Our History Part III

So, last December, we bought a property in Brooklyn, MD. It had two houses...if you can call them that...on it. One was a glorified shack. We purchased it and dedicated it to the Lord as a House of Prayer for Baltimore. Devon went down to meet the tenants that lived there. He walked into a sex trafficking operation. There were five girls and one guy there. It was a bluster of activity. We were amazed! God walked us right into the heart of brokenness in Brooklyn. Brooklyn is one of the leading areas in Baltimore for sex trafficking.

We prayed about whether to let this man stay or not. We felt we should let him stay, while we raised the money to make the renovations. Getting to know him would give us access into the very community we wanted to bring the Kingdom.

Three days later, the house caught on fire. Hmmm...not totally surprising. We know and understand when you begin to bring the Kingdom of God into a dark place, the devil doesn't like it. So, a couple of weeks later, a crew of people went down and demolished and hauled away two thirds of the house. The rest of it still needs to be torn down. There is no foundation under the houses. We will lay a new foundation. We will rebuild.

We spent a day of intercession and prayer walking the neighborhood. God poured out so many words and promises. I'd like to be able to share them all, but it would take too long. I'll just share a few.

Two months before we bought the property, Irene was in Holland (we had not met her yet). She was woken up in the middle of the night. God told her there would be a house of prayer in Baltimore. We met her in January and she shared with us her vision. Isaiah 61:3 was given to two separate people. "...to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor." Tony went on to share a vision God gave him of the neighbors running to the house of prayer to get potatoes. They were digging them out of the ground. He said, "The fruit is right under the ground, under our feet...the fruit of what we and other prayer warriors before us have sown is right under you." Kaya was given a name for the House of Prayer. The Post. He said, like a post, it's planted in the ground like a stake and will not be moved. A post in war times, was a place of safety. A post is where messages are sent to and sent out of. The Post.

We shared with our group a desire to establish a house of prayer for the community, not just for believers. Tony shared a vision God gave him while he was in Kansas City at IHOP (International House of Prayer). He had a vision of establishing a community house of prayer where people could come for prayer, could come and pray...it would be an interaction of prayer in the community. So, The Post will be a CHOP (Community House of Prayer).

A missionary friend of ours was praying. She said, "What is the street name where The Post is located?" Helmstedder. She said, "Helmstedt was a village started as a missionary station begun by a benedictine monk. It was home of the University of Helmstedt...for a long time the largest university of protestant Germany. Also it was the border control that NATO countries had to pass through for a period of time. It was or is a large supplier of lignite type coal used to provide electricity...LIGHT...for lots of German homes." She went on to share the Ignatian Spirituality characteristics:

*a conviction to the value of the human person as created by God.

*the desire to find the voice of God in and through he ordinary events of the day.

*the understanding of oneself as an agent of change in the world.

*a commitment to a life of faith that is evidenced by a life of justice.

*outreach to members of society who are often marginalised or dispossessed.

Probably one of the most powerful things we found out was this. There was a huge ancient walnut tree in Brooklyn, nine feet in diameter, which stood in Acton's Park. In the early 1900's a band use to perch in the trees on a platform and perform. There was also a spring that ran under that tree. During times of drought, that spring never ran dry. People would walk from the surrounding areas to draw water from that spring. It was precious water. (Taken from "A History of Brooklyn-Curtis Bay" published in 1976.)

We don't have money to rebuild. But, we are moving forward one step at a time. We are starting monthly cookouts starting next month to begin to bring light into a dark place. We will try and obtain a demo permit for the final demo needed. We just received 60 cinder blocks...a good start to a foundation.

The Post is for Baltimore. We want it to be a place for churches, neighbors and people to come together. To call on the Holy Spirit to come and tear down those things that stand in the way of God's holy fire coming and consuming this city. Baltimore is desperate, broken and oppressed. The government is corrupt, the city schools in shambles, and the police department overworked. Teen pregnancy is high, heroin in full swing, sex trafficking picking up pace and violence out of control. I asked a homicide detective in Baltimore city if he had any hope for Baltimore. He thought and responded bleakly, "No."

Baltimore needs the sacrificial love and forgiveness of Jesus. Baltimore needs the power of the Holy Spirit. Baltimore needs the love of the Father. There is no other answer.

We will seek Him. We will send up incense and fragrant offerings. We will praise and worship. We will wait and know He will come and pour out His fire, holy fire, on our city!

Our History Part II

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.

Our History Part I

We are going to take the next few posts to catch everyone up on what has been happening with Circles, Safe House and The Post.

Many of you have been following our life story for some time now. Some of you have walked with us through Jahva House days, when we owned a coffee shop and spent years building relationships with our employees and customers. God taught us so much about living a life that is missional through our actions and through the arts. We hosted live bands, had open mic nights and featured artists on all three floors of Jahva House. We were also part of a group called XScape that really operated like a house church for many years. We worshipped and prayed together. We did life together and we reached out to the Xers, especially at the coffee shop. We had a meeting on Sunday nights that was an open discussion on faith. At any given time we had wiccans, buddhists, muslims, christians and atheists in a room discussing their faith. It was an incredible time of growing in the art of listening, not judging and really letting our own faith be put to the fire. After we sold the coffee shop, God had us go into missions training with YWAM (Youth With a Mission). We took our family (6 of us at that time, there are now 7 of us) to Hawaii, China and the Philippines. There are so many things God did in our lives at that time...He gave us a heart for the nations, for loving the oppressed...He filled in cracks in our foundations, our value system...He gave us a way bigger picture of who He is...He taught us what it means to live by faith, to live in community...He taught us the beauty in our diversity...allowed us how to worship in different languages...He showed us what it means to serve our brothers...and He birthed in us a vision for Circles Ministries.

Kristin was in a lecture one day and God whispered the name Circles to her. A month or so later, Devon was in prayer and God gave him a vision of drops of water hitting a larger body of water. As the drops hit and the ripples went out, they began to overlap one another and invade each other. This was just the beginning of what has been a 6 year journey of listening, waiting and moving on what God wants Circles Ministries to be.

From YWAM, we went back and served at our home church for two more years. We lead the college ministry and took short term missions teams to South Africa, Ukraine and Philippines. God began to show us the type of leadership style He wanted us to adopt. He gave us a passion for serving others and helping them find their giftings, their passions and their calls. It is about serving one another so that we can all become what God has intended. It says in Ephesians 4:12-16 (paraphrased) "we have different giftings...when we operate in our calling it prepares God's people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built us...reaching unity...becoming mature...so we are no longer infants, tossed by the waves...we will grow up into Him, Christ. From Him the whole body will be joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work." It's when we ALL are walking out our callings and using our giftings, that the Body of Christ matures. Really, it's a leadership style we should all adopt. If we serve one another, encouraging our brothers and sisters to be all that Jesus called them to be...whole, well, healed, delivered, and restored...we get to grow into maturity as a body. Jesus designed His bride so that we need Him and we need one another.

But, four years ago, God had us leave our church and start Safe House...but, we'll save this story for part two.