Learning to Love

1 Corinthians 13 is commonly known as the "love" chapter in the Bible. The KJV translators chose to use the word "charity" but the root word still means love. I prefer to read the passage inserting the word love where I see charity. I relate to love more easily than I relate to charity - though it is clear the words are interchangeable.

The first 3 verses of 1 Corinthians 13 reads: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing."

This passage has been resonating in my soul for days. Every person who seeks to minister to others must take these verses to heart and determine to pepper all ministry with its message. As I work with the ladies at the mission I see that it does not matter how much of the Bible I know, how much I understand, how much faith I have or even the sacrifice that is made to work there...but the thing that will stand out and make a difference is if I can love them. This leads us to Jesus' supreme message...love the Lord your God with all your heart - AND love your neighbor as yourself.
To this God says to me, "Kim, you must invest your life into their lives...care about the things they care about...find out what matters to them and let it matter to you - Kim, determine to love them unconditionally." Submitting to this plea I have found a joy for ministry that I never knew was possible. I cannot wait to get to work, cannot wait to see them and find out what God has been doing in their lives. Every missionary, pastor, and Gospel laborer must strive to keep love at the heart of every message. God says anything less than love...is nothing.

Being Misunderstood

It seems attacks have been coming from all sides the last few days. The more I try to defend and explain my position the more misunderstanding enters my life. As I laid on the couch last night sulking in self-pity the Lord reminded me that part of surrender is surrendering my right to be understood. Hmmm....not exactly the comfort I was looking for but definitely the comfort I needed. Below is a list of "rights" that must be surrendered if we are going to truly walk in humility before Him.

My right to be understood
My right to possessions
My right to have acceptance
My right to be successful
My right to have pleasant circumstances
My right to presume on the will of God
My right to life itself
My right to beauty or strength
My right to have friendships
My right to be heard
My right to take up offense
My right to be right...ouch!

Certainly not a comprehensive list but I think you get the idea. How much better we would get along if we all just released our right to have rights and surrendered all to Jesus.

10/40 Window

Sometimes you know something but you don't really KNOW it until you see it. I am compelled to write about the 10/40 window. This is the area extending from 10 degrees north latitude to 40 degrees north latitude, encompassing N. Africa, Middle East and extending East to China and the rest of SE Asia. The red portion of the map below highlights the area I am writing about.


The percentage of evangelical witness in this part of the world is reported to be less than 1%...I have been reading in some places it may be 0%.

I am particularly drawn to the Muslim populations. I have no issue with Islam so long as it is a choice...but these countries do not give their people a choice. Islam is forced upon them and choosing anything else likely results in death...or if they are spared just complete alienation from family and friends.

I knew this was the way things were...but coming back from Zambia and seeing a people (outside the 10/40 window) but deprived of God's Word nonetheless makes me KNOW. The Bible says, "Mine eye affecteth mine heart"...well that it did. This is not a slam against the faithful missionaries in Zambia that work tirelessly to evangelize and disciple...just an observation that there is more work than laborers.

So the call...does God want me to go back to Zambia where there is so much work to be done? I would love that...but I feel a greater call to go to an unreached people group...the Muslims in the 10/40 window. Relax...I am not selling the house and finding homes for my dogs just yet. But I can honestly say that it has consumed my thoughts for the past few days. I have been researching schools where I could learn Arabic - very preliminary thinking and planning. Most of those countries will not allow traditional methods of evangelism so creative ministry plans must be developed. I am committed to waiting on the Lord but I suspect I will be setting my eyes towards Africa again soon...this time to the far North - like Tunisia where we find an Arabic language school.

Trinity Rescue Mission

Okay, so Trinity Rescue Mission...is it a homeless shelter? Is it drug and alcohol rehab? Is it both? Glad you asked.

Trinity Rescue Mission is a ministry of Trinity Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida and was started over 40 years ago as a homeless shelter for men. Since that time it has grown to include several facets of ministry. The picture below is the men's center.
The men's center offers the following options:

1. An overnight program for men seeking shelter for the night. This is offered for free for 5 nights per/month, additional nights beyond the 5 nights cost $8.00 per night. This includes a shower, change of clothes, dinner, chapel service and a clean bed.

2. The Lifeline Program - a 65 day program designed to break the cycles of addiction and homelessness. Many of our clients are homeless as a direct result of addiction to drugs and alcohol. Upon graduation the men are offered case management or the farm program.

3. Case Management - this provides the men a guaranteed place to sleep at night while allowing them to work during the day. The cost for this is $60.00/week - but their bed is guaranteed and they have the same bed night to night.

4. The Farm Program is a 6-9 month discipleship program located in St. Johns County. They call it the farm because there are actual animals there (chickes, pigs, goats and maybe a cow or two on the way) - and they plant vegetables...I know for sure green beans but I think they are trying for corn too.

5. Transitional housing - this is a cluster of condos and apartments around the city that are in decent neighborhoods free from environments that promote drug and alcohol use. There is still some measure of accountibility but leans more towards independent living.

While the men's programs were running along quite smoothly it was becoming increasingly evident that women and children needed the same opportunities. The fastest growing segment in the homeless community is women and children. There were many nights when women had to be turned away because there simply was no place to house them. This burdened the heart of the Executive Director so much that he decided to build and women and children's center.

The women and children's center opened August 14, 2006. Initially we offered just one program we called Case Management. This gave the women shelter for 30-60 days while they sought out childcare, employment and housing. Since that time we have expanded our services to include a Lifeline program and transitional housing. All of our programs require church attendance, daily devotions in the book of Proverbs, reading requirements, memory verses, video education classes, chapel, group meetings and of course chores - "If you have time to lean, you have time to clean!"

The Lifeline Program runs much like the men's Lifeline program in that it is a 65 day program designed to break the cycle of addiction and homelessness. Likewise, the transitional housing offers our clients a place to stay that is free from outside influences. Currently we have an apartment in the building above that serves as our transitional housing.

We offer our clients individual family rooms which can make our numbers a little deceiving. We have approx. 119 beds in the facility but a woman with 1 child gets a room to herself and there are 4 beds in the room. We may need to place 2 clients in the same room in the future but for now we try to give them individual family space. The rooms are nicely decorated to give it more of a home feel rather than an institutional feel. Some of the rooms even have murals painted on them to provide a haven away from the dreariness of the streets.

The room on the left is my personal favorite. We recently had a client move out so we have it all cleaned up for a new family moving in tomorrow.

Then for our single, unaccompanied clients we have dormotories - 10 beds for Lifeline, and 12 beds for case management.

So...yes, we are a homeless shelter, but what Christian can provide housing without offering the opportunity to escape from the sin that is causing the homelessness?

Chick-Fil-A

Just before leaving to go to Africa we received word that Florida had passed a no harm law allowing non-profits to receive food donations from restaurants and other food distributers. Previously these organizations could be held liable if someone became sick from eating their food. As such, these places were reluctant to donate unused cooked food to places like ours.

We have an annual food budget of $7,500 - yes, that is right ANNUAL - and feed nearly 300 people a day. We do it through generous donations from places like Publix and Winn-Dixie....and now with the law change we are able to get cooked food from places like Chick-Fil-A and the Walmart deli. Just this week we have been able to serve chicken nuggets and chicken sandwiches from Chick-Fil-A - the kids love it! Everybody wins because Chik-Fil-A can write off the donation for something they would otherwise throw away and we get to serve tasty chicken to our clients. So, here's a big THANK YOU for places like Chick-Fil-A for thinking of those in need and making your food available to us.

And a really big PRAISE to the God who moves in the hearts of men and women causing them to want to help those in need. Just a thought - the next time you are standing over a trash can about to throw out some food that is still good - think for just a moment, Is there any way I can get this food to someone who is hungry? The answer may be no - but at least you asked.

Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow!

Africa

I am having a hard time describing the trip to Africa. It is not because there is nothing to say but that it is hard to put into words all that was seen and done. The same thing happened when I returned from hiking through the Andes mountains in Peru. The absolute poverty that some endure causes me to once again evaluate everything...I am sure there will be many comments made in future posts about the impact this trip has made on my life, so for now I will focus on the facts.

The ministry side: I worked with the team from Decatur on VBS and was assigned the job of blue team leader - Go Big Blue!, worked in the clinic 1 day - pulled a tooth and led someone to Christ, worked with Patti Appleby and Phylicia Perry to have teaching sessions for all the women and special sessions for the national Pastor's wives, went domesticated for part of a day and worked in the kitchen, then finished the week up by randomly jumping rope with anyone willing to try.

The touristy side: Rode a bus across Zambia which ran out of gas about 5 miles from Livingstone, helped push the out-of-gas bus on in to Livingstone - over some hills, through a checkpoint - a story for the ages!, visited Victoria Falls, did some shopping in the local market, went for a helicopter ride, rode down the Zambezi river on a sunset cruise and went for an elephant ride in Zimbabwe.

All in all, it was an amazing trip and I firmly believe that I will return to Africa in the future...maybe not Zambia but somewhere on that huge continent. My favorite piece of the African puzzle is the music...I have included a short video below - taken of some children singing a special during VBS. Please enjoy and stay tuned as there will be more to follow in the coming days.

Favorite WCC Memories

As I pause to consider the last 2 years much of it is a blur. The women and children's center opened August 16, 2006, I came up for air sometime around Christmas! Early on it was clear that God's hand was on the mission and He would guide us where we needed to be. I have two specific stories that to this day make me cry to think about - both are specific answers to prayer.

First, I love George Mueller. Well, actually I love missionary stories about ordinary people who believed God for extraordinary things. As many of you know, George Mueller ran several orphanages around England but he never asked for money. Instead he would pray. When it came time to eat and there was no food he would assemble the children around the table and pray for food. The story goes that neither he nor the children ever went without. God met their every need and always right on time.

The first few days of the mission opening were difficult. I spent many nights crying myself to sleep begging God to take care of one need or another. One particular night as I was on my way to bed I stopped to see how much milk we had left. There was not much...I had 2 choices: 1. grab my shoes and go buy some, or 2. pray. I decided to pray. On my knees in the apartment I said a very simple prayer that went something like this, "Lord, we need milk - I know you are the same God that George Mueller served and you met all his needs. Now, I am no George Mueller, but you are still God so I am asking you to send us some milk". Guess what? God heard and answered prayer - the next day we got a call about some milk needing to be picked up and before I knew it there were 150 half-gallons of milk in the walk-in refrigerator! We had so much milk we could not drink it all fast enough. That day I learned that our God is the "Giver of milk".

My second favorite story involves one of our residents. She came to me needing diapers. We had plenty of the smaller sizes but she needed size 5. We tried taping the smaller ones together but it would not work. She asked me what she should do - I told her to pray. A few days later she came to my office again. She told me that she has been praying but no bigger diapers had come in. I told her she needed to be patient and just trust that God was going to meet her need...before I could get the sentence out of my mouth there was a knock at the door. Someone had just made a random donation - can you guess what it was? Size 5 diapers! I wish everyone could have seen the look on that woman's face. I hope she never forgets that our God not only answers prayer - He answers specific prayer. Jeremiah 33:3 reminds us; "Call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not".

Why a blog?

Hello friends,

I have decided to become a blogger. I am frequently asked, "How is the mission going"? I figured this was an easy way to keep everyone up on the Rescue Mission happenings in Jacksonville and the missions trips around the world. Not to mention the abililty to keep record of all the amazing things God has done in the past two years since the Women and Children's Center opened. Also, for my more interested readers...there is always the mission website located at www.trinityrescue.org.