Birmingham as I see it: Veteran’s Day

Announcements 😉

First, I want to tell you a couple of things. For one, God’s been brewing in my heart for a while now to write about things I love in Birmingham, and yes, Alabama, not UK. Second, I hope this will not bother my subscribers who are mostly not from Birmingham to read the occasional post about Birmingham. When I heard Pastor Jason’s sermon yesterday, it confirmed in my heart that I needed to be writing about Birmingham. Third, I will also begin a country series, featuring a world country, life there as I have been able to research and find, and how to pray for that country. Fourth, I generally pray when I write, pray for my blog to grow as God wants, and I want to pray for you as well. Please hit the contact me tab, and I’d be happy to pray specifically for you. In fact, I am thinking about starting a place for us to connect online either via fb or google+ (gmail), so let me know if you’d like either one of those options.

Now on to the show.

Birmingham as I See It: Veteran’s Day

on the Region’s Park stadium.
Isn’t that the best sign?

I was born in Birmingham, but raised in the country hills of Walker County, just down the road from the big city. When I began working at Southern Company years ago, I moved to Birmingham, and I have lived here for 13 years now. It is strange and weird to realize that I’ve been a mom and a wife much longer than I was a worker bee employee for SoCo, or Alabama Power, as folks around these parts like to say. I worked downtown for six months in the Alabama Power Company building, and it was my most favorite location. I loved it because I got to be near the heart of the city – the inter-workings of downtown, which was seen as unsafe and scary by most people back then.

I walked to Linn Park and ate with the homeless, mostly studying them. Most often, I saw Jesus there.

Yesterday, my family went there. The homeless men and women were gone, needing to find another place to rest while families came to play and watch instead.

the fountain at Linn Park

playing in the dry part of the fountain

When we arrived downtown, we parked near a large beautiful tree. My kids love trees, as do I, so they began to dance around it. Right off the bat, a man told us that they could not play under the tree. He said, “The homeless like to pee and #2 and drink and party under that tree.” He made my children afraid of the tree, but we washed hands and walked to the parade, and we did not recognize any homeless yesterday.

the party tree

my babies

Birmingham is the home of the oldest and biggest Veteran’s Day Parade. Today, while we were there I had this vision of it being televised like the Macy’s Day Parade or something. We were there for an hour and a half and it was still going when we left. I think the Veteran’s Day parade is one of the many ways God is redeeming Birmingham, but there is still so much work to be done yet.

I took a ton of photos but I am trying not to overwhelm you with all that I saw and loved.

The man in the photo above clearly wanted me to take his picture as he paraded up and down in front of me several times. I zoomed into this photo a few times to see what the toilet seat says. It talks about 40 years of corruption – something about 4 billion dollars to the Jefferson County commission and Cooper Green hospital. In the middle of the zero, it says, “God See You.”

Right as he walked past, a woman dressed in a white choir robe walked by carrying a sign that had a verse from Isaiah on one side (didn’t catch it) and John 3:16 on the other.

Ramsay High School Band

teasing the Huffman band

Ramsay High is a school in the middle of downtown Birmingham in the part of Birmingham known as Five Points. I suppose this makes it “inner city.” My husband graduated from there. It was a magnet school at the time he went to high school meaning kids who were not zoned for it got to go there due to smarts or some such. He was zoned for Huffman, and that’s where his brother went. The Huffman band came marching by, and they said, “We are Huffman. We’re not Ramsay” at which point my husband yelled, “Yall wish you were Ramsay. Go Ramsay Rams,” and the lady standing next to him joined in. It caused great laughter. Isn’t the photo a great shot of my husband laughing?

I love the city. I love Birmingham. It is my home, and I believe there is so much Jesus wants to do here. I had forgotten how much I love the camera and seeing others through its lens. I have more to share, but I will save it for another day. I was reminded that Christ is fighting for our country; he is still fighting for our city. We must look for the work He is doing and get on board.

Go out and see your city today. Link me a picture of it. I would love to see your city or an instagram pic.

I am praying that we have a heart that sees today.