Gray's Story (pp. 114-115)
Gray is a wonderful man who is eighty-eight years old. He has had numerous operations and lives with pain most of the time. His wife of fifty-three years died a few years ago, and he eventually had to sell their home and move into a retirement home in another state. I've known Gray for about twelve years and throughout those twelve years, every time I asked him how he was or how things were going, he would always respond, "Fantastic." He never had a tone of irony or sarcasm. He always said a courageous, confident, uplifting, "Fantastic!" In the midst of the pain and the many changes in his life, Gray is still able to affirm that all is well or at least there is the desired hope, undergirded with faith, that all will be well. Congregations that are becoming multicultural also experience change and even pain. Yet "fantastic!" can also be our Christian response as we affirm God's presence in this in-between time, in the midst of change, and believe that all is well or at least all will be well if we hold fast in faith to God's kin-dom vision. In very powerful ways, multicultural congregations are prophetic witnesses to our world, taking the lead in creating community despite the tremendous diversity among us. They provide a beacon of hope not only for the church of the future but also for our society and world. By finding unity in the midst of diversity, multicultural congregations are creating peace by seeing all as kin in the family of God, by seeing the face of Christ in one another.
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