monday fishin'

Turnin' the page...

2011-11-28T09:45:00.000-08:00

Today marked the end of a chapter for our family. 5 years ago, in November of 2006, we felt compelled to serve on a street corner in downtown Omaha. 14^th and Douglas St. to be exact. I’ll never forget that first Sunday. And I’ll never forget the heart of a 9 year old boy. The week prior to our first Sunday, we scouted out the area. We were parked one block away on 13^th and Douglas. I’ve told the story before. Robin stressing out because she didn’t know “how we are going to save all these people?” Me just thinking that we needed to go. That we had to go. And honestly, Robin was right there, if not ahead of me in that regard. And Erin at 6 years old and Christian at 12, willing to entertain whatever crazy thoughts mom and dad were having. And then there was 9 year old Nick. In the back seat with a snack bag of Cheerios. As Robin and I discussed, in the front seat, how we’d try to pull this off, ol’ Nick is in the back saying something along these lines – “Dad, I have this bag of Cheerios, we could just start now…” And so it began. The beginning of one of the most awesome and amazing 5 year stretches of my life. The following week, we showed up with an awesome pot of soup, enough for about 25 people, a case of water and a heart to serve God and anyone who might be willing to come along for the ride. I’ll never forget literally running through the park, gathering up fellows to come hang with us for a little while. Surely they were hungry, right? Little did we know… I’ve chronicled much of our journey through various blog entries with the intent of making sure I had a little perspective to someday look back upon. I’m so glad I took the time after each outing to simply put some thoughts to “paper”. Pretty sure I’ll treasure these journal entries for some time, as we’ve seen some pretty amazing things and met some incredibly amazing people along the way.

So yesterday was a day for turning the page. We’d been fasting and praying for some time. Attempting to get some discernment or clarification on what God might have next for our family. We were pretty sure our time of service in this community was coming to an end. Now we never say never because I realize I’m not in control. We did this once before and ended up right back down there on that corner for another extended period of time. But this time is different. The last time we took a break, we really didn’t have a plan. It really felt like it was time for a break. After 3 pretty full years of weekly gatherings on that corner, it just seemed as though we needed a break. We were fortunate during that break to find a church community, something we didn’t have previously. I don’t think we ever really looked at ourselves as rebels. Initially, we just really felt the need and desire to do this thing weekly. What that meant was that we wouldn’t have opportunity to be involved in a church community. We spent our Sunday mornings prepping for this amazing opportunity with our downtown community. Kinda like bringing church down there. We never looked at ourselves as “qualified” or experienced in this arena. In fact, we were pretty naïve and pretty much rookies. But we went anyway. And I truly hope and pray that our friends in that community came to know us as a community. A group in communion with one another in the presence of God.

So this time we think we have a plan. More on that later…

As we prepared for our last time on that corner, it was definitely with mixed emotions. There was relief, especially with winter approaching, that we’d not be down there on the absolute mind numbing, freezing days of winter. There was relief that all the clothing that has passed through our garage would now be going to other destinations. I have no idea how many thousands of pounds of clothing I’ve sorted in our garage. No idea how many thousands of bottled water containers have been handed out. No idea how many thousands of meals have been prepared and served on that corner. I’ll just say a lot and leave it at that. It was weird getting everything prepped for the last time. Right down to the winter clothing I’ve been storing in our shed since last year. We had just enough to fill all of our containers. And when I was loading the trailer before heading home yesterday, most of the containers came back empty. Just enough. Always just enough. He cares about the details. And there were other pretty clear signs that we should call it a day on the venture. So it surely seemed as though God was giving us the green light to turn the page on this chapter and prepare for what’s next.

As we prayed in our kitchen before heading down, I was just struck that this was the last time we’d do this as a family before going to serve our friends. Again, mixed emotions. Awesome that we’ve been blessed with this opportunity. Sadness that it was ending. Relief that we’d be getting a bit of a break. A bit nervous and anxious about what lies ahead.

As we arrived at our corner, which is now at 14^th and Farnam, we had quite a crowd waiting. And word had gotten out that this was our last time. Numerous people asking, telling us they’d miss us, etc. It was a bit difficult, but fortunately there was work to do, so we didn’t have much time to reminisce just yet. The only thing we forgot on this day was our coffee pots. We had plenty of coffee and cups, just no pots to serve the folks in line as they waited to get a meal. But we had plenty of hands and feet to run coffee. It all worked out. So considering how crazy the previous couple of weeks had been, just to have forgotten a couple of coffee pots? I think we’d survive.

One last time on the wall. With my trusted and beautiful assistant, Erin, we ventured up on the wall one last time. I was able to share once more with our friends the importance of our relationships. With one another as a community. With God. I was able to share about our faith and how much we’ve loved being involved with each and every one of them for these awesome years. I was able to share that we love each and every one. And that more importantly, God loves them and so desires an intimate relationship with each and every one of us. I pray that all those opportunities on that wall have not been in vain. That the seeds of God’s unbelievable love and mercy have been received and planted and that they will bear fruit. I know some of the folks down there think I’m absolutely off my rocker. Out to lunch. And that’s ok. I’ll take that as long as some of them have heard over the years that He does indeed desire a close, personal relationship and that He does indeed LOVE! When I got down off the wall, I had one young guy tell me that he does indeed have the love of Christ in his heart. Had tattoos on his arms that spoke of his faith. I’d never seen or met this guy before, but we had a brief conversation and I’m convinced this guy gets it. Erin swore she saw a guy crying in line as I was speaking. But then I realized it was my buddy Mark. His eyes are always watering, so I’m pretty sure he wasn’t crying. :)

It was an awesome day. Brisk, but not too cold. Our friend Dave Paulsen brought a drummer and bass player to accompany his awesome music, so we had the perfect atmosphere to finish this off right. We had several people jump in to help prepare a pretty awesome chili meal. As always, we had just enough. Not a hint of trouble either. On occasion, we’ve had minor dust-ups on that corner. Never a real fight or anything to speak of, but that’s something that’s always amazed me. I’ve seen guys jawing at each other. I’ve had to get in between people, which I’m sure looks a little comical. All 5’6” (on a good day) of me in between some of these guys, when I’m literally a head or more shorter in most cases. I once had to step in and stop a fight and one of the guys had to be 6’6”. Must have looked pretty foolish to some, and this guy was angry. Found out a little later that he’d just gotten out of prison for murder I think. Can’t remember, but whatever he was in for, it wasn’t shoplifting. But the guy actually came over to me before we left that day and apologized. It was very cool and we’ve seen some very cool stuff down there. God stuff. Amazing stuff.

I know I’m a little wordy this time. But it’s probably the last time I’ll do this, so I really don’t know where to end. It’s been an amazing run. Our family has been blessed far beyond anything we could have possibly imagined. I don’t ever remember doing anything in my short 48 years that really compares to this venture. I’ve made huge mistakes along the way. Got out ahead of what God had for us. Made decisions that had far reaching impact on our family. But through it all, there’s been one absolute constant. One unbelievable, steadying force. One amazing, merciful, loving and forgiving God. Still amazed that he allowed this crazy family from the suburbs to venture into this community with no real skills other than a desire to serve. That’s one of the amazing ways He works. I’m convinced He doesn’t sit up there on His throne wondering who’s equipped to do what, although I’m equally convinced that He knows. Pretty sure He simply say’s who’ll go? I’ll equip the willing. I’ll give the tools and resources necessary to the ones who are willing to lay it down for Me. It’s amazing really. I’ve seen so many awesome things on those corners. Little things. Big things. And I tell you He cares about every single detail. Of that I’m convinced. I had to step back so many times and remember to see those instances where He does indeed care about every detail. In 5 years time, we saw so many instances of God coming through. All we had to do was go. It is His command. Go. Serve. And when we do, the blessings are immense. And I know our friends would see us coming and would probably wonder what kinds of blessings we’d be bringing on any particular day. But unbeknownst to them, we were the ones reaping the benefits. Just an amazing run. And like I said, I made enough mistakes to fill an ocean, but I know we serve a God who forgives. When we repent, He forgives and I pray we’ve been able to pass that little nugget on to our friends.

So we’ve seen friends leave us entirely too soon. We’ve seen others in and out of shelters, apartments, back in shelters, out on the streets and God only knows where else. But through it all, I pray that they’ve seen the hands and feet of our Savior. No matter the life circumstances they face, the ones all of us face, my prayer is that when they saw us coming, it wasn’t necessarily only a warm meal or whatever else. I pray that they saw a group of people who love God with all their heart and that we modeled that for them on a consistent basis.

We’ll definitely miss our friends. This wasn’t something we entered into lightly. Nor was it something we are departing from lightly. But we feel with God’s blessing, it’s time for the next chapter. We have ideas. And once again, they stretch me and our family beyond my normal safe comfort zone. But as I journey through this life here, I know that none of these plans are mine. They have to be His. I screw up far too much and every time He’s there to pick up the pieces. I pray and will continue to pray for our friends. Definitely write this with a heavy heart. But I know that He will continue to provide. Hopefully through it all, we’ve made a difference. I know this little thing called Starfish Ministry has changed my life forever. I pray that our kids have seen enough of God’s love to prepare them for what’s next. I know Robin will thrive wherever we land. I pray that God will direct and lead us to what’s next…

I’m so thankful to all those who’ve helped over the years. In any way. You are truly an amazing group. We obviously could never have pulled this off without the countless hours of those who jumped in to help. Robin and I simply had a desire to serve. God simply provided an avenue to serve. To all of those who jumped in and rode along with us – THANK YOU! You’re efforts have been amazing. And our friends have been the beneficiaries of some amazing love.

Finally (if you made it this far, please accept my apologies!), I give all thanks, honor and glory to our God. This journey we're on is incredible when we allow Him to use us. I'm thankful that He overlooks our iniquities and silly mistakes and still has a place to use each and every one of us. I'm so thankful that he placed an amazing woman of God in my life to keep this ship righted when I steer us into the rocks. I'm incredibly thankful for a family that is willing to entertain our sometimes crazy ways. I'm so blown away that He blessed me with an amazing mother who is willing to also serve alongside no matter where that seems to lead us. Incredible God we serve. Incredible that He loves us in spite of us. What a ride it's been.

Microsoft Word tells me that previous to this sentence, I’m at 2421 words. That’s probably 2418 too many. I probably only needed to say God is Love and leave it at that. Thanks to our friends for allowing us in and welcoming us into their community. We will miss each and every one of them. But our love will not stop. Nor will our prayers that each and every one of them somehow finds a way to meet God wherever they are. I’m out. Out of words and out of time. Until we all meet again…

Peace.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. ~1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV

Make a difference…it matters.

Clyde in Omaha?

2011-11-01T04:55:00.000-07:00

What an incredibly cool day. On many fronts. The weather was unseasonably warm. A little on the windy side, but man it was a nice day. Our friends were out in force. Quite the crowd. It was a pretty special day in many ways. We had a group up from Clyde, Kansas and man they came in droves! Our great friend Wendy Secthem Genereaux and her husband Bill and their kids, Thomas and Emily. Our friend Cheri Sechtem. Lacey Sechtem. Heather Sechtem. Notice a theme here? Yeah, they were here to honor their brother…husband…father. My man Wade is a fellow I’ve written about many times. He left us way too soon in a tragic way. I’ll never forget reading about his death in the paper and then wondering if it was really him. And then getting confirmation from a group of his buddies on a Sunday afternoon on 14th and Douglas St. July 2008. I’ll never forget it. And from that, sprang a desire from his family to come and help. To serve. In his honor. And to see that his passing was not in vain. This is not the first time they’ve come. And I’d imagine it won’t be the last. In some way, shape or form. It was simply a great day to be in the presence of the Lord and serve alongside a great group of people. Oh, and they brought others. The youth group from St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Clyde, Kansas. And the youth group from St. Paul Lutheran Church in Palmer,Kansas. And they all made the 3 hour trip North to hang out with us and our friends for a couple of hours. Amazing!

So the group from Kansas did it up right. 100 backpacks filled with essentials. Hundreds of McDonald gift cards. Treat bags. An outstanding fried chicken dinner with all the sides. Hundreds of homemade cupcakes from Wendy’s Party Treats. Just an unbelievable spread for our friends. The only tricky part for me was to figure out how to best help them distribute the 100 backpacks. I’m guessing we had upward of 200 people and those numbers don’t match. And I had a hunch there were some who’d have a bigger need for a backpack than others. One thing we've never done on that corner is discriminate in any way. By that I mean it has never mattered where a person comes from. If they have a place in the downtown area they call home? No problem. If they live in one of the many shelters? Not a worry. If they live in a car or under a bridge? By all means, please come. All are always welcome. But the lines get a little blurred sometimes. I’ve often wondered what the numbers would look like if we got some kind of count. Never really worried about it too much, but we know that lots of people who visit with us on Sundays have apartments in the downtown area. Not necessarily living on the high end of things, but lots of them have places they can call their own. As we brainstormed this week on how to best distribute the backpacks without making a huge deal out of it, the only thing I could come up with was somehow getting them to the folks that would probably need and use them the most. And in my feeble brain, that meant the folks living in the shelters, on the streets, etc. So as we were getting everything ready to serve, I jumped up on my wall and did something I've never done before. You see, we have 2 serving lines. That way we can get a couple hundred people a meal a little quicker. So today, I asked them to separate into two more distinct lines. I wrestled with how to word it. I didn't want to single out our homeless friends vs. our other friends who have a place. But I didn't know any other way. And it worked out pretty well. There was really no problem at all. They all swapped lines as necessary and I was really surprised to see that the lines were almost even. Funny, that. And I believe that the folks Wade would have wanted to receive the backpacks, did indeed get one. It was real interesting to see the split though…

So before we got to the great chicken dinner, I had an opportunity to get up on the wall. I felt I needed to be a little bolder on this particular day. With the group visiting from Kansas and the primary reason they were there, I felt a strong urge to share that if any of our friends were not sure of their destiny, they needed to know that they all had one. I usually don’t preach and I try not to be too judgmental, but on this day I felt the need to strongly urge our friends to make sure they knew. That regardless of how difficult they think they have it here in this busted, screwed up world, this is a cake walk compared to how bad it might be if they don’t submit and commit to following Christ. I didn't go too long, or at least I don’t think I did, but I really felt the need to let ‘em know. And it’s not as if they've never heard it before. It’s just not something I’ve made a habit of. Preaching on that wall. But on this day, we sort of went there. And I hope and pray that someone heard. And in fact, I know at least one fellow did…

So a young fellow, who I believe was part of one of the youth groups, came to me and said someone wanted to meet me. Erin was with me, so she went with me to meet this fellow. Hand in hand we went. About a half block. And we meet Kevin. Leaning on a cane and a parking meter, I met him. Kevin had a stroke recently. He told me that he’d been to hell. I’m not sure what that meant, at least in the big picture. Literally? Don’t know. He said it only lasted about 30 seconds and I assume he meant this was during his stroke. His thoughts were a bit jumbled. He’d been drinking. And the stroke left him a little challenged in his speech. But he wanted to know how to make it right. So we prayed. Right there on the parking meter. Me. Him. Erin. God. Right there. And he accepted Christ as his Savior. The hard thing is the follow up. I gave him a little booklet that we usually have on hand, the Gospel of John from the The Pocket Testament League. And I gave him a New Testament. I’ll pray for him. Hopefully the seed is planted. I pray for the harvest in Kevin’s life.

I heard of one story that absolutely warmed my heart man. Wendy’s daughter, Emily, unbeknownst to her parents, had a little plan. She noticed on their last trip to Omaha that there were little girls in our group. Homeless? Not sure. We see so many people on that corner and so many show up one time, never to be seen again. It’s really hard for me to keep track. But Emily had a plan. She was going to bring a couple Barbie dolls this time and make sure that if there were any little girls on our corner, they’d be the recipient of a new doll. Now this is what it’s all about to me. People see a need and fill it. There are really no rules on our corner. I mean, we have a few things we try to adhere to. Cash is tough. It’d be hard to give out cash to people in that environment. For lots of obvious reasons. But if a person came, saw a need and subsequently wanted to fill that need, we are all for it. And when a little girl from Kansas saw a need and filled it? Wow. And Emily and her brother Thomas collected some crazy amount of money to buy McDonald gift cards. I think the final tally was 380 some gift cards! Crazy. The little ones usually get it and I think mostly more than us adults…

I mentioned, as I was up on the wall, that I didn't know how many more opportunities we’d have to share our faith with our friends. Every time I come home from downtown, I feel a strong desire to go back. It’s just different than anything I've ever been involved with in my crazy lifetime. We've been involved in this community for 5 years now. November, 2006 we made our first trip into this craziness. We had a little break a couple years ago and we only go once a month these days. But we've been pretty steady with most of these same folks every Monday at inCommon Community Development for their Common Table meal. Robin and I have been engaged there for some time now. My point, when I mentioned that we never know how much longer we’d be at this, was just that. I've been experiencing a yearning to do different things. To work with kids at the Hope Center in North Omaha, if they’d have us. To maybe re-engage with my own family. My 17 year old son, who’ll be off to college next year. My 14 year old son whom I love so much and I need to spend more time with. My 10 year old daughter who is so special to me. And my incredibly beautiful wife, with whom I never seem to spend enough time. And since my trip to the City of Refuge Children’s Home in Jamaica this past July, I sense a need to do more. There are a lot of children that are homeless, parent-less, etc. in this mixed up world. That just shouldn't be. Period. And I pray that we’d somehow be able to make a difference there also. So I say all that to simply say that we never know where we’ll be led next. Could we be on that corner for 5 more years? Who knows? All I know is that no one here gets out alive. To quote a line from a Switchfoot song, “this skin and bones is just a rental”. I just want to be able to make a difference while in this broken, busted rental and I pray that somehow, God will allow me the opportunity to do that. Wherever it may happen...

My sincere thanks go out to the group from Kansas. To Wade’s family. You made a huge difference on a downtown Omaha street corner. Your efforts will never go unnoticed. Especially by the One that matters. I know how difficult it must be to make the trek to the place where Wade spent his last days. I know what it’s like to lose a family member way too early. Or at least way to early in our boxed in, human minds. But I think there is One who can make it a little better for us while we are here. And the only way I can manage that is to somehow use these events to glorify and honor Him. You did that today. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Today, you made a difference. What you did mattered. To all of them. And to Him. Thank you!

‎"If you cannot feed a hundred people, then feed just one." ~Mother Teresa

...let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. ~ Hebrews 12:1, NLT

Make a difference…it matters.

Contentment...

2011-09-26T10:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday started like most of our other Sundays where we venture into the downtown area. Got most everything ready early. Robin cooking. Attended our early church service. Just mostly routine stuff. It was a beautiful fall day, much unlike last month where we left our house and it was raining. Even though it is so cool to see God stop the rains for us to do His work, I'd maybe rather start out with blue skies and sunshine. Or maybe not, I don't know. It really is cool to see the looks on our friend's faces when we show up and it's been raining, only to stop when we arrive. But yesterday we were greeted with a definite chamber of commerce day and most everyone seemed to be in very good spirits.

As I sat in church yesterday morning, prior to heading downtown, I was struck by the message delivered. It was a message about contentment and true happiness and all the crazy things we do and measures we take to attempt to attain those things. Robin and I had a bit of an ongoing conversation this past week, pretty intense at times, about contentment and just exactly where we are in this whole journey. It just seems like life is coming at us 100 miles an hour most of the time and I wonder, as does she, if we don't need to step back and regroup. Maybe revisit some of our activities and see if we aren't a little too involved in some things. With our kids at their present ages and demanding more time, and just some of the life situations we are going through, I can't help but think it might be easier if we just stopped doing some of these things. Maybe we'd be "happier". I wonder what it would look like if we didn't have any outside commitments. What would it look like if our Monday nights were free? That last Sunday of each month that we go downtown and hang out with our friends for a few hours? What if that didn't exist. Between home schooling our kids, work, extra curricular activities and just life in general, it might be a little less hectic. But then again, it might also be a little more selfish. You see, even though it gets mentally exhausting at times, it's just something we need to do. Have to do. Something we're commanded to do. To go. To do. To serve. Not people. Him. To serve Him. Because we have so much. So much to be thankful for. So much to be grateful for. And I'm not talking material stuff. I'm talking eternal stuff. God stuff. So as I sat in church yesterday to hear a message seemingly designed just for me, even though there were obviously others present, it sure seemed as though I could have been sitting in the very center of that auditorium, alone, and that message was being delivered directly to me. Eye to eye. From His mouth to my ear. Be content. GO. Serve. Love. That will at least get you started if you are looking for true peace. And don't get me wrong. Even though it seems like we are pretty busy at times, I know of others who are far more engaged. Friends who have sold it all to move and serve in foreign countries. Friends who spend all their days serving others. Pastors, missionaries, people who dedicate their entire existence to serving. We're not quite there by any stretch. It just seems like there are times when it would be nice to just stop the world and get off for a bit. But then I wouldn't have the privilege of experiencing the following...

There's a fellow we've known since our very first time downtown. A true, homeless, walk the streets, live wherever kind of guy. My heart just breaks for him when I see him. Truly. He literally once told me he was living in "the third drainage pipe down by the river". Really? "Living" in the third drainage pipe? So anyway, I know this guy struggles to survive. Mentally, he struggles. I don't know how else to say it. But the fact that he's out on his own is a tragedy. There's no reason I can think of that this fellow should be on his own, walking the streets. No reason. Other than the fact that we just don't take care of our own sometimes. He has family in town. But he's on his own. So for the past couple of months, he's needed new shoes. Size 13. Tough size to come by. And this dude is hard on shoes. It doesn't matter how good I think the shoes or boots are, I can give him a pair and the next time I see him, they are pretty beaten up. I'm pretty sure in the 5 years we've known him, he's probably gotten 20 pairs of shoes or boots from us. Now lately, I've been praying that God would simply deliver those things to us. I know that may sound crazy, but it's the only way we can hope to get all the things we need to continue. So I've been trying different to get him shoes for the past couple of months. I got him a pair of donated sneakers about 2 months ago. They seemed to be pretty good. But when we saw him last month, they were already suffering the consequences of his walking. And yesterday, as he was coming through the serving line, he asked me if I had shoes. I knew I didn't, but I was determined to find something for him. I looked down and the sneakers he was wearing had a blue shoestring tied around the outside to keep the sole on. So I went to the van to look in the bags of boots and shoes that we'd brought with us. I rummaged through and found a pair of 12 wide, steel-toed, army boots. I knew he needed 13s and we'd tried to fit him in 12s before with no luck. But these were 12 wides. Maybe they'd work. By the time I got the boots, Tony had disappeared. Like he is apt to do. And trying to find him in a crowd of a couple hundred people was going to be a difficult task. And it took me a little bit to find him. He was off almost a block away all by himself. Sitting down to a nice little Sunday meal by the flowing water in the park. And ironically, over on the very corner where we first met. Away from all the chaos that comes with us on Sundays. So I took my 12 wides and a prayer they'd fit. Now this might seem like a lot of words just to convey that we were able to help my man out with a pair of boots, but to me it just speaks to the need we see on Sundays. And not only the physical needs, but the relational poverty we see also. I'm pretty sure this fellow has no real friends. He simply walks the streets most days. Since I work downtown, I see him often and he's always by himself. Walking. Sitting on a wall somewhere. Waiting. For what? So anyway, I take the boots over to him. He's convinced they won't fit. They're 12s Dave! Just try them man. And as he takes off his old shoes, the first thing I notice, as always, is the lack of socks. He never wears socks. I give him socks, but they just don't last. And I'm pretty sure it's been a while since my man has seen the inside of a shower. So I notice that he has newspapers as insoles. Folded up, worn out, newspapers. So he tries them on and we have a match. His big, old size 13 feet somehow fit into these size 12 wide boots! And these are heavy duty army boots. I'm thinking we may have him set up for winter. We'll see. That's a long way off. But God, as He's so apt to do, once again is the God of provision.

Saw another fellow that we haven't see for quite some time. Another true, grizzled, street veteran. He's not looking so good these days. Hard drinkin'. Hard livin'. Lives under a foot bridge close to the river. He told me he had a birthday recently. Turned 55. And he said when he turned 55, his health just went straight downhill. I told him I don't think turning 55 had as much to do with it as maybe other things. He's a guy who I'm pretty sure will drink himself to death. Literally. We've seen it a few times. And every time, I wonder why. Until I'm reminded of the broken, screwed up world in which we live. And then I tell myself to pray for my man. Pray hard. I can't do much, but I know Who can. And it's in these situations that I must rely on Him for the answers. Really and obviously, in all situations, I have to do that. But in these ones, where it just seems hopeless, I know that He is the only way this guy can ever find real happiness. It won't come from seeing the bottom of a bottle. It won't come from any of those things we seem to think will make the pain go away. This dude has lived a tough life. A good majority under bridges or wherever else he lays down at night. But even in what seems like a hopeless situation, I know that there is hope. And let me tell you, if you saw this fellow, you'd be hard pressed to think there was hope. But I know there is. And if not, then I know for a fact we've shared with him that there's only one way out of this place that makes any sense. Whether or not he takes heed? I can only pray....

And just as we were packing up the trailer and finishing things up yesterday, the enemy had to make known his presence. And I never forget where we are when we show up on these Sundays. It's his playground. But for that window of time on a Sunday afternoon, God is running things. But as we were getting ready to leave, a bit of a disturbance broke out. Mostly words. But things were getting a little heated. It was funny because these were a couple of fellows that had enough height to literally talk right over me. Now that's not saying much, but it's what it was. So as they were arguing for a second time over something that was really silly in my eyes, I kind of had to get in the middle. And I really couldn't get either one of them to notice me. :) Which is ok most times. I'd honestly rather not be noticed. But in this case, I just wanted to get them to knock it off. So as they were yelling at each other and tensions were heating up, I had to begin to get up to their volume levels. There were only a handful of people around at that point so it wasn't really a huge scene. But we'd had a great day down there and I wasn't about to let the enemy step in and mess things up. Not as long as we were still there. So I finally had to tell them both to "SHUT UP"! Loudly. Now I'm a pretty small guy, but God blessed me with some vocal chords. And I used 'em to let these fellows know that there'd be none of that here. Not today. Not now. So I was able to get one of these guys to head out. He's a regular. He apologized as he was walking away. And the other fellow, I'd guess in his early 20s, was calming down. As soon as I was able to get his attention, his whole demeanor changed. It was like something washed over him and he was a totally different person. He also apologized and soon he was "saluting you guys" and I had to tell him that it wasn't us he should be saluting, but the Man upstairs. And he said he couldn't believe the ungrateful people and all the other stuff he'd seen there. He said he'd been in town for about a week and a half and he'd heard about us. Now I don't know what that meant, but one thing I wanted him to be sure of was that he needed to know that it wasn't about us. It was about being able to serve a God who loves us no matter what. And I told him that it didn't matter if every person down there on that day walked away with nothing, but if one person heard God in some way, that was all that mattered. Now obviously, we want everyone to walk away with Him leading their paths. But I'd do it all if just one person left with a newfound hope. In God. In Christ.

I just pray that somehow, someday, we'll make a difference in the hearts of those we serve. That He will work through us to reach those that are seemingly so lost and desperate for happiness and contentment. And that He will continually work in the lives of those in my immediate sphere of influence. To be able to share that no matter where we think we are at any given time on this journey, that we always serve a God that will indeed grant us true happiness and joy if we just keep things in perspective and continually seek and strive to serve Him with all that we have. It's a process and indeed a journey...

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ~Philippians 4:11-12(NIV)

Make a difference…it matters.

Summer Storms and a Love Drug?

2011-08-29T05:10:00.000-07:00

Once again we were amazed by our God today. I don’t know why we find it so hard to believe he’d take care of us, except for the simple fact we live in a very small, limited mindset at times. I don’t think we ever doubt Him. Don’t get me wrong. And we never doubt that He shows up every time we venture in to our downtown Omaha corner. But today as we were leaving our nice, dry, suburban homestead, the skies were telling an ugly story. I mean some of the ugliest, blackest, thickest, promise to dump a million gallons of water looking clouds on us in a minute that you could ever imagine seeing were hovering over the downtown area. In fact, they were everywhere. As far as the eye could see. We live about 15 miles south and west of the downtown area and all the way down it was ugliness. We even had people texting us telling us we’d better be ready. It was already raining downtown. One fellow who shall go unnamed even texted us and told us we’d better have a plan B. Sorry man. We only have one plan. We aren’t sophisticated enough to have a plan B. And anyway, we’ve seen it happen too many times. In fact, its one thing our friends know. When we show up down there, it doesn’t rain. Has nothing to do with us. Nothing. Just God giving us a brief window to do a little work. And I don’t know why in the world it is so surprising to me. It’s like we tempted fate one too many times. But it’s true. It just doesn’t rain on that corner from about noon until whenever. I don’t care what the weatherman says. I don’t care what weather.com says. Oh, we check. I don’t know why. But we check. And it might tell us that it’s going to rain at whatever time. But if that time falls in the window that we are downtown, forget about it.

So when we got downtown today, it was nice and cool. And the line had formed. And it was loooooong. Man it was long. Never know what we might find when we get down there. Especially with the “threat” of rain. Must not matter. There were well over 200 people waiting when we got there today. And when we got there, I was in hurry up mode. In my mind, as feeble and limited as it is, we had to get this thing going. We needed to get set up and get everyone served as quickly as possible in case it rained. It was in the forecast ya know. The skies were quite black. And my mind was telling me we needed to hurry. And for some reason, it seemed like we were short on people to help serve. I was recruiting Nick, Christian, Erin and anyone else I could summon. It just seemed weird that we had all these people to serve and not enough people to help out. But they started showing up and pretty soon we had the serving tables fully staffed. And poor Robin was about at her wits end trying to get it all set up. We served tacos with chips and cheese and various desserts. That menu takes quite a few hands to get everything doled out and keep the lines moving. Oh and did I mention that we were worried about the possibility of rain? Oh, us of little faith.

So I jumped up on the wall with Erin and we did our thing. One funny thing about that. Every time we do out thing on that corner, we start the whole thing off with the Lord’s Prayer and then I say a short prayer to bless the food, our times, etc. Erin always helps me. We jump up on a short wall that lines the block from 13^th St. to 14^th St. It’s just a good way for a short guy like myself to get a little more height and for them to be able to hear me if I actually were to have anything worthwhile to say. As Robin gave me the go ahead today and told me to get up there, I looked around for Erin. She was stationed at the front end of one of the serving tables. The look on her face was one of worry. She was pretty much tied to the table because as soon as we finished praying, the food would start flying! She looked at me and said something like “…but Daddy, I have to stay here and serve”. And she was right. But she also knew that I don’t go up on that wall alone. That’s our thing. Me and Erin. My trusted assistant. I know I just spent a lot of words telling what may seem to be an insignificant story. But it’s pretty huge to me. I pray it’s something that Erin will always remember. Years from now, that she and Daddy prayed on that wall many times and that she always has a heart for serving. So Erin and I jumped up and did our thing. And I really rushed the prayer. Not in a way that dishonored why we were there. But I just kept thinking we need to hurry up. And when I got off the wall, a lady asked me where I “preached at?” Seriously? That always cracks me up.

So a few minutes later, after walking the line and greeting everyone, I’m standing on the corner. What had a few minutes earlier been ugly, billowing, black clouds had given way to a small blue hole in the sky. A small break. Was it going to happen again? A menacing summer storm that looked like it might just ruin our afternoon was going to blow by with not so much as a whimper? When I looked up and saw the small dot of blue in the sky, you can bet I was on it. I was talking to another fellow. A guy who I’m just not sure what side of the fence he lies on, spiritually speaking. I get the hint at times that he’s a believer. But I’ve never really sensed a commitment. But I was able to once again reiterate that we serve a God who cares about this stuff. And about his people. Especially those that gather on a corner in downtown Omaha on occasion. I was able to let this guy know that this was once again God doing His thing while allowing us to also do His thing. Just another chance to show this fellow that God does indeed mean business. And He’s in the business of love.

On a somewhat humorous note, another fellow was there today and I think he wishes he was in the business of love. A little different than God’s love, no doubt. He mentioned to someone that he wanted to give Robin a love drug. I am literally laughing out loud thinking that, number one, he actually said it and number two, who he said it to. He made this proclamation to someone we know very well. It’s not as if it wouldn’t get back to us. Of course he didn’t know that. I guess some of our friends don’t realize that we talk. I don’t know. It just hit me as pretty funny. Not that Robin isn’t worthy of a love drug. She definitely is. But I’m going to probably have a talk with my man and tell him maybe he needs to focus his love elsewhere. A love drug? Seriously? Wow…

So we brought enough food for a couple hundred people. And we had about 250-300 plates. And about 20 big tubs of clothing. And all kinds of other stuff. And we left the downtown area with a pretty empty trailer. It was amazing. And you have to remember all of this happens in a pretty organized, chaotic kind of way. I’ve just never seen anything like it. I get so many thank-yous. Like I actually do anything? I mean seriously. It just blows my mind that we serve a God who will literally part the skies so we can do this thing and people are thanking me. I try as hard as I can to make sure the thanks go to God. And to let our friends know that it ain’t us, but Him they need to be thanking. And I know that it’s pretty cool to get a good meal, some clothing, hygiene stuff, whatever, but I also know that it all leaves that corner with His blessing. It just wouldn’t be possible otherwise.

And by the time we left that corner, actually about an hour after we got there, the skies had completely changed to a bright blue and there wasn’t a cloud to be found anywhere in the downtown area. Another beautiful, successful day of ‘Fishin. Starfishin’. With the blessings of a God who loves us like we will never know. Very thankful to be able to serve alongside all of those who give up their Sunday afternoons to do this thing. Because I know that a lot of them drove down thinking the same things we were thinking as we drove downtown today. Probably along the lines of “…Are the Laneys crazy? Don’t they know that the skies are about to open up on us?” Well, honestly, that’s probably about what we were thinking. And the skies did open up. To reveal a beautiful blue sky and another opportunity to serve an amazing group of people and an AMAZING GOD! :)

"Sometimes I would like to ask God why he allows poverty, famine and injustice in the world, when He could do something about it...but I'm afraid He may ask me the same question." Anonymous.

Instead, we always speak as God wants us to, because he has judged us worthy to be entrusted with the Good News. We do not try to please people, but to please God, who tests our motives. ~1 Thessalonians 2:4 Good News Translation (GNT)

Make a difference…it matters.

Writ To Assemble?

2011-08-01T06:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was HOT. I mean the old fry an egg on the sidewalk kind of hot. It was so hot that I burned my hand on the inside roof of the trailer as I was loading the tables up before heading home. I wasn't sure what kind of crowd to expect because of this crazy heat wave we've been having, but our friends definitely showed up. Not sure I can say that I would have ventured into the downtown Omaha area yesterday if I were them, but for reasons unknown to me, they came. And in force. The heat index was well over 100°F. Plain and simple, it was brutal. My man Dwight brought 10 cases of water. We left with none. We brought 2 big coolers of lemonade. Left with none. We did come home with quite a bit of coffee. Never know how much of that to make. If I make less than normal, we run out. If I make the usual amount, we bring a bunch home. Always a tough one to gauge. I know I wouldn't be drinking hot coffee on a day like today, in that crazy heat. But people do. Crazy. So it was dangerously hot and we did our best to make sure there was plenty of fluids to go around. A quick side note here. I was at the City of Refuge Children's Home in

Jamaica

a couple weeks ago. One of, if not the most amazing places I've ever been. I kept a few notes on our visit there. I'm here to tell you it's hotter in Omaha right now than it is in

Jamaica

! Only we don't have the mountains and beaches. Go figure...

So we got downtown yesterday, got all set up and were ready to get that show on the road. After getting the ok from the boss (Robin...oh yeah, I know who runs the show), I took my usual spot up on the wall with my trusted assistant Erin and we made few quick announcements. It was hot, so I wasn't going to spend much time pontificating. Although I'm apt to do that on occasion, I didn't think the conditions warranted my soapbox preachin'. :) But I'd had a thought a couple days ago. And it went like this. I get about 5 minutes or so up on that wall. I feel it's pretty important to share what I believe with our friends. I make sure they know that He loves them. I hope that is clear. But a thought came to mind a few days ago to make sure I told the ones that don't believe. To address them specifically. I know as I stand on that wall and share, there are clearly and definitely those that are there purely because they can get a quick meal, a few t-shirts maybe, some hygiene items, whatever. And one thing I've always been clear about is that I'm not going to force my faith, my beliefs, my Jesus on anyone. I'll share it with them, for sure. But if a guy doesn't want to listen, then I'm not sure what else I can do. We know our words don't go out void. They don't come back empty. But I know for a fact, because I've seen it first hand, that people feel this need to "beat up" our friends with their faith. To prostheletyze to the point of offense. I know there's a fine line there and I'm pretty sure I've crossed it many times. But one thing I know for sure is our actions speak volumes about our faith. We gotta proclaim it. But to me, it's pretty important that we live it also. And I know people see it. They've told us. So a thought came to mind to reach out to the non-believers. Novel idea, I know.

So I'm on the wall. I have nothing really prepared. Just not how I operate. My whole life, as unfortunate as it may be at times, is flying by the seat of my pants. But this day, I was going to just share with the folks that think I spout nonsense from that wall. I was just going to share with them that God does indeed love them. He wants them to love Him back. But no matter what they think, He loves them. So just as I'm getting to that, a bit of a disturbance breaks out. I look back over to the area on the sidewalk by 14th Street and I see a fellow with an orange backpack. Middle aged Caucasian fellow. He's not walking into the crowd, but just skirting on the outside edge. As I realize that he's yelling at us, and sort of at me, I try to catch what it is he's saying. He's yelling pretty loudly at me and asking if we have a Writ to Assemble. Well, no, we've never had a Writ to Assemble. We have no permit. Nothing that would legally allow 150 or 200 people to gather on a downtown corner and eat, share and honor God. Nothing that would allow us to do that. Other than His blessing. And this fellow was not happy with us being there. I've seen him before. He's a homeless fellow that is obviously troubled. He stated very loudly that we needed the proper paperwork, hence the Writ to Assemble, to be here doing what we do. I could count on one hand the number of times someone has told us, in almost 5 years, that we need a permit or whatever to show up and gather on that corner. But not one time have we ever encountered anyone of significance, i.e. from the city, telling us we can't be here. And I definitely wasn't worried about what this guy might be thinking. Other than trying to quickly defuse whatever was on his mind and get him to move along. So I try as best I can to assure him, from across the way, that we're ok and it would be alright if he moved on. He asked me to come back later that night if I wanted to fight. Seriously? I assured him it was ok to move on. As he was walking away, I even did my best to wish God's blessings on him. He wished them back. "God bless you a$$_ _ _ _" were the exact words he used. I've been called worse.

But one thing I know. This battle was not between me and this fellow. I don't even know him. And he doesn't know me. This was not a battle of flesh. The funny thing was, as he was yelling this stuff, he never once tried to come into the crowd. Just stayed on the outer edge. And the whole thing probably lasted about a couple minutes. It was quick and brief. But to me it was clearly the enemy making his presence known. Letting us know that we were on his turf. And that he was in charge down here. Well, maybe so. But not on this Sunday. Not during this time. It may have felt as if we were in hell, because it was sure smoking hot, but God was at work. All we had to do was show up and He'd make sure of that. It was like there was a protective barrier all around us. This dude wanted in, but it wasn't happening. And when I said "God Bless you", I meant it. I always do. But that certainly isn't how it was received. And later on, my boy Nick tells me I should have offered him lunch. And he was right. Instead of asking him to move along, I most definitely should have asked him to join us. Wasn't so quick on my feet that time. I'm usually not. I absolutely should have offered him lunch. And a free Bible. And a little love. And whatever else we had to offer. Missed opportunity on my part for sure. He never tried to come in the crowd. Like I said, it was almost like he was just making his presence known. Like he was telling us that even thought we were there, this was his territory. Well maybe so, but for a couple hours on this particular day, it was God's.

One last note that I always want to remember is how God manages the details of this thing. There's a fellow and his wife that have been helping us out in this thing for a long time now. He was telling Robin yesterday how he is always amazed at how this thing always comes together. Down to every little detail. He's a planning guy. Has to have all the details worked out ahead of time. And to be sure, there is a bit of planning that goes into making this happen. But God always, and I mean always, is in the details. Even right down to someone having a can opener yesterday. We had a can that needed to be opened and no opener. Or so we thought. And God cares about even the smallest details. I've seen it too many times to think otherwise. He cares. And when we go in His name, he shows up. Before us even. And when that happens, amazing things happen. And even the presence of the enemy himself cannot thwart God's plan. He works it all out. I'm reminded constantly not to get ahead of His plan. I've done it too many times. And every time I mange to screw it up. Sometimes pretty badly. But when we allow Him to work, amazing things happen. And we realize the only Writ to Assemble we need comes from God Himself. So to the fellow that asked, yes we definitely have a Writ to Assemble. We had one yesterday and we'll have one next time. And it will be blessed by God Himself. If you have any questions or issues with that, I'd suggest you take them up with Him. He'll be able to answer any questions you may have. ;)

And that about wraps it up. God is strong, and he wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. This is no afternoon athletic contest that we'll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels. ~Ephesians 6:10-12 The Message

Make a difference…it matters.

Thundering Who We Are..

2011-06-27T17:41:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning started out a bit unusual for me in that instead of getting ready for our downtown activities and getting ready for church, I was planted firmly in front of my computer on a work call that was supposed to last about 1/2 an hour. It didn't. Almost 3 hours later, as I was already too late to make it to church, my call was wrapping up. Fortunately, I had prepared and loaded most of the necessary items in our trailer on Saturday. That meant most of the things that we'd need for our monthly meeting in the park with our friends was covered and I was in pretty good shape on Sunday morning. There's just certain things I can't do ahead of time, like make gallons of coffee, lemonade, etc. Some things just have to be done the morning of and those things were staring me in the face after my conference call ended. But actually, I was multi-tasking during my call. Making the great Scooters coffee that our friends at Harvest Roasting so generously supply. I'm telling you, this stuff is so much better than Starbucks. It's not even close. And they've really set us up over the years. Great commercial brewing system. Plenty of coffee whenever we need it. Just great stuff and our friends really love it. So as my call wrapped up and I knew I wouldn't make it to church, a somewhat relaxing feeling came over me. I knew that it wouldn't be a crazy, hectic morning getting everything prepped to go. And it wasn't. And what that bought me was a little less craziness when we got downtown. You see, normally when I get there, my mind is racing about a million miles a minute. Making sure we brought everything. Making sure we didn't forget something that might be important to someone. You may not think lettuce is that important, but one young lady refused to eat a taco last month because we forgot the lettuce. She was really pretty upset about it and I don't want those kinds of avoidable things happening. So today was good in that regard. I don't think we forgot anything. And when we arrived, even though we saw one of the biggest crowds of people I've seen there in a long time, there was something relaxing about the whole atmosphere.

One thing I noticed right off the bat was our good friend Dave Paulsen was there and ready to go. Dave and his wife Amber, of facingGoliath, come most Sundays now and provide live music for our friends. Crowder, Tomlin, and all sorts of other great worship music. There's something about live music that really sets the atmosphere. It creates a festival type of ambience that is just really cool. I'm continually amazed at how God will orchestrate this whole thing into something great as long as we are obedient and willing. So when Dave shows up, it is good. He comes once a month to perform at our Monday Common Table meals at inCommon Community Development also and his music and style just really set the stage for God's message to be shown.

You see, I read somewhere this week that you cannot "show" the Gospel, that is must be proclaimed. A well respected pastor from one of our nation's mega churches was credited with having said that. And while I agree with it to a certain degree, I probably disagree with it more than I agree, if that even makes sense. I absolutely believe that people see the Gospel in our lives at all times. I know we should be prepared to explain and defend our beliefs, especially to those seeking the truth. But our actions speak so loudly at times. I have a friend who lives in the shelter and he's sent me a couple things recently that just really made me pause.

First he said to me in an email - "what you are thunders so much that I do not hear what you are saying".

And secondly, he sent me the following -

Sermons We See

Edgar Guest

I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day;

I'd rather one should walk with me than merely tell the way.

The eye's a better pupil and more willing than the ear,

Fine counsel is confusing, but example's always clear;

And the best of all the preachers are the men who live their creeds,

For to see good put in action is what everybody needs.

I soon can learn to do it if you'll let me see it done;

I can watch your hands in action, but your tongue too fast may run.

And the lecture you deliver may be very wise and true,

But I'd rather get my lessons by observing what you do;

For I might misunderstand you and the high advise you give,

But there's no misunderstanding how you act and how you live.

When I see a deed of kindness, I am eager to be kind.

When a weaker brother stumbles and a strong man stays behind

Just to see if he can help him, then the wish grows strong in me

To become as big and thoughtful as I know that friend to be.

And all travelers can witness that the best of guides today

Is not the one who tells them, but the one who shows the way.

One good man teaches many, men believe what they behold;

One deed of kindness noticed is worth forty that are told.

Who stands with men of honor learns to hold his honor dear,

For right living speaks a language which to every one is clear.

Though an able speaker charms me with his eloquence, I say,

I'd rather see a sermon than to hear one, any day.

Powerful words on so many levels.

One short thing I'd share today is personal and relates to my son Nick. I'm biased and probably have a hard time separating my feelings for my kids from what I actually see from them when we are downtown. But one thing I know is that it's important for us to go. Nick had an opportunity to go out to lunch after church with some friends. But it would mean that he would miss out on our downtown activities. I wrestled briefly with letting him go. But what it came back to for me was the fact that we only go down once a month these days. And that day we go is important. And I believe it's important that we do this as a family. I get the chance to watch my kids in action on that corner. They've literally grown up on that corner. Nick will be 14 in a little over a month. We've been going for 5 years now. He's spent over a 1/3 of his life going down to visit our friends on that corner. He knows these guys. They know him. He was a bit upset about not getting to go hang out with his friends. As we headed downtown, there was a bit of moping and sadness emanating from the Nickster. But moments after we got downtown, he was in his element. He just does it well. He was talking football with a fellow named Michael. He was working the crowd. And he was thundering who he is. He was letting people see a sermon. It's not always good. We all make mistakes. But it's real. And that matters.

So today, and I'm sure it was because I was a bit more relaxed and my head wasn't necessarily on a swivel looking for the next thing to do, I was able to actually stop and talk to several people. I talked to a couple (not married but they've been "together" for about 5 years) who were experiencing relationship problems. I first explained to them that I'm not a counselor, not a pastor, but just a guy who believes. I tried to explain to them, and I believe they got it, that the battle wasn't between their human selves. Not of the flesh. But the battle was literally between them. That the enemy was in between them, pushing buttons, picking at wounds and forcing them to fight with each other rather than look upwards. Hopefully it all made sense to them. I think it did. She understood. I think he did.

Again, I'm so far out of my league sometimes when people ask me for advice. But the thing I don't do is "lean on my own understanding". I can't. Because I've learned over the years that it only gets me in trouble. But if I lean on what is really important, The Word, then it all begins to make sense. And then it comes down to living it and letting it thunder who I am. Letting people see the sermon that is our life.

So Sunday, June 26 was really good. The line of people stretched for almost a city block. And in some cases, it was 2 lines. There were just so many people. I wonder where they all come from. But I pray that they saw the Gospel in action today. From all of us. Thundering. Living it out. Oh, and on the way home, about 3 minutes from downtown, the rain came. It never rains on us while we're there. God always gives us a window. But on the way home, he reminded us that we'd better be effective within that window. Because maybe it's not always open. We'd better be a sermon for all to see and we'd better use our time and opportunities wisely. We'd better thunder who we are when the opportunity arises because that window can close rather rapidly. :)

Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill... Matthew 5:16 ~The Message (MSG)

Make a difference…it matters.

Grace on The Brick...

2011-06-01T06:28:00.000-07:00

We serve on a downtown corner. Most people know that I guess. Our current serving spot, which is the southwest corner of the Gene Leahy Mall in downtown Omaha, is covered in old brick. The actual area where we set up shop on those last Sundays of the month is covered in what I imagine is brick that was probably recycled from an old Omaha street. I can't confirm that, although I did try. Doesn't matter. It adds to the nostalgia in my feeble mind. ;) It's on that very spot though that some pretty amazing conversations happen. I drive, walk and run by this spot often, as I work downtown. Lots of times I'm a witness to various shenanigans and other crazy activities. It's a spot where young people hang out during the week. Some homeless, some near homeless, others just hanging out. Not much good happens there though, I'd imagine. The devil's playground maybe? But on those Sundays that we show up, I'd like to think a transformation of sorts takes place. Not because of us. But because God has a plan each and every time. If we show up, He shows up. And on Memorial Day 2011, He showed up. As He's so apt to do. One other thing about this corner - there was once a group who also came and served meals on this spot. They called it Life on the Brick. I'm really not sure of the circumstances or the reasons they stopped serving here. I only know that through different circumstances, we eventually became intertwined with this group. I'm going to screw up these details, but just know that the group was from an organization called Mosaic Community Development. They served meals in this very park long before we arrived on the scene. Then I believe they moved their operation to a building a bit south of the downtown area. Started serving a meal on Monday nights. Some Saturday breakfasts. Still called it Life on the Brick. Now it's called Common Table. I can't remember exactly how we actually got hooked up with this group, but it had to be 4 or so years ago. We started attending a Tuesday night Bible study at their facility. Soon after, we started attending their Monday night meal. At some point, they asked Robin and I to spearhead the meal. We've been doing that for a little while now. I mention all that because a lot of the same great people that we've been hanging out with on Sundays for almost 5 years now also attend this Monday meal. It's just amazing to me how God weaves these opportunities together and makes it all work. Another opportunity to share. Greatness. On the brick.

Some of the folks we meet with on Sunday and Monday are different, unique and very special to us, but really not so unlike any of us. For all sorts of reasons. It's not unlike anything I've ever done. Work. Church. Wherever. We just run into unique individuals and they impact us in many different ways. One young lady starting showing up quite some time back. I'd guess a couple years ago, but the way time gets away from me these days, I really can't remember. My first memory of her revolves around lotion. She'd always show up on Sundays and she was always asking for lotion. We always had plenty so it was never a problem for her to get what she needed. But it never stopped her from asking about it. Almost obsessively. And I have to admit, we joked about it at times but not in a mean way at all. At first I didn't know her name. People come and go on that corner and we may see someone once or twice and never again. Or they may show up and become a regular, so to speak. She's become a regular. And now she's a regular at our Monday night gathering also. After some time, I came to know her name. If I were guessing, I'd imagine she's in her early 20s. I think she lives on her own, but I'm just not sure. On Sunday, we happened to be serving soft shell tacos. As happens sometimes, and because we are a mobile entity, we forget things on occasion. This time, we forgot lettuce and some of the sour cream. When this young lady found out we forgot the lettuce, she was a bit upset. Told us in so many words that she'd not be joining us for lunch on this day if we didn't have lettuce. Said she could not eat tacos without lettuce. She even made a point of leaving and coming back later to reiterate her point. Really? Can't eat a taco without lettuce? I'm not sure why I'm even writing about this, except that I thought it was a little strange that she'd make a bit of a scene over what to me was a fairly minor thing. I mean I know that tacos need lettuce. But I don' know that I'd turn down lunch for that reason. Just one of the many unique personalities we encounter there weekly.

I was talking to a another fellow and he pointed out something to me that I probably should have noticed on my own. We've been doing this as a family for almost 5 years now. A lot of these folks have watched our kids grow up right before their eyes. When we started, Christian was 12, Nick was 9 and Erin was 6. And of course, Robin and I were MUCH younger than we are now. Well, the kids have obviously grown quite a bit in 5 years. Christian, at 17 now, has grown into quite the young man. Nick, soon to be 14, has done the same. And Erin, of course will always be my baby girl. But that simple fact hasn't stopped her from becoming quite the young lady. So as I was talking to this fellow, he pointed out that Christian was developing quite the ear for listening. I stopped what I was doing and looked over to where he was standing. And sure enough, Christian was engaged in what appeared to be a pretty good conversation with another fellow we've known since day 1. I really don't know what the conversation was about, but what struck me was my kids probably get this thing even more than their parents. Or at least this parent. Here was my oldest son engaged in a conversation with a fellow who's called the shelter his home for years now. The point? Well to me the point has always been the relational aspect. That thing within us that says lets go, lets listen and lets love. Right where we are. No matter the circumstances, no matter anything. If someone needs an ear, let's give 'em one. And let's show a little of God's love in the process. And I don't mean to just point out Christian here. Nick is probably one of the more social kids I know. It's just how he rolls. Always has been. I guess these years of home schooling haven't "de-socialized" him as much as some would have us believe. And Erin never met a Turbo she didn't like. :) I just am blown away by what I hope my kids are learning in these environments. That no matter what situation someone may be in at any given time, there's still plenty of love to share and I pray that they never lose sight of that. And I thank this gentleman for pointing that out.

There's another individual that we've known for some time that I believe showed up one of the first weeks we were there. A little boisterous. Maybe a little loud. Whatever. The one thing I've learned from this individual over the years is that grace comes in all shapes and sizes. At first, I was a little put off be this person. And honestly at times I still am. One of those people that if they don't show up, you kind of breathe a little sigh of relief. Kind of know that things might be a little easier. But what I've learned from this person is that I'm pretty loud and boisterous also. Obnoxious even. To God. I wonder what He thinks at times when I pepper Him with my prayers. When I stumble and fall and lay flat on my face, bloody and broken and whatever else. And when I do it time and again. Over and over. Loudly. Obnoxiously. You know what I think? I think He picks me up, dusts me off, pats me on my big ol' noggin and sends me on my way. With Grace. And that's what I need to practice a whole lot more of on a weekly...daily...hourly basis. This particular individual has definitely taught me that Grace is something I need to constantly be thinking about. Sometimes I have to be firm, but the two aren't mutually exclusive. They can coexist. For that, I'm thankful.

Finally, there's one last fellow that we've known for quite some time. He's not homeless. I'm not exactly sure what his life situation is. I mean we've talked about all that stuff, but with some of these guys, I just can't figure it out. And sometimes I just can't remember. This guy has some kind of photographic memory, which is fitting based on what we talked about Sunday. He's a guy who always waits around until the end. I have to admit that it's sometimes a challenging conversation for me. He sort of demands my time. And it's usually as we are packing up to leave. And there are times when I frankly don't have the energy or whatever to carve out specific, uninterrupted time for him. Pretty selfish on my part. So I usually try to mix the packing/loading process with our conversations. Again, pretty selfish of me. But on Sunday, he asked if he could talk to me and if we could ensure that no one else would interrupt. I promised him we could do that. You see, he'd recently been on a European trip. And he had pictures to show me. Lots of pictures. Actually, hundreds of pictures. He wanted to show me each and every one. So this time I made sure everything was packed and loaded and we began the process of looking at his pictures. The way this fellow's mind works is actually fascinating. He had pictures and a map. He traced his route on the map for me. And it was extensive. He showed me pictures of buildings in probably 10 different countries in Europe. At least. And he knew the name of every building, street, etc. Now this wasn't like a trip I take to a specific city. Where I can't even remember the name of the hotel we stay in. This guy remembered it all. Down to the detail. At one point, he was showing me a picture of a building in some city and even pointed out a bird in the picture. I made sure Christian joined me for this adventure, because I didn't think it was fair that I be the only one. :) But seriously, it made me pause and remember why we do what we do. It's not just to go through the motions, although I do that at times. The reason we go is to be involved. To listen, that very important skill that my kids seem to be mastering. To not only listen, but to hear. And to love. It all goes hand in hand.

It all speaks to Grace. On the Brick. And I'm so amazingly lucky to be a small part of it all. I thank God that in spite of the fact that I fall on my face often, He allows me to go back. Time and again. Very thankful.

She said, "Oh sir, such grace, such kindness—I don't deserve it. You've touched my heart, treated me like one of your own. And I don't even belong here!" ~Ruth 2:13 The Message (MSG)

...and

Looking at it one way, you could say, "Anything goes. Because of God's immense generosity and grace, we don't have to dissect and scrutinize every action to see if it will pass muster." But the point is not to just get by. We want to live well, but our foremost efforts should be to help others live well. ~1 Corinthians 10:23 The Message (MSG)

Make a difference…it matters.

Nice Speech

2011-04-25T06:24:00.000-07:00

Seems lately that every time we show up on our downtown corner, someone mentions those 2 words. We show up, get set up, prepare to begin serving, I get up on the wall with my lovely assistant Erin, say a few words, make any announcements that need to be made, we join together to honor God with His prayer, I follow up with a short prayer to hopefully ask for God’s blessings on our time and activities and hop off the wall. And as I’m meandering through the line exchanging greetings and pleasantries, someone invariably tosses out those 2 words. “Nice speech”. And for some reason, it always strikes me as odd. I don’t get on the wall to make a speech. In fact, if I were to go back to my high school days, a speech is one of the farthest things from my comfort zone that I’d likely find myself in. Definitely not in my wheelhouse. Now it seems that I’ve been in front of crowds from time to time, but I’ve never really been comfortable in that role. I used to play in a band here in town. Of course that always put me in front of lots of people. I never really knew how to deal with that. In fact, we’re getting ready to do a little reunion gig, so to speak. 20 years later, one last blowout. Stepping back into a world I was sure I’d left behind all those years ago. But I digress. There’ll be no speeches in that situation. So when we started going downtown almost 5 years ago, someone needed to lead a prayer and make any announcements that needed to be made. For whatever reason, or because I’m a control freak, that fell to me. What it’s morphed into for me over these years is a chance to share a little about how we all need a lot more of God in our lives and a lot less of us. I know for a fact that’s true for me.

So when I have the chance to get up there for that 5 or 10 minutes, I try to make it meaningful. I never really prepare a “speech” ahead of time. Rarely, and I mean rarely, do I have anything ready to say in advance. I simply pray that God will give me the words and that I can take that opportunity and absolutely capitalize on the fact that for just a few minutes, we have a captive audience and a chance to share what God’s love means in our lives. What His unbelievable, undeserved, amazing love is all about. Now you can’t really do that in 5 or 10 minutes. I know that. But I can do my best to make it a “speech” worth something to someone. And when I step down off the wall and someone mentions those 2 words, “nice speech”, I’m reminded that God may have indeed used that brief time to capture someone’s heart. If I think about how I used to live, about how I used to speak, about the filth and nonsense that used to flow from my mouth at times (and still does sometimes), I’m amazed that God would even consider using me in a situation like that. It is so incredibly humbling that I’m usually at a loss for words. But for that few minutes, He absolutely fills the gap. I almost always let our friends know that I’m not a pastor and that I’m not going to preach. And then I turn around and do just that! But I’d certainly be dishonoring our God if I didn’t. And I won’t let that happen. I’ve made and continue to make mistakes in this crazy life. That happens. But I’ll always do my best when I get on that wall to make a “nice speech” for the One who has given so much for each of us.

And yesterday, Easter Sunday, I was able to share, albeit very briefly, about a God who loves us so much, he sent his only son to live and die for us in a most barbaric and ugly way. I cannot, as a father, imagine. I cannot, as a human, imagine. But as a guy who’s just trying to navigate through the crazy, sometimes bizarre world we live in, I’ll continue to get on that wall with my beautiful daughter and share. I’ll continue to attempt to give “nice speeches” because I love doing it in that setting for all the right reasons.

So yesterday we had a great day serving in the Lord’s House. That open corner in downtown Omaha where we gather to honor a God who loves us more that we could ever possibly imagine in our humanness. We had great music provided by our friend Dave Paulson. We had great food provided by our friends from all over. We had great help provided, again, by our friends from all over. And there were people there yesterday that I hadn’t seen in what seems like years. It was honestly like a reunion of friends and family that we hadn’t seen in a long time. Some of the names didn’t come back to me as quickly as I’d have liked. But man it was good!

Just before we left to go downtown yesterday, I received the following from a friend on Facebook. It’s from a fellow that we first met on that corner a few years ago. I hope he doesn’t mind me sharing it:

“Heads-up! I just got my Amtrak ticket to return to Massachusetts. I leave EARLY Thursday Morning. I wanted to let you know because I know you've been praying for me for a long time! Thanks for everything the Lord has done through you over the years.
CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN, INDEED!”

Now that to me is a nice speech. I often wonder if what God does through us makes a difference. When I get notes like this, I have to think maybe it does. I know one thing. Those few words sent by our friend? Well, to me, THAT’S a “nice speech”. :)

They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews' spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings. ~Romans 15:27

Make a difference…it matters.

“It was a great Birthday Party!”

2011-03-27T14:52:00.000-07:00

Great day today. In spite of some weirdness in getting things set up for our monthly venture, greatness definitely followed. It was so weird though. As we were getting everything set up, Robin comes to the back of the trailer and tells me we’re missing tables. How in the world are we missing tables? And who is this woman masquerading as my beautiful wife? The tables stay in the trailer all the time. We might use one on occasion for whatever, but for the most part, those things live in the trailer. We have enough tables to set up 2 serving lines. When the number of people being served warrants it and we have enough help to pull it off, we go to 2 lines so people don’t have to wait in those God awful lines for so long. We decided before we even left our house today that we’d do 2 lines. I hate making our friends wait for a meal. Just a pet peeve of mine. I mean, why should they have to wait if we have it in our power to do otherwise? These are people that wait for beds in shelters, for food pantries at the food banks, and everything else in between. Why? So we decided a long time ago that we’d get enough tables to make sure they didn’t have to wait long when we showed up. We’ve done it quite a few times now. It’s not like we’re professionals or anything, but we’re not rookies either.

So when Robin showed up at the back of the trailer, in the middle of the somewhat controlled chaos that is our unload process, telling me we were short of tables, I tried to explain the best I could that we did indeed have everything we needed to pull this off. And I even went as far as to explain how the tables needed to be set up. She just walked away with a weird blank look on her face like I was speaking Chinese or something. We made it happen, and it’s probably a fact that we could indeed use a couple more tables, but I was pretty sure we’d done this a time or two. Just one of those little weird moments when I had to wonder what alien had taken over my wife’s body and when would she be back?

A young fellow who attends our church told us recently that one thing he requested for his birthday was for his whole family to come down and serve with us. Now I’m not sure how old this guy is but I’d guess maybe 15? And I’m not sure if today was actually his birthday, but that doesn’t matter. The fact is that he wanted to spend his birthday serving. He came up to me as we were loading the trailer to finish things off and told me “it was a great birthday party”. Seriously? You just spent your birthday party with about 100 or so of our homeless and near homeless friends? And that makes a great birthday party? You better believe it! It was an awesome birthday party. And this young guy gets it. He understands what it means to serve. I was blown away by his statement. I imagine he could have gone out for pizza with his family and friends. Probably could have done any number of things. But he chose to spend it with us and our friends. His dad told me as they were leaving (and his little brother was eating a poppy seed bagel with no hands) that the boys vote was to come back and do it again. I pray that they do. If our kids don’t know how to serve, what have we taught them? The beauty of it is this guy gets it. Greatness.

Saw lots of old friends today. Guys we haven’t seen for a long time. It was like old home week at the Gene Leahy Mall. A little fishin’ with old friends, so to speak. David M., Mikey, JB, Mark…guys that we met probably about 5 years ago. In this very park. And I have to say that not much has changed for them over that span of time. A few years older. Maybe a little greyer around the edges or in some cases, less hair. Most definitely been on quite a few benders since we last saw them. And these guys seem to age just a little faster, given their lifestyle. But most of these guys are still plying the same old tired trade. So what’s my thought around that? Well to be honest, I don’t give it a whole lot of thought anymore. I just simply try to do the best I can do with what we have. That’s just my thought. Others definitely think differently. Why does it have to be like this? Why are people sleeping on the river with nothing more than blankets in March? In Nebraska? Why are there families with kids showing up down there on Sundays? Why? Why? I talked to a friend who came down to help today. She was obviously pretty deep in thought. Standing off to the side by herself taking it all in. I asked what she thought? Her answer? It made her really think about how many blessings she has in her own life. We just take so much for granted. Usually. And not all of us, but I’m certainly guilty. I can usually find something to eat in the fridge when I’m hungry. Lots of these guys have no fridge, much less any food. I can take a pretty decent hot shower whenever. Not most of these guys. I sleep in a pretty nice, warm, California king bed every night. I met a couple today and their bed is somewhere along the banks of the Missouri River. With a couple of blankets as their “California King”. I’ve said it all before. It just amazes me that we see this time and again. In a country as wealthy as the one we live in. Hard to understand.

But what’s not hard to understand is a great birthday party. That I get. And today, God blessed us with all we needed to throw one. And we did. And for that I’m forever thankful. I pray that this young man truly had a great birthday party. And that he has many more. Right there on 14th and Farnam St. We’ll throw another one on Easter Sunday for whomever is celebrating a birthday at that time. That should shape up to be a great one. Hopefully, we’ll have enough tables to make it all work and Robin will be un-abducted by the alien forces who felt the need to take her away this morning. :) And I pray that when we show up, we will indeed somehow make a difference in some way. I do believe it matters…

“When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you... will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” Luke 14:12-14

Make a difference…it matters.

Clyde

2011-02-27T17:14:00.000-08:00

Clyde, Kansas. Population ~900. Today, approximately 20 or so residents of Clyde ventured north and west to the sprawling metropolis known as Omaha. The Big O. Ok, not many people know Omaha as the Big O. But Omaha does think it’s a sprawling metropolis. It’s really not. We may have a tad more than 900 people, but sometimes I think I’d opt for the town of 900. The thing is, today this group from Clyde was part of one body. Joined together with folks from various churches, ministries and us. Here in downtown Omaha. The youth group from St. John’s Catholic Church in Clyde came and conquered. Bags and boxes of stuff. A 3 or 4 hour drive. Smiles. Love. They came in abundance. And it was a rockin’ good Sunday. God once again delivered. As He always does. And we were able to celebrate that with this group of kids and some others from this awesome Kansas town. I actually think it’s just over 3 hours from Clyde to Omaha. There’s a definite connection between Clyde and Omaha. It maybe didn’t exist a few short years ago. But then we met a fellow named Wade. I’ve blogged about him a couple times. He left us way too early. Met him down on that corner a few years ago. Through that meeting and his passing, we met his family. I’ve blogged about them also. Great family. Just great people. They’ve been instrumental in helping us in various ways over the past couple of years. The way our meeting came about is not something I’d dwell on. It was tough. But as He does, God can and will use any situation for His glory. And He did that here. I’m convinced of it. No doubt in my mind. And today he brought a group to us that was a huge blessing to so many in this downtown community that we’ve grown to love over the years. Amazing.

I met a fellow today and for once, I was stumped. I saw him making his way down the sidewalk. His name was Keith. An older, African American fellow. Tall and slim. Graying around the edges. And a definite anger about him. I have no idea what his situation was. But he’s on my mind. Usually, when we come across folks on that corner that we’ve never met, even if there’s some sort of anger initially, it just seems like God has a way of working through that and things kind of settle down. Not with Keith. He asked a couple of times if he could talk to me. I told him absolutely, but I’d help him get something to eat and then we could talk. Our entire conversation and interaction probably lasted all of 5, maybe 10 minutes. He noticed the table with the bags of snacks and things from the Kansas folks. He was sure it was a sack lunch. I assured him it wasn’t and we actually had a hot meal for him. He made sure to grab a bag as he passed the table. It was almost like he didn’t believe that we had a bowl of chili for him. I managed to get him to the table where the chili was being served. He was very demanding and not real appreciative of the fact that we were there. It was just weird. After he got his chili, we had a few minutes to talk. Now one of the “habits” I have when I talk to people is I tend to kind of put my hand on shoulders and backs. I don’t know why I do it and most times I don’t even realize I do it. I suppose it’s calming or something. At least in my mind. Well it wasn’t calming in Keith’s mind. After we got his food and were standing away from the serving area, he was mowing through that bowl of chili like he hadn’t eaten in days. I guess it’s entirely possible that he hadn’t. Tough for me to imagine that in this town, but anything’s possible I guess. I’m pretty sure I still have chili and bread chunks on my jacket from Keith. So as he’s finishing off his lunch, the inevitable question comes up. Especially from a guy I’ve never met. “Do you have 3 dollars?” 3 dollars? I calmly let him know that we don’t do cash. Food? Sure. Clothing? Whatever we have is yours. A bar of soap and a little shampoo? Absolutely. But cash? We just don’t have it. That’s where things went a little south for me and Keith. As I reached up to place my hand on his shoulder to assure him I’d certainly help him if I could, for whatever reason, he very angrily asked me to stop touching him. I mean he was mad. What was a fairly calm conversation just moments earlier, took a pretty weird turn. He was angry and let me know it. I imagine if I’d given him the 3 dollars, things would have been ok. But I didn’t and they weren’t. Like I said, I’d never seen this fellow before. And I don’t know if I’ll ever see him again. I watched him walk away through the crowd mumbling and looking back over his shoulder and his words to me were not so kind. Honestly, I’m not sure what I’d done. I guess it was probably more what I didn’t do. He was angry that he was living at the shelter and no one was helping him. He had no income and he just wanted a few bucks. I saw him as we were leaving. He was on the steps of the library across from where we hang out on these Sundays. Again, his words were not nice. At all. Just a strange encounter…I guess it just was what it was. I wish I had a do-over with him. Maybe some other time.

But there were so many more great moments and there always are. One fellow made a point of coming over and thanking us. We get that so much. And I try so hard to deflect that stuff. It’s so important to me that we all realize that it’s God we should be thanking. I’ve been humbled so much lately with personal stuff that’s going on in my own life that I realize that I’m absolutely no different than any person we see on that corner. Or anywhere else. I’ve always known it. I’m just really getting it more lately. God has so incredibly blessed me beyond anything I deserve and I just keep falling on my face. And every time I do, He’s there to pick me up. And I try so hard to convey that to our friends. He loves us so much it’s impossible for me to comprehend. And His grace and mercy are even more difficult for me to grasp. And I know that God can use me no matter how many stupid mistakes I make along the way. It doesn’t give me license to continue my stupidity, but it does give me hope. I’ve had so many conversations with certain friends from downtown along these same lines and I think every once in a while God backhands me so that I remember it for myself. I’m just convinced that we’re supposed to be on that corner for the long haul. In some manner. Be it once a month or whatever. Maybe when we first started hanging out down there, I thought we were serving them. As the years pass before us, I realize more and more that’s probably not actually the case at all. I don’t know how it all ends up of course, but there’s one thing I want to be sure of in the end. “Someday I’ll pass through the great sky above – And the first thing I’ll ask is how well did I love?” (That line courtesy of Brandon Heath). And I pray that I get an answer and that it’s befitting a God who first loved us.

So Clyde came and represented today. Keith came and I somehow failed him. That happens. The enemy gets in the way lots of times. But more often than not, love flows on that corner. In so many ways. Be it through a meal prepared with love. Or a nice, hot cup of some of the best coffee in town courtesy of our great friends at Harvest Roasting/Scooters. Or a simple conversation. Whatever it is, it’s just all about how can we let these guys know we care. And we love ‘em. And more importantly, God loves them. SO much. Thanks to all the folks who served today. Thanks St. John’s Catholic Youth Organization and their sponsors. Thanks Southridge Church. Thanks Eagle Heights. Thanks to every church, organization or individual that showed up today. Thanks to all the folks who show up almost every time we show up. Thanks for not judging, but for loving in ways that are so impactful. Truth be told, if there was more of that in this crazy world, maybe guys like Keith would be a little less angry. I’d bet on it.

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" ~Isaiah 6:8

Make a difference…it matters.

I Feel Like A New Man!

2011-01-30T17:26:00.000-08:00

First things first. Cold. Cold. Cold. Cold. Cold. I mean really cold. I notice it more these days. I don’t know if it has to do with the fact that my age is starting to kind of get away from me? I’ll be 48 this year. I don’t know when or how that happened. 48?! I seriously don’t feel that old. At least not all the time. I feel like I’m in pretty good health. I try to exercise pretty regularly, but I don’t eat all that well. I’m working on that. In fact we just finished a 21 day fast. Mostly veggies, fruit, stuff like that. So it was pretty fitting that today, the final day of the fast, we go downtown to hang out with our friends in some balmy, January Nebraska weather. Did I mention it was cold? I was kind of getting to a point a second ago, but got a little off track. I was simply going to mention how weird it is that when I get out in this goofy weather, it feels like my fingers might actually fall off. I don’t know for sure when that started being an issue for me. I guess in single digit temperatures, that just happens. Just seems like my circulation ain’t what it used to be. I wonder how some of our friends deal with being out in this stuff all the time? I mean, wouldn’t Florida, California, or some other warm weather destination be more of the way to go? Just wondering…

So when we first pulled up to our corner today, it looked like there might be 20 or 30 people there. I was thinking that was probably a good thing. I’m not sure I’d venture out in this stuff if I didn’t have to. But in a matter of minutes, I look down the sidewalk and our tables are set up, the line is forming down the other sidewalk and there are suddenly a lot of people. I don’t know if that speaks to the needs that are being met, the desire of folks to simply come and hang out or just what the deal was. But man, it was cold down there today and I was actually a little shocked at how long our line was. We had a great meal, lots of winter clothing and tons of other stuff. But it has to be more than that. I’m not kidding, it was fairly ugly. In times past, Sundays like this may have drawn 30 or 40 people. Just seemed like there were more today.

It’s funny too how we always seem to have almost just enough of certain things, just when we need them. Even if I fail to bring some of those certain things. I mean, I try to remember everything, but that must be another symptom of this age thing. I don’t know, but as I was glad handing my way through the line of folks today, I noticed lots of guys that didn’t have gloves, hats, etc. I have no idea how you manage your way through a Nebraska winter without a decent pair of gloves. Or maybe they simply aren’t a priority to some. They certainly are to me. I must have handed out 50 pairs of gloves today. At least. It was blowing my mind. Every time I’d turn around, another person would be asking for a pair of gloves! Crazy.

I met a fellow today for the first time. He met me at the side of our van. I was getting someone else a pair of gloves and he needed a pair. Imagine that? And he saw a coat in the back of the van. He was wearing a coat and also had a hoody. If I were to guess, I’d say he was probably in his 50s. Said his name was Mo. From Puerto Rico. I’m guessing Mo didn’t experience many days like this in Puerto Rico. Just a hunch. So he saw the coat in the van and asked in his broken English if it was for anyone? Any way he could have it? As I said, he had a jacket and a hoody. Looked ok to me. So I shut the van door and told him it was already spoken for. And it was. But whomever asked earlier was nowhere to be found. Funny, that. But that’s where the breakdown occurred and does occur for me sometimes. Far too often, I’ve thought I knew what people needed. If a guy has a coat, does he need another? If a guy has a pair of boots on, does he need another pair? If a guy has gloves, does he need new ones? I usually try my best to be discerning. I probably fail more often that I get it right. I sometimes don’t notice that the boots a guys is wearing, even though they look ok on the surface, might just have a sole that’s hanging on by threads. Or the coat that doesn’t actually zip up. Pretty ineffective in this climate. Not good. Just like sometimes we look like we have it all together on the outside, and yet internally, we are a freakin’ mess. Busted, broken, all sorts of messed up. That pretty much sums me up most times. So when I see these guys in need and we have what the guys need, it’s pretty much a no brainer. However, meeting the need is only half the battle. We have to meet it with love. And it probably needs to be unconditional. And maybe a little less judgmental. Have to be good stewards, but that coat does no one any good in my garage. Those boots keep no one’s feet warm on a shelf in my garage. Same with the gloves. Now there are the usual suspects that try to hustle a little once in a while and I usually know who those guys are. But you can’t hide bare hands in the middle winter in Omaha.

So Mo needed that coat. And maybe a word of encouragement. And maybe he needed to know that God was with us all today. He couldn’t believe his “luck”. I assured him it wasn’t luck. It was provision. By a God who loves him dearly. I think he already knew that. It never hurts to hear it. And it absolutely never hurts to see tangible signs. As we stood right there in the street, I helped him into his new coat, helped him get it zipped up and his words spoke volumes. “I feel like a new man”, he said. And there was pure joy on his face. All because of a new coat! I told him he looked great! You see, some may brush an encounter like this off as coincidence. Not me. Seen it too many times. And I’ve definitely made choices over the course of time where I’ve taken matters into my own hands and gotten ahead of where God was probably leading us. Definitely. Done some crazy things. But these days, I’m really trying my best to stay out of the way and simply let Him lead. And today, He led Mo to our corner. And the look in Mo’s eyes was priceless. Mo showed up. God showed up. A need was presented…and met. And Mo left, I hope, knowing God did a little business on that corner today. It was pretty cool. And very cold. But the two met and it was good…

He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done. ~ Proverbs 19:17

Make a difference…it matters.

Gotta go - Gotta do something...

2010-12-28T12:09:00.000-08:00

Sunday, December 26, 2010. Omaha weather - Pretty doggone cold! The temperature on a downtown Omaha street corner? Cold but pretty doggone bearable. It seems that our friends in Charlotte NC, Atlanta GA, Anniston AL, and various other locales in the Southeast received more snow than dear, old Omaha. And that's ok. But I digress. So you see, it seems that whenever we end up on that corner, things are just good. And this day, things were especially good. Southridge Church came and killed it! As part of a thing called winter Servolution, they came with abundant amounts of food for all. And this after a month long winter coat and clothing drive. And Eagle Heights was back to help as well. And a very fine representative from St. Rose. And there were others. My feeble memory fails me so often that I hesitate to mention who came. But those who come time after time, just know that when you come, He knows. That should be all that matters. So on this day, the day after Christmas, He showed up and we showed up and it was good. I say that knowing that many of our friends, even though they were forced to deal with the elements in December in downtown Omaha, came and left with the blessings and provisions granted by our God. It never ceases to amaze me that people profusely thank us for showing up. And we only do it once a month these days. But they are so thankful. And I say it time and again. All we have to do is show up. And when we do, amazing things happen. Like our friends from Beaver City, Nebraska showing up with bags of gloves, socks, hand warmers, etc. Amazing. They drove for 3.5 or 4 hours to get here and deliver gift bags to our friends for Christmas. Amazing. And Life Church showed up with enough coats to clothe a small army. Just amazing how God knits it all together.

So here's one example of great things that happen when we step out of our normal comfort zones. Now this may seem like a small thing, but I'd venture to say otherwise. I'll probably screw up some of the details of this, but the big picture remains. One person who showed up from Southridge happened to bring an extra coat. One person who showed up to take part in the meal and other activities needed a coat. Showed up on that corner without a coat. In that weather. In Omaha. In DECEMBER!! I have no idea why she had no coat. And I'm not really sure it matters so much, other than the fact that God was working in the details. You see, if we just show up, He will also. He'll handle the details. He cares about the details. He'll blow the details out of the water. Even if the water is frozen! As it's apt to be here in these Midwestern winters. I've seen it too many times. Someone will show up on that corner with a need. And no matter how big or small that need may be, He meets it. It has nothing to do with us. Other than the fact that he uses us sometimes to facilitate. But he can't use us if we don't go. We have to go. Have to show up. Have to do something...somewhere.

And it always is surprising to me to see just who might show up on any given Sunday. We get groups from various local churches. And of course the fine folks from Beaver City. We get people who show up once, never to be heard from again. We get individuals who've been helping almost from day one. Those who have hung in there with us through all of our craziness. Our great friends who allow us to show up when we do and those who trust us to come when we say we will. I had someone mention to me as we were unloading that she knew we'd be there. And she was having a conversation with another fellow who might have had some doubts about whether or not we'd show up. She made a statement similar to the following upon our arrival - "See I told you they'd be here...their word is gold". Too much credit. Honestly, we try to do what we say we'll do. For all the days that we've shown up on that corner, one thing I've always prayed for is the ability to remain consistent. Even in my own busted and broken ways, I've found that the one thing that has to be prominent is consistency. If we say we're going to do something, we'd darned well better do it. We've come up short on a few occasions, but I don't think we've ever missed a Sunday when we said we'd be there. That's simply a testament to the amazing Grace of God. The mere fact that He allows us to show up? Unbelievable. Because, again, when we do, amazing things happen. And we meet some of the most amazing people. I overheard one fellow say something to Robin that was very cool. I don't know what his deal was. Don't know if he was homeless, living in a local shelter, or what. I just know he was there. And it was as things were winding down. She asked him if he'd gotten anything to eat. He hadn't. She expressed her concern and sorrow that he wasn't able to get anything to eat. His response? He simply said it was ok. He just came for the smiles. Very cool.

And finally, one last thing. I met a young fellow on this Sunday that got me thinking. 22 years old. Heroin addict for 6 years. I'm not great at math, but that would mean he started using at the age of 16. Heroin at 16? Seriously? My oldest son is 16. I cannot imagine. But I know how this happens. I did some things when I was 12 that would make people wonder. So this guy using at 16? It happens. He said he had no family. Was living in the shelter. He'd been on methadone for a month. For anyone not familiar with methadone, it's a synthetic drug used to wean addicts off of heroin. So he'd been on it for a month. His words were very slow. His mannerisms were somewhat drawn out. He needed a ride back to the shelter. He'd gathered several bags of clothing from our containers and was real happy to have been "fortunate enough to have decided to make that walk" on this particular day. Fortunate? Lucky? Not in my book. That's a blessing my man. And the only reason is because a bunch of crazy people showed up. I had about 5 minutes in the van with this guy to try to explain that this wasn't luck. It was purely God's providence. Look, I have no idea how this all works. All I know is that when people hear a voice telling them to go and do something, they might want to listen. I'd have never had the opportunity to share my faith with this fellow if not for being there in the first place. And I'm not foolish enough to think that just because of a 5 minute van ride with me (of all people) that anything I did will become some sort of Hallelujah moment for this guy. But I do know that he heard some things during the course of that short ride that he probably wouldn't have otherwise heard on this particular day. I was able to briefly share with him some of my past and he did the same. And I was able to tell him how much God loves him. And he heard. All because we were there. But you have to go. Have to. Otherwise, it's just good intentions. I just believe there's more to this whole thing. There are entirely too many people out there who are hurting and may never darken the doors of a church. But if the church comes to them? Well, Who knows what may happen?

Give freely and spontaneously. Don't have a stingy heart. The way you handle matters like this triggers God, your God's, blessing in everything you do, all your work and ventures. There are always going to be poor and needy people among you. So I command you: Always be generous, open purse and hands, give to your neighbors in trouble, your poor and hurting neighbors. ~Deuteronomy 15:10-11 (The Message)

Make a difference…it matters.

Where Have Your Feet Been?

2010-11-28T16:38:00.002-08:00

Today was a pretty windy and blustery November day in downtown Omaha. Actually, real windy. But what a blessing to be there. With a trailer absolutely jammed and crammed with clothing, coats, winter gear and anything else I could get in the thing. We had so much to take this time I had to take all the seats out of the van and use that space also. Amazing. And it was well received. I mostly take for granted the simple fact that God allows us to go. That he lets us do this thing. And then someone who’s never been to help comes up to me and says what a blessing it is. And there’s just something different about it. Different to me at least, in the sense that all are welcome. We have no walls. No doors. No barriers of any type. If a person can walk, crawl, roll or whatever, they can come and partake. I don’t think we’ve ever had to tell someone to leave. Or that they weren’t welcome in the first place. That corner just takes on a different life for about 2 or 3 hours each time God blesses us with His presence there. It’s almost like He prepares the way. :) Funny that. Kind of like His feet go before us?

For the past couple of days, I was able to spend a lot of time in the garage sorting, packing and cleaning. Sorting all the very generous donations we’ve been blessed with over the past few weeks. Packing all the summer clothing away in the shed. Cleaning up after the fact. It was a lot of work, but it was good work. We delivered several dorm type refrigerators that were donated. We had bags of stuff that had accumulated over the past few weeks. There was so much stuff, we couldn’t get our cars in the garage. Well, truth be told, one of the cars fit. Sort of. But there was a lot of stuff. So my mission over the Thanksgiving holidays was to get that stuff organized. And it was so amazing to see all the provisions for our friends. Coats. Hats. Gloves. Winter clothing. Socks. The list goes on. Also, there were boots. Lots of military boots. We have a friend who is a doctor at Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue. A few miles down the road from our house. She collected lots of boots last year for us. Today I was finally able to share some of those boots with our friends. We’ve helped guys get boots in the past. To the point of over spending and getting into trouble. And they weren’t even the best boots we could purchase. But they were the best we could do at the time. The boots we were able to distribute today were of great quality. Military style. And boots that will hopefully get these guys through the winter. It seems like such a simple thing, but for a guy who is on his feet for the better part of a day, a good pair of boots in the winter, especially a Nebraska winter, is a good thing. If some of our troops who’ve donated only knew the good they’d done by simply donating a pair of used boots…well, I’m pretty sure they’d approve. Makes me wonder where those boots have been and where they’re going.

One of the things I always pray before we head down is that God will allow us to somehow be His hands and feet. That He would indeed go before us and prepare the way so that we, with all of our warts, scars, busted emotions and all the other baggage we own, can indeed somehow be the hands and feet of the One Who sends us. I know that sounds so churchy, but it’s what it is for me. I really want to be used in such a way as to be so obvious that every single thing we do is to honor the God who sends us. That our feet will take us to places that please Him. That our hands will do things in those places that also please Him. And that our words in those places will simply be Him speaking through us. It gets so busy at times that it’s hard to imagine how He could possibly use us in any constructive way. But I’m convinced He does. All it takes for me is for one person to get it and I know He’s done it. One person. A simple comment by someone that lets me know they get why we’re there. And there are tons of those comments.

I’ve wondered lately what this looks like years from now. Are we making any kind of difference for His purpose? Do all the meals and clothing and stuff mask what we are really doing? Are we helping of hurting? Someone recently suggested we read a book entitled “When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor. . .and Yourself”. I’m strongly considering this book. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ll pick it up. One of the things that struck me in the book review was the following statement - Helping the needy will never become neat, clean and orderly. Look, I get that. Again, I’m such a novice when it comes to this stuff. I’ve gotten myself into so much trouble over the years trying to figure this out. Stupid financial decisions. Screwed up relationships. Just too many mistakes to mention. And not just little mistakes. They seem to follow me around just waiting to pounce. And the idea of helping so much it hurts the very people we are trying to help? Well, that definitely has me thinking. But keeping a guy warm in a Nebraska winter? Getting a guy a hot meal on a cold winter day? Those are just things we should be doing. The very Guy we follow said it Himself – There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land. ~ Deuteronomy 15:11

So where have our feet been lately? Probably not nearly in as many of the places that they need to be or should have been. How to balance it all? No idea. I know we’ve been involved in some pretty crazy God stuff lately. Raising money to help build wells in Africa. Adopting families for Christmas. Hanging out with our friends on Monday nights and some Sundays. Great life group gatherings. All things I’m so grateful for and so thankful for. As I reflect back on what this “holiday” weekend is supposed to be all about, I’m indeed thankful for all the things God has placed in front of me. And nervous at times about the things I’m hearing. Wondering where our feet will lead us. But as my buddy Chris Tomlin says –

Where you go, I'll go Where you stay, I'll stay When you move, I'll move I will follow you

Who you love, I'll love How you serve I'll serve If this life I lose, I will follow you I will follow you

Yeah, I’ll follow. Most definitely. With these feet that you’ve blessed me with.

One last thing that’s been on my mind lately. A friend was killed recently. The details are pretty vivid. He was an older fellow we knew from our times in the park and from our Monday meals. He was an eccentric fellow who seemed to have a bit of an obsessive compulsive thing going on. But he was a good guy. You didn’t have to look too deep to see the good in Robert. Always with a quick “you’re alright Dave”. Always repetitive in his mannerisms. Very quick to think someone was “messing with him”. But just under the surface was a fellow who I believe simply wanted to be loved. And he was killed for reasons I’ll never understand. I really felt that after weeks or even months of trying to figure each other out, Robert and I were making headway. I saw him on a Monday night a couple weeks ago. He rarely ever missed our Monday gatherings. We made arrangements for me to come to his place the following Wednesday to hook up a stereo. I’m pretty sure he could have done it himself. But we made arrangements. He must have asked me 20 times that night if I knew “how to hook the little red wire up to the red hole and the little black wire up to the black hole”. I assured him we could figure it out. Turns out we’d never get the chance. We received a phone call on Tuesday night that someone had been killed in Robert’s building that afternoon and there was a good chance that it was him. It was. I was shocked. Not only because of the violent nature with which he was killed, but that he was gone. Just like that. Gone. And Robert and I had talked about his heart many times. About his relationship with God. But I cannot say that I knew for sure where he was in that regard. I pray that he was square. Because it can happen just like that. I only wish that my feet had made it to his apartment on that Wednesday. That I’d been able to step in and talk to him once more about his eternal choices. Instead of meeting to hook up his stereo on that Wednesday, I attended a vigil behind the building. Only feet away from the very steps in which he died. In fact the steps were still stained. I’ve let myself go to that place a few times since it happened. The last few moments. It absolutely must have been terrifying for him. And every time I start to ask why? I’m reminded of the broken world we live in. Where something like this can happen. Man…

Sorry for rambling here. It’s been a couple months since I last sat down and compiled my thoughts. I just pray that my feet take me to places that Jesus himself would venture into. That’s where I want to go and I pray that I have a brave enough heart to do it. And I simply pray that no matter what stupid decisions I make, that I’m allowed to continue to serve a merciful and loving God. A God that is so full of Grace that it’s beyond my comprehension. I cannot imagine. I pray that he leads me to places that continue to rock my world and I never take for granted the amazing things He’ll show me if I’m simply willing to go.

Make a difference…it matters.

Where Have Your Feet Been?

2010-11-28T16:38:00.001-08:00

Where you go, I'll go Where you stay, I'll stay When you move, I'll move I will follow you

Who you love, I'll love How you serve I'll serve If this life I lose, I will follow you I will follow you

Yeah, I’ll follow. Most definitely. With these feet that you’ve blessed me with.

Make a difference…it matters.

Where The Action Is…

2010-09-26T18:38:00.000-07:00

Today was so amazing, I almost have to wonder when the bad stuff is going to hit! You know, the crazy, freeze your snot right inside your nostril stuff. The stuff that makes you ache so bad for warmth that you might be willing to do all sorts of bizarre stuff just to get a little heat. But today? Not so much. If there ever was a chamber of commerce day, this was it. Beautiful blue skies. Barely a hint of a breeze. Good spirits all around. And the presence of our God on our corner. It was one of the best days I’ve seen down there and there were a number of reasons. First of all, there was a group from Southridge that came and rocked the place today. God was working in so many ways. It was amazing. I so wish I could crawl up in one of the taller buildings sometime and just watch the activity. Watch God work through the various folks that come to help out. And to watch Him work through the hearts of the people coming to hang out with us on those Sundays that we show up. It’s so easy to take for granted what He does on that corner. Sometimes it gets so busy, it’s hard to make time for the one on one conversations. Hard to just sit and listen on the occasion that someone just needs an ear. And frankly, all the food and clothing and stuff are great and needed. But the ear or shoulder are even more important. There are so many broken hearts. Broken minds. Broken souls. It’s such a great opportunity to show up and just hang out and if the moment arises where someone needs to just talk for a bit, well it’s nice to be there to listen.

Like I said, a great group came again today from Southridge. It is so cool to see these guys embrace this thing. It’s such a great place for people to go to get out and serve an Awesome God. He alone deserves our best. And today, I pray He got it. At least the best that we could pull it off. He set the table, so to speak. Laid it all out for us. All we had to do was show up. And our friends from Southridge showed up today. Rocked it. We’ve been going to Southridge as a family for about 7 or 8 months now. Anyone who knows what it is like to go to a new church knows that it takes time to form and cultivate relationships in that setting. Takes time to get plugged in. Just like in most things in life. It just takes time and patience. And then all of a sudden you begin to see the fruits of the relationship. It’s just so cool to see God at work in all we do. Part of the message this morning at church centered around the idea that you cannot be a champion while living in a cave. That is so true and so stinking relevant to some of my crazy ideas these days. It was all about Elijah and his basic spiritual collapse and his subsequent recovery. And the words God spoke to Elijah – “What are you doing in here Elijah?" In a cave. Come on man!! Get out there! I’ve got work for you. And I see so much of that in God’s basic desire to see us get out and do something. Anything that brings glory and honor to Him.

I was doing a little reading this morning. It just blows me away sometimes how God just lays something out for me that makes so much sense. Funny that. This morning I was reading Colossians, chapter 3. It was so fitting that He’d lay this out there for me this morning. Part of it was this:

So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that's where the action is. See things from his perspective. ~ Colossians 3:1-2 (The Message)

Don’t shuffle along? Eyes to the ground? Really? Seriously. The thing for me is that there are so many chances for us to make a difference. A difference that might change someone’s life. And all because we listened to a whisper. A gentle nudge from God to go out and do something that would ultimately honor and glorify Him.

I watched my wife today at various times. She is so in her element on that corner. I think I’ve mentioned before how much her compassion scares me. I pray that she doesn’t pray for compassion. Thankfully, God knows she has it in spades. It’s not uncommon for us to hook up with certain individuals on that corner. And by that I mean, as humans we are naturally drawn to certain people. Just like in any other walk of life. In our workplaces. In our churches. We just do it without thinking most times. I do it all the time. I was talking to Robin about that very thing today on our way downtown. Certain people are just easier for me to talk to or visit with. It’s not always a conscious thing. It just kind of happens. And I wonder how God feels sometimes. When I say that I secretly hope a certain person might not show up on a given day because it makes things difficult. How would I feel if God treated me that way? I know how ridiculous that is, but what if He did? Really makes me reconsider how I treat people. Doesn’t mean I always adhere to it, but it certainly gives me reason to strive to do just that.

So I watched Robin today and in particular, I watched her visit with a certain gentleman. This is a fellow we’ve known for about 4 years now. Lives under a bridge in downtown Omaha. Very soft spoken, very deep voiced fellow that has certainly been dealt a few rough circumstances in his life. Abuse as a child. Not sure on the substance abuse side of things, but we know that is obviously an issue also. The thing is he’s pretty much been an agnostic all his life. Or at least that’s the impression he’s always given us. 4 years ago he met some crazy Christians, as I’m sure he’s apt to call us. I don’t for one minute think that any single thing we’ve done has made a huge impression on him one way or another. That might be the case. I don’t know. And I’m pretty sure that’s not why we do what we do. We do it because He loves us. Every singe one of us. And this fellow needs to know that. And if every single thing we’ve done over the years is simply to influence that in his mind somehow, then so be it. And I watched Robin convey that to him today. In several different conversations. On the back side of the big Gene Leahy mall sign. On the steps that serve as the entrance to the park. And I’d bet that in each case, God was working. Telling her not to shuffle along and not to hide in a stinking proverbial cave. But to be bold and to share with this fellow that God so loves him. So much. And that he doesn’t have to do this alone. Under a bridge in downtown Omaha.

So I’m done rambling. I just know that today was indeed an amazing day. And I pray that our friend somehow realizes that God does indeed love him. Hugely. More than any of us will ever know. Assuredly, more than we deserve. A huge thanks to all who showed up today. We are so thankful that God has moved in ways that have impacted each of us to do what we do. And that is to serve an amazing God who simply loves us. And to serve him, not while shuffling along with our eyes to the ground, but while looking up, alert and aware of what is going on around Christ. Where the action is. Amazing.

Make a difference…it matters.

Rockin’ our World

2010-08-29T14:17:00.001-07:00

What an absolutely amazing day on a downtown corner today. Unbelievably unseasonal weather (always have to give the weather), tons of people on both sides of the tables and just a great day. Started the day off with a great service at our church. Ended the afternoon with a great service to the Lord. World rockin’ stuff. It seems so simple too. We sort some clothing into various containers, maybe gather some hygiene items, throw a great meal together, load it all up and head to a corner in downtown Omaha. Takes a little preparation, but after doing it for a few years now, it seems so easy. And yet I never want to lose sight of why we go and what it means. It’s such an amazing opportunity to rock a little for God. We see lots of the same people week after week, month after month and year after year. And as much as it pains me to see some of these same people in the same situations time after time, it’s a blessed opportunity to share. To do a little world rockin’. And believe me when I say world rockin’, I mean Him rocking my world. I sat in a church service this morning and listened to a message about what it is that God might have in store for each of us. And I always wonder if we are on the right track. If what we do day to day, week to week, month to month is what he had or has in mind for our family? Are we doing enough to serve our Maker and to bring him the honor He so richly deserves? I have no idea, but we’ll keep trying. That I know.

Had lots of great help today. Eagle Heights Church came. Southridge Church was represented mightily. It’s so cool to see the opportunity to serve so fully grasped by these folks! Amazing opportunity for people to put their faith into real action. There are so many people in need of so many things. And I’m talking about the people on the inside. People within the local church. There are so many opportunities to get out and serve in so many tangible ways. So many. And so few people take advantage of those real opportunities. I mean, I know it might mean giving up a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, but the payoff can be so huge, I can’t even count how many times I’ve missed out on great times like this because I’ve been too caught up in serving my own needs. How many wasted opportunities? I’m so thankful for every small chance to not look back at missed chances, but instead to be listening for and seeking new ones. This thing we do monthly is a chance for new encounters with old friends and new ones each time. And a chance to serve God in such a tangible way. Be it providing a great meal, a pair of shoes, a clean shirt, or whatever. More importantly, it’s a chance to serve a God who is so unbelievably forgiving and accepting of each and every one of us. No matter how broken and busted we may think we are, He can use us for something. I’ve struggled for months with things that make me sometimes think that I’m in no way worthy of some of the gifts I’ve received, yet He tells me otherwise. He can use us no matter where we are in life. He can use us to share a message of hope in the hopelessness, strength where there is weakness and love when we feel unloved. It doesn’t mean a person has to show up on a downtown street corner and serve meals and things to homeless and near homeless folks. What it does mean is that we should be doing something. Something to honor the undeserved grace that’s been offered to us. Just do something.

One thing I’d share from today is a story I heard from a young couple. We’ve known this young fellow for a few years now. He and his young wife lost a baby last week. I have no idea what that must feel like. Can’t even imagine. And I had no real words of wisdom. I’m just not that smart. Those are always tough situations for me. Because, mostly words are pretty useless in those times. Learned that a long time ago. Sometimes we just need to listen. And now they are faced with the reality of dealing with a baby that was born prematurely at 23 weeks and watching it die before their eyes. Now they must deal with what comes next. Funeral arrangements, grieving, dealing with the emotional baggage that surely comes with these types of things. He was almost speechless when we first began talking about it. As the conversation progressed, he opened up more. But I cannot imagine what he must be feeling. And if I understood them correctly, the doctor had a chance to call the NICU and have them intercede. But he chose not to. Was it because they had no insurance? No means to pay the bill, so to speak? Who knows? I pray that was not the case. I sincerely hope that nothing could have been done. And I felt that all I could offer was that maybe this was a time for this young fellow to seek God and seek His wisdom in this terribly painful time. I just can’t imagine…

Time to get ready for next month. I pray that God will continue to rock my world. Rock our world. It’s so amazing to show up there and see the faces of our friends. I don’t always remember everyone’s name. I try, but it’s hard. I think there were probably 150 people or so today. It’s difficult to keep track of everyone and all the issues that they are all facing. But it’s not hard to go. That’s the easy part. And every time I go, my world is rocked a little more. I pray that He’ll continue to use us. And that we never lose sight of the fact, and it is a fact, that we serve and amazing and awesome God. Till next month…and in the meantime, rock a little.

Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers, even though they are strangers to you. They have told the church about your love. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. We ought therefore to show hospitality to such men so that we may work together for the truth. 3 John 1:5-8 (New International Version)

Make a difference…it matters.

Giving our best…

2010-07-25T17:35:00.000-07:00

So today was our second time back downtown since last August. We took a little break for nearly a year. Right or wrong, we felt it was time for a break. So today we were going downtown for our monthly visit with some friends. A meal, some clothing, a few hygiene items. But mostly, just hanging out and visiting. As happens so often for me these days, I received a timely email this morning. You see, we have friends who live in Charlotte, but are in currently in Ethiopia, and yet others who are preparing to go to Ethiopia. They all belong to a church we once called home when we lived in Charlotte. These guys, right now, have what seems like 50 people in this remote, crazy part of the world for some reason or another. Adoptions, sports camps, you name it, they’re there. I’m on a daily email list for a group that is preparing to go. This morning, just as we are prepping to go downtown, I get my daily email. I’m going to steal quite a bit of it, for one because that’s what I do, but also because even though it is directed at a group getting ready to travel halfway around the world, it also pertains to what happens for us downtown these days. And all those other times we went.

From Matthew, John and Francis Chan via my buddy TM in Charlotte –

"Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me." Then the righteous ones will reply, "Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison, and visit you?" And the King will tell them, "I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me." - Matthew 25:34b-40 (NLT)

Jesus is saying that we show tangible love for God in how we care for the poor and those who are suffering. He expects us to treat the poor and the desperate as if they were Christ himself. Ask yourself this: If you actually saw Jesus starving, what would you do for Him?

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us.” - I John 3:16-20

God didn't give just a little for us; He gave His best. He gave Himself. John is saying that it is no different for us: True love requires sacrifice. And our love is shown by how we live our lives: "Let us not live with words or tongue but with actions and truth." - Crazy Love, Francis Chan, pg 119

I’ve read, studied and used those verses so many times, along with many from my personal favorite, the Book of James. The thing about them is they are so relevant to what we do on these Sundays when we venture out to hang out with our friends. And for whatever reason, things were going against us this week. We do this once a month. So we should have plenty of prep time, right? So this week, our van decides it needs a little transmission servicing. My garage floor agrees. Time for that slow drip to be fixed once and for all. So we are without a vehicle to haul our trailer down this week. I’d been sick for a bout a week with a goofy summer cold, so my desire to go into the sauna masquerading as our garage was a bit underwhelming. We’ve been getting tons of clothing donations and there was stuff to sort to get ready. And Friday when I finally decide I have to get this thing done, the heat index seems like it is about 115°. Sweating buckets doesn’t begin to describe it at all. We also got some bad news about one of our homeless friends the other night. It just seemed like there were forces at work that did not want us down there. Just a fact that when we do these things in the Name of the One Who sends us, there are going to be forces in play to attempt to distract and divert us from the work that has to be done here. And honestly, this thing doesn’t seem like work. Oh sure, there’s a good bit of wok that goes in on the front end, but when we get down there, it just seems to happen. God just absolutely takes care of the details. He doesn’t necessarily help us remember to bring everything and we sometimes forget an item or two, but in the end, it really doesn’t matter much.

I’m kind of rambling today, as I’m apt to do, but the thing is, I sincerely hope we never get distracted from the mission, in spite of all the opposition that could easily deter us. We know that when we show up, He’ll be there ahead of us…always is. Without fail. The good thing is we’ve experienced it enough over the years. We know that when we step out in faith, he’ll prepare the way for us. Without fail. The opposition will attempt, at every turn, to distract us with worldly junk, which is what I personally experienced this past week. Fortunately, I know that He’ll not allow that to stop us from venturing out.

So today was a good day downtown. I was able to visit with a fellow who’s been very angry about lots of things in his past. He was able to recently revisit a few chapters from his past and find closure. We talked about that today. It was so cool to hear him talk about the Grace he’s been afforded. And to somehow help reassure him of that Grace. Of Grace revisited. It was good. We had so much great help today. And so many great friends on the receiving end of that help. I heard of a conversation Christian had with an old friend. They spoke of how much Christian has grown over the past year. He hadn’t seen Christian in over a year. So the obvious physical growth surprised him, but I believe he was more taken by something Christian said to him. That this gentleman possessed great wisdom. And the thing is, he does.

And it’s so extremely cool to see Southridge Church jump in and embrace this thing. We are blessed to have recently discovered this place and we are excited about the future. We’ve seen things over the past 3 or 4 years on that corner that have to be shared with the local church. Things that so many in the local church are so greatly missing out on. It’s so cool to see this particular church, of which we are now becoming fully immersed in, to also seize this opportunity to serve outside the proverbial walls. Can’t wait to see what’s in store. We have a few weeks before we go again. I’m sure we’ll face life stuff between now and then, but the beauty is we’ll go anyway. The Lord willing of course. And when we go, it’ll be because He goes before us and leads the way. He’s given us His best. The least we can do is give ours.

Make a difference…it matters.

Just like we’d never been gone…

2010-06-27T15:05:00.000-07:00

So last year, we made the decision to take a break from our weekly downtown activities. Those being, hanging out in the park downtown and having a weekly lunch with some of our friends. We’d been doing it for almost 3 years and truth be told, we were just a little burned out. Not to mention a bit strained financially. But that’s for another day. So as the weeks wore on last year, and winter was bearing down on us, we still thought about our friends often. In fact, during the winter months, we’d throw coats, boots, gloves and whatever else in the van and head down to see if we could find anyone in need. I remember coming home one day and telling Robin we needed to be doing something in that community again. The look on her face told me I was crazy. :) I mean, we’d been doing a Monday night meal at inCommon Community Development for quite some time, but I really just felt we were supposed to be in the downtown community again. As we kicked around the hows and whys, we felt that we could at least do something once a month. Right? That wouldn’t be too difficult, would it? I mean after doing it weekly for that long, a once a month commitment would be doable, right? Well, in the meantime, we began attending a church in the Bellevue/Papillion area. Southridge Church seemed to be a place where we could hang our hat. One evening we met with the pastor and his wife. We presented the idea of a once a month meal in the downtown community. Would this be something the church would be interested in supporting? The end result of that meeting? A new beginning to an old friend. Or a bunch of old friends.

Today was the first time we’d been downtown to meet and hang out with our friends for almost a year. Seemed like it was just yesterday we were saying goodbye. And honestly, not much had changed. A lot of the same people were there to welcome us back. And it was a good thing. What a great day. The weather was great. Pretty much overcast all around except for one big blue hole in the sky. Nice breeze under the cover of the trees. Of course, He knew we were coming. The Summer Arts Festival was happening, so we had to improvise a bit. Met on a different corner than normal, but that was a minor thing. I just can’t say it enough. It was like we’d never been gone. Everyone was in great spirits.

It was great to be able to get on the wall again, say a few quick words, say the Lord’s Prayer in community, be blessed to say a blessing over the meal and see everyone dig in. They were so appreciative. We’ve been involved in various community endeavors, but something about this group on this corner is just different. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but something is just a little different. I mean, there were always times that I’d get a little irritated at various people during our previous time there, but I always just wrote that off to being human. I mean, there are just times that we won’t get along with everyone, right? But for the most part, people were just happy to be hanging out, enjoying a good meal, and having a good time. All in the name of the One who sent us. And they get that. I really believe they get it. Doesn’t mean they all agree, but there’s no doubt in my mind they get it.

Today we saw some of the usual things that we were so accustomed to seeing before. Certain people needing specific things. That got me into a bit of trouble last time, so this time we’ve kind of come to the conclusion that we take what we have and if we don’t have it, we don’t have it. Not that we can’t help in other ways, but somehow I have to be more careful to know the boundaries this time while still helping however we can. Don’t know how that’s going to work, but maybe I don’t have to know.

It’s funny because this morning, as I do every morning, I was reading through one of my morning devotionals. I get several devotional emails every morning and one in particular was very interesting this morning. Funny how He works. This particular devotional contains a portion of scripture, a reflection on that scripture and a prayer. This morning’s reading was Joshua 23:1-16. In this scripture, Joshua had successfully led the tribes into Israel, divided up the land and created order for the people. It was time for him to say goodbye, and he urged the people to remain faithful to the LORD. Now the funny thing about How God works was in the prayer portion. It read as follows:

Lord of faithfulness, just as you kept your promise to the Israelites to bring them into a good land, so you keep your promises to sustain your people today. Empower me to do your will in reaching out to those in need of food, shelter, and clothing. Amen...

Seriously? That comes on the morning that we are heading back downtown for the first time in almost a year? With some of the folks that used to help and a new group from Southridge Church? Seriously? How in the world can God be in the details like that? Of a guy like me who’s failed Him so immensely so many times? How in the name of all that’s holy would He present that to me? Has to be Grace. I was talking to a guy we’ve known for a few years now and this guy was one angry dude for a long time. Abused as a kid. Mistreated at a lot of turns in life, at least in his words. But today he mentioned Grace. Said God has been working on him about Grace. And I got it. So did he. Neither one of us deserved it. But both of us definitely got it. And he seemed a bit more at ease today. Maybe it was the atmosphere of all of us meeting again. Or maybe it was Grace. All I know is God showed it me this morning as he is so apt to do most days. As my friend said, He gives us a new supply of Grace everyday. No more than we need. No less. I like it. I’m no scholar, in fact far from it, but I get that.

And of course I saw my buddy Bill today. As I was packing up, he came around and asked if I had fun today. I told him absolutely. He said that’s where we see things a bit differently. In his eyes, most of the people we meet with down there are no good and we shouldn’t waste our time with them. That’s where we disagreed. I simply let him know that none of us deserve anything, but then there’s that Grace thing again. And another thing – we‘re supposed to serve to the best of our abilities and then some. Supposed to be the Hands and Feet. Right? Then how can we not do this? Like I said, I don’t know if this once a month thing will work or not. But then again, I don’t have to know everything. Usually when I think I “know” something, I screw it up. Why not just let this thing play out and see where it goes. I mean I already had Nick asking on the way home today when we were going to start going every week again. This after our first time back! And this from the kid who was willing to give up his bag of cheerios 4 years ago as we sat in the van on the very corner where we met today. In the very spot 4 years ago where we sat trying to determine what we were going to do and how this was all going to work. Look, we’ve made many mistakes along the way. I made some huge ones. But the Grace of God will sustain us. We’ll get it all figured out someday. In the meantime, we’ll meet monthly for now and have a great meal with some great friends and do it all in the name of the One who’s in charge anyway.

So today it was like we’d never been gone. And it was good. Can’t wait till next month. And I pray that all the folks that experienced this thing today came away with a great understanding of how cool it is to serve an awesome Creator in a hands and feet sort of way. I know I did. Just like always.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. – Philippians 2:3-4

Make a difference…it matters.

Endings...or a New Season?

2009-07-26T17:24:00.000-07:00

Our Last Full Sunday
I have no idea where to even begin today. It was a day I wasn’t really sure would ever come. Especially not this soon. If 3 years is soon, then this was just short of that. And what an incredible run it’s been. Nearly 3 years of meals, socks, boots, shoes, clothing, you name it, we took it down. Some of the requests we’ve had over that time were pretty comical. I guess you have to ask. But the bottom line is, God supplied every single thing we needed to keep going. Every single thing. And more importantly, he supplied his undeniable and unbelievable Love. If I can speak for my family, and I usually do, we have been so incredibly blessed to have had this opportunity. It is my prayer that if we accomplished nothing else, I pray that our friends saw the hands and feet of our Savior on that corner each week. His Skin. That through us, they were able to witness what it looks like to serve an Awesome God. Because as much as they thought we were serving them? They were mostly wrong. We were absolutely serving an Indescribable God and they were just the blessed and fortunate ones on the receiving end. Stay with me this week. Got lots to mention…
　
Tireless Efforts of Those Who Helped
This is where I thank all of those that have been so incredibly faithful to His mission on that corner. Those who spent countless hours preparing meals. Standing in the ridiculous, frozen, downtown wind tunnel all those winter days, serving the most awesome soup in Omaha. But is wasn’t just soup. It was a chance for anyone who wanted to help in any way to come and do just that. There were no real rules. Just make sure that if you are cooking, that it would be something that you would prepare for the best of your friends. Because it needed to be fit for a king. For THE King. And we had so many people step up to the plate in so many ways. I’d love to be able to mention each and every one of them by name, but there is just no way I could pull that off. God sent too many to mention. He’s good like that. It’s His world and He’s pretty darn good at running it. So to all of those who contributed in any way, shape or form? Our hat is off to you. So many people wanted to look to Robin and I as the reason this thing worked as well as it did. But obviously it worked as well as it did because of the tireless efforts of each and every person who spent so many Sundays serving a great God in so many amazing ways. We simply say thank you.
　
Wade’s Family
Almost exactly one year ago, we lost a very good friend entirely too early. Senseless is the first word that usually comes to mind when I think of Wade’s death. No answers. None. And we’ll have to wait until that final day to know the answers to these kinds of questions. That much I know. But I’m a guy who wants answers. Now. Ain’t happening. So today, a few very special people once again drove several hours to honor one of their own. From Kansas. From outstate Nebraska. From Kansas City, Missouri. To honor a fellow that left us too soon. Again, this is a deal that I’ve written about so many times. Google "Wade Sechtem" and several of the first entries you come across are related to our downtown activities and his way too early departure. So when a couple of his family members found out that this was going to be our last full Sunday on that corner, they decided to join us. I’m so thankful. Because we are forever connected now. When we first started this thing, I’d always ask my self the question. Where are the families? These guys must have families. Where are they? I’ve met one family and God has done amazing things with this situation. And usually? The families are at their loving wits end. I’d guess in so many cases, they’d do absolutely anything in their power to change these situations. But a guy has to want to change. If he doesn’t and the substance abuse, alcohol or whatever wins out, then the families are usually left holding the proverbial bag. You can only do so much. But if the situation turns for the worse, as this one did, then maybe we can’t change the situation, but we can certainly use it for good. And let me tell you, this family has done just that. Huge Christmas bags jammed with gifts for our friends. Easter bags. Donations of all types. Amazing stuff. And last week I got an email from Kansas City. Seems a young lady there who also happens to be an attorney and has wanted to "create a homeless shelter since I was 12", has now been instrumental in helping the homeless in a tangible way that blew my mind. I have to quote her here and I hope its ok. From ‘A’ – "Bottom line is that I wanted you to know how your ministry allowed God to speak to my heart so that I could help others. Because of the example you have set, hundreds of homeless people in KC have received legal and housing assistance." I am overwhelmed with emotion each time I read that email. Absolutely overwhelmed. Hundreds of people in Kansas City? Are you kidding me? Because God blessed us with a pot of soup and about 10 or 15 homeless guys on a street corner in downtown Omaha on a typical November day in 2006? Seriously? Overwhelmed...
　
Keith’s Words of Wisdom
Robin was talking to one of our friends today, and he said something that definitely warrants mentioning. Because it speaks to the relationships that have been developed. At least I hope it does. Several of the guys that we first met on that corner told us a long time ago that we’d get overrun on that corner. We told them we didn’t think so, because we had help from a pretty high source. They’d just have to hang with us and they’d see. After the past few weeks, they might have had a point. At least somewhat. Because honestly, we have felt a little overrun the past few months or so. Just so many people and so many needs, it has been hard to keep up. But no matter how much controlled chaos we’ve seen, not matter how much the numbers have increased over the past few months, we are reminded just why God sent us in the first place. One fellow reminded us of that today. Said that when we first came down, he thought we were just do-gooders. And then after a while, he thought maybe we were just good people. And now? He thinks we are good friends. His words. Again, overwhelming.
　
Bill’s Tears
And I have to share this. A fellow made a promise to Robin and I last week. He promised Robin he wouldn’t share the news that today would be our last Sunday. And he promised me that he’d show up today. Sober. Well, he was 2 for 3 in the promise department. He did keep his word to Robin. Didn’t tell even his closest buddy. Although he did tease him with the fact that he had a secret. And the promises he made to me? Well, he did show up today. So by process of elimination, you know which promise he didn’t keep. And that’s ok. I’m just glad he showed up. And he was extremely emotional. With our first embrace, the tears were flowing. It was tough. I tried to convince him that we’d still be around, but he is convinced that he’s leaving town. I absolutely love this guy. Deep, heartfelt love. You just can’t put that into words and do it justice. But he knows it and I know that it’s reciprocated. No doubt. With every hug he got from my beautiful little Erin, the tears flowed. With every hug and handshake we shared, and there were many, the tears flowed. I’ll never forget the hurt in his eyes as we said our final goodbyes today. Never. My heart aches for him because I worry that I may never hear from him again. He has my number and our address memorized. So I pray that I’ll hear from him. At least a call to tell me he’s ok. I love my man Bill.
　
Fried Chicken and Running out of Plates and Everything Else
This morning when we were getting everything ready to go, we had a couple of last minute things to pick up from WalMart. So I made the trek with a shopping list from my boss. :) Needed a couple of extra boxes of forks. A few other minor things. And plates for a few hundred. Oh, and 500 pieces of fried chicken. I heard "plates for 300". She said 3 packages of plates. Well, me in all my wisdom, and just as I’d pointed out to her last week, I felt the need to tell her that we’ve never used more than 300 plates on a Sunday. So I came back with 300 plates. Guess what we ran out of first today? Yep. Plates. And we even had about 25 take home cartons that people were cutting in half to make last longer. And we ran out of those too. And then it was fried chicken on napkins while Mike and I made a quick trek to a food mart for more plates. We absolutely ran out of everything today. That has never happened before. I mean everyone got something to eat, but man was that crowd huge today. I have to say it here. Robin was right and I was so wrong! :)
　
Dad’s Clothing and The Office…Revisited
A couple of final things here. I could go on and on of course, but I’ll try to finish up here with these final thoughts. I mentioned a few weeks ago that my sister had sent a couple of boxes of my Dad’s clothing up with her sons, who were here visiting for a few days. Well, yesterday as I was doing my clothing sorting for what was probably the final time, I finally was able to put my Dad’s stuff in the clothing bins. Just seems appropriate in some strange way to know that on our last Sunday, my Dad made one final contribution. He’d made a few contributions along the way, but this was different. This was his stuff. He died in May of 2008, and here we were finally getting around to donating his stuff. Funny, that.
　
And finally, one of the last things I did today was visit The Office. That place in the middle of the park where we met our friends that very first Sunday. That place where our friends used to do some of their "work". It’s nothing more than a 20 by 20 square foot area with waist high concrete walls. Used to have benches where all sorts of shenanigans took place. It’s mostly quiet these days, but several of the guys were there, so Bill and I walked over and hung out for a few minutes, one last time. Even happened to get a call from another fellow we met on that corner that very first Sunday, as we were sitting on the wall in The Office. Coincidence? I tend to think not. I don’t believe much in coincidences. Which is why I’m so convinced that God wanted us there in that park for almost 3 years. That He definitely had a plan. I pray that we are doing the right thing here. That He has something on deck for us. That whatever is next will be as thrilling, exciting, and as honoring and glorifying to Him as I pray that this was. I pray that we followed His direction as best we could and that the work we did on that corner was indeed pleasing to Him. I pray that in the end, He will indeed say…" 'Well done, good and faithful servant!"
　
What an amazing opportunity this has been to serve alongside my beautiful wife and those 3 kids God has so undeservedly entrusted to me. What an amazing ministry. What an amazing God we serve!
　
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ~ Matthew 11:28
　
Peace, have a great and blessed week and whatever you do, make a difference.
　
…it matters to that one… :)

Promises

2009-07-19T15:38:00.000-07:00

What an unbelievable run of weather we’ve been blessed with lately. Highs in the 70s and low 80s. Overnight lows in the low 50s. And were smack in the middle of July. Usually it’s in the high 90s this time of year. Just crazy. And one thing this kind of weather does for us is it makes things a little more tame, a little more sane, a little more tolerable overall on our downtown street corner. People are just in a better mood overall when they are not being beat down by the unconscionable and sweltering heat that can be so prevalent this time of year here in the Midwest. Today was a perfect example of that. A true Chamber of Commerce day in downtown Omaha. And people were just in general good moods overall. It was indeed a good day to be on God’s time.
　
One fellow told me he was going to call a friend of his a get me a bullhorn. Seems the guys waiting in line all the way down in the Old Market can’t quite hear when we are praying. Now he was being facetious, because the Old Market is a few blocks away, but he wasn’t far off the mark. I simply cannot believe how long this line stretches anymore. But God blessed us with two serving lines recently, so that’s helped in the actual serving. Doesn’t help when a guy can’t hear when we are praying, but it does help us when we are trying to get everyone through the line in as quickly as possible.
　
Speaking of the long line, I was working my way through the line and a lady stopped me. Needed to talk to me. Usually that means a person needs something. I have to be real honest. There are so many people anymore that when someone says they need to speak to me, it makes me cringe a little. Not knowing what the need might actually be. Bus ticket? Shoes? Rent help? Clothing? So when she said she needed to talk to me, I have to admit I was a bit apprehensive. And then when I got to her spot in line, she was ready to talk. And she didn’t need anything. Nothing. She said the following to me – "Dave, remember when we prayed for us to get a place of our own? Well we got a place of our own!" And this was a couple I hadn’t seen in a long time. And she remembered our prayer. And then it came back to me. We’d prayed together a long time ago. When we were meeting at our old corner. A block away. Under the trees. And I vaguely remember the time we prayed together. And like I said, I hadn’t seen them in a while, so it was taxing on my memory to think back. But I remembered. And she was so happy to be in her own place. Who wouldn’t be? I’m pretty sure she was praying on her own also. But she seemed to think that because we prayed together that one day so long ago, that it made a difference. It’s so humbling when people mention these things to me. It is so awesome to know that we serve a God who hears our prayers in such a way. So amazing. I believe that is one of His promises to us. That if we seek Him in His Son’s Name, that he will indeed hear our prayer.
　
I saw another fellow in the line and he asked me to keep his wife in my prayers. I try to have a morning list of things and people that I pray for. But it gets tough sometimes remembering all the names and things people have asked us to pray about. My memory just ain’t that good these days. So I usually just say, as I did to this fellow, let’s do it now. His wife is bedridden with cancer. He knew me. Said he thought about me this morning. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen him before? But I must have? And as we prayed, it dawned on me as to how I always struggle with these ones. To know what God’s will is in these situations. Is it healing? Or what. Big struggle for me to know. And he broke in during our prayer and simply asked God to look out for her. Yep. That’s it. Just look out for her God. So we prayed, and parted ways. I didn’t see him before he left, but I pray that God does indeed watch over her. I know He will. Again, a promise.
　
One final thing. There’s a fellow I’ve known for almost 3 years now from our downtown activities. I really think, if it wasn’t for the fact that we live such vastly different lives, at least on the surface, that we could be really good friends. I mean we are good friends, but we live in such different worlds. Again, at least on the surface. But deep inside, we are so much alike. Struggling with worldly issues. Forces beyond the grasp of either of us. And I love this guy. Sincerely. And today, I asked him for something. A promise. And unbeknownst to me, he’d just made a promise to Robin. My request? Simple. Just show up next week. Promise me you’ll be here next week. Sober. And he has always been a guy to say he couldn’t make promises. His life just does not lend to reliability and promises. Just not how he rolls. We have a weekly standing appointment. In pencil. He literally never makes it. But it’s still on my calendar. So to ask for a promise, well that’s a tough one. And to add to the level of complexion the task of staying sober? Well we shall see what exactly happens next Sunday. Because the promise that Robin asked him to keep pretty much requires that he be there and be sober. But it wasn’t so much the promise that she asked him to make and keep as much as it was the information that the promise was based upon. She shared something with him that will impact our lives in a huge way. And she wanted him to know. Because he keeps talking about leaving town. He’s talked about leaving before. But I think this time he means it. And we want to make sure that we see him once more before he leaves. I pray the he’s there next Sunday. I pray that he keeps his promises. Definitely to Robin. And definitely to me.
　
God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, therefore you can look forward to sharing in God's glory. It's that simple. That is the substance of our Message. ~ Colossians 1:27 The Message
　
Peace, have a great and blessed week and make a difference.
　
…it matters to that one… :)

God’s Sense of Humor

2009-07-12T18:25:00.001-07:00

I’ve heard it said before that God does indeed have a sense of humor. That was pretty evident for us today. In many ways. Robin was cooking this morning (spaghetti for the masses) and at several points I looked at her incredulously. Who is this person in my wife’s body? Has she really forgotten all those things she learned about cooking for this many people? When the spice bottle did a swan dive out of the kitchen cabinet and splattered spaghetti sauce all over her pretty pink shirt? Yeah, that was a minor thing. When the spaghetti strainer with enough cooked spaghetti to feed half of Omaha fell from her grasp and I watched it fall to the floor in slow motion, only steps away but totally helpless? This turned out to be a minor thing also, but could have been a bit of a catastrophe, considering we didn’t have time to re-cook a new batch of spaghetti. Turned out ok though and we had a pretty good laugh. But that certainly wasn’t the end of our morning/afternoon antics. Definitely more to come.
　
So as we are gearing up to head downtown, with maybe a half an hour or so between us and a couple hundred of our hungry friends, well, that’s when we first noticed the nasty, ominous looking clouds that were hanging over our neighborhood and off to the east. Which is precisely the direction we are heading to hang out and have lunch with our friends. We check weather.com, which proved to be fairly worthless in hindsight. 20% chance of rain between noon and 2:00 p.m. Only problem is weather.com doesn’t run the universe. Those great folks there, in all their weather wisdom, really have no clue what is going to happen at any given time. We all know that. Yet we type that web address in, do our little search for our city and take what they say as gospel. Bad idea today. So we get downtown and get all set up, pray and start serving. Within minutes, God’s real sense of humor becomes very apparent. We’d probably been serving for about 10 minutes when it began. Now remember, this is us, me and Robin who are always bragging on God and how he never lets the rain happen between noon and 2 on Sundays. We’ve had one other Sunday recently where we had a bit of a nuisance rain. Nothing earth shattering, but just enough to let us know that He’s there. We’ve always been amazed at how we’ve been able to dodge the bullet for so long. Or in this case, dodge the raindrops. And in today’s case, the BIG raindrops. So I was standing there talking to my buddy Billy and it began. First you could see the spots on the sidewalk. And you’d feel a drop or two every few seconds. And then? Well then the deluge began. We’re scrambling to get things back in the trailer. I’m standing in water up to my ankles next to the curb. It’s just one of those surreal sort of feelings. We knew everything would dry out, but man what a mess. And oh, hey weather.com? Thanks. You guys are real good at what you do. :) We just had to laugh.
　
And more importantly, what were we going to do about all the food we’d brought down. We had enough food to feed probably 250 people. And people were scattering all over the place. It would have been real easy at that point to simply load up and head west. But then His sense of humor went to another level. We were standing there in the pouring rain and it was raining hard. Hard enough, in fact, off the bill of my hat alone to fill a small stream. Crazy rain. I joked that we should have started handing out soap and shampoo right then and there to maybe help some of our friends. It was a joke. Sort of. And then the sun made an appearance. During the rainstorm. And slowly, the rain began to let up. You could see our friends, who had taken shelter in doorways of downtown buildings all around the block, begin to make their way back to our corner. His corner. Robin had already come to the back of the trailer asking for a couple of tables and some of the buckets that contained the serving utensils. We were back in business and fortunately our friends were still hanging out. In fact, several of them commented about us still being there. They couldn’t believe we didn’t leave when the heavens opened up. Where were we going to go? I believe God was just letting us know that He’s still in charge. We’d bragged for a long time about how it never rains down there. And guess Who got the last laugh. But we hung in there and He took care of us. And it turned out to be a beautiful day. Soggy and crazy and all that stuff, but after the rains let up He blessed us with an absolutely gorgeous afternoon. We were able to pass out bucketfuls of socks, clothing, sheets, towels, kid’s toys and stuffed animals, bags and bags of Panera bread, enough ‘meals to go’ to choke a herd of horses and lots of God’s unbelievable love. Not because of anything we did. But all because of His tremendous blessings and love. What a day! What a sopping, soggy day. But what a day! I’m pretty sure He was looking down today, chuckling at what must have looked like an overturned ant hill. But then He made it right. And it was indeed good. As it always is.
　
I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy. Psalm 140:12
　
Peace, have a great and blessed week and make a difference.
　
…it matters to that one… :)

Fear

2009-06-28T16:41:00.000-07:00

Today was one of those days that make me glad we do what we do on Sundays. Logistically, it was a minor challenge. Relationally, it was absolutely why God has us on a corner in downtown Omaha.
　
Logistically? This weekend was the annual Summer Arts Festival in downtown Omaha. It’s a nice festival with artists from all over, music, kids’ activities, and everything else one could imagine with a festival such as this one. The only problem it presents for us is the organizers don’t seem to know or care that we set up a family meal for a few hundred every Sunday on the very corner that is the entrance to the festival. So we improvise. We have a pretty good Director on our side, so improvisation isn’t such a big deal. So the plan today was to set up on our old corner. As we were about 5 minutes away from the downtown area, we got a call from someone who helps most weeks. She informed us that there was no place to park the van and trailer on our old corner. So she asked a police officer if we could park in front of some barricades that were being used to block 14 th St. They directed us to the corner of 13 th and Douglas St. So it was a bunch of improv for us in this weekly adventure, but we knew going in that would be the case. And it didn’t take us completely by surprise. One of the funny things that happened was the concerned calls we received from our friends downtown in the days leading up to Sunday. Robin answered the phone Saturday night to one of our friends telling us all about the fact that the festival was set up on our corner and what were we going to do? Wing it. That’s what. And we did.
　
Relationally? Well this is where it was good for me. In a strange way. I find myself more and more lately not being able to have meaningful conversation on that corner. Just too much chaos. Good chaos, but chaos nonetheless. So today, in a really weird way, in the middle of the logistical concerns, which really turned out to be no big deal, I was able to actually spend time with a couple of fellows that I’ve really come to appreciate very much over the past couple of years. The conversations weren’t extremely long or extremely deep. Or maybe they were a bit deep. On the one hand, I had a chance to talk to a guy we’ve known from the beginning. Shows up most every Sunday. Real, honest to goodness street guy. Whatever that means. But he’s lived a rough life. And lived a pretty agnostic life, if I’m not mistaken. But it seems that God has place a certain biker church in his path. Imagine that? God working in strange and humorous ways. Because this fellow is a fellow of conviction. You can see it in his eyes and you can hear it in his words. So he’s been telling us about this biker church for a while now. Just about 10 blocks straight west of where we meet on Sundays. Tells Robin and I that we have to visit this church some Sunday. And we just might. Because logistically, they meet at a time that would allow us t do it at least one Sunday a month. So today he mentioned that he’d just finished a long conversation with Robin. And she wasn’t happy with him. Now he and I both knew that she was simply unhappy with the way he was heading. As we are with lots of our friends. We can’t change them for sure. But we can let ‘em know what we think. And occasionally we do. So he’d just finished his talk with Robin and here I was going for round 2! I think both of us had the same bottom line for him. We just don’t want to see anything totally preventable happen to him. And he knows that. His comment to me was that it was going to happen to us all someday. I agreed. And as I shook hands with him and told him goodbye, I told him that before that happens he’d better be darn sure his heart was right with the Lord. He just looked at me and said "you had to go there, didn’t you?" Yep. Had to. And did. And I pray that he goes there.
　
And then I had the chance to sit on a wall in the shade and have a nice long conversation with one of my buddies. We talked about his life. His behavior. His dread and hate of his lifestyle. His anger and frustration at wanting to quit and not being able to. And his fear. He told me that for the last few months, he has been carrying around this fear. That something bad was on the horizon. That if he didn’t change things drastically, he’d really be in trouble. He reads his Bible pretty regularly. He believes. I know that. But he continually turns from God. As we probably all do in some way, shape or form. I tried to get that across to him. That we are all pretty busted. But God’s grace is so huge. And Robin has told him that he’s living in God’s extended grace. He knows what he needs to do. But he just doesn’t know how to get it done. This thing has been on his back for 37 years. Over 50 arrests in 8 years. 150 different charges. Most of them minor, open container, stuff like that. But lots of time lost. Never get that back. Today he was sober and very easy to talk with. That’s not always the case, but it was today. And I just pray that a seed was planted in his head that he can do it. With Christ, he absolutely can do it. Maybe the fear will push him to the point of finally doing something to begin the long uphill climb of change. We have a saying between us. The language isn’t nice. I’ve said it once to him. And frankly I think I shocked him when I said all those months ago. I don’t even have to use the language anymore. Once was enough. And every time I see him now I remind him of the road he’s on. It’s a %$#&*^ up road. He knows it and I know it. And God knows it. But he’ll rescue us from that road. I’m convinced of it. At times I wonder if some of these hardcore guys can ever change. I mean real, long term, mind and heart change. Put down the bottle forever change. We’ve not seen much success in the time we’ve been down there in that regard. We’ve definitely seen people change. Out of the shelters. Into apartments. Short term sobriety. But I don’t think we’ve seen one of our hardcore street friends get that massive gorilla off their back. Surely it can happen. Right? We see so many people, the odds are that it has to be possible. Right? I pray that is the case. And until we see it? We’ll keep fighting the fight. On whatever corner we end up on. With whomever will put on the gloves with us and go into the ring. I pray that the fear will be enough to make a difference for my buddy.
　
[The Lord speaking to Paul] "I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me." ~Acts 26:18
　
Peace, have a great and blessed week and make a difference.
　
…it matters to that one… :)

2 Boxes on Father’s Day

2009-06-21T18:40:00.001-07:00

Many times over the past few years, I’ve gotten a call or email from someone asking about giving us a donation. A clothing donation. And lots of times, it was because someone, a family member…a father, an uncle, a brother or a son left and wouldn’t be needing his clothing anymore. I always struggle with these ones. I remember the first time it happened like it was yesterday. Walking through someone’s apartment after he’d left. Gone. Never to be heard from again. It was just strange. A fellow from Union Pacific called me and asked me if we could use his father’s clothing. All of it. His dad was gone now and wouldn’t be needing it anymore. It is with real mixed emotions that I accept these calls and I really struggle with them. I mean, the stuff needs to go somewhere and we have a pretty good avenue to use the things people give us. But the other side is a family member is gone and it just seems so personal when you are talking about the clothing. I mean, I couldn’t begin to estimate the amount of clothing we’ve been blessed to be able to help out with over this time. The people we meet with weekly just have needs and it seems to be that one of the biggest needs is simple clothing and things of that nature. But when a person leaves this great big ball of dirt and those left behind are left to figure out what to do with the stuff? Well that’s a tough one.
　
I went through this to a degree last year. My father left us at the age of 75. Last May. His deal here was done. I’ve written about my dad a few different times. About our relationship, or lack of one for many years. But in the end, it was very good. I miss him today. Greatly. And ironically, this past week we had visitors here in Nebraska. Several of my nephews from Alabama came to visit. Part of the draw for them was the College World Series, which has been taking place here in Omaha for the past week or so and will conclude early next week. But part of the trip was just to get together with family and do what family does. But a funny thing happened. My sister packed a couple of boxes for the fellows to bring to Omaha. A couple of boxes that just happened to have clothing. From my father. For this ministry thing we do weekly. A donation. Now this is a tough one for me. The clothing was in the trunk of the car they drove to Omaha. My father’s old car. And some of his clothing was in the trunk in 2 boxes. I found out that they brought this stuff the day before Father’s Day. Fortunately I’d already completed sorting out the stuff for today when I found out about the boxes. I don’t know how I’m going to sort and distribute his stuff. I mean I realize it’s only stuff. But it was his stuff. My dad’s stuff. And I just don’t know what it’s going to be like to look through those boxes one year later and make an attempt to sort through it. I guess I’ll do what I have to do, but man…
　
So on this day, this day when we honor our earthly fathers, I’d like to take a moment to honor my father. He had a few warts. Don’t we all. He had his flaws. Don’t we all. But deep down, he was a good man. And I am so thankful and blessed that before he left us, he and I worked it all out. We had a great relationship in the end and I think that’s all we can hope for. I pray for other relationships that are not so good these days. I pray they will be good again. Somehow. Someday. And until that day, I am so thankful that on this day, this day when we honor Fathers, I can honestly hope and pray that my life in some way honors our heavenly Father. The One who is responsible for it all. The One Whom I rely on for so much. I can, in no way do justice here, but I can valiantly try. And that I will. And next week? I’ll try my best to go through dad’s stuff and do with it what I know he’d tell me to do with it. I can almost hear his voice now, in his southern drawl and his way with words, and the way he always called me David. Not Dave and certainly not Super Dave or anything else. It was always David. I can hear him telling me to give it away. He’d probably say "it ain’t much, but somebody can probably use it. Go on ahead and do whatever you want with it." Well dad, I’ll figure it out somehow. And God, can you help me figure it out? All this craziness here? All this homelessness, this neediness, this poverty, this substance abuse, this mental illness…the list goes on and on. God, can you help me figure it out? Can You help me to be the father You created me to be? So that in the end, my kids don’t have to pack my "stuff" up in boxes and try to figure out what to do with it all? 2 boxes? Man, that’s going to be a tough one.
　
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. ~Hebrews 12:1
　
Peace, have a great and blessed week and make a difference.

…it matters to that one… :)

Stuff and things...

2009-06-14T16:31:00.000-07:00

We started serving from two different lines last week. It lends to obvious advantages. Time being the key. Less waiting. More time to hang out and chat. Easier to serve a warm meal. Things like that. One big disadvantage, from a purely selfish standpoint for me is my inability to meet and greet all of our friends downtown. I always work my way through the line after we pray and just say hi to everyone. It’s probably one of my favorite things to do. I get to see old friends, new friends and in between friends. It helps me to remember names also. And here’s the big one for me. It allows me keep, in my mind, a sort of mental record of who was there on a given Sunday. I have zero recall most times, so I don’t know what that really buys me. The thing is, it’s tough with so many people to know who’s there and who isn’t. I saw a guy today, as I was working my way through line number one, that hasn’t been around in at least a year or more. He left quite some time back to work in Arizona. I asked him what he was doing back in Omaha? His answer was not so unlike many these days. Unemployment. Said if he was going to be unemployed, he might just as well be unemployed here. And he was with another fellow that I hadn’t seen in a while. Probably one of the best dressed homeless guys we’ve met in our time in the downtown area. So when our friend arrived from Arizona, he asked if we were still in business. I thought that was pretty funny. Still in business? I told him as long as God was in business, I imagined we’d be in business. I don’t really know what that meant, but I know I meant it, if that makes sense. So back to the dual line system. One of the major disadvantages for me is the inability to greet everyone. I’m going to have to make my arms longer or something because I haven’t figured out how to work my way back and forth between the lines. About halfway through the first line, I gave up and decided to do one at a time. And then I saw someone waiting for me at the end of line number one.
　
This fellow was released from jail recently. Ever since we’ve known him, I swear he’s been in jail more than he’s been out. Until recently. And like most of our friends, he’s a great guy. He’d literally give you the shirt off his back. So when he got out of jail this last time, he made a statement to me that I hear often. "I’m quitting Dave." Period. So I kind of shrugged it off. I hoped he would. I know he hoped for it also. But, after seeing and hearing it many times before from many different people, I had my doubts. But a funny thing has happened. Or maybe not so funny. This guy is really on a good path. For the most part, he’s quit the crazy lifestyle that got him in so much trouble…over and over and over. He’s got his own place now. No more living on the streets. No more bridges. No more any of that stuff. For now anyway. And he really seems to be taking pride in his new lifestyle. I couldn’t be happier for him. One problem still exists for him. And it’s a big one. You could say that he’s double dipping. He’s making a valiant attempt to rid himself of the destructive lifestyle that caused him so many problems over the years. But he’s still hanging around the same people. Different behavior on his part. Same massively destructive behavior from his buddies. Our friends. And he expects them to change. It’s a tough road. To really change, he’s probably going t have to make some impossibly difficult decisions sooner rather than later. I pray he has the intestinal fortitude to hang on and do what he knows he’ll probably have to do.
　
Here’s a bit of irony. The corner where we meet weekly is directly across the street from the main branch of the Omaha Public Library. It literally serves as a sort of day house for lots of our friends. Before today, it opened for business at 1:00 p.m. on Sundays. So from noon to 1:00, we had a pretty captive audience. But as of today, because of budget cuts, they’ve discontinued Sunday hours. No more library for our friends on Sundays. So from a selfish standpoint, I kind of liked it. We didn’t see the rush to get there that we normally see when the library opened. But for our friends? Not much to do on a Sunday now. And you know what idle time brings. But a funny thing happened last week. And I should mention that we’ve been seeing lots more kids and families on that corner recently. For whatever reason. So last week a fellow comes to our house with a donation. This is the realtor that actually handled our house sale. Great guy. And he shows up with tons of kid’s stuff. Not KidStuf. :) Kid’s stuff. Stuffed animals, some toys, and lots of kid’s books. Lots and lots of kid’s books. I have to be honest. When I saw the boxes in the garage, I had a bit of a minor anxiety attack. We usually don’t take much stuff down for the kids. There just haven’t been that many kids…until recently. I pray that we don’t start seeing more. So when I saw the bags and boxes, I wondered what in the world we’d do with them. And Robin says to me, "Just take a box down and see how it goes." Or something like that. But I couldn’t take just one box. So we took several. And as I made my way through the serving line, anytime I saw anyone with kids, I told them to make sure they got over to the trailer when we put all the other stuff out because we had some special stuff for them also. And the books were a hit. Kids sitting all over the sidewalk picking through books and taking the ones they liked. There’s something about kids that warms my heart. I absolutely love kids. I loved being involved in our KidStuf program when our family attended our church in Charlotte. Loved it. And when I saw all the kids today going through the books and walking away with armfuls? Well, let’s just say I had zero anxiety and it was a good thing. I think probably half the books found a new home today. I think we might be on to something in that regard. Just a bit ironic that the first day the library is closed on Sunday, the kids get a treat and I’m reminded of what it means to see them doing what kids do. On a downtown street corner that is pretty chaotic lots of times. What an absolute blessing to be a part of God’s work today. I’m blown away that we can be in community for few hours each week with some of the greatest people. What a deal.
　
If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. Rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs. ~Deuteronomy 15:7-8 (NIV)
　
Peace, have a great and blessed week and make a difference.
　
…it matters to that one… :)

Waiting

2009-06-07T16:51:00.000-07:00

What a great day downtown today! We had a regular family picnic today. The great folks from St. James church came today and took it up a notch. Grills, burgers, hot dogs, potato salad. Man, it was quite the spread. It really was much like a family picnic. Friends, family, great food. All the ingredients for a great time. When I got up this morning, after listening to an all night storm, I was wondering if this might actually be the day that we get rained out. Completely. I mean, it rained and hailed all night. Hard. And at approximately 7:00 a.m. this morning, it was pouring. I knew of all the work St. James had put into getting this thing up and running today and was hoping we’d be alright. The rain let up a bit later and things seemed as if they’d be ok. They were. Mornings like this are nice for lots of reasons. All the people that normally help cook get a break. That would include my lovely wife. Things are just a little calmer in the Laney kitchen on the first Sunday of the month when St. James is doing the meal. And seeing as though the Book of James is one of my favorite books of the Bible, it’s just fitting that they step it up the way they do. And I swear today they kicked their game into a whole new gear. It is so unbelievably cool to see members of a church step out of their normal Sunday routine and get into something like this. It is most definitely a win-win for everyone involved. Our friends downtown were treated to a great meal of Omaha Steak’s burgers and dogs. Really good ones. The folks from St. James get an amazing opportunity to share, in action, their great faith. And we just have to show up with everything else. It’s just really cool to see them in action. They brought several gas grills and had them up and running with burgers and dogs coming off them so fast our friends couldn’t keep up! It was awesome. And this type of opportunity exists for anyone to get involved. I often hear people say they want to help. Today I saw it firsthand. Wow. I love serving in this community.
　
I’ve noticed for some time that our friends do a lot of waiting. Wait to get a bed at the shelter. Wait to get an appointment at wherever. Wait to get a computer at the library. Wait to get a meal. I mean, there’s a bit of that that’s going to happen. Goes with the territory. But one thing I’ve noticed the past few weeks is there’s a lot of waiting to eat at our regular Sunday gatherings. In some cases, I swear a guy has to wait 45 minutes to get a meal. Now I’m biased but even I don’t think the food is so good that it’s worth waiting for that long. And it’s not really like we are amateurs anymore at serving a meal. We’ve been at it long enough that we can get people through pretty quickly. But it just seems like people are waiting a lot. Too much. Last week I really noticed it. I schmoozed my way through the line and 40 minutes later, I see some of the same guys that haven’t eaten yet. Enough. This week? Two serving lines. Here’s the deal. I’ve been at the shelters and watched our friends wait for things I take for granted. If I want to go to bed? I go to bed. If some of our friends want to go to bed? At one particular shelter in town they have to wait on the back patio until they can be processed in. Like 5 at a time. Sometimes in below freezing weather. Outside, waiting for a bed. Let’s just say that dignity is not at the top of the list sometimes. So when I see our friends waiting yet again, it bothers me. Especially to get something as basic as a meal. On Sunday. So this week we split everything up and had 2 serving lines. It was so simple and I could kick myself for not doing it sooner. We may not have to do it every week. We literally got everyone through in half the time. Imagine that. They still had to wait. Just maybe not quite as long today and the wait was definitely worth it today.
　
One last thing. No really. This is it. But it’s a biggie. This week, one of our friends will have surgery to correct a cataract. Might sound like no big deal. And maybe to some it wouldn’t be. But to our friend it’s a big deal. And to us it's a big deal. A really big deal. To a fellow from a foreign country who is in our country, our city, living in a shelter, seemingly spinning his wheels in so many ways? I can’t imagine what it would be like to have to deal with that. I guess I mostly take my vision for granted. It’s there. I can see what I want to see. I open my eyes each morning and I can see pretty clearly. This fellow doesn’t necessarily have that luxury. But after Tuesday, things should be a bit better for him. By the Grace of God and a few generous donations, he should be in a different state later in the week. We usually agree to disagree that the blessings come from God. I mean he knows that, but just has maybe different views on some of these things. Whenever I tell him not to thank us for anything, he disagrees and says he must. For various reasons. So we agree to disagree. But it’s a good thing. We aren’t able to see eye to eye on some things, but we both get the big picture. He was in such good spirits today. The waiting for him is finally over. I can’t wait to hear how it goes for him. He once told me he was depending on us for something that was rally important to him. If he only knew how undependable I really am, he wouldn't be depending on me for anything. But as unworthy as I might be, I have hope in Christ. That’s all I need to know. I pray that things go well for him this week. Somehow I know they will.
　
Consider God's generosity towards you rather than your own unworthiness in His sight, and live in His strength, rather than in the thoughts of your own weakness. ~ St. Vincent de Paul
　
Peace, have a great and blessed week and make a difference.
　
…it matters to that one… :)

6 Beers and a Task Force

2009-05-31T15:14:00.000-07:00

I had the chance to talk with and pray with a fellow today and it just broke my heart. He’s a fellow that we’ve known since almost the beginning of this thing we do downtown each week. When I first saw him today, it was obvious he’d been drinking. Now it was noon when I first saw him. Seriously? Drinking before noon on Sunday? Told me he had 6 beers this morning. Well, yeah. It’s how it works for lots of these guys. If I back up a bit, I really have felt the need lately to be a bit more intentional about lots of things. Especially as it relates to things on that corner and just brushing off some of the things I see each week. Laughing and joking about a guy drinking before noon is not something I want to have happen. Sometimes it’s easier to just laugh it off rather than confront it, even gently. Or any other way. So today when I saw our friend, I just took it a step further and asked him to at least not drink before noon. What a ridiculous request. From his perspective anyway. But it was a request. For next week anyway. At least. I have no idea how hard that will be for him. Or if it is even possible for him. We had an opportunity to pray briefly. Just me and him by the side of the van with traffic buzzing by us. I wonder sometimes what people think when they drive by and see this crazy thing happening each Sunday. And today was most probably the biggest crowd I’ve seen on that corner. Just seems to grow weekly. I pray that somehow we can sustain it. That God would send us cooks. Because if today was any indication, we’ll need all the help we can get. So after we finished our prayer by the side of the van we both looked up and in his eyes were tears. Hurt. We just see it so much. A guy wants to quit and get away from it, but the alcohol has it’s hook in. Deeply. Wickedly. I see so much hurt and so much despair caused almost exclusively by choices. Of alcohol. Of substance abuse of varying kinds. It all seems so avoidable. Seems like such an easy choice. But it isn’t. That’s for sure. I saw it in his eyes. Through the tears. "That stupid alcohol". His words. He told me he wouldn’t drink before noon next Sunday. I guess we’ll see.
　
I have to mention a couple here today that have been so instrumental in this thing lately. Amazing family. It’s so cool to see how God works in a ministry like this. After almost three years, we’ve seen lots of people come and go. It’s a big commitment. We know that for sure. People jump in with both feet and go at it for a while. Then the burn out thing kicks in or they just get tired. Like I said it’s a big commitment. For sure. But when people or families jump in and take ownership, it just makes me smile and thank God for his unbelievable faithfulness. All he asks is that we go. He’ll supply everything we need to keep it going. We just have to be willing to go. And today this couple went above and beyond. If I’m being honest, God will smile on them for sure. But it’s what we’re called to do. To help those who need it the most. To love and care for those who maybe might not see it otherwise. I don’t know. I just know this family shined today. Not unlike most Sundays. I saw my own wife working her tail off this morning to make a quality meal for our friends. And they pulled it off. Beef and chicken enchiladas, corn, rice. Man it was a good looking meal. And lots of it. And the people that commit to making it happen week after week are a blessing to so many. I know we served at least 250 meals today. We ran out of forks, spoons, everything. Had to make a run for more. Unbelievable. Yet God continues to fill in the gaps. With great people. And His unbelievable Grace and Love. Amazing.
　
And then there was the task force. We have an ongoing situation down there involving a young fellow who is an alleged sex offender. Now I have to admit, I’ve searched various websites looking for confirmation and have found nothing. He once told me the story of what actually happened. Now I only got his side of the story. But something definitely happened. And everyone down there knows. And everyone is an authority. And each week it seems like someone wants to take me aside and "break the news" to me. As if it doesn’t happen every week. I think people just want to be safe, but a part of it is surely that people want to be the one to break the news. Whatever. Look, I bring my own kids down there, so I try my best to know who we are dealing with. But there just isn’t any way. It’s a wide open corner. Anyone can come and anyone can go. If evil insists on joining us on that corner, I just pray that God’s presence will be enough to offset the ridiculous evil that lives in this crazy world. So one of the fellows has organized a task force. I chuckle when I think of it, because he literally has a handful of people "stationed" at various points looking out for this fellow. The task force! And today he gave me the lowdown on what his guys are looking for. They are attempting to establish hard evidence against this fellow. Man, if I only had the energy. Anyway, it’s just another angle into this thing. We now have a task force. Personally, I think we’re covered by the real Task Force anyway, so I don’t worry too much. And it's so funny, because if the people that took me aside each week would just stop and think about how ugly we all are before God in so many of our actions and words, it might just cause some people to stop and think. Maybe not...
　
Anyway, just a few things on my mind this week. It was an interesting week for sure. A cleansing week. :) Lots of interesting conversations today on that corner. I felt a bit of renewal for some reason. Just feels good to be on that corner, in God’s presence. What a bizarre community we’ve landed in. In such a good way. I can’t believe we’d have it any other way. I love it. It’s a little much to manage anymore, but that’s ok. Like I said, we just have to show up and watch the Lord work. What a cool thing to be able to say. What an even cooler thing to be able to do.
　
And this world is fading away...But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. ~ 1 John 2:17, NLT
　
Peace, have a great and blessed week and make a difference.
　
…it matters to that one… :)

A Memorial Day Mind Dump

2009-05-25T05:38:00.001-07:00

Monday. Memorial Day. So many things bouncing around in my feeble mind. Used to be that I would journal my thoughts on Monday morning on a pretty regular basis. But then Monday morning would roll around and I’d have already forgotten anything of significance that happened on the previous day. Amazing what a little age can do to the mind! So I started doing this thing on Sundays, almost immediately after coming home from downtown. I got a little lazy yesterday and decided to see what might come up in my recall abilities if I threw this together this morning. We had a busy few days leading up to Sunday. Our host student is leaving us soon. Back home to Germany. I pray that her time here has been good. She’s been here since January and leaves the first Friday in June. We spent the day at an amusement park on Thursday, went to Lincoln to tour the university and state capitol on Friday and did some yard work on Saturday. So we had a little downtime yesterday after coming in from downtown and we all took advantage of it. No half marathons this week. Just a little downtime after downtown.
　
It was a pretty nice day downtown yesterday. Nothing unusual happened. Not from my perspective anyway. Pretty calm crowd. A couple of crazies, but that's pretty normal. Numbers seemingly growing each week. We were visited by a home group from a church in our community. I believe they are looking for an opportunity to serve in some manner in the community and they heard about what we do downtown and came along for the ride. I always wonder what people think when they come down for the first time. This group of four came to our house and then headed downtown with us and jumped right in. Helping with the setup, serving, all the things that go along with this ministry. It’ll be and always is interesting to hear their thoughts. At one point, I was getting a to-go plate for a friend. The serving size on the plate was pretty heaping. Nice portion. So as I was making my way through the back of the serving line, one of the people from the group asked me if the serving sizes weren’t a bit too big. Now I usually try to keep my nose out of that arena. Usually, whoever is doing the serving has a pretty good handle on what we have. But this person was down for the first time. And she mentioned to me that the line was pretty long and they were sure giving out lots of food! Would we have enough? And I had to look at the amount and agree with her on both counts. The line was long and they were definitely giving out large portions. But I was pretty sure we had plenty. And I was able to tell her. It was just slightly humorous to see the concern. Because I learned long ago that if we go, God will definitely take care of the rest. Loaves and fishes, I always tell myself. Loaves and fishes. And when I mentioned that to her, she smiled and agreed. I think. :)
　
Definitely keeping it short this week. I’m reminded this week of our veterans. Those that made it back and those that didn’t. Lots of homeless veterans. I served a couple of years in our fine military. I think it goes without saying that when we serve, we feel a sense of camaraderie. No doubt. No matter how much time separates me from my time in the service, I feel it. And I’m obviously reminded of the sacrifice that our troops make for us. Lives lost. The ultimate sacrifice. Families separated. Difficult times for sure. And of course I’m reminded of THE ultimate sacrifice. That God would send His one and only Son to die for us while we were still sinners. Man. Talk about the Ultimate Sacrifice.
　
Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. ~ Revelation 3:20, NLT
　
Peace, have a great and blessed week and make a difference.
　
…it matters to that one… :)

Southern Winds

2009-05-17T16:03:00.000-07:00

Lots of really, really good things come out of the south. Lots. Excellent food. Excellent people. Really good, down home people that would give you the shirt off their back in lots of cases. Just lots of goodness. There’s a particular church that I’m especially fond of that just happens to reside in the south. Great, great church that is doing amazing things for the kingdom. Starts with the pastor (or reverend as my kids like to call him), his family and absolutely trickles down to the folks that call that church home. I spent the first 12 years of my life in the south. Spent 5 of probably the most important years of my life fairly recently down south. Florida. North Carolina. Great times and great memories. Probably love to go back someday. But today? We’re here and full in. Yesterday was unseasonably cool here. Winds straight out of the north. Cold winds. Had to sit through an early morning soccer game. Just crazy cold winds for this time of year. But not today. Today the winds were out of the south and they couldn’t have been nicer. I mean, it was a little cool, but not nearly as bad as yesterday. So where am I going with this? And what is the significance of the weather report? Well it is very significant. At least it was to me. Especially from about 9:50 CST this morning until approximately 11:30 or so. I was inspired not long ago to run a half marathon. The inspiration just happens to have been the above mentioned reverend. So wind speed is pretty important when considering the day and time to run. For me anyway. Nothing worse than running headlong into a cold north wind on a run. Headlong into any wind for that matter. But the cold north wind? Forget it man. Not happening. So since I was inspired by a great friend from Charlotte to do this thing, I had to just buckle down and make it happen. Today.

I’d been semi-planning for some time now. Trying to get my road legs built up. I run on a treadmill often. Most everyday. But running on a treadmill is not the way to train for a half marathon. Conditioning is fine, but the old legs take a beating on the roads, so it’s a different ballgame. So this was going to be the day. I was a bit worried yesterday with the winds. But the forecast today was for partly cloudy and winds at 10-15 mph out of the south. Since the majority of my run was in a northerly direction, things seemed to be set up pretty nicely. So I could bore people with even more details of the actual run, but I won’t. I will say that it was pretty interesting in many ways. Very metaphorical at times. Struggling to get up some of the steeper hills (yes we do have hills in Nebraska…not many, but they seem to be longer and steeper on a long run). Coasting down the other side. Long straight-aways. All things that resemble so many of life’s challenges and pitfalls, as well as the victories. Had lots of cranking music bouncing around the old noggin and did lots of praying. As much as you can in between gasping breaths!

So I planned on getting downtown just before Robin and the other folks who were coming to help. But the winds pushed me in a half hour early. Nice tailwind! I couldn’t believe it. The guys downtown thought I was crazy. They might be on to something. I very well could be. But it’s something I wanted to do. A bucket list sort of thing maybe. Lots of jokes about how they make medications for runners. They have things called cars with wheels that would have gotten me downtown much quicker and with much less exertion. Stuff like that. All good natured. It was funny, because my adrenaline was sky high when I arrived. And I was a full half hour early. So it gave me time to just chat with people in a much more relaxed environment. No set up. No making sure everybody was taken care of. Just a relaxed time for hanging out. And when I got there at 11:30, there was already a huge crowd lining up. Just an amazing opportunity to hang out and share a little with whoever. And I got so many chances to be so intentional about faith things today. It was so cool. I have to admit, by the time we were loading up the trailer, I was fading fast. But it was so worth it. And last week when I was doing a partial training run, an idea popped into my head. A marathon to benefit our friends. Or in my case, a half marathon. The Half for the Homeless. Or something like that. A run that could traverse 2 counties, involve lots of people and raise lots of awareness. And our friends could be the recipients of whatever came of it. I have high hopes that it could be a real blessing. As long as He wants it to happen. As I ran this morning, I had lots of thoughts around this idea. I pray it was God’s idea and He just pushed it off on me. Obviously, if it’s in the Plan, it’ll happen. I pray it’s in the Plan. :)

So in all of it, I’m reminded of one of my favorite verses.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. ~1 Corinthians 9:24

Now obviously, "all the runners" this morning consisted of me. So I did in fact get the prize. And I did in fact have those great winds out of the south at my back. But the runners in this thing we do each week are all running with great abandon. So many people from so many backrounds. And I’m so blessed to be a small part of it. I simply want to cross the real finish line in such a way as to earn the real prize. Not matter if I’m bloodied and bruised along the way. In fact, I hope that does happen. Because my hope is that I never just go through the motions. That as I meet each week with our friends that there is a genuine desire to be there. A genuine desire for change. A genuine desire for southern winds at my back and an eye on the prize.

Peace, have a great and blessed week and make a difference.

…it matters to that one… :)

Mother's Day...

2009-05-10T18:23:00.000-07:00

Today is Mother’s Day. Now some may call this a Hallmark holiday. I’ve been guilty of it on occasion. But it really is a day to honor the Mothers in our lives. What an amazing sacrifice they make. Not to get too personal here, but in my case, there are a couple of ladies who’ve gone above and beyond the call of duty. Robin and my Mom, Gerdo. I’ve been blessed so far beyond anything I deserve in this life. God has pulled me from the grip so many times. And each time a certain someone is standing there, waiting to pick up the pieces. Mom did it more times than I could count. Now one could say that’s part of the job description. But in my case, especially with my Mom, well, she was far underpaid if that was part of the job description! I literally owe her my life. Ironically enough, a random reading in my morning devotional this morning was centered on the prodigal son. Luke 15:11-32. Mom, like Someone else, is always there. Arms open. Waiting for us to return. What an amazing testimony. And of course, I’ve been blessed with an amazing woman to do this whole life thing with. Robin is one of the most amazing people I know. I’m biased, of course, but it’s true. She’ll hate that I’m writing this, but isn’t it always easier to ask for forgiveness? :) To navigate through our life the way she has, with the pitfalls and craziness that I’ve put her through? Amazing. Homeschooling. Ministry work. Compassion. Amazing. Between her and Mom, I don’t know how one guy could be so blessed. I wonder how many of our friends downtown today got the opportunity to spend a little time with Mom today? If I had to guess, I’d say not so many…

Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: "Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all." ~ Proverbs 31:28-29

Ironically enough, on this day that we celebrate Moms all over, I’m also reminded that one year ago today my Father left us. Again, not to get too personal here, but it’s been a strange week for me. My Dad and I had grown much closer over the years. We didn’t have much of a relationship for a very long time. Wasted lots of years. Lots. But in the end, there wasn’t much we could do about the wasted time. And I’d like to think we made up for it. At least partially. I know that like most people, we have a few situations in our life now that need attention. I pray that God will guide us and direct us in how exactly to deal with some of those situations. I know in His time, He will. I just know that I’m so thankful for the time my Dad and I did share before his passing. We were able to spend a few weekends together. We attended an Auburn football game together. What an amazing weekend. I drove over from our home in Charlotte. We spent an entire day walking around the Auburn campus. Reminiscing. Enjoyed a bit of our mutual favorite pastime. College football. But it was then I realized how much older and how sick my Dad really was. It literally took him a week to recover from that trip. I had no idea it would be that tough on him. But he loved every minute of it. As did I. So on this day, this day that we celebrate the women in our lives, I have to carve out a little bit if time to remember my Dad. It wasn’t a let’s go to a ballgame/fishing/hunting kind of relationship growing up, but in the end, we made it work and I’m so thankful that we did that before he left us. I think lots of times, at least I know in my case, all I really ever wanted from Dad was to hear that he was proud of the man I’d become. I have so much to learn. I’ve made and continue to make so many mistakes. But before he left, he told me on several occasions that he was indeed proud. If only I could hear those words from him again. If only I could hear them from Him also. I wonder how many of our friends downtown long to hear those words? Probably lots of ‘em.

Gonna keep this a bit short today. Or maybe not. Downtown was a bit of a rush, but I do want to share one thing that happened. Our foreign exchange student participated in the high school graduation ceremony, so our time downtown was short. Others picked up the slack. But in the short time that I was there, I met a fellow. His name isn’t as important as was the question he asked me. He simply asked if Christ would continue to forgive a fellow who was caught up in an addiction that has haunted him all his life. Would Christ forgive a fellow believer who couldn’t quite beat his demons? He said he could stay sober for 6 or 7 months at a time, but then he’d fall and need help up again. Now for me, I struggle sometimes when guys ask me questions like this. I have no idea why. Maybe because sometimes I just don’t know. In this case? I know. He does. Every time. That has to be the answer, right? I mean, I didn’t read that little bit of wisdom this morning for no reason. He’s always there with open arms each time we turn back to Him. I tried so hard to let this fellow know that. So I had an opportunity to pray with him right then and there. I love doing that. I used to be a bit uncomfortable praying with people in public. I don’t know why. But it comes easier each time I do it. And today it was real.

We are so thankful that God has blessed His ministry work on that corner in such a way. He is so amazing! I’m so thankful that He placed this craziness in our laps. I’m so thankful that I can pray for more help and it comes! What an amazing testimony to His faithfulness. Thanks God for all you do and for your unbelievable Love. Thanks for Moms everywhere that shape lives and do so the way You’d have it happen. Thanks.

Happy Mother’s Day! (Mom and Robin!)

Peace, have a great and blessed week and make a difference.

…it matters to that one… :)

Dichotomies

2009-05-03T15:20:00.000-07:00

So today was an extremely strange day. I began my morning listening to a podcast from our church in Charlotte called REJESUS. A fascinating look at the Wild Messiah. So today I just listened to the introductory podcast. I downloaded the remainder of those that are available. I highly recommend this podcast series (ucfellowship.org). I’m sure it’s an amazing group of messages that will challenge anyone listening to really look into themselves and see what it really is they believe and maybe even why. So that was my morning in the garage getting ready to go to see our friends downtown. My Sunday mornings are getting a bit lighter. That’s one of the nice things about spring/summer. The needs, the physical ones at least are a bit lighter. No heavy winter coats. No gloves. Sneakers replace winter boots. It just seems the trailer is lighter. The other side of that is the amount of people in need. I swear today was one of the bigger crowds we’ve seen in a while. One way I can judge the number, because I’m not too good at looking at a crowd and guessing, is the number of handshakes and hugs. I always try to make my way through the line and greet our friends as best I can. The line today stretched almost an entire city block. I’m guessing at some point I’ll be shaking hands and getting hugs in the crosswalk! Or at least around the other side of the block. So the winter needs have lightened, only to be replaced by the sheer amount of people in need. I don’t know if that makes sense or not, but I'm sure there’s a point here somewhere.

Which leads me to my next thought. This weekend in Omaha, the Oracle of Omaha himself, Warren Buffet, held his annual shareholders gathering. A mere 4 or 5 blocks from where we meet with some of the neediest people in Omaha, some of the wealthiest people in the world were cheerleading and carrying on about their good fortune. Approximately 35,000 people attend this thing annually. I suppose in some circles, they might have been voicing concerns about the fact that a single share of Berkshire Hathaway stock is "only" worth about $93000.00. That’s down considerably from it’s September 2008 high of $147000.00. PER SHARE!!! That’s just freaky. So a few blocks from our corner, some of the wealthiest people in the world were probably lamenting their misfortune. Unbeknownst to them, there were a few hundred people on a downtown street corner who were trying to figure out which bridge they might be sleeping under tonight. And asking us for tents. And sleeping bags. And these requests weren't for some vacation camping adventure. What irony. What an unbelievable dichotomy. What a shame. I’m not for one minute saying that throwing money at homelessness would solve the problem. Not at all. It’s much deeper than that for sure. But it was just odd to me as we left the downtown area today, as I looked at the Qwest Center, where the meetings were taking place, that there was such a divide between the two factions.

Today, the great folks at St. James were back with enough lasagna to choke a herd of horses. I mean, the line was long. I sometimes wonder if we’ll have enough. Not to be a doubter. I just wonder. And every time I looked at the stack of pans near the table, I wondered. And of course, we had just enough. Just like always We always have enough. I had an interesting conversation with a fellow about that situation. You see, Robin and I usually never eat downtown. I would feel pretty badly if I had a plate of food and someone showed up who hadn’t eaten. I would feel really badly actually. I can go home and grab a bite to eat. There folks have to figure out where the next meal is coming from. I once heard a guy say that if a fellow got hungry in this town, he wasn’t trying very hard. I understand that. But I struggle with taking something and then not having enough. His point was that we should at least have a small bite to eat with our friends. I know he’s right. I just have a hard time with it. One of his arguments was that we should show everyone that the food is good enough for us also. I know that much. The food is always excellent. Robin wouldn’t have it any other way. It has to be the best. So us not eating may send the wrong message in various ways. I just feel we’re there to serve. Him. And in the process, lots of folks get blessed in lots of ways. Not the least of which is us. I mean, we must have passed out 300 bottles of water today. That’s probably more than we’ve ever handed out. In fact I know it is. And we had lemonade and coffee on top of that. Just a massive amount of people showed up today. And not a penny from Warren Buffet. :) All from God. No doubt.

And the weather was absolutely stunning today. Barely a breeze and about 70 degrees. Chamber of Commerce weather for sure. Almost had a little dustup. And yours truly was right in the middle of it. It’s funny how alcohol adds strength to a fellow who otherwise might not be so bold. Today, in both individual cases, these fellows weren’t feeling much pain. And in reality, neither one of them probably could have landed a square punch. But I certainly didn’t want to find out. In the end, I know that eventually something will shake out. We’d never had rain until last week. So far, we've never had a fight. Someday, a scuffle will break out. With the number of people we see each week and the outside "influences", I’m not naïve enough to think it won’t happen. I hope and pray it doesn’t. I don’t want to see it. I was almost in the middle of it today. Would have seen it up close and personal. But cooler heads prevailed. Or something.

So another great day in downtown Omaha. It seems odd saying that a few hundred people in need constitutes a great day. It doesn’t. But when God provides for some of the needs of these folks, well that does indeed meet the criteria for me. I had one girl tell me that if we didn’t show up each week, she didn’t know what she’d do. Not sure what that means really, and I guess I don’t need to know. I do know that God continues to blow me away. Each and every week. He just sets such a great scene for us down there to show people what He can do if they only allow Him to use them in meaningful ways. It’s just amazing.

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ~Jeremiah 29:11

Peace, have a great and blessed week and make a difference.

…it matters to that one… :)

Gone...

2009-04-26T14:30:00.000-07:00

Tough week. Started with a funeral on Monday. An infant funeral. I’m pretty sue that was a first for me. I hope it’s a last. I don’t think I’ve seen anything more heartbreaking and gut wrenching than a father carrying his infant daughter’s casket. And he was pretty strong about it. I know for a fact I would have been a basket case. We met this family sometime previous to the Christmas of 2007. I know this because we’ve been blessed to help them the past two Christmases. They have 3 other young children. When we met them, they were homeless. Now? They have an apartment and they are struggling, but doing better. But this was definitely a bit of a setback. That seems so trivial to say the death of an infant daughter was a setback. I don’t know what else to call it. It was so difficult for me. I can’t imagine what it was like for them. Baby Pearl was born prematurely and was just not strong enough to make it on her own. There were complications. The parents had to make the extremely difficult decision of removing the life support. I don’t know how you make that decision. I just don’t know. She was a beautiful little girl. She is a beautiful little girl. She’s with our Father now. That much I know. But it was probably the most difficult parting service I’ve ever witnessed. At least for someone that wasn’t a part of my immediate family. This family though, has been through so much. And now this? Some things just don’t make sense to me.

And then when I got home from work Monday afternoon, we received a letter stating that a friend whom we’d been trying to help with a cataract surgery had been denied an opportunity to receive a free surgery to remove or repair his cataracts. Whatever it is they do. The thing is, they reviewed 60 or so candidates. Of those, they chose 23. We were convinced he’d be one of the 23. And so, I get home from work that day, see the letter and the hope I experience as I open the letter is overwhelming. You see, throughout this whole process, he has proclaimed to Robin and I that he is counting on us. Flaw number one. Never count on your fellow man. I mean hope that things will come out the way you’d like, but never count on it or we might be setting ourselves up for disappointment, right? I tried to explain that to him many times. So when I open the letter and find out that he has been rejected, I of course was pretty bummed. We wanted so badly for him to get this done. Well, as God would have it, He gave us a backup plan. Actually, it was probably His main plan. A family who has helped in many ways, was deciding what to do with a particular amount of money. It was the young son who had this fellow on his mind and heart. And as God would have it, this young boy really wanted to help in this situation. Now he didn’t even know that this fellow was rejected by the eye clinic. He just wanted to help. So they asked if they could help in this particular situation. Are you kidding me? Seriously? Yeah. Absolutely. So stay tuned for this one…more to come here for sure.

Sadly, we lost another friend this past week. This is the local news blurb:

"A man's body found along the Missouri River in downtown Omaha Tuesday morning has been identified as 55-year-old Robert Naeve.

A tugboat operator noticed the body on the Nebraska side of the river south of Riverfront Drive and Dodge Street shortly after 11 a.m. The area is home to a number of transients.

The cause of death is still pending results of the autopsy. Investigators do not think it's suspicious."

Now here’s the thing. I didn’t know this fellow very well. I saw him almost weekly. I know that he spent the entire winter living on the river. And survived that only to leave us just as spring is breaking. I’d like to be able to give funny analogies and stories about Bob, but like I said, I just didn’t know him that well. I tried several times to get to know him a little better, but he was just a more reserved kind of fellow and didn’t talk much. About the only thing I really remember from any of our recent encounters was helping him with a pair of boots this past winter. He was so thankful and appreciated the fact that he could get a new pair of boots without having to do anything in return. No strings. No forms to fill out. No conditions. Just a simple transaction, but to him it must have meant something because he thanked me several times over the next few weeks. And then we received word on Tuesday that a body had been found down by the river. And over the next few days, we learned who it was. It is so saddening and disheartening to hear of these things. Very, very difficult. I find myself scouring the papers and Google to see if there is any word about these types of things. And I usually find very little. These guys are just on the outer edges of our daily lives and yet when they leave us, it is with little or no fanfare. Just a 2 or 3 sentence blurb in the local paper, a mention about the fact that his last known address was probably a shelter or a place where the homeless or transients hang out and then they pretty much disappear from our view. I pray that somehow, someway Bob knew the Lord. In THAT way. I just can’t imagine our friends being so marginalized that not only are they somewhat separated from society, so to speak, but they are also separated from God. That is heartbreaking. I pray that somewhere along the way, Bob accepted Christ in his life. That the light of Christ shined on him and he is now in his eternal resting place.

And finally…our streak is over. Today the forecast was for a 65% chance of rain at noon. It rained off and on all night and pretty much all morning. It rained all the way downtown today. But you know a funny thing happened. We arrived downtown and I halfway expected a small crowd due to the nasty weather we were experiencing. But that was not the case at all. It was probably one of the larger crowds we've had so far this year. As we unloaded the trailer, the rain was spitting. Peopel were hustling to get things set up before the rains came. I asked a friend to pray that the rain would stop. he looked at me funny. I said I meant it and right now! He again looked at me funny. I again told him I meant it! Right now! And finally he complied. And it wasn’t like we didn’t pray all morning for the rain to stop. And all the way downtown! So as we got everything set up, the rain started coming down a bit harder. It never poured. That’s the upside. It did rain. That was the downside. In 2.5 years, it had never rained on us downtown. Today that streak ended. I guess it’s time to start the next streak. So while it did rain, we did not get rained out. That has never happened. I pray that it never will. And today we had a huge crowd in spite of the weather. And an amazing meal. A local girl scout troop provided the entire meal. Homemade Salisbury steak, corn, mashed potatoes and gravy. What an amazing day. What an amazing ministry. What an amazing God we serve! Even in the rain! :)

The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. ~John 1:5

Peace, have a great and blessed week and make a difference.

For he will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help. ~Psalm 72:12

…it matters to that one… :)

"I'm a beggar…"

2009-04-19T15:46:00.000-07:00

He was there when we showed up today. He was there when we left. Actually left a few minutes before us. Large bag of bread slung over his shoulder. On his way to feed the fishes. In the lagoon that is centered in the park that we frequent every Sunday. Like I said, he was there when we got there. As I pulled the van up to the corner, I could tell he’d already been drinking. You see, he spent the last 10 days in jail. The Douglas County Corrections Center has some goofy policy that they should release people around 3 a.m. on Sunday mornings. 3 a.m.? Are you kidding me? Apparently their computer systems are down for whatever reason on Sunday mornings, so they release these guys at 3 a.m. on Sunday mornings before their system goes down. So what do you think a homeless fellow is going to do at 3 a.m. on a Sunday morning after having been cooped up for 10 days on an open container charge? Pretty easy to figure that one out. So when we saw him at noon today? He was feeling no pain. But Robin and I had a conversation with him a couple hours later and there was most certainly pain. On both sides. For us and him.

We met this fellow, to the best of my recollection, on November 12, 2006. In the Office. That concrete, walled place in the middle of the park where he and several of his buddies plied their trades. In their Office. It was a place that once had lots of activity. Not so much anymore. The city pretty much cleaned it out. Took out the benches that were once there. And the fellows have moved their "workplaces" to other confines. But that was where we first met. That first Sunday that now seems so long ago. And today we met once again in the general vicinity of that spot in the park. As soon as we pulled up, I knew it was going to be a bit of a challenging day. Because as much as I hate to admit it, I have my favorites. And he is one of them. In fact, truth be told, he’s probably one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. At least when he’s sober. No doubt about it. And as Robin and I talked with him today, we just told him how much he meant to us. And he reciprocated. There was just so much hurt. You could just feel it. You know how people get when they’ve been drinking and the truth starts coming out? Not that falling down, stumbling, food spitting kind of drunkenness. But the kind when a guy is starting to sober up a bit and the real truth begins to emerge. That kind of truth. The kind that we rarely see from our friends. At least from my perspective. But we see it often from this fellow. Now I’ve written about him many times. Many. Because he is just simply one of my favorite people.

As we got ready to leave the park today, we had a pretty decent conversation with him. With our kids poking each other in the van, and all the other peripheral activity happening around us, we talked. And at one point, he was questioning us. Why? Why do you guys care so much? Why? And he was insistent that he could never change. Ever. That’s so hard to hear. Eight years on the streets. And I’d guess that about 7.5 or more of those years have been spent in a fog. Maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but I bet not. I mean, 8 years? On the streets? I don’t know but I’d be worn out. And he is. Said so himself. And I mentioned what amazing things God can do for him. I sometimes feel as though I have to be measured in what I say to some of these guys. Everyone thinks they can save these guys from themselves. It’s so easy to give the pat Christian response to a guy in this situation. ‘God can take care of you and your problems man!" "If you just give it all up to God, he’ll take all your worries away!" But to a guy who has spent 8 years living under bridges, in shelters, wherever, well, that’s a difficult concept to grasp. I mean, it’s true. He can and will take our problems. He took care of that a couple thousand years ago. But it’s so easy sometimes to spout our cute little advice to a guy who has no idea what that really means. Sometimes I’m not sure I know what it really means.

So at one point in our conversation, I simply mentioned what an amazing individual he was in God’s eyes. And he immediately went for his wallet. And buried in his wallet, was a piece of paper, folded over several times. On that piece of paper was familiar handwriting. To me anyway. It was Robin’s handwriting. And it spoke exactly of that. How this fellow was an amazing creation of Christ and how God loved him more than any of us could ever fathom. And when he read it, the tears came. And the emotions flowed. He just doesn’t understand why we care. And he doesn’t have to. But he knows we do. And that is what this is all about. Relationships that now have been formed and even though, in most cases, they are only nurtured on a weekly basis for a couple of hours, well, I have to hope that is better than nothing. We need to do more. That’s for sure. This fellow today is convinced that he can never change. Told me, in his own words, "I’m a beggar." That’s so hard to hear. Especially from this fellow. He says he wants to change, but knows he can’t. Knows it. And inside, I’m just busting to tell him that he CAN change. But he and I both know that he has to want it. And right now? He can’t do it. And through his tears and emotions, I could tell he meant it. He is convinced this is it for him. I’m not so sure.

So he was there when we arrived. And he was there when we left. Heading down to the lagoon to feed the fish. And I pray that he shows up next week. And the week after that and the week after that. I pray that he endures and perseveres. That he somehow, in some way finds hope. He’s not a beggar. I mean, we’re all beggars in a sense. But he has so much more to offer. And somehow I have to be able to convince him of that. He says we can’t change him. He’s right. But maybe we can be agents of change. God’s tools. He once told me I was God’s tool. I pray that God would just empower us to be that to this fellow and all the others. That he would somehow use us in some way to make a difference.

We also boast of our troubles, because we know that trouble produces endurance, endurance brings God's approval, and his approval creates hope. This hope does not disappoint us, for God has poured out his love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit, who is God's gift to us. ~Romans 5:3-5

Peace, have a great and blessed week and make a difference.

So then, my dear friends, stand firm and steady. Keep busy always in your work for the Lord, since you know that nothing you do in the Lord's service is ever useless. ~1 Corinthians 15:58

…it matters to that one… :)

Investing…

2009-04-12T18:23:00.000-07:00

I received a response to one of my blogs this week. It came anonymously from someone I obviously do not know. It was a rather lengthy response, but one thing stood out to me. It was the following statement – "Investment in someone cannot stop at the end of the soup ladle." Often times, maybe, it would be easy for me to show up on our corner and do our thing and leave thinking we’ve done God’s work and now let’s go back to our nice comfortable suburban home. But the Lord continually reminds me otherwise. As we’ve become entangled in some of the lives of the people we’ve met in this endeavor, I’ve realized that sometimes, even though I might try to live separate lives, God will have none of it. It often seems if we make any sort of investment in the lives of others, well, it makes it extremely difficult to ignore the difficult situations our friends find themselves in.

Here are a few examples of what some investments have come to look like for us lately.

We received a call on Thursday night from someone informing us some bad news. One of the fellows we met downtown, I believe on our very first venture into this community, learned this week that his mother had died in San Diego. Now this guy is a fellow that I just really, really like a lot. Love definitely comes into play here. This is a fellow that was homeless when we first met him. He is indeed one of the hardest working gentlemen I’ve ever met. I’ve never seen a guy whose hands are more calloused, haggard and torn up than the hands of this guy. And he is full of energy, more so than probably anyone I’ve ever met. His nickname reflects that. And the one thing that he does for us when we gather downtown on Sundays is probably one of the most important things that he could do, at least for me from a father’s standpoint. He watches over our kids. It’s like God provided child care in this Church environment that springs up every Sunday. And our friend is the director of the children’s ministry. :) Now some might argue that this a "Church" environment. Whatever. I guess for me it means that whenever we gather in the presence of our Almighty God and worship in His name, well, I don’t know that it matters what we call it. Let’s just call it good. So this fellow is like the pied piper when it comes to the kids. Erin absolutely loves him. Calls him her very best friend downtown. And I agree. As I talked to him today, he spoke of his best friend. His mother. She was 92. And she’s gone now. He was most definitely hurting today. Eyes watering. Voice wavering. Erin and Abby put together a gift bag for him today. He was overwhelmed. He’s just one of the nice guys. No alcohol problems. Has his own place now. Works every day. Hard. And he made a statement to someone once. I’ll dispute the wording of his statement, but he essentially said that he is where he is today because of the people that show up on that corner. Now that is pretty absurd to me, because he is obviously where he is today because of God’s Grace. But if God were to work through us and this is what he sees, then so be it. All I ever want to be to our friends is a light. An undeniable blast of light that God uses to do His work. So he found out this week that his mother passed away. He was going to go visit with her and obviously never made it. I pray that he finds the peace and grace of God through this difficult life circumstance. He’s a great fellow and I pray that our investment never stops at the end of the soup ladle with him.

Last week, Robin came home with a carload of baby stuff. You know, a car seat, baby clothes, diapers, everything you’d need to bring a baby home from the hospital. Not for us. Not yet anyway. But a family we met on that corner a while back who are in the middle of life’s circumstances, were in the hospital having a baby. Robin, as she is so apt to do, went overboard with compassion and got all this great stuff to help them in their transition. Like I said, we met them a long time ago on that corner and they are just a family trying to make it on life’s terms. Job difficulties and just general tough circumstances probably threaten this family at most corners. But maybe not so on our corner. Because God clearly placed us in each other’s paths. Clearly. So we got word his week that they were in the hospital having their baby. Except there was a problem. The baby was premature. Now I don’t know all the details, but there were problems. Medical issues. And every time I pulled into our garage and saw the corner filled with stuff for this new baby, I wondered when it would get delivered. Literally and figuratively. Then we got word that the baby probably wasn’t going to make it. They were faced with the difficulty of making far different plans than they’d previously expected. I cannot for one minute imagine what that must feel like. We’ve been so blessed with 3 beautiful, healthy children. I cannot imagine the pain and anguish they must be feeling right now. I pray that they too find peace and some sort of contentment through this all. And I guarantee that our investment will not stop at the end of a soup ladle. And I’m so thankful that my beautiful wife has been so blessed with the single most compassionate heart that I’ve ever known. God surely knew what He was doing when He placed her in the path of this family. I’m amazed at how it all works. Because we can be nothing more than a shoulder or ear to these folks, but sometimes? That’s all a person needs in these types of situations.

And finally, Christian and I spent a few hours last Saturday helping a family get a few pieces of furniture. Now it may seem fairly mundane to some, but to the person on the receiving end, it would seem bigger than that I think. This family, as we know them consists of a "Mom", and a couple of children. Truth be known, I think Mom is actually grandma. We first met them where? You guessed it. On a downtown street corner. They weren’t regulars and I’m not even sure I remember how they found out about us. Or maybe, just maybe they had a little Direction? :) So over the course of the last 4 or 5 months, they’ve been able to move from living in their car, to living in a real house. Now it’s not a palace by any stretch, or maybe it is to them? But it is a house with all the amenities. So Christian and I drove to Glenwood, Iowa last weekend to pickup a bed, a loveseat and a few other things. The couple who were giving us the furniture is another story for another day. But let’s just say that God put them in our path and they are an amazing couple. Just amazing! So we picked up the furniture and delivered it to Plattsmouth, Nebraska. Overall, it was about a 60 mile roundtrip. Great windshield time for Christian and I, and this family was blessed with a few more pieces to the puzzle. She gave me a letter before we left. It was just an expression of thanks and gratitude for all the help she’s received from God, through those who have chosen (or God has chosen) to help out in this thing called Starfish. The letter just explained how thankful she was that God was watching over her. It was a reminder to me, as I often need, that sometimes when a seed is planted, we never know what may grow. And her faith was seemingly strengthened by a few acts of kindness. I don’t even know if she saw the soup ladle on that Sunday we met her. But the investment cannot end when the soup hits the bottom of the cup. That I know. Thank God.

And now finally, for real. We almost had our first fight today. And this one involved several people. Not sure how close we really were, or if it was just a bunch of testosterone. Looked like things might have gotten out of hand fairly quickly. My man O‘Malley almost came out of retirement today. It was a crazy few minutes that’s for sure. And on Easter Sunday of all days. I know that when evil senses God’s work happening, he wants none of it. But today? Well, there’d be no fighting on Resurrection Day. Apparently God saw to that. Because after a few different flare ups, in a few different hot spots, cooler heads prevailed.

So I’m a little wordy today. This day and time of the year that we are reminded of the investment that the Lord made for us. The sacrifice that He made when the curtain was torn and we were once and for all able to enter into the presence of God. What an amazing God we serve. I am in awe of His presence in my family’s lives and at what He’s done on a simple street corner in little old downtown Omaha, Nebraska. I pray that I never lose sight of investments in lives. And I pray that someday our investment can be full time. 24/7.

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. ~Gal. 5:6

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. ~Isaiah 53:5 NIV

Peace, have a great and blessed week and make a difference.

…it matters to that one… :)

Palm Sunday Options

2009-04-05T15:19:00.000-07:00

April 5. Now in most places that means Spring. And here in Nebraska I thought we might be heading in that direction also. But today was a brief reminder of where exactly it is that we live. Here in the Heartland, April 5 can mean sunny and 70 or we can experience what we received this morning. A cold, wet, rainy, miserable morning and the chance for snow, which did indeed turn into snow. Now the nice thing is that we know it won’t last. It’ll be like a southeastern snow day. Here one day and gone the next. But nevertheless, we still have to deal with these elements here in Omaha on occasion. The transition from winter to spring is not always as smooth as we’d like it to be. But at least we’re not in Fargo.

So we head downtown and the cold, wet snow follows us all the way down. Now one thing I always keep in mind when the weather is not exactly cooperating on a particular Sunday is the fact that we’ve never been shut out. Not once. Never been rained out. I’ve written about our experiences with weather before. The time that it absolutely poured on us as we made our way downtown. Torrential rainstorms all morning. But when we got downtown? The rain stopped. In fact, a big, blue whole opened up in the sky above us on that particular day and the rain stopped. A couple hours later, the rains came again in truckloads. But on that day and for that window, the rains stopped. And I’m absolutely convinced that was God welcoming us into the park. Today? Well, technically it didn’t rain. The funny thing is it rained all night. And I woke up to rain this morning. I (and Robin) prayed that He’d give us a window of opportunity today to serve. And of course He did. Now today there were no blue skies. The weather forecast at noon was for snow, North winds at 32 miles per hour and 32°F. So my hope was that at least the rain would turn to snow. It did. It wasn’t pretty, but technically it wasn’t rain either.

Smaller crowd today. As it turned out, a downtown Italian restaurant was offering a free meal to the homeless and impoverished folks in the downtown community. We didn’t know about it ahead of time, but someone told us after we showed up. In fact I heard a fellow telling some of the guys waiting to be served that they could head over to Vincenzo’s and have a nice spaghetti dinner. I have to tell you I felt a sense of "get the heck out of here" rise up in me. Some weird kind of stupid "ownership" deep within that wanted to tell the guy to beat it. I mean, here we are week after week you want to show up one time and take our friends away? Now stay with me here. I do have a point to make. I think. So as I hear the guy offering a fee meal in a WARM, DRY restaurant, I think to myself (as I’m scattering to try to catch all the stuff that a 32 mph wind blows off our serving tables), "Self, I’d go for the spaghetti dinner in the WARM, DRY restaurant". But you know, a funny thing happened. Obviously, lots of the people that normally frequent that corner on Sundays were doing just that. Because it was probably the smallest crowd we’ve had in a while. When we first approached the corner and I saw the few people on the corner waiting, I thought the weather was the culprit. And that was ok. As long as our friends were taken care of. And then my mind went to the great folks from St. James. The church that prepares the entire meal on the first Sunday of the month. And that would be today. And here we are with only a handful of people to serve. And the rain that was falling earlier? It had indeed transformed into frozen H2O. And we had lots of food to serve. Chili, soup, sandwiches, chips, cookies, and the list goes on. But somehow, the people started to come. And some even pulled double duty. Eating spaghetti and then showing up on our corner to partake. It was an interesting Palm Sunday. Not many palms, that’s for sure. But it was good. And the fellow who was offering a free meal in a WARM, DRY restaurant? Well, he couldn’t have picked a better Sunday to make this kind of offering. Who knew it would be cold and snowing on April 5th? Today? Our friends had a choice. And that’s always a good thing. One fellow once told me that if a guy had trouble finding food in this town, well he really wasn’t trying. Today, our friends had options. And like I said, that’s always a good thing.

Our friend, the messiah wasn’t there today. He must have been enjoying a nice plate of spaghetti. Maybe with a side of nice warm Italian bread? Who knows? But others were. And one thing that makes me swell up with a sense of Godly pride is that fact that people will show up on a downtown street corner to have a meal regardless of the weather. They still show up. I certainly hope they show up because they know Who sends us. I pray that message gets across through our actions. And our words. I wake up on mornings like this and I feel a sense of challenge. Where I can hardly wait to see what’s in store for us. Today? I guess it was a more intimate gathering. And you know, a funny thing did indeed happen. For about an hour, those 30+ mph winds did indeed die down and the horizontal snow that was swirling earlier just fell harmlessly from the sky. Water? Technically, yes. But so harmless in the big picture.

Next week is obviously Easter and the forecast is…you guessed it! Rain. Another downtown restaurant normally offers a nice big Easter meal to our friends also. And we also plan on showing up with a nice big Easter dinner. I think if a different restaurant wanted to make it competitive, we could give them a run for their money each week. And in turn, we’d give our friends options. Yeah, I think that would be a great thing. Hmmm…

The Lord says to his people, When the time comes to save you, I will show you favor and answer your cries for help. ~Isaiah 49:8

Peace, have a great and blessed week and make a difference.

…it matters to that one… :)

2009-03-29T18:45:00.000-07:00

For probably the first time in 2 ½ years I have no idea where to begin. I mean, a million things happened today. I talked to one guy who is convinced that when his "work" is done here, probably in the next four years or so, the new world will begin. I talked to the messiah. Again. Several times. I think one time he was telling me how he "made" fruit and vegetables. We left the downtown area with so much stuff in the trailer I literally had to stand and hold it all in while someone else closed the door so everything wouldn’t come crashing down like it does in the bad sitcoms when someone is trying to close the junk closet door. We spent three hours on that corner today and could have stayed longer. Easily. The weather cooperated. In a huge way. It was sunny, barely a breeze and just a picture perfect day in this transition from winter to spring. And I had the trailer packed and ready to go in record time this morning. I don’t know why it was so easy, but what usually takes me until 9:30 or 10:00 was completed by 8:30 at the latest. It was just an easy morning for some reason. And the time we spent on the corner was pretty smooth today. Especially considering the spike we experineced in the number of meals we served. And we were doing some fishes and loaves stuff today. As Robin was getting her part of the meal ready this morning, there was a slight bit of worry that we wouldn’t have enough today. But the great thing about that is that God has never and will never let us down in that area. Not once since November of 2006 have we run out of food before everyone has had a chance to get a meal. Not once. That is so crazy to me. Now if a guy shows up at 2:00? Well, that’s a different story. But today our line stretched as far down the block as I’ve seen in some time. So I know I’m rambling here but I just don’t know where to begin. There was so much going on down there today, it’s hard to get a grasp on all that happened.

I guess I’ll start with the Easter bags. I know it’s a little early for Easter, but we kind of went there today anyway. A young lady, one who has done some pretty tremendous things for this ministry recently, organized an Easter bag project for our friends. It wasn’t so much what was in the bags, because that was cool enough on its own. It’s the fact that this was organized in a town 4 hours from Omaha. This young lady, with some help from her family and fellow community members, has taken it upon herself to do some pretty amazing things for some people she barely knows. Imagine what we could all learn from this type of wonderful selflessness. Her uncle was a friend of ours. I’ve written about him too many times to count. He left us last summer. But his legacy lives on. That these folks from a small farm community of 600 people in western Nebraska would venture down I-80 and show up in Omaha to do the things they’ve done speaks volumes. To bring bags and bags of clothing and various supplies, so much that I can barely close the door on the trailer was an amazing thing to see. What an amazing family. And all to honor a family member and in doing so, honoring God and giving Him the glory He so richly deserves.

Honestly, it was a pretty typical day. Whatever that looks like when that community sprouts up on that corner for a few hours each Sunday. One thing that I’m completely blown away by lately is the people coming to help. It just seems that the number of people wanting to help grows all the time. We had so many people helping today. And we usually get good help. Today was no exception. One fellow and his son showed up today. We get folks who need hours to complete community service obligations. This was one of those cases. And this guy and his son were all about helping. We get lots of situations where these guys come to help because they have to. It’s mandated by the courts. And lots of them say they are going to come back, even when their obligation is complete, only to never be seen again. That may be the case with this fellow and his son, but at least they were able to come and be a part of what God is doing on that corner. You just never know what seed is being planted. Never know.

As we were wrapping things up, I saw a fellow walking towards me out of the corner of my eye. As we made eye contact, I knew he looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite place the face. And then it dawned on me. I recognized this guy. He showed up on that corner late last summer. Needed help getting into a treatment program. A little something to help get into the program and a bus ticket to get there. So a couple who have been so very helpful in so many ways offered to help this guy get there and get going in his treatment program. Over the past several months, I’ve often wondered how this guy was managing. Did he make it through his program? And if so, how was he managing the whole life thing now with a different outlook? Did he make it? Is he still making it? Any relapses? You know, all the usual questions. Well, as of today, he has 7 months of sobriety and he was there today with his wife and two beautiful little girls. What a blessing to see him. And what a blessing to see him there, spending quality time with his family on a beautiful day in downtown Omaha. And a contributing factor to his being there today was the result of a selfless act by a family who simply saw a need and decided to help. And because God offers us that chance. So often. We see the guy on the side of the road. Holding the sign. Or the guy in the park. "Sleeping" on a bench. Or on the sidewalk. Or making a public nuisance of himself. We don’t have to start a website called pimpthisbum.com, but that is a darn good idea. I wish I would have thought of it. But we can take an interest in helping those that have fallen. Because when it comes down to it, we’ve all fallen at one time or another. And wasn’t it nice to have someone there to help us pick up the pieces?

So it was great to see our friend back today. I pray that his journey is a long and successful one. One that leads him to much prosperity in the name of Christ. One that he always looks back on and remembers that God blessed him with a second chance and a helping hand from a couple he didn’t even know. And that he didn’t know them is really not that important. What matters is that he was down and God placed them in his path. On a downtown street corner in Omaha, Nebraska. And then on to treatment center in Des Moines, Iowa. And now? The journey continues. For him and us. I can only imagine where it will take us next. I have so many ideas in my feeble brain. I don’t even know where to begin.

If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! ~Ecclesiastes 4:10 NIV

Peace, have a great and blessed week and make a difference.

…it matters to that one… :)

Give me Your Eyes…

2009-03-22T14:33:00.000-07:00

Late last year, a friend of ours whom we met in our downtown endeavors, came to Robin and I with a need. He’s an older Nigerian fellow who is in our country presumably looking for a better life. To date, I’d argue that he’s not found it. But a funny thing happened on his way to a better life. God placed him in our path. So we’ve not gotten to know him on a deeply personal basis, yet. Hopefully that will come. What has happened, just as God allows, is that we have indeed gotten to know him. Hopefully this someday will lead to a deeper relationship. He’s a wonderful individual with much insight. A very grandfatherly fellow with a big, huge smile and a soft spoken way about him. So back to his need. Obviously, his needs are great. He left his homeland and wound up, through a series of circumstances, in a shelter in Omaha. After talking to lots of people in similar situations over the past couple of years, the stories are all vastly different, but for some reason, they’ve ended up here. And lots of times they end up on our corner. This fellow did just that. To look at him, you might not even know of his homelessness. Very well dressed. Very well spoken. Seemingly, a very educated man.

So late last year, he came to us with a request. He wanted to continue his studies here in the United States. I believe he has some formal education, but as my feeble mind is apt to do, it fails me now as to what that actually consists of. But in order to begin his studies again, he must first do something about his clouded vision. Now in some cases, that might be as much metaphoric as it is a real condition. How many of us miss so much around us because our vision is clouded by something? So his vision is pretty bad. If I remember correctly, he’s in his early 60s. I should know that. I’ve seen his birth date on various forms. You see, someone mentioned to Robin last year that there was a program that helped people in these situations. Midwest Eye Care, here in Omaha, participates in a program called Mission Cataract USA. It’s a national program that provides free cataract surgery to persons with limited financial resources and is open to individuals who do not have insurance coverage through Medicare, Medicaid or a private insurer. In mid-March each year, Midwest Eye Care begins screening applicants to determine if they meet the medical and financial guidelines for the program. If so, the applicant is scheduled for a free exam on a dedicated screening day in April. Several days after the screening exams are completed, the applicants selected for free surgery are notified. We assisted our friend in completing various applications and received word last week that he’d been selected for an eye exam. This only means that the possibility still exists that he may be selected for the free surgery. When I say free, the cost of this surgery is in the $5000 dollar range, so this is a huge thing for our friend. When we received word that he’d been selected, which was via voice mail, we thought he’d been selected for the actual surgery. And that may still be the case. But as I’ve researched this program further, it may be that he is still in the selection process.

I pray that God will make this happen. That it would be His will for our friend to receive this wonderful blessing. You see, for most of our friends who receive anything through us, we simply tell them to give thanks and praise to God. Not us. Because that is obviously where it all comes from. Lots of these guys tell me, as much as I tell them not to thank me, that they have to thank us because we’re the ones that show up. Fair enough. But I always have to make sure they know we are simply a conduit. Tools used by the Father to do His work. That’s all any of us are, right? But this fellow, even though his faith is strong, we just have agreed to disagree on some of these issues. I always tell him to thank God for the gifts he receives through us. He always tells me that’s not how it works in his world. I could go into great detail here, but suffice it to say he has different ideas than I do.

So my hope and my prayer is that this will happen for him. I want this so badly for him. And I know how badly he wants it. If for no other reason than to begin to see clearly again. Figuratively and literally. So as I’m so apt to do at times, I’ve got a song stuck in my head. Our family went to Winter Jam '09 a couple of weeks ago. Brandon Heath was one of the artists performing. I’m guessing lots and lots of people have probably heard his most current hit song.

"Give me your eyes for just one second. Give me your eyes so I can see. Everything that I keep missing. Give me your love for humanity."

I know that like any other popular song, it is grossly overplayed on radio stations. But the message is definitely there. Lord, give me YOUR eyes so I can see others the way You’ve seen them all along. Please. Help me to see them through Your filter. Through Your compassionate, unbelievable Graceful eyes. And even though I can’t even begin to fathom how great it must be, give me Your eyes to see how You love. For just one second, because that’s probably all I could stand. I sometimes feel as though I could use a little surgery myself to remove the clouded vision I have at times. If I could just see the way He sees for just one second…

I simply praise God today for the opportunity to be involved in situations like this one. I pray that whatever His will is in this particular situation, we all come away with a deeper and more profound understanding of what it means to see through a filter such as His. If that is even possible.

Peace, have a great and blessed week and make a difference.

…it matters to that one… :)

Face to Face with the messiah or the Messiah?

2009-03-15T15:26:00.000-07:00

So today was amazing and crazy. Amazing because the weather was unbelievable. It’s that time of year again where people are coming out of hibernation after a long winter. Crazy because I had 2 different people tell me they were either the messiah or they were an integral part of the second coming. The weather was so unbelievably nice today. Probably around 60 degrees and breezy. Got a little cool as we were loading up to leave, but it was so nice to go down and not even have to wear a jacket. Love those days, especially in this climate. And people are just happier when the weather changes. You can just sense a good feeling in the air. Apparently so much so that it even brings out a few guys who maybe aren't quite sure of their lot in life?

So I met a fellow named Steven today for the first time. As I was unloading the trailer, he approached me and wanted me to listen to his headphones. It’s a little chaotic when we are unloading, with lots of people trying to help and all, so it’s tough for me to stop and listen to a guy’s headphones. I listened for a minute through one ear, but he was insisting that I put the headphones on both ears and really listen. I had to decline for the moment, but promised I’d get back to him. And then when we were praying, he was making some sort of noise or disturbance. I didn’t think too much of it until a bit later. I’d just met the guy for the first time, so I wasn’t real sure of his state of mind. After we’d finished praying and I was visiting people in the serving line, he stopped me and that’s when things got a bit interesting. You see, Steven has some pretty grand ideas about who he is and his place here on earth. He asked me the following question and I have to paraphrase – "Why is it that Adam and Eve were separated from God, yet Moses was able to speak directly to God via a burning bush and the Jews were able to speak directly to God?" Huh? I had to think about that one, because I wasn’t sure where that was going. So my response, obviously is that we all can go directly to God. Steven’s response? Oh no we can’t. In his mind and emphatically, not one "Christian leader" in the whole city could answer that question correctly and you know why? Because in his words…"He is the messiah". Now that one definitely threw me. So I kind of ended that portion of the conversation and moved on through the line.

And then a bit later, he found me and continued more of the same conversation. He was going on about how he was God and how he was gong to sue us for copyright infringement. What? Well apparently we didn't get permission to distribute the Bibles we were giving out. Oh and on top of all that? He is going to run for president because President Obama is trouble for our country. He even has a website called obamaisahonkeydonkey.com. Whatever that means. So yeah, when I got home? I checked it out. Yep. I did. It doesn’t exist. It really was just a bunch of crazy conversation. And it was tough not to laugh at the guy, because the stuff he was saying was so off the wall, I couldn’t tell if he was being serious, if he was a comedian or if he was just out there. I mean, after talking to him a couple of different times, in his mind he was serious. And he was very well spoken. Oh, and he was also getting ready to launch an internet startup company. He was going to be much wealthier than Gates or Buffet. He’d forced himself to be poor for a period of time, but now it was time to get serious. Just some really bizarre moments.

Bu the thing that stuck with me through all of it was what if? What if Christ were to show up on that corner? What if? When he said he was the messiah, it just kind of stopped me in my tracks for just a minute. I had to look and think, what if? How would He be treated? If the Messiah were to grace us with His presence, what would that look like? Like Steven? Or the other fellow that proclaimed to me that once his mission here was complete, the devil would no longer be able to make people sin? I mean, these situations were really confounding to me today. How do both of these conversations happen independently of each other on the same Sunday? I really believe they both believed it. But again, what if He showed up? And you know, He does. Every single week, He shows up. Every single Sunday, He shows up. And every single Sunday, we are blessed to be in His presence. I know that for a fact.

So another fellow hands me two somewhat crumpled, torn pieces of paper last week. They contained the following bits of wisdom:

If you want God to hear your prayers, hear the voice of the poor. If you wish God to anticipate your wants, provide those of the needy without waiting for them to ask you. Especially anticipate the needs of those who are ashamed to beg. To make them ask for alms is to make them buy it.– St. Thomas of Villanova

"Charity begins today. Today somebody is suffering, today somebody is in the street, today somebody is hungry. Our work is for today, yesterday has gone, tomorrow has not yet come - today, we have only today to make Jesus known, loved, served, fed, clothed, sheltered, etc. Today - do not to wait for tomorrow. Tomorrow might not come. Tomorrow we will not have them if we do not feed them today." (Mother Teresa 1991).

These two things kind of hung with all week. I read them and reread them several times. They just seemed profound to me. Maybe it’s just my state of mind these days? Who knows? Maybe I could ask Steven?

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. ~1 Peter 4:10

Peace, have a great and blessed week and make a difference.

…it matters to that one… :)

God's Amazing Providence

2009-03-08T15:07:00.000-07:00

I wish sometimes that I had Christian’s memory bank. I have such a hard time remembering every thing that happens on Sundays. I have a hard time remembering what I had for breakfast this morning, so when I’m in a crowd of people and conversations are happening all over the place and people are being fed and feeding others, well I just have a hard time remembering some of the things that happen on a given Sunday. I try to mentally remind myself of certain conversations and happenings, but I often find myself getting in the van as we depart from the downtown area on Sundays trying to get my head around the events that just took place. Now if I had Christian’s brain, well first of all I’m not sure if I could handle that thing, but for sure I could have a sort of instant recall. The kid is amazing in that regard. As long as it doesn’t have anything to do with remembering to clean his room or do the dishes. For some reason, the recall on household chores isn’t quite as instantaneous. But I digress. It’s just that so much happens on that corner in the couple of hours we are down there. For instance, I had one fellow asking today for help with medication. I was in the process of loading the trailer as we were winding down. He has a broken foot or ankle, because he had a boot on and was walking with a crutch. He told me of his need as I was loading and I asked him if he could give me a few minutes to finish loading and we could figure out what we might be able to do to help. The next thing I know, a pastor for a church that helps out down there on occasion is making some type of arrangements with this fellow. I asked him a few minutes later if he still needed help. Nope. Taken care of. Seems as though that’s how it works sometimes. All we have to do is show up and watch God work. Simple things but not to the fellow in need of medication. Or to the fellow who would just like a pair of warm socks. Or warm gloves. Or a warm winter coat. Or clean underwear. Or maybe an avenue for conversation. Just someone to listen.

Terry was back today. And he was feeling no pain. But deep inside? I’d guess he was in great pain. One of his buddies passed away in Council Bluffs on Friday. So my buddy Terry, a fellow railroader, or former railroader was a little loud and boisterous today. At one point just after he’d finished eating and I mean there was still food in his mouth, he felt the need to tell Robin and I how much he loved us. Well, as is often the case with people in Terry’s condition, hygiene, manners and etiquette are not necessarily focus points. I mean at one point in his near one sided conversation, I could have fed a small nation with the amount of food that was spewing forth from my buddy. Where was all this food coming from? Swallow man! It was really hard to focus as I dodged the chunks of food flying. But I hung in there and listened. As long as I could. All the while looking for an exit strategy! Man I’ve never seen so much food flying. But the point is Terry was hurting. Obviously. Now Terry is an interesting dude. The guy is my size, so he’s pretty doggone short. But he’s probably got the strongest handshake of any of the guys I’ve come across down there. I don’t know him well enough yet to know a lot of his story, but I intend to find out more about him. After we hugged and he shuffled off, I knocked the half eaten groceries off my jacket and wondered why? Why do guys have to live like that?

Another couple was back today that we haven’t seen in a while. He’s dying. Literally. Liver is shot. He skin color was almost as yellow as the yellow hoodie he was wearing. As we talked and he told me of his need for a liver, he didn’t seem to have a whole lot of hope. I mean, what do you say to a guy that knows he’s dying. He was in pretty good spirits, but that has to be impossibly difficult. I joked and told him that he could have mine. It’s a little damaged from my years of abusing it, but he was welcome to it, or at least a portion of it. I mean, it’s not really mine anyway, right? And you know, I was halfway serious. I did give him a pair of my shoes. A pair of my running shoes. But a part of my liver? Hmmm….

And I got word this morning that a high school in Kansas is going to use us as a national service project. I really have no idea what that means or what it will end up looking like. And I really don’t have to worry about that. Because after all I’ve seen over the course of the last couple of years, I’ve been humbled to the point that I know as long as God wants us to continue doing this thing, he’ll continue to supply all of our needs. Of that I’m sure. I’ve seen it too many times. That a group of high school kids in Clyde, Kansas would choose to help our homeless friends in Omaha, well that just speaks to God’s amazing providence. I often wonder how God can keep up with all the minutia? How in the world does he do it all? And then I’m reminded of a line from a friend. He said something once and it stuck with me. "God, I’ve never run a universe, so I’ll just leave that one in your hands…". Or something to that effect. Anyway, I’m just amazed at how God works. For instance, last Saturday, I was in the garage finishing up the sorting for the following Sunday. As I was closing the clothing bins, I noticed that we had barely any men’s clothing. Now I’m not one to get to hung up on that stuff anymore because I figure we usually have just what we need. But we were rally short on warm clothing for our friends. Plenty for the ladies, just not much for the fellows. So I finish up, walk into the kitchen and Robin mentions that Margie is on her way over with two big bags of men’s clothing. Just like that. God provided. Anyone that might want to call that a coincidence, well I would seriously beg to differ. I’ve just seen that happen far too often to know otherwise.

And finally, one last thing. As I was making my way through the line today, I happened upon a group of younger folks that I’d not seen before. Not that unusual, but they just looked different for some reason. Turns out they were students from Creighton University. They were on some sort of "homeless for a week" mission. I had the chance to speak with a few of them for a while. They were basically spending a week homeless. Sleeping in shelters and such and experiencing what that looked like. Felt like. Lived like. One girl said the tortilla soup we were serving was the highlight of her homeless week so far. Imagine that. A cup of soup was the best thing she’s seen so far. Now they were just getting started. But they said they’d come back next week. I hope they do because I’d love to hear how it goes for them. I’ve often thought of taking a week off from work and doing something like that. Maybe I need to stop thinking and start doing.

Peace, have a great and blessed week and make a difference.

…it matters to that one… :)

40 Names

2009-03-01T06:24:00.000-08:00

I attended a memorial service this past week for some friends. It was a memorial service recognizing those who died homeless in 2008. Celebrating their lives. They all left us this past year for various reasons and by various means. Some died as a direct result of their addictions. Others for other reasons. I don’t even pretend to know why or how or anything else. I just know that for some reason, they all left us. 40 people. Some we knew. Others, not so much. Some we knew well. Again, others, not so.

The service itself was held this year in an old Catholic church in north Omaha. Holy Family Catholic Church. The service was conducted by a Methodist pastor. So it was really an interfaith offering. One of the interesting things I noticed was that unlike most Catholic churches I’ve been in, this one did not have a crucifix with Christ hanging behind the altar. It’s an older church in a poorer section of town. In fact, it’s only a block or so south and west of the Sienna Francis House Shelter. So no crucifix. I don’t believe I’ve ever been in a Catholic church that didn’t have one. There was a simple statue of Christ in the back area of the altar with welcoming hands. It was very cool.

So when I walked in, there was a fellow playing a cedar wind flute. He seemed to be playing some kind of American Indian type songs on the flute. Really set the mood and ambiance in the old church. Just an observation. On the altar, there was a list of names. 40 of them. 40 people who died homeless. Maybe even needlessly? In one of, if not the richest country in the world. What does that say about our state of affairs? How people can be homeless in this country is beyond me, but how they die homeless is another story altogether. I mean, can’t we at least give them a bit of dignity before they go on?

As the pastor led the service, I looked around for family members. And honestly, of the 30 or so people in the church, I believe more were service oriented people as opposed to family members. I know some were there to grieve the loss of loved ones, but more were folks who dedicate their time to serving the less fortunate. And I wondered what it would look like if the place was filled with hundreds of people? Hundreds who had the Godly desire to help and love the less fortunate. What would that have looked like? It too would have been very cool.

At one point during the service, the names were read aloud by those in attendance. In a bit of a popcorn-ish manner, the names were simply read aloud. And with each name, I wondered what more could have been done. Especially he names of those friends that we knew from our activities. What more could we have done. And I especially thought of a friend who is still with us but seems hell bent on destroying his life. I even envisioned his name on the list of names. And thought how painful that would be to see his name there. I love this guy and can’t seem to figure out how to help in a more tangible way. And maybe I can’t. But man, I sure wish I could…

Towards the end of the service, a young lady stood at the front of the church with a picture of her father. He couldn’t have been more than 30. Now this guy died from cancer. And his name wasn’t on the list of names. So I’m not even sure of his circumstances. But the pain that radiated from her as she held his 8x10 picture in front of her was so very real. She mentioned he was her hero. And she was so young. A teenager. It was so painful to see.

And then the haunting echoes of Amazing Grace on the cedar wind flute...that’s how it ended. So extremely sobering. And I kept wondering how we could do more to help some of these guys at least not have to be a name on the list. At least have a proper burial and an obituary like "normal" people. How can we do more? I’m sure that will be revealed when the time is right…

Give and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full-pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back. ~ Luke 6:38, NLT

Peace, have a great and blessed week and make a difference.

…it matters to that one… :)

the devil’s playground

2009-02-22T18:14:00.000-08:00

So often I sit down here at my laptop and wonder what I can write about today. What significant thing happened on the corner today? Many times I’ve written about someone new that I met. Or some event that happened while we were on our corner. Or something that happened the previous week. This week I feel compelled to write about something that happened the previous week. Or more precisely something that didn’t happen. Meetings that were supposed to take place that never happened. I have a couple of guys that I meet with on fairly regular basis. Mostly just to listen or just chat. One on Wednesday and one on Thursday. So this past week, I show up at our normal Wednesday meeting place at our agreed upon time only to find myself all alone. It happens. No big deal really. We’ll just meet again next week. Nothing is written in stone, so no harm no foul right? But my Thursday meeting was a bit different. I’ve been trying to make this one happen for a while now. I can’t remember how long ago we made the initial arrangements. But I know it was well over a year ago. Probably closer to a year and a half. And I can seriously count on one hand how many times the meeting has actually taken place. Three times. In about a year and a half. Now I usually show up knowing that I’ll get an early out. My friend told me once to "pencil him in". He says that too many things can change between Sunday and Thursday. He’s right. So this past week on Thursday, I show up to the last place that we met. The last time we met was last summer. So it’s been a while. We made arrangements last Sunday to meet at our previous spot. I thought we were both on the same page. But we weren’t. Apparently. I showed up and found a whole lot of no one. And it really didn’t surprise me. I mean, like I said in a year and a half, we’ve met three times. 3. So to see no one there, it was pretty much par for the course. I waited around from about five minutes prior to our agreed upon time until about 5 minutes or so after. I once read that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. By that definition, I must be insane.

So today, as I’m heading through the serving line, I see my Wednesday guy. He explains that he was at a doctor’s appointment. I totally understand. And he has no cell phone or means for calling me, so I explain to him that it was really no problem. Seriously. We could just meet up this week and pick up where we left off last time. No problem. Minutes later, I see my Thursday guy. "Where were you" he says? I thought he was kidding. I was there man! He says he was there 10 minutes early and waited for an hour. How could that be? I was there! Seriously. Come to find out, we were at different places. The three times we’ve met, each time we’ve met at a different place. So I went to our previous place. He went to the place previous to that. I was so bummed. I felt like I had completely let him down. He said t was ok and it was just a miscommunication, but I sensed it was more than that. And I felt and feel terrible. Sure it was just a simple lunch meeting, but this has been one that has been really difficult to make happen for some reason. He even said he was going to be there early this time to surprise me. I can only imagine the disappointment as he walked away.

Here’s the thing. So often, our friends are promised things from various people. One thing I’ve always tried to do from day one in this thing was keep my word. We’ve told them from day one we’d be there every Sunday at noon, the Lord willing. To date, God’s allowed that to happen. If someone has asked for help in some way and we’ve been able to help, I think we’ve pretty much always been there. We certainly make mistakes and it’s difficult sometimes to understand how to be discerning in certain situations. But for the most part, God has blessed us with a certain sense of dependability over the course of this thing. Its one thing I attempt to stress within myself. Sometimes my memory fails me. Which is why I always carry around a small pocket notebook. New page every week. New things to remember. So if I write it down, I usually do pretty good with the follow through. So my guess is that my Thursday friend was pretty disappointed that another day came with more disappointment. From one of his Christian friends. Robin and I both see this guy so wanting to break free from his addictions and his lifestyle. He thinks he has nothing to offer. I completely disagree. He has so much to offer. So much. And I feel as though I let him down this time. And I sincerely hope that he will "pencil me in" for this week. This is a guy that, if the Lord were so willing to help us help him, the last two and a half years would be a smashing success. Not that God hasn’t already done amazing things. But if this one guy were to be blessed by the Grace of God and be released from the chains that he bears…it would just be amazing. I can just sense how badly he wants out. And he doesn’t seem to know how to completely surrender and be free. It sounds so easy. It’s so difficult. Eight years of homelessness. Countless trips to detox. 11 months in treatment at one time to drink on the very day that he was released. How? What do we do? Keep our meeting times for one. That would be a start.

And then it comes to me that there are forces that don’t want this to happen. I was talking to someone today about the devil’s playground. That place where the evil one takes all of us from time to time. Where he gains a foothold and uses us to do his dirty work. Now I’m not sure how that all works, but I know that it happens. I have things I struggle with every single day. And I ask God why? Why God, do you allow him to have his way with me? Why?! And the clear answer, to me anyway, is that as long as I continue to sin, yes even those "little sins", well that evil force that feeds on those things will continue to use me as his playground. Now I have absolutely zero training in any of this stuff, except what I’ve seen and learned during the course of my lifetime. But that’s what it seems like to me. So I look at some of our friends downtown and I think, wow, this is no playground. This is like freaking Walt Disney World with the evil one and some of our friends. The devil’s roller coaster. And it is so painful to watch. Guys literally drinking themselves to death. I just don’t get it. And at the same time, I do.

So I have two meetings this week. I pray that they both happen. I don’t want to miss a single opportunity. Not one. Not in the playground. When I was a kid, I used to love to go to the playground. Now that I’m just an older kid, not so much. But for the sake of sanity, and for our friends, I’ll venture in. Have to. I just pray that I’m equipped for the rides.

"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." -Albert Einstein

Peace, have a great and blessed week and make a difference.

…it matters to that one… :)

How are Sundays?

2009-02-15T18:36:00.000-08:00

Often times I get the question from people who know what we do on Sundays. It’s a familiar question by now and one I never know quite how to answer. How are things going on Sundays? Or how are things going on the corner? And I just find myself hesitating so often in my answer because of a couple of obvious things. Number one, things are going great on that corner. For me. But I get to come back home to my nice comfortable house. My home. I have a home. Lots of our friends have no home. Obviously. So from my perspective, if I was simply looking at how things were going on any given Sunday? I’d say things are going great. I mean, God continues to supply all the things we need in so many ways it’s almost comical at times. For instance, we get bread, pastries and sandwiches from Panera Bread every Saturday night. Whatever they have left over at the end of the day, we get. To serve at our Sunday gathering in the park. This morning, I believe for the first time in over two years, we got no sliced bread. Now that may not seem like a big deal, but ever since we started going downtown on Sundays, we’ve been blessed to serve great pastries and cookies from Panera for dessert and great, fresh sliced bread with our meal. It is simply sinful to see how much we get at times. And where would it go if we didn’t get it? So last night? No sliced bread. This morning I headed over to Wal-Mart to get sliced bread to serve with our meal. So guess what happens when we are setting up to serve? The youth group from St. Vincent Depaul is there this week. The third Sunday of every month they show up en masse! And this week? Guess what they brought? Enough sliced bread, cakes, and other pastries to feed a small army. That’s how God works. He takes care of the details. I know it was only bread. But how much more symbolic does it have to be? I mean it was bread! And that kind of thing happens all the time. Little details. But those little details can often turn into much bigger things. And once again, I digress.

So back to the question. How are things on the corner? Again, for me? Great. I get to see God working and doing all sorts of cool things. Sending different churches of all denominations to help. And here are Robin and I. We don’t even belong to a church, so to speak. At least not in the traditional sense. And yet God continues to absolutely blow the doors off of this thing. I got another message from a fellow this week about his church and their desire to help. And yet another young fellow has been coming down to help and his small group wants to come and help. And on the first Sunday of the month, another church cooks the entire meal and brings all kinds of other things. And there is a core group of people that cook almost every week, or come down to serve in various capacities or just hang out. So from that perspective, things are going great. Us Christians have a place to go and serve God, and in doing so, we get to meet, serve and love our friends. And don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of our friends down there who get it. They will probably be holding the pearly gates for me, providing I make it that far. But there are those of our friends who are simply living on borrowed time. There is no question in my mind about that. I mean, to a large degree, we all are. But some of these guys seem hell bent on making it happen much faster than it needs to happen. Robin was talking to someone today and mentioned that he was resting in God’s grace. He’s continually thinking that God was taking care of things for him, even though he was just barred from the umpteenth shelter for life. How ironic is that? A homeless guy banned from a homeless shelter? Are you kidding me? Resting in God’s grace…

So how are things going on Sunday? It’s a confusing question for me. I want to show up some day and see an empty corner. I want to spend all of my days just serving God, and in the process, serving the people who maybe need it the most. Unfortunately a little thing called my job gets in the way. Today, I counted probably at least 10 or 15 people that might be able to get a little farther on this crazy journey if maybe someone would take a full time interest in them and love them in a way that maybe no one has probably ever done. That’s just 10 or 15 people that I can think if off the top of my head. And then sometimes I wonder how we ever got involved in this thing in the first place. Why us? I mean neither Robin nor myself have any kind of real "training" or whatever in this sort of thing. Why us? God? Is it only supposed to be a thing we do for a couple of hours on a Sunday? Or is it supposed to be more? I mean there’s more to it for us than a couple of hours on Sunday. Various things through the week, but there needs to be more. And maybe we’re doing all we’re supposed to be doing. Showing up each week, meeting some of the different physical needs, attempting to go a little deeper in various relationships, stuff like that. Maybe that’s it? I mean I go back to the question of why us? Because even though I say often that we are no different than a lot of our friends, some of the issues at hand are extremely difficult. The alcoholism, the substance abuse, whatever. And I just wonder when God is going to show us a miracle? And then I guess he’s shown us some already. Maybe we just haven’t been paying attention? There’s a couple or miracles though in particular that I’m praying for. Someone told me recently that God hears all our prayers and answers each one of them. Sometimes, however, the answer is just a plain old "no". I so pray that is not the answer in both of these cases. I’ll continue to pray unceasingly in both cases.

So how are Sundays? Guess it depends on who you ask?

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NIV)

Peace, have a great and blessed week and make a difference.

…it matters to that one… :)

Rambling Thoughts…

2009-02-08T17:52:00.000-08:00

So I did something again this morning that I dislike probably more than anything I do related to this ministry. I sorted through the contents of eight boxes. Clothing that belonged to a fellow who left this earth about a year ago. We met his family at a memorial service for one of our friends that passed away last fall. They found out what we do in this thing and mentioned that they’d like to donate his clothing to the homeless. So a couple weeks ago, this fellow’s brother shows up at my house with 8 boxes of clothing. And said there would probably be more. I cannot explain the feelings I had at 7:30 this morning, in my garage as I opened up each individual box and sorted the various items of clothing into our containers. "Why" kept coming up for sure. Why? I believe they said this guy was in his early 40s when he took his life. Why? How do we get to the point that we decide to end it all? How? So I’m going through the boxes, wondering how in the world his mother had the strength to pack this all up and get it to us? How does a mother do that? Part of me was angry at a fellow I didn’t even know. And I realized once again how quickly someone we love can be gone. Either taken from us or just taken. And this story was pretty sad, as if any story of this magnitude wouldn’t be. He took his life in his mother’s home and she happened to be the one who found him. I cannot imagine. No way to understand something like that. No way.

And then I go downtown today and see our friends. The weather has been very unseasonably warm here lately, so I expected a pretty decent crowd today. And that’s what we got. Lots of people. New faces. Old faces. I met Howard from New York City. I noticed him in the line as I was doing my normal schmoozing and glad handing. It’s probably one of my favorite times of the day. Walking through the line and shaking hands, getting hugs, just seeing everyone again. All good. So I first saw Howard in the line. Very well dressed. He said he saw us setting up and wondered what we were doing. Turns out he works for an airline and was just killing time. Said he loved the food. And he does some similar ministry type work in NYC. He was impressed with what God was doing on that corner. I am more than impressed. Blown away is a more apt phrase for me. So I saw lots of old faces and a few new ones also.

Another old friend was back again today. He’d been away for awhile and came back last week for the first time in quite a while. He’s a guy that I really love. He’s been around on and off since we first started going down to that corner. In fact he introduced me to the Office, that place in the middle of the park where some of our friends used to ply their wares, so to speak. So normally when we don’t see him for extended periods, it usually means that he is either in jail or he is ducking the police Gestapo that patrols the park area harassing the homeless folks. Now don’t get me wrong, our friends do enough to get into plenty of trouble on their own, but sometimes it seems maybe a little power goes to a guy’s head. The term harassment definitely comes to mind. So anyway, our friend has been free of any legal issues for a couple of weeks and has been back to see us the past couple of weeks. He’s just a guy that both Robin and I have become very fond of. He has the obvious drinking problem. As do lots of our friends. But this guy, from the first time we met him, has seemed to want to do something to change that. Just doesn’t know how. Been through various forms and methods of treatment over the years, just none effective enough to get him to where he needs to be. Or maybe he just wasn’t ready to be done yet. I mean a person has to want to be done with that lifestyle and make a commitment and even then it’s a battle. To put it mildly.

Today on the way downtown, Robin and I were discussing this fellow. How could we help? I mean if we don’t isn’t he on his way out of here anyway. Literally and figuratively? It’s really no different than a fellow taking his life in an immediate manner via an overdose or whatever other method a person might choose. Just a much slower and more painful way to go. To the guy inflicting the pain upon himself and those on the outside watching. If a fellow shows up at the emergency room with a .5 blood alcohol content level, he’s pretty close to doing the deed anyway right? The legal level in Nebraska is .08. So a .5? Are you kidding me? Well, we are supposed to hear from our friend this week about a plan to get things turned around. That’s the first step. Making that phone call. Next step? Who knows? We’ll cross that bridge later. We have to take it a baby step at a time. And God help us, I hope and pray it’s not already too late.

This is something I’m going to lift straight from one of my daily devotionals from this past week. I guess it sums up a lot of things I was feeling today. Some of the words are a little harsh and I probably would have written it a little differently, but the meat of the message fits what I feel on occasion.

Have you been let down, disappointed and thoroughly disgusted with the people who you have tried to help? Has your experience affected your desire to want to get involved again? In other words, why help someone who is just going to make waste of all your effort, right? Wrong! An appropriate heart for service is to the Lord, not man. Man may be the recipient, but the author is God. 1 Peter 4:10-11 says, "Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen."

Peace, have a great and blessed week and make a difference.

…it matters to that one… :)

Down by the River…

2009-02-01T13:46:00.000-08:00

Each week, we travel from our comfortable suburban home here in the frozen tundra that is Nebraska to a downtown street corner. We all put on our warmest clothes, given that most winter Sundays the elements can be downright dangerous. Now today was a beautiful day, but totally out of the norm. As I’ve stated so many times, some of our friends live out in this crazy stuff. I do not know how they do it. One fellow that endured the cold last year in a tent on the river, using candles as his primary source of heat, is now staying at a home that I believe is designed for veterans. Good thing, because Robin and I were wondering how in the world we’d keep him stocked with candles for yet another winter. I believe his sole mission most days last winter was to gather as many candles as he could to simply survive. No more. And we see him a couple times a week now and he looks so much better. So he’s not outdoors anymore, but one couple are on our minds a lot during the cold winter months. It’s a very strange situation for me to warp my feeble brain around. She actually has a job and I believe it’s full-time or at least as close to full-time as it can be. And she just happens to be the young lady I wrote about a few weeks ago who appeared to have a case of frostbite on her legs. As I mentioned last week that seemed to be healing up, but it still looked a bit rough.

This couple, these people are one of the reasons we do what we do. At least that’s my belief. But I mean, how in the world do you function out of a tent in the middle of winter? Especially if you have to punch in to a time clock every day. Her husband is a fellow that I’ve seen around, most Sundays, for probably a couple of years now. He makes "heating stoves" out of coffee cans for warmth in the winter months. His appearance is somewhat striking, of only for the soot on his hands and face. I say that only because it just magnifies the dangerous conditions that they live under. First of all let me stress this again. Their primary residence is a tent. On the river. In Omaha, Nebraska. As many times as I’ve seen pictures of people living under porches, in cardboard boxes, whatever, I absolutely cannot get my head around living in a tent in this city. Just can’t do it. Secondly, the conditions in which they live have to be fairly dangerous. Open flames in a nylon tent just don’t seem to be a good match. And I cannot begin to imagine the things they must be inhaling in that environment. I’ve camped before. I know how much fun it can be to set up a campsite, tent, fire pit, etc., but this ain’t camping. This is living. I know that whenever I’ve camped, towards the end of the experience, no matter how much fun I’m having, when I think of home, I don’t think of a tent. We camped with some great friends in Charlotte once. At a campground. We played putt-putt, fished, all the things that make the experience what it is. And these were great friends. Family even. But I never had any visions of making that my home. By the grace of God, I didn’t have to. These folks, for a myriad of reasons, most of which I have no way of knowing, call this type of living "home".

Now I know that we are only on this gigantic ball of dirt for a very short time. I get that. And we are really all homeless in the big picture. I get that. But to spend what time we do have here in this kind of environment, well that just baffles me. And I guess it’s these kinds of situations that keep me going back to our corner. And mind you, this is a couple that rarely asks for anything. Lots of the people that we meet on a weekly basis ask for help with all kinds of crazy things. Then there are folks like this who show up, have a decent meal with us, maybe grab a few pieces of clothing or whatever else the Lord sends us with, and then they disappear into the downtown area among all the others that we meet with weekly. Only to end up at their home later. That home that just happens to be down by the river. Which is probably pretty cool at times, at least in the summer or spring months. And maybe for a couple of days at a time. But I’d guess cool is not a word most would use to describe these living conditions, especially during the brutal winter months her in Nebraska. I know there are times when I’m in my home where I get a chill and I just can’t shake it. Can’t imagine what that must be like for these folks. I know there are times when Robin wants a little something warm to drink. We simply turn on a gas burner and voila! Heat. And minutes later, warm tea. How does that work for this couple?

I’m not sure what compelled me to write about this situation. Only that I know how blessed I am and I sometimes wonder how they are where they are and how we are where we are? How does that work? That I am blessed to be where I am and they are one of many who are where they are? How? Why? And I wonder what 2009 will bring? With the economy the way it is and with a change in leadership in our country, what does the future hold for us? Will there be more down by the river? I’m obviously rambling, but it just struck me today. This being Super Bowl Sunday and with all the excess that will be spent today on a football game. A football game! Don’t get me wrong. I absolutely love football. Especially college football. And I’ll definitely watch the game today. I read an article that mentioned how much money a Super Bowl brings to the local economy of a city hosting such an event. In 2007, it was approximately a half a billion dollars. Half a billion! I can’t even imagine what that looks like. And then we have our 800 Billion – 1 Trillion dollar stimulus package. These are absolutely stunning and ridiculous numbers to me. What could that much money look like if you stacked it all up? My goodness. And what would it mean to a couple living on the river? I suppose it could make all the difference in the world. A thought to ponder of course. I don’t know how this is all supposed to work. How we are all supposed to coexist among the dichotomy that exists? I just don’t know. I suppose we’ll just keep showing up on that corner and God will reveal to us what He’ll reveal. And in the meantime, we’ll keep doing what it is He has us doing. In the here and now. A friend of ours, who is moving to South Carolina, used a phrase once that stuck with me. He mentioned that sometimes we try to find all the answers to the stories around us and mostly they are just not answerable. But the phrase that struck me went something like this – God, I’ve never run a universe before, so I’ll leave that to you. You do a pretty amazing job at it and I would most definitely screw it up.

So for our friends living down by the river? We’ve offered to help them get a place for the winter months and they politely declined. I guess the only thing we can do is keep offering and keep praying. I can’t run their world. Down by the river. I can barely manage mine. :)

Peace, have a great and blessed week and make a difference.

…it matters to that one… :)