So here is the story of Aaron and Michelle Shafer, who moved on from baylight to Memphis, TN back in the summer of 2006 and found themselves seeking the peace and prosperity of Memphis in the process. More info can be found at:
http://www.skateparkformemphis.org
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/jun/22/skaters-ready-to-roll/
http://www.memphismagazine.com/gyrobase/Magazine/Content?oid=oid%3A27343
Below is their inspiring story:
Leaving our bubble: but not willingly!
Our family moved to Memphis in the summer of 2006. This was a profoundly difficult move that came at the heels of a disappointing failed attempt to secure a full time professorship at Westmont University in Santa Barbara California. As Mike Kim can assure you, we had our hearts set on this position and my research at Stanford was intended to provide the necessary experience for becoming the most qualified candidate for the job. God had other plans. Off we headed to Memphis, 2400 miles away from our comfort zone and our native homeland. Off to the land of the South, the birth and death of slavery and the 1960s epicenter for the racial tensions between blacks and whites.
Culture shock?
One of the most common questions that we encountered in conversations with people here in Memphis was, were we experiencing culture shock. Culture shock was too specific. Let’s just call it shock. This included weather shock, culture shock and hobby shock. It’s hot and humid back here and we moved into Memphis during the 2nd hottest summer on record followed by 2007 which was the hottest summer on record. As to the culture shock, it’s suffice to say that races back here are courteous to each other but their social circles rarely overlap. The biggest shock for me has been moving into an area that is devoid of physical activities. All of you back in California can chose your outdoor activity and you are likely not far away from a place to do it. In Memphis these activities simply don’t exist-some for obvious reasons. As a lifetime surfer and skateboarder, as well as a person who has ridden his bike to work for the past ten years, this recreational void elicited a visceral shock. It was if I had lost a vital organ and needed to be hooked to life-support. Case in point: Memphis was ranked a few years ago as the least fit city in the nation and was ranked this year as the 2nd most miserable city to live in second only to Stockton, CA. As Michelle my wife can testify, for the first six months I teetered closely into going into a prolonged depression and wrestled with a real anger towards God. What is a quintessential Californian doing in the south? Usually it seems that God removes our idols and comforts in a gradual fashion, but moving to Memphis felt like a psychological or spiritual yard sale where my whole identity, my California identity and activities were chucked on the lawn at a deep discount.
Memphis needs a skate park!
One would think that I would have some sort of profound response. But the Lord keeps things simple for his simple sheep. In fact I wouldn’t even call it a response but rather a reaction from realizing that there would be no place to skate in this new city. As we made our trek across the country, Michelle and I were constantly discussing how we would adjust to our new home. One of the last discussions we had occurred perhaps 40 miles from entering the city. The conversation ended with a firm resolve to establish a skate park in Memphis. “Just do it.” – said Michelle. We had two weeks before my new research position started at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and during that time we moved in, unpacked and I created a website to explain all the reasons Memphis needed a skate park. I launched the site two weeks later in September 2006.
Letting God connect the dots
From there, I just starting telling as many people that I ran into what I was trying to do and the Lord just seemed to direct me to the right contacts as I bounced around from one person to the next. Friends of friends from the Bay Area became our first contacts here. They were Memphians and had attended Stanford. They soon became our first friends here as well. The husband just happened to know a lead developer in the Memphis area who was also good friends with the director of Parks and Recreation. Memphis is a fairly large city, but it is a tightly connected community. In the fall I met with the director and gave a presentation. A year later in December 2007, the director requested $440K for skate park.
Skate park “doctor”
Meeting the right people was part of the equation, another part of the success of the project was God using my unique gifts and training as research scientist. St. Jude has a very positive reputation in the Memphis community. Mentioning you work at St. Jude back here is the equivalent of mentioning you work for Google or Genentech back in the bay area. St. Jude provided a ticket or gateway into societal circles that would have been off-limits to a skateboarder. This was part of the problem the Memphis skate community had been facing for years – they badly needed an advocate that was well-respected within the community. Memphis strives hard to retain working professionals – I used this priority as a major leverage for connecting skate parks with retaining the highly-sought after “professional creative-class.” Who would have ever guessed I would have been using my professional training in biological research to give presentations on the benefits of a skate park? Only God.
The big day
In the spring of 2008, the Parks and Rec department decided to have a ramp building company host a skate demo. I was stoked and bummed at the same time. Memphis Parks and Rec had only given me 8 days notice to promote the event. The demo was originally scheduled for July but they moved it to late April. I knew this demo was critical because parks was going to use this demo to see if there were as many skaters as I had claimed there were. I would feel pretty embarrassed if 10 skaters showed up after claiming that we had 5000 skaters in our city! We promoted the event every day for 8 days straight on Myspace. On the day of the demo I got off work and headed over to the event. The parking lot was packed and I thought perhaps another event was being held next to ours -there were A LOT of cars. I walked inside the warehouse, which was an old hog barn-arena, and the place was packed with skaters. 400 skaters were skateboarding, roller-rink style around the arena while skaters in the center packed the demo ramps. The ramp company was completely overwhelmed. The entire Parks staff was there including the director. They appeared to be in a mixed state of shock, complete disbelief and perhaps as some skaters suggested, a bit embarrassed. This demo was on a school day, had no press to promote it and it still was packed. The local news had showed up, it went onto radio stations and was written up in the paper the following day. We had just witnessed and experienced serious pent-up demand! Memphis really needed this. It was heartening to know that I was not the only one experiencing recreational starvation. And the best part was 30% of the skaters were black! This doesn’t happen naturally here in Memphis. I don’t think this was lost on the parks staff. That July, the skate park money was unanimously approved by the city council and we are now looking forward to breaking ground in the summer of 2009. Since the approval by the council, the skate park project has been written up several times in the paper and we were interviewed on TV as well! Crazy stuff!
Why the skatepark project belongs to God – By Michelle
This project is still in the works. I always say, “I won’t believe it until a back-hoe starts breaking ground.” – where’s the faith?!! But after 2 ½ years we have alternated between having high hopes for it working out with weeks of thinking that not a soul was interested in the project. It’s always a stretch for us to put our hope and true joy in Christ and not in our work, hobbies, speaking abilities or children but with the direction life has taken over the last few years, we do it better now out of pure necessity, not righteousness. The weeks before the April demo were some very hard times for Memphis. We had one of the most gruesome mass murders in the history of the city and the great Memphis Tigers lost the b-ball championship! We were all heartbroken. It was one of those rare times when white and black people were all cheering for the same cause. We needed that win for moral and it did not happen. Until a week before the demo we really thought all was dead in the water for the skate park. One more time, Aaron and I were really looking for a way out of here. But the demo request came out of nowhere from Parks and Rec and we had a few days to work all the contacts the Lord had previously provided. As Aaron mentioned above, the demo was a huge success. You know how the wind blows sometimes and you know that for a few hours you have been on the mountaintop and seen a glimpse of how life should be on earth. We drove out of the parking lot that evening with hearts full of excitement and awe. Really, since we did nothing to get parks and rec to get a demo on that day, it could only be God. If He wants it done then He can pull it out of nowhere – it belongs to him. Our dreams, hopes, visions for justice all belong to Him. Nothing can stop the work of God.
Share or sulk: A daily choice
Living the “California dream” as a kid who grew up surfing and skating was an incredible privilege- basically unreal! I now realize, that I have a daily choice, in regards to my California heritage, mourn the loss of “the dream” or share it with others. Some days I still chose to sulk, but seeing what God has done through the skate park project reminds me to get off my “sulky cross” because the wood could be put to better use. I need to look no further for inspiration or perspective then see the kids in the inner city and to remember my own important role as a husband to Michelle and father to my boys. The kids around here have no idea what is like to have access to a place like a skate park. They have little concept of how to blow some steam off after a hard day at school or in their home life. They have access to fast food, sex, gangs, guns and absentee parents. That’s the identity and lifestyle – the reality for a lot of black youth around here. People here need a healthy “pressure release valve”.
Worship
The skate park effort has allowed me to experience what “worship” means in my walk with the Lord. Worship it seems is a personal expression of returning the grace that was first bestowed upon me through the Gospel. I have had a strong life-long desire to have my worship transcend the walls of the Sunday service. To have worship expressed in meaningful actions that come in the most unexpected unintended forms. I thank God for this project and WOW it was a thrill! For our family, it seems that through undesired sacrifice and personal loss, God is reshaping our identity and purpose. As we stubbornly let go of our old identities, God opens up the opportunities to truly worship him with all that we are. I leave you Mathew 16:25 “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” I am still a very broken person- at times still angry, ungrateful, and impatient. Part of me would still rather have not lost my former life, but God has rewarded our family with a new vitality and purpose through all this. May God continue to give us the courage and strength to graciously let go of our identities and pursuits that prevent us from experiencing true lasting joy, peace, purpose and transformation into the likeness of Christ.
March 1st, 2009 | | Posted by mike