Who are we if it goes away? How do we move forward without it? Since November, we have been gathering monthly with our young adult leaders to explore those questions-grieving the loss, reflecting on wisdom gained, affirming the gifts among us, and casting a shared vision for what comes next. It has been the most visible expression of our mission. Yet, for many of them, navigating a future with no summer camp is a daunting prospect. While there are no easy answers, I know the course that Urban Hope takes must be charted by the young adults who call Walltown home. Should we expand our focus to youth from around the city while keeping our activities in Walltown? Should we pack up and move our efforts to another neighborhood?

This has made it difficult to connect with the amount of kids and parents we once did, forcing us to ask difficult questions of our work. Like urban communities across the country and throughout the city of Durham, Walltown is undergoing a process of gentrification that is making it unaffordable for many black working class families to continue living here. I write you today, on the verge of our 15th year of summer camp, excited to announce that such a leadership transition will happen by the end of 2018! However, it is a challenging announcement to make knowing that this summer will be the last year of the Urban Hope Summer Camp. The vision was to make Urban Hope not just a ministry run for Walltown, but a ministry run by Walltown. Five years ago, I joined the ministry, as director, with the goal of building a pathway to organizational leadership for young adults from the neighborhood. As they drop deeper and deeper into the abyss, slowly their eyes begin to pick up the luminous quality of the darkness what was fear is relaxed and they move into the lower region with confidence and peculiar vision.ġ5 years ago, Urban Hope was launched to bear witness to God’s beloved community in Walltown by cultivating economic, educational and spiritual resources among youth and their families. The divers’ immediate reaction is apt to be one of fear and sometimes a sudden spasm of panic that soon passes. From this area they move to a depth of water that cannot be penetrated by light above the surface. As they begin their journey the divers first pass through the ‘belt of fishes.’ This is a wide band of light reflected from the surface of the sea. Becoming God’s beloved community is like being a crew of deep sea divers seeking a great treasure in the depths of the ocean.

The Luminous Darkness by Howard Thurman