Snow is Great!

War Hero.

As you read this know that I'm not saying one way or the other how I feel about  America being in war. I'm only telling the story of one man, John.

I sat next to him on a plane ride from Texas to Seattle. We were only a couple sentences into a seemingly shallow conversation when John began to tell me what the life of a war hero is really like. His eyes shouted with brokenness as he shared his story. 

When John leaves for war he leaves his entire family behind. He has a 2 year old. They hardly know each other. His job on the battlefield is to go before the rest of his team to make sure that there are no bombs on the road. This means that he drives up and down roads, waiting to get blown up. He says, "I'm not scared of death anymore. I'm pretty numb to both death and life." For John life is only an existence that awaits death and the close whisper of death never fades away.  

To train for this type of life, John and his wife (who is also in the military) had to go through a required form of torture.  They are brought up into the mountains as they undergo real life torture. No food, no water, and constant beatings.  They were forced to do things like curl up in a small box that was filled almost to the top with water. They were left only enough room to stick their lips out of the water to breath. They were stripped naked. John said that when the uniform is stripped away, men begin to break down in tears. Without the uniform they feel like they have no identity and they can't find a purpose or motivation to help them fight through the torture. 

"We are trained to kill," John said. "It really doesn't blow my mind when people get back from war and kill their families, their friends, or random people who look at them wrong on the streets." They are use to killing people who make them angry. If somebody looks at you wrong in Afghanistan, you shoot them. John's eyes were filled with horror stories. His heart was obviously ripped up the shreds as he told story after story. He said over and over, "I have done so many bad things." He sat beside me and questioned the "Thin line between feeling honored for protecting my country, and broken because of all the bad stuff I had to do to people to keep it that way." In the midst of war, morality and necessity seemed to blur for John. 

My heart broke. So I did all that I could think to do, I told him about Jesus.

John said that he knew and believed in Jesus but he was unsure about what "Saved" meant.  I shared with him what it means to be saved by Jesus Christ and how He had done it for me already. John stared at me as if he actually believed what I was saying (which was really refreshing...a lot of people just stare at me like I'm a crazy person). He kept nodding his head and randomly smiling as he obviously reminisced on something from his past. After I was finished he said, "Yeah, that's what I did when I was 17. I just didn't know it had a name." John began to tell me the story of his salvation. 

Despite his salvation experience, John admitted that he was not growing in his relationship with God. "I don't feel like I have a purpose on this earth, besides being blown up."When he said those words, the holy spirit began to move as I told John about God's incredible plan and purpose for his life. I encouraged John as bluntly as I could to read his bible, to go to church, and to pray. I told John that his purpose on this earth was to fall in love with Jesus, to let Jesus love him, and to lead his family to the cross. Again, John listened as if he believed in what I was saying.

 John was unsure about most things in his life. Life. Death. Morality. War. Necessity. Family. But when it came to the moment that he spent before God at 17, things made perfect sense to him. I tried as hard as possible to remind John that all of these other things will only begin to make sense when he looks at them through the light of the cross.

 I don't know the end of this story. After 4 hours of talking, the plane landed. We shook hands and we got off. All I know is that John looked more hopeful after being reminded about Jesus than he did when we first got on the plane. 

You Fill in the Blank.

Before arriving in Washington, a man prayed over me (Jenna) and left me with something along these lines, "I feel like you will be working with children in the future...I see kids flocking to you." I laughed inside because he obviously didn't know my heart. The funny thing is that I have always chosen children's ministry as my least desired area to serve the Lord. Next thing you know we're in Washington volunteering for childcare and babysitting. I thought ol' boy must've been right. That was until I sat in on The Pathway's leadership meeting and listened to Bobby cast the new vision. While he talked briefly about needs and goals, Kids Ave specifically pressed heavy on my heart. I tried ignoring it but it remained with me through the night. Before going to bed, I got alone with the Lord to argue my valid points- "Are you sure because I don't care for kids too much...but I'll just help out for now...I don't even remember going to Sunday school when I was young so how am I suppose to teach it???....oh and did I mention kids aren't really my thing?" Please don't think that I am anti children. We are all drawn to/gifted in different areas and kids have never been one of those areas for me.

Just because you're not gifted in _______ doesn't mean you aren't called to it (you fill in the blank).

This has been the case for the past year of my life. I have figured out that serving God is not always but usually uncomfortable. It shouldn't have been a surprise to me because all throughout scripture God uses the weak in the world's eyes to display his power. Moses was slow in speech, David was a wee little shepherd boy, Peter, James, and John were rough neck fishermen but God called them out and used them for his glory. 

So what goes in your blank?

Much love!

Side notes and prayer request:

Stacie will start taking our community groups through the story of God on Thursday and Kids Ave will officially kick off with it. We asked for continual guidance and wisdom from the Holy Spirit. Also, for the people of The Pathway to have receptive and hungry hearts for what God is doing in Tacoma. 

We now have an apartment! We are almost settled in and making it like home :) It is in perfect timing because our van got sick while we were in Texas and we have yet to get it running...sad day. There are some men in the church who are working to figure out the problem and from there, hopefully we can find a solution. 

Talk to ya soon!

Happy New Year!

Christmas - Check
New Years - Check

I love that we celebrate the birth of Jesus right before we begin a new year. Every year on January 1st people begin their "New year's resolution." There is always something that we want to do differently in our lives...something that we want to change about ourselves. Sometimes that is giving up bad habits, sometimes that is starting good ones. Regardless, at the beginning of every year people across the world take a deep breath, put the past behind them, and start fresh.

That is what the birth of Jesus brought with it. A sense of newness and freshness. For thousdands of years people were enslaved by the bondage of laws. Their good deeds were never good enough and their best efforts were always short of what they needed in order to enter into the presence of God. Sacrifice after sacrifice had to be made in order to make up for their inability to reach their perfection. In the midst of our sinful nature was a deep desire for a rescue. This world cried out to God in desperation. We needed a super hero. We needed somebody to reach down and save us from the mess that we had created.

God heard the moans of his children and sent Jesus to erase the gap of imperfection. With the birth of Jesus came the greatest relief this world has ever known. Our God is so good. He created all of the grandness of this universe and even made sure to give us unnecessary details like individual thumbprints and millions of different sunsets. This same God has planned since the beginning of our creation to save us through the sending of his own Son. He met us in the midst of our broken world, born in an animal's trough, with the sole purpose of dying to become our never-ending, always perfect, always fulfilling sacrifice. God became Emmanuel. God with us. God within us. He gave people the ability to have brand new years. To start over.

Let's celebrate our new year with the celebration of Christmas in mind. It is only through Jesus that we can find freedom from this world. This year Satan will bring up past regrets, he will pick at our deepest hurts, and he will twist our minds to believe that Jesus is not enough. We will have days when the car (or van) won't start, when your kids are crying, and work doesn't feel like everything you hoped it will be. There will be days when we lose loved ones, when our hearts feel shattered, and when hope feels beyond reach. But if we can just fight to remember that Jesus came to save us from all of this hurt and disappointment and that one day he will wipe away every tear from our eyes, we will be aight.

Happy New Year!

Burr.

In our last post we talked about sitting at the table waiting for God to provide....and He has. As you might know, we are planning on staying in the northwest for 6 more months.  That means we will be way up here in the middle of the winter. Stupid scary considering we are from south-east Texas. Not to mention that its not survivable in a van. So, we needed an apartment...which meant we needed a job...which left us fearful that our purpose in being here (givin the church some needed hands and feet) would be drowned in our necessities to survive.

God changed our survival plans, as he continually does, and replaced them with his perfect plans. He taught us once again that when he asks us to do something, he will always provide the perfect way to make it happen. God gave us jobs that will provide us short-term housing as well as leave us open to serve the church the way God initially asked us to serve. We will be working for the church! Jenna-Kids Ave Director and Stacie-Intentional Community Groups director.  Those are basically fancy titles that mean: love the church(through Jesus), love Tacoma (through Jesus), and bridge any gaps that are separating the two(through Jesus).

Side Note: It is so crazy the different roles and places that we have found ourselves in throughout this whole trip. :) It's so fun and so random but so stinkin perfect! Seriously.

Continuing point: We hope to begin laying the foundations in these positions for the next six months or until God calls out the people who will carry on these roles indefinitely. The jobs are suppose to be part-time jobs but we will give our hearts to them full-time because God has made that possible. He is so good.

He said something like, "If I feed the birds, dontcha know that I'm gonna feed you too?" (Matt 6:26)
He said something like, "If your son asks you for a fish are you gonna give him a snake?" (Luke 11:11)

God gives the best kinda gifts. The End.

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)