Sharing a New Process for Me

God has been laying on my heart something new about raising support as His missionary along East Colfax, in the New Year of 2015.  =)

As all of you who have supported me throughout the years know, I’m not one to throw a fundraiser often.  I’m uncomfortable talking to a large group with impassioned speeches about funding my ministry.  It feels too much like a broken conversation, only moving in one direction and not a dialog.

I like conversation, getting to know someone and starting relationships.  Allowing people to be as involved and engaged as they feel comfortable with as they partner with me in building God’s kingdom.

Looking at my current support shortfall, however, I set a time for a period of study in the scriptures and listening for God’s plans to meet these needs.  I made a commitment to meet with all of my supporters one to one before the end of the year.  Some have already been praying and acting as good advisers with me.  I must say, I like what God has planned.

Stepping out in faith, we want to help me create more opportunities to come alongside those of you who want to share with friends, but don’t want to do the talking.  I’m comfortable with small, but God is stretching me and my faith to something just a bit bigger.

I believe that support comes from real people with big hearts and the Holy Spirit’s leading them to give of their time, talent and treasure.  Fundraising is a process of relationship, opportunity and God’s provision, not lack of it.

So, starting in the New Year, I will be doing my usual one to one coffee or small meal meetings, but adding a small group function every other month or so.  Something you might feel comfortable or even excited about bring a guest or two with you.  I’ll still be seeking ongoing feedback and suggestions, but here’s what I have in mind, so far:

January 2nd—Friday evening:            New Year Revelations (Not Resolutions)

April 3rd—Friday evening:                        A Full Christian Seder Dinner (it takes awhile)

Further events, to be determined later.

Additionally, I continue to be available for you to bring to your small group or house party to translate the cause of giving and loving God through service.

Poor Issues...

North Aurora, along our East Colfax corridor, does not have a bus system for their schools.

We enjoy the beauty of seeing lots of parents walking their Elementary kids to school and home again.  We know the times of day when the Middle Schools let out and later the High Schools.  We know because the sidewalks and side streets fill up with kids walking home.

Yet, parents telling stories about walking uphill, 5 miles, in a snow storm, though amusing to tease about, is no joke to the marginalized families in our neighborhood that do not own cars, or have the extra money for public transit for kids on bad weather days.

Parents start making hard choices, not about taking the time to drop them off before and after work, but whether to let them walk miles to school at all when it’s minus 12 degrees Fahrenheit.

Education loses and children suffer from weather and circumstances.  What should parents do when it’s been that or worse for a whole week?

How do school systems without the budget for busses help?

How do we as a ministry advocate for our community?

How are neighbors fitting into this equation?

Every marginalized family faces hard choices.

Interdependence, not Independence, is God’s Plan

Last week a local pastor called me concerning a poor couple who’s small RV broke down in Erie, CO.  They were in a motel about 10 blocks away from me and didn’t know Denver.  All they needed was someone who knew the area, a good & fair priced mechanic that could travel and a ride back up to the RV.  One Christian friend from another church &they are back on their way for the cost of a part & 1/3 of the labor cost.

Flor is a single mom of a boy & girl in Middle & High School.  She just qualified for a free flip phone as sole care for her aging mother.  It takes 6 weeks to ship.  The schools requires a parent to have a phone, no exceptions.  So I’m her phone, two blocks over, until the flip phone gets here.

God fills us all with the hunger and longing for fellowship.  First with Him, then with others in the body of Christ, then serving His lost brothers.  It's not always easy or convenient, like writing my tithe check for the offering, yet it is infinitely richer in relationship & fruit of the Spirit.

When I became a Christian, I learned church isn’t a requirement, it’s about fellowship and a chance to reach out to connect or help others, as I am helped.

Ministry isn’t about teaching others they need to be more independent to succeed, but revealing that none of us really succeeds without a relationship with Christ; in any of the  areas of our lives and relationships that really matter and have lasting value.

Everyday, God teaches me the importance of working, not as a know-it-all, but collaboratively with my neighbors to find new  solutions that work for us in ways that God intends. 

God built us with a need to live in community, learning to recognize and draw upon the unique gifts and ministries of all whom God has designed.

Synergy, when the whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts.  East Colfax, here  are faces of Christ I want to meet, share Him with & learn from in faith. =)

Christmas Complaints

Ever complain about the Christmas stuff coming out along with the Halloween décor?  I have!

At least I used to, until I got older and was called into missionary service.

When planning to come alongside our marginalized families in more dignified ways, we start planning in September, sometimes August.

This last week someone was shocked that to donate to our ROP Christmas Store, the toys and clothes had to get to us before Thanksgiving.

How else could we have the parents shop for their kids presents on Dec 6th?

I’m not saying you have to LIKE seeing Christmas in stores before Halloween, but when you minister and serve others for the holiday, it can be a blessing!  =)

Missionary Minute...

I suggested to my husband, yesterday, that I was planning to start a project on our home that might take a while.

He looked at me like I was crazy, then gently reminded me, “Are you sure you want to start that right before the ROP holiday events?”

What had I been thinking?!  Starting Oct 31st, ministry hits a distance run of holidays through to the New Year: Fall Festival, Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Not to mention 2015 budgets, goals and objective meetings to settle by the end of November.  I obviously wasn’t thinking, in these few weeks of quiet before the storm.

Have you ever gotten so used to being busy, that you cram things into the spaces where you aren’t, or is it just me?

By my work load, you’d think the still small voice of God doesn’t have a chance.

It is only in my morning devotionals, where there is a haven and a habit of stilling myself and seeking God’s will.

The “dumb” project idea happened to be on a day that I hadn’t taken the time for devotion.  And that is really about, isn’t it? Devotion, worship, a time of gratitude and new direction.

As the pace quickens into the holidays, let’s listen to God each day & thank Him.

Who was the Samaritan's Neighbor?

The scripture before the parable that describes the Samaritan asks, “Who is my neighbor?”  Yet who was it he helped?

Monica started by coming to our food bank every week.  A quiet and reserved older lady, smelling un-bathed at times,  somewhat shaped like a pumpkin.  She would struggle to walk from her home to our door with her little metal cage, hand cart on two wheels.  It held her oxygen tank & space for groceries.

She had lots of medical problems & no real friends but her Chihuahuas.  Never married with some mental issues, she had lived her life helping her parents until their deaths.  Now an old woman with no children, only dogs.

Seeking a deeper relationship, we asked Monica if she’d like to volunteer at the Food Bank helping people to sign in for food.  She jumped at the chance to help people as she was helped.  Interaction didn’t start out easy, but she learned.

God smiled, and we all learned something about Monica, too.  Her quiet reserve and patience was the perfect match for our hesitant refugees struggling with real needs and poor English. 

Monica loves them and they love her.

All this to say, a bit over a month ago, Monica fell in the alleyway she walks down to go home.  She couldn’t get up.  She tried so very hard.  She even called out two separate times to people heading to Colfax down the alley.  Only to have them skirt her and walk on by.

After over an hour in the sun, laying in gravel and losing hope, Monica heard a familiar voice speaking in Nepali. An old woman and her 8 year old grandson.  It took everything they all had, but they got Monica up and walked her home.

A week later, they worked along side our volunteers to clear out and clean up Monica’s home so that she might keep her dogs and her home from the threat of city citations.

In reaching out, Monica has learned that her neighbors are reaching back.  As she steps out in faith, giving of her time, God appears.  Even in languages we might not speak but that our hearts understand.

Relationship vs Charity

Chico called from North Carolina to share he has settled into an apartment & college in Moorsville’s “NASCAR Technical Institute” (NTI).

Chico, a kid who started in the late ‘90s attending  our youth ministry of Club House, did our teen ministry Coffee House, put himself through Lincoln Technical College with a little help from us, got his GED here at ROP, and worked hard enough that his teacher recommended him to the NASCAR Technical Institute.

What we provided in needs? Bus passes, groceries, clothing, community service hours, school supplies, tutoring, shoes, diapers, formula & baby supplies, too, when he became a father.

So was it our little bit of physical charity and his own determination that changed Chico’s life?

Honestly? No.  Even when inching forward in positive ways, Chico struggles with temptations of the world and his own flesh.

He has struggled with drugs, alcohol, promiscuity, a child at 18 with no standing to gain full custody, the death of his father, his mother’s cancer, supporting his family, his anger, frustration, and yes, even apathy or fear in doing the unfamiliar.

I think many of us can say we share some of these same weaknesses of flesh in our lives.  I know I have fallen so hard, at times in my life, that only God could pick me back up.

For Chico, it started with his relationships with everyday Christians sharing time and attention, guidance and sometimes a resource or two.  As he grew, he came to recognize Christ’s hand in his life. Now he is looking for God in all things.  Will it all be easy from now on? No, but he walks with a Savior & a body of believers who know him and love him.