and now the photos are rolling in…

more photos added as of november 20th @ 6:32pm (CST):

in order to keep you up in the loop of what others are sharing with me, i am continuing to post things that come in…and yes, i have received more photos from various people. please keep them coming if you have some photos from the block party or anything involving The Refuge.

click link here: photos of block party

more photos just updated

some of you are wanting to see more photos of the block party that happened 2 saturday’s ago. i hope you enjoy!

click this link for photo slideshow

www.refugeokc.com

ok…for those of you who have been trying to locate the refugeokc.com online and didn’t know about the refugeokc.wordpress.com link…well, i have good news. as of today, either one will work. you can locate The Refuge by the following domains:

www.refugeokc.com

www.refugeokc.org

www.refugeokc.wordpress.com

Intimacy Retreat

I was asked to speak at a retreat this last weekend. it was so awesome to be considered. the best part for me was the time spent digging into the Word studying on the topic, “Intimacy”. So, i thought i would just pass on a few things that i discovered in the Word.

We studyed in Exodus 33 and looked at Moses who spoke with God face to face (wow, what an intimate time that must have been…ref Numbers 12). Without too much of the details, here are 6 things that may help you being more intimate with the Father:

1. Scale the mountain: Become a mountain man/woman. Moses seemed to find the Father there in the mountains. Now I am not suggesting that you find God in your local mountain range. I am suggesting that you will find an intimate Father awaiting you when you go to meet him alone. And it will be there from His vantage point that you will get a more eternal perspective. It was there in those intimate moments on the mount that Moses would get things like a word from God, the Law, discernment, direction, strength, victory just to mention a few. If you are like me, sometimes it seems like a lot of work to climb or just do a quick walk out the door and hope it is all good. Moses on the other hand, loved the presence of the LORD, and found it often at the top of the mount.
2. Stray from evil. He didn’t hang with the crowd where the LORD wasn’t. That is simple. He wanted to be found in areas where God was in the center. If you are having a hard time of intimacy with the LORD, stray from evil things where God isn’t in them. Even as I blog about this, i think of how much TV enters this tent of mine, and Moses, on the other hand, packed up his tent and moved out, because he didn’t want to settle in his life.
3. Set yourself outside the camp. Yes, it was probably inconvenient, and he may have been talked about by his neighbors, but Moses moved as far away as possible. He said, if God isn’t here in the midst I don’t want to be there either. He was willing to be forsaken by others than to forsake God.
4. Serve along others. We see Joshua, the son of Nun, serving in the tent of meeting. Moses and Joshua (Joshua being young at this time) serving in this tent. You want intimacy with God? Serve him. Let your tent (your being) be a place of worship and service. It will be amazing how great your relationship will be with the Father when you begin to serve him. I like Joshua’s style of serving, it was constant. It wasn’t on Sunday morning at 10:30am. It was his lifestyle. Man,we need more Joshua’s.
5. Seek His face. Moses was a man who asked to see the face of God. He was asking for something that would kill him if he actually got his request. God, in His grace, showed Moses His glory, but not His face. But I love Moses’ heart. He asked for something that would have taken his life. I think a man/woman who is intimate with the LORD isn’t afraid of loosing their life to see the glory of God in a real way. The people who are willing to die of themselves are going to see God in a new and amazing way and will shine of His glory. Moses comes off that mountain shining.
6. Stand on the rock. The moment Moses sees the glory of the LORD, it was there in the cleft of this rock, that the Father positioned him in. I love this because you see, this rock acted as a shield or buffer for Moses. So at the right moment, Moses would only be able to see the back of the Father. Like Moses, seeing the Father is only able when we immerse ourselves in our Rock (Jesus Christ), who is our buffer, the one who stands there at the right hand of the Father. I love the fact that Moses was as close as a human could come to seeing the Father and where do we see Moses positioned? In the midst of a rock. You want to know the Father? know Jesus. John 12:44-45 says, “Then Jesus cried out and said, ‘He who believes in Me, believes not in Me, but in Him who sent Me. And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me.

May we be an intimate people of God, may we be a people who scale for those high places, may we be a people who stray from evil, who settle our tents as a tent of meeting, serve along others, seek His face, stand on the rock. Bless you guys.

Tim

we have access to the land next door to the refuge

ok…here is the deal…before i even got out here, i had desired to get the land next to us. knowing i didn’t have the money to purchase it, i thought that i would just begin to pray for it. so for the last couple of months every chance i could get, without the owner knowing about anything, i would go around the area and i would pick up trash, clean the area up, mow the 2 acres down, try to maintain it, and pray over it every chance i could get. and what i would ask is that “LORD, if you want us to have this land to use, than you can just give it to us.” well, the owner, chip, calls me and says that he has seen a real difference in the area and wanted to see what we had going on. well, not too long after that, he tells me that he would like to lease the land out to us for $50 per year. i was just so overwhelmed with excitement, but wasn’t super shocked either. i think that things have gotten so overwhelming in the category of ultra favor, nothing is really that surprising any more. i just contribute the whole thing to Jesus. for you see, he is up to something, and is planning something big over our city.

but i want you to know all who are keeping up with this blog regularly…many of you are praying for this battle…and i want to thank you. it is because of those prayers that we are seeing movements of mountains. thank you again.

ok…i am a freak

if you are a regular on this blog you will notice once again that the layout has changed. i can’t make up my mind when it comes to that stuff. my guess, too, is that this won’t be the last time, but what is cool about blogging, is that you can change it rather easily. i hope you enjoy the new look.

those who attended the prayer night and block party

alright, for those of you who attended the block party and you were awesome enough to bring a camera, can you please send me photos of your day/night. i would like to post these pictures because apparently this event has stirred up a good amount of people. please send me either your link where you have posted them online or you can just email them at refugeokc@gmail.com. thanks you and God bless.

the work after the fun

now that we had such an extremely fun time feeding people (approximately 2000 people), clothing, baptizing, and sharing life with, i am seeing the challenge before me of what the next stage is to bring. what to do with approximately 200 – 400 people who are saying “here i am send me to the inner city”. what i am currently praying through are the following things:

• when do we move the front line disciplers/warriors into? my goal is to get our first wave in by dec. 1st. i would really like to see them move in together that they may spend a month together getting to know each other and living life together.
• when do we move those women and children into the transitional housing? my goal is to get them in by january 1st. i am wanting to move 5 in each week until we are full. what is going to be needed is continual work on getting the rooms ready. our priority is windows and heating. upon those things, getting them furnished and getting those who are going to be adopting a room fully equipped to handle their mission field (the life/lives who enter those rooms that are being bathed in prayer almost daily).
• what does 24 hour prayer/bible study look like? one thing that i know is that homelessness doesn’t end at 5pm, but i also know that at 2am, it gets interesting with those who are out at night. i am praying for discernment on what this looks like. for you see, i think if we are going to win an inner city, it is making ourselves available even when it isn’t convenient. i think a city is going to be won on the knees. if we made it available for any one and all who want to pray and/or get into a Bible study, that would be pretty sweet. pray that God would show us what our role is to be down there at the refuge.

the labor is going to be increasing as the LORD has open up the doors for us to infiltrate the city. be in prayer that the resources will just continue to make their way into the ministry.

i am not making an endorsement, but sharing with you

since i am in a new territory, i am uncovering some neat things that i am wanting to pass on to any and all who read this…so please note, i am not getting any royalties off of this or any future topics i introduce to those who read this blog.

first intro: my first intro to those who are not from here is a guy name Brad Kilman. He and our friend Kelsey led worship for us at our prayer meeting on Friday night. He has a CD that has really been a blessing to me and I think it would really bless many of you looking for some new worship that you can really enter into gates with praise. if you are like me, you are always looking for new worship that is in my words, “step off”, which means a good thing or something that i would call off of the charts.

i pray that this will be a blessing to you who check out the website of Brad Kilman.

How did we get to Oklahoma City

I was asked a series of questions that appeared to be on many people’s mind, especially for those who don’t really know the whole story of the Refuge. So here are some questions and my best effort to respond. I have included the blogged questions so you can get a sense of why I am answering them this way.

Hey there. Love all the info you give, but seems all the stories I’ve been hearing are not even mentioned on here! Like, is it true you are married and have a child? And if so, would love to hear about them!

Yes, my wife’s name is Leanne and my daughter who is 1 year old is named Keira. If you want to know more about our family, please visit our blog that my wife has put together. You can find the blog at http://thechroniclesoftheulrichs.wordpress.com/

And, did you pastor a church in Cali that you gave up when coming here?
Yes, i was a pastor at a church called Wildwood Calvary Chapel. It was there that I served as an assisting pastor. My main area of service was in the children’s and youth ministry. I also contributed in areas such as finances, administrator, and property development. I guess you could say that i wore different hats, and had fun doing all that i was asked to do. I guess you could say that i gave it up, but it was more like lead out. My pastor that i served under for 8 or so years, was truly a blessing to serve with and he blessed us out. In fact, the church is still contributing financially to this ministry and is playing a role in this ministry still (ie: they sent out their first team from california to work on the building). So i guess you could say that i gave up a position, but only to bring out everything that i learned there into this area of ministry (inner city stuff).

Also; heard you owned the property quite a long time while in California, having no idea it was turning to a crack house. If so, what was it that lured you to buy property here in the first place? Or, did you actually only buy the property after you saw its destitute and obvious potential?

I bought it for an investment which quickly became a huge liability. A building that would cause my prayer life to shift drastically. I had no idea that it had become a crack house and was totally unaware of the culture in Oklahoma. But now looking back, I can see that He had a plan along to use this building to expand the kingdom in Oklahoma City and to turn a crack house into a lighthouse…a Refuge for the broken.

…(could not really pinpoint this detail in the blog about when you and Brian came here)

Brian Fahey is a friend of mine who came out with me in the initial stages. He had prayed about moving out here with his wife and 4 kids, but felt the LORD pull back on that. I really miss him a ton, but know that the LORD used us two for a bit and now has taken us into different directions. But i wanted to mention Brian because he was a warrior who played a huge role in this journey that we are on.

Well, we’ve been spreadin the word (my hubby and I are from LifeChurch), but everyone always wants to know the details of this “Tim” guy stirrin up such impact!! Thanks so much for persevering! It’s got to seem overwhelming at times, but I’m betting you’re getting really good at letting go and letting God! And isn’t it great!? Woohoo!

Thank you for these kind words and i really look forward into serving together in this city and in cities in which you are reading this in. if you are not engaging in the battle right now in your city, may i encourage you to do so. right now is the time. it seems like the LORD is extending His favor upon all of those who are willing to be bold and say, “Here I am LORD, send me”. There is not a more awesome time in history than to lay down this life and live for Him, which is our reasonable service.