Four years ago, we began meeting on Sunday nights with a group of friends. At first it was just about getting together and sharing a meal. We enjoyed one another's company and just hung out. But, when the new year kicked in, the Lord began to speak. "Without a vision, the people perish." He spoke to us, "Call it what it is...this is church." We shared with our community what God was showing us. Some people moved on, but some hung out to begin this journey with us. We weren't really sure where it was going to take us.
The first year, God had us go through scripture and look at what church was meant to be...and what it's not. He began to point out how man has taken over to change church and make it fit into his lifestyle, his needs. It's easier to show up on a Sunday morning, receive and leave. Church was meant to be an invasion of our lives with our brothers and sisters. We are meant to rub shoulders, be in each others lives, get messy in life together. He showed us more about giftings and callings...how the church is not meant to be "run" by a single person. Jesus is the head...then the rest of us are obedient to to use our giftings and callings to edify the church. Yes, there is leadership...but, a leadership that sets direction, not dictates. It is everyone contributing that gets the ship moving. We wrestled through a lot of different church related topics...challenged one another and sought God. I know we are still learning, but that year seemed to be a class God was teaching.
That year He also spoke about Safe Houses. A couple of people had dreams and visions about having a safe house for people who didn't fit into main stream church. One person had a picture of wounded people coming in out of the storm for triage. That year we had a family experience...Kristin was home and the kids were outside playing. All of a sudden they ran in and started yelling there were police in the yard. Kristin looked out and the police signaled her back in. The next thing they knew, the police were yelling, "Where's your gun?!" It sounded like they were in the basement. It turns out two young teenagers had hidden under our front porch. When we looked outside, they were face down, with like 10 cops around, in our front yard. Someone praying for our family said, "I feel like God wants you to know your house is like a safe house. Even for those teenagers." Kristin had a dream later that year of a valley of small hills. It was at night and dotted on the hills were white fabric tents all lit up. She went into one and there was a family in there, safe and protected. They were all safe houses. So, in year two, we named our community, Safe House.
Year two, brought us missionary after missionary. We had visits from two families from Northern Ireland, a Ukrainian pastor who is a missionary in Turkey, a young family heading to London to establish a church, missionaries functioning here in Baltimore and others. That year, one of our worship guys, Jeff left for India. In India he met a young man named Rakesh. Rakesh was a Christian, but his family were not. His mom and dad were sick and their house was falling down. It was just a couple of months from monsoon season. Jeff came back and shared. God lead us to take up an offering. In two weeks, we had enough money come in, to competely rebuild Rakesh's house. Not wanting to just send money, we contacted friends of ours in India who are missionaries there. Vivek said, "Oh, my dad heads up habitat for humanity in this area. Send the money and we will go and oversee the construction." We were just a piece in the puzzle. God used Vivek and his family to build relationship with Rakesh and his family. Also that year, we had the privilege to serve refugees who are living here in our community. There was a need for winter clothes. We made calls, visited stores and dug through our closets. God really put on our group's heart a heart for the nations. After that year, we lost both our worship guys to missionary work.Year three brought us a new baby! It was a year of rest. We took half a year off...maybe a bit more...and adjusted to our growing family. It was a year of showing us that there is a time to work and a time to rest...a time and season for everything.
When God began to roll out year four, He showed us it would be a year of reaching out. This year we began to make monthly dinners for a bunch of skaters in our neighborhood. We call it a Love Bomb. We have no agenda other than to feed these kids and love them...listen to their stories and meet them where they are. On Sundays, they're not in church, they're at the skatepark. Jesus met people in their homes, in their hoods...why as a church, do we expect everyone to become like us? To meet us where we are?
Jesus also began to break our hearts for those who are victims of sex trafficking. He began to open our eyes to the girls right in our neighborhood who were walking the streets daily. We began to see drug deals go down in front of our home. It was like He took our blinders off. Then God began to give a vision to Denene, a woman in our group, for a Safe House for these women to come to that would offer a recovery program. There are none here in Baltimore. We thought, "We should start somewhere." So, we began to pray for these women and to invite them to lunch once a month. A local church opened their doors for us to host the lunch and we are watching God move through unity in our neighborhood.As we wrapped up last year, God began to whisper something again to our hearts. When we we got back from YWAM, Devon began to feel a tug to buy properties (which is wild, seeing as God moved him to start a home remodeling company). He said to the Lord, "The first property I buy, I will give it back to You as a house of prayer." God began to remind us of that promise...but, we'll save this for the last part of our history.
