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M Lisa Scinto

M Lisa Scinto - Uvalde

Letter to the Editor: Mountain Park Church ministry is a moving experience – as published in Ahwatukee Foothills News

Published in Ahwatukee Foothills News, August 30, 2023

M. Lisa Scinto, African-American Author

Click here to learn more about my recently completed family biography.

“Whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren, that you do unto Me.” (Matthew 25:40)

I am saddened when I see homeless people on the street asking for aid. I usually give them a bottle of water and some cash, but my home church, Mountain Park Church in Ahwatukee, has grown a wonderful ministry called Hope for the Homeless.

On the third Saturday of every month, the church opens its lobby, and as many as 140 people from all over the valley come and pack 2,500 canvas bags with snacks, first aid, personal hygiene items, water, blankets, and numerous other items that provide comfort to people living on the streets.

The operation is so efficient that bags packed in the morning are boxed, loaded in trucks, and shipped to organizations that support destitute people throughout Arizona.

Some of the Hope Bags are in the hands of those in need by the afternoon.

Packing bags is a family affair. Parents are encouraged to bring their young children. I talked to some of their parents, and they felt it was a perfect way to introduce them to volunteerism.

I was asked to interview a 10-year-old boy who comes every month and does everything that he is asked to do, from packing Hope Bags to taking trash to the dumpster, and does so with a cheerful heart and a wonderful work ethic. He testified that he wanted to help people, to make the world a better place.

Also, a group of volunteers cook and prepare a nutritious home-cooked meal in the church kitchen on Saturday.

The meals are taken to Andre House on Sunday. Volunteers from the church routinely serve 200 or more people who live on the streets. No one is turned away.

On Sunday, I went down to Andre House, which is situated in a homeless tent area, to participate in serving the meal.

The conditions that the people are living in are heartbreaking, but I was moved by the respect and kindness the servers showed to people who are in such dire condition that it would cause many Americans to turn their heads and look away.

The meal was beautifully presented and much appreciated. I spoke to Mountain Park Church’s new pastor Charlton Scullard and asked him what he thought about the ministry and why he supported it.

He said, “I want the church to be a light in the darkness.”

The church also supports other ministries in the U.S. and in Honduras, Uganda, Mexico, Lebanon – all over the world.

Hope for the Homeless was founded in 2012 by a lawyer who had previously served the homeless community and a businessman who had his own challenges with homelessness.

Both felt called to make a difference, to serve the least among us. This shows that everyone can do something to make the world a better place for all. The first step is to care.

I feel privileged to be a part of a church community that tries to live the gospel in its day-to-day interactions with the world around them.

To see the Letter to the Editor in Ahwatukee Foothills News on page 34, click here

M Lisa Scinto - Uvalde

A Former Principal’s take on the Tragedy in Uvalde, Texas

M. Lisa Scinto, African-American Author

Click here to learn more about my recently completed family biography.

I am very disturbed about the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. I was a high school principal from 2008 to 2013 and a secondary school assistant principal from 2000 to 2007. I’ve seen many threats to schools during my tenure, and I have experienced shootings involving my campuses.

The first school shooting was during dismissal. A former student drove up and shot a male student as he left campus. The second shooting was at a park after school. There was a feud between students on my campus and one of our sister campuses. They decided to meet at the park and hash it out. The students from the other school came with guns. One of my students was killed. She was not involved in the dispute she had merely taken her little sister to the park. The six-year-old was not hurt physically, but she witnessed the murder of her sister and was left alone at the park.

MLK - M.Lisa Scinto - African American Author

In 2007, I was an assistant principal at a middle school. A car backfired across the street from the school playground. Both staff and students heard it and thought it was a gun shot. As the lead emergency personnel, I was in charge until the police arrived. I put the school on lockdown, called the police, and notified the SRO. When the police arrived, they took command of the school. They went from classroom to classroom, opening the door and entering the rooms with guns drawn. They worked in unison with the SRO. The principal and the assistant principals were ordered to stay in their offices and lock the doors. Police kept in contact with us via walkie-talkie. After the school was cleared, the police, gave us a report and debriefed staff. Many of the teachers were shaken because the police entered every locked classroom with guns drawn.

Every principal at every school that I’ve ever worked at has been responsible for formulating and submitting an emergency plan to the district before school starts. The plan designates who is in charge in case of an emergency and what each person’s role is. It also outlines the procedure for what happens in a crisis and who is the person in command until the police arrive. Faculty are not required to go out and face danger, but they are in charge of making sure the police are called, the SRO is notified, the school is locked down, etc. I have been the person in command at several schools.

Under no circumstance have I ever seen the police stand back. I have also never seen a situation where the SRO officers did not have a master key. As a principal, I had a master key, the janitors had a master key, and in most cases, I also had a master key as an assistant principal. I do not understand how the situation in Texas came about.

Where was the school’s emergency plan? Where was the principal or the person who was the leader during an emergency? Who was in charge? Why didn’t the police shoot the door handle if it was locked and they did not have a key? This was a tragedy of an individual’s mental illness, and failure to enact emergency plans that should’ve been rehearsed repeatedly during lockdown and emergency preparedness drills.

Was this negligent approach because of a lack of caring? Or was it the fact that the police felt that they were out gunned because of the nature of the weapon the young man had? Why is it that we are the only country in the world that tolerates this? Our children and our teachers are not safe.

Senator Ted Cruz said at a NRA meeting, “the only defense against the bad guy with a gun is a good guy with the gun.” 19 police officers were standing outside of the door with guns during this carnage. These 19 good guys did not prevent or stop this tragedy. We need stricter gun laws. We need to ban the purchase of weapons of war. We need background checks. Until we institute common sense measures, our children will be afraid to go to school.

A Time for Atonement and Prayers for Forgiveness M. Lisa Scinto African-American Author

A Time for Atonement and Prayers for Forgiveness

M. Lisa Scinto, African-American Author

Click here to learn more about my recently completed family biography.

6 April 2020: In the Eyes of God, there is no difference between the heir to the British Throne and this poor child in a cage at the United States Border.

Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt. Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless.” Exodus 22:21-24 21

MLK - M.Lisa Scinto - African American Author

My pastor did a series on the wrath of God; how He punished Old Testament Israel when they disobeyed his laws. The punishments included invasions and enslavement in Babylon. God’s laws warn us not to oppress and take advantage of widows, orphans and foreigners. Christians believe His word is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Mary and Joseph fled with the infant Jesus to Africa to save Him from Herod’s slaughter of infants in Bethlehem. Ancient Rome was highly managed; they also occupied Egypt. Rome was counting the World so that they could be taxed. I doubt that Joseph and Mary checked in with the Romans at the border. They more than likely crossed the Egyptian border and went into hiding.

Many people fled to the United States from violence in South America. Some arrived with their relatives, some children were sent alone in order to save their lives. The United States of America, the richest civilization that ever existed on the face of earth, took desperate foreign children away from their parents and put many in cages. Some arrived as families. Some were women and children; possibly widows whose husbands died along the way or were executed in the carnage in some South American countries. Their stories are numerous.

We made some of them orphans. We mistreated foreigners in our land. We put infants in cages often and left them for hours in dirty diapers. We refused to give many of them flu shots because it would be giving free medical care to illegal aliens. Several children at the border were noted to have died from influenza.

Now God has put us in cages! We cannot leave our homes! He sent a plague to our land; to the world.

We need to pray for forgiveness and atone for our sinfulness as a nation. We have broken God’s laws.

“Whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren that you do unto me.”

Paper stimulus checks won’t arrive until August for people who do not have online checking and auto deposits… 5 month to get money for food and rent. This exposes the underbelly of American society; wealthiest society that ever existed. Using a biblical comparison we are possibly richer than Solomon yet lines are wrapped around the block to get emergency bags of food from charity after missing a couple pay checks. It is deplorable.

M. Lisa Scinto - African-American Author

Reliving 1968 – MLK Day Recollections

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M. Lisa Scinto, African-American Author

Click here to learn more about my recently completed family biography.

When I was a child, I was sitting in the backseat of my parent’s car. My father was picking my mother up from her night school class. As she entered the car, he said three words that I will never forget, “they shot King.”

King’s assassination sparked days of rioting throughout the nation. The Michigan National Guard was deployed to quell the violence. Guardsmen pointed their rifles at my face as they drove down my street in tanks. They laid their handcuffed prisoners on our lawn. A nearby gas station was set on fire and exploded. Most of the stores were burned. I saw a man shot in the head.

MLK - M.Lisa Scinto - African American Author

President Johnson said to bi-partisan congressional leaders, “In a time like this, all good men should ask themselves what can I do to advance brotherhood and equality in American society.” The Fair Housing Act was passed shortly after. Many gains were made.

In 2022 I find myself in an America that is regressing to the America that I grew up in as a child. To me, it’s almost inconceivable that we’re struggling to pass voting protections and that voter suppression is a major issue. Dr. King worked tirelessly and gave his life to help legislate civil rights for all Americans. Civil rights that I did not possess as a newborn in  1954. I shutter to see them being dismantled during my grandchildren’s childhoods.

The reason these things continue to happen is that they are not faced. Our children and grandchildren will grow up with these types of recurring societal disruptions if we don’t openly discuss racial inequality in American society and seek ways to be a part of the solution.

“We can’t solve all the problems we face… but we can’t solve any problems without facing them.” -MLK

Scripture says prayer without works is dead. I grew up across the street from a Lutheran Church. The church was all-white, but the neighborhood became all black after my family moved in. In the midst of the riot, the young white pastor set up a table in front of his church with food for the people in the community.