Taking Back Our City

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Psalm 17:4 I’m not trying to get my way in the world’s way. I’m trying to get your way, your Word’s way. 5 I’m staying on your trail; I’m putting one foot In front of the other. I’m not giving up. 6 I call to you, God, because I’m sure of an answer. So – answer! bend your ear! listen sharp! 7 Paint grace-graffiti on the fences; take in your frightened children who Are running from the neighborhood bullies straight to you. “The Message”

Each month a small group from Oasis goes out to combat the graffiti in the city. Each month we are given pages of addresses of buildings that have been tagged. Most are gang symbols and names and they make our city look terrible. This month our task was a wall that ran two blocks. As you can see, this isn’t artwork, but merely gang symbols that are crossed out and replaced with more gang symbols. There was a lot to paint and this was only one place on a list of many.

Adrian Jurado one of our church elders owns AJ Painting, a local company, so he came out to help us.
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We have a lot of fun out there and this time was no exception. A lot of heavy topics of conversation are on our minds as we paint. This month it was the San Francisco 49ers line up (a godly team, I might add) vs the Oakland Raiders line up (there’s a little sin in each of our lives).
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Pretty soon a good deal of one of the walls is painted. We paint God’s grace-graffiti on the wall as we clean up our city and make it a place we can be proud of again.
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Thanks to our volunteers and thanks to our city who allows the privilege of service!
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One thought on “Taking Back Our City

  1. What awesome volunteers you have, as we started the wall (my son the cheerful helper was mad at me because I am the one who noticed it) it felt like it would never end. We (Gesia and Vikki) had to switch off painting because our shoulder blades were hurting. I will say we have great conversations as we paint, the battle of the Dodgers vs Giants, Raiders vs 49ers, Lakers vs Sixers we talk about our kids, our week and it is a blessing to fellowship while we work. Oh yeah Alec was telling Gesia and I how to work(paint) and talk at the same time, there was a spanish word he was using but, I can’t remember what it was. Who knows it may not be something we want to repeat:)

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