Elias Sojourner Watson

On Sunday evening, June 22nd, 2008 we welcomed the arrival of our second son, Elias Sojourner Watson. He joined us weighing 7 lbs. 9 oz., 19 1/2 inches long and a head full of black hair.

We were released today (Wednesday) from the hospital and are enjoying our first night back at home all together. Mom and baby are doing well and Lisa is recovering well. So far Nathan is adjusting like a champ and is being quite the helper and incredibly sweet to his baby brother.

The meaning of his name...
Elias ~ spanish for Elijah (and yes, we might call him Eli from time to time), he prophet who spoke truthfully and with compassion to those in authority and cried out on behalf of widows & orphans

Sojourner ~ an english word meaning a traveler in a place that is not yet, not quite his home; we're reminded of ancient sojourners, those that sought a city whose foundation, architect and builder is God.

Watson ~ the name of his father, his father's father and the fathers before him. Reminds us that although a 'traveler' he is still one rooted in a place, a home, a geography, a family and a faith.

So celebrate with us this newest blessing God has brought to us; reminding us that again, life always overcomes death.

Countdown to the 4 Watsons!

In case you didn't get this by email...

Excitement is swirling around the Watson house. Lisa and I, in consultation with our doctor have elected to go ahead and have our baby delivered by C-section. We've scheduled the surgery for this Monday, June 23rd, 2008 at 9:30am at Baptist East Women's Hospital. We made this decision a couple of days ago and our doctor called us yesterday confirming that we can have the surgery on Monday. So here we go!

Just a quick update. Lisa and I had another ultrasound week before last and discovered that this baby was breech (head up) and was over 7 lbs. Last week (on Tuesday) we met with our doctor to explore the options for delivery. There were a couple of options in front of us, but after considering them, we settled on surgery.

Baby and mom are both perfectly healthy and happy. Although Lisa was hoping to have the chance to deliver baby #2 naturally (Nathan also was breech and delivered by C-section) it seems that's not going to be possible. She's disappointed, but happy to know, besides being head up, everything is fine with the little guy.

Obviously, we ask that you pray for us, for the surgery and that all goes well on Monday. Lisa will be in the hospital until Wednesday and then faces a 6 week recovery. Pray for her recovery and strength.

We've been talking and working with Nathan trying to prepare him for his new baby brother. Pray for Nathan and his adjustment at a big brother.

I plan to be out of the office Monday thru Wednesday in order to be with Lisa and the newest Watson. Right now we have some friends from California staying with us, the Graham Family, and they'll be here through next week as well helping out and spending time with Nathan. Lisa's mother arrives on Thursday and will be with us for about 10 days.

We are very grateful to have Suzanne Acuff & Alicia Sherwood are coordinating meals for us.

We will certainly keep you posted by email on how things go for us next week.

Thank you for your prayers and support.

Love,
Matthew, Lisa and Nathan

Pieces of Life and the Kingdom of Heaven

On June 8th, 2008 I (Matthew) spoke at Living Hope Church. The title of the message was 'The Pieces of Life and the Kingdom of Heaven' based on the Book of Matthew 13:44-46. You can listen to the podcast below or go to Living Hope's podcast site.

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Response to AM article

Below is an email from Dr. Phyllis Betts, Director for Community Building and Neighborhood Action at University of Memphis' School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy. The email is in response to an article in the July/August issue of Atlantic Monthly. The article explored the recent nation wide increase in crime and its links to anti-poverty programs.

_____

Dear friends, public servants, and committed Memphians,

Many of you we know have read the article on Memphis, where Richard’s and my research is featured prominently, in the July-August issue of Atlantic Monthly. The reaction among federal housing policy experts has been to question Hanna Rosen’s interpretations, and responses are being planned. As for ourselves, we want everyone to know that the issues are more complex than can be presented in a journalistic piece, and that it was and is our intention to help mobilize action for housing and neighborhoods, workforce development, and realistic law enforcement linked with community-based interventions. We want to recognize what Hanna Rosin got right, and elaborate where there is more to the story. And we want to recognize that there are more than a few committed public servants who have been trying to work on these issues under difficult circumstances.


For example, we were disappointed that the “Memphis HOPE” efforts of the Women’s Foundation were not included, and that the part about Memphis Housing Authority being mandated by HUD to demolish virtually all of its public housing -- with too little consideration for timing and local conditions – was not discussed. While planning for next steps will take several days to unfold, it makes sense to share with you some of our response to communication we have received from the policy community (for example, Brookings and The Urban Institute.) An excerpt from our response is below, and we will be in touch with many of you who are in a position to help make our local policies the best they can be. And that means government, non-profits, and the private sector. Clearly, MHA and HCD need continued involvement of the private sector, and we too want very much to be a continued part of the process.

Please feel free to circulate this email to anyone for whom it seems appropriate; for example, board or organization members, staff, concerned citizens.

In our communication with the federal policy experts, we said:


What we can do (as featured local researchers) is clarify interpretive issues (such as the use of the term suburban and the numbers of poor people who have decentralized under apparent market forces vs policy-driven relocations); underscore key points that got less attention in the final piece than we would have preferred (i.e. market factors in decentralization of poverty and the local context that makes it more difficult in some cities than in others to effectively deconcentrate poverty); state our support for HOPE VI type redevelopment and vouchers as a component of housing subsidies; make clear that flaws in housing policy require better housing policy -- not the abandonment of housing policy as some responses to the article imply subtly or not so subtly (i.e. the responses posted by the committed hostile to government crowd); and articulate what we – as researchers embedded in local context – envision as essential components of a re-invigorated housing policy (as well as income support policy and law enforcement that is partnered with community-based interventions for community safety.) (For our local listeners: It will be important to distinguish what can be done locally and what requires a shift at the federal level.)

It is also important to say to all of you that we were not misquoted, that we have a great deal more data than was implied by the article (and were not as surprised by patterns as we may appear to be in the article), and that while we would have framed the issues differently, we believe that our response will be most effective if we elaborate the real issues rather than responding to how right wing bloggers are reacting. (And of course they are.) We are of the view that everything we do in Memphis is in the context of a significantly large hostile-to-government crowd, and most any effort to revisit mistakes that have been made and move in a more positive direction will be fuel for the blogosphere. In our experience it is too easy to be paralyzed or defensive about this. We do not intend to accuse Hanna Rosin of shoddy journalism. There is of course a difference between journalism and academic research, a point that is worth making as suggested by Susan Popkin (at The Urban Institute; perhaps the article for the Chronicle of Higher Education.) We plan to:

1. Compose our own letter to the editor for Atlantic clarifying and eleaborating.
2. Arrange with the local Commercial Appeal and other local media outlets for an op-ed that deals with assets as well as flaws.
3. Write-up the Memphis case study for “lessons learned” consideration as we all move forward in our efforts to influence federal housing policy; we are convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that federal policy too commonly fails to take into account the circumstances of cities outside the industrial northeast and midwest (with a little Atlanta – and now New Orleans sometimes included to represent our region). We plan to say this often, and to reinforce investments by national foundations that have begun to pay more attention to us. (E.g. the Women’s Foundation’s upcoming support from Kellogg.)

If you are getting this email, it means that we want to work with you to be part of the solution. We will be back in touch.
Phyllis Betts and Richard Janikowski



Phyllis G. Betts, Director
Center for Community Building and Neighborhood Action
901-678-1187 phone
901-678-1483 fax

School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy
The University of Memphis Downtown Site
600 Jefferson Ave Memphis 38105

Memphis featured in Atlantic Monthly Article

In case you're not a regular reader of the Atlantic Monthly, there is an article in this month's AM that is asking questions about rising crime rates in the US and its links to anti-poverty programs. I have to confess, its a tough read that affords a bleak outlook.

I think its particularly tough for me because some of the anti-poverty programs that are implicated are ones that I, myself, have advocated, written grants and implemented programs for.

The link to the article is here: Atlantic Monthly Article on Memphis Crime.

And below is an email response I sent to my fellow staff and elders at Living Hope.

Continue to pray for Lisa and I and for Living Hope as we seek the shalom of Memphis.

--watson

I'm not sure how many of you have run across the article in this month's Atlantic Monthly. The article is looking at the ways and reasons that crime is climbing in medium-large cities (500,000-1million). It focuses on Memphis.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/memphis-crime?

The article is challenging and at times frieghtening. Margaret Craddock, the Executive Director of MIFA sent me an electronic copy of the article. Let me include an excerpt from my reply to her regarding the article:

Margaret,
Thank you for the link. I have to say that it was a difficult article to read. During my time in Fresno, our neighborhood was recognized by the Brookings Institute as the neighborhood with the highest level of concentrated poverty. Our community work and advocacy centered on de-concentrating that poverty, including (although tentatively so) the HOPE VI work.
This article challenges hope and yet reminds me that honesty is essential in addressing the great needs of Memphis, or any city for that matter. And that prayer and creative action will continue to point us the way forward.

When I finished reading the article, I felt rising in me a fear of Memphis, a desire to run away to safe geographies, an anger at the ways in which the powers & principalities have manipulated those things intended for good, and a temptation to resort to cynicism or something worse.

But that is not our charge. Nor is it our faith. Even the very name of our fellowship requires that we face the broken places of our world and plant seeds that subvert the very reality that says, "don't plant here!".

Let us live our faith and join with those that see the Atlantic Monthly article as a prayer guide and an opportunity to exercise that creative action that God calls and empowers us to employ.

With great hope,
Matthew
"Should I not care about the great city of Ninevah (Memphis), which has more than 120,000 (1,200,000) people..." Jonah 4:11