Coming home to Vista Hermosa When they were teenagers, Suzanne Broetje and Laura Peréz moved with their families to a valley along the Snake River in southeastern Washington State. Their first experiences of the place couldn’t have been more different. Suzanne’s parents, Cheryl and Ralph [...]Read More
CCDA’s Beginnings
For two decades, CCDA has inspired, trained and connected Christians who are restoring under-resourced communities throughout the world. The annual National Conference, which began with 200 attendees, now attracts a faithful, multi-racial contingent of 2000-plus. In the words of Dr. John Perkins and [...]Read More
To Define a Neighborhood
The CCDA Institute in Augusta, GA Who has the privilege of defining a neighborhood, of naming its assets and its needs? The city of Augusta, Georgia, is eyeing its Harrisburg neighborhood as a potential site for development because of its prime location. The press has defined Harrisburg as a [...]Read More
God’s Not Busy: Are You?
Encounter. New York City. Times Square. Hungry. “Welcome to McDonald's, CAN I HELP YOU!" said the young lady behind the counter as she rolled her eyes. It wasn't spoken as a question, but as an expression of anger and annoyance for having her life interrupted. As a Neuyorican, a bicultural [...]Read More
Birmingham Yet?
Sheriff Joe Arpaio is proud of his tent city. On his Web site for reelection as sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, he touts the camp as a cost-effective, “austere but humane” solution to jail overcrowding in a county that aggressively rounds up undocumented immigrants—and that, under SB 1070, [...]Read More
The Mayor Moves In
An Interview with Wally Bryan of Challenge House For most of the 1990s, Wally Bryan was mayor of Hopkinsville, Kentucky. After the turn of the millennium, he was in semi-retirement, living in what he calls the outer-city, and feeling “a little adrift.” He read Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life and [...]Read More
Rural Justice (Part 2)
Two practitioners share the ins and outs of doing CCD in rural America [In the first part of the series], we interviewed Rev. Tim Olsen of Summit House, part of Sioux Falls Seminary in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. [For part two], we talked with Pat Vander Pol, ministry coordinator of Justice for All [...]Read More
Rural Justice (Part 1)
Two practitioners share the ins and outs of doing CCD in rural America [In this two part series], we ask two rural CCD practitioners—Rev. Tim Olsen of South Dakota and Pat Vander Pol of Iowa—about their ministries, their areas, and about living out the 3R's. We also posed the ultimate question: [...]Read More