Harvesting Faith

The Marian Cheek Jackson Center is not officially a faith/religious based organization, but it’s hard to separate the work that we do here and the faith that sustains us along the way. Although we do not subscribe to any one religion, the work we do is influenced by the call issued by most religious disciplines. The call to be in love & charity with your neighbor, with the community you are apart of, for we all inhabit this world and should make the best of it together. Yes, we get to serve the Northside Community in faith that we are doing what the community wants and needs, but (you see) faith is a two way street and (now) the faith they have in us to carry out the work in an honorable manner is also no small matter for this community. Faith is the mortar that solidifies the pillars of community to the foundation that gives the people of Northside defines where they come from, who they are. For us Northside isn’t just a geographic designation for a Community, it’s where we are loved, challenged, encouraged, chastised, inspired and changed. So…

The work we do would not be possible without,
The substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen.
These are the seeds we’ve mustered
The dreams in we’ve seen through curious ears.
And the reams of tears from the exhausted
Keep flowing like the blood of this community
Believing that one season’s manifestation
Is worth the waiting of a generation
Thinking more about the end game
Inspiration for the next eon.
Time stops for no one.
Neither should hope, help
For the next lives that come.
Legacies of the loving
Pottersfield, Sunset, Tin Top, Pine Knolls, Windy Hill and Baja
These dreams now deferred
Phantomed, a culture where
These dreams went unheard
Muffled by clouds from the rocks
Blown or Blasted.
We are farmers,
we sow seeds to move mountains
Passing injustice peak, inhumane ridge, gentrified pass.
Habitually visioning a home to hope
Sometimes the seed we plant is not fruitful sometimes the
Soil is too rich for seed,
or we’ve dreamt too small
And even in such beautiful progress
Moving forward is not always the right step,
And staying put often
Takes more than going ahead.
Take in the beautiful substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen.
The irrigation of local education
And unchanging the minds disposed of its gears that resist
Turning the soil over Tilling transitional tribulations
Of the Decomposing fruit already bore
To the least of thee, wisdom can be found in
A Grateful conversation with
the divinity of the harvest we reaped
Thank You
for surrendering to a process in which you do not see.
The faith and courage of a seed, are we
Humbled by the fruit of which we are harvested
Yes, farmers plant seed
Yes, farmer nurtured as seeds
By the soil of times
We are walking in
In the darkness
In evidence of things unseen
The impossible
Separation of
Maturation
Manifestation
Celebration
Education
Renovation
Innovation
From
Our call to action
Our call of faith
Our mandate to
Love .

…I feel honored that we get to do this as faith based work. This is work of love. This is how I believe the Jackson Center’s work is not determined by doctrine or by written mandate/mission but by Faith in Action. We’ve learned that a community is sustained by Faith, by Relationships, by Conversations,and by Respect beyond the lines of difference. We are Harvesting Faith to create A Beloved Community that cherishes all of these things, but Faith is what holds it all together.

Brentton Harrison
July 2017