Glittery architecture and a cool prayer room

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This modern rendering of a cross serves as the visitor center at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Ok.

The campus is full of light-reflecting, angular architecture with a glitzy southern feel – though it's debatable among Tulsans whether the city is part of the "South."

A legendary American evangelist and Oklahoma native son, Roberts started the university in 1965 with about 300 students. Last year there were about 3,000 at the four-year liberal arts college.

Roberts, 90, still travels from his home in California for important events.

In 2007, a wrongful termination lawsuit was brought by three former professors against former college president and current head of Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association, Richard Roberts, Oral's son.

The college recently was restructured to be funded separately from the evangelistic association.

IMG_2542 Biology major Jessica Pinkston, 22, is in her fifth and final year at the university and plans to go on to medical school.

"I pretty much feel it is the school God wanted me to be at. I haven't regretted a minute of it," she says. "There's a lot of campus rules (curfews, mandatory chapel attendance and a dress code)," she adds. "But in Tulsa there's not much to do after 10 (p.m.), anyway."

My favorite part of the visitor center was the prayer room, where
people can stick rolled up prayers in a wooden cross and write with
colored chalk on two blackboards.

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Would Jesus visit Whiteclay?

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Just over the Nebraska border on the outskirts of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservaton is a town with about a dozen residents and four stores that daily sell an estimated 12,000 cans of beer. IMG_1934
It's a dusty, intentionally forgotten place for most, dubbed "skid row on the prairie."
A group of alcoholics loiters in the parking lots and empty buildings, panhandling and leaving behind Hurricane and Camo cans.

Depending where you look, though, Whiteclay could be considered beautiful.
It's not just the golden fields in the distance or the dirt roads so littered by crushed aluminum and colored shards of glass, they sparkle in the evening sun.
There is a colorful mural on the side of busy not-for-profit thrift store, a soup kitchen that invites street people to eat, talk and pray. There's also an artists co-op and community garden.

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The programs were started by Bruce and Marsha BonFleur, who in 1998 moved to the Pine Ridge Indian reservation from Florida with their two young children.
The BonFleurs were living a typical upper-middle class life ("comfortable and getting more comfortable," says Marsha) when Bruce got the "call."IMG_1915

"God said, 'I want to use you, with the help of others, to restore dignity to my people. And you will do that through the creation of jobs," says Bruce.

At that time, he did not know who "my people" referred to. He began researching Lakota nation and the idea came full circle.

The BonFleurs, who have backgrounds in business building, education and publishing, first worked in the Pine Ridge schools. In 2004, they opened 555 Whiteclay, a thrift store.

Because Whiteclay is over the Nebraska border, it is the main alcohol source for nearby Pine Ridge, South Dakota. Pine Ridge is the largest city on the reservation, with a population of 15,500. No alcohol is allowed to be consumed or sold, according to tribal rules.

Reports in the Lincoln Journal Star newspaper indicate an 80 percent alcoholism rate on the reservation – one of the highest rates in the country. Resulting diseases and fatalities make the average life expectancy there mid to upper-forties.

There have been riots and protests and lots of attempted legislation over the sale of alcohol in Whiteclay, yet it continues.

With all the bitterness and recidivism, it would be easy to get discouraged or even jaded here.
Neither words describe the BonFleurs.

"God didn't call us here to shut the beer stores down. He called us here to be a light," says Bruce. "In fact, when we came here, God told my wife, 'Stop looking around at what you see and begin to praise me for the transformation that's going to take place.'"

He says God had to work on cultivating compassion in him before he could be used — enough compassion to bring to his house for dinner a drunk man covered in flies and human excrement.

Their outreach is based on relationships and jobs. The thrift store employs six tribe members, part time.

With help from mission teams, the BonFleurs are working on a large garden area with a community stage. They are finishing a work shop and storefront for the Lakota Crafters cooperative. Artists will be aided by small grants and through a microlending system in which each crafter is loaned a couple hundred dollars for supplies. The loans are to be paid back after the crafts are sold, says Bruce.

The BonFleurs have a Bible-based strategy, too.
"555," the name of the thrift store, refers to the five smooth stones David in the Bible used to slay the giant – in this case alcohol abuse. Secondly, it refers to the two fishes and five loaves of bread Jesus used to feed the multitudes he was teaching. Lastly, it references five spiritual callings Christians believe God gives his people — to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepards and teachers.

To find out more, go to: www.lakotacrafters.com or www.aboutgroup.us

 

Orofino Tabernacle

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This is the same church I went to when I was 9!

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"I think the whole concept is wonderful of a country that was built by men of God, under God. I love this country. I grew up being taught how to love America, so I get anxious when I see what's happening… It's like watching an old friend die."

— Pastor Stanton Walker

May 12, 2009

For the past several days  I've been staying in Elk, Wash., near Rand and Becky Miller (pictured below, right) and four of their eight kids – along with other extended family, friends, nine Arabian horses, three dogs, four cats and a small batch of chickens!

The Millers are leaving at the end of the month for a 4 1/2-month trip to Meuselbach, Germany.
They've got a recording studio there and for years have been creating contemporary Christian music with and for the youth of Eastern Europe — a population they feel has been neglected by other Christian evangelists. 

Becky was in Berlin in 1989 when the wall dividing communist and free Germany was torn down. She is still impacted by what she saw.
On the west side, "There were neon lights, flowers in buckets. Everyone was wearing Nikes. People were moving quickly. I can't remember one person wearing a coat," she recalls.Becky
Rand
"But on the east side,
everyone was wearing coats, dark wool coats… There was not one building painted. The walls were so worn down. The streets were completely potholed."

Becky believes spiritual and cultural echoes of that divide remain to this day.

To hear some of the music the family has created, check out:

www.myspace.com/blacktaxxi

www.myspace.com/loveshopefulsorrow

Becky paints, too!
www.arabianart.net

The Ranch – a second (and sometimes third) chance at recovery

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Described by friends as an "old hippie who got saved," Adrian Simila runs The Ranch, a men's recovery center just north of Spokane, Wash.

About 50 men, most of whom were formerly homeless, reside there on more than 20 acres, maintaining the property, caring for livestock and running a community food bank and other programs.
Housing is offered to anyone, with few restrictions, says President Darrow Burke. There is a heavy emphasis on discipleship programs for the residents, he says.

"We have a lot of guys who (initially) only stay a couple months," Burke tells me. "A lot of the time, they come back."

DouglasBrian Douglas (pictured left) graduated from a similar program 10 years ago, then met Simila.
Now he works at a lumber mill in Idaho and lives at The Ranch part time to preach and help out.
In the beginning, "I did not want to be saved. In fact I didn't want anything to do with God, because I was raised in such a religious family," he says.

Adrian Simila's wife and Ranch secretary, Janis Simila Janis(pictured lower right), says funding for the ministry, launched in the mid-90s, has been down along with the economy. Expenses run about $5,000 per month, with an additional $1,000 per month needed for a newer women's facility located nearby.
"It's quite an interesting life, living in community here as long as we have," she says.
"We keep going by God's grace. It takes a lot of wisdom."

Burke was nice enough to show me around on Friday and hook me up with some salad from the food bank.

Here he's standing in front of a building that will hold classrooms, bathrooms and a sanctuary when needed money comes in to finish it.

Darrow building

This 1973 International Harvester bus is one of a motley fleet The Ranch has acquired over the years for outreach at events, such as barter fairs, says Burke.    

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(The white bus in the background has been converted to run on propane!)

Live at The Corridor

Friday night I saw a show at an all-ages spot called The Corridor.
It keeps a low profile, tucked behind a Napa Auto Parts store, right off the 'Pac Highway' strip, just south of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

If you want to know the mission of the club, check out the mural on its wall:

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(Hint: It's a modernized snapshot taken from Michaelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling.)

Innovation is on display here from decor to stage lighting to the alcohol-free drink menu.
It's a place where artistic energy is being expelled in a positive direction – but not just toward safe, "feel good" terrain.
The musicians owner Matt Campbell brings in are unafraid to leave behind the status quo and mingle with the masses in their pursuit of spreading truth.

Here's Campbell standing behind Ben Union, whose band played a funky, eclectic set on Friday that mixed reggae beats and acoustic poetry with hard-rock jam sessions. 

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Members of the Ben Union Band are young, but don't let that fool you.
Union's a missionary's kid with a welcome dose of talent and charisma.
His drummer and bassist were chill enough to let Union command center stage, while showing their own musical chops.

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The Corridor, in business since 2004, puts on rock shows, hip hop and open mic nights, dinner-and-comedy events and community benefits.