All posts by Neko Linda

Phoenix Rising spoken word fundraiser September 15th, 2016

Phoenix Rising - SCC Flier PR

Sister City Connection – Phoenix Rising spoken word benefit
Thursday, September 15th, 6:30-8:30 pm

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month and October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Sister City Connection is hosting a spoken word event for the benefit of CanSurvive Birmingham GYN Cancer Support Group and the Bust a Move Local team for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day, 60 Mile Walk to end breast cancer in Atlanta, Oct. 7-9. Join us for an inspiring evening featuring poignant stories of SURVIVAL, TRANSFORMATION and RENEWAL.

Featuring poetry from:

Phoenix Rising - SCC Flier PR (1)

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Lenten Reflection from Neko Linda: Mitakuye Oyasin

“Mitakuye oyasin” is an expression from the Lakota Sioux language. It reflects the worldview of interconnectedness held by indigenous peoples of North America. The phrase translates as “all my relatives,” “we are all related,” or “all my relations.”

It is a prayer of oneness and harmony with all forms of life: other people, animas, birds, insects, trees and plants, and even rocks, rivers, mountains and valleys.

Continue reading Lenten Reflection from Neko Linda: Mitakuye Oyasin

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Thanksgiving Day potluck + film at Beloved 3-6 PM

Thanksgiving 2015

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Lenten Reflection from Neko Linda: Shbag

“For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.”  1 John 3:20  

“The Aramaic word ‘shbag’ has been translated into the English word ‘forgive,’ but it actually has a much deeper and richer meaning than our Western concept of forgiveness.
Continue reading Lenten Reflection from Neko Linda: Shbag

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V-day at Beloved

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SPECIAL PERFORMANCE! Join us this Valentine’s Day, (Saturday, February 14th) from 7-9 p.m. at Beloved for a staged reading of “A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer,” a collection of pieces by world-renowned authors and playwrights.

Presenters at this performance will include Laura Secord, Anne Bailey, Shaunteka Curry, Salaam Green, Cynthia Drake, Johnny Coley, DeJuana McCary, Mimi Latoine and Alicia Clavell.

These diverse voices rise up in a collective roar to break open, expose, and examine the insidiousness of violence at all levels: brutality, neglect, a punch, even a put-down. All proceeds will benefit the YWCA Central Alabama‘s Domestic Violence Services and Programs.

A complimentary buffet featuring Mediterranean soups, salads and appetizers will be offered. Wine may be brought for personal use. Suggested donation: $10 at the door.  All proceeds will go to Central Alabama’s YWCA Domestic Violence Services and Programs.

Limited seating. Arrive early or email/text reservations to Neko:  205-542-9689, neko.uchina@gmail.com.

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Lenten reflection from Neko Linda

“Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.”

Hebrews 13.1-3 

This Bible passage describes what I feel is the spiritual core of Beloved Community Church and all that it embraces by way of compassionate action, creative possibilities and caring community.  It’s the main reason why I became a member of Beloved to begin with and have continued to remain an active member.

It can often be easier for me to show hospitality to strangers than to my own family and close friends.  For Lent this year, I would like to send special note cards each day to a dear family member or friend ~ All My Relations.

Neko Linda

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Sister City Connection to benefit Beloved Community Church

Sister City Connection

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Advent reflection from Neko & Davey

From Weaponry to Symphony: An Artist Makes Music from Confiscated Guns

From weapons to art

Mexican artist Pedro Reyes transformed 6,700 used weapons into an orchestra of musical instruments as an act of protest against gun violence and a firearms industry he says is killing his people.

As part of a project Reyes calls Imagine, he worked with six musicians over several weeks to re-imagine the weapons into objects that could create beautiful sounds. Together, they took the weapons apart and re-welded them into a variety of playable instruments that include wood, strings, and percussion.  

Continue reading Advent reflection from Neko & Davey

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Lenten reflection from Neko Linda

I don’t read the Bible.  To be honest, a lot of it doesn’t make sense to me.  When Reverend Angie explains Bible passages from within her own understanding and shared experiences, I can begin to understand some of it. 

My mother, Haruko, born and raised in Okinawa, Japan, has been a Southern Baptist evangelical Christian for the past thirty-five years or so.  She holds regular Bible study classes for Okinawan and Japanese women in her home.  Until I became a member of Beloved Community Church, my mother and I would have constant arguments about whether or not I was a Christian or believed that Jesus Christ was personal Lord and Savior.  

I don’t have the same certainty about Jesus Christ being my personal Lord and Savior as my mother does, but I do believe that God and the spirit of Jesus Christ is within me and every other person and being that walks, flies, crawls and grows on this planet. 

The church my mother has attended for over thirty years is predominantly white.  No matter how many of her Japanese-Okinawan friends that she brings in to attend, it is and will always be a Southern Baptist Church with a predominantly conservative white congregation.  

Beloved Community Church offers me sacred space, gathering, communion, reflection whether or not I show up for church service.  I feel I can be myself and offer whatever I can to help and be part of the congregation and community.   

Beloved Community Church 
A Beacon of Hope that Shines in Every Direction  

Matthew 5: 13 – 16  
13: You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its salt be restored?  It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men.”  14: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.”  15:  “Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house”  16: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”


Sincerely, 
Neko Linda

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Lenten reflection from Neko Linda

I can’t say that I know what it means to believe in God.  I don’t pray daily, but when I do pray, I’m amazed at the outcome.  Not sure that I feel compassion in the way that Jesus Christ did or does, but his words in action ring true to what I feel is most loving and living within myself.

As a child, stories in the Old Testament tested my imagination, while stories in the New Testament made me wonder.

I believe that miracles described in the Bible are not just allegories.  Our ancestors were scientific observers to a natural world that few of us living today have ever experienced.  Words that we use to communicate are only harbors for reflections on the miracles that breathe life into an eternal ocean of forgiveness and continuity at every moment we are changing.  Action is the creative source that feeds.  Whenever we move, the movement from within ourselves will move out and return back to us again and again.  It’s a basic law of nature.

For personal meditation and reflection, the Bible scripture that brings me back to center is Matthew 7: 1-4

Matthew 7:1  Judge not, that you be not judged.  Matthew 7:2  For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged, and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again.  Matthew 7:3 And why behold the mote that is in your brother’s eye, but consider not the beam that is in your own eye?  Matthew 7:4  How will you say to your brother, Let me pull out the mote out of your eye and, behold, a beam is in my own eye?


Neko Linda

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