Much has happened since the last post on my Brooklyn Blog. Valentyn and her baby are doing very well. She has made a nest in Queens where she is living with her mom. The baby is nearly 13 weeks old and simply beautiful. Harlow tends to be a very content baby. Valentyn is a good mom working hard to give her child the love and attention he needs.
Many of you know that years ago, nearly 25 now, I lived in the Sunset area of Brooklyn.
When I lived there it was a quiet Avenue with a white European population. Bordering to the east was a very conservative Jewish neighborhood and to the west a very Hispanic neighborhood. There was always discussion as to which neighborhood would take over and dominate our neighborhood. Eric, my godson, lives in this neighborhood today and I visit it often. Some 15 years ago the transformation began to take place. To everyone’s surprise an Asian community began to develop. Families would come with bags of money and buy up homes and business. At first it sprawled 5 blocks off the N Train line to Chinatown in Manhattan, then 10 and then 20 blocks. The transformation was amazing. Culturally everything had become “Little China”. There was really no concern to be “American” because the population was so Chinese that many of the stores did not need white American business to survive. On any given weekend there are thousands of Asian shoppers on these blocks. 
There are no longer any American Businesses. For many of the White American people left in this neighborhood it is almost unnerving to have to shop along 8th Avenue. Most of the food in the stores is completely unfamiliar and talking with people who are very limited in your language is extremely hard. Sometimes I go to Eric’s home to have dinner, when I go to what used to be a local A&P to buy food, I am now crawling over live frogs in huge containers and all kinds of meats I have never seen to find anything normal to eat. It can be very exhausting
Interestingly, the churches that once were American are now doubling as Chinese / American churches. The English congregations still hold the main auditorium at the 11am Sunday morning service, but the Chinese services
have over populated the Americans in number. This is also hard for the American founders of these churches. They seen the world that they built diminish as a whole new Church is forming.
The American church needs to understand that Christianity is relative to worlds that we don’t understand. No longer can we approach these cultures as if we are the Father of Christianity. I think the American church has found being relevant at home and abroad very difficult. Sometimes we have sacrificed our core values to be accepted and prosperous. Today we are challenged to constantly rethink the core values of our faith and how we will relate to a world that seems so foreign to us. The diversity in most American communities really forces this issue.
Many of you know that years ago, nearly 25 now, I lived in the Sunset area of Brooklyn.
When I lived there it was a quiet Avenue with a white European population. Bordering to the east was a very conservative Jewish neighborhood and to the west a very Hispanic neighborhood. There was always discussion as to which neighborhood would take over and dominate our neighborhood. Eric, my godson, lives in this neighborhood today and I visit it often. Some 15 years ago the transformation began to take place. To everyone’s surprise an Asian community began to develop. Families would come with bags of money and buy up homes and business. At first it sprawled 5 blocks off the N Train line to Chinatown in Manhattan, then 10 and then 20 blocks. The transformation was amazing. Culturally everything had become “Little China”. There was really no concern to be “American” because the population was so Chinese that many of the stores did not need white American business to survive. On any given weekend there are thousands of Asian shoppers on these blocks. 
There are no longer any American Businesses. For many of the White American people left in this neighborhood it is almost unnerving to have to shop along 8th Avenue. Most of the food in the stores is completely unfamiliar and talking with people who are very limited in your language is extremely hard. Sometimes I go to Eric’s home to have dinner, when I go to what used to be a local A&P to buy food, I am now crawling over live frogs in huge containers and all kinds of meats I have never seen to find anything normal to eat. It can be very exhaustingInterestingly, the churches that once were American are now doubling as Chinese / American churches. The English congregations still hold the main auditorium at the 11am Sunday morning service, but the Chinese services
have over populated the Americans in number. This is also hard for the American founders of these churches. They seen the world that they built diminish as a whole new Church is forming.The American church needs to understand that Christianity is relative to worlds that we don’t understand. No longer can we approach these cultures as if we are the Father of Christianity. I think the American church has found being relevant at home and abroad very difficult. Sometimes we have sacrificed our core values to be accepted and prosperous. Today we are challenged to constantly rethink the core values of our faith and how we will relate to a world that seems so foreign to us. The diversity in most American communities really forces this issue.
