As our night came to an end we paid our bill. The waiter took a LONG time. Anyhow, when he came back he brought two glasses of champaign and told me a friend called-in and paid our bill and purchased some champaign for us to enjoy.

Long story short, my friend saw the Twitter and knew the wine bar, called from across the country and paid our bill. Impressive!

Another great example of how social media can truly bring the world together and build authentic friendships. So thanks to THAT person who shall remain nameless, very cool moment.

This Sunday H.E.L.P. is partnering with Austin New Church for their Serve Austin Sunday event. Basically instead of attending a traditional church gathering this Sunday, Austin New Church serves the city through various projects like:

• Downtown Grillout for the Homeless – in the past year, ANC has served thousands of hot meals to the Homeless of Downtown Austin. On Sunday the 29th, we will once again serve at 7th and Neches from 3pm – 5pm. Directions
• Extreme Make Over Caritas – Caritas is one of the leading non-profits in Austin assisting the dispossessed and refugee. On March 29th, we will help Caritas, by creating an environment of respect and dignity through some much needed renovation from 1:30-5pm. Directions
• RESTORE: Foundation for the Homeless Landscaping Project – Foundation for the Homeless has assisted homeless families in the Austin area for the last 15 years in achieving a life of self-sufficiency. On March 29th, Austin New Church will serve them in a landscaping effort at their main office (which also serves as a training center and transitional home), to create an environment of peace and beauty from 1-5pm. Directions
• RENOVATE: Soli Deo Gloria – Join us in renovating our newest RESTORE Mission to east Austin – ANC East: Soli Deo Gloria. If you want to be apart of this, then join us from 2-5pm on March 29th.

We will be working at Soli Deo Gloria. My friend David Avila is the pastor and we are excited to join him and his community to serve. For more info please go to our Facebook events page.

Hope to see you Sunday!

1. Spending an entire week with my family. I just wish our pup could come. The girls dropped off Belle last night at some friends, no biggie right…except they ALL came back upset with both of my daughters crying claiming that is not a family vacation without Belle! Beyond that I’ve been so busy and driven that I’ve really missed having fun with my kids. I want to recapture that this week.

2. Hanging with old and new friends: Can’t wait to see old friends again. Necole and I love them and always look forward to seeing our NC friends.

Of course we love meeting new people. So I can’t wait to hang with new friends.

3. Mountains and oceans: Growing up in Nor Cal, living in in the Northwest (Seattle and coastal Oregon) and NC, we love oceans and mountains. It will be good to spend time in Asheville and Wilmington. Two of my favorite cities in the world.

4. Raleigh Launch Party: I love sharing the vision and advocating for HELP and those who live in extreme poverty.

Whoops, I guess I need to finish up the packing. Spring-break starts now!

Kenzie’s been sick and running a fever and my allergies are beyond brutal, makes me want to bang my head against a wall. But I digress!

As we move forward with some better news:

Jeff Mangum is taking HELP on the road tomorrow night. He will be advocating for the poor and sharing the story of HELP and connecting a new community to get involved in the Campaign to End Poverty. Awesome!

Next Sunday night HELP will also be on the road in Raleigh, NC for our second launch party. Looking forward to hanging with friends, advocating for the poor and hopefully getting some more people involved in CTEP.

Next Monday night HELP is connecting with some local Raleigh leaders for a round-table discussion on the global church, missional living and activism. Please come hang with us at Boylan Brew Pub.

I feel like I’m drowning in a sea of missed deadlines as we try our best to keep up the pace. Add to that the stress of launching a non-profit in these economic times and it’s easy to allow stress, fear and worry to overwhelm me. Pray for me that God would give me courage to move ahead one-step-at-a-time.

The week ahead is going to be nuts. But I love it…I totally LOVE what I get to do and who I get to do it with, even if they call me the “hammer” and make fun of intensity, the HELP team rocks.

Of course Sodade was a great venue, they had some yummy coffee and desserts, including Amy’s Ice Cream and Hey Cupcake, which are two iconic local Austin hot-spots. I would also like to say thanks to the HELP team,  Studio 914, Casey Creamer and as always-the sound pro’s Jessee and Danielle Saunders, without them this show would have flopped!

I think the evening was a huge success, we were able to advocate for those who live in extreme poverty, share heart-breaking stories of the 1. billion people who live without clean water, the 27 million who are slaves to human trafficking and millions of orphans, both locally and globally who lack proper food, water, education and housing. I saw a few tears shed as we simply challenged folks to not ignore these huge issues, but to do something to make a difference.

Our vision is to start a movement of love, hope and story. When we share the story of the oppressed, we can create a movement of love, which will bring hope to those who are desperate. It’s open source, we want to love and serve the local church to be the face of what we call “gospel justice.” (gospel simply means good news; justice means we advocate for those who have been wronged, abandon and lost.)

I will share pics asap. BTW, I’m planning another evening of love, hope and story for Fall 2009 in Austin. It’s going to be on a much larger scale. Next year we want to do multiple concerts in multiple cities on the same evening to raise enough money to build an entire orphanage in Zimbabwe.

Don’t forget, we will do this again in Raleigh, March 15th and hopefully we will announce shows in San Diego, Sacramento and Seattle in the next 10-days!

Last but not least, thanks to everyone who attended Saturday evening, fun times had by all.

The Raleigh Launch Party is coming soon and I can’t wait. Looking forward to hanging with all my friends and also meeting some new friends. It’s going to be a casual evening that includes live music, story-telling and vision-casting!

Live Music:

I’m excited that my good friend Wahba, the Egyptian-American worship rocker will be jamming with us. Wahba is the Worship Leader at Hope Chapel, before that he toured the country for many years. You can purchase his music by clicking here.

Silver will be performing an acoustic set at the Launch Party. They are a local Raleigh band with a great sound. Looking forward to hearing these dudes rock the stage. You can buy their music here.

Non-Profits

Lemonade International will be sharing some amazing stories about their work in Guatemala.

We also have some local Raleigh friends who will share how they are engaging the issues of poverty in Raleigh.

And of course I will share for 10-15 minutes about Help End Local Poverty.

Hope to see you there..

Now for the details:

1. Aaron Ivey will be performing. Aaron is one of the worship leaders at Austin Stone. He also started Spur 58 back in the day. He tours with Compassion and is also involved in Real Hope for Haiti.

2. Nate Navarro is also playing. Nate is on staff at Austin City Life and he’s just released a new CD: Broken becomes beautiful.  

Both of these guys are amazing musicians, but they both bleed compassion and missional living. We really appreciate them taking time out to jam with us and for believing in our vision.

We would love for you to come. We’ve created a Facebook page, if possible, please RSVP. Also, link this post to your blog, share it on your Facebook and invite your friends. 

Can’t wait to see you on Feb 28th. Doors open at 6PM. First performance starts at 6:15PM. 

BTW: We are working on an after party gig with some more local musicians. More info soon!

If you live close to Austin, why don’t you come join us this Sunday. Also, if you’re looking for a church, Austin Mustard Seed is a good option.