"Almost nothing fazes him or his wife, Noël, who have been living in a modest house in the under-resourced neighborhood since 1980. They know what to do if they hear gunshots (call 911 and then see if they can help), how to clean up a dozen hypodermic needles from the front porch
"(use a broom to sweep them up without touching them), and how to scare off someone breaking into your house (open the door and yell at them).
Piper didn’t have a grand vision for city revitalization when he moved in four decades ago. He just wanted to be able to walk to work,
"and thought it was more authentic to live in the same neighborhood as the church. Soon after, convinced that “presence matters,” he issued a call for Bethlehem members to join him. Within a decade, 400 of them had bought homes in one of the city’s worst areas.
"That was 1980, back before cities were cool—long before Tim Keller released Center Church in 2012..." #oof
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