I became a teacher in the inner city of Dallas in a school where a whole lot of learning was going on – just not the traditional kind. The chances of those kids learning to do more than survive looked pretty bleak. For the ones that actually did graduate someday, I wanted them to have scholarships. They need scholarships to go to college.

Another thing that happened was I have lived every year of my adult life with inner-city people. I have laughed, cried, and worshiped with them the past 12 years. In many ways I have become one of them, simply because our pain has become shared.

One particular night, I received a call just as the night was to become morning. It was from a friend in our church. Her granddaughter was threatening to commit suicide. The police had been there a few hours before and had left. Now things were so bad, she didn’t know what to do, could I come. I put on my clothes, got into my car and drove over to their apartment. The wailing and rage that was coming from the room broke my heart. The teenage girl and I sat on her bed and cried together. After some time, we all got in the car and drove to Children’s hospital to have her admitted to the psyche ward. When I walked in, I handed the nurse her Medicaid card and breathed a silent prayer of thanks that bills were not something in a laundry list of problems that this little girl, with no father or mother to care for her, would have to worry about. We need healthcare for our poor, not cuts that will only add to the cycle of desperation. With the healthcare industry in crisis for all Americans, rich or poor, our government needs to hear how much we need their intervention not more obstacles.

Yet another thing that has happened to change me, is simply that I know so many poor people. Women and children of domestic abuse, mothers who begin their journey with children at the age of 14, these are my friends, my fellow church members. The cycles of their pain MUST BE BROKEN. Basic needs to survive in this society are just the beginning of their real needs to a life of healing and restoration. Yes, they NEED Jesus their Hope and Salvation, and that is my primary mission, but healing is a process, and we need the gospel alongside of meeting practical needs. Protecting the needs of the most vulnerable people in our society is vital to the restoration of our own faith.

Food stamps help children, free and reduced meals at school help children. I remember one night two little neighbor children knocking on my apartment door, asking if they could have some sugar. No adults were home and they were hungry. They had only tea bags in their house and they wanted sugar with their tea. I was appalled that they were home in our neighborhood alone and without food!! Their parents were children themselves when they had these kids. This is not an unusual scenario in the inner-city. The money people have often goes to drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, lottery tickets, and the like. I see so many children walking around with Coke bottles and a bag of Doritos from 7-11 to pass as a meal. Food stamps are used only to buy food! Federal programs like school meal plans, food stamps, and WIC protect children against malnutrition. Yes, malnutrition!!

Our government leaders needed to know that Christians cared about the poor. They needed to be reminded that Jesus cared about the poor. They needed to be questioned with regard to the cuts in the 2006 budget that were being proposed. That is why I went to our nation’s capitol and “incommoded.” I met with our senators and some congress people and told them why I was there. I told them about our friends, and how their policies affected them, and I prayed. I prayed on the cold, stone steps of the Cannon House building, side by side with my husband and many of the leaders who inspired us to go into the city, live among the people, love them, and share with them the good news of Jesus.

I was quoted that day and have seen that quote used, and I stand by it. After a long, freezing cold day without food, water, or a bathroom, I left the detention center, my husband still in custody, and went back to our meeting point. I wrote the following: “I have lived and worked among the poor for 12-plus years… I am an evangelical Christian and we, as evangelicals, need to advocate for the poor. Today was just the beginning.”

A couple of things transpired that day. I not only chose to stand for something I have changed my thinking in, working alongside government, but I boldly proclaimed a title, my title, that I have been hesitant to use because it typically is not linked with caring for the poor.

“I am an evangelical Christian.” This title is one that is not associated with social justice, but it IS who I am. I believe Jesus is the HOPE for our inner cities. My act of civil disobedience was merely a stage in which to play out a tide I hope to see turning - that today’s evangelical Christians add poverty and injustice to their agenda alongside advocating for valuable causes like life and the family!