wakebird » Bridge Building

Renew the Wall

wakebird — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 13:51:14 +0000

Today we as a church are going down to Cabrillo Park again to help with some renewal and restoration. We are in the middle of a series on Nehemiah and the city of Santa Ana wanted us to help fix and paint the wall surrounding the park. Crazy, huh? And awesome.

I love that we have adopted this physical place in our community. I love that we are starting to reach out more. I had an incredible conversation with a member of our church yesterday about something called SAFE Families that I think will be a perfect opportunity for our church to be Jesus to Santa Ana in some tangible ways that are actually doable for most people. I think this will be big.

Cabrillo Park Restoration Project

wakebird — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 13:50:00 +0000

In the past, at our church, we’ve purchased Easter Lilies in memory/honor of loved ones and enjoyed a beautiful display of lilies on the platform in our Worship Services on Easter Sunday. This year, instead of decorating the Worship Center with lilies, we’re planning to reach out to our community. We have partnered with the city of Santa Ana to restore the park around the corner from our church and to have a continuing relationship with the city and the many different people who use the park regularly. These people range from homeless people to families of many different ethnicities to neighborhood kids.

Here’s the details or check the webpage on it:
Saturday, April 14 (8am-12noon) All-church work day:
Plant trees and color.
Remove graffiti from walls, structures and tables.
Vines (boston ivy) planted along wall to cover preventing further graffiti.
Paint center structure, benches, and picnic tables.
Clean playground equipment and remove sand from rubber surface.
Sift sand of debris.
Pick up trash.

Ongoing Weekly Maintenance
Graffiti Removal, this would include require training.
Clean playground equipment and remove sand from rubber surface. Sift sand of debris.
Pick up trash
Let’s trust God to open doors for us to ENCOUNTER our neighbors with the love and grace of Jesus Christ our Wonderful Savior.

Contact Matt Doan at mdoan@calvarylife.org or
Tammy Harris at tharris@calvarylife.org to be involved.

AIDS Services Foundation Story

wakebird — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 13:51:00 +0000

So I was working yesterday at the OC ASF on a mailing to send to supporters and doing some help with an email about the OC AIDS Walk and in the office behind my little desk is the Housing Services Supervisor. While I’m working a man walks in to meet with the Housing Services man about help with his living situation. I can’t help but hear the conversation and it was my first taste of what ASF does for people. This person was a homosexual male who attends a popular church in the area and was just diagnosed with HIV a few months ago. He is struggling to make ends meet with having to take time off for treatments and feeling sick from before he started medications and some other things. It didn’t sound like he was in a great financial position before he was diagnosed, but now it’s even more difficult – especially emotionally. He is going to receive some help from ASF for this month’s bills and then they are going to meet with him again to see if some potential employment opportunities work out.

I didn’t get to meet this man and I don’t even know his name, but I was praying for him throughout his meeting while attaching labels to envelopes. That’s bridgebuilding.

Another housing services person was acting all funny because I am a pastor and I had to say again that I don’t mind if they cuss. But then she said, “Wow, I can’t believe you are a pastor.” And she acted all weird and flustered, so I said, “If you ever need to talk…” She just laughed but it’s cool that I could make myself available.

10 Briefs

wakebird — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 13:50:00 +0000

1. My first day at OC AIDS Services Foundation was good. I talked for a while with the head of volunteers and helped dispell some of his presuppositions about pastors. I helped make an email list for the AIDS Walk on May 12.
2. Matt Doan, High School Pastor at Calvary Church, started a blog. It’s called OrangeCountyPastor which shows Matt’s love for combining three words together (The High School group is called EveryDayLife) and his nerdiness. It’s a cool blog other than the lame quotes on top and the RSS feeds on the bottom.
3. I am valuing the concepts of Sabbath and sabbatical more and more. Especially after conversations with staff members struggling with burnout. We need to “feed our forgotten souls” as Paul Borthwick says.
4. I’m going to see the movie “300” tonight. I’m a combination of excited and apprehensive. I’ve heard it’s gnarly.
5. I’m going to buy a new surfboard. Mine is about 10 years old. When I realized that I wanted to turn myself into a dorky high school freshman and make fun of myself.
6. We have a Kenya meeting this Saturday. I’m looking forward to this trip but it’s a bit all consuming.
7. Trader Joe’s banana bread is excellent for breakfast – especially with Kona coffee.
8. Be careful what you say in staff meetings. It can backfire on you.
9. I recently got Logos Bible Software and I suck at it so I wanted to go to a training seminar and I saw this. WOW!! I need to go to this. It’s for ministry.
10. GO UCLA BRUINS TONIGHT!!

First Day of ASF

wakebird — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 14:19:00 +0000

Today will be my first day volunteering at the Orange County AIDS Services Foundation. I will be there from 2-5pm today helping out in the office with whatever they need. It should be interesting.

We talked at our Lighthouse (small group) last night about the awkwardness of “witnessing” or “evangelism.” I’m not going to talk here about the stuff we all know – letting our life be the example, love people without agendas, etc. One thing that was cool that we talked about was something Jesus said to two of John the Baptist’s disciples. He said, “What do you seek?” or “What are you looking for?” or “What do you want?”

Do we ever just ask people, “What do you want?” or “What is it that you are looking for from life?” I love that question and it seems like such an easy thing to ask people that you are just getting to know to take a relationship from trivial and light to a deeper conversation. I don’t want to be reading the 4 Spiritual Laws to people but I also don’t want to have meaningless conversations with people that are disguised as loving them without an agenda.

OC AIDS Services Foundation

wakebird — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 14:45:00 +0000

I wasn’t going to post about this for a while but Mike has forced my hand with this post about the OC AIDS Walk. Our church has been on a series that is casting vision to our people for being more involved in our community. These need to be consistent ministry relationships that are close to our community where we can eventually talk about Jesus. Mostly we want to live Matthew 5:16 of letting our light shine before people so they see our good deeds and praise our Father in Heaven.

I knew that I was going to Kenya this summer with our high school students and an organization called Christ’s Hope ministering to people who have AIDS or are affected by AIDS. So I thought, why help across the world, but not at home? Then I started searching online for a good AIDS organization in Orange County and I found OC AIDS Services Foundation. A week ago I went to a Volunteer Information/Orientation Meeting at their office in Costa Mesa. It seems like they are doing good work and I can get involved in some different ways – starting with helping in the office and the Food Pantry. Then working at the OC AIDS Walk on May 12. Later I could deliver meals to client’s homes or drive client’s to the doctor office or things like that.

I’m excited to break some barriers between evangelical pastors and the AIDS community. It should be challenging, but fun and rewarding in a Kingdom-sense.

I WOULD LOVE FOR YOU TO JOIN ME ON THE AIDS WALK ON MAY 12.