Q Crashing

  Join me and my wife, Audrey along with Amber @ The Run a Muck , as we write our marriage letters to shine light on the joy and truth of marriage, along with the struggles.  Marriage is worth fighting for. Audrey, I hate that there are outside influences that affect us.  I hate more the fact that I let them.  When bills pile up, no matter how much you try to balance me, I get off kilter.  I try to figure out how to fix everything, while the whole time you are reminding me to just trust God and enjoy the day.  You are so grounded.  In many ways you anchor our lives through all the craziness I seem to drag us through. After money it feels like everything else just falls under business.  This meeting and then that meeting and then so and so needs some help.  I want to do a better job of just relaxing with you. You know what I love.  That we got a small table for our backyard with two chairs.  I've enjoyed the recent t...

This weekend The Beautiful Mess is got together to clean up the homes, streets, and businesses around our area.  We just want to love on people in Christ name.  One way to do that is help them get rid of all the junk from the winter that falls out of trees and gets broken around the home.  We had around 50 people show up to just love our neighbors.  We did everything from cutting trees, hauling brush, mowing yards, loading up old beds, and cleaning up behind businesses.  We then invited people back to have dinner with us.  It was great.  Around twenty people from local homes and off the street came and ate with the 50 from the Beautiful Mess.  It was the church at it's best.  Loving and serving and talking about Jesus.  We had a blast.  Glory to God. Luis cleaning up for a business owner whose father just recently died. Relaxing after all the work was done. Ethan, well, being Ethan.  Love this guy.

So here is the story in Richard's own words.  Thanks so much for joining in on this.  We will keep updating the process so you can celebrate with us in what is happening. 

So here is where we are at.  In less than 24 hours around 70 people joined in together and raised over $1700 to help bring sight to the blind.  The blind in this case is my friend at the Eugene Mission, Richard.  This afternoon I broke the news to him about how many of you had joined in to help him see again.  He broke down crying in disbelief.  Then we prayed and gave God glory for providing when it was thought impossible. A couple of months ago Richard had began seeing doctors to see what had happened with his eyes.  He found out that he had cataracts growing over his eyes, but it was fixable.  The problem is that any charity funded agencies were only going to help with medical, not optical issues.  The surgical assistant told Richard he would need $1700 to get the procedure.  We talked to the lions club, but depleted funds left them with no way to help.  We gave up.  Then the scripture convicted me and led to the 17 challenge t...

Luke 4:18-19 has many times been referred to as Jesus' manifesto.  In it he says that he has came to Proclaim good news to the poor (check) Proclaim liberty to the captives (people come to the  Mission on parole...so...check) Set at liberty those who are oppressed (recovery, check) Recovering of sight to the blind (che...wait a minute, hmm, not so sure I can check that one) Now by no means am I claiming to be doing these all like Jesus does everyday.  In fact, I struggle often to keep the main thing the main thing.  But the recovering the sight to the blind has always felt like that was one kept exclusively for Jesus.  Until today.  Enter my friend Richard. Richard is someone I've grown really close to.  He is struggling with issues in life, but has tons of potential.  He has shown himself a natural leader here at the Eugene Mission and is spending time at recovery meetings and in Bible studies everyday.  He moved...

So I think this Easter was the most unique and amazing Easter experience I have been a part of.  Let me preface by saying this is not an attack on the conventional methods of Easter outreach, in fact I think they are very effective as evident by the 1,000's of people who came to know Christ throughout this country during Easter gatherings.  I just experienced a paradigm shift that had a massive effect on me.  So here is how my Easter played out. The family woke up and our youngest daughter was super snotty.  The green snot.  The kind that you don't take into to confined spaces with other kids because it spreads like wildfire.  So Audge took December to church at UFC and I stayed home with Journey.  It felt odd to be staying home.  I think it was the first Sunday morning in my life that I didn't attend church.  So what me and Journey did was crank up some worship music and we danced.  I think it may have been the most appropriate...

  Join me and my wife, Audrey along with Amber @ The Run a Muck , as we write our marriage letters to shine light on the joy and truth of marriage, along with the struggles.  Marriage is worth fighting for. So.  We've been serving together longer than we've been married.  Honestly, I think it is one of the most awesome parts of our journey together and at times very frustrating.  I want to be involved in everything you are doing and sometimes try to take control of things you are already handling beautifully.  I'm a brute.  But let me focus on the amazing parts of our ministry together. We did youth ministry together for 5 years.  I led the guys and you led the girls and it was great.  I never doubted you ability to jump in and lead.  And when we struggled with church decisions, you always had my back.  This is something that has become crucial for me.  I know you are always backing me up in ministry and even if I'm...