Vision...

it still needs tweaking in terms of really articulating it in a sharp way, but the thing is that i am sure it will change as i learn and grow in God's provisions.

Essentially a few years ago when friends around me started buying houses i started thinking about what that looked like for me. i realized that i didn't want to own a house. it seemed so separate and isolated from community. at the time i was reading 'the irresistible revolution: living as an ordinary radical' by Shane Claiborne (www.thesimpleway.org). it was a book that articulated all the things that i had felt and believed growing into my own. between that book, my church (www.jacobswellchurch.org), the Lesniewski family, and my friend Rachel Bonar i came up with a dream of owning a sixplex apartment building living in intentional community with like minded people.

this dream/vision was pushed in the back of my mind and heart as life happened and i went off to Haiti. however since visiting the brooks family in Georgia and being back in the states it has come to the front of my heart again. i have always wanted to live like i do in Haiti in America, but never known how in the world to really do it. there are so many distractions and 'things' to make you think you have it all and don't need God in America. we or i forget the desperation of how much i need my savior. the brooks family is a living example to me of this kind of faith and dependence. my vision of living in community is so rich and filled with possibilities. when i think about it...i would love to do what the brooks are doing in Kansas city. granted it will look different, because its urban verses rural, south, verses Midwest...but its good. i would love to just be an extension of much ministries. whatever space or apartment i own one day in kc could look like many things. right now i envision an apartment building with porches and on the lower levels there could be a place for revenue to support missionaries in Haiti. that we could have a community garden. that people would not just rent an apartment, but would be about living authentically together in a space that loves God, loves people and follows Jesus.

at much ministries they connect their community to the struggling community in Georgia to the world community in Haiti...its so beautiful to me...and the thing is i can see myself and my life being that too. i can really see this as my life's work. i can see this being something i truly commit to. the beauty of starting at home, then local, then the world and all of it colliding together. its so exciting to my spirit that i want to cry with joy! God can do and will do so much with this vision/dream...i pray.

so all that to say...i am going to be mentored and discipled in what that kind of life looks like...and i am very very excited. i would love for you all to be a part of it!

thanks again for being a part of this journey and what G-O-D is doing!!! :)

blessings.