Local Leader - Earl Leblanc

Earl Leblanc is the President of Experience Works Training Resources, with over 30 years of Corporate Leadership and Safety Training experience. He is a Lafayette resident; originally from New Orleans, La, where Athletes For Christ (AFCO) originated. He is an elder at Destiny of Faith Church and has a passion to see the gospel spread among the youth of our city. Over the past couple of years, he and his wife, Donna, have shown us how to work with other churches and organizations to advance the gospel.

How do you define leadership?

"I believe leadership is the ability to visualize the objectives and empower people to do what needs to be done to achieve those objectives. A leader serves his/her team by setting the model for success and being a good communicator and a mentor who helps others grow into that model."

What inspired you to become the leader you are today?

"My father was my inspiration as a boy. He was my coach, mentor, and friend. He taught me to do my best, respect others, and step up as a leader when the opportunity presented itself. He told me to help people do their best and thank them after for trying, even if they did not reach their target. Although he passed away when I was 13, I still remember how he would bring kids from all over the neighborhood to the park and teach us how to play sports. He would always reward everyone's efforts."

What legacy do you hope to leave?

"I hope that my legacy is one of being a servant of God who did what I was sent here to this earth to do, and to positively impact as many lives of our youth as I can. To raise up leaders. I hope that in the years after I'm gone, people will see me as an effective leader who made a difference in people's lives. And those people will continue to rise to the next level in making their environment better than before."

Why Sports?

There are many ways we could approach leadership development. Some may wonder how playing a game can be considered beneficial in the long-run. Isn't it something that should be used as a reward after the hard work of learning is completed? Our response would be, "Why can't learning be associated with what is enjoyable?" We hope that in developing leaders they find themselves engaged in meaningful, beneficial activities in which they find joy.

Fun, however, does not mean that the time we spend doing what we love is not intentional and full of hard work. Our practice time is focused. We work on fundamental skills to make us better ball players and to understand the importance of discipline. We strategize by practicing plays to win more games and to learn about being intentional. We scrimmage and play as a group to become better teammates, able to work together. Communication, respecting authority, and humility are crucial to our success. We deal with character constantly. How we each conduct ourselves in practice, during games, and in our lives matters and affects our team dynamic. This applies to the youth we are teaching as well as to us as coaches. Here's a great example of the impact we hope being a Christ Church King has on its players.

About a year ago, a young man became a student at the alternative school where I teach. He was undisciplined, had a bad attitude and acted a bit wild at times. Most people, including myself some days, didn’t have much hope for him. However, we were able to find a common bond: basketball. He soon found out that I coached a rec team. Just about every day he would ask if he could join us. At first I told him no because I didn’t believe that he would fit with our group of guys. It also didn't help that he was struggling to listen to authority at school. Why would he listen to me?

During our spring testing he was placed in my classroom. On the first day it was only he and I in the room. Once he was finished with his tests, he began to ask me questions about the team. As we were talking I offered him a deal. If he came every day to take his tests and didn’t get into any trouble with any of his teachers, he could start coming to our practices. Sure enough, he rose to the occasion and kept his end of the deal, so I had to keep mine. His summer and a fall semester was full of hard work and character building moments in class, at practice, and during games. This hard work ended up making it possible for him to exit the alternative school and he is now back at his base school. As an added bonus, he made the freshman team and is doing well.

His mom continues to emphasize how she has seen her son start to grow into the young man she has always known he could be since becoming a part of the Kings. At first she was hesitant to let her son come but once she started seeing the changes in him she said she "had to let her son keep playing ball." Now if there is an issue, she'll reach out and we will work together to help him see the effects of his choices and provide suggestions and help. She, like any involved parent, is an important part of the Kings.

We know that God is the one who causes the growth. We are simply striving to instill biblical truths into these young men and their families through our coaches and volunteers. Our hope is that while they are playing this game that they enjoy, they are also coming to know the God who loves them and learning valuable life lessons that will continue to impact them, their families and our community in the future.

Local Leader - Tina Shelvin Bingham

Tina Shelvin Bingham is the Executive Vice President of the McComb-Veazey Neighborhood Coterie. She is a proud Northside High School Alumnae. She received her B.S. in Civil Engineering from Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, LA and eventually earned her Master of Business Administration in Project Management from Ashford University. She is currently employed by the Lafayette Consolidated Government in the Department of Public Works.

                                          

How do you define leadership?
I define leadership as seeing a vision and having the courage to work towards achieving that vision. It is also empowering the people around you to join you on the journey towards the goal.

What inspired you to become the leader you are today?
My parents have always encouraged us to give back to the community. The concept of
"It takes a village…"  has always resonated throughout all aspects of my life. I always strive to help others in any way that I can and try to avail myself and resources where needed.

What legacy do you hope to leave?
I hope to leave a legacy of purpose. I want to inspire others, particularly the next generation of leaders, to use their strengths and talents for a purpose greater than themselves and to create their own legacy by being a positive impact on the world.

Follow what's happening with the McComb/Veazey Coterie here.

Extraordinarily Ordinary

Three times in the last month we were called “soldiers” for choosing to live where we have by people from this community and from other parts of town. Normally, I would never write about that because I could be risking that someone would interpret me recognizing it publicly as boasting or agreeing with the statement. It; however, actually touches on a topic that has become more and more concrete this year. The words “extraordinarily ordinary” have been coming to mind as we discuss the work that God is allowing us to become a part of. It usually comes up when we are talking about fundraising, recruiting volunteers or just looking back to trace where we’ve come from. It just seems nothing but ordinary. 

When we started working at Bridge Ministry of Acadiana in 2009 our goal was to work our way out of a job. We hoped that the young men and women we were investing our time and resources into would replace us as the leaders because they were best suited to reach the upcoming youth. That goal hasn’t really changed much. The mission of Engage Acadiana is to engage and develop leaders within the youth of our community by creating a safe and relational environment where they can be introduced to and grow in fellowship with God and each other.

As all missions do, it helps to define our values and the initiatives we choose to take on. Since we’re new to this area we’ve done simple things to get started, things any neighbor needs to do to become a part of their community. We started attending community planning meetings and helping with projects such as a community garden or block party. We cheer for the Northside Vikings whenever we get the chance and help build the Habitat for Humanity homes down the block. Jason teaches at a school in the neighborhood and partners with a high school basketball league by coaching a couple of teams and recruiting church members to work concessions and run the clock. We lock arms with other groups working for Unity by attending family fun days and marches for peace. We don’t get credit for those things. We didn’t think of any of those events or even organize most of them. Because of other people’s leadership we are able to show up and serve and help to further their vision because we have a similar one. And they are ordinary things, nothing extravagant or fancy.

So in the past two years we have spent a lot of time engaging with community leaders. We’ve lived on the Northside of Lafayette for six years. And in that time we have been surrounded by people who are hard at work, being agents of change within their own community. Just to be clear, our moving here was not to come and bring our solutions and demand that our way of doing things be followed. All of us bring our history and worldview with us. We have our strengths and our weaknesses. Reconciliation is the key. That requires seeking to understand each other, becoming interested in knowing and valuing the other person, and being willing to adjust so that you can live in unity together. Our vision is to assist in breaking down racial, social and economic barriers while we share our lives, skills, and resources. Coming from 9 to 5 and then heading home to be with people just like us the rest of our days just didn’t cut it. Becoming neighbors that share in the goodness and the struggles of the area was a must for our family.

I’ll never forget the difference of experiences we had in our first years. This is where Jason and I are a bit different. Jason is automatically able to see through to good in almost anyone and he doesn’t worry much. To be honest, I wouldn’t define myself as naturally brave, no matter where I am. I’ve never enjoyed being alone at night and can’t watch scary things because it haunts me. Those fears are typically ridiculous. It was God’s sense humor that put me in a place that others had deemed unsafe. Because of my history of worry I just replied that “safety is relative” and that anything could happen anywhere. At the beginning, however, Jason couldn’t be gone after dark because “what if?,” and we had to get a dog so that I would stop thinking I heard something, and I didn’t walk to work by myself because I didn’t know how to handle the guy on the corner. It wasn’t my normal and people’s opinions had bled over into my beliefs. I didn’t have any negative personal experiences to draw on in regard to that part of town. All I could go on was what I had heard from others, history I had read on the news or how I felt. Sure, I won’t pretend that everything around me was good. Vacant homes were being broken into, guys were dealing drugs down the block, and I watched from my kitchen table as literal SWAT teams sought a suspect more than once. But does that mean that this little neighborhood was less valuable and void of leaders? Despite feelings of discomfort at times, we just believed differently and we wanted to help the people we knew outside the area, that had so little hope, see differently too. 

It was relationships and time that broke through layers of fear and judgment. 

Working everyday with children and youth that had so much potential and love. Becoming friends with my neighbor who was also pregnant by her choosing to meet me in the morning to head out for walks together and introducing me to people she knew let me see my community from a new perspective. Neighborhood meetings and family days in the park made me a friend and helped me to network with older, wiser neighbors that would teach me what my family had modeled: how to sew, garden, cook, and parent. Maybe we were more alike than it seemed. Sharing tools, lawn mowers, movies, baby clothes and literal cups of sugar helped us break out of the belief that we were supposed to be independent. We can never fully express how incredibly humbling and healing our time in Four Corners was and how indebted we are to those neighbors for accepting that couple that didn’t fit in and didn’t always get it right. They were teaching us what we thought we knew about being neighbors.

When we moved to McComb/Veazey people didn’t fully understand what our fascination with this part of town was and why we would once again invest in a home where there wasn’t a guaranteed financial win. We were told that we chose the “bad part south of Louisiana Ave.” and that "they shoot over there." “Are we considering our children?” To be fair we were aware of the issues. We did research statistics of the area. We learned at the time that the average income was $18,558 and that it was made up of 45.5% renter occupied housing. Racially it is made up of 82.6% minority so we wouldn't exactly blend in. A year before, there was a murder two blocks from the home that we were purchasing. But do you know what else we knew? We knew there was an active Coterie, a planning committee made up of local community members, completing projects on a regular basis that were improving the neighborhood, 8 to 10 brand new Habitat for Humanity homes finished or being built, the church we attend was moved to a new location within the neighborhood, and we had built relationships throughout the Northside that had us more than convinced that leadership was present and that this was a growing community too. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?

We enjoy going to events and seeing people over and over who believe in the good of your community and who are willing to help move it forward. We consider ourselves blessed to be a part of this area and for the ways that it’s made an impact on us, our family and the friends who maybe would have continued to let the perception of others create in them fear and judgement. It’s not always easy. There are still very real problems that cause worry and frustration. Just in 2015 we have had 12 shooting deaths within a mile of our home and some of them we knew. Our schools must improve and employment percentages must grow. Life here will always be a little different because we’re not from here and we will be pushed way beyond what we would typically see as comfortable.

Comfort; however, isn’t what we are chasing.

In Hebrews 11:10 of the bible it describes why Abraham was willing to obey God. It says, “For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.” We love McComb and Veazey and Monroe and New Jack and Truman and Azalea Park and Fightin’ville and Frooty Town and all the other parts of the Northside of Lafayette that many of the people reading this have probably never heard of, because this is where we live and God loves and is in this part of town as much as he loves and is in the others. “Incarnational ministry,” basically entering into someone else’s reality as much as is actually possible in order to better serve and share the love of God, is an ordinary idea for Christian. I guess you could say that's having "boots on the ground."

If you are interested in financially supporting Engage Acadiana click here to donate under "Community Center".

Christ Church Kings

We recently participated in a local basketball league called Athletes for Christ Outreach (AFCO).  The league is for boys ages 13-17 and ran for 6 weeks.  Each Saturday the teams had a game; finishing up by a league championship tournament. The Christ Church Kings had 9 boys and 3 coaches who came together with the hopes of being this year’s champion.  More than that though, we hoped that by participating this group of young men would develop into men of God who would work together and trust one another long term.

Some of the guys I’ve known for a while, some I coached on the Northside High Freshman Basketball team this year and others were from the neighborhood I had recently met. While a few were friends before or knew of each other, not all of them had personal relationships. We started practicing about 2 weeks before the season began so they could meet one another and start to learn how to work as a team. Naturally, at our first few practices the guys were reserved and kept to themselves. Then one night things took a turn for the worse.

It was one of those practices where nothing was going right for anyone (coaches included).  We were in the middle of our UCLA shooting drill and the guys were just out of sync and you could see the frustration pouring out of their faces.  At the end of a drill, two of the boys began to exchange words and then two more joined in, one on each side.  Frustration began to escalate until we as coaches stepped in. Once the boys settled down we brought them together. We explained teamwork and being accountable for our own actions.  This was something that we had been discussing in our weekly bible study so it wasn’t the first time they had heard it. It was, however, the first time they had to decide to apply it in this situation when they really didn’t want to.  As we returned back to our practice you could sense that the fellas weren’t quiet as into things as they had previously been and that there was still some tension in the air. It was anyone’s guess as to how the rest of the season would go.

As the weeks went on though, you could see friendships developing.  Before games, the guys would sit together in the stands and watch other teams play. The tone went from tense to playful (sometimes a little too much).  At this point we were 3-0 and the guys were coming together on the court; but this league was about more than just winning basketball games.  After practice one night one of the guys gets everybody’s attention and says, “Hey look, after this we all gonna be cool still, I mean y’all my boys now.”  This may not seem like much but this came from one of the guys who earlier in the season has the shortest temper and really didn’t want to let the others get to know him. As the season went on I watched them begin to trust one another more and more.  When things weren’t going the way someone wanted during a game or when they were struggling with a new drill, often one of their teammates was the one who would step in and encourage them.  We call that “picking their teammate up.”  Just seeing one of them taking input from another was a major improvement! 

While we may not have become league champions, 1 point loss in the semi-finals, this group locked arms each week on and off the court.  It took some time and there’s plenty of growth to be had, but walls eventually came down. What is even more exciting is that they all wanted to stick together and continue with our Sunday night bible study and practice.

The end of Chapter 2 in the book of Acts is often a passage in the bible that speaks to community and people coming together. More than just helping these guys develop friendships, which is an important skill, it is our hope that they would “receive the Word…and be devoted to the apostles teaching and to one another…having all things in common” in the Lord. Please pray for these young men, their families and the friends that they are now bringing with them.

Will you jump the fence?

The other night I was out later than usual and there was some suspicious activity going on at our neighbor’s house, so Lacey had shut the gate to the driveway to deter people from just walking up uninvited.  When I got home Lacey asked me if I had spoken to any of the guys from our community group to see if they happened to stop by even though group was cancelled.  I hadn’t and was curious as to why she was asking me this.  She told me that about the time group typically starts someone rang the back doorbell and she couldn’t get to it fast enough to see who it was. 

At first I didn’t think much of it, until I asked her why the gate had the rope on it.  I could tell by the puzzled look on her face that something just wasn’t quite right.  We came to the conclusion that for the rope to still be in place after someone to gotten to the back door, they had to open the gate and replace the rope from the outside or they had to have jumped the gate. Did I mention that it’s six feet tall?  As we threw out person after person we just couldn’t figure out who this could be.  Then about a day later it hit me that it might be one of the boys from down the street. We’ll call him Rick. 

The next day when I saw Rick I asked him about this.  Sure enough it was him.  He said, “I went to the front but couldn’t reach the doorbell, so I jumped the gate.  I just wanted to shoot ball, Mr. J.”  Rick comes over just about every day to shoot ball and this was the first time that the gate was closed, so it’s not too surprising for him to have been confused. 

As the week went on I couldn’t stop thinking about this small incident. Then it hit me; Rick, this 13 year old boy, was willing to do whatever it took to shoot ball that day. How willing am I to do whatever it takes to be with God whom I say I love?  Am I willing to give up my own comforts and desires to be with Jesus? 

In Mark 2 there is a scene where Jesus is preaching and so many people are gathered together that you couldn’t even get close to Jesus.  As four men came bringing a paralytic there was no way that they were going to be able to get this man near him.  Once they realized this, did they turn around in defeat? No, they removed the roof and lowered the paralytic down to Jesus.  Why? They knew that this man needed Jesus and were willing to do whatever it took to get him close to Him.  How willing are you to take big risks to be close to Jesus?  Rick, while he doesn’t know Jesus yet, clearly has a desire to go after things that he is passionate about.  As Christians we often say that “all we need is Jesus,” but do we jump fences or lower our friends down roofs in order to be near Him?