What If?

Sunrise

I love the sunrise, to see it you must get up early. Many people miss the sunrise because it forces you to go out of your way to see it. Those of us who have seen it know the beauty and will find ways to be present when this miraculous event happens.

I see the world around me in the same way.

I have recently gotten to walk with Ben Carlson along Aurora and introduce him to what God is doing on our street. Ben is visiting us from South Africa where he works with the Navigators and is a professional coffee taster. He has a lot of vision for life and future, and talking with him gives me a huge shot of encouragement.

As we walked from the AXIS to the garden space along Aurora and I got to introduce him to business owners and homeless men and women and show him where we minister, sparks started to fly as we praised God for his greatness. We entered the garden space and started envisioning the space green and with a small stage for music and tables and chairs and umbrellas for conversation and a coffee cart where we could sell or give away java to the “customers” of the Space.

Wouldn’t it be beautiful if this space was where we held a Bible study for whoever may be walking on the street? Maybe very late at night or really early mornings. That gives me the chills just thinking about it. How about small concerts just for the purpose of bringing music to Aurora? Maybe some vegetables that are growing and people have the freedom to snack? Then Ben says, “Maybe this is your coffee shop that you’ve been dreaming about? It doesn’t even need a building!” Maybe? Oh yeah! What if the tattoo parlor next door actually started partnering with us and looked forward to us being there? Or opened up their back “yard” space to join up with the garden space for a larger venue?

The “what if’s” are huge, when you allow God to push it…

So…on another note but not really, we are at a place financially as Epic Life Church where we are living in the negative, you know – the red numbers. This is a scary place to live, that is strengthening our faith and resolve. But just because we don’t have the finances and resources to pull off dreams doesn’t mean the dreams stop coming. In fact if anything the dreams are growing and God is asking more of us. So we are trusting him in our poverty and owning this new Church as a community in greater ways than if we hadn’t found ourselves in the negative.

Praise God for people like Ben and the business owners who may not even have a personal relationship with Christ and those who are walking Aurora and those who are on our Finance Team with beautiful gifts and leaders who are moving forward even in difficult times and for a church Body who know what they are here for and vision, pure God-driven, life-infused, transformational vision.

“To see North Seattle transformed by finding an epic life in Christ Jesus.”

Find ways to “see” the “sunrise” in your world. It is beautiful and miraculous!

Chopping Chicken Coconuts.

Recently I have been having a friendly online banter with my extended family about barnyard chores and dirty diapers.  The following is a short slightly embellished tale of my chicken raising days back on the homestead in North Idaho.

“Hold it hold it hold it.  I am being forced to add my cluck to the squawking because after all I was the official Protector of Poultry,  the Helper of Hennery, the Top Cop of the Cockalorum. My brothers and sister didn’t call me Chicken Boy for anything…oh wait that might have meant something different…no matter I was the Ruling Rooster of the Chicken Coop. And after I mastered taking the bat into the coop with me to protect me from the big whites we started raising Road Island Reds to which I was saluted the Big Blue Winner for my Big Red Rooster that would fly to my arm and gingerly peck seeds from my palm. I had him eating from my hands.

I am pretty sure I was the only one that had to do any work around the homestead…collecting eggs was rough work. And hey I had to feed AND water the barnyard fowl. My life was rough.

But on to the chopping block. I do distinctly remember one sunny afternoon standing with three chickens waiting in line to be systematically removed from their heads. I had the ax, Kent held the Helpless Hens upside down by their legs.  It was our job that fateful day to be the official executioners. We had been contracted by the High Mountain Mama to kill three chickens at high noon. The Block was set by the fence next the drive way next to the pond.

Our plan…#1 We would gently lay the chicken on the Block. #2 With a raiser sharp ax and a swift blow we would disengage the head from the body. #3 Before the blood began to spew onto us Kent (my younger brother) would huck the dis-headed fowl over the fence. #4 We would stand back and watch the famous Running Like a Chicken with it’s Head Cut Off.  That was our plan.

This is what happened…#1 Kent tried to lay the poor little female chicken on the block, but it kept flopping around and wouldn’t stay still. I think it may have knew what was about to happen or the blood that had been rushing to its head for the past 15 minutes was now causing it to go crazy. I thought with all the flailing around that it might disengage its own head, but that wasn’t our luck. #2 With the not so raiser sharp ax I came down upon the block of wood, completely missing the blasted chicken. The second attempt severed half of the creature’s neck and the blood started spewing, probably at a higher rate because by now all the blood in the chicken’s body was now in its beady little head. The third hack job severed the beak from the face and the fourth finally divided the rest of the neck.  #3 Kent commence to launch the headless bird over the fence hitting the top rail and bouncing the feathered bloody frenzy back at us. #4 We ran for our lives as the blood curdling squawking hen came after us like our worst nightmare.

The bird did finally die and we may have some how commenced to execute the other two in a far less PETA offensive way. Kent held the chickens by the legs, I put my foot on its head, clean cut, nice toss, running around.

That is my memory of my first head lopping event.  Kristine tells me I still stir in my sleep at night in cold sweats crying and mumbling something about a giant featherless and headless fowl chasing me with a dull ax screaming through it bloody gurgling neck, “You’re next, you’re next!”

It gives me chills just thinking about it.

Images that Speak #1

This is the start of an Images that Speak series I am going to work on. I hope all of you enjoy this and return to see with your eyes, mind, heart, emotion and spirit. I won’t waist your time on dumb shots. That may be another series.

I look at both of these pictures and think of the wonder a little kid has when talking about anything; the imaginations, dreams and creativity that a child possesses is something that is so fleeting as adults help them “grow up.”  It is so often in this “growing up” that we lose so much of our flare for life; our desire to experience new wonders, or our capability to truly experience anything outside of a marketed front. Yes we must grow up and take responsibility, but there has to be a sweetly beautiful balance that allows us to be mature but continue dreaming.

Beth, the young lady in these photos, is an alumni of Winona State University and H2O (the college ministry at Pleasant Valley Church in Winona, MN). She recently got back from a year and a half stint in Mongolia and told me that this little girl along with two others have had a documentary made of them into a seven episode TV series called “Childrens Heart.” You can view the trailer here- –http://www.childrensheart.tv/

Beth, working through Samaritan’s Purse is now in North Carolina working with The Children’s Heart Project. They bring children from developing countries that have congenital heart defects to the North America for surgery.  They work with local churches to provide a Christian family for child/mom/interpreter to live with for the duration of stay in the USA and partner with hospitals and physicians who agree to donate their services free of charge, making it possible for a little girl who has a very short life expectancy to grow and continue experiencing her dreams. And we get to share the love of Christ with their entire family and village.

Pretty cool stuff. I do hope that Epic Life Church can be a part of this wonderful ministry here in Seattle. We will be praying that God gives us open doors in the hospitals and surgical clinics with doctors and nurses who would give their skills to heal a child.

If you work in the medical field or have contacts that you think may be interested let me know and I will get you or them in contact with the proper people. Maybe it’s time to create a network here in Seattle that can save the lives of hundreds of children.

What if?

What if God takes the Aurora Avenue of Seattle, the North South highway running right through Seattle’s heart, and Transforms Seattle through the Redemptive Communities he establishes on this corridor? That would be radical and awesome!  Pray for God’s mighty work to be accomplished in the lives of his servants and the lives of those yet to know him from Aurora.

 

Aurora - the North South highway through the heart of Seattle

Dream with me…

     “We buy a run down pit of a motel that has had prostitution running rampet for decades at hourly rental rates and transform it into a home and rehabilitation organization that helps women who find themselves on the corners of Aurora night after night. A place where God is able to take the very drug dealers and users out of this dive of a hotel and transforms their lives to create a safe house for users to become dry and learn a trade and become members of a productive society and Christ centered community, as their lives are transformed by the King’s power. A place where the ex-users are teaching and mentoring their previous dealers to live lives that are a reflection of Christ. A place that supports itself from a high-traffic coffee house carved out of the once deplorable hotel office. A coffee house that gives employment to recovering users and dealers alike, and helps bring girls off the streets from selling themselves for a living to serving, not only coffee, but an ideal atmosphere where all people are welcomed and have an chance to experience God. What if this place becomes an epicenter of the Epic Story God is currently writing.”

Dream of the possibilities, they are great!