Beth Wise

Tag: neighbors

Los Queremos Aquí :: We Want Them Here

The first asylee I ever met was a man from Eritrea. We’ll call him Ben. Ben had flown to Central America and come into the US across the Mexican border. He claimed asylum when he got here. I met him when he’d already been here about two years waiting on a judge to hear his…
She Can’t Speak For Us: An Open Letter to Good White People

Hey there good white people- We need to chat. But first, a story. You might know that I volunteer with an organization called Faith in Texas, which is a “multi-racial, multi-faith movement developing civic leadership in faith communities for economic and racial justice.” They had a press conference today at Robert E. Lee park in Dallas.…
Conversations Overheard from Our Backyard

SATURDAY EVENING Alex: I haven’t seen Pamela today at all. I haven’t seen her all day. Beth: Did you check the bushes? A: Yeah. The bushes, the nesting box. Unless she’s hiding behind the shed, I think a cat must have gotten her or something. B: Okay, just wait. Let me check. Sometimes they’re hiding….Hmmm.…
On Why My Feelings Need to Share the Stage

Do you know what I realized last night? During elementary, middle, and high school, I only had ONE teacher of color. Yep, Señora Batts, middle school Spanish teacher, was a Latina woman. Other than her, I cannot think of a single instructor, band director, principal, coach looked like me. Even at Texas A&M, I can only…
Jesus Loves the Criminals

A few weeks ago, I finished a book at the behest of a friend. He had been bothering me to read it for about a year, but non-fiction is hard for me, ya’ll. But I finally picked it up at the library. I devoured it. I think it took me three days. And that’s with…
Fight the Pharisee: Woe #1

I washed my hair with moldy apple cider last Sunday. It was unintentional, I assure you. Last year, I found out that rinsing your hair with alcohol (i.e. beer) was really good for it and so I’ve been doing it every so often since November (read: During our home study, there were cans of beer that…
Guest Post: Lindsey Wallace

This is a welderbeth first. We have a guest blogger today. I’ve known Lindsey since, hmmm, at least 2006. We were a part of a tight knit house church together and we’ve kept in touch over the years, even though we live a few hours apart. She even ran in our half-marathon team last year.…
Syrious

I still remember the phone call that I made to my parents in the Spring of 2006. “Mom? Dad? I think I want to go to Syria over Spring Break.” My church was taking a “fact finding” trip and they needed people to go meet with the missionaries there and then come back and get…
The Danger of Comfort

I’ve been perusing my old xanga site, where I blogged all through college and the beginning of my marriage. How fun it is to have a record of my thoughts going all the way back to high school (where all my friends blogged at diaryland). I was reading some stories that I had written about…
Dear Daughter: Sonic Love

Hey sweet girl- Did you know it’s been almost a year since we’ve started this adoption process? A YEAR! That is so long and we have so far to go, but this has been the most important, emotional year of my life- a year filled with inexplicable joy and heartaches. If we’re to believe the…
Thoughts from A Motorcycle Bar

Let me start with this picture: This basically sums up my experiences at the motorcycle bar. This man was wearing a helmet with horns and a mowhawk. He was carrying around something wrapped in a blanket. At one point, between songs, he unwrapped his shofar, which is an animal horn that was used by the Jewish people…
Oh, Look at All the Complex People

I worked at a homeless shelter my freshman year in college. Every week, I would make the trek from my dorm room to my car, which was like traveling from Dallas to Russia on foot, drive 20 minutes to downtown Bryan, and spend a few hours with some of the clients of Twin City Mission.…