Is it gay that I love hearing Chandler's voice?

Myspace

It's official. I have joined myspace. I was pretty reluctant and it took even more than a countdown to get me to join. I was supposed to join last Tuesday (according to Creecy's countdown) but I did finally join today. I haven't pimped it yet but i'll get there. Fo sho.

www.myspace.com/danielgearner

Chandler

Last night at the village was pretty amazing. It was basically a prayer service over the international missions at their church. Matt went on a bit of a spill about the church's philosophy on missions and how the church is going to be spending their money (You'll never buy a cup of coffee or play basketball at the village). I love how Matt puts certain things in perfect perspective. I came away from that service really coming to grips with what our lives are truly for and that's the glory of God. Followers of Jesus should be living to push back the darkness whether it be loving on our community or serving in a coffee shop in China. Matt Chandler put it very plainly when speaking about missions. He said "You either give or you go. Otherwise you are sinning." That cut through me like a butcher knife.

What's Happening in the Community?

November 11 Brad, Cody, another guy (can't remember his name) and myself took Philip's smoker and cooked hot dogs at The Tejas Motel in Mesquite. Probably one of the most interesting things i've been a part of. The people were totally receptive to our giving away of the hot dogs. They knew we were from some church but we just said we were followers of Jesus. We didn't cram religion down their throat. We just loved them.

It's been forever and a day since i've even updated this thing so we'll have to rewind. Sunday (Nov. 12) Philip connected us with a lady in the community who's name is Vicky (sp?). She is a single Mom and needed help rebuilding her gates, mowing the lawn and cutting the tree limbs that were growing on the service lines (dangerous). It took about a crew of 12 to cut the trees back but it was SO much fun. Props to Philip. He hangs a mean gate. Also big thanks to the guys who mowed her lawn.

Today we went to Albertson's and $766 later we bought 50 turkeys and delivered them to Mesquite Social services. Major props to everyone who gave for this cause. When money started coming in it was way more than we thought we'd get but it was an amazing thing because we needed more than we thought we would. We almost had the exact amount we needed. God be the glory. This was Michael Creecy's idea and it was crazy how it came together. We knew we wanted to give turkeys away but we didn't know how or who we'd give them to. Philip called social services and found they give away thanksgiving meals to those in need and they had everything except turkeys. Crazy awesome.

Today we also went to Ron and Leah Wright's to trim their shrubs and assess the fence situation. This coming Sunday afternoon we'll be going over there to reset 3 fence post that will fix the very bad leaning problem. If you read this and you can help...let us know. We were so happy that Ron and Leah filled out a card and sought after our assistance. We really do believe that first priority is making sure the members of our church are taken care of. It's how true community is built and hopefully with their willingness to help us assist it will break the ice for others who are maybe worried about being a burden. But it's not a burden. We REALLY do love doing these things.

Pray for us tomorrow. Creecy and myself will be mowing a lady's yard whom we've never met before. The only thing I ever ask for when we blindly do this kind of thing is that the people we show up to assist will just simply let us.

Help Us Love

Disappointment

One thing i've learned in the past year is you HAVE to stop worrying about the decisions others make. God gave us the free will to make our own decisions and I think he teaches us through that. I'm super tired of people always been worried about what they think others are doing immorally. Don't get me wrong, i've been guilty of this a million times but God has really shown me that this is unacceptable. I guess i'd rather be friends with the murderers and hookers than the pharisees.

Faith Community

Saturday, Phillip, my sister, Megan and I reached out to the community. Phillip had an idea to go to the donut palace down the street from the church and pay for ppl's donuts. So after much explaining to the donut ladies (who didn't really understand what we wanted to do) I stood at the register and paid for everyones donuts for the next hour or so while Phillip stood at the door with our outreach brochure. We weren't inviting people to church, just letting them know that we were there for them in any needs that they or their neighbors might have. At first the donut ladies couldn't understand why we would want to do this! They kept asking "why?" and "this is so amazing". I guess it didn't occur to me that our outreach might end up having the biggest affect on them. It was amazing to see the look on people's faces when they realized that they could put their money back in their wallet because we had paid for it. Even when our $160 had run out, we noticed the donut lady was still giving donuts for FREE and handing out our brochure for us! It's unbelievable what simple things with great love can do.

Get Involved

Creecy did a great job this morning explaining our brochure and after he spoke I mentioned that anyone could volunteer to serve in this new ministry. I wish I could have caught myself before I said that because we don't consider this "serving" or "sacrifice". It's simply love. If you have the desire to reach out and love on the community, we really need you.

How To Save a Life

The Agenda

Can we please, please get rid of the agenda? I've been there. We feel as Christians we have some obligation to push an issue. Lord, let us just be salt and light and begin to use better discernment.

Missional Living

The other day I was listening to a sermon on missional living and something hit me really hard. I think a lot about where Jesus talked about giving everything we have to the poor and what that means. Sometimes when you think of 'the poor' you automatically think of homeless people. Atleast that's my first thought. But the poor could be anyone. Poor in spirit, the single Mom who barely has enough money to put food on the table for her 3 kids, or the elderly couple who the majority of their social security is spent on medication.

Missional living is something I really have to start becoming better at. It should be our main focus in everything we do to be a light in the world. But we don't have to re-invent the wheel. There are many obvious and simple opportunities in our everyday routine that missional living can be played out. Lord, let us see those opportunities with sharp vision.

The Prayer

Lord, we pray that you would give us a clear vision in our daily lives. Help us see those opportunities and take advantage of them. Teach us the art of unselfishness and give us the strength to lay down our pride. Lord, everything we have was given to us by You, so let us be willing to share what we have with those who are in need, not only monitarily but spiritually as well. Teach us how to live missionally. Teach us Your love. Amen.