Think about those ramifications…A church…brings joy…to a city…BECAUSE of the Gospel!

How can we bring joy to our cities because we proclaim the Gospel?

1. Help end local poverty. (sorry, I had to do that)
2. Bring freedom to the oppressed.
3. Help the community recognize the spiritual dimensions to life, which happens when the Spirit moves.
4. Bring purpose and meaning to life as we expose the city to redemption, hope, evil and spirituality?
5. Fight dualism, as we proclaim the Gospel, we also realize the importance of the spiritual and physical realms, we don’t only preach, but we restore!

I truly think churches in Austin like Soma, Austin City Life, Austin New Church and Austin Stone (among others) are becoming known for what they do outside of their Sunday services. They are bringing joy to Austin by what they accomplish outside the so-called “four-walls” of the church. They are active in their community and the city knows it, feels it and now maybe they almost expects it. I love it!

What are you doing to impact your city and bring joy that only the gospel can bring?

Click to enlarge image:

These past few days I’ve felt a great desire to rest, of course this is not good timing, since I can’t…Hopefully soon!

For me, I rest well when I’m doing something I like. Maybe chilling at the beach or hiking in mountains, etc! My mind needs to be mesmerized by my surroundings, my attention must be fully captured, or else I’m a train-wreck waiting to happen, A.D.D. kicks-in, I get bored and restless.

Here are some of my top places of rest in no particular order. If I’m at one of these spots, I worry about nothing whatsoever…God’s beauty captures all of me and I’m able to stay in the present.

Alki Beach: Overlooking the Puget Sound & Seattle Skyline as Mt Rainier hovers in the background and Olympic Snowcapped Mountains wrap-around the entire view, while ferries make their way back on forth from the city to the islands. Is there anything better than being in nature and an epic city all at the same time?

Lake Tahoe: AMAZING…Love Tahoe…Mountains, deep blue water, cool crisp air. Love it!

Cape Town: Driving through mountains, watching Baboons on one side and Whales jumping from the deep blue ocean on the other, as mountains cascade deep into the sky…It’s truly breathtaking.

Asheville, NC: The Appalachians/Smokey Mountains are simply beautiful. Green trees crash into blue skies, colors pop all around you, the vibe is slow and peaceful. Love those mountains.

Wilmington, NC: I’ve spent many-a-days with my family on NC beaches. The water is great, not to hot or cold, the beaches are rarely crowded and Dolphins are jumping all around while my kids run wild. I prefer the view of West Coast beaches, but I’ll take the water temperatures on the East Coast any day. Plus, I love the inter-coastal water way.

San Diego/Coronado: Great weather, amazing beach, sweet city…Awesome!

Where is your favorite place to rest, relax and chill?

FYI: I lost my links to of those who took these pics. So sorry I can’t give credit.

We started this organization with ZERO funding, total grassroots effort by so many wonderful people. Some of these people are close friends, while others are new friends that have a heart and passion to end extreme poverty, and they are willing to sacrifice to prove it!

I’m going to do a series of post introducing these folks to you. Let’s start with the first two stories.

Karin is a local Austinite. A young professional in the advertising industry! She supports HELP’s stateside operation, which is vital. But, she also wanted to help rescue orphans in Zimbabwe. So she sent out an email to some friends and asked them to help her raise some funds. She asked them to not get pedicures/manicures for a few months and donate those funds to HELP. And they did it and now we are closer to having the funds we need to build an orphanage in Zimbabwe and rescue homeless kids. How cool is that?

My friends John and Jodi Wahba live in Raleigh. They are close friends that we deeply care for. In March they told me they wanted to get their small group involved in CTEP. Their small group does a monthly missional project so in May they did a garage sale. What a great way to be missional and go global, I’m so grateful for all of them.

We also have multiple people who are already supporting kids through our Help One Now initiative, which is launching soon, real soon! Designers who have given their time to help spread the story, volunteers who have given their time to enter data, people who have prayed for us and donated financially.

Help End Local Poverty is a God thing, we are building a tribe of people who want to help make a difference…It’s not owned by any one person, its led by the Spirit of God to bring glory to Jesus and share the Good News of His Kingdom by being light in darkness and seeking justice for the oppressed, which does in fact glorify God…We call this Gospel Justice!

Next post I will share a story of two ladies who traveled the globe, raised money, took pictures and wrote a book, all within a year’s time. They are making a huge impact!

This picture was taken by Blanca. These kids live in Musha Wevana Children’s Home in Zimbabwe.  It’s a snapshot of what movement of love, hope and story can look like. Happy kids who are  educated, well fed, lived, clothed and supported by the global church-people like you and me!

You can read my review of Tom’s latest book Scared by clicking here and you can also purchase the book via Amazon, what are you waiting for?

I did have some technical difficulties so bear with us as occasionally the video speeds up for 2-3 seconds.
This is not a professional interview, but Tom shares some great insights that are beneficial to the rest of us.

Please do us a favor and link this blog post, add the video to your blog, Facebook and feel free to Twitter the link. We want to spread the news about this book and be a voice for the 140 million orphans in our world.

Also, Tom’s publisher thinks the message in this book is so important that they are giving it away free online. Impressive!

But, I knew deep inside it was once again time to move forward and capture something long-term. Anyhow, I’ll get into that later. What I’ve learned the past six months, is my lack of ability to trust God. I felt, “called” but I did not want to fully have to rely on God. I wanted a clear pathway I could walk-down. I wanted God to remove all elements of faith, but deep in my heart, I knew God was not going to do that. It seems hard to differentiate wisdom and faith, it’s a thin-fine-line no doubt.

See, one issues with us moving is Necole’s job. She as a large cliental in Austin, and it’s growing all the time. Going to Raleigh means we start at ZERO income for her: holy snap krackle crud…I on-the-other-hand run a multi-hundred dollar organization called HELP. I get paid every month, and see the thing is, I’m not sure how I get paid

On-top-of-that, I’ve been offered a good chunk-of-cash to start a church in Austin. So, basically, we are throwing Necole’s salary out-the-door, leaving money on the table for church planting and we are going to simply rely on my salary until we get established. Which most of my friends call my salary part-time btw!

Now, shall we add one more complex piece to this puzzle? OK, why not…We also have to rent out our house and we can’t rent it for what our mortgage payment is. (Texas taxes baby) So we must find a good renter and still pay a little to cover our cost-stellar!

Right now we are comfortable, we have plenty of cash, nice house, great friends, live in a great city and I have a great team working for HELP. Pretty cool eh?

Who knows, maybe this will be a colossal failure, maybe HELP will go under, maybe will lose our home, maybe I won’t have a lot of food to eat or money to waste, maybe maybe maybe.

Or, maybe I’ll get up every morning and seek God for help…Maybe I’ll spend money more wisely, maybe I’ll become more focused, maybe I’ll see some miracles, maybe Christ will reveal himself in ways I can’t comprehend. Maybe more orphans will have a home, food and community because HELP is thriving in Texas and the Southeast.

And no matter what, God’s grace is always bigger than my mistakes.

You can’t have faith without doubt, you learn to trust God deeply when all is safe, you have to risk sometimes, somewhere…And, you also have to use wisdom along the way!

Necole and I have decided to move to Raleigh, NC next month. We are so happy! We will open up another office in Raleigh for HELP and build partnerships in the Southeast to help rescue and restore orphans.

Jeff, Scotty and John will still run the local HELP in Austin. I’m also working on some other partnerships in Raleigh. We hope to move by the end of July. So please pray for us to sell or lease our home.

We are definitely taking steps of faith. Please pray for us! In the next day or so I will blog in greater detail about the move. Until then-shalom!

Yet somehow, someway MJ changed…Yes he was tender, loving and caring…but he was also hurting from dysfunction. One day he was leading the charge on fighting global poverty, the next day he was being charged with hurting kids in unthinkable ways.

On one account, MJ deserves to be honored as a musician, performer and humanitarian. On the other hand, Update: he needs to be shamed he will never recover from his POSSIBLE actions towards kids and other off-the-wall activity-can you feel the tension, its thick, frustrating, mixed, and dirty. Actually, maybe this is how King David’s life was or his son Solomon or a slew of other biblical characters, broken, sinful, dark…and yet somehow God choose to use them in our fallen world.

I’m listening to Man in the Mirror as I write this, I can feel MJ’s passion and love and desire to make a difference, I sense the hurt and shame he carried in regards to his past and I hope maybe somehow he is resting in peace with Christ.

But, I also feel a desperate passion to live with character and integrity, to live in the “light” and avoid the “darkness” if at all possible. But, at the end-of-the-day we will have to all live with MJ’s brilliance, mystery, love and disfunction. A man who love, inspired and caused much pain. He truly is symbol of my generation, the so-called X-generation.

So I’m gonna choose to let go of the anger or hurt of the unknown, and remember the MJ I see in the video.

Well, this past week, their new CD became available. Click the banner below or go here for more info. Do yourself a favor a GET the CD and rock it.