Amazing God

It's Monday morning and I'm sitting at my local Starbucks reveiwing the past few days. What an amazing weekend! Friday night we did Midnight Outreach and took roses to the clubs for the ladies. One of the clubs (which we only recently got into, after nearly 2 years of prayer) told us how much it meant to us that we decorated their dressing room for Christmas and brought roses to them every month. The manager said that they wanted to give something back; that the girls wanted to collect money to help us buy toys for the poor. HOW COOL IS THAT???

The dancers want to help the poor. The people we have been reaching out to want to reach out and help others. Amazing. At another club one of the women told a volunteer that she had had a horrible day, but when she walked into the dressing room and saw the gifts from Healing Place her whole attitude changed. A small gift, delivered with love, changed her whole day. Amazing.

When we went north-side the streets were absolutely barren. A volunteer checked the news on her phone and found out there was a recent prositution sting and 19 men and women were picked up in the sweep. I believe God Himself is intervening in their lives to create opportunities for change. Lock-down can be a rough place for prostitutes and cross-dressers so please pray for their protection and salvation. I believe that God will use this for their good.

Saturday morning we had our special needs Christmas outreach. What a party! Bounce houses, face painting, manicures, crafts, popcorn, pizza and more; everything designed with special needs kids in mind. The activities were great, but our guests of honor were what really made the day a success.

I met a young man named Landon who was there for the festivities. We had an interesting conversation:

Me: Hi there, my name is Donna. What's your name?

Him: Landon. When is your birthday?

Me: October 27th. When is your birthday?

Him: Thursday.

Me: Your birthday is Thursday?

Him: No, yours.

Me: Pardon? (looking to his mom for direction)

His mom: He means your birthday is on Thursday. Next year, Oct 27th will be a Thursday.

Me: Seriously? Is that right?

His mom: 99% of the time he's right. You can look it up, but he's usually right.

I looked it up later. Next year my birthday will be on a Thursday. Incredible. I couldn't tell you when my birthday was this year, never mind next year. How does he do that? Incredible young man.

My buddy this year was named Ian. He and his mom came to the party and I got to hang out with them. I like a person who knows what he wants; Ian is that person. House of balls? Yes. Crafts? No. Face painting? No. Pizza? Yes, with a coke. Definitely my kind of guy. His friend Luke was there too so Ian and I played football against Luke and his buddy. It was a tough game, not just because it was full-contact but because the ball was imaginary. I'm so glad that our church is big enough to play invisible football in the entrance. I'm not sure who won, but it was a hard-fought game.

I chatted with a woman while Ian was eating his pizza by the haircut booth. She told me that her husband was having a mid-life crises, that he had told her he didn't love her anymore and that he was leaving her. I didn't know the woman, but I assume she has at least one special needs child, as she was at the outreach as a guest. She said they had been married for 9 years and he was leaving. She asked if I knew what she should do. I listened more that I talked, and I told her about our divorce care group for people walking through tough situations. I gave her the number for the church so she could get connected. As she walked away I wondered what other parents were carrying when they came through our doors. Realizing the weight that others carry often puts my life in perspective. Please pray, not just for this woman, but for all of the parents and caregivers who are laboring to raise their gifts from God.

It was an awesome party, an awesome day. Thank You God, for my awesome church!

Sunday morning I was absolutely stoked. It was finally here...Miracle Offering Sunday!!! I went to the 9am service because I couldn't wait to give. Since the day I got saved I've wanted to build the church; what a great opportunity to be a part of what God is doing. A large part of Miracle Offering will be used to finish building our children's space upstairs in the arena. We get to give our little bit to God, watch Him multiply it, and then see generations of kids find the hope and truth of Jesus Christ. It doesn't get any better than this! If you missed Sunday, don't sweat it. I think you can give to the Miracle Offering until year end.

So, that was my weekend. Amazing events, amazing people and my amazing God. All glory to Him!

PS:

Another exciting thing...my website is finally up. Check it out and lemmino what you think. Thanks for your interest and your prayers. God bless you all.

Mercy and Joy

The streets of North Baton Rouge are typically pretty busy but last Friday night things were quiet. Earlier in the evening three people had been shot between Plank Road and Choctaw so anybody who could stay inside did. As usual, our ICU (Inner City Unit) team thought it was a perfect night for outreach.

Although we didn’t see a lot of people, God gave us some very cool connections. We got to visit with a prostitute who has been sporadically attending Sunday service at Baton Rouge Dream Center. She may not have been quite as excited to see us as we were to see her, but God knows what He’s doing. Although we always intend our roses to bring joy, they occasionally bring conviction. We just trust God to work it out.

At the Top 10 Social Club we handed out roses and chatted with the patrons. For any of you who haven’t been, the Top 10 is an interesting club on Choctaw with some of the biggest bouncers I’ve ever seen. I’m not sure what all goes on in that place, but I suspect the people aren’t there just for the music.

On Sunday morning a woman showed up at Healing Place on Highland Road. Pastor Dino said hello and asked how we could help her. She burst into tears and couldn’t answer. We eventually learned that she had been at the Top 10 Friday night when we handed out roses. She looked at the rose, read the card and told her friend that they had to leave. She said, “If God sent the church up into this club, He’s trying to tell us something.” That’s how she landed in service Sunday morning, listening to Pastor Dino teach on joy.

This woman is not some horrible sinner that spends all of her time drinking in bars. She used to go to church and read her bible, but then something happened that just got her off track…she called it a downward spiral. I understand the downward spiral. I understand how things can get fuzzy; the lines between right and wrong get blurred by pain, circumstance and pressure. Bad decisions pile on top of each other until we forget that there’s a God who loves us jealously. We forget His mercy until He sends an outreach team into the very bar we’re sitting in; they smile, hand us a rose and tell us we’re not forgotten.

I am so grateful for God’s mercy. I’m grateful that His arm is not too short to save nor His ear too dull to hear. I’m grateful that, in the same way He reached into the pit and snatched me out, He is still snatching people into freedom today. And we get to be a part of it.

All glory to God!

My new favorite day

It has been an amazing ride since I moved to Baton Rouge and started attending Healing Place Church. I've had lots of great days, lots of memorable experiences and a couple days I'd rather not mention. My new favorite day at HPC, however, happened this weekend.

As part of Servolution we were hosting an Easter egg hunt for families with special needs. Saturday morning was pretty wet and the sideways rain made it an easy decision to move the event inside. As God would have it, our new worship space opened the week before and we were able to hold the entire event in our large foyer. For a lot of reasons, that worked out even better than the original plan. Doesn't that sound like God?

I don't know how many families we hosted but I got to hang out with a young man named Joey. He was there with his mom but I sent her to go and get a manicure while Joey and I painted Easter eggs and got some pizza. He was also a major presence in the bounce house but an early injury forced us back to the food section. Fortunately, Joey was able to walk it off without incident. I should mention, the Chik-fil-a cow wandering around and was a little bothersome to Joey. He pointed out to me that the cow was unnaturally tall, and that cows shouldn't be able to walk on their back feet. Both excellent points, but we reduced the bovine-fear to a workable level.

Joey and I were resting in one of the lounge areas when he told me he wanted to dance. I told him that I thought he should. He was a little concerned about the crowd but I assured him that they would probably love to see him dance. With that, he busted a move...Michael Jackson couldn't have kept up with him! Before we knew it, other kids joined in, the cow was dancing and a circle of enthusiastic onlookers cheered them on. Joey's mom was trying to take a picture of him dancing but she had tears streaming down her face.

That's when Saturday became my new favorite day.

A little while later Joey was laying across the footstool, flat on hs back. He looked up at me and said, "I'm famous, I'm happy and I'm tired."

It was so cool being at an event that was specifically designed to meet the needs of kids who face such tough challenges everyday. I loved the Easter eggs all over the floor, I loved that the Easter Bunny was in a wheelchair, and I loved that so many families got to connect with the church and with each other. I loved that one little boy, if only for a while, felt like he was famous. I hope all of our special guests felt famous.

Resurrection Sunday offers so much hope. We had great services, people got saved and we got to worship our Lord and King, Jesus Christ. Sunday was great....but I'm still smiling about Saturday!

All glory to God!

Servolution Week

This week is Servolution at Healing Place Church. We are doing outreaches for the 10 days leading up to Easter and we're trying to make it all but impossible for people to go to hell in Baton Rouge.

Last weekend was phenomenal. I volunteered at New Beginnings (addictions ministry) on Friday night, then I went on ICU (Inner City Unit) outreach. Saturday morning I went to the House for Haiti extreme makeover and then to the Tigers Against Trafficking 5K run (I assure you, I was not a participant). Sunday morning we held our first Sunday services at the new HPC Arena and were near capacity for both services. Sunday afternoon I did a drive-by to see how our second set of House for Haiti volunteers were doing. Of course, they were working like Hebrew slaves and loving it!

That was my weekend. How cool is our God?

In one weekend I got to: help people struggling with destructive behaviors, give snacks to cross-dressing prostitutes downtown, help with demolition on a house that will provide tens of thousands of dollars for aid in Haiti and help bring awareness to victims of Human Trafficking. And, I got to see people flood the alter at Healing Place and make Jesus their Lord and Savior.

Again, how cool is our God?

I am so blessed and so humbled that God allows me to be a part of everything that goes on at my church. The opportunity to be a healing place for a hurting world is so far beyond anything that I deserve. (Truthfully, anything short of burning in eternal fire is beyond what I deserve.) I am so grateful that God allows me to see what He's doing in His people.

Thank you for sharing this journey with me. All glory to God!

Lessons from the alley

It's Saturday morning and I'm at work. A few months ago I left my job at the Dream Center so I could write my next book. I asked God to move me to a place where I had time to write and still had a paycheck. I currently manage a self-storage facility. Some days I think I can hear God laughing.

Seriously though, it's been a great learning experience. I recently finished the second (or maybe third?) draft of my manuscript and now I'm in the excruciating season of query letters, endorsements and book proposals. It's odd, but it seems like its easier to write an entire book than to write a 5-page paper about the book. Nevertheless, we forge on.

I've never done well with time spent in solitude. I tell people that my mind is like a dark alley; I should never go there alone. Over the past three or four months I've spent a lot of time in the alley. Some days have been really rough, but for the most part it has been an interesting time. God has been working out some things; things that I didn't necessarily know were there. Here's a little insight on what I've been learning:

1. Alleys are dark for a reason. Darkness not only hides a lot of stuff, it intimidates as well. One of the reasons I've spent a great deal of energy avoiding my mind is that I wasn't quite sure what I would find there. I've battled with a number of significant issues over the years and, although God has faithfully carried me through all of them, I suspect that some of the skeletons still clatter around in the alley. Sometimes it's easier to avoid an area than to try to clean it up.

2. Alleys typically smell bad. Many of the alleys that I've wandered down are lined with dumpsters; a type of socially acceptable trash heap. Most of the time, if something stinks, it's because it's old and dead. My mind has a few dumpsters in it; containers (memories) filled with other people's trash that has collected in my head. Most of the issues (and some of the people) are long-since dead, but they live on in my head, usually to my own demise. For much of my life I have believed that it was me that stunk. Upon closer investigation, I realized that most of the garbage isn't even mine. I somehow granted access to my dumpster for other people's junk. Granted, I still have lots of thoughts and habits that I'm working on getting cleaned up, but for the most part, my life is more sanitized than it's ever been.

3. Sometimes people throw stuff in the alley that doesn't belong. There are things in my life that I will carry because they are mine to bear, but not everything in my head belongs to me. Before I started this mental dumpster-diving excursion, I just accepted all of the junk as my own. I don't know if it's been through the writing of my latest book or the fifty hours a week I spend alone, but I have come to realize that a bunch of this stinky mess isn't even mine. Part of my journey has been releasing the junk back to it's rightful owners.

4. We can police the use of our dumpster. I don't have to let other people's junk fill up my alley. I was raised in a lot of confusion which led to some unhealthy behaviors like codependency and people-pleasing. For much of my life I thought that I was responsible for whatever happened to land in my life. I have come to realize that I really get to decide how much ownership I will take in in any given situation. I've found a lot of freedom in that.

5. We can empty the dumpster whenever we need to. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, He made a way for me to have a clean slate anytime I needed it. The bible says that when we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That means, the trash that is rightfully ours, can be removed every time we repent. But what about the trash that other people heap into our lives? I believe the answer to that is forgiveness. As we release the people into God's hands and let Him deal with their trash, they no longer have access to our hearts and minds. Unforgiveness is a prop that holds the door wide open for resentment and bitterness. If you're holding the lid open, don't be surprised when people throw their trash in.

6. It's up to us to keep our alley clean. Once the trash man (God) cleans up our mess, it's our responsibility to keep it clean. The word 'repent' means to turn away from. When Jesus forgave the woman who was caught in adultery He told her, "Go now and leave your life of sin." He forgave her, but He also gave her instructions on how to continue on with her life. If we are serious about asking God to clean up our lives, we have to be serious about 'turning away from' our sin. For me, I had to enlist some help for that. I had to allow people into my life to hold me accountable, and then I had to be honest with them. Here's a free tip: accountability is not telling someone what you've already done; it's asking them if it's a good idea before you do it. Accountability has saved my walk with God. It's humbling, often embarrassing, and sometimes downright scary. And it will only work to the level of honest effort you put into it.

I have had ample opportunity in the past several months to work on my 'clean up Donna's alley' project. I haven't liked a lot of what I've found, but God has been with me every step of the way. I probably still wouldn't choose to have a picnic in my alley, but some of the stench has been removed and there's more room to move around. Progress, not perfection.

What's going on in your alley? Are you living the life God intended or are you holding a hankie over your nose hoping you don't throw up? Either way, God will meet you where you're at. I encourage you to take some time and investigate your personal alley. Shine the light of God's love and mercy over your dumpster. Forgive other people. Forgive yourself. And then, leave your life of sin. You don't have to keep the junk. Jesus is standing, arms open wide, waiting to receive you and your mess.

All thanks and glory to God.

Angus burger at BK

I went for lunch with some friends after Sunday service and Molly told a great testimony about a guy she met at church. For anyone who doesn't know Molly, imagine angel food cake covered with chocolate ganache, warm caramel, with tiny bits of melted German chocolate. Yes, she is that sweet. (And genuine, which is amazing considering her ultra-sweetness.) Anyway, Molly sees this guy at church and says hello. She asks how his week was and he tells her it was incredible. He goes on to share that, this week, he was released after serving a 19-year prison term. Molly told him that was fantastic and she asked him what he did on his first week out. He told her that he got and Angus burger at Burger King. Molly celebrated with him.
This guy heard about us when he got hooked up with our Prisoner Re-entry program. I absolutely love that Healing Place makes such a concerted effort to reach those that Jesus tells us to reach: widows, orphans, prisoners, the poor. I love that, on this guy's first non-incarcerated weekend in 19 years, he made it a priority to be in church. You can't tell me that God isn't at work within the walls of our prisons.
I was thinking; what would I do on my first week out?
A better question: what would you do?
Drop me a line and lemmino. Be blessed in Jesus' name. All glory to God!

Popeye's and PVC

Oooy! It has been a crazy weekend and now I just need a nap. We had our official launch of the Baton Rouge Dream Center on Sunday. I know, we've been open for a long time already, but this was the official kick-off. (In order to make anything official in Louisiana there has to be a football metaphor.)
Art Moore (retired NFLer) came and preached an amazing word and his talented wife Gail brought the house down with her music. The crowd loved it! We had just over 300 people come to service and stay for lunch...nothing like a little Popeye's fried chicken to round out your weekend (or your waist).
I had a lot of things on my to do list but this morning I thought I would cut the grass. Not a problem...fire up the mower, push it around the yard, run over the clean-out pipe, watch it explode into a thousand pieces. Wait a minute...that's not right. I stood there looking at the gaping hole that should be covered by PVC...nope, looking straight down into the sewer pipe. Bummer.
On my second trip to Home Depot I was trying to figure out how many times I've mowed the grass without breaking that pipe. It's gotta be over 50. Maybe I should have stayed in bed.
You ever have a day like that? One minute you're pushing through, not thinking much about anything, and then you're looking into the business end of a sewer pipe. I wonder if that's what it was like in Gethsemane. One minute Jesus is hanging with His boys, the next minute His crew has pulled the chute and Peter's saying he's never met the guy. Talk about a rough day. I know that a busted PVC pipe can't be compared to the agony and sacrifice of the Garden, but that's how quick your day day can change. That's how quick my day went from carefree to frustrating.
I was sitting in my car at Home Depot (the second time) and I was really struggling with being mad at myself for running over the thing. Then I had a thought (straight from the Holy Ghost) that maybe it didn't have to ruin my whole day. I felt like God told me just to roll with it...fix the thing, but don't let it take control. I felt like He told me to enjoy the day, no matter what happened. That was really cool for me. I try really hard to operate in high grace with other people, but I don't have a lot of grace for my own mistakes. Thank God He has enough grace for all my screw-ups. The grass got cut, the pipe got fixed and I still have time for a nap. My God is so good. All glory to Him!