August 19th 2013
If you hang around the UrbanPromise community for any length of time, chances are at some point you will have the opportunity to meet Adrian, a recent graduate of the UrbanPromise Academy and one of our most avid Trekkers. And my guess is if you speak with Adrian, you will come away from the conversation impressed and humbled by his candor, his faith, and his ability to articulate how UrbanPromise has changed his life.
However, if you continue your relationship with Adrian, you will begin to see not only his past struggles and current successes, but also the trauma in his life that continues to affect him every single day. He will tell you how hard it is to simply remember to do his homework once he walks out the doors of UrbanPromise and is faced once again with the norms of his life in Camden.
Recently, I had the privilege of bringing Adrian on our first ever two-week UrbanTrekkers expedition to Colorado and Utah. On this trip, we talked regularly about metaphors that we drew from the landscapes around us as we travelled through high mountain peaks in the Rockies to the harsh and beautiful deserts of red rock and sand in Utah. One of the metaphors that Jim pointed out our Trekkers was that of the delicate balance of life in the desert and the flowers that survive there. He asked students, “How is it that in an environment like this, with hardly any water, blazing sun, and no soil, such a flower was able to grow?” The Trekkers talked about the flower’s adaptations to its environment, its hardiness, and its ability to cling to the minutest amounts of resources that it needed to thrive. We all agreed that while flowers are beautiful no matter the setting, there was something uniquely precious about noticing the beauty of a flower in the desert.
Around the campfire one night, we asked students to journal about the “lessons from the land” we had learned. When it was Adrian’s turn to share, he stood up slowly, intentionally. He spoke to his fellow Trekkers about the imbalance in his life between who he can be on Trekker trips and who he is drawn to be by his environment in Camden. He told us, “I come on Trekker trips to be who I truly am, who God made me to be.”
Whether Adrian sees it or not, he is the desert flower. He fights to thrive in the harsh environment in which he exists in the city of Camden. He struggles to withstand the blazing sun and lack of soil in his surroundings that would sooner destroy his life than give it to him. He clings with all his might to the resources that UrbanPromise gives him. He recognizes the value of the friendship and guidance of mentors who love him, and he takes every opportunity to travel with UrbanTrekkers and see the world beyond the walls of his day-to-day existence. As Adrian continues through life, I promise you, if he uses these resources effectively he will thrive inspite of the environment into which he was born. And as he does, something will make you stop and notice him the way you might a flower in the desert. There will be something uniquely sacred there to see.
Keep on trekking,
Julia