God's calling......

“Coastlands, listen to me; distant peoples, pay attention. The LORD called me before I was born. He named me while I was in my mother's womb.” (Isaiah 49:1 HCSB)

I can remember last year at this time, tossing and turning in my bed as I pondered the question presented to me, “Why do you have to go to New York to work with the homeless?” I can remember finding the answer to that question behind the Red Bowery Doors in lower Manhattan, near Ground Zero and the Statue of Liberty, in the land of the ‘no-eye-contact’ people and cast systems that defy even the logic of their own thinking; Upper East Side, Bronx and so on. I can remember that special someone who helped me stay the course and travel to a place I’d never would've gone on my own. I remember and am humbled by her strength.

Shannon helped God awaken in me a realization of a future where the work wasn’t quite what I had thought and is definitely more extreme and more challenging and more terrifying. By encouraging me to go into that place, far from where I could effectively and quietly escape, she helped God present me with His purpose, His challenge and His mercy. And as much as I’ll miss sharing that teammate feeling with her and will miss the energy that consumed her and all those around her while we worked in the Mission last year, I look forward to the new teammates that are undertaking this adventure to be a part of the work God’s doing in the Manhattan bough of New York City.

I have a charter to do for the University today, a short three hour shift and then its off to collect a donation to support this trip from my Pastor of the church plant I attend on Sunday night . After that, its off to see my children for a few hours since they’ve been gone visiting their mother during their spring break and I’ll not be seeing them for another week as I go off on this mission’s trip and they get an extra week off work because babysitting didn’t come through as expected. Then I’m going to explore the relationship that I left hanging with Vineyard Church by participating in their “Rotating Shelter” for the homeless of Washtenaw. After I get home, I’ll pack the borrowed bag I’m getting and get a few hours sleep before I go to Trinity to ‘catch the bus’ over to WCC to get the rest of the team with Dino and Joseph, the other two drivers and teammates for this journey.

In a little more than twenty-four hours, the Mosaic A2 team will depart the environs of Ann Arbor Michigan for the distant, coastal lands of New York State. Some are old hands; Joseph, the team leader and Dawn, a few others. The majority are ‘newbies’ who bring talents and skills to this year’s team that make it as unique and God-designed as last year’s was.

Keep us in your prayers, both for the trip there and the arrival.

I think I hear the faint call of God beckoning me to those Red Doors.

Team Mosaic Bowery bound

“Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and wondrous things you do not know.” (Jeremiah 33:3 HCSB)

It is three days and a wake up call before the Mosaic A2 group departs the Michigan boundaries for the great state of New York and the lower Manhattan bowers where the Bowery Mission is to serve for a week in the homeless program there. Last year, being the ‘naïve’ innocent I was, I wasn’t ready for the impact that God would deliver in that place…..where I was confronted with His love, grace and mercy in such ways that I was humbled and broken by the time I left. This year, knowing the power of God to transform lives and hearts makes me nervous and challenged.

“Be the change you want to see in the world” was nicely stickered on the back of a vehicle in front of me on the way from the VA. It’s a quote from Gandhi, that Indian Philosopher that is celebrated for his non-violence doctrine and is oft quoted in context to Christians about how he likes Christ but not Christians since they are so unlike Christ. I think most of the time we are more focused on the change that we don’t realize that we have to be an embodiment of that change before we can vocalize it to the world. I have spent most of my Christian life arguing against the establishment of the human church to be a voice in the work that God has called me to. There have been those who have heard my ‘cries’ and seen the anointing and there are those who look first for a piece of paper and then the ‘signs’. I have given up arguing, for there is plenty of work to be done even without that calling.

Lately, I’ve just been stepping out in confidence that whatever God wants me to do, He’ll provide the proper credentials to do it.

‎"Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." 2 Corinthians 3:4-6

I have written a few posts about the Bowery and the verses that God is laying upon my heart, knowing with anticipation that these are the things that He wants me to broach at the chapel sessions and totally clueless yet on how He wants me to do it. All in due time, my God is a God of last minutes because in the last minutes is where I tend to give up the reins and let Him do His work with my hands. After all, I am fully aware of how man can screw up even God’s handiwork. If you don’t believe me, look at His bride, the church.

We are leaving this year without a few of the dynamic personalities that made last year such an impacting trip but we carry with us new faces that have accepted the challenge of God to go into this place and be His ambassadors. We have no chance of repeating the major impact that the team had last year at the Bowery on that Thursday night chapel service where the walls were shook and the foundation quaked. Nor would I expect our team to do so. No, I expect that God will make a bigger and more personal impact on the lives and direction of those whom we come into contact at the Bowery and the team mates who are serving with me there. I am eagerly anticipating how God will shake a city block and rock the foundations of all who reside there.

Saturday night, I will be serving at the rotating shelter that is at Vineyard Church this week. Then its home to pack up and get a few hours shuteye before I go to pick up the bus that Trinity is letting us take to travel to New York to meet the team at the WCC for a departure of 7am. We’d love to have those who are so inclined either begin to pray for us or come to WCC to pray us off as we depart on this grand adventure for the Kingdom.

Maybe this time I’ll even come back with all my clothes……..