Sitting at the Dinner Table

This short-term transition from living in a van and traveling to finding housing and staying is exciting but slightly overwhelming. We want to be good stewards of the time and money that God gives us. Just like Paul did in the last chapter of Acts, we want to pay for our living expenses in order for our time here in Tacoma to be an encouragement to the body and not a burden. We've been exhausting online applications and searching for the right living situation for two weeks.

It is a strangely refreshing feeling to be in similar shoes as the the rest of the world. We're having to find jobs that are scarce and cheap enough housing to be able to make ends meet. In a way it makes me feel "normal"...if that exists.

One of the best parts of living in a van is that we have been given into the hands of our God, completely. We are reliant upon Him, and him alone. We don't have the stress of "everyday life" because we know that we literally have no control over it anyways.

Before we moved into the van, we worked jobs and paid our way through life. Therefore, it was our tendency to think we were taking care of ourselves because we were "making" a living. Once we hit the road, we couldn't do anything ourselves or even get the impression that we could. Everything, from what we would be doing to how we would be eating, was/is completely from our Father. We've become like spoiled little kids. I was fortunate enough to spend my youngest years in a home where food just appeared on my plate, a roof was always over my head, and my main concern was to "eat, drink, and be merry." God has brought me back to this stage of life. Sure, this time around the burden of the world's salvation often overrides our happy-go-lucky child mentality but nonetheless, I have lived like a child being completely taken care of by my Father during this last year.

Despite the temptation to question what this new phase is going to look like and how we are going to "make" it work, I am overwhelmed with peace and contentment. The childlike expectation remains...I know my Father is going to provide like He always has. Yes, we are still taking all the steps we can- seeking employment and comparing apartment prices...but my heart is sitting at the table waiting for the food to appear. I am breathing in psalm 131,

 "My heart is not proud O Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore."

God has brought us to a place of stability compared to our last year of inconsistency and put before us the opportunity to be independent and "live like the rest of the world." Still, I remain dependent on His provision and guidance. Like a child at ease against its mothers leg, so am I in my Fathers presence.

Super excited/Super nervous faces!

Whether you are a follower of Christ or not, there is no denying that Jesus is a famous man.  He is known across this world for his radical living, his convincing knowledge, his insane beating, his incredible death, and most importantly his incomprehensible rising from the dead.  He is famous, whether we believe the stories to be true or not.  He changed the world and he started it all from a manger.  He didn't start at the top and work his way to the lowly.  He hung out with the poor, the broken, the homeless, the crippled, and the forgotten...and this affected the rich, the elite, and even entire governments. He shook the foundations of the world and he started from the bottom.

The Pathway is fighting the same battle with incredible passion and drive. They are working on The Hilltop of Tacoma (which as we said in our last blog is a pretty rough area).  This is a church who is starting from the bottom of Tacoma, trusting that from there they can reach the entire city. They are trying to disciple, train, and love at all costs....and they are doing it all with hardly any leadership. The pastor is shepherding a church full of people who are ready to grow...and he only has minimum hands and feet to help him. The harvest truly is plentiful and the workers really are few.  The church envisions the love of Christ spreading across this entire city...starting from the Hilltop. They have incredible God-sized dreams and they trust that God will provide the workers.

God has given Bobby a desire to see The Pathway grow in numerous ways within the next few months. We have spent some serious time in prayer and feel like we need to stay for the next 6ish months. Though this is still considered short term for most people, this will be our longest stay so far on the trip.  We are trying to figure out all of the unknowns and are still in a lot of prayer about it all. Please join us.

Prayer thingys:

1) We are in the northwest...where it is stupid cold and rains lots and lots. We are not prepared. So, we are praying for cheap Apartments (Because we might die in the winters of Washington in our van...literally..Plus, it would be a great chance to minister to people who would live around us).

2) Jobs. We are praying that for the next 6 months we can find part-time jobs to provide the dollars to get an apartment and etc.

 3) Our roles within this church while we are here.  Where can we be best used? How can we we be most effective? All of that stuff...

As we flip through scripture, it is like both the disciples and Jesus were always going...but always staying at the same time. They stayed as long as needed...and they left whenever it was time to go even if it hurt people's feelings (like Jesus being "late" for Lazarus). Paul traveled everywhere...all the time...but he was also willing to spend chunks of time in cities if it was necessary for the Kingdom.

Then Agrippa said to Paul, "Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian." Paul replied, "Short time or long time - I pray God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains."

Whether short time or long time...we will follow the spirit, going when needed..and staying when needed...until this country becomes as we are, Christ followers.

   (These are our super excited/super nervous faces)

The Pathway...Door-to-Door ain't so freaky afterall.

During our time here in Tacoma, we've been partnering with the Pathway. The Pathway is a church plant that has been here for two years and is driven by the desire to "Carry out the Great Commission of God (Matt 28:18-20) by living out the Great Commandment of God (Matt 22:32-40)."

Stacie had worked for the pastor and his wife when they were managing a summer camp in Oklahoma. We were able to easily step in as old friends and offer them our hands and feet. They are a small body of believers that are so intentional about doing life together. Bobby and Kelli (the pastor and his wife) have literally planted themselves in the midst of the most broken part of Tacoma, the Hilltop. They live in a house with their 2 kids and are constantly opening up their home for whoever wants to come in. It is a literal representation of the phrase, "Our door is always open." People eat their food, sleep on their couches, and hug their kids. They offer one another all they have because they know none of it is truly theirs. At the same time, they hold each other accountable in their individual relationships with the Lord. They love the way Christ loves, pushing one another closer and closer towards the cross, even if it hurts.  Bobby and Kelli desire people's lives to be changed, at all costs. They pour out grace and love but never forsake the tough truths of Jesus' callings. The Pathway is a family of all different ethnicities and socio economic backgrounds...they triumph and celebrate, they mess up and get frustrated, they cry and they laugh, they are gentle when necessary and hard when necessary, and they do it all together. Acts 2 style.

         One of their Community Groups...good times!

              Scott got peed on by a kid...awesome.

As a part of the family, we have taken whatever role was needed. We've scrubbed a kitchen from top to bottom, watched kids so the adults could grow together, volunteered at a local festival, assisted a family in a time of mourning, prayer walked the streets of the community, and knocked on doors in hopes of sharing Christ and extending the family. The Pastor does this on his own every week..which encouraged us to join him.

What image comes to mind when you hear the phrase "door-to-door"?

It might be of two young men dressed in slacks, white shirts, and ties...Mormons. Or maybe it is of the less uniformed Jehovah's Witness. Either way, most people have seen these missionaries, been visited by them, or know someone who has been visited by them. These two groups have experienced slammed doors, resistance, persecution, and have blatantly been ignored. Nevertheless, they continue to knock. They are well aware of the fact that they are the source of many jokes but nothing keeps them from fighting to tell every person about what they believe...one family at a time.

We walk up to doors only be asked if we are Mormons or Jehovah's witness. If they are not home we find a Jehovah's Witness magazine (The Watchtower) stuck in their door. They are good at what they do either because they are really convicted about what they believe in or they are simply crazy...

...which is kind of the same thing people say about Jesus. Either he really did believe what he was preaching, or he was crazy.

It got us to thinkin....What if we were as consistent and persistent as they are? When Jesus was asked about the kingdom of God his response was " The kingdom of God is within you." If we hold within us the kingdom of God, the truth to all the lies, the peace for all the chaos, the water that never runs dry....shouldn't we be known for sharing it at all costs?

Are we saying that we are now converted Mormons/Jehovah's Witnesses....No.  We are simply saying, they have something figured out that we need to learn from.  We want to look and live like Jesus...even it means we look insane. We want the passion that they have, even if it means rejection.  We want the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven....even if it means we have to bring it to people.

Random thoughts of VanGo...

We get asked a lot, “Does this ever get hard?” 

Our thoughts are usually something like, “Yes. Better question is, when does it get easy?” 

Driving around the country is not easy. Walking up to strangers is not easy. Loving on people who are satisfied with where they are is so far from easy.  At times we think, “Well, eventually it will get easier. We will come up with a system and everything will fall into place...easy.” 

Its been a year. 

We find ourselves with more questions than answers. The more we learn about the person of Jesus Christ, the more we realize that we are so far from having it all together. So far from knowing it all. So far from encompassing what it means to drop our nets and follow Him. There is still so much wisdom and knowledge to gain...

In our very first blog we talked about our desire to take off in our van and spread the name of Christ.  We said we wanted to flip this world upside down with the love of our savior.  

We have yet to flip anything upside down.  

Everything that has been flipped over or even budged in people’s lives has been done only through God. He has simply invited us to join him...to watch him...to stand in awe of the work that he has been doing for a very very long time...even before our creation. 

In “When Helping Hurts,” the author describes it as a “god-complex.” It’s when we feel like we can just burst into people’s lives with all the right tools to help them.  We think that if we pour enough of our money, our time, and our other resources into people’s lives then eventually they will be saved...and through it all, we get to feel better about how awesome we are for helping. We left as if we were something superior to the poor and needy. We left with the intentions of teaching them a thing or two....

We are in California now. Many states later. And we can honestly say that we have learned more from these “poor and needy” people than we could have ever have taught them.  Its not about walking up to somebody as if we are greater than them...as if we have the ability to fix their problems with our valuable gifts.  It is about walking beside them...knowing that we have just as much a need for God as they do...knowing that we are just as dependent upon Jesus as they are.  As the saying goes, “Christianity is just one beggar telling another beggar where the bread is.” 

Some people think that what we are doing is ineffective.  They would say that change is only possible in a person if you stick with them for years.  There are so many layers built up around people’s hearts from years of hurt and disappointment...there is no way that 2 random girls could knock them all down in just a few weeks.  Then again some would say that standing on a corner and proclaiming the name of God with hell-fire and brimstone is the best way too. The argument is so old...yet so hard to wrestle with after devoting our entire lives to this short-term traveling style. 

We met a girl last night who lived in China for 2 years.  She poured and poured and poured into these people and saw very little fruit. She said, “The darkness brings with it a sense of hopelessness.” During her last month in China a group from her American home church came to work alongside of her. 4 people got saved! She said she could not believe it.  She poured 2 years into the Chinese people and saw nothing...after only a few days of being with them, her church friends led them to Christ. 

Maybe there is not a set style of doing this thing. Maybe there is no formula. Maybe if there were, Jesus would have laid it out for us in Scripture. He would have said, “Short-term is better...” or “Long term is better.” Instead he says, “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body.” And maybe one is not better than the other. 

It would have been very easy for this girl to get frustrated with God...knowing that she poured so much into their lives...and never saw any fruit.  Just as sometimes it can get very frustrating for us.  It is our American way of thinking that much work should produce much fruit....for the one who did the work.  But Paul says, “God gives the growth.” Only God saves. We just get to play a role. And our work is not so that we can gain anything but so that Christ can be made famous (as he so deserves). Sometimes that is planting...sometimes that is watering...sometimes that is spending years doing something...sometimes that is spending a moment doing a good deed. But knowing that God uses the entire body and all of its uses for his much bigger purpose.  It is not our place to say what is better.  It is simply our job to be obedient to what God has called us each individually to do...trusting that our individual role will ultimately play a picture in the big scene. “But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” We rejoice in what God does through each part of the body...not comparing ourselves to one another...why should the ear say, “Well, Crap, I’m not a foot?” Why should the person that God has called to stay say, “Why can’t I be the one who goes?” Why should the person that is going say, “The one who stays sees more fruit?” We produce the fruit together. No one person does anything...”Lest any man should boast.” 

See, God used both the long term missionary in China and the short term people to accomplish his goal.  He plans it all out perfectly. It is him who does the work....we stand in awe. 

Does it get hard when we see little fruit? Yes. Does it get frustrating to trust that God has people both before and after us? Often. Does it bring us greater joy than anything this world has ever offered us....by far. by far. This is why Paul considered it pure joy to face trials...because he knew that in the end he would know that much more about God’s patient, enduring, loving character. No, it doesn’t get easy...but it remains fulfilling.  

Choose Life.

"I had 3 more weeks paid for at the motel, but I had to leave because the temptation to fall back into drugs and alcohol was too strong," our new friend Brian was telling us.

As his story unfolded we learned that he had been involved in a biker gang most of his life called Hell's Angels. He drenched his entire existence into alcohol and drugs...or "booze and pills" as he said. He is older now...and has a long list of people that he has hurt or abandoned. He has a lot of kids from a lot of different women. He said he always left them because he had to "take care of business," quoting it himself with his fingers.

Then God met him in his motel. He found himself broken before a holy God. All by himself in a dark, drug infested room, he asked Jesus to save him. He felt a peace and an assurance that he says he has never before experienced. Consequently, he fled from his temptation, despite the fact that he had nowhere else to go and no money to try and get anywhere even if he did.

That's where we met him. Sitting on the streets with not a friend around but his walker, staring at the traffic as it went by. After talking with him for awhile we learned that he desired to know more about God and we gave him a bible. We asked him to read the book of John first. We saw him a few days later with the biggest, toothless, grin on his face! He walked up to us, in all excitement, saying, "I read John! It is so good! It brought so much clarity to what I experienced in the motel that night!"

We met our friend General at a park. He was sitting by himself. After a short conversation we learned that he had been out on the streets for 5 years. He ended up there after the love of his life divorced him. He like John and Charles from Chattanooga stopped caring about life when the only one that he was living for disappeared. He fell apart. We have learned, and even read recently in "Same Kind of Different as Me," that if you are not doing drugs and drinking when you get to the streets, you will sure start once you get there.

Alcohol helps you sleep at night...keeps your body warm when you are cold. The mixture of that with drugs helps you forget about your lifestlye, your circumstances, and numbs your deep hurts. After talking with General for a couple hours about his life, our lives, and who God is throughout it all, we left and hoped to see him again soon.

The next day we read part of the book of John to him and watched as God showed up to him in a big way. His curiosity level about God rose as the hours went by. He began volunteering at churches and events on his own (with us and on his own). He prays with/ for his friends on the streets. He prays with/for us. He came to church with us for the few weeks that we were there. He wants to know God.

We watched both General and Brian fight to know more about God. But we also watched Satan pull them back down into the lifestyles that they know all too well. One afternoon we came by to pick up Brian only to find him intoxicated. It was the first time in 3 weeks that we had seen him drunk. He said that it is so hard on the streets to avoid it. Without it there is nothing to do but stare and wait to go back to the Mission for sleep. We came back the next day only to see the same thing. We could see his disappointment in himself as he sipped the bottle. He hated it. There was conviction all over his face...and the truth was fighting in his soul. His flesh was winning the battle every time he made the motion to move the bottle towards his mouth. At the same time we could see God all over him screaming, "I will never leave you or forsake you!"

We haven't seen him since that day. He disappeared. His time at the Mission to sleep is up (They get 30 days in and 15 out). So we know he is sleeping somewhere...we just can't seem to find him.

His spirit is so willing...but his flesh is weak.

General says, "I feel like I am on a fence...part of me wants to go be with God and part of me wants to keep drinking." He knows his addiction. He knows his deep need for God. He says, "I feel the different between being with God and being with my friends." He has tasted God and counts his meeting us as a miracle from God. We have told him over and over what it means to be saved and what it means to start a relationship with God. We have poured out our very lives...giving every ounce of our prayers on his behalf.  Numerous times we looked so hard through his hard layers and stared right into his soul as we reminded him that God wants to soften his heart and protect it. We watch him throw the possibility around in his heart and in his thoughts before he says, "Not yet."

The other day he reminded us, "I'm still praying about Jesus and all that." He really does mean it.  People say that General will never find Jesus. That he is too far gone.  He is the king around the streets.  We see otherwise.  Deep inside all of that hurt and disappointment lies a servant's heart.  He truly desires Christ.  But he has an addiction that his body needs to let go of. We have given him gentle love, tough love, and everything in between.  It is his turn to move...he needs to put action to his desire...and we can't do that for him.  He can't live for this world, drinking his life away AND live for Christ...who asks us to pick up our crosses in order to follow only him.

Again, his spirit is so willing but his flesh is so weak.

Both General and Brian can literally see death and life, blessing and curse sitting before them. They can taste and feel the difference. Let's join in prayer that they will choose life, that they and their families may live. Deuteronomy 30:19

We know a lot of the people who live and sleep out on Yosemite Ave. They are not surrounded by people who are fighting as hard as they want to fight.

We will be in continual contact and prayer for General and hopefully Brian. We do not think God is done with either of them. We believe that he has another person to come behind us to push them even closer to what they know is the truth.

Which we have no doubt in...

That is the beauty of the body. We were so loved by both Crosspoint and Hilmar church. They took us in and completed our mission to live out Luke 10 as they were the ones who fed us and housed us and took us in...without an ounce of doubt.

"And if a son of peace is there, your peace shall rest upon him;but if not it shall return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages." Luke 10:6-7

They were both houses of so so so much peace. So much love. SO much Jesus.

And with these churches, we can trust that God's work will be completed. He uses some to go and some to stay and together big things will happen in the lives of people like General and Brian. No doubt.
"I planted, Apollos watered, but God made it grow." 1 Cor 3:6

Poetry Man

Throughout our stay in Las Vegas we worked with Adventures in Mission and hung out with a youth from Fremont, CA. We did our best to lead them through the streets of the city.  We watched time and time again as each and every one of these youth stepped outside of their own, individual comfort zones and allowed God to use them...speaking light into the surrounding darkness.  We all worked alongside a ministry called Casa de Luz.  This ministry planted itself in the midst of a broken area in Las Vegas called the Naked City.  The Naked City is named after its notorious past...home of Las Vegas' showgirls.  It holds a reputation for drugs, prostitution, and gang fights.  Through the ministries insistent desire to see God fall, Naked City is changing rapidly. People are falling in love with the man of Jesus Christ.  They are exchanging their rags in for God's glory. We were told story after story of the triumphs.  The youth from Fremont were an intricate part of some of the outreach.  They walked up to doors every evening praying for people and pointing them in the direction of hope.  When they were not helping out Casa de Luz they were pouring into the homeless people throughout Las Vegas with the help of the Salvation Army. In the same way, they stepped out in all boldness and loved the people on the streets in a way that is inexpressible.  They not only shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with them, they shared their very lives. They treated the homeless and consequently overlooked and forgotten individuals of Las Vegas as people with hearts and feelings. They sat down on the curbs with their friends and cried and laughed with them.  They do it all because Jesus was first willing to sit down on our level and cry and laugh with us.  

People like the youth from Fremont, Chris from Casa de Luz, and Captain Jamenson at Salvation Army reminded us that the the work of God is not complete in this city.  We were reminded that nothing is too hard for God.  He will never, ever, ever leave or forsake the brokenness of Las Vegas. He is using these people to shine light throughout communities...and it is, and will continue to spread like wildfire.    

We met a man named Jackie Robinson.  People call him the Poetry Man.  He was a homeless man that is being used everyday by God.  

His story in short: He has struggled his entire life with retaining information.  He is not good and remembering things.  He went to jail for a little while.  While he was sitting in his cell he says God told him to write something down....so he wrote it on his cell wall.  It was his first ever poem.  A poem about God himself.  He realized his love for God and need for God.  Soon he realized that God had immediately given him the gift of memorizing his poetry.  He now has over a hundred poems....all of them are being retained in his memory.  He shared one of them with us.  

Did you see that homeless man as you passed him on the street?

 Or were you too busy to notice that he ain’t have no shoes upon his feet? 

And you probably didn’t notice the coat that he had hanging down to the ground. 

Was it a gift from long ago or was it something he had lost that he found? 

And you probably didn’t notice the scars that he had on his hands and face 

from cruel and uncaring people that can never be erased. 

As you kept on walking thinking only of yourself...

...a very brief though of homelessness 

but maybe thats a man that we probably should’ve helped.

 And as you kept on walking pass that church knowing that it was Jesus Christ that you were going to meet, 

did you remember too that he didn’t have no shoes upon his feet? 

He also wore the crown of thorns as he was nailed to the cross of calvary

 Did you hear his hunger as he cried out in pain?

 It was eternal life for you and I. 

Now thats something that we must gain.

Sin City- A Warning from the Rug.

We spent our last night with our group from California on a trail overlooking the city of Las Vegas. I admit it was tempting to stand in awe of the dazzling lights that filled the valley but it is death that we mistake for life. It is deceitful destruction that we mistake for beauty.

God reminded me of Abu, the precious little monkey from Aladdin. Aladdin and his best friend Abu were on a mission for one purpose...to retrieve the lamp. They were to take the lamp and nothing more but Abu marveled at the gold and riches that surrounded him. Once the right jewel caught his eye, his focus changed. He began pursuing what he wanted, "needed", and selfishly desired. As Abu reached for the jewel, Aladdin yelled with all his might, "ABU NOOO!" The rug rushed to restrain him from the destruction but it was too late. Abu turned his back on what he knew and who he loved and sought his own fulfillment. As soon as his hands touched what he was so sure would make him happy and complete, his world felt apart. What looked like precious gold and rubies quickly turned to consuming lava. Everything around him came crashing down. The beauty they walked through to get there became a dark cave with no way out. 

"The fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you, and all your delicacies and your splendors are lost to you, never to be found again!" -Rev. 18:14

After spending a week here in Las Vegas, this has become its' story and the team from Forerunner Christian spent their time being Aladdin and the rug. With their words, actions, and obedience, they cried out for the people of Las Vegas to turn away from the darkness and find life in Jesus Christ. This city feeds the world lies and tempts all who gaze upon it with its beauty. It lures people in with promises of riches, fulfillment, and satisfaction but only to expose the burning flames of destruction that lies underneath its' captivating lights. 

Las Vegas is indeed sin city. The industry here consists of casinos, bars, night clubs, strip clubs, and prostitution. The city thrives on debauchery and is leaving so many broken lives in its path of destruction. Captain Jameson from the salvation army told us of how so many people in the city came here seeking their "big break" and after pouring all they had into things that never gave back, they are now stuck here with no way out. It is a sad and solemn place here in the dessert. The night life goes on and the lights continue to shine. We watched planes go in circles around the city flying people in just as fast and they were flying them out. From the lookout point, we saw the city for what it really is...a prostitute- promising so much but taking more than it will ever give.

"Come, I will show you the judgement of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immortality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk...I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: "Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations. And I saw a woman drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her,  marveled greatly. But the angel said to me, 'Why do you marvel?" -Rev. 17:1-7