Saturday at Ashley House

We are at the Ashley Sisters House this Saturday from 10AM-6PM to start the work on  their home. I am so excited that we get to spend some amazing time together while making a huge difference in the lives of these sisters. Jacob Shidler and I went by to their house tonight to get some estimates on paint and supplies and ran into some of the family who told us they were excited we will be there Saturday, and that they are planning on joining in with us too!!! How cool. We will have some time to just love on this family while pounding out some major work.

We will be breaking into 3 Work Crews for the day: (1) Paint Crew, (2) Scrape and Stain Crew, (3) Landscaping Crew. We will also be dividing the day into 2 halves of work. I would love for you to jump in for the whole day but even half a day will make a difference. We will also be eating lunch together around 12:30. It would be great to have as many of us there for lunch as possible.

Make sure you Sign Up if you plan on coming.

We will need supplies for the day, and the more you have (or can bring) the less we have to buy. All of the needed supplies are listed on the sign up form where you can pick what you are able to bring. Everyone should bring Gloves and a Scraper if possible.

See you there!
Josh

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speaking of reverse…

I just came across this website today and thought it was a beautiful example of a life lived in reverse. Jess Lin has created a company, Hello Rewind, that meets a consumer need while giving others a chance to participate in the restoration of women rescued from the sex-slave trade. Not only can you get a sweeeeet custom designed laptop sleeve with a personal touch (i’m thinking about a vintage transformers tee) , you help restore life to women re:finding who they were created to be with each purchase.

• Check out Jess Lin’s blog post about the start of Hello Rewind.
• Hello Rewind supports the mission of Restore NYC.

reverse.

A little over a year ago I was in the middle of some of the biggest struggles and doubts of my life. I was searching and desiring to know what God really wanted from my life and what my life as a Christian was supposed to be about. I had spent so much time in Church, and Christian School, and Seminary and more Church that I think I was starting to forget what it was all about in the first place.

So I dove into the one place that made the most sense for me - Jesus’ Prayer. The one in Matthew 6 where he is telling his disciples what to pray for. I thought, “If this is what Jesus wanted his disciples to pray for, isn’t this what I should be about?” I spent a long time just turning the prayer over in my mind, thinking it, praying it, even living it. (As a side note, it is amazing how fast the prayer for daily bread becomes a real prayer and not a spiritual one when you actually need daily bread and are not sure where resources will come from day to day.) Anyways, back to our story… it all changed one night as I was meditating on the prayer.

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don’t limit your imagination

Sometimes we are so trapped by our perspective we fail to use our God-given imagination to dream up a possibility outside of our current circumstances. But along comes someone with a prophetic voice that says something in just the right way, or maybe the shower water hits our front temporal lobe in just the right way to create a moment. One of those times when you are like, “Of course. I can’t believe I never saw that before.” It’s the moment the Newtonian apple finally hits our head.

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the kingdom of men?

Welcoming a New Reality

A changed world will only come about when we are changed humans. God is at work within His world when he is at work within us. He is a HUGE and amazing God - the creator of worlds, and the recreator of us. Wow.

Check out this great post by Mike Bishop at www.whatischurch.com. Best line… “We think it’s about changing the world – He knows it’s about changing us.”
Welcoming a New Reality

Angels with Chainsaws.

Today is a celebration of the beginnings of all restoration. This blog post from Curt Harding captures this beautifully in light of the recent tornado destruction in Tennessee. Angels with Chainsaws (via http://curtharding.wordpress.com)

It’s Friday.

Tony Campolo is a man whose life has been about expanding and advancing the Kingdom of Heaven into this world. He has challenged Christians in America to live out a faith that explains the Good News. Years ago he preached a message called, “It’s Friday, But Sunday’s Coming”. The words and challenges in the message continue to resonate with all of us today. May they challenge you to live a life beyond the darkness threatening to oppresses us and those around us. And may your words and actions declare to a hurting world that God is on a mission to restore and redeem us all.

It’s Friday, But Sunday’s Coming (via tonycampolo.org)
Note: download by right clicking and choosing “save link (or target) as…”

Reverse.

Watch this video first (it’s quick). Then read below.

Shocking right? What a beautiful reminder of our brokenness and the need to reverse the direction of our self-destruction. The poem, in a simple way, reminds us that to change the way things are moving we must move in reverse. If we are tired of seeing marriages ending, poverty expanding, families losing, the environment disintegrating, and another generation failing then we need to stop and move the other way.

But how?
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Repentance.

I just read a great quote on repentance and wanted to share it with everyone.

The trouble with the word [repentance] is that people have often not understood it. They have thought it means, “feeling bad about yourself”. It doesn’t. It means “change direction”; “turn around and go the other way;” or “stop what you’re doing and do the opposite instead.” How you feel about it isn’t really the important thing. It’s what you do that matters. - N.T. Wright,  Matthew for Everyone Pt. 1

There is so little we hear on repentance anymore. Yet, according to Jesus, it is the first step into the Kingdom. Our response as followers of Jesus is to make sure we have taken this important first step and share it with everyone around us.