COMMONVOICE

Spring 2012

We Are Omaha Art Show Recap

Volunteer: Leslie Wells

A Seat at the Table by Micah Neely

Volunteer Opportunity! Backyard Garden

Front Cover: Dakota with his homemade Rocket Stove, created to help keep folks living on the river warm at night.

Spring Issue:

COMMON TABLE edition

“When you invite people to think, you are inviting revolution.”

-Ivana Gabara

Caleb CoppockWatie WhiteDave KoenigDaniel MullerJosh PowellJess EwaldAshlynn NeveDaphe EckMegan Loudon SandersMike BauerSami JonesDave NelsonWhat CheerBen PetersonJeff SpiehsZach ReinhardtKacie BurkumBeth CavenderBill SitzmanRDQLUSCaroline FunkCalvin SmothersVallerie Wallace CampWilliam HollandcitymadeFontenelle Axe Restoration

Artists:

Brad HoshawFamiliesAll Young Girls Are Machine GunsSkypiperAnniversaireOmaha Public Radio

Musicians:

Our annual spring art show this year themed “We Are Omaha” was held on Saturday April 21, 2012, and it was our most successful art show we have ever had! Over 25 local artists filled our walls with “Omaha” themed art work, and 6 local bands played to over 400 attendees. It was great to see various communities from Omaha come together to celebrate our great city.

Over $3,000 was raised for our efforts in the Park Avenue neighborhood, and many new faces came to our event and got to know what inCOMMON is all about.

Special thanks to Aromas Coffee House, Bliss Bakery, Boiler Room, Localmotive Food Truck, House of Loom, Emerging Terrain and our sponsor, Omahype!

WE ARE OMAHA

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT BY: WHAT CHEER

inCOMMON has been hosting the Common Table meal every Monday night for 12 years. The meal has thrived and been sustainable because of committed volunteers. One of our volunteers that is a part of mak-ing the Monday night meal hap-pen is Leslie Wells. We are very fortunate to have him be a part of the team and we asked him a few questions about his time helping inCOMMON.

Common Table Volunteer: Leslie Wells

Bio:I've lived in Omaha and the surrounding areas for most of my life. Grew up with the typical mid-western/baptist mentality. Married and divorced in my 20s. I've been working in coffee shops since '07. There's something about that kind of space that draws me in. I like coffee, but I like the "slow-down" that happens more so. I currently manage a coffee shop downtown called Aromas and I love it. All walks of life drink coffee. It's the space everyone has something in common (no pun intended). I have tried to leave Omaha a few times, but it keeps pulling me in. It's home. I learned to love here and to be loved here. I have been making music since I was a small child. At one point it was how I made a living. I got a degree in commercial audio/videography and really don't have much of a use for it now minus the music that I make around town and at church. I have a huge passion to see Omaha grow. Not just socially or economically, but to see it grow into what we all were created for; to be in communion with God and to live our lives with each other out of that,

How did you hear of inCOMMON?I used to play shows for Mosaic (inCOMMON’s previous name) years ago to raise support for it. And was looking to get involved somewhere with poverty in our city. I attend Coram Deo (a local church in Omaha) and heard a few things about the changes and decided to check it out!

Why did you want to get involved?Prior to attending, I had been living out of my van for a few months while I got my finances worked out. I was so prideful. I didn't have it that bad. I worked a good job and paid all my bills. I just went to my van to go home instead of a house. But the thing I realized was how lonely and isolated I was. I was so separated from people and any community. I had some friends, but was still lonely and in deeper ways than I had been before. After moving in with some folks that I knew, I saw my need even deeper for community. I heard Bob Thune, from Coram Deo, talk about Christian Gray’s vision for inCOMMON. That fighting isolation is fighting poverty and thought "That makes sense! yes"! So I checked it out by just going and eating with a bunch of strangers that welcomed me in (with some intentionality on both parts).

Of all the things to get involved in, why Common Table?It makes sense. You go and eat and hang out. It's very non-threatening. No expectations to be anything but a friend or neighbor. The more time you have invested the more you give to each other. Then, all of the sudden, you're wondering how everyone is doing and hanging out during the week. Learning from each other. Helping each other in ways you didn't know you were able to serve or needed yourself to be served in. Then... family. inCOMMON isn't enabling anyone to stay where they are (patrons and volunteers). You go to grow and be grown. I don't like soup kitchens so much. I don't think they help on deep enough levels. Practically serving people (feeding them) is necessary! But how much greater of an impact could we have?! And how much deeper could we be impacted if those attending were friends and just not sign holders we pass by on I-480 exits? We all live in the same city. We all are in need of a Savior. So let's put aside our economical and social differences and love and learn from each other. I see this at inCOMMON.

What have you learned?In a nut shell: My value systems are broken. I value good things badly and bad things much. I care more for having the lifestyle that I deem necessary rather than knowing or being known by my neigh-bors. I waste time on stupid ventures instead of being a friend to the dude that I see everyday at the coffee shop. And lastly, that I care more about "being awesome" than letting someone help me learn how deeply I need God to reshape my heart. I want to be right more than I want what's right. I don't want to need. Especially at the levels I do. I don't want to sacrifice and especially not to the capacity I should.

What is the best part?Knowing and being known. Learning about different parts of life that I would never know if I didn't have this family. Learning about the love of Christ though being loved by this community. Helping folks sort through things that I can assist in as well.

Is there struggle?I get comfortable with the folks I see every week. I stop engaging them once I go deep enough and shut down once someone knows enough about me. I can't do that. These relationships aren't based on them changing to meet a social standard or me being super awesome, but at the same time, I need to push and be pushed in order to grow. Sometimes I just don't want to see anyone. But I am committed to this family. And they are to me. But I want people to be better and I want to be better. God has to do that. I try to make that happen myself and it then creates this "helper to the helpless" mentality. That's not helpful. It's prideful. I'm not anything short of broken, just like everyone.

What do you envision for Common Table?I would love to see it connect to a more diverse group in Omaha and spread itself around the mid/downtown. It truly is about community. Not food. I would love to see this cross cultures and life-styles consistently! Especially with the downtowners. I see the same people everyday when I walk or ride my bike to work. Why not make that my community? And an inclusive one. Everyone has needs at some capacity. So let’s eat together and sort it out.

inCOMMON is very thankful for all of our volunteers. We are encouraged by Leslie and the COMMON Table volunteers that provide hospitality, sustainability, and love on Monday nights! Your commitment to relationship keeps us all moving forward.

At COMMON Table, the Monday evening meal at inCOMMON, I’m not the guy who shows up to unlock the doors and make the coffee or organize the meal plan. Due to a plenitude of volunteers and community members, the closest I come to having a role is being the guy loud enough to shout announcements just before food is served. Insatiable aromas, by this point, have diffused throughout the room, and I can see some of the more anxious knees aimed toward the serving tables, bouncing much faster than the mellow rhythms playing from the speakers upstairs.

“The table in the Bible is a huge theme”I have one minute.

“Brothers and Sisters, ladies and gents...” I start from the diaphragm, being less careful than I prefer to be with familial distinctions. I don’t have time for a speech or a sermon. Half of my effort is on volume anyway; I can hardly recall the four items that Jeff and Leslie just reminded me of.

“-I’m thankful to be back with you all this week. -Thanks to First Community Grace Testa-mental Chapel Bible Choir Tenors for bringing the biscuits and gravy. -Remember we are a community, not a meal assembly line. If you don’t know someone at your table, ask their name, find out how their week went. -Now let’s pray and then ladies can go first.”

The table in the Bible is a huge theme, bigger than we can make sense of in easy doctrinal language. In Old Testament sacrifice we see the work and ceremony that goes into satisfy-ing God’s wrath through sacrifice before the priests are able to eat a part of that sacrifice. The Bible has just begun giving instruction on how the priests are to prepare the sacrifices before it has to interrupt to report the deaths of Aaron’s two oldest sons then return to instruction on what they should eat, what they should drink, and how it should be cooked (Leviticus 10). Ezekiel has some horrendous descriptions of judgment in which the birds and the beasts are assembled for a feast--a feast on the flesh and blood of the wicked (Ezekiel 39).

It’s easy enough, though, to find the consummate theme of the feast as a celebration and a promise of peace. David famously speaks of God preparing a table for him in the presence of his enemies (of whom he had a lot). Peter is instructed to violate a big Jewish taboo by eating with Gentiles to show that the wall of enmity between Jews and Gentiles was broken down in Christ. Jesus himself spoke of his salvation as a meal that we partake in realizing that his sacrifice is once for all time.

God wrote history such that his perfect world was tainted when Adam and Eve took one il-licit bite, but when Jesus came to offer his flesh and blood as a meal he turned the feast into a thing of peace and celebration—The marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19).

On Mondays we celebrate the same thing. We all have to eat, and we’re all invited without distinction thanks to the feast Jesus prepared. That’s why my role is not “volunteer” or “an-nouncer” it’s “Brother.” Someone has to prepare the meal of course, but I’m there to eat.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Do you have a thumb that is green? Enjoy being outside?

inCOMMON is looking for volunteers to help us tend our garden that was graciously donated monetarily by Mutual of Omaha Corporation and organized through Omaha Big Gardens. The crops from the garden are used for our Monday night COMMON Table meals. If you would like to help by wa-tering, planting, weeding, cropping, and more, please contact us at

402-933-6672 or email info@inCOMMONcd.org

inCOMMON Community Developmentinfo@inCOMMONcd.org1258 S. 13th StreetOmaha, NE 68108