Why Care?

People around this world (some around you in your community) are suffering some have dirty water, some are starving, some have no shelter does this matter? Brenna and I set out on this journey God called us on to love just as Jesus did. Struggle is our daily existence now, we do it with joy in our hearts. We live in community with our neighbors and give things that can never be paid back. We share meals with those who cannot share a meal with us, they have no food. We are constantly on the go! giving rides, hearing struggles, talking with neighbors, and loving all with no strings attached. The only model we know to follow is Jesus', I see people looking all the time for things to make a bigger impact bring in more folks, save them and it will all be good. People are not looking to be saved anymore! They want to be loved and to have value. Jesus showed everyone they had value even the poor, tax collectors, sinners and those sitting out front of liquor stores waiting to score that next beer! Yea they didn't have liquor stores back then but they had fountains! His message of come to the father through me was spoken without words. I have been in a funk as of late and about ready to give up and go back to working full time. I don't know if this is what God wants for us but times are tough and my heart hurts so much for those around us! I'm just one guy and I'm not independently wealthy (Both things I knew when we started this journey). Today I thought hey I will clean my shed up and while doing it all these feelings and emotions overloaded me. I'm gonna focus this year putting my thoughts on paper. Brenna and I were talking and I told her my concerns and that I'm ready to just go back to work we can feed our friends share our lives still just on a lot smaller time frame. Then my friend Lloyd calls me he sounds terrible he has a bad cold and is out of firewood. We went around empty lots around town and got a whole truck load of wood. It's weird how God sends his messages knowing just what we need! for me it is to help someone in need. He sometimes sends his angels to help out in ways we least expect it. I am truly thankful to be on this journey and am blessed with a great group of family and friends. I'm ready to work to make a difference in 2015 and continue to love my neighbor as myself! 

Humbled Again

We have seen a lot of highs and lows over our journey this past year. I have learned some valuable kingdom lessons throughout this time. I have a friend many have seen my posts about looking for a job only to find closed doors in every direction, due to past mistakes and some interviews not turning out as he would like. He has been knocked down on a constant and what does he do? He looks at me and smiles and says God is good. He gets up and he tries again, tonight I wrote a letter of recommendation for him ( I never thought I would qualify to recommend anyone but hey I have him fooled I guess). I worked with him on many occasions and the guy has no quit he works hard and doesn't give up. I wrote this letter on his request for a job he interviewed at and they are telling him he can't be hired due to sporadic work history since he got out of prison. The only thing sporadic is a lack of a second chance, upon exciting prison he started using his VA benefits going back to school full time when our govt decided to cut va funding. He had one month to find employment because his school money was gone. Enter sporadic ness he applied everywhere now two weeks ago he got hired and now works at KFC, before that he worked with me every chance I had work for him, and did a great job everytime. I write this not to ask for him a job but to let people know good people are trying hard and their faith in God keeps their light shining even In the neighborHOOD. Keep your hearts and eyes open don't be to quick to look down on those who may be sitting on their front porch or around town not working during the day. Their story may be one you want to hear! God placed this man in my life and he has become one of my best friends. God is good all the time and all the time God is good!!!

Psalm 33: 4-5

Why Ask Why

                    

            I have been asked several questions over the past year that I may not have fully answered. Why quit the fire department? Did someone make you mad or did you hate your job? No I loved my job and I love all the people I worked with. It was not always a bed of roses and I didn't always get along with those I worked with but I still really enjoyed it. Why quit well my wife and I felt called by God to put our faith where our mouths were. You see we have been going to church and claiming to be Christ followers for years but our lives hardly showed it except on Sundays and Wednesdays. We ourselves asked why to that and started to study and pray on that and we listened and heard Gods call on mission. No question after that we knew what we had to do, I fought it for six months finally my wife wrote my two week notice and our true life began. We have grown closer as a couple and family since then. Why move to a poverty stricken area of town and live with those people? Will your kids be safe? Your gonna get robbed and all your stuff will be taken. Well we moved down to an area of town that sees and has a lot of bad news daily, where we try to share the gospel and bring love into an area that the love of God is not seen frequently. We are just as safe maybe safer than we were in our little subdivision. We have loved on our neighbors and they love us to the point that we don't have to worry, our house is the most secure in the block, it is watched like a hawk. If we do get our stuff stolen what have we lost? Stuff, it is all replaceable, and guess what we probably have to much excess anyways. I have been questioned so much as to why we have done what we have done, we lived in a life where we depended on ourselves to get things done in our lives and we left no room for God. We have flipped that we no longer depend on self but on God there is little room for self when your heart, eyes and ears are on God. This is not easy I like to have a constant flow of funds and excess so that I know when the bills are due I can pay them. I let that go and depend on God that he will provide. I have been doing all kinds of work as jobs come along that seem to get us enough to pay our bills. I have mowed lawns, painted a house, demo work, to even just being a patient ear and help a lady out through a stressful time at her house. How did these jobs come about? God, I have not advertised and I have not pushed it I have listened and when opportunities arise I jump on it and get it done. I continue to get questions and to be honest I am down to the answer of its a God thing. My question is why did it take us this long to figure this out?

 Disclaimer God may not be calling you to this lifestyle, but you do have to stop and listen if you want to hear where he is calling you.

Food for thought Matt 19 18-22

Blogging my life or at least while the internet is still on.

Ok after over a years delay I am back to blogging this is going to be a little different than before. My plan is to not just blog about what we are up to. I plan on opening up to the stresses of daily life living in a different way trying to follow Jesus through the streets and poverty stricken areas of America. I plan on sharing spiritual struggles, physical struggles and life in general. Transparency is not something you see a lot of in middle class living. There is always room for smiling through stuff and putting on the mask and family picture that hey we got it together and everything is alright. Guess what we don't have it all together and everything is not alright. I have found a significant difference in lifestyles between middle to lower class over the past year. One being in community, when you are struggling in poverty you are open with friends and there seem to be more of a sharing of lives and spiritual issues not the facade of will you pray for my "friend" they are having some real issues right now. I want to be upfront and personal in ways that make us uncomfortable sharing in our experiences so you can see our passion for following Jesus through the good times and the bad. If you are reading this it means you chose to follow this blog, now I want to warn you first; I am going to be sharing my feelings and opinion on subjects about life in general and sometimes I will weigh in on current social issues. Since you chose to follow if you disagree with some or all that I post please comment or call and we can discuss between us don't let the sun go down with a disagreement between us. If we can't discuss the issues that you have with my post please unfollow the last thing I want to do is create a stumbling block for you. That being said this will be from a struggling Christians perspective so your not gonna see a whole lot of f-bombs and things of that nature not saying I don't slip up and drop them now and then but you will not read that here I will censor that part of it. Most posts will be less than a page, less than a minute of your life if you care to waste it hearing my ramblings. Love you all for coming along this crazy journey. I am no longer on Facebook, I still have an account only to share my blog to, I will not comment or post anything else on there thanks. 

The path is not traveled much it is unkept, rocky and full of hills and valleys, if you will get off life's highways and follow it you can live for eternity.

Food for thought Mathew 15 8 and 9

Excess

Excess

 

I am sad to say it has taken me close to 40 years to realize that I am too comfortable.  Jason and I have recently read quite a few books that pertain to “love thy neighbor as thyself”, Crazy Love by Francis Chan, Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne, Barefoot Church by Brandon Hatmaker, and I have also read “7” and Interrupted by Jen Hatmaker.

 On our path to becoming uncomfortable we are making many changes.   We are limiting use of all devices and game systems, we are selling and giving away a lot of stuff that we didn’t need, and spending some time nearly every day doing for others.  Even with all of these changes, we still are not uncomfortable.  I think I have a lot more to give. How much is that? I am not sure, but I think as long as our basic needs are met, aren’t we still comfortable? We talk about being uncomfortable when the A/C or heater quits working, yet the poor cannot afford these things and the homeless do not have a choice. If our stove quits working we go out to eat until we buy another one, our friends that live in an old shed cook over a fire outside. When the washing machine breaks we go to the Laundromat, our friends wash their clothes in a bucket. I realize it comes down to the fact that I am selfish. I think I deserve all of these things, but if I deserve them doesn’t everybody else?  I read that Mother Theresa always took the worst pair of shoes for herself from the donations so no one else had to wear them.  That’s uncomfortable! That is the uncomfortable that I want to be, to love others enough that I would take the worst shoes so that others can wear the comfortable shoes. Jesus died a very uncomfortable death, uncomfortable shoes won’t be that hard to bear.

Workday Wednesday!!!

Workday at the barn where my friends are staying at the moment!!! Well I loaded the truck with a ladder, chainsaw, machete, axe, and a trusty hoe. I try not to do any yard or outside work without a trusty hoe as I told my buddies they got a laugh out of that. First project of the day fix the door that had collapsed inside the barn due to grape vines and junk pushing it in. I am no carpenter, but guess what all my buddies here did alot of that work and all have a background in construction. Well we not only got to repair that barn, but got to talk about another carpenter we happened to read about somewhere. I tell you what these guys helped out alot, we were fixing their place and they did alot of the work. I came prepared to work hard and we did, these guys are a blast. They were mighty proud of there place when we got done Phillip jumped up on the rooftop and we plugged and cleaned it off, leaks fixed now they are set. Full day yesterday. Thank you God for the strength to help out these folks out.

Our Fun Filled Wednesday!!

Our Morning started with a family cuddle. Then dressed and off to the Love of Christ for some grocery loading. The kids are enjoying this weekly trip knowing that it helps those in need. It is a blast when you leave the house and you get asked over and over if we can go help some of our friends around town in need. Well we cooked some supper for the group downtown  deer spaghetti and Brenna's homeade brownies. The kids get a kick out of taking food to these folks. I had a warm feeling in my heart tonight we made this food in my Gran's pan. I couldn't help but know she was watching me from heaven saying "oh J you really aren't going to leave my pan with those homeless folks are you?" Yes Gran you know I am but Brenna will get it tomorrow!!! The house is getting ready to be put on the market walls are bare and boxes a plenty have been packed. God still has to show us exactly where he wants but if we listen I have no doubt he will. Goodnight and God Bless