stepping up

So i just posted the schedule of Sally Rymer without realizing i hadn't even posted a blog about this great thing that has been going on. since my trip home to kc mo i connected with this young girl Sally Rymer. my pastor at Jacobs well suggested her when i went to him for resources on justice as i am involved with an event on July second. he told me there is nothing like youth hearing it from their own peer and if we could financially do it to bring Sally to speak because she truly is an abolitionist today.

i was so excited about the idea i couldn't contain myself. i contacted people right away and tried to get the ball rolling. i wasn't sure we could do it financially, but through the grace of God churches and the Gathering Place here, her travel has been paid for...praise God and she will be with us for 5 days. we have arranged for her to speak at one thing a day and we are OH SO grateful for her coming!!!

the schedule of her engagements are in the previous post to this one. if you are here in Georgia please join us in loving on her and learning from her. if you are in Kansas city or anywhere else...fly here ;) or just be praying for those captive, for sally's involvement and for the hearts of those who become aware.

I'm glad i stepped up and went after it...not worrying about the finances of getting her here...God always makes a way when it aligns with his heart. and i believe it truly does.

"Cease evil, learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow." Isaiah 1:17

DON'T BE AFRAID TO STEP UP & SEEK JUSTICE...

IJM-Sally Rymer

INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE MISSION
SPEAKER SALLY RYMER (17 year old abolitionist)

Fighting Modern Day Slavery!!!! JULY 1-5

Speaking engagements

Wednesday July 1: St. Simons Community Chruch Youth Group

Thursday July 2: SSCC Gathering Place event 9am-12

Friday July 3: Sunny Brooks Market Place 8PM
(Come for live music and a great dinner then join us for hearing about how we too can be a modern day abolitionist with Sally!!)

Saturday July 4: Freedom Cookout 1pm @ a private home
(A laid back informal event to talk with her, swim, eat and celebrate freedom we are blessed with and learn how we can help those who still seek it.)

Sunday July 5: Wesley United Methodist Church 10:45am
(before hand she will stop at the Baptist Ministry Center for 10-15 minutes. After WUM off to the airport she will go.)

Also if anyone is interested in meeting with her one on one she is more than happy to do that in her free time. just let us know.

*For more information on other events while she is in town contact Natasha Taylor with Much Ministries @ 913-579-3180 or 912.778.5574

From Caleb

"Mr. Beaver & Mrs. Kathy have helped me come a long way in my spiritual life and my life with God! They are the best people in the whole world. They are like parents to me! They let me come and help at the Market Place during the summer & on days we aren't in school! Papa Beaver and Mama Kathy will do anything for anybody!! The MARKET PLACE has the best food in the whole world!! My favorite is Caleb grits. They are a bowl of grits with cheese and sausage. The reason they are my favorite is because they are NAMED after ME!"

-Caleb (age 11)

Good things in store...

So there are good things in store...and i am so glad to be here...

i have been back in Waynesville, south Georgia...much ministries market place for a week and a half...and its good! so much going on.

we have reorganized, and tweaked the office/business center which has been amazing! we have had an art class with youth through Brantley(county) family connections, had a youth group volunteer twice at the marketplace, cleaning, learning-- great stuff...oh and we have had a CPR class help at the MP and a first aid class and beaver has done afternoon cooking classes with youth. all really great stuff.

what else...pray for our chef Chris....more than that our friend...i told his story on here while i was in kc and when i got back we didn't know if he was going to still be working with us. he had a set back...but Praise God he was with us this past weekend...so just keep lifting him up in prayer...its hard to stop cycles...but our God is a God of redemption and restoration...no matter how many set backs...so keep praying into it family and friends!!!

thanks for being a part of this journey.
LOVE LOVE LOVE

RE:focus

i came back to lots of things in the process of changing...i went straight from being pick up at the airport to a staff meeting. we are trying to get more structure and focus. all together i counted 13 people at the staff meeting. some people are getting consistently paid and other people have some support...and somehow it just all works out. we still have the mentality of if there is need we'll work it out....or more like God will work it out.

the focus when i came back is on how to make the marketplace with all the business more profitable so that everyone can be paid well and all the things we are doing will be more effective. i think that beaver and Kathy are such free spirits that God has brought mark Taylor (Kelly's husband) to join the team. he will work with us during his severance period. but perhaps longer-Lord willing. he started the Monday i got back...and its been a blessing. mark used to manage a restaurant and do many things he is very focused and organized. its good. we are going to be consistently asking 4 questions to improve our space: is it making money? does it have the potential to make money? how can we make this happen? is it in our three-quarter community vision/focus?

now instead of just mama Kati & papa beaver we have mama Kelly & papa mark. it was already kind of like this, but now its sort of official. its great because mark really has a passion to make the marketplace profitable so that we can be more effective all around. it's what Kathy & beaver have wanted all along, but now mark can focus on it so beaver can focus on other instead of detail the small things that make a big difference if that makes any sense. Kelly put it as 'there's now two more oxen to pull the weight" and its really working out that way beautifully!

all that to say much ministries is still growing and learning going on its 3rd year as a non profit. God is doing great things and i wish you could all experience being here as its really beautiful despite the chaos that it has to sound like...

much ministries never wants money to be the focus. our hearts are to be always working in Gods kingdom which does not revolve around money, but sometimes its good to reflect and see how we can be better stewards of the spaces/businesses/donations/etc. that the Lord blesses us with. i think this is the season that much ministries is in right now.

we are very busy...but its very good!!! :)

♥ ♥ ♥
tasha rae

much to update...

but i think i will do it later...gonna go watch aquamarine with sweet rebecca who just chopped off her hair today for locks of love. such a great girl that becc-ah-boo!!!

leap

so not only was my new phone a miracle, but so was my hair cut while i was home in kcmo. i decided that i really could use and wanted a hair cut...didn't quite know how i was going to pay for it, but i called and made the appointment anyway. i figure if i just leap...he'll cover the rest. a leap of faith seriously is all we need.

so i scheduled it not exactly knowing how the funds would come, but had faith they would. if you read my blog regularly you knew i went through most of my stuff and down sized so i could really jump in down here in Georgia. i was going through old cards from high school graduation, birthdays, etc. and i found a twenty dollar bill and a thirty dollar check from my uncle...the exact amount of money i needed.

isnt God GOOD!!!! I love it. i love Him.
you know His promises are true...He'll take care of us we just have to trust Him!

miracle phone

So some of you may know this fabulous story...but for those of you who don't here it goes...

so about a month ago i was driving into town as into town means about 30minutes...and i was praying, talking with my Lord and explaining that i really would like a new phone...i need a new phone...i mean i don't need it but its very beneficial to have. see my phone was real sick....battery life maybe 3 hours, and screen broken hard to see, text, etc. however i had no money to buy a new phone and didn't know what to do. i just wanted to know, and was hoping He had a plan to work it out. ask and you will receive right...or at least knock and He listens...

Well that evening I was with some friends and they said you need a new phone and i said...'I KNOW' the Sellars asked me what service i was with and i said sprint. next thing you know they are giving me a phone. which is a treo and way nicer than my razor phone...all that to say THANK YOU JESUS for my miracle phone and for God using the Sellars to provide it. thanks Jay & Brooke! i have been so blessed.

so there you have my miracle phone. whoo hooo.....

some npr articles on Haiti

May-19-2009
'Buried' Haitian City Braces For New Storm Season
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104108121



May-19-2009
Bill Clinton Named U.N. Envoy To Haiti
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104307471



Jun-14-2009
In Haiti, A Low-Wage Job Is Better Than None
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104403034


Keep praying into this nation...these people need our dedication and diligence to wage the war that is going on...extra angels. God did not come for freedom to only take place in eternity...it does say in the Lord's prayer..."ON EARTH, as in heaven" so go after it...the enemy trembles with fear because the Lord is on our side!

James & MK12

I have been so blessed to have many communities filled with creative people and artists in many forms throughout my life. It really is a blessing and i am often inspired by each of them. One in particular i am always so proud and amazed by his skills and the things he is involved in. you may have heard me talk or even met him over the year. my dear friend James Ramirez...anyway i wanted to put a lil PR in here for him because i am constantly amazed by his work and creativity. he is part of a group called MK12...they have worked on many things, such as the movie stranger than fiction, the latest james bond film and the list really goes on... this is a piece that was recently released. i think it is really beautiful. enjoy!



to check out more of their stuff go to www.mk12.com and explore...or put mk12 in youtube and lots of fun stuff will come up as well!!! or check out james blog at http://friedpixelations.blogspot.com/

YEAH JAMES AND ALL THE PEOPLES OF MK12!

walls

the same thing is happening with Dorothy's wall and so many others in Haiti. keep it in your prayers as missionaries, organizations, businesses and families try to figure out how they will be able to pay for their new walls after the government tears down the old one.

pray for the leadership in Haiti to recognized that although this is helping the crowded streets it may also put some people out on the streets. help them to think of ways to support and give assistence to those in need. may they take action!

Chris’ Testimony (written in his own words)

I think i posted a blog awhile back about how i was going to give a little assignment to some of the market place's lovely staff. their testimonies of how God has used Much Ministries to help them to heal and restore things in there life. Chris finished his assignment and is allowing me to share it with the people that support me working with this ministry. Keep him in your prayers as God is working in him and its a process...as we all are!

My name is Christopher A. Boston. I was born into addiction of alcoholism then birth I became just that an alcoholic. However, I had a great childhood, never abused or traumatized. I had a very rough life. Alcohol and drugs was always a part of my life. I was born into active addiction through my mother’s addiction to alcohol. I lived and rew into other drugs as I got older. At age nine I was introduced to pot and alcohol, which later grew into more intense drugs use, which led to abuse, pills, pot, cocaine, pcp, acid, speed, heroin, just a name to lot is not all. I continued to use during my teenage and early adult life, I got married to a wonderful young lady named Angie and bore with her three beautiful kids, Monic in ’83, Brittany in ’86, and Simone in ’89.

Through my alcohol and drug addiction we had what I thought was a wonderful life. Angie was a stay at home mom as I paid all the bills and she had what I thought was a wonderful life, of taking care of our three kids, Monic, Brittany & Simone. However, she was miserable, cause she desired more than just a man who gave her a pampered life. She wanted more LOVE, is what she game into the relationship with and only the same, I thought I was providing just that, I was happy and she was not. I ran the streets of NY, NY and Conneticut, selling drugs and living the life and thinking she was happy, however she wasn’t. But why, she was a stay at home mom, bills paid, and money to do and go at will, but that was not happiness for someone you supposedly love and have a family with. The kids seemed happy to have all most kids didn’t have, but they didn’t have me. I was just there, but never there, unlike my parents, they were always there, this was a pattern that was hard to break, living a life style of luxury (being a master chef), happiness wasn’t a happy home.

I later divorced and married again and had more kids thinking that’s what it took to be a good man and to be loved by the kids you make in any relationship. I wasn’t happy, but had no reason to be unhappy. I was living a life style that made me happy, I thought. Later nothing mattered, but I was wrong, I later I remarried again, but still I wasn’t happy.

My life spun out of control for years. Thinking I had it all, I had nothing. I forgot about Christ, which I had come to know at a early age. However, through losing my Mother, baby sister, then older brother all within six months, I gave up on God. I thought He cursed me for my wrong doings and indiscretions and in return, I cursed God.

As my drug addiction grew worse and spiraled out of control God was no longer a part of my life. What a terrible misconception. My life became further unmanageable as I fell into a pitfall of worthlessness. I thought I had it all, an accredited, well-known talented executive chef making very good money at a very young age. I was seeing and serving superstars from all walks of life even presidents were my very best clients, Carter, George and George W. Bush. Drugs made them look like nothing just ordinary people.

After years of denial and abusing my body soul and mind with the most powerful drugs, the plague hit me like a ton of bricks and never before, after years of drug and alcohol abuse, long after most would have thought it was too late, guess what happened to me… I found the Baptist Ministry Center, Bill Thomas, Director, and Cindy Womack, Asst. Director. Through their ministry and compassion for Christ and those who are seeking help. I found him, within myself right there on Norwich & 0 street. Who would have ever thought that enabled me to find myself, to which Bill, Cindy and Judy (Bill’s wife) introduced me to Beaver and Kathy Brooks and the Much Love Community. Through the ministry the lost find Christ and are reborn in His love through love, like you wouldn’t imagine. But have a chance to experience through Christ and Much LOVE that its very sacred and a part of everyday life. Through a new creature in Christ who strengthens me so, we seek to change a life the way ours has been changed, cause who would have ever thought….

GOD KNEW IT ALL THE TIME. YOU MUST FIRST BELIEVE AND ALWAYS HAVE FAITH!!!

-Christopher A. Boston


FYI- chris is going on 9 months of being clean and sober. he is a huge blessing to the market place and much ministries. keep him in your prayers...and praise God for how far he has come.

oh and one more thing...we love his masterpiece dishes...as will you so know you are always welcome to come take a quick trip to Waynesville!!! :)

torture???

So i was reading on Tim Keel's blog about torture and was amazed by all the articulate and challenging things addressed in the issue of torture, death penalty and abortion...

check it out...
http://www.timkeel.com/timkeel/2009/04/is-torture-a-sin-or-who-would-jesus-torture.html#comments

out of all the things i read in his post and the comments...this quote is the only one my heart can really feel at peace about

"The thing that sucks about the real world is that sometimes there is no right answer, there is no good choice. There are only shades of darkness, and faith that somehow God is going to redeem all the brokenness."

these discussions can go on for days...but really when you boil it down... this is it to me... GOD is the redeemer... and i will never be 100% sure about anything other than this...the other issues... i have to take with humility, grace and pray for discernment through His spirit.

that's my little bit on it... its thought provoking and something that humanity needs to dialogue about but we need to give each other grace in the process.

go out and get it

Kansas City has been great so far...i am missing the MP and people in Georgia, but i am glad i have a couple more weeks left here.

yesterday i went to Freedom Covenant Church with Sarah Beth & Jon. SB has been working with freedom fire for 6 years or so now and it is a wonderful ministry in the north east side of Kansas city, mo. i was honored to be a part of what they are doing there that morning. transforming a community and investing in the people there. the spirit there reminds me a lot of much ministries. for more info go to Sarah Beth's blog at http://blessedroot.wordpress.com/


then later i went to Jacobs Well, what i would call my home church in Kansas City. i was again reminded of why i love it so much. hopefully i will get this right...but the pastor, Tim Keel, is a part of the coalition to abolish human trafficking in Kansas City . Jacobs Well had been collecting food, clothes, diapers, etc. because a big raid happen this past week in the Wesport area of Kansas City. the collection of clothes, food, etc. is going to the people rescued out of the trafficking ring. how amazing to see the church, Christs body, take part in changing the world and being activist for freedom...not only in the spiritual realm, but the physical. here is a great article from the Kansas City star about the bust. http://www.kansascity.com/340/story/1224991.html

also Tim Keel's blog is great: http://www.timkeel.com/

keep sending prayers to the Father as a world still filled with people in bondage and slavery exists. the victory is already won...we just have to go out and get it!!!