Welcome! But there's a problem . . .

I had a surreal experience a few weeks ago. While at home seeking to pass the time during the early stages of labor, I decided to follow up on a news story I'd heard that morning. I found myself surfing the internet to see if the model number of the "gently used" crib in the new nursery matched one on the list of cribs being recalled for a dangerous, potentially lethal, design flaw. Alas, it did.

The irony of the situation struck me. Here I was literally hours from welcoming a precious new person into the world - one that God was entrusting to me - and I was about to put her into a hazardous position.

A few years ago, the Children's Defense Fund launched a campaign aimed at what it calls America's "Cradle to Prison Pipeline" for poor children children of color - especially boys. (www.childrensdefense.org/helping-americas-children/cradle-to-prison-pipeline-campaign/) This campaign supports programs and policies which advance the healthy development and education of children. The problems of children growing up in poverty are not new, but CDF's shocking verbiage of babies being funneled toward imprisonment because of the circumstances of their birth is chilling. What if my baby was doomed before she ever got here?

Fortunately, my husband is the resourceful do-it-yourself type, so the crib was repaired by the time baby and I came home from the hospital. But it did make me think about all the children in this city that God is entrusting to us, His Church, who are headed for danger unless we intervene.

So I begin 2010 with a new metaphor for what Urban Hope Academy. Every time I look at that crib and think about what could have been, I need to say a quick prayer that God will allow us to create a safe haven for more of his precious little ones.