what happens HERE: MATUL

September 2012 marked the beginning of a two and half year journey of serving the urban poor. I will be entering a program by the name of MATUL, which stands for Master of Arts in Transformational Urban Leadership.

Here, is the description of the program from www.matul.org ::

"The MATUL degree program is embedded within a broader movement to link a new generation of Christian internationalists from the global North with those from the global South in vocations dedicated to advancing God’s shalom within urban poor communities. Program graduates, as servants among the poor, will utilize their understanding and skills within the fields of international relations, community development and planning, environmental policy, church leadership, non-profit management, global health, or public diplomacy, just to name a few. It is here where their extraordinary grasp of the urban poor condition can guide policy formulation and project development, both in their homelands and internationally."

My journey to MATUL really started the year I read through the Bible (you know those silly, read through the bible in a year plans that Christians love so much). Well, when I was reading through the Bible, I couldn't deny God's call for his people to care for the widows, orphans, and foreigners...those whose voices society chooses to ignore. In today's context that looks like the homeless, the urban poor, the unrecognized minority. God always calls his people to act in just and righteous ways concerning others, to be a part of bringing shalom (the whole, complete, not lacking anything-ness that God desires for each person) to all. Then I spent a semester in Washington, DC studying the role of business in development work among the poor. It was here I realized that the poor have all the capability they need. They don't need "the West" to save them. They can do it all by themselves. They just have to get out of their own way, change their perspective of themselves.

After a semester in this program, I have come to see so much clearer and know more strongly why God brought me to this program. It starts with the Kingdom of God. I see, and I believe the Bible portrays, the Kingdom as a place that we become citizens of when we believe in the Gospel. Not only does it transform our hearts and souls, but that inner transformation affects the way we act with other people, how we spend our money, what kind of work we do, where we choose to live, how we care about our physical neighbors, interact with city, state, and federal politics. We surrender control of all of those things to Jesus, because he reigns in our lives, entirely. MATUL is about bringing this kind of hope-filled reign to people who have been oppressed and marginalized in society. It starts with the Gospel of Christ and transforms every aspect of life, spiritual, social, economic, and political.

This is what MATUL embodies. This is what it's about.