pouring rain

Last week the twins and I loaded up the van with food, utensils, coffee, juice and everything else we need to serve a hot meal in a park. It started raining when we were placing the last items in the van. So we hurriedly got into the vehicle when dreaded words rang out, one of the twins said, "Dad, we have a flat......."

In a little disbelief I said "WHAT?!?!?" and ran around to the back side of the passenger side and looked for myself. Yep, it was flat as a pancake. I told the boys to go wait in the house while I got it changed. Ten minutes later I had the spare donut on and I was all soak-n-wet. I called the boys back out to get in the van. We were late to the park and there were a dozen hungry people waiting for us. The good thing was there were a dozen people there to help set up.

After getting everyone served, I sat down and someone asked me how the new job was going. I replied, "great! until they laid me off yesterday." They were a little shocked, but, understood completely. It sparked a conversation or should I say competition about the shortest jobs they ever held.

A few minutes later one of them said, "Jeff, it looks like your van tire is going flat". I snapped my sore neck around and looked and sure enough, the spare donut was pretty low and within 20 minutes, it was flat.

Anna, one of the ladies that has been coming regularly leaned over to me and motioned me close. I leaned over a little, a little cautious, as you never can tell what someone will say, and she handed me $1. She said, "here, it's not much, but, it's to help with the tire". I didn't want to take it, but, the sincerity in her eyes made me take it. That $1 was probably all she had and she could have bought something to eat later, but, she wanted to be a blessing and I could not deny her that.

Anna gave everything and she didn't have to. In fact nobody in the world would ever expect her to and the only thing that could ever explain her compulsion would be that compassion is being renewed inside her.

Regardless of the daily battles that rage all around us and captivate our every thought. Compassion and generosity can come in the most unusual forms and circumstances and when it does, it reminds me that God is working and the little that we do, when exemplified by God, can make a huge and significant difference in peoples lives.

Please pray for the ladies living on the streets here in South Florida, that God will provide shelter, food and clothing and that he will restore love in their hearts.

chain gang hot!

Now that it's hurricane season and not tourist season, the majority of the homeless we have gotten to know and built relationships with are not being swept off to jail. The police have relaxed thier efforts of "cleaning up the streets". However a new problem has risen and that's the heat index. No, not the Miami Heat, they are hot, but, not what I'm talking about.

It seams that our homeless people have been suffering from the heat and it's landing them in the hospitals. In fact, Wendy is headed to the hospital right now to visit a lady who has been admited for a couple days now. She is just one of at least five that have had to go to the E.R. in the past week.

We've seen an increase lately of not only hospital admissions, but, in our Saturday morning breakfast attendance, in fact it's doubled in size and it's a very diverse group, ladies, youth, old guys, black, white, hispanic. All very greatful for a hot breakfast, coffee, juice, a snack bag and most of all companionship. They show up in droves, some take the bus, some drive the car they are living in, some ride bikes, but, most walk.

We had so many show up today that we ran out of everything and even had to turn some away without any food at all. It breaks my heart knowing they are going away hungry and I'm going home to my kitchen, family, roof, bed, etc.

Please pray for us, that we can handle this surge in new growth.

Please pray for those in the hospital that they will recover quickly.

Please pray for those on the streets with nothing, that they'll come to the realization that God really does love them.

Do you have the Audacity?

"The tragedy of our time is that we've taken what was meant to be ordinary and made it exceptional. We've declared audacity off limits." Stephen Furtick/Sun Stand Still

Some of you have heard me talk about this book. Here is an excerpt: 

"From every angle this story showcases the kind of audacity we're after.  And it all hinges on a preposterous prayer.  As the chapter opens, we read that five opposing Amorite armies were planning to attack. Having decided to strike first, Joshua led his entire army toward the Amorites on an all-night march.  Sometime during that march, God spoke to Joshua.  He told him 'Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand.  Not one of them will be able to withstand you.'

At dawn, the Israelites unleashed a surprise attack, and right from the beginning the battle went well.  When the enemy lines broke, and the Amorites started to flee into the valley, Joshua's men chased them down.  And God got personally involved.  'As they fled before Israel,' the account reads, 'the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them from the sky.'  Then, as the sun sank toward the horizon, Joshua faced a decision.  The victory wasn't complete, and once it got dark, the rest of the Amorites would slip away.  But Joshua was determined to fight on.  Perhaps he realized that if he didn't destroy the enemy now, Israel's conquest of Canaan would grind to a halt.  Maybe he knew that anything less than total victory would conceal God's presence and glory.  Besides, he remembered God's promise in the night.  

Most of us would have called it a day.  I've done all I can do.  I've exhausted every option.  I've given it all I've got.  But Joshua wasn't most people.  He refused to go out like that. That wasn't the way it was supposed to end.  This was where his audacious faith began.  Joshua sized up the situation, summoned all his available courage, and delivered one of the most gloriously unorthodox prayers in the entire Bible: " O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon." (verse 12)

Joshua had the audacity to ask God to make the sun stop in the sky.  To freeze time on behalf of His people.  According to scripture, God gave Joshua exactly what he ordered.  Just when the Amorites were hanging on for the cover of darkness, darkness never came.  Just when they thought the curtains were about to drop on their day from hell, God came out for an encore.  

"The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day.  There has never been a day like before or since...surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!" (verses 13-14)

If you know me then you know I am pretty skeptical person. I would say that I am a realist although my husband would just say that I am not very optimistic. This passage of scripture always gets me. The thing is, I do believe in the power of prayer. I believe the Bible when it says we have not because we ask not.  I just don't know how to get it from my head to my heart!

When I read scripture I see example after example of people who prayed prayers and seas were parted, people were healed, dead were raised, teenagers took out giants with pebbles. What I see in scripture is that "radical, audacious" prayers were not the exception, they were the norm. Today I received a daily prayer request from Verve. A church that was planted in Las Vegas, NV. A church very near and dear to our hearts. Their prayer request for today was this: Please pray that God inspires someone to give us a building or land for a building on Las Vegas Boulevard. When I first read it I thought, WOW. That was bold. audacious even, then I remembered this story about Joshua and and all the other stories like his and realized how small I can make God sometimes.

When I look at the broken world around us, the magitude of the problems and issues can seem huge and impenetrable, but here's the deal. God didn't just put us here to survive. He put us here to transform the world around us. That transformation comes when we come to trust and believe in the very nature of who God is. It compels us to walk in deeper faith, praying audacious prayers, and expecting God to show up and do what He says he is going to do. Joshua was nothing special. He just knew and trusted in who God was.

So there is a lot of work for us to do. We are going to pray bold, risky audaciouis prayers and we know that God is going to do what he says He will do. We will be sending out regular prayer requests again starting tomorrow. If you want to get on board praying with us. You can sign up at remerge@hotmail.com

More to come tomorrow!

Light rises!

Blog Post by Wendy Kauffman

"And if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness and your night will become like the noonday." Isaiah 58:10

There is a young man that has been coming for breakfast on Saturday morning. He is very quiet. I don't even know his name. I am not sure he has quite gotten comfortable enough to tell us what it is. He usually comes, grabs a plate and sits waaay on the other side of the park at another table. One time while getting his food he complimented Jeff on his gravy, but that is about the extent of any conversation we have had with him. He really keeps to himself.

Honestly it is a pretty typical situation for most of them when they start coming. It is very hard for them to trust. They take a very arms folded approach in the beginning. It's o.k. We don't push them in any way, we know time is what they need to feel assured.

But, this last week, this young man brought a friend! To me that is one of the biggest steps and he probably does not even know it. To feel comfortable enough with us and the situation to invite another person into it.

I think that is what Isaiah is talking about in the verse above, that is what he means when he says that our light will rise in the darkness.

Please pray that as each new person comes that they feel welcomed, loved and assured that they are accepted and needed. Please pray that God's light would be what they see.

Love like that

Blog Post by Wendy Kauffman

Isaiah 42:6-7

“I, the Lord, have called you to demonstrate my righteousness. I will take you by the hand and guard you, and I will give you to my people, Israel, as a symbol of my covenant with them. And you will be a light to guide the nations. 7.You will open the eyes of the blind. You will free the captives from prison, releasing those who sit in dark dungeons. Isaiah 42:6-7

Brian comes every Saturday to the breakfast we provide for the homeless. He is almost always waiting for us. We can barely get the van parked and there he is ready to open the door, unload everything and to talk. I know he comes every week to eat, but more than anything else he comes to just unload about his week and in some ways I think to make sure we are still there. I think it is a way to reorient their week. They crave the consistency of the community. Brian puts on a tough guy front. There are times when you can tell he is really afraid. We like to talk about movies and the West Coast. He dreams someday of living in Montana.

A couple of weeks ago, as I was helping serve up plates I looked at how many were there. Every week it seems that there are 2-3 new faces. It is getting harder to remember every ones name. We did not have enough table space and chairs for every one. We barely had enough food and we are now taking three big thermoses of coffee. I almost cried. I felt very overwhelmed by how great their needs are and how little we have to offer.

I have been reading in Isaiah and I love this scripture in Chapter 42. I ask God all the time, How can we we do this? How can we set captives free and release people from the dark dungeons. We just have nothing to give right now. A few days ago I read this passage in Ephesians:1-2,Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.

I was thinking about this the other night when I was up late, praying that night that Brian would not be afriad, no matter where he was. I think I caught a glimpse of what the world might look like if all of us who say we follow God would really do this. Really follow God, into the unknown, into the pain, into the love that brings hope and freedom.

Please pray that we would love courageously, and that God's outrageous love would be poured into other people's lives through us.

http://youtu.be/GfosSggwQS0