Foreign Missions is Here

Missions:  a person undertaking a mission and especially a religious mission

Ministry:  a person or thing through which something is accomplished

I’m wondering if our culture has begun to believe what they see on TV.  That missions is only about starving children, villages stricken with disease, poverty, and a lack of education somewhere overseas.  As you see above, it’s not that complicated.

Transforming the world by living out our salvation in our daily lives, loving God, and loving our neighbor, does not take a passport.  It does, however mean joining a team.  Partnering with someone overseas or right in the urban neighborhoods of our city.

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

“In your heart, set Christ as Lord.  Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone that asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.  But do this with gentleness and respect.” 

1 Peter 3:15 

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

I’m looking for team members and partners in this calling God has placed on my life.  Individuals looking to learn more about faith, urban missions & ministry.  Will you consider joining my team as we lift God up?  Will members, already part of my team, reach out to others to join and share this experience with us?  God is up to something and I want to be part of it.  Please join me through prayer as we seek to lift Christ up along East Colfax!   =)

Relational Ministry means...

I had someone meet with me regarding a missionary position we have available at ROP.  I share this because he asked me some insightful questions about Relational Ministry.

How would you answer a question like: “How does this look different than from what other organizations or churches, for that matter, are doing?”

I admit, I stopped and thought about the differences more than I have in the past.  It’s easy to point out the differences between us and secular programs.  Yet, I was talking to a man of deep faith that has a record of service to God and church leadership.  I wanted perfect honesty and God’s mission in my response.  So I took a moment      inside my heart to ask God to speak into this answer, I took a deep breath and I responded.

What came out surprised both of us and poured my heart full to overflowing with hope and excitement, once more, for this mission field God has called me to, surrendering my life.  I’d love to share God’s encouragement with you, too!  =)

Contact me and I'll treat you to coffee and a chat  =)

Spring Rainbows

There’s a special feeling when you find a rainbow; like you’re lucky and blessed all at the same time. It’s real, right there and you’re a witness to it.

Rainbows are a perfect storm of elements, dust for the rain to form around, rain, storm clouds, and sunlight. To see them you have to be between the storm and the light. The sun at your back, the rain off ahead.

And in that perfect moment there are no explosions of color to blind you, just the miracle of splintered sunlight revealing it’s inner beauty. It doesn’t block your view, it blesses and adds to it in a lovely and loving way.

Rainbows have always held a special place in my heart and imagination, ever since I was a little girl. God’s promise and hope to a broken world reaching from heaven. The melding of color and the magic that takes a “mess” of elements to create delicate beauty. Hope.

How do I use the Power in Words

Words can have an amazing shelf life.

Like nitro, they have explosive potential to do great harm or great good.  They may judge or simply grant forgiveness.

Ah, but when a relationship builds, words are the brick and mortar that build the foundation.

I just watched a movie about duets, two voices, a flowing melody with harmony to cradle it, illustrating the relationships taking place.  It brought to mind so many conversation with runaways, homeless and street kids.

Souls used to the tinny sounds of lies, comments that lead to crashes and sometimes sirens.  So used to the biting and cutting remark, the snap judgment, that the soft sound of grace and acceptance takes practice to hear.

These lessons I gleaned from street souls seeking a trustworthy word, an honesty they had yet to find.

Christ did not reach out in silence, but in word and action.  Jesus described himself as the “word of life,” speaking with love. We need to ask ourselves:   Do I know Him this way?  Have I committed His loving words to heart?

Am I able to use His words with love and respect to a sinner, rather than in judgment?  Why is it difficult to love  others as myself, like Christ asked me?  How did He reflect love through words?

Not in Part but the Whole

For Valentine's Day

I Corinthians 13: 4-13 (NLT)

Love is patient and kind.  Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.  It does not demand its own way.  It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.  It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.  Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.  Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless.  But love will last forever!   Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture!  But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.  When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child.  But when I grew up, I put away childish things.  Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.  All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.  Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

This last Month’s Infamous “Coffee House” Facebook Quotes

If you “Friend Request” me on Facebook and your profile picture is a car, 
I will assume you are a  transformer.

Watched a drunk guy accuse an RTD driver for stealing a bottle of non existent booze, 
Is this typical for a Wednesday?

Anyone who stops their car in the middle of the crosswalk 
obviously has never had to walk in one!

wow! im glad i dont look like that anymore. lol. 
 (after I shared a picture of him at Coffee House, taken 8 years ago.)

It is encouraging and inspiring to recall our lives all those years ago
 and see what we have made of ourselves despite it all! :o)

Last quote from the Prodigal fb page I started:

I love bein able to talk to someone with no bias or judgment involved… Thanks V.  Other then that… I still have  thinking to do… So bye fb

**My aim is not to build a social network online, where things are shallow.  Instead, I use it as a way to pray and tempt them off (into the real world) to have real relationships where the Holy Spirit can move and they can see real faith in action.

Presents to Presence

Presents and food were always the first thing that leapt into my mind when someone mentioned Christmas to me as a child.  So began my plotting and drooling.

Getting older means now I’m thinking about the presents to plan for and shop for and wrap, not to mention groceries and lots of cooking! Whew!

I still glean many joys from these things, yet, with age came a better   understanding of what the real gifts are that I should honor & praise.

First to honor the food of God’s word.  Not just on holidays, but for every    devotion, bible study and sermon each week.  I know I could never recall them all. Just as I will never remember every meal I’ve ever eaten.  Yet if I hadn’t eaten every day?

God’s word is even more essential to our faith than the food we eat to live!

Next is to praise the dearest thing of all to me which is God’s presence, (not presents, but you know what I mean) in my life, everyday!

And because I know He is with me, my attitude and presence can be a loving gift to others, too!  =)