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

Sign Up
Get Directions

from haiti with love

For those of you who have been with us over the past six months+ you know Kelsey has been leading us in worship. Kelsey is gifted with an amazing voice and a heart for the hurting and broken in our world. Both Kelsey and Tex (plays guitar) headed down to Haiti this past week to help with the relief work. Here is an update from Kelsey in Haiti. Which is quite very Kelsey!…

Read more

BIG GOD. BIG NEWS.

Wow. The past few months have been a blur and the past two weeks… where did they go? So much has happened and I am excited to share with you what has been going on. But first a little back story…

When we were in Pittsburgh looking to move back to Ohio and plant a church, we were in need of a place to meet and begin gathering people together once a month just to begin the conversation. We knew it would be awhile before we could fully move back to Ohio, but we wanted and sensed God already moving in the lives of our friends and family. But how do you rent a building in Cincinnati when you live in Pittsburgh and have zero dollars? In a way only God works we ended up in the living room of a pastor IN PITTSBURGH whose best friend runs one of the buildings we thought it would be awesome to rent IN OHIO. He calls him up from the living room that night and secures the building for us rent free for six months! Coincidence? Nope. There are no coincidences. Only a BIG God with BIG plans.

Read more

the blessing of a copier

We just received a great gift yesterday from my best friend Zach’s old company. They were closing down some offices and moving their employees into telecommuting positions and had a copier to give away. We just so happened to be the beneficiaries of this free gift. How cool. So now we have a brand new (at least to us) copier and a few reams of paper that came included - bonus!

But the story behind getting the copier is worth sharing…

Read more

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.

Read more

i am a sinner.

i am an actor. i am a liar. i am lazy. i am a fool. i am a hypocrite. i am a searcher. i am a replacer. i am a taker. i am a receiver. i am a doubter. i worry. i cheat. i speed. i don’t care. i am unsubmissive. i think i know better. i argue. i hate. i don’t learn from my mistakes. i am unwilling to give you certain parts of me. i am a thief. i’m jealous. i’m selfish and crude. i’m rude and unkind to the ones that i love. i am full of myself and i think i’m always right. and i do not know my need for grace.

and i don’t even believe the things i just said!
have mercy on me, GOD of Jacob.
because i sin more than i am good.

http://www.igracemusic.com/hymnbook/hymns/t12.html

compass church

I spoke at Compass Church this past Sunday. If you don’t remember, Compass is the church who lets us use their facility rent-free once a month. It was a great time to spend a Sunday with the people who so generously lets us meet their without paying a dime. The worship team was incredible and the service went well as I wrapped up their series on Compassionate Art. I spoke from Philippians 2:1-16 and talked about the God who is working in us as we are working out our salvation.

Read more

invictus

The movie I am most wanting to see this Holiday season is Invictus starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. The film tells the inspiring true story of how Nelson Mandela joined forces with the captain of South Africa’s rugby team to help unite their country. The newly elected Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa’s rugby team as they make their historic run to the 1995 Rugby World Cup Championship match.

Read more

what a november!

November brought a lot of craziness… from a computer crash to getting sick to The Feast to Thanksgiving. Life has been crazy for everyone, including you I am sure with all the Thanksgiving food and fun. But I wanted to share some of our stories from The Feast last week.

The Feast was our massive (pre)Thanksgiving meal of around 70 people who gave $1000 worth of Kroger gift cards to feed 40 families for Thanksgiving! It was a great night of live music, good smoked turkey, and meeting new friends. But the real fun started the next day when we went out to buy all the meals…

Read more

Move-in Day (part 2)

We finally moved all of our stuff from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati a few weeks ago. It was good to get home and have a house full of friends ready to put all the boxes away and help start the unpacking process. I can honestly say Tiffany was most happy to finally be reunited with her beloved Louie (the cat) and Louie was his normal laid back i’m-just-gonna-chill-here self (picture below).

Read more