually have a perfect example of that. And then who we know and every time we see her we're asking about her rent children but she comes to our food distribution program. And then, you know, she gives like she gave me like six loaves of amazing zucchini bread last holiday told me to share it with my family I did not share it with my family, I put it in my freezer and all of it. But it's, it's a real relationship. We're not pushing anything on to them. And I will say that, you know, pre COVID, our ideas were to really formalize these things. And I don't like to say that COVID derailed our efforts they just de formalized our efforts, and I don't really know that that's a bad thing. Everything has been so organic. You know, we pick up the phone and call the people we know and like hey, how's it going, you know how how's your dad doing anything you need, and they may lift up needs that we don't know for, but you can say, oh, you need cleaning products actually know someone who has extra clean products. Let me just get that to you. So, you know, I think, approaching this to the correct lens of what is a literally a neighbor, like, just keep that in mind just like your neighbors and your home, you know, live next to you, and keeping that lens is. I don't need this well in mind. Thank you, Chelsea. Anyone else want to go next. I can go. I would like to share just like a couple of stories about the way that I've seen like organic relationships unfold in the program. And one of the things that I really am proud of is that the mothers in the program and have been to music project organically came into leadership. And one of the things the challenges that they face is that one they didn't speak English, and I don't speak Spanish. So I would often have to have someone help interpret that to sign into a school to come and volunteer, you typically have to have an ID and certain things so there were certain barriers that were intimidating. Just getting into the door to do that. So, we had parents that started to become more and more invested and we're able to get obviously signed into the school which is a very basic thing. And we had a we had before a part of Kobe we had a tutoring program, and the, the tutoring assistant that I had hired was Spanish speaking and she developed a very close bond with the mothers there. And I had a whole closet that I had set up for crafts and anything that you know was there. And the mothers like slowly would come in and they'd be they would say, we would like today is actually the hall the Mexican day for Mother's Day. And so we would like to come in and do some press I'm like okay it's your closet come in and do whatever you want. And slowly, they were like coming in and taking over and just having total agency at the front line to the point where they would have concerts. I would try to mess with the cookie trays, and they would, they would say no, get away from the cookie tray you do a terrible job at cookies, and then they would decorate the cookie tray and make it look amazing. And so, the reason I share that is because I think that there is a good deal of getting out of the way. And we are, you know, doing ministry with people, and not having any idea of how it should go or be. But it's like sort of like practicing a mindfulness exercise where you recognize and you take you take it in and you say okay this is happening. I'm going to get these barriers. I'm going to try to work to get these barriers out of the way. And I'm going to have something available so that they can make this theirs. And let's see what happens. And, you know, things happened. And so I'm, you know, I think that is a really like important part of this work others. I can, I would echo everything that Chelsea and Nicole said about the, the neighborliness that just living life, beside other people as neighbors we check on each other we check in but we also don't get up in their business and get to involved in their lives and we look out for their needs, and we collaborate and we help each other so there's a lot of that mutuality that Chelsea mentioned. And I love Nicole talking about getting out of the way that's something we do in spiritual direction. The first time that we gathered after having many meetings to plan when the actual event of our first gathering when many people were invited and expected. We had a lot of materials we had a wonderful space. There have been many, many informal conversations, and a lot of promotion, and the leaders and I looked around each other about five minutes before we were going to begin. And we were like, what if nobody comes. There was just this one moment of oh my gosh we we don't know what to expect, and we didn't. It was a completely organic event. And we just trusted into that and it was, it was holy. And in a room of people that didn't know each other and many were very fearful of even coming. The lawns were created. People were affirmed and throw a lot of tears of joy by the end of the evening from the sharing, just letting be interesting a lot to God, not to not to say we don't plan and offer and have things available. But also this organic aspect that and the de-formalization sometimes I like that that way of looking at it because certainly COVID has de-formalized us in every way. I think what it was been, what I learned in my previous appointment, where I was also in ministry in the world, we sought to have to draw partners, which is what we call volunteers there from our constituency, the people we were serving. And here with GLO, our leadership is from among our folks that we're in ministry with. That's what I was going to say about that, allowing this sharing of gifts, just listening to people and saying, you know, what do you need on one hand and on the other hand what do you have to offer what would you like to bring to show to share here. And then giving the freedom interesting that they're going to take that and it's going to be whatever it's going to be. And others and free others to be in that vulnerable place of putting themselves out there to share as well. Those are some of the things that have been important at GLO. I'll jump in. So when I, all the things that everybody's saying is kind of exactly what I'm thinking about neighbors and just being a friend of people in need. And I'm going to, what's going to share kind of what happened organically with the teachers and our volunteers here at our church. So, like I was saying, we partner with elementary school, and so of course all that went on lockdown, then all our volunteers that are so used to being in service and were staying home. So it kind of everything stopped, but they were not, most of them were not in a position to get out and about because they were fearful of their safety and things like that so they were not comfortable doing the other things like serving people who are homeless or food insecurity or anything like that they were really staying home. So one of the things that through talking to the school and checking on the school, we, you know, we did some simple things like school supplies and, you know, supporting them to allow students to get supplies at home while everybody was home. But we also recognize a real need and fear for the teachers and they were becoming tired and worried about their own families and that those situations so. And then I had this group of volunteers that were all sitting at home, capable, but afraid to get out and about. And so, organically what happened we decided well we need to do some kind of teacher appreciation thing. And, you know, everybody's seeing teacher appreciation things when you know you throw a bunch of stuff in a, in a little bag and then you give it to them and say thank you. Um, but so what happened is that everything in the bag ended up being handmade. And so the people that were stuck at home are volunteers that were struggling was staying home, ended up sewing math for the, for the teachers and the classrooms, and they made earrings for the teachers they wrote notes for the teacher saying that they were in and everything was, you know, we had it to miss Smith and her third grade class and it was very intentional. We received the nicest notes from the teachers saying how much it meant to them because they were in such a difficult spot so it was just something really organic it was, it was a gift for the people that like to make works and like to make earrings to for them to have purpose while they're sitting at home. And then for the people that were receiving it. And so, anyway, it was just a kind of a neat project and I'm sure we will be doing it again. Thanks. Yeah. So I guess, just to add to what everyone else is saying I agree with all of the previously mentioned comments. But when I think about what it means to be a neighbor is to see my neighbors as whole people, and not to see them for their need. I think a lot of time working in neighborhoods that are especially economically disadvantaged, like where we are located. It's easy to see just the people for what they physically need like food or a job or things like that. And in doing ministry with, you know, we've really been reminded time and time again that these are, it's, there are neighbors who are whole people who also have marital struggles who also have emotional and spiritual needs that they're looking for support and community and to see what it means to do ministry with is not just to meet whatever need that we think they present with, but rather to get to know the person the family, the neighborhood, and where the church can really come alongside people for what they tell us and what their need is and not what we project it must be since we know their economic status. And I think that's something that is reinforced time and time again in our relationships with our neighbors at Christ Foundry. In addition to I can't remember who said it now saying that they are actually using their gifts and assets in the ministry with us. And so for example, when our food distribution ministry, the people who are receiving the food, we started there to ask for volunteers I had hoped to get about five, maybe five to eight volunteers to help and the first month we did it there was over three and they were all people who were actually receiving the food as well so I think it's important just to see our neighbors for who they are as whole people as, as we are. It's wonderful. I'm really thankful for y'all's perspectives that come from, you know, your concrete embeddedness in the work that you do. And so I wonder, you know what then about coven 19 some of you have have hinted at it and talked about some of the struggles that this last year is presented. But how, how have you found ways to keep these relationships and connections going and even add new ones in the midst of coven 19 in the midst of anti black violence and xenophobia what. How have you done this or what ways have you tried and haven't worked out and what ways have just kind of worked best for you. Plus, we, of course, we haven't had as much face time as we usually like to have. We do a drive up food distribution. But what what little safe face time we have, we use it like crazy. We really noticed at the beginning of the pandemic. Yeah, people in our neighborhood seem to really be craving human interaction just like everyone else. And we heard a lot of feedback about, you know, coming to DBC on Thursday, just as they always have. Of course, getting, you know, great food is fantastic. But it was also that sense of familiarity and normalcy that you're still seeing the same people we're still chit chatting with you as much as we can and you know joking around with you as much as we can. So we just, we don't take any face to face time for granted at all. We've also, you know, because our, the demand for our programming has has exploded. And we've involved people from the community. So we started a hot meals program on Fridays, and we've hired people from the community who have the gift of cooking or kitchen skills or whatever. And maybe they're out of work or want, you know, some supplemental income, we just hired them in early June, when the anti racism demonstrations really, you know, kind of blew up. And of course, there was tension in South Dallas. We, when we had food distribution, like the next Thursday was really hot and people are in their cars so we wanted to make sure and help ease tensions as much as much as possible. So we picked up the phone, you know, got some of our influencer friends from the neighborhood, the ones who, you know, have what we call their hood card to just come down, you know, kind of walk around the cars and just really just fellowship and be there and and create just a very accessible, very accessible environment. We also do allow people to be human. This is just a point I always want to make. So, we don't, we don't need people to be grateful or to say thank you I mean if they do that fine and we say you're welcome. But we believe there's a standard of living under which no person should have to live, regardless of anything including their, you know, their mood that day or their character. Can't stress enough how real our relationships are with the real people we work with down in South Dallas. This isn't really related to our grant but some of the other work that we did during COVID is and we were delivering food and we pay for some hotel rooms for people who were discharged from the hospital and they were homeless. So, we pay for their hotel for at least so they could at least rehab and a hotel. And then we delivered food to their door and so what we discovered is we already had a relationship with the city but it just morphed into something pretty amazing. And we have a great relationship with them so we are really working very, very closely because there is such a challenge between being homeless because you can't and getting long term housing and so you have to be either in a shelter or in a hotel. You cannot be on the street and go from the street straight to long term housing so we helped kind of bridge that with the city by helping to pay for the hotel room and, you know, offering letters of support and that kind of thing for the housing. And then also what we've done is we created a food pantry at one of the most frequented motels where that people who are either on a low income and they're, you know, just they can't get into an apartment or whatever they can't, you know, it's cheaper to live in a motel and then try to figure out, you know, application fees and paying for water and electricity and all that kind of stuff. And in the hotel they are a motel it's they're amazing that the the the managers are working with us and we are looking into possibly even offering some some support kind of services there at the motel. And so that's kind of in the process. And it's a highly transient people so it'd be constantly people coming and going so anyway we're still working out the things on that, but I'm just just continuing to have some food so people can have something to eat. And because they're people, you know, without anything. And so that's been a really good experience. Thanks, Jenna. Others. I can tell you a little bit about the changes in our ministry because of the COVID. The most important thing when we began that what we were told from people that we were listening to was a safe space. We were told that our folks would need to meet not at the church and not in someone's home, but in a third space and that it needed to be a safe space and we were blessed to find that, and found that was true, being in the presence of others face to face so we lost that. We continue to zoom and gather, but that was a tremendous obstacle for a lot of people we have unintentionally turned out to be a pretty young group, except for me of course, a lot of college students and graduate students or that or that age group and so some of them had to leave campus, had to go home, some of them to homes or settings where they weren't affirmed or even safe. So to sit and talk on zoom was not an option is just not. So, we've moved I'm going to say I've moved to do a lot doing a lot more of that one on one contact that I think it was Chelsea was talking about just checking in and doing some more things more informally. We have some in our group that wanted more Bible study which was great. They want script they wanted scripture study and so we put some of those together. And it's a, it's a particular group but it is also attracted others in the community and others from beyond glow and more allies and more. And so we have our season folks, which has been an interesting blend, and both ways, a lot of love and affirmation new relationships have grown out of that. We also started doing some kind of fun gathering some also on zoom we've done scavenger hunts and some games that I have not laughed that hard in years when we had scavenger hunts. We were able to have a lot of fun and that was a different group of people so just trying out different things for the different needs and preferences. But it is, it has been a probably the hardest thing that could have happened was to not be in person for this group. You really can't show and tell and teach at any of the same ways on the screen. But we continue others. So wonder what wisdom. I know some of you don't may not think of yourself as a wise person but trust me that others others do certainly, including myself. Many have lifted up the mental strain and isolation faced by people of all kinds throughout this last year. And the continued pandemic of anti black violence and white Christian nationalism most clearly demonstrated in the murder of George Floyd and the insurrection on January 6 have inflicted a terrible trauma that will take them to begin to heal. And generally people are feeling deeply fatigued from these extra precautions online schooling extra childcare lots of jobs thinking through income and how they're going to, you know make ends meet. What would you share, you know with with local church leaders and lay clergy, who are attempting to try to connect with people and just as a case in point. You know noted that they were at the beginning of this last year really trying to offer things out to people who opportunities to do crafts with kids and do church at home and lots of different activities and kind of suddenly word began to filter back like hey we love you we appreciate it but you know we are completely exhausted and just trying to survive here keep the boat afloat. It's not that we're not liking what you're doing but we just can't right now. What would you say to folks to find themselves in that boat of not wanting to overdo it. Put things on people and expectations that aren't undo but to still try and connect with people. I guess what I would offer is fairly simple and that's just ask. And sometimes we need to ask ourselves what our motives are for the ministry or the action that we're taking, because sometimes in our own. Wanting to feel good by helping. We're not actually helping right and so I think we need to ask ourselves, are we doing this so that we can say my church had X number of outreach events. Or you know is it truly that this is a need that my neighbor is expressing and we want to meet it. And I think we ask ourselves and we ask our neighbor. How can I help you how can I be a good neighbor. What do you need. I think something as simple as that can I pray for you, can I put you on our church, you know, prayer list. Not in an invasive type way but in a relational way when they share, you know I'm going through this. I think something as simple as just asking. Amy hit on a key point which is like the first question is, is this the right time to be doing this to be focusing on community engagement and if so why and just stripping everything back down to basics. You know, keeping in mind that people are are whole people and everyone's in survival mode. So maybe a first step, particularly if you're wanting to connect with the community outside your church, or I guess this is probably work within the church to is asking people for advice, or what they think. So we had a developer come to us last month wanting to build affordable housing in South Dallas, and they're trying to get community support. And they gave it to the council and they gave us this great presentation. And I was like, well, we don't have an official position on this and we won't until we talk to our neighbors and see what they think about it. So, you know, everyone wants to have a voice and what goes on in their neighborhood and what goes on in their lives. And I think that, you know, next week, once we start calling the people we know, that will go a long way and really reiterating that this is a very neighborly relationship and we're not going to speak one way or another about this developer about this project, until we hear from you guys like our opinion is whatever your opinion is. And so yeah I think just taking everything back down to basics and starting small and not you know trying to getting rid of any kind of quotas or anything like that just focusing on creating real mutual relationships and getting away from anything transactional and that sort of thing. I would love to add to that. Like just as like general thoughts about, you know, church and not necessarily have been too related. I tend to be like a very future oriented thinker. And I feel like we are hopefully seeing light at the end of the tunnel with this pandemic. And I don't know how long it's going to take obviously to get everybody back saying to get us to into a place where we're feeling safe. And so we have obviously a lot of issues that deal with like the socioeconomic impact of this, this pandemic and multiple ways that it's impacted people, especially that are in brown and black communities and these spaces so now the question is, when we, when we start to get back together and spaces, do we go back to the old ways of doing things to the things that previously brought us comfort. Or is this the time now when people are a little tired that maybe it's start time to start imagining something new, and time to start imagining that there's power in our spaces together. There is like the, there's power going forward. And so rather than sitting in our, in our spaces and allowing the exhaustion to take us over to to, you know, start to look forward to the next thing. That's, this is, you know, kind of how I live my life in general is always looking to the next thing what's the next right thing. So, I've, you know, I've thought about creative ministry ideas lately. And I'm just going to throw this out there. It's probably not even the appropriate space to do it but why not we're here talking. I thought about like, like, churches starting to get involved in social entrepreneurship models that would bring socioeconomic justice post COVID to communities that need this and I thought about. So I recently got offered this loan through square where it was in house and I just thought this could be a really cool thing for churches to do like a micro loan thing. And it was a one time fee that you would pay there wasn't like an ongoing interest thing. So let's say the loan was $700 the one time fee would not be $98. And then you would, you know, only pay one time and then monthly there would be a payment and it would only be like an 18 month thing. So I was thinking about how, you know, Chelsea for example in your neighborhoods, maybe there's a business idea that someone who is really young, they just need $1,000 to get it off the ground. And the church is going to, you know, sponsor this brown and black idea. And that could spark thousands of dollars of socioeconomic justice. So I think that this is where we go next. This is how we elevate and bring socioeconomic justice and racial justice is that we, the church needs to move out of the model of mentoring and into the model of sponsoring. And, and moving into that space. So I am just throwing that out there, but by getting all kinds of messages that people are like also thinking similar thoughts. But I think this is where the church needs to go I think the church needs to start thinking like a, like a business in a different way. So, that's all I gotta say. I'm just excited about that idea and I thought I'd throw it out. I'll go for it. Anything else about what you might recommend. I'd love for us to get into just exactly what you mentioned, you know, once the vaccinations are really moving forward and I know there's many unknowns about what the next year looks like. The next scene is you kind of look ahead what do relationship building activities kind of look like. I mean say toward the end of the summer as vaccinations open up more toward everyone hopefully what changes for you. So I think for us our relationship building activities stay the same. We will get into, you know, doing some in person discussions with our community advisory committee will get back to doing focus groups. So I think the activities will remain the same. I have in my mind. I don't know what my board thinks that that part of our focus will will change. It's been pretty obvious that, you know, obviously this is this is the work that I do that we've needed large scale systemic change. And with COVID and the anti racism uprising, that's become more front and center. And so I, I'm hoping we'll move a little bit towards advocacy using our neighbors and kind of helping them see, you know, like when the, when we were working on, you know, getting everyone to complete the census it was, we were finishing that out that COVID was hitting and so we were able to connect that and say, Well, you know, I'm filling out the census means that that will affect the funding we get and so on and so forth to this neighborhood. But, you know, the bottom line for us. I say this all the time and this is where I want us to go along with our neighbors is, you know, it used to be feed a band of fish. It then went to teach a man to fish. And really we just need to change the fishing industry. We don't need to be doing either of those things. And through our relationships we're hoping, you know, right now, DC is serving as a voice for our community, only because they don't yet know how to their own voice, they don't actually need us. So I'm hoping that through our relationship building. We will help them find their voice and, and I kind of point it in the right direction doing the right things to create actual social change that they lead down in Dallas. I'll jump in as I'm thinking about post COVID. I'm thinking a lot about the way that Christ Foundry has been able to do any ministry is leveraging partnerships with other United Methodist churches, organizations, supporters, conference, etc, which is really the best of our connection system is that we are in ministry together. The local churches each bringing what assets they have in order to be in mission and ministry in each of our individual contexts. And we've seen that really come together in beautiful ways when our community was hit by the tornado and then just months later with COVID and it seems when there's a crisis or a need, there are, there is more motivation to really collaborate and bring the best of our connection and our partnerships together. And so I'm praying about what does that look like when quote unquote everything goes back or we come out of the other side of what a crisis is. How do we continue to have the same sense of urgency and passion for working together and collaborating in ministry, or is everyone going to go back to their own corners kind of thing and so I'm praying that we don't all go back to our own corners that we can continue to bring our assets to the table and really, like I said leverage the connection which is one of the beautiful things that we have others what is the new normal look like after COVID. So, we're starting. We, we had a relationship with the Douglas community for a number of years that's where our church, we call it house on the corner we built 13 houses we built it on the property here at the church, then we moved it and finished it out. And in the Douglas community. And, and so now all the house it's it's a beautiful neighborhood now there's still a lot of work that needs to be done. There are a lot of our families that were part of project hope slash house on the corner project but how project hope is a program also at our at our church that is, and more of what Nicole was talking about as far as sponsorship we we help invest in families and people who want to go to college or get some kind of training or education. They set goals for themselves we help them determine what the obstacles are and how to figure out how to get over the obstacles. And so, we've had people who have graduated from high school from college and our teachers now today are our nurses accountants. Anyway, it's very holistic a program and it's been wonderful to see people because we all transform because we are so, you know, their family, you know, after year with with somebody for years and you see this happen. And they, they pray for my family and I pray for their family so if it goes both ways it's kind of a beautiful thing. And, but, so now the Douglas community is landlocked there's not a lot of property over in in in East Plano. And so our model of house on the corner that we've always done is not a possibility. But there are a lot of houses that need to be rehab there's a lot of situations that we need to make right, including a African American Museum over there. So our church for this year my word for the year is intentional. So this year we're going to be every quarter doing some kind of project and and for each quarter and so our first quarter is is working on someone's house so it's going to be house by house project by project. There's an idea of doing a community garden over there. We got to get through some hoops with the city, but hopefully we'll be able to do that. And then also working on the African American Museum is a goal as well. But I think I think key is to be intentional. And I think that's what coven has done to me. Is that I, I, you know, we just can't let things just kind of happen as they happen anymore, we have to be very intentional about what we want to happen when we want it to happen and make it happen, you know, kind of thing. And so we're working with the Douglas community vision and nonprofit over there. And so they told us what their dreams are. And we want to help support whatever that is. Thank you, Jenna. Thank you so much before we wrap up. I'm really thankful for y'all's presence here today and conversation together. I've had the privilege of getting to kind of manage the ministry with grant program and so I've had the privilege of seeing your reports and the stories that have have come in about the work that you've been doing together in your various contexts and part of what we really hope today would be about is sharing some of these learnings and what you've uncovered so that we can hopefully save some of these videos to be able to share those with others who are thinking about ministry with ideas that they have in lots of different contexts so hope that you'll be available to maybe consult with some folks that are coming down the pike and have ideas of their own. I would say that we have, I think go in live as of the 15th our ministry with application for this year. We're kind of setting our budget to figure out what, how much we have to work with this year and we'll, we'll talk about that here in the coming weeks. The amount of funding generally between three and $10,000. And this year we are going to have a very particular focus on ministries that build racial equity and justice. So if you know someone who has those ideas or has an idea bubbling up. Please send them our way and maybe help them. Incubate that idea together. If you have an idea yourself and want to talk about what it might be like to get another ministry with grant for a different project. Let's talk about it and we'll work that out. Very thankful for your time. Let's pray before we go. Oh God on this momentous day we give you thanks for the turning of a page for the speaking of words of hope of time of transition for a pause in our collective attention. I give you thanks for the transition of power here today in this country that was peaceful for the most part. We pray that peace will rain and that justice will prevail. And thanks for all of these wonderful leaders here in our North Texas conference area who have in this last year and in so many years past and will so many years forward, be about the work of embodying your beloved community. In powerful ways, as they go about their work of building relationships, as the next year unfolds, and be about the work of building bridges, building relationships, and having your kingdom come on earth. In your name we pray oh God Father Son Holy Spirit. Thank you all and you'll note. Ruth has statement in the chat about United Methodist Women units. She is a good point person for that and we have information on our website. Thanks y'all.