Everyone's Economy

It's been a tough year for everyone.  In the East Colfax community in which I serve, I watched a family lose their electricity because the father couldn't find enough day labor work to cover the bill.  And then I watched as everyday Christians and Bible study groups responded to our call and, each giving what they could, they raised enough the lights and heat back on.

These times have not just hit our poor community, but everyone, from our volunteers, who paid high gas prices this summer to come mentor our youth, to churches looking to give where the need is the greatest and the impact the most.  Troubling days in the secular world highlight what makes Christians so very different.  We might be tightening our budgets a bit more, but we know what treasure our God has in store for us.

If you would like know more about becoming one of my ministry partners, or find out more about the kingdom work happening on East Colfax, please contact me.  All donations are tax deductible, and those made before Dec 31^st will apply to this year's tax refunds.  More importantly, your financial support will have a kingdom impact on the lives of needy kids and teens.

As we celebrate the birth of Christ, Immanuel, God with us, the true treasure of our lives, both Nathan and I are wishing you and your loved ones a safe and joyous Christmas & a happy New Year!

 

You're a Missionary?

I’m always surprised how often I’m told by people, who have just discovered I’m a missionary, that they could "never" do what I do.

                 So I looked it up:

Missionary - (n) a person undertaking a mission, especially a religious mission.

(adj) relating to, engaged in, or devoted to missions.

I’m wondering if our culture has begun to believe that missions is only about starving children, villages stricken with disease, poverty, and a lack of education somewhere overseas. 

Yet, is that all that missions is?  If God calls all of us to the Great Commission of spreading the Good News, are all of us required to move to a third world country?

I think Christ explained it so much better!  Luke 10:27, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, all your mind." And, "Love your neighbor as yourself."  This truth is found throughout the bible, both old and new testament.  

Transforming the world by living our salvation out in our daily lives, loving God, and loving our neighbor, even if he is our enemy.

"Transformation" is a powerful word.  Just hearing it, you almost automatically think of radical conversions and incredible change.  But is it possible to transform your apartment building, your neighborhood, your workplace into something Christ-like?  Jesus thinks so.

I live and work along the East Colfax corridor.  I am surrounded by apartments and motels teeming with old people, families, children, and teens.  Some of them may be refugees, immigrants, addicts, prostitutes, husslers, or dealers, or even none of those things.  Yet they are all my neighbors living along side me from day to day.

There is a book called, “Anointed for Business” by Ed Silvoso, where he tells a story of a Filipino business man that owned a 1600 room hotel that because of its rates and location became a haven for prostitution.  God saved this man and began an amazing transformation in his life and in his hotel.  (Sounds like my neighborhood sometimes.)

One of Silvoso's associates shared with the owner a formula for winning the lost, so he hired 40 pastors and told them to follow these instructions:

• Speak peace to the wolves. Bless those who curse you.
• Eat and drink with the sinners. Become their friends.
• Pray for them and their needs. 

The pastors were not to share the gospel until they'd met these three requirements for two years. 

What an investment. But ultimately, it paid off. The pastors followed these three rules and saw every single one of the 2,000 employees become saved. The hotel was upgraded to an executive level, raising the rates and forcing the prostitutes out because they could no longer afford it. They even added a prayer chapel with 24/7 prayer available to anyone by dialing '7' on the telephone. Two years later, 10,000 guests had received the Lord on the property.

So, however inspirational I find this story for me to simply reach out to my neighbors, your neighborhood probably doesn’t look at all like mine.  ~chuckle~  Your place of business is probably so far out of this “ballpark” that we don’t even need to explain it.

Yet, does that make it harder or easier to love your neighbor right on your own block or at your own office?

I don’t have some mysterious gift or supernatural desire to put myself in harms-way to spread the Good News.  I’m just someone that grew up in this neighborhood, and eventually felt called back to it, on the small chance that my love for Christ might shine through and help others.

Just by speaking kindly to people, not seeking confrontations, finding the time to invite a neighbor to dinner, walk their dog, or find out what I might pray for them about; whether a sick child or a broken relationship.  This is what Christ asks of us, a ministry of presence.  To simply reach out to know others, and in honoring Christ in this way, God is faithful to transform through the Holy Spirit the lives and communities we touch.

And that's the kind of transformation we can see in our neighborhoods and workplaces. We just have to find the vision and the willingness to ask God, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me do?"