Branches In Me

Lately, I've been coming to a new understanding of John 15 Josh has been bringing it up a lot, even memorizing it, and so it has come up quite a bit in our conversations.
When I started really listening to Jesus talk about being the vine for us branches, one phrase in particular really caught me off guard. He says, "I am the vine and my father is the Gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while the branches that do bear fruit he prunes back so that they'll be even more fruitful."
I have come to ask myself some questions about this idea of having branches that bear fruit and others that do not. And in my meditation on this idea, I have really come to internalize God cutting off the branches in me that bear no fruit.
There are so many parts of my life that need to be gotten rid of, branches that need to be cut off, gathered up, thrown into the fire and burned. Lust, procrastination, sarcasm, materialism, selfishness, arrogance. The list goes on. (Prejudice, addictions, irrational irritability...) They don't necessarily need to be cut off because they are inherently sinful, but because they are utterly fruitless. Besides the fact that some of those things might separate me from God, there is no point to them. They're simply a waste of time.

I struggled for a little while, wondering if I was taking this passage completely out of context. My background in biblical studies encourages me to stay true to what the verses were originally intended to say to the people they were originally spoken to. But if that were all there is to it, then the whole idea of meditation would be rather unproductive compared to the practice of picking apart Scripture academically or exegetically. Surely there is value in the meditation, as well as in the contextualization. One synonym of "meditate" is "to chew over." Chewing breaks down the food we eat so that we can digest it, absorb its nutrients. Meditation is the process that allows us to apply and internalize, to absorb the nutrients of this Living (as opposed to static) Word.

This internalization has shaped the way I read these words of Jesus here in John 15, but it has even changed the way I read other parts of Scripture. Take Habakkuk 3 for example. Instead of being a pruned branch, we are silver in the raw, full of dirt and imperfections that make us unable to reflect the image of the careful, vigilant Refiner.
Even in the Psalms, I have begun to see the difficult--even vengeful--passages as an affront not to some eminent physical danger, but to my biggest enemies, those who threaten to lay siege to me, my time, my thoughts, my decisions: this dirt and imperfection, these fruitless branches. When the Psalmist cries out against the wicked, asking God to destroy them, I ask God to be merciless to the wickedness inside me. It's just a waste of my time, and there are much better things for me to be doing.

Community of Prayer

Our Community has been marked by prayer from the beginning. We could have come into this ministry with an agenda in mind, or might have set up a whole structure of mission statements in an attempt to plan our work with the Lord. None of these things would have worked. Not really. What has worked and been at the heart of every movement God has made around us and in us is our time spent listening to him. Sometimes talking, but mostly surrendering to listen.

As time passed and ministry partners emerged to join us, it became apparent that a growth in the intimacy of our prayer life was required. Part of this was struggled over on a retreat the four of us had. In addition to deepening our communal prayer practices we decided to lift up some folks in leadership. Three girls specifically came to our hearts: Jessica, Emily and Joanna. In anticipation of the growth of prayer at our house we thought it fitting to remodel the designated prayer room.

With this accomplished we felt it would be easy to create a culture, not only for ourselves but for those who we love and minister with. In short, we have a vision for 24 hour prayer, and that requires a lot of help. We are really excited about the leadership emerging in the girls and the amazing job they did touching up our holy space. Enjoy the pictures! If you would like to join us in our daily prayer we start at 7:00 am and go till 7:45ish. Thank you for lifting us up and taking time to read about the Lord's work in our lives.

They picked really good colors, and placed candles very well. (everywhere)

Its a lot more comfortable in there too. Heaters/ Carpet!

The best part is the new window.

Blessings.

Peace and abundance.

And love, much love

Amen

NOTE: The Allelon prayer room is open 24/7, and you are always welcome to come pray. You don't have to knock or call ahead, just come and meet the LORD in the quiet place. 465 Cockerell Dr.

Dip, Dance & Dessert

This was the name of our party last night. It suddenly occurs to me being ready and being on guard, like Jesus told us, is to celebrate like we mean it: like there's not tomorrow, or maybe tomorrow will be never ending. And this leads me to think, if we're celebrating like Jesus is coming back today, when he comes back we should be found some what ready. At least, thats what I think. At any rate we need to start working up some stamina at the very least, because on that day if you're not dancing I'm not sure you get it. Its a pretty big deal, when he gets here. All creation waits. We wait, but last night we also celebrated like we believed it.

Wes made his famous Pineapple dip.

You can see Wes takes it seriously, not only his dip, but his dancing.

(That's me in the back ground, and ....as you can see...not being serious)

Hats off to you Wes. You dance like its really for Jesus.

In addition to salsa and Pineapple dip my guacamole was prime fuel for energy. Man was it good. You know what I'm talking about mom. It was our friend Katie's recipe. Later on Lizzy came over and she made her Sopapilla Cheese Cake. Mmmmm..... I made Pink Lemonade pie! I dont think we intended to do it this way but the night kind of stands for the lord's faithfulness as well. We felt very called to help with something recently and the lord has really provided for us in abundance. The night was kind of a "pour out the first fruits." Something we ought to try on purpose some time, or more times. As it says: "enter his gates with thanksgiving in your heart" Thankfulness might just be the keys to the kingdom. No offense Peter.

Some of the freshman bible majors were there. They opted for high fiving, I think out of respect for their church background. Something about acapella dancing only or something. There is no condemnation here, let me be clear about that. People are free to express their love for the lord in the way they feel called, and actually I'm being very serious. The scope of age groups and people groups at our house has become a very wide array. This was also evident last night. I cant think of the last time I was hanging out with white college kids from the upper middle class along with a poor black family, their parents included and some people I've never met before. Some times God throws a homeless person in there and bam: the kingdom of God is at hand. Its a stretching time, and a good time-learning how to sit down with the other and being all things to all people for the sake of Christ. Also...I didn't know I liked dancing so much. Go figure.

The lord bless you and keep you. Remember to take some joy this day.

The Power of Love

We’ve known Cecilia for a while now. She comes to our neighborhood for crack, and she comes to our house for food and rest at the end of a binge – or sometimes just a brief respite somewhere in the middle. Our door is always open, so over the course of last semester we got to spend a decent amount of time with Cici. We would welcome her in, offer her some hot tea or a bite to eat, talk for a while, and then give her a ride wherever she needed to go. All this happened, of course, under the well-maintained pretense that she was in our neighborhood visiting a friend, or seeing so-and-so about such-and-such.

One day she asked us for a ride up to United to buy her some cigarettes. She said she would need just about five minutes to talk to a friend about something (panhandle some drug money). We drove her over there and Josh ran inside to buy the menthols. Throughout the evening, Cecilia had been acting a little strange. She seemed very conflicted. She kept hinting that she really wanted to tell us something, but then she would shy away from it.

Cecilia started to get out of the car, but then she stopped and looked back at us with this look that said, “Can I trust you?” There was not really anything that we could have said to help or hinder Cecilia in her internal battle, so we just waited and silently prayed.

“I want to tell you guys,” she said, “but I’m just afraid you’ll look at me differently.”

“Cecilia, we love you. No matter what. We love you.”

“I know you do, but I just don’t know…” she said. She looked at us, then out the window, then back at us.

“Well, we will be happy to wait here for you, Cecilia, but we would really love to talk to you about whatever is on your mind – if you want to.”

“I do want to, Wes, but it’s just hard.”

Silence. Then release.

“You probably already know this, but…”

For the next thirty minutes, Cecilia talked to us about her addiction, about her husband Carl and his addiction, and about how much she really wanted to be free. We just listened and tried to send as much love in her direction as possible. The Spirit of the LORD was with us that night, quieting our souls and preparing us for the relationship He was ready to give us as a gift.

There have been plenty of other times hanging out with Cecilia when I have felt awkward, confused, angry, disappointed, or often impatient; but on this particular evening, God was working things together for good, and I was a just an observer of His redemption. I felt a peace, a confidence in Him, and an overwhelming joy at His goodness. My heart was already broken for Cecilia; months of relationship with her, almost exclusively during her binges, had accomplished that. That night, God gave me hope in the fact that, while we are called to love and to devote all our mental, spiritual, entrepreneurial, and all other resources to that basic and high calling, redemption (in a holistic sense) is ultimately His job in which He graciously allows us to participate.

We never ended up waiting around for Cici to panhandle. Instead she asked us to drive her home so she could introduce us to Carl, one of the meekest and most pure-in-heart men I have ever met.

We are fast friends with Cici and Carl now. We have been over to their place for dinner a few times, and they have been to our place. Carl has all of our phone numbers so that he can call us any time he is tempted to smoke crack. Some old charges caught up with Cici, and she is in jail awaiting trial for parole violations. With God’s grace, she will be admitted to a 9-month prison rehab program, and hopefully Carl will be able to simultaneously get into an in-house recovery program on the outside. Carl has been clean for three weeks now.

A New Season

Well, we're back from our travels afar. Wes spent some time with his parents; Aaron and Ben visited the Upton's in Panama; and I was graciously hosted for a couple weeks by my parents in Detroit. I can tell you it's good to be back though. We're looking to dig deeper over the coming semester, while we still have time before summer activities.

Last weekend we took a retreat as a community. We wanted to take a look at what God had done and spend some time learning to do a better job praying together. More importantly we attempted to press into the things that have emerged to shape this community of faith. It was good. A lot of fruit came from our time set apart - maybe more fruit than we even know yet. Now its time to press forward and pursue the opportunities that the Lord has provided for us in the last couple months. For this reason please keep us in your prayers. Pray for boldness. Pray for unconditional love to cover the house and all who enter here. Most of all, pray for the bondage of drugs to be broken from our hood. Now is the time. Its a new season, and there is no better example of a change in the winds than the all too important life that this day commemorates. This afternoon we met at the house with some of the kids and made signs for the annual Martin Luther King march.

Heading Out.

Conner and Allenia.

There was a really good turn out, and a good number of the folks from our neighborhood were there. The kids made some really good signs too. It was an incredible day! And this might not be a very big deal for some, but I just want to boast in the love of our kids for a moment.

Today Wes was explaining to six year old Bobby that if he couldn't share crackers with Allenia then he couldn't have any at all. We share everything in our house. It's either all of ours, or no one's. Bobby wanted his own pack of crackers, but when Allenia opened the crackers she took one and said: "Here Bobby, you can have some." to which I said "Thank you Allenia." "You're welcome," she said.

When love sprouts up in the heart and grows roots in situations like this, it is capable of moving mountains. Or, at least thats what I think. In honor of our brother Martin and his unwillingness to sacrifice the message of the gospel in the face of violent opposition, I will leave you with my favorite quote.

Shadow cannot drive out shadow. Only light can do that.

Hate cannot drive out hate. Only Love can do that.

-Martin Luther King Jr.

That dream is still coming true.

God is Faithful

Well, it is Christmas Eve. The snow is falling outside my window, covering the world in white, and as I reflect on the events of the past week, I am astounded once again at the faithfulness of God. If you read our post Project Christmas, you may be wondering by now how the big Christmas Party for all the kids in our neighborhood went.

Paul reminds us in Ephesians that God is able to do more than we could ask or imagine. This was demonstrated to me once again this Christmas as God far surpassed my wildest expectations in pouring out his blessings and love on the beautiful people in the Stevenson neighborhood.

When we posted last, it was to issue a call for prayer and support of Flora's dream to provide presents to all the kids in the neighborhood. People had told her that dream was too big, but we were confident God would provide, as He always does. Not only did God provide, He poured out abundant blessings.

The garage after unpacking the load of toys from KLF!

We initially asked help to provide presents for 50-60 kids, but over the past two weeks, that number grew to well over 80. God was not surprised, and he provided in advance for every need. By the end of it all, each kid had several awesome gifts: there were bikes, Mp3 players, transformers, barbies, stuffed animals, basketballs, footballs.... you name it and God provided it.

Aaron and I returned from a trip to Dallas last Wednesday to begin the huge task of wrapping presents and getting ready for the party. We got into town at about noon on the 16th, which left us about 54 hours before the big party! We hit the ground running, spending most of the afternoon on Wednesday cleaning, organizing, and doing a little shopping. We already had many toys in the garage provided by our friends and family, and then on Wednesday night, we got the call from Rachel at Kingdom Life Fellowship (Aaron, Ben, and Josh's church home) that she was ready for us to come pick up the presents they had for us.

We didn't really know what to expect, but we knew we would be grateful for whatever God provided. Aaron was more than a little overwhelmed when he arrived to find enough toys to completely fill the pick up truck. There were several huge trash bags full of toys for boys and girls, plus even a few bikes for little girls!

Some friends came over that night to help wrap, which we proceeded to do until 1 or 2 in the morning. The next day we got up early and spent the morning shopping for some specific wish lists that kids had given in letters to Santa. At about noon, Aaron and I started wrapping again. We were at it for most of the rest of the day with only a brief stop for dinner and another small shopping trip that evening. Our friend Cambria and her sister Morgan jumped in with both feet from Wednesday night on and were there helping us get ready pretty much every moment of every day. In this, perhaps more than anything else, I saw God's provision; we definitely could not have done it without them.

Cambria and Morgan. They were such a blessing!

In addition to getting presents wrapped, sorted, labeled, and organized into families, we also had to organize crafts and snacks for the party. For the Christmas party, there were several stations of crafts and games for the kids to enjoy. They could decorate Christmas cookies, make Christmas cards, play Christmas bingo, get their faces painted, or decorate a homemade Christmas ornament (good idea, Angel!).

The party was a huge success! I led some Christmas songs at the beginning for about 15 minutes. Kids eagerly got up on stage with me and helped lead Rudolph the Red-nosed reindeer, and we especially enjoyed singing Feliz Navidad. We even had a soloist. 15 year-old Olivia sang through the first verse of Silent Night a cappella, after which we all joined in.

Singing at the party. The woman in red is Flora, and the little girl with whom she is playing is my niece!

Olivia singing "Silent Night."

We then launched into craft/game time, which was basically 45 minutes of joyful chaos. It was a little crowded in the small church building, but nobody felt anything but joy as the mass of kids rushed the stage, eager to make crafts, eat cookies, or even get their faces painted.

Decorating Christmas ornaments.

Mmmmm...Christmas cookies!

What a smile!

Lee Jay painting Whitney's face.

After craft time, Aaron read aloud the Christmas narrative from Luke, and we began the crazy process of handing out the presents. There were hundreds of gifts, and it was not easy to get the right gifts to the right kids in a timely manner. It got pretty crazy at times, but by the end of the night, there were only a few kids who didn't end up with the presents prepared for them, and everybody had some great toys!

Aaron reading the Christmas story.

I think God accomplished some really important things at this party. He poured out His love on the kids, making each one of them feel special and valued. He provided us with opportunity to meet many more families from the neighborhood, people who we had been praying for and thinking about all week as we prepared presents and checked the list of names over and over. He put a renewed hope in Flora's heart for His plan for the Stevenson neighborhood and forged a special relationship between our community and her family.

This party got me especially excited for next year and the all the things God has in plan for the Allelon community and the Stevenson neighborhood. We have been viewed with a good deal of suspicion by folks in the neighborhood this semester. This, of course, was no obstacle to God, and we have been blown away by all He has done in us and through us over the course of just one short semester. Still, I am excited because after this party, we are familiar faces to many people in the neighborhood, and hopefully they were given a glimpse not only of how much God loves them, but how much we care for them also. I think this Christmas party was God's tool to open up many doors for new relationships!

There is much more that I could share, a million inspiring stories of how God's Spirit was evident in St. John's that night. It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. We want to thank each and every one of you who prayed and supported us this Christmas. Thank you for listening to the Lord and being willing to give of yourself in order to spread His love. The point of everything we do as followers of Jesus is this: His kingdom come. His kingdom definitely broke through in a big way last Friday.

Allenia after opening one of her presents.

Project Christmas

Hey everybody, WE NEED YOUR HELP.

Let me tell you a story. This past Thursday, I was at the weekly neighborhood lunch hosted by Pastor Riley. I sat down for a while to visit with Flora, the assistant pastor over at St. John's Baptist, a small congregation in our neighborhood.

Flora is a very sweet lady, who, despite many hardships, continually allows herself to be poured out by God in service to her neighborhood (our neighborhood!). She especially has a heart for the kids in the neighborhood.

Over the week before this lunch, a few of our friends had already randomly dropped off some bags full of Christmas presents for kids in the neighborhood. We had been planning on getting presents for the 7-10 kids with whom we have become very close over the past few months, but as the presents began to accumulate, we started to get the funny feeling that, as usual, God had a plan for Christmas on Cockerell Dr. that far exceeded our wildest imaginings.

That day as I listened to Flora pour out her dreams about Christmas for the 40-50 kids in the neighborhood, it became clear to me that God had already been working in advance to allow us to support Flora in this divine dream. She wants to share the love of Jesus with all these kids just like we do. Plus, she actually knows many of the kids, kids who we are still longing to meet!

Flora has been trying to put on Christmas for all these kids for a few years now, but she hasn't been able to get enough presents or money to buy presents to really do it the way she wants for all the kids, and a lot of times the presents that are donated are just the junk that people don't want anymore, which provides kids with junk but not a whole lot of the Creator's love. People have been telling her that she is dreaming too big, that she shouldn't bite off more than she can chew.

When I heard her say that, I told her with full confidence that God would provide the presents for every kid this year because He is able to do far more than we could ever ask or imagine. And what is more, He loves to pour out good gifts on His children. I told Flora that we couldn't dream too big for God, and that the four of us would join her in her dream.

God will provide. He always does, and every time He does, we are blown away by the immensity of His love and faithfulness.

If there is one thing I have been learning over the past few weeks, it is that we are called to be the answers to our prayers. We often pray for people and find that God is calling us to be His hands and feet and to be the answers to our prayers. Josh, Aaron, Ben, and I are ready to do whatever God asks of us in order to show the perfect love of Jesus Christ to every kid in the neighborhood. We want to ask if you would be willing to join us in becoming the answer to this prayer.

If you want to help, here is what you can do:

1. Pray that these presents won't just be more stuff for the kids, but that they will be tools for showing them how much God loves them.

2. If you are in Abilene, go out and buy a 1, 2....10 presents and bring them to us (unwrapped) at 465 Cockerell Dr., Abilene, TX 79601. Just call before you come or if you need more info about what to buy (214-206-7708).

3. If you do not live in Abilene, but would like to be involved, you might consider donating some money to help us get presents. Perhaps we could even have a community shopping trip with Flora (who knows a greater number of the kids) or with some of the kids we know really well so that we can all experience together the joy of shopping and buying presents for others. You could send a check made out to Josh Love to the address above (in #2) or you could call the phone number above to work out some other way of donating.

We are thanking God in advance for all your prayer and support. Praise God who is bringing in His kingdom in the Allelon community, the Stevenson neighborhood, and around the world!