Poverty Sucks...Will you HELP us end it?

It’s been 9 months since my trip to S. Africa/Zimbabwe. I can guarantee you I’ve thought about that trip everyday. Cape Town captured my soul…The beauty, the people, the needs and of course the opportunities. Spending a few days in Zimbabwe with P. John & Orpha was amazing. I saw faith, hope and love lived out in a tangible way. And who could forget P. Willie and the hot-dogs at 5AM in his village? 

Necole and I have committed our lives to starting an organization that fights global extreme poverty. In the next 3-5 years we hope Necole can join the staff full-time. John, Kayla, Strobel, Mangum and Wade have also committed to making a global impact on poverty by helping launch this organization.   

Of course it’s been difficult to focus. Our church has doubled in growth these past 6 months and we had some struggles to adjust. Yet almost every conversation goes like this: “Don’t forget HELP .” How could we? A lot of people think The Vista is crazy for trying to help launch such an organization-we affirm that

That being said it’s been quite hard to focus on HELP. But that is currently changing as we speak. But this is where I need a little bit of help. We need to raise $1000.00 ASAP to complete our non-profit paper-work. So I’m asking you to help us reach our goal in the next few days through individual giving or maybe through your mission budget from you’re church. You can email me (chris (@) helpendlocalpoverty (.) com) or leave a comment if you’d like to donate or have questions. For furthur instructions on donating please go to  helpendlocalpoverty.com | Contribute. Of course you will get a tax write-off.

We have a short-term strategy that includes building a church/community center, supporting 64 orphans on a monthly basis and if we (P. John in Zimbabwe) finds favor with the government we would like to help build an orphanage in Zimbabwe. Of course all this is in partnership with Steven & Amy via Servlife. 

BTW-If you have not joined our Facebook page click here. 

Thanks ahead of time. Please help us launch this organization.

God has been very good to me. Help End Local Poverty is moving forward. We just confirmed the art gallery for April and our first speaking gig in Feb/March and one band for the benefit concert in May. I’m also working on some key advertising and may put up a booth at a few conferences.

Here is what I know. I’m so excited about doing this that I could easily work 20 hours a day and be fine. Of course that is not good leadership right. But I’m committed to do what needs to be done to make this dream become a reality. So If I have to get up at 3:30 I’m fine with that. I live a blessed life so I can’t complain.

Ministry has this unique tension that is hard to communicate with words. You can never please everyone all the time, you always let people down, you never have enough resources. But it’s such a privilege to do what I do and I have to seek God and recognize that he is the leader and I’m the follower. Easier said then done.

StudiO 914 is creating the website for Help End Local Poverty. Lindsey who went to Africa is doing the branding. Both of these cats rock at what they do. And they are tag-teaming this project for HELP. It’s a huge blessing. If you need some work done call them.

Also…

Kayla who is a financial analyst for Dell will be overseeing the finances for HELP. If you need music advice or tech advice call Kayla-she knows her stuff. Now everyone can breath better knowing that yours truly will not be dealing with money issues. Bankruptcy avoided before we even started

John G will be our trip coordinator and he is going to work with HELP on a semi part-time basis. He works for Farmers Insurance and is a big time gamer and coffee drinker so we should have lots of fun.

John and Kayla both went to Africa with me this past year. So all four of us are working hard trying to accomplish something significant and long-term. I’m really proud of the team. We really wanted to avoid the 10-day adventure trip scenario.

I’m now in the process of creating a board for the organization. Jeff Foust, my good friend and attorney has already agreed to be on the board. So when I get arrested or get us in some sort of trouble he will bail me out pro-bono-I hope!

So I need at least two more board members. I’m looking for them now. They need to be sharp, passionate and love God. I want the board to push the organization to the limits, but with wisdom. We are dreaming big. Because the needs are big.

I really would love for a volunteer administrative person to be involved in the not-so-distant-future. Someone who loves admin and doesn’t suck at it like I do.

We are currently working on:

1. Art Show for April.

2. Benefit Concert for May (you ready Jesse?)

3. Summer Trips. (You know you wanna go)

4. And booking places to speak. I need partners. If you’re interested please email me and we can chat. We will do house shows, small groups, churches, youth events etc.

5. Compilations CD with various artist. All proceeds will go to our Zim 150 project.

Failure will definitely be apart of the ministry. I’m sure we will take two-steps forward one-step back. And all these plans may not work out. I’m cool with that.
I do hope to spend this July in S. Africa with my entire family for at least half-the-time.

And we will expand to many countries in the future. But we also believe in slow progress as we want to focus on a few projects. Plus I want to do ministry with people I can do life with. That is how I define partnership.

We do have some possibilities to work in Alaska in the near future. And I think some really cool partnerships will develop in Egypt this March. Servlife is working in Uganda/Sudan now and I think there will be future possibilities with that.

Our vision is quite simple. We want to partner with local leaders or missionaries who are partnering with local leaders and assist them. We will define this further, but we want to create long-term partnership that will cause real change. This is a grassroots movement starting from scratch. Vista is helping with a bit of seed money. Other then that we are going to take this one day at a time.

You ready to help?

At this point, 100% of all donations will be given to the local leader/missionary on the ground. Admin costs are being covered in other ways.

1. Trip to S. African village to help build a church and serve the community.

2. Sponsor some kids so they can attend school. This is so huge.
3. Connect American pastors with African pastors for a week or two this summer. We will have a theological conference where African pastor present their thoughts, idea’s and dreams to each other, we Americans will simply listen, have organic dialog and then find a way to help serve the African pastor. I will blog about this soon.

4. Build an Orphanage in Zimbabwe.

So so so so excited about these opportunities. I need some big time help.