There it was: a full-sized yellow car, nose down in the ground like it was starting a journey to China. Who put it there? Why? I’m a sucker for a good story, and this car’s intentional misuse screamed “STORY!” My wife and daughter sighed and smiled as I pulled over to investigate. We were on a quiet neighborhood street in the middle of Hawthorne, one of the four neighborhoods that comprise Near West Indy. We were house shopping that day and had had no luck, so we took a detour through the inner city on the west side to see what it was like. At the time we were living in the inner city of Louisville, and I had a desire to be a part of inner-city change in our future home in Indy.
That’s how I met Danny and learned about the Purpose Park. Several members of Danny’s neighborhood had come together to repurpose an abandoned empty lot to make a community garden. Everything there had been once trashed and now found purpose in the garden. The yellow car is a projector screen for local kids to watch movies on. Giant electrical spools were converted into sleek chairs. An arbor has lush grapevines draped over it inviting passers-by to stop for a reprieve from life’s stress and experience goodness. And then there are the kids who come there. At-risk youth that most of us, if we’re honest, see more as problems than divine image bearers who can be redeemed and given purpose. Just think about who you want your kids playing with from school… In fact, my wife texted me that in the evening of Aug 21st the 107th homicide this year in Indy ended the life of a 26-year-old in this community. Just think about who you want your kids playing with from school…these kids are often seen as risks to our own family safety. Yet does not God delight in them too and long for them to experience wholeness?
That’s why Danny and his family are rooted in Hawthorne. Sure, he works for City Life as a missionary, but how easy would it be to move his family to a safer place with better schools and less challenging influences on his own kids? Instead, he’s bought in. He owns a home across from the Purpose Park, and his extended family has joined three lots together with a pool at the center to make a haven for local kids to escape from the chaos and to find a place of safety and a people who will tell them about their value, a refuge where sacrificial love pours out like water to nourish the community.
Do I want to go “Over the Edge?” Absolutely! But I wouldn’t even consider this adventure if I didn’t know that I was directly supporting Danny and his family. They are there to stop the violence, but not by picketing or doing a one-day event or even a weekly outreach. They have devoted their whole lives to this calling to be present from day-to-day to one of the most violent areas in Indy. I’ll back that kind of courage and sacrifice all day long! And I hope you will too. Please put me “Over the Edge” so that Danny and his team can make a lasting imprint on the Near West that will transform the next generation and bring an end to the violence! May their lives be changed for eternity through the power of the gospel, bringing long term hope and peace to Hawthorne.
For God’s glory and the Good of Each Precious Child.
Ben Sholtes