Fall Back

Ever heard of the “Trust Fall” exercise?  It’s one of those things you get challenged to do as part of a team building exercise.

There’s the catcher and the person that faces away and takes the leap of faith to fall back and trust they will be caught.

The world says: get a job to pay your bills & have a fall back plan.  Christians are called to see God’s kingdom a little bit differently.  All we have, earn, seek, are God’s alone which He entrusts to us. We are called to be dependent on one another, the church, the body of Christ.

We display our faith by trusting in God’s love & His will to provide all that we need.

Does this mean we sit back on our hands and do nothing? No! We step out in faith. We spend time learning from God’s word (renewing our minds) and in prayer daily.  We are called to church, our 1st community.  We learn to love others as we see God’s love for them. We are called to rely on the body, each of it’s parts, to succeed as a whole.  We learn to work in tandem and teams as we serve as Christ did, as the disciples and apostles did.

This is how I have learned the Trust Fall from God, as a missionary. He called me to total commitment to Him.  It is not a job, but His call for me.  He will provide what I need, not by the world’s definition.  Yet in faith, I know my God is not a God of scarcity or lack, but a God of provision and promise; He is not my fall back plan, but a trusted Father that provides Trust Fall friends.

I don’t seek friendships for fundraising, but partners and champions who have a myriad of ways in which we come together as a community seeking to serve Christ through His call on my life.

Who are your Trust Fall partners in the body of Christ that seek to serve? You have them, too!

Coming Attraction! Creating Connections

Imagine your phone ringing 10 times a day with small church pastors seeking resources for individuals that have come to their church needing assistance.  Imagine that most are tent-maker pastors, with full time jobs, on top of their calling to lead God’s people.  This is beyond the 30 plus calls a day from individuals in our community.

When I first came to be a missionary to street youth along Colfax I was given the gift of a resource book of contact information for all sorts of resources in our area for minors.  Over the years, it has grown to include more resources, added resources for adults, and starting to include outlaying metro areas.  I have shared many resources with local pastors and individuals, over the years in my calling to minister and serve.

Colfax Avenue

As Public Relations Director for ROP, I continue to create connections to city leaders, local churches, partner organizations and others that serve our same community .  In this, I have discovered that God has blessed our faithful upkeep of this list by reveling that it is the most comprehensive and detailed collection of resources city wide.

God has given me a passion for relational ministry and creating community.  I see this resource manual as one more way that ROP can minister to others, not only those we serve, but all who seek to serve. 

Currently, I am seeking backing from city leaders and local businessmen for an opportunity to create this resource online, on a website.  This way, it might be used by pastors, partners and everyone who desires to find the connections they need to  find help, give help, or just discover ways to partner with existing services.  Please pray with me as I step out in faith for God’s plans for this project and the connections it would make in our community.

1st Annual Prodigal Alumni Reunion!

It started on Facebook.  I had posted a Prodigal page on Facebook about a year ago.         Surrendering to the fact that I needed to learn how to social network for work, anyway, and I already knew many of our teen used it excessively. =)

I started out posting old pictures of fun nights, camping trips and past volunteers.  It worked.  =)  What a wonderful way to remember our past & our chosen family.

I encouraged everyone to invite others, while I tried to get the word out to past staff, volunteers and board members.  Word spread and a few months ago, Adam, got on our page and said he wasn’t “gonna stop talking about it until we had a reunion.”  And he didn’t!

It took some time for me to talk to my boss, make a few posts for everyone to pick a location and then get the permits and permissions needed to meet.

It was so worth it!  A simple potluck at Lowry Park, under a gazebo.  I brought the old posters and watched as mom’s & dad’s showed their little ones how they looked way back when.  Everyone was laughing when I posted the Prodigal Rules poster.  We all got a chance to play catch-up, too.

Johnny, me & Sheri

In the midst of it all, Colorado weather sent us a thunderstorm, which made us all happy to be  under a gazebo!  Yet, even with wind & wet right in the middle, nobody was sorry that we came.  Talking together, there were lots of suggestions for next year.  

It felt good to see and hug everyone again, not just Facebook.  It was wonderful to join in prayer and take the time to reconnect.  This is the history and the joys that keep me working on Colfax!

Back 2 School Outreach ~ Questions

This is a precious neighborhood over around ROP!  Extremely diverse in ethnicity!  Thank you so much for your prayers and those that volunteered with our Back2School Outreach.  Sometimes    questions can overshadow our effectiveness and I wanted to share some of my encounters & the questions I answered for volunteers from my own experiences:

Q:  Why would I pray with a person whose eyes are glassy and unfocused from drugs?

A:  Because there were also tears in those eyes and he said, "I have HIV, and it hurts.  I just want to   go home to my Father and be in Heaven.  I am very special to Him."  Just because he's addicted    doesn't mean God can't use me and do a great and powerful work in him.  I started with too many addictions.  Thankfully folks overlooked mine and told me the truth about how Christ sacrificed  for me in order that I might also know saving grace and that leads to eternal life with Him!

Q:  "Do you speak English?"

Man:  <smile>

Q:  "Do you speak Spanish?"

Man: <smile>

Q:  "Do you speak Burmese?"

Man: <smile>

Q:  "Nepali?"

Man:  <smile>

Q: (louder) "What language?"

Man: <smile>

Q: <smile>

A:  <breathe in> <relax> <abide in Christ>  (now we're getting somewhere. . .) He was actually African (a Central Republic) and spoke French.  Oooh . . . in English class and I handed him a jobs training program flyer from ODM.  He's been here 3 months (if his English was correct) and surely rides the bus.

 Q:  Why should I give 4 hotdogs to someone so inebriated that he doesn't know how many times he's come through the line or even which direction to go?

A:   Because he just wants to feel full, but nothing seems to work.  (Jesus answered, "It is    written:  Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:4)   Jesus said, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."  (John 10:10)   I walked over asked the man his name and wasn't sure he could even understand what I was saying to him. He was crying then eating then listening to the praise music over on the stage and crying again and eating again . . . all in a minute's time, and he answered, Christian."   His brain was so fried that his speech was barely intelligible.  He looked about 49 years old.  I was able to talk to him about why Christ came for him, and why his parents might have chosen his name.

Q:  Why did our missionary ask us to cover neighborhoods between 17th and 18th Streets in Denver (quite a bit off of Colfax) where there are mostly attorney's offices and yuppie houses worth a ton of money . . . and send us twice in one week?

A:  Because they are right next to a few tear downs that poor people are hanging on to, near an alternative school, homeless are in the alleys, and because they are members of a community in serious need and in a perilous state . . . maybe if they see volunteers "working" in their neighborhood, they also might lend a hand to some important programs.  "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.  If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.   Each one should test his own actions.  Then he can take pride in himself,   without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load."  (Galatians 6:3-5)   Fellow community members might be able to become answers to some of the prayers we offered during our prayer walk at the beginning of the week.  Hopefully we encouraged them to step out in faith, attend a local outreach church like Open Door Fellowship or Restoration Worship Center, pressure local businesses not to take advantage of the poor, or encourage them to partner with a local school and help out the youth even more.  The list could go on.  I will try to be a better neighbor in my own community at home.

Q:  Why was a homeless person hit and killed by a car one night this week . . . another in a long list of hit and run incidents this year?  There were 3 people hit earlier in the week as well.

A:  Colfax is a dangerous street.

Q:  Why is this ministry event organized this way?  This would never "fly" in corporate America!

A:  Because our urban missionaries know the needs of their communities and pray for their folks all the time.  They know how they eat, move, speak, self-medicate, organize, learn, respond, feel, grow, integrate, etc.  It really is changing my life . . .  learning how to submit to those in authority during mission trips.

Q:  Why can't people in the communities just do more of these events and affect change in the lives of the poor?  Why does a church group have to necessarily do it?  Why not just more social programs?

A:  Because when the Holy Spirit is involved . . .  much MORE REAL happens.

  Lives are transformed from the inside out.  People are actually "fed".  The cleansing effect actually happens.  God increases His kingdom.  We become the family of God, not just somebody with another free meal, a new backpack, a new can of food on the shelf,  a new house, a new job, etc.  They get a new life in Christ where all things are              possible.  "This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you:  God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.  If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin." (1 John 1:5-7)   "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing, and perfect will." (Romans 12:2)

Q:  Why would I participate as a volunteer next year?

A:  "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead."  (Philippians 3:10-11)    His commandment to us to love one   another seems to come to mind big time.

Please join us next year again . . . either as a prayer team member or as a short term missionary.  We really had a small team this year.  Let's see if we can grow a bit for next year!  Thank you again for committing to this ministry.

May God bless each of you for helping us.

Failure...

I’m not just talking about the fear of failure that can paralyze and unman me at times.  I’m talking about failing; dealing with failure.  Yes, being a called missionary for God does not mean I always succeed.  I’m human, I fail.

I’ve had to deal with a couple of them this summer.  Reactions to things that I’m not proud of, and dropping the ball when someone was counting on me.  Tearful prayers to God asking Him to correct and heal what I broke.  Bad dreams over what I cannot control or erase.  Wondering if I’m failing God and should I leave the field after 11 years.

So, I have been reading through the bible, a little each morning.  New to Old Testament, I now find myself in Genesis.  Reading about the greats: Abraham, Isaac & Jacob.  Though they love God and follow His direction, they fail consistently and often.  I’m reading more verses on what they got wrong then there are verses about what they got right.

And that still small voice echoes through the din of my resounding failures…  Whispers of correction and encouragement, “Do you really think I’m not in control?”  “Do you really think I cannot use someone’s failure to further My Kingdom and Gospel?”

Relationships are messy & I can mess up really good sometimes.  Thank Jesus that it isn’t me alone out here on Colfax.  Healing the relationship after a   failure is all I strive to do.  Praying God into every relationship is a daily need.

Jubilee - God’s desire

I host a bible study as part of my ministry.  Recently, I was asked about a comment I made in passing, “What we really need is a year of Jubilee."

It’s something I’ve heard my dad say my whole life.  And it doesn’t surprise me when a teen doesn’t know an obscure, old testament reference, yet the question came from a learned adult Christian.

I love when God brings us to a place where the youth and the adults are all learning, together.  The Spirit really moved and we all saw each other in a new light as we shared a lot of different perspectives.

We started in Leviticus 25 talking about God’s call to Sabbath rest; not just for us, but everything.  Some of the adults felt put on the spot when asked why they didn’t keep Sabbath, or why we change it around.  Don’t ever underestimate a Street Kid’s ability to make you squirm.  =)

“But how is this about Jesus?”, a teen popped out with volume.  So I took them to Luke 4: 16 - 30.  The first written out sermon of Jesus after His temptation in the desert and the start of His ministry.  I asked them all to share why they thought that all the people tried to kill Christ when He spoke those verses from Isaiah and then talked about who God used and saved.  Lots of perspectives, here’s a few:

We talked about how Christ was declaring that He was the Jubilee come in flesh to give the people and the land rest, to bring justice and mercy.  How those that owned and possessed much didn’t want Jubilee.

How the Jubilee is for everyone but not for everyone.  It is only required of believers, yet it benefits everyone as we share it’s fruits, just like the Gospel.

We talked about the question of Peter to Jesus about how many times we should forgive, where Jesus said 70x7.  (This is where I learned something new about the correlation to Jubilee in that statement.)  That’s how many Jubilee years the Jews had not observed until the coming of the Christ.

This night will stick with me my entire life, for the interaction, the laughter & teasing, the scriptures & the deepened relationships.  This night, we were all the savory sweet fruit of the Spirit.

Preparation & Meditation

May is my Springtime preparation.  It’s the calm before the starting gun goes off June 1st.

ROP will be hosting three summer interns this year in partnership with Denver Urban Semester.

My role has always been as coordinator and mentor for their two months with us.  Training with them to get them up and running for youth day camps, food & clothing banks, tutoring with GED , administration fun and meeting with our community during ROP outreaches.

Like a box of chocolates, I have to be prepared for all sorts of personalities, skills and strengths.  It always goes best when I take the time to tune into God’s plans, rather than my own.

I still remember the great start I received from Jill when I first started with Prodigal.

A scary but exciting time, when we’re following God, yet not sure how it will change us as we learn about His heart for the lost, captive and poor.

May none of us forget our first time following Jesus into places that challenge us.  Moving us out of our comfort zones and into a deeper relationship.