Welcome
the movement:
the movement has begun…the remnant has been stirred…the warriors are mounting…a city that has been oppressed for too long is being shaken. feel free to join in with us as we make this journey together. if you are wanting to read the latest information please check out the news link. it is there that you will be able to read all of the details of this journey as they unfold.
2007: the year of being sent out
in march 2007, God called us out to be apart of something that had to do with discipleship, but not sure what all of that entailed. so, in june 2007, we moved out from California and began posturing our lives to be apart of what He wanted us to do and for 4 hard months we didn’t hear a thing. it didn’t make since why He had called us out, but we were convinced that He wanted us here. it is during this time He began to teach us a few things: to fear God rather then to fear man, to trust Jesus rather than man, and to obey the voice of the Holy Spirit rather than man.
september 2007 came upon us and questions, thoughts, fears, came upon us to. so, I remember reaching as low as I could go before Jesus and saying, what do you want. He said to rest, that there was a remnant, and to be a light and expose darkness.
october 2007, we began to have the most amazing doors begin to open up and we went from about 20 volunteers to a couple 1000 who had walked through the doors by the end of December. it was there that we began to see the initial movement of that remnant.
it was during this year the LORD began to show us how to love Him and our neighbors. we began like most feeding people with food doing the normal thing hoping that people would come to us. it would be during those first few months of doing that, that I would feel uneasy or unsatisfied that i had actually done anything beneficial except that i felt better about myself and that they got a meal that would sustain them for an hour or so. in addition, as we would continue to come back down with various groups, we noticed that we would be right back at the same place of us bring food and the same people standing in some kind of line. we would then drive away while trying to figure out what the LORD was telling us which was to love our neighbors. as we asked who were our neighbors right in our neighborhood we saw crack dealers, prostitutes, homeless, military vets, business owners, and taco bell employees, a sonic drive through, air condition wholesalers, Porsche mechanic shop, a run down church, the City Rescue Mission, Joe Wylie’s building used for storage among others. so, as we began to look out and see what was going on in our neighborhood, we saw the same thing happen week in and week out. we watched, we talked, and we listened to our neighbors and it was while listening to the hearts of the people we began to see a need for a shift down here. so, what we feel the LORD lead us to do was to begin to learn the importance of restoring the streets physically, to build relationships with our neighbors/city, and begin to watch spiritual transformation take place. this all came about as we began to clean up the apartment building, sweep streets, and pick up trash (ie crack pipes, broken glass and human fesses), mow, blow, and edge our neighbors yards (in this case half acre parcels), and pray for God’s Presence to come into the inner city.
2008 & 2009:
in 2008 and 2009, we began to see the warfare mount up. warfare was things like doubt and uncertainty. warfare was the exact things He would use to trying to teach us. the things he was teaching was to take the natural and make us see and believe in the supernatural that would become more natural. it was there that He began to put in our heart to move into The Refuge. He would give us a verse out of Genesis 6 where God spoke to Noah, “take you and your family and build the ark.” It was from that place that we began to see how God was forming a passion with the church to move into the inner city and begin to do life together and with neighbors who are hurting. It was in the year 2008 that we heard the call to move into the city, but we couldn’t move in until October 31 at 4pm when the LORD opened the door for us to move in. While living in the inner city, we have been able to watch and listen to our neighbors and see their hurts. We also have seen that the more we learn of our neighbors, the more we learn about ourselves, our own brokenness, our own need for community.
2010:
in 2010, we began to see a hunger and this resurgence of this phrase, “loving God and loving neighbor”. It seemed like the LORD began making it real simple and clear to us that it all comes down to not only the greatest gift, but the greatest weapon…love. Although, we all know that the greatest gift is love, we learned how is always difficult. But as God began to put that stuff in our hearts, we quickly learned how difficult it is to love rightly. I am not saying we learned how to love and are now pros at it. What I am saying is that the LORD put this phrase into our hearts even more than ever. But it was also a powerful year that Jesus would continue to show us how to love each other as a community, how to love the church, how to love the brokenhearted, how to love our enemies. Here were some interesting verses that stirred us up this year.
1 Corinthians 13:2-8 “And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”
2011: the fruit
here is what we sense is coming for this year:
To seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness:
In learning Kingdom values, we begin to look at relationship. Everything flows through relationships. But as a relationally bankrupt culture, we see some common threads which is that we have a culture built on one way relationships rather than two way relationships.
So to bring about the kingdom, we want it to reflect the two way relationship or the “one another” stuff that the new testament talks about. so our first round of our focus in 2011 will be what Isaiah 58:7… 7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
Phase 1: Kingdom Values:
- Food
- Clothing
- Housing/Shelter
Phase 2: Kingdom Values:
- Education
- Medical
- Banking
- Justice
The significant shift for us will be to pursue the idea of a “two-way” relationship rather than a “one-way” relationship. The idea of a “two-way” relationship is all of the “one another” stuff we read about in the New Testament. This is where the body of Christ has something to receive and give away from each other. If it is only one-way, then it becomes a provider/client condition and a dependence is fed.
To see the city transformed it will be through the idea of a two-way relationship. For those who are stirred about the poor, look for ways to naturally give them away to give something away rather then to receive something or be given something for free. Free stuff is nice, but it can also cripple a person. To see the “lame” walk, it must be them picking up their mate and walking home, it must be a situation like a Samaritan women getting something to drink for Jesus.
