Nehemiah Project
The Nehemiah Project comes to Flint.
In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, Nehemiah was in
the citadel of Susa, Hanani, one of his brothers who lived in Michigan, came from
Flint with some other men, and he questioned them about the remnant that had
survived the closing of the factories and the economical downturn, and also
about the disposition of the people of Flint.
They said to him, “Those who survived the exile and are still
living in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The reputation of Flint
has been broken down, its homes burned, and its people have become hopeless,
violent and discontent.”
When he heard these things, he sat down and wept. For some
days he mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Then he said: I will go
to Flint.
The words of Nehemiah
Nehemiah Inspects Flint.
I went
to Flint, and after staying there three days I set out during the night with a few others. I had not told
anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Flint. By night I went along the boundaries of the First Ward, we saw the devastation there. We went south though the Second Ward, Down MLK, across Baker, Welsh and Wabash Streets seeing the empty homes. Then through to the Sixth and Eighth, seeing the empty business buildings, up into Ward Nine, and the decay of its lands, across to Ward Five seeing the needs there, and circled through the Fourth and Third Wards observing all the burnt homes.
The leaders and politicians of the City did not know where he had gone or what he was doing, because as yet he had said nothing to his people or the priests or nobles or officials or any others who would be doing the work.
Then he said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Flint lies in social and economic ruin, each Ward has it own troubles and shared troubles with the others. Let us now divide the city into five Wards with each area perfectly squared without concern of the politics, businesses or people within them. Have the Fifth Ward be within the center and overlap each Ward.
Let each Ward be accountable to themselves, each having a group of Elders from all areas of skills to conduct open meeting within each Ward. Each of these Elders should no longer have active business or commerce within the Ward. These are not paid officials, but are men and women no longer striving for themselves, having a heart for the people and area they live in. Have the Elders hold the central list of goals and a list of like-minded people that want to help reach those goals.
Allow all people to speak at all the community Ward meetings. Let all questions and ideas be contemplated, but make sure all ideas given are something that promotes the community and is inclusiveness to its entire people.
Do not go to the government for them to do our work. If someone has a good idea then let them “head” the work, giving them assistance as needed. Those ideas and actions by the people will be blessed and succeed as long as they are done for the good of its entire people. And in all things let the mantra be “Do unto others as you would want done unto yourself.”
Have all the Elders report to their Ward Advocate that has been assigned to each Ward and who will be housed within the Fifth Ward. The Advocate’s job will be to have the skill to oversee that all ideas and actions are within the laws of our State and Federal system and to find ways to fund these idea without burden to its people. The leaders of actions within a Ward should not rely on the Advocate for funding and wait till money arrives. They are to start their good works with whatever resources they have within the community. All other resources are counted as unexpected blessings.
They replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good work.
But when Nay-Sayers, the Weak-of-Heart and the Corrupt of Flint heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. “What is this you are doing?” they asked. “Are you starting your own government, are you trying to steal the power from the people, do you not understand the rule of separation of State? Your ideas are not how things are done here, things will never change, and you will fail just like the rest have.”
I answered them by saying, “The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you no longer have a share in the new “abundant” Flint or any claim or historic right to it.” Too many of you have used our people for your own gain, weather it be money, power or pride. As for the central government of the city; it is very much needed. They organize and administer needed services such as water, sewage, fire and police protection, but they are no longer needed in administrating its social, economical or educational services. Their past has proven corrupt and a failure within our communities. They will no longer create social programs, but they will help administer the accountability of each Ward’s community programs. They must give back all this responsibility to the people of each Ward."
The priests, pastors and church leaders
agreed and went to work in rebuilding
their own Wards. They no longer preached their own agenda, but taught the
people the ways of their faith and how it would better the community. They preach more than words, they persistently preached
action!
They looked at their buildings as being storehouses for resources. Each
church became mission minded with only one purpose; some mentored within
the school system, others mentored to the poor, some to family mentoring, etc.,
each church was led as God would have them do. No person entering their church
was only given directions on how to do or who to go see. Each was continuously
mentored by a member(s) of that Church (Mission) through to the end. No church
replicated what another was doing, but encourage the others and directed people
of need to the appropriate church building without pride or eagerness of self-statue.
Each church was enthusiastically single minded in moving their chosen mission
group onto a more abundant life.
The business owners and
those knowing how to make money no longer looked at profit as the top priority.
They began to place that second to the main goal of creating jobs. Even the
smallest business took on extra help and for a time their profits were slim,
but within a short period of time all the businesspeople that joined in this
goal, found that they had created a workforce that did indeed use their new
paychecks to purchase from their businesses. Profits increased and they were blessed
for having given a helping hand to others. The community applauded their
efforts and in return frequented the services of those businesses.
Those who worked for
large corporations within the community began to think of ways to move the
hearts of their superiors into being more community minded. They spoke about
the positive actions and needs of the Wards these companies’s where housed in.
They search out the charities and non-profit groups the company was donating
money to. They informed the Ward Advocates about this giving and politely
spurred those in charge of corporate giving to look kindly on their own
community reminding them that “although the whole of the world is in need of help,
charity begins at home. Help us now, so we can share together later in an even
greater way.”
For a time some people
complained that they had already staked out their community and that the new
boundaries would upset their status que. Even some non-profit groups where
upset as the people of the community asked them to form and conform into
centralized service within each Ward. Those in charge of these groups pride and
self-importance faded as they saw the good actions of the people within the
community. They came to the understanding that each Ward did not need so many
non-profits organizations’ reproducing the same services as they each saw fit,
but found instead that as they all came together as one central group that
money, energy and community involvement helped them fulfill their mission
statement even better. This was not done easily. At times, groups with the same
overall mission statement weather non-profit or neighborhood associations had
to be placed within a room and have the door locked behind them until they came
to an agreed plan that merged their organizations. As their pride subsided,
they learned to work together for the common good of the community.
As for the employees of
the City and its administrators, nothing changed for a time. They went on
believing and doing business just like there were no new Wards. This was
because the five new Ward districts where not voted into existence, but were created
invisibly by the people themselves.
That was until the strength of the new
Wards’ became evident. The Wards’ first mandate was polite and unenforceable.
It stated that for now on, all City employees and politicians will view their actions
through the mantra “JOBS!” Be it a clerk behind a desk, an accountant, road
worker or manager they each did their work always questioning themselves on how
their actions will create jobs in Flint.
Road crew members then
began to see that their job was helping to create paths to bring commerce to and
from, Flint. Accountants begin questioning a line within a budget as not one on
target with creating or keeping jobs. Maintenance workers began to recognize
that the good work they do will be seen by others and because of their
craftsmanship people will want to be part of our beautiful community. Each
began to understand that the more people wanting to live within our communities
the more jobs will come into the communities and visa-versa.
They all started to
understand that their own paychecks were based on bringing in more tax dollars
and that with more businesses and home owners coming to live in Flint, the
better the chance they could receive higher wages and benefits. Even more
importantly they come to the understanding that every action they took to
increase the number of jobs within the communities the higher the chance that
their own family members and friends could be earning a better paycheck!
The politicians of
Flint, many of them foresaw the good idea in creating new Ward Communities and
even helped create them. Some of them joined those groups as activist. Those
that chose to stay within the old ways began to see their power erode, that
they were being ignored, that their job requirements were lessened to that of
just overseeing the City’s essential public services. The need for politicians
was replaced by Elders and Organizers.
Some people, because of their pride and
egos, tried to be the spokesmen or leader of their communities. They were
quickly shouted down and reminded that their work in the community was not
about talking, but about DOING! Those that were given the greatest respect in
the community were those that got
their “hands dirty”, of course those types of people do not have egos unto
themselves because their pride is found within the people and actions of their
community. They showed leadership through their service and because of that
they became called on for input and consul before the community took any public
actions.
The News Media; Some media companies,
because of their awareness that in-depth news coverage within each Ward was
just as important to the people as world news, created media devoted completely
too each Ward Community. Although they still covered news stories within the
whole of the city, country and the world, they placed reporters within the
Wards just to cover the happenings there. This coverage gave the people a
greater sense of community and the news companies profited with better direct
marketing, advertisements.
Although the Ward Communities were
separated by invisible boundaries, they interacted often. Each month the Ward
Elders would meet in Ward Five to go over their communities’ ideas and to
encourage one another. Four times a year all the people of the different Wards
would come together for giant celebrations inside Ward Five.
At these
celebrations each Ward had sectioned off areas to pass out literature and
exchange ideas amongst themselves, but mostly it was a time for all the people
of the City to gather together, listen to music, dance, be with their families
and meet new friends. During these celebrations, awards were given; best new
idea, most improved neighborhood street, individual awards, but all those
receiving awards did not hold pride within themselves but gave thanks to the people
of the community for their support. None of the Wards were jealous of another.
Each learned from the other, both the successes and failures.
The Nehemiah
project had come to Flint!
