Sandbox Cooperative Podcast

As we continue our series on immigration, we’ll share our conversation with Marian Bock. We had the opportunity to connect with Marian through David and Joe, who shared about their community, St. Michael’s, in our last episode. Marian is a member of the Albuquerque Friends Meeting House, a quaker community in Albuquerque providing sanctuary for a woman named Emma. We had a great conversation, and learned so much about our immigration system, the joys and struggles of sanctuary, and the place that each of us can have in alleviating this crisis that so many face.

The conversation on immigration is incredibly heated in our culture. But we believe the conversation can change when we begin with the dignity and value of all people - and our guests today showed us just that. As we continue our series on immigration, we’ll introduce you to the community at St. Michael Episcopal Church in Albuquerque. We felt an instant connection with them, and they had so much to share and teach us - not only about immigration - but about openness.

We are about to enter into yet another election cycle, and once again immigration issues are at the forefront of it all. We are no experts on the matter, but we wondered - what does the conversation look like if we start with the worth, value, and dignity of all people?

In future weeks these episodes will include conversations we had in New Mexico last summer, but we want to begin this topic by replaying a conversation we had in Episode 12. 

A few years ago the Syrian refugee crisis was all over the news. Pictures were showing up everywhere of people fleeing the violence in their home country. And of course, fear and a heated conversation on immigration were at the center of our political discourse. In the middle of all that, we had a conversation with Scott Hicks, a lawyer in Ohio whose practice centers in immigration law, to dispel some of the fears and misconceptions around this process. (You can read the Scott’s post that prompted this conversation here).

About a month ago we asked the question, “What do you wonder about?” We invited listeners to message us and let us know. In today’s episode we heard from a listener named Kelly. She was wondering what it means to live as a person of belief in a pluralistic society. What does it mean to maintain and strengthen relationships while still remembering that you are good just as you are?

We’d love to know what you wonder about too, so let us know! It’s easy - send us a message via social media, email us at [email protected] OR call us and leave a voice message at (507) 722-1086.

While we were on a road trip we met leaders from Generation Justice in Albuquerque, New Mexico who taught us that love, listening and honoring people’s stories can change the world.

Generation Justice is a multi-racial project that centers race equity to train youth to harness the power of community through leadership, media, narrative, and critical consciousness. Their mission is to inspire youth to become multidimensional leaders who are committed to social transformation. In New Mexico, Generation Justice has been recognized as the premier youth media and leadership group, and locally and nationally, has been the recipient of numerous awards. Learn more at GenerationJustice.org.

In this episode we talk with writer and organizer Carla Godwin and musician Ben Grace about a new song they co-wrote called “Preacher’s Daughter.” The song sparked conversation on a wide range of topics from creativity, to faith, and to discovering, claiming, and using your voice.

About Ben Grace

Australian singer-songwriter Ben Grace’s impeccably crafted songs hover in the space between lightness and the depths, wrestling their way through humor and melody to peel back the layers and reveal the naked truth of us. Through the specificity of his own deconstruction, Ben writes into our universal search for belonging, spiritual homecoming, and desire to live seen and unashamed. Find Ben’s music on Spotify, iTunes, Google Play, or on Bandcamp. Follow Ben on all social media @BenGraceMusic.

About Carla Godwin

Carla is a Minneapolis-based writer and speaker and co-creator of the national conversation for women in leadership, She Is Called. In addition to hosting Holy Writ Podcast, she is a regular panelist on the Christian Feminist Podcast. On a summer day in the Twin Cities, she’s cycling on the city trails or playing at Lake Harriet with her daughters. The long northern winters give her plenty of time for her other diversions—coffee and books. Find more about Carla and She Is Called at SheIsCalled.com.

Have you ever experienced a change in your life, your relationships, your work… and just plowed ahead like everything is fine and nothing is different? How do we acknowledge when a season has changed and lean into a new reality? In this episode we will explore these ideas and consider some ways to get unstuck, to look up, and live into the “new thing.”

Check out the video from May 2, 2013 : Mowing Snow

Special thanks to Julie Stevens and Charles Ortloff for their thoughts in this episode.

With Christmas and New Year’s coming, we are taking time to pull some new stories and podcasts together for 2019… and there is a whole lot of exciting stuff to look forward to: St. Michael's Church in Albuquerque, Generation Justice, and more conversations from our time in Houston last summer. But between now and then, we want to hear from you…

What do you wonder about? 

What inspires your curiosity? What do you want to know more about or wish you had an answer to?

Would you share your answer with us? Here’s how:

Send us a message via social media, email us [email protected]
OR call us and leave a voice message at (507) 722-1086.

A lot of our holiday traditions revolve around food… but maybe none more than Thanksgiving with its iconic turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes and gravy. As we enter this season current estimates are that more than 800 million people - or 11% of the world’s population - are hungry.

Thankfully, there are organizations working to change this every day. In this episode we share our conversation with Mikka McCracken. Mikka works with ELCA World Hunger, an organization that offers health clinics, microloans, water wells, animal husbandry, community meals, advocacy, and more to develop sustainable solutions that get at the root causes of hunger and poverty. Learn more at ELCA.org/hunger.

We live in a society that values speed, productivity and efficiency; and our technology drives this in a way that can often be unhealthy. These are good things to a point, but maybe we’ve gone a bit too far. In this episode, we talk about some practices that might help us get back on track and allow us to own our devices, rather than letting our devices own us.