We moved on the hottest day of August 1983. While all sensible people in Columbia Heights were sitting in front of their fans and sipping cold drinks, 31 people were spending the day on the 1300 block of Girard Street NW, hauling old desks, file cabinets, refrigerators, and shelving units into our newly renovated building.
A human chain stretched from the moving van in the street to the third floor of the building. Boxes of office supplies, paper, and anything else weighing less than 25 pounds were passed into the building and deposited into the appropriate room. At the end of the day we were soaked with sweat and the still incomplete building was so full of boxes that we could hardly walk through it.
But as we surveyed the scene we were delighted finally to be home. Sojourners Neighborhood Center had become a reality.
To understand our delight on that hot August day, it is important to know the events leading up to it. From the inception of Sojourners Community, we have felt God's call in our life deeply rooted in walking with marginalized and oppressed people--not as solution bearers, but as fellow travelers. The now famous quote of Lilla Watson, an Australian aborigine, sums up our calling well: "If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us walk together."
When we moved to the inner city of Washington, D.C., in August 1975, we began the journey with our neighbors. During our first eight years here, we met with them in homes, in the rented space of housing complexes, and in the basement of a condemned building. Together with our neighbors, we had a vision of a place that would be more permanent--a place we could call home.
After months of searching, we found a burned-out shell of a large house on Girard Street. We felt God's call to purchase the building and use it as a neighborhood center, a place where all of us could minister to and learn from each other. On Good Friday 1983, we signed the papers for the building--Sojourners subscribers contributing the $10,000 needed for the initial down payment.
Friends who were contractors took on the renovating project as their ministry to us. We spent the next year asking everyone we could think of to contribute funds, paint, haul trash, and pray. During the spring and summer of 1983, there was no such thing as a free weekend. Most of us participated on work crews around the clock. In August we moved in and by the following Easter, our certificate of occupancy was issued, construction bills were paid, and the building was completed.
THIS YEAR WE celebrate the 10th anniversary of Sojourners Neighborhood Center. We continue to learn how to be partners in ministry with our neighbors. We are beginning to understand what it means to battle racism and its personal and economic consequences on all of us. We are learning how to share leadership.
Three-fourths of our current program directors are African Americans who grew up in the inner city--some in housing projects worse than the ones we work in. Based on their past experiences, they are developing strong programs of empowerment and liberation for the children and adults here. We are experiencing a new kind of faith in which we can see the power of God present as we learn to live in the struggle.
We celebrate the children we have known since they were toddlers as they graduate from high school and go on to college--supported in part by scholarships they have earned through participation at the center. And we grieve with mothers whose sons were caught up in the drug trade and were killed by rival "crews." Our children's program has become a "freedom school," where young African-American children are taught about their rich heritage and are mentored by present-day "freedom fighters."
Parents participate in weekly support groups where they discuss family and social issues. Some parents participate in the computer training program we operate jointly with another organization.
Our food programs are staffed by volunteers, many of whom are also participants in the program. They have learned how to solicit and pick up food donations, to sort and distribute the goods, and they participate in defining the program's guidelines and solving its problems.
Financially, we continue to struggle month to month on a shoestring budget. We are looking for more people to be partners with us in this work so we can put our energy into program development rather than worrying about this month's bills.
Our dream for the next decade is to work on neighborhood economic development. During the riots of 1968, the economic base of our neighborhood was destroyed and never rebuilt. We would like to see small neighborhood businesses develop that will help keep our local dollars within the neighborhood.
We are thankful for God's faithfulness as we celebrate our 10th anniversary. We look forward to participating in the life of this place in the decade ahead.
Barbara Tamialis was co-executive director of Sojourners Neighborhood Center when this article appeared.
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