RCC: Street Ministry

(Check out my website here)

Every Saturday for the past six years the River City Church (RCC) of Jacksonville Florida has been hitting up McDuff Avenue, where a large majority of the homeless and lower class live. Arriving at 7:30am every Saturday RCC makes rounds praying over people, loving them like Jesus, and giving them bags of groceries for free. Once a month the Church also puts on a cookout where they give away free hot dogs and hamburgers to any passerbyers. Why does these Church members wake up early on their day off every week to come build relationships with the people in this area? Simply because they see that Jesus has told them to and they do it with joy.


This past Saturday I had the priveledge to join them on a prayer walk where we handed out food, prayed for
people, and visited some in their homes. One of the first people we were able to give food away to were two ladies walking towards us on the sidewalk dragging behind them a small cart. As we approached them adn asked them if they would like some groceries they were so surprised that the food was free and there was no "catch." We prayed over both of the women, gave them groceries, and invited them to the cookout next Saturday. These ladies were so surprised and gratefull that strangers were willing to care for them out of the love had placed on their hearts.

As we moved on we ended up going to a house that the members of the Church were quite familiar with. For years they have been coming to these people to bring food, love and encourage the two people who lived inside. While I am not entirely sure of what all the lady we prayed for had, I do know that she had been diagnosed with AIDS and two years ago was found in her home almost dead. Since that time the she has gotten married, moved into a new home, and built a lasting relationship with many of the Church members who have visited her.

While standing in their home I felt God urge me to pray for the ladies husband. I had heard him tell one of the Church members that his lungs seemed to be doing better and from that knew that God wanted me to pray for his lungs. As we were about to leave I asked him if I could pray for him and that God would heal his lungs. The Holy Spirit showed up in that house and I could tell He was working on the man in some way (be it physical healing, emotional, or spiritual I do not know.)

The River City Church is making such a difference in their community just by going out every week for a few hours and telling people that they are worth it. I often wonder if we do not truly realize how much of an impact we have on people just by our sheer acts of random kindness. Being a Christian is so much more than going to Church every week, reading your Bible, or truly even having a relationship with Christ. Those are all very important things (particularly the last one), but if we cannot give the love we have recieved out to others we come across daily what is the point in us staying on this earth? Jesus said, go out into the world and make disciples of all the nations. Your backyard constitutes as one of those nations. Ministry wasn't designed to be done at set times, rather it is a lifestyle we walk in every day.

(Check out RCC here)

Waiting in His Presence

The past two weeks here in Jacksonville, Florida have been amazing. I've gotten to meet with some incredible people and see the Church move in ways I never thought I would. But on the flip side of that there has been a lot of waiting periods as well. The first week I was here I was primarily in the room I'm staying in writing up blogs, working on videos, searching Churches and other tedious tasks. While this hasn't been the most fun it was much easier to do than what God has called me to do this past week: wait.

That's right. He's having me wait on Him. Go figure, right? This small season of waiting on Him has been so different from any other season I have had to do it. This time I have had absolutely no answers, no way out, no fall back, but only what He has given me. It is so hard to just sit and listen without praying, having my mind wonder off, or anything but longing and listening for His voice to show up.

While it has been a bit of a struggle personally for me just to sit and wait, it has also been one of the most peaceful weeks I have had in quite a while. I've had some pretty awesome experiences with the Holy Spirit and God has promised me a lot and shown me who I am in ways I hadn't seen before. But still there has been little direciton as to what is next.



This has gotten me to realize how often I focuse on the next thing in life. Often times I am so focused on what is next I miss what is happening right in front of me. More importantly within that I miss His presence. That has been a major part of what this past week has been about for me...His presence.

While I may not be 100% positive about where, how, or when, I do know this: His presence isn't going to leave me. As long as I let Him He can be Lord over my life and with that I don't have to worry about a single thing except keeping my focus upon Him.

If your interested in helping support me financially you can e-mail me here or by sending any donations to my PayPal account through my e-mail: kyle.g4k@gmail.com. Thank you so much for you prayers and support!

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Rethreaded Video Interview

Here's a video interview I did with Kristin Keen, the founder of Rethreaded.

For more information about Rethreaded click here!

The 12 Disciples: What Were They Thinking?

This past week has been hard. I've said this so many times before and each time I say it, it becomes more and more true: this is the hardest thing I have ever done. I'm currently in Jacksonville, FL with a little over $70 to my name. I'm on ATL (Ask The Lord -  click here for details) and it is the most faith stretching thing I have ever done.




I keep asking myself what the twelve disciples must have thought when Jesus commanded them to go out with literally nothing but was on their person at the time so that they could do the Father's work (Mark 6:7-13). While times have certainly changed between then and now I can't help but think about how they must have reacted to Jesus telling them this. "You want us to go where and do what?", "What do you mean we can't bring anything with us? Not even money?!" - But, they still went...and God showed up.

I wonder if any of them doubted what Jesus was saying. It takes a true act of faith to step out and truly depend upon God like that. It's something the world deems irresponsible, distasteful, and frankly quite crazy. Having grown up in the world like everyone else, I would be lying if I didn't admit that sometimes my mind tends to doubt myself and if I'm truly hearing from the Lord. But you know what's crazy? He's still showing up. I have a roof over my head, food to eat, people to love, and some alone time with Him every single day. When I realize this, it brings me to the realization of how stupid it is for me to doubt what He's doing.

Last night I had a huge wake up call from God. He exposed to me some of my "junk" that I didn't realize was there. As soon as I saw it thoughts started flowing into my head that I wasn't good enough for this journey or that I wasn't ready. I began thinking of solutions to the current problem I thought I had and decided that I needed to find a good community with an awesome mentor who can help me work through my junk until I'm good. THEN I would be able to go back out and do this ATL. - Lies. All lies.

I ended up skyping an awesome squad mate and friend of mine from my World Race soon after making the decision that I was probably going to quit this ATL and seek out discipleship. As soon as I got online with him his first words to me were, "You're not quitting." Quitting for me would be so easy. I didn't see that whenever I was thinking about making plans for discipleship school. I thought getting back in community again would be beneficial, but in reality it would just be a place for me to hide again. Being on this ATL where I'm exposed to the world and completely dependent on God is where I'm going to get the most growth and where discipleship is going to happen for me on a whole new level.

I still think God is crazy for choosing ME to do this ATL. Never before have I asked the question, "Why me?" so much. I guess I've never really seen how bad my "junk" really is. But what is amazing is that even though I see the junk, He just see's Jesus in me and my created value. He reminds me of all of the prophets of the Bible. They were drunks, adulterers, murderers, and more, yet God still used them to bring His name glory. He's showing me that really, I'm no worse than anyone else in the world and I don't have to be better or worse than them. I just have to maintain a relationship with Him so that He can teach me who I am and through that the junk will fall to the side.

So, yeah. The disciples must have been out of their minds! But that's a good thing. Because when we're out of our own minds we can start focusing on His mind and the things He has in store for those who love Him.

Rethreaded: Sewing a New Story

Rethreaded’s Mission

Rethreaded loves people affected by the sex trade by fostering relationship and life-giving community. Our vision is to unravel the effects of the sex trade by fighting business with business on a global and local level. Rethreaded seeks to unravel the effects of the sex trade, whether it takes the form of human trafficking, prostitution, pornography or strip clubs. This multibillion dollar industry is founded on the exploitation of mostly women and children. As an organization we want to provide safe, viable, and dignity-giving work to survivors of the sex trade.

Local Impact: Sewing a New Story

Rethreaded provides a four-month holistic training program for women in the Jacksonville, Florida area who are coming out of lives of addiction, violence, human trafficking, and prostitution. Many of these women leave prison with felony records, creating significant challenges to employment. Rethreaded is a safe place where women are paid a living wage to become artisan seamstresses and “upcycle” donated t-shirts into new creations for sale. See their products here.

Global Mission: Supporting Freedom Businesses

Rethreaded also operates as a distribution company that sells products made by women from all over the world who have found freedom from the sex trade. We sell these products at our warehouse, local events, seasonal home parties, and online. Read about our freedom business partners here.

Values

Love: Love is the transforming agent of Rethreaded. We seek to love others unconditionally, healthfully, and in a way that speaks to the source of our Love.  

We believe that God is the purest source of Love and seek to love others like God has loved us.  The greatest model of love is shown through the grace, mercy, and compassion of Jesus.  We will humbly try to follow His perfect example of what perfect love tangibly looks like in a very messy world. We trust that love can guide our business and help us overcome anything that comes our way.  

Acceptance:  All men, women, and children have the possibility to be redeemed, healed and freed from the effects of the sex trade.  

We believe that both the oppressed and the oppressor can be given a  chance to “Sew a new Story”. Whoever walks through the doors of Rethreaded, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, sex, or past will be welcome into the community of Rethreaded.  We do recognize that there will be instances where boundaries must be put in place but those will be for the safety of our employees.  

Acceptance comes from knowing someone’s story. By knowing each other we are more free to love and enter into each other live in a healthy non-judgmental way.

Community: In a world that is filled with individualism we seek to offer a radical alternative in which people can experience what it truly means to be a part of a community.

This is where our mission becomes real. Our commitment to each other will keep us knitted together when our relationship and community is at stake. We will come together in hard times, celebrate the successes, and press each other to become more of who we were created to be.  

This sense of community that will be developed within Rethreaded’s own walls can then be taken and used to transform, our city, and our world.

Employees

Rethreaded celebrated the graduation of its first employee from its four-month holistic training program on March 1, 2013. Beginning in November 2012, an all-volunteer staffed training program began to provide healing in the form of daily devotionals, journaling, and collage, and instruction in color theory, nutrition, budgeting, and of course, sewing.

Our employees are artisan seamstresses, meaning they take ownership of the products by making design and color choices during production. Using donated t-shirts as the raw material, the possibilities present a creative challenge and an opportunity to express individuality. Rethreaded believes that art and creativity can heal the brain by strengthening existing connections and sparking new neural pathways.

Rethreaded is currently raising money for its next round of training. Click here to donate.

ATL 2014 Video

Since I left North Carolina last Friday I've been feeling God giving me direction for this ATL. Below is a list of cities I feel that He is going to lead me to. Of course I am more than willing to go wherever else He may call me to and this list is not exclusive.

Jacksonville, Florida

Panama City, Florida

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

New Orleans, Louisiana

Houston, Texas

Dallas, Texas

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Las Angeles, California

San Francisco, California

Redding, California (Bethel Church)

Portland, Oregon

Seattle, Washington

If you have questions or are wanting to donate please e-mail me or send donations to my PayPal through: kyle.g4k@gmail.com

Restless and Alone

For almost my Christian life I have been strangely against the unity of the Church. Why? Probably because like most people I have been hurt deeply by people in the Church and in efforts to protect myself I have distanced myself from it. That was the way I felt until I went on the World Race last January and experienced what true community was. Now it's hard not to be apart of the world changing movement that is the Church. 

(Suntrust Mortage (left) and Wells Fargo (right) buildings in Jacksonville, FL)

I have to admit that right now one of the hardest things I'm dealing with and experiencing is the loneliness of doing an Ask The Lord (ATL - see Mark 6:7-8) with only the Holy Spirit to comfort and guide me. It's been quite the journey so far and already I've seen God show up in many ways, but I would like to share this experience with someone else as well. 

Many people have suggested to me that I need to go with one other person as "it is Biblical." While Jesus did send everyone out in two's, I also realized they didn't have the Holy Spirit living inside of them. That's why I'm so okay with doing this ATL with Him right now. But I feel as awesome as it is to go with just me and Him, my heart is longing for something more. We were created to live in radical community and that's what I need.

Please help me spread the word about what I'm doing. If you know someone or have questions please contact me. My information is located in the footnotes at the bottom of this page.

I'm not entirely sure when or where God is going to have this other person show up, but I hope it is soon. I feel so small right now compared to the rest of the World, but I know He is with me and guiding me. Prayers of protection are greatly appreciated!

I have a few interviews this week and may start filming today! Be on the lookout for my next blog this upcoming Thursday (1/23/14).