Encouraged!

Having a vision for God's community to serve the poor is one thing -- starting a community to step into the vision is another. But I guess it is God who does the work and can take credit for any success or failure it has. I just feel it is the right timing and that he has a great plan. "For we ARE His workmanship created in Christ Jesus to DO GOOD WORKS which He has prepared in advance for us to do. "

So, yesterday I had a brief moment to read the Merc News and it had an article that caught my interest. A SHIFT IN EAST PALO ALTO GANGS. (See excerpt below) Of course beacuse I have invested 15 years of my life in this community I had to read it. The article says that the Sac Streey Gang has almost disappeared but others have filled the spot. The bad news: Gangs in East Palo Alto are still running strong. The good news: The Sac Street Gang has almost disappeared. For the past 15 years volunteers and staff like myself have been mentoring, co-parenting, crying with and praying for the families in this one block cul-de-sac. Once reason there is no more Sac Street Gang is that the younger brothers and sisters of this havoc wreaking group did not choose to follow in their fathers or brothers footsteps. They had better things to do like participate in a homework program or Bible Club with caring CityTeam Ministries Staff and volunteers. I rejoice because there was much heartache working in this small but notorious street. Not many have followed The Way but many have been deeply affected by the way. Even the older brothers who participated in CityTeams afterschool programs have been reported to have legitimate jobs working at local restauraunts, construction companies and the like.

I pray that the word that God has promised will never return void continues to work in the hearts of the kids I remember and the ones that were just passing through. "He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it in Christ Jesus." I am encouraged and have a stone to remind me that I am only required to be faithful, to step out in faith and to do what he has called me to do. He's in charge of bringing all together to ultimately Glorfy His Name.

A SHIFT IN EAST PALO ALTO GANGS http://www.mercurynews.com/
Once a haven for drug dealing and crime, the 500 block of Sacramento Street in East Palo Alto has been quiet since a police officer was slain there by an alleged gang member 1 1/2 years ago.
Gone are most of the notorious Sac Street Gang, who once ruled this cul-de-sac off University Avenue. Feeling heat from the police after gang member Alberto Alvarez was accused of shooting and killing officer Richard May in January 2006, nearly all 50 Sac Street members fled across the bay or to the Central Valley, said detective Ed Soares, the police department's gang specialist.
But while Sacramento Street is quiet today, many other streets in the 2.5-square-mile city are not. They have been taken over by a handful of other gangs. And Soares said it's extremely difficult to track their members, because many of them live in other cities and do business in several locales.
In his Demeter Street office, Soares sifted through a box of gang paraphernalia. There are red San Francisco Giants hats and red belts with the letter "N" on the buckles - items confiscated from the Nortenos, a statewide Latino gang that Sac Street broke away from. The Nortenos are the "northerners" because they initially staked their turf above Bakersfield; the rival Surenos gang claims the territory south.
These days, both gangs operate throughout the state. The Nortenos have holdings in the city east of Highway 101, while the Surenos control the west side of the freeway, Soares said.
the city's gang problem isn't restricted to any one ethnic group. As East Palo Alto has evolved from majority-black to majority-Latino, racial tensions in the broader community have been repeated in the gang structure, with turf battles breaking along lines of color and culture.
Soares pointed to a camouflage field vest covered with pockets for gun clips. It was confiscated in a raid on the Midtown Taliban, a black gang that wears military colors and holds a large piece of territory north of University Avenue.
Next to the vest was a baseball bat with tribal drawings. Soares confiscated it from a member of the Check Mob, a Tongan gang that was involved in a gunfight in December that left one girl dead and another girl critically injured.
To help local police combat East Palo Alto's gangs, a county gang task force has concentrated its efforts in the city since May. The task force was formed by the San Mateo County Police Chiefs and Sheriffs Association in 2004.
Its 25 members - which include deputies, police officers and officials from county probation and state corrections departments - are charged with conducting random parole and probation searches of known gang members, as well as outreach, said sheriff's Sgt. Tom Gallagher.
Since January, Gallagher said, the task force has made 340 gang-related arrests countywide; conducted 319 probation and parole searches; seized 42 firearms; and collected roughly 164 grams of crack cocaine, nearly 100 grams of methamphetamines and slightly more than 3,500 grams of marijuana.
Drugs and violence are all too familiar to 32-year-old Dominic Blanks, a former East Palo Alto "Village Boyz" gang member who was active until he turned 29. He said he already was involved in early 1992, when East Palo Alto racked up 42 homicides, the most per capita in the country.
Now, with no prison record and six children, he is back on the streets working for a group called For Youth by Youth, which tries to turn children away from gangs. Most gang members he approaches are between 13 and 22 years old, Blanks said.
"It's the little kids that are really acting up (these) days," he said. "I tell 'em, if I can get out, you guys can get out.' "
"Some of them want the change," Blanks added, "and some of them don't