Has it really been so long since my last blog entry?!?!?!? Wowsers! Oh how time gets the best of you when life gets busy. In any case, for those that have followed along our journey we call "ministry", you can rest assured that we are still going strong. Over the years of pouring into the people living on the streets of our community, God has tenderly touched and has slowly begun to open up their hearts. We have seen firsthand how God will take 2 people who uttered the words "I was so hurt by church and other Christians that we will never step foot near a church" and do something in their hearts by a simple, loving invite (and never giving up or judging) that breaks down those walls and brings them to a place where they are ready and willing to join us for fellowship for service that weekend. Recently so was the case with people I shall keep anonymous. These friends of our joined us faithfully for nearly 5 weeks of continual and steady fellowship, graciously accepting their new bibles as gifts and opening them up on their own. God is amazing and as I've said before - we just get to bear witness to some of those amazing things by showing up and serving in the name of Jesus. The mentioned people have since 'moved on' as we commonly see with this environment, so we can only trust God at His word that "it does not return void".

Tis' The Season...

It saddens me to realize that I have not update this blog in nearly 2 years. There are way too many accounts of blessings and sorrows to try and recall them all. Our team, which has grown from our home church "The Branch" has been faithful to serve alongside us for a few years at this point. Amanda and I have seen a full transition of volunteers except for 1 incredible woman named Betty who has been with us from the beginning. To call her a blessing would be an understatement by far! We are so thankful for all of the volunteers that have crossed our paths to help us make this a successful ministry of love. We take no credit for any of the work that God has done. As I've said time and time again - We just show up and get to watch what God does each week that we meet. Over the last year or so Amanda and I have prayed and discussed the possibility of moving out of state. The time has come for that to become our reality. One of the heaviest things on our hearts was the worry as to what might happen to this ministry once we stop. We have seen miraculous things in the lives of those we've encountered. We dread the thought of it coming to s stop, so we prayed and prayed and prayed for God's will to be done. We cast our prayers and hearts to the Living God of Heaven on behalf of our Neighbors and He was faithful to answer!! In His perfect planning and timing He introduced us to another Body of Believers that meet locally. That congregation has the same heart and mind as us. We've met with their leadership team and had the honor to share about Loving Thy Neighbor as an organic ministry from their pulpit. It is with great joy that I announce that starting January 2018 we pass the torch to Kairos Church. Amanda and I are confident that we are leaving the ministry in very good hands and the work will continue with Jesus Christ being the aim and direction. I ask that you please pray for their church to grow and God would bless their Body. As for Amanda and I, this will be our last month serving as leadership at the park. Our focus will now be on the next chapter in our life that God has for us in a distant land. This is more than likely going to be my last blog entry for Loving Thy Neighbor. God continues to blow our minds each day. I can't fathom how anyone outside of Christ can call Christianity boring. If only they would give Jesus a chance to see what an amazing journey He will take you on if you allow Him to guide you.

In His perfect timing

We met at the park last Friday (Jan 22nd) for the first gathering of the new year. Although it had been 4 weeks since we last served, it felt like it had been a lot longer. I felt the gentle touch of the Holy Spirit pressing on me to share a message this week, so I obeyed. I'm thankful for the brother(s) I can count on to share when I am unable to do so. The message was about the purity of genuine love and what that looks like. For my personal touch, I really enjoy engaging our dinner guests and getting responses to questions I throw out to them. In that sense, it keeps things interesting and helps to know what they think. I can honestly say from my heart, that they have become our "Friends"... like REAL, TRUE friends. For that, there is nothing better to receive (aside from Christ). As the word spreads that we are there, the crowd grows each time we meet. Most come just for the free food, while some of the neighbors come from across the street for free clothing and hygiene supplies, yet while others come for the fellowship among friends. I'm unable to put into words exactly how this all works out, but it does because the hand of God is on our ministry. On this night, an invitation was given to receive Jesus Christ. One of our new guests took that opportunity and together we prayed away from the crowd. This new brother in Christ inquired where he could join us for church on Sunday. I gave him the details, and sure enough he kept to his word and joined us for Sunday service. For the sake of respectful discretion, I shall not share his name online, but I will ask those of you reading this, to please pray for our new brother. He suffers from seizures which requires medication. The side effects of those medications cause memory loss, among other things. I ask that you would join me in prayer for God's healing touch on this mans life in a powerful way to heal him of all ailments.

Rained out

Our fundraiser this past Saturday was not quite what we had hoped for. There are times when you just can not win against the weather. I am so thankful for the dedicated and faithful people that God has placed in our life. Without fail, our team of early birds arrived to the yard sale location at 5am to help with set up. As we set up, the coolness of the brisk morning air became a light drizzle.. that light drizzle than became a bit more consistent. By this time, we had to find cover. Thankfully we managed to round up some large tarps to salvage everything laid out in the yard. Believe it or not, some of our regular customers still kept coming. The rain did not stop them from hitting our fundraiser! God has brought some interesting people across our paths through these yard sales. Some of which, we've become buddies with, even through the broken language barriers. In short, we had planned a full day as we're accustomed to but with the rain as bad as it got, we decided to cut it short. We still raised a decent amount to continue the ministry. Praise Jesus!

Raising funds through Yard Sales

I can not recall whether this was mentioned before or not, but this started happening years ago. We would often come home and find random items sitting either in our driveway or on our doorstep. These items were donations towards the ministry, although with good intentions, somebody without a home might not have any use for a microwave. The donations kept coming and soon we started to fill our garage to its limits. We started doing yard sales to raise funds. This has become our best resource over time. It is certainly a full days work, as any of our team members can testify to that. The start time to set up is usually between 5-5:30am. We can hear the roar of the early bird customers creeping through the neighborhood by 6am, but we try to keep them off the property until 7am as we are still setting up. Manning the hoards of walk ups while setting up is far too overwhelming to take on both at the same time. Because these have become a regular thing, we have repeat customers and through this, we have had wonderful opportunities to build relationships with our clients. We've prayed with people, encouraged others and on a few occasions even had the privilege to lead some to salvation in Christ. What a blessing these tedious and tiresome yard sales have become. They are dreaded each time but they are so worth it in the end. October 17th, 2015 (Next Saturday) is the next. We still seek volunteers to help us. Please pray that God will provide the help.

Never stop loving... ever!

It's been so long since I've last written and so much has changed over the years. I'm at a loss for words, but the burden to post is pressing on my heart, not to just say anything but to glorify God and share of all that He's been doing in that time. Looking back and reviewing the photos, I'm caught in the past, reflecting on the good old days. It's been nearly 7 years since God called us to what we do. Our group in Clairemont has grown to approximately 50 people attending the meals. We may never see the fruits of our labor and I've learned to accept that. It's been a hard lesson for me. For so long, I craved results... not for my own self reward, but to confirm that we weren't wasting our time. That has always been my biggest concern. God has taught me through trials of my own, to wait and trust Him because He is always doing something. Loving Thy Neighbor, as a team has completely changed since the last entry. Only a small handful of original team members remain. Through the things God has orchestrated, we are fully supported by our church family at The Branch San Diego. I am so very grateful for the overwhelming love and support from such kind people. Majority of the new team are fellow members of the Branch. We are currently still only meeting for dinner the last 2 Fridays of the month. It's worked well, although the original plan with the move was to test the waters with serving just 2 weeks out of the month. So what's really new? Hmmm... The relationships that we have built with our friends has never been stronger. A large number of our guests are people we knew from the PB days. Some utilize San Diego's finest public transportation to reach their meal. Keeping that in mind, we make it a point to wait until 5:30pm before we start the night. A message of truth and hope is still given before the food is served. One of the benefits of a smaller crowd these days, is the luxury of changing the menu up. It's no longer just pasta. We have done bbq's, enchiladas, tacos, and may more home-made types of dinners. It's amazing to see the joy and love put into cooking for our guests. (I don't do any of the cooking, just to be clear.) I confess - "I can't cook". Our start time had to change to 5:30 so that I could still be a part of the ministry. I no longer work locally and my commute is less than fun, so 5:30 is the soonest I could get there. Sometimes everything happens so fast that we are reloading the truck by 6:30pm. Let me try to paint you, the reader, a picture in words how it all goes down at the intersection of Genesee & Bannock Ave... Amanda arrives at 4:45pm, greeted by the hungry awaiting guests already forming a line with their backpacks in place. As she pulls up, usually Wayne and other long-time guests are quick to unload the truck and have everything all set up,literallywithin minutes. As the team trickles in, everyone picks their station for the evening. It's very casual. I'm sure it looks strange to people driving by, to see a large group setting up with tables and clothes on the corner of a park. I've stepped away from preaching as much as I was. That privilege has been given to Joey (a long-time team member) and a brother named Paul. Paul is a unique brother with a tremendous gift. He was called by God, to remove himself from all comforts this world has for the working class, and step by faith into the mission field of the houseless life. He literally sold and gave away all that he owned, aside from his Ford Ranger that he sleeps in, to be alongside his peers, whom he shares the Gospel with on a regular basis. I cover in the absence of either of those two brothers. The support of our ministry has grown so much, that we regularly host yard sales to raise funds for special things, such as things found our our wishlist. I'll be sure to follow up on the wishlist another time. The most recent praise report is His provision on us obtaining a shed large enough to hold all the items for the ministry. Pictures will follow soon.

Getting familiar

This past Friday was our second week for the month of February. Our guests were the same as the week before, with a few more.

What I like is that we get to spend some much time with the people. In that we can pray for then or share about why we are doing what we do: "We love because He first loved us."

Our growth is slow at this point and our team had grown with plenty of likeminded brother & sisters who are eager to serve... Only hang up is that we don't have lots to do yet. At least not in this area.

I believe that I'd mentioned other ways our team wants to love on our neighbors through works of service. We are in the process of arranging our first opportunity to help The Body with some needs. This is exciting and I feel this is a great way to get others off their seats and serving Jesus with the gifts He's so generously given us.

Not much to share this week, but it's an update and I can't stress enough the plea to please pray for us.