Eunice Kariuki arrived in Colorado last week for a whirlwind schedule of meetings with potential donors.

No, she is not running for president, and unlike Karl Rove and Bill Clinton, she was not invited to the Aspen Ideas Festival, although she would have been a fine addition.

Eunice is a single mother who came to the Denver Rescue Mission seven years ago homeless and hungry and left town three years later with a plan to change the world.

It appears to be working.

“I came to Denver to start a new life,” she said, recalling the day she arrived from Pennsylvania, recently divorced and with a 15-month-old daughter. Her cousin had invited them to live with her until she found a job.

Three weeks later, her cousin was killed in a car wreck, and Eunice was on the street.

“I was really desperate,” she said. “I don’t know why I called the Rescue Mission. I’d never heard of them. I think it was because the word ‘rescue’ was in the name.”

The mission found her an apartment, paid a month’s rent and gathered furniture and food for her and the baby. With counseling and job assistance, within weeks Eunice was a legal secretary making $40,000 a year.

That should have been the happy ending of her story, but she loved the mission and wanted to be a part of it.

“I asked if they would hire me,” she said. But they don’t employ clients for at least a year.

“I was persistent. I think they gave me a job to shut me up.”

Her 10-year-old son soon joined her in Denver, and the family quickly set down roots.

They all were doing fine until Eunice’s sister, who worked on African recovery programs at the U.N., began sending her information about conditions in their native country of Kenya. A photo of a vulture waiting as an African child dies of starvation haunted Eunice.

“Something inside me wouldn’t stop getting angry,” she said.

One day she was asked to deliver a package to Del Maxfield, then CEO of the mission, and impulsively she told him that she had a dream of opening an orphanage in Kenya.

“He told me, ‘Everything begins with a dream,”‘ she said.

It was all she needed.

Maxfield suggested she write a business plan and come back to see him in two weeks.

She delivered it, estimating that she would need $150,000 to start.

Before she even realized what she had done, the formerly destitute woman was running an African relief agency.

She enlisted the smartest people she knew for her board of directors and registered the organization as a nonprofit. She learned fundraising from a book. Then she gave the orphanage a name: Tumaini.

It’s Swahili for “hope.”

“Everyone was rooting for me,” said Eunice, “and finally, I had to set a date to leave for Kenya. I said I would go on June 30, 2003. But I was doing this very naively.”

The weeks went by and fundraising was sluggish. When January 2003, came and went, she feared defeat.

Then an anonymous donor made a $90,000 contribution.

Her plan was back on track.

On June 30, as the plane was leaving the runway in Denver, Eunice looked at her two American children in the seats beside her. Her daughter had no idea what was in store for her. Her son was crying. “I wondered, ‘What am I doing?”‘ she said.

But there was no turning back.

In Kenya, she sought help from the late Rev. Angelo D’Agostino, a beloved Jesuit priest who had come from the U.S. to found an orphanage in Nairobi. He introduced her to lawyers, accountants, architects and a contractor.

Within a year, Tumaini was welcoming orphaned children.

Eunice no longer was homeless. Her salary was $600 a month, and all the children called her “mom.”

She was ecstatic.

Three years later, the structure designed to accommodate 40 children houses 47, and Eunice is dreaming again. She envisions a 50-acre plot with cabins to house up to 150 children. They would raise chickens, pigs and cows and grow their own food, maybe even producing a little extra to generate income to pay the teachers.

“We want it to be sustainable,” she said as she hurried between meetings with fundraisers and supporters. “I think it’s doable,” she said.

Apparently for Eunice, anything is.

Diane Carman’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Reach her at 303-954-1489 or dcarman@denverpost.com.

So now I’m on a journey to be like Jesus – not like Christians. Remember, Christian is a great noun but a lousy adjective. It’s going to be tough for a people pleaser like me to make this journey because it’s going to look radically different than what most people associate with the word Christian – but ultimately, that doesn’t matter because my final authority is God and no one else (if I say that enough times, I have to start believing it deep down, right?).

So what does this look like for me? It looks like forming and living in a community very similar to Shane Claiborne’s “new monastic” community The Simple Way (you won’t get too much info from that link because they recently experienced a horrific fire and are focusing their efforts on rebuilding and funding the rebuilding effort). There are several of these communities popping up around the country (there’s even one in my hometown that I didn’t know existed - funny story…the web filter at work classifies the site as “occult”).

Busted Halo describes The Simple Way like this:

The Simple Way is an alternative Christian community with six semi-permanent members and a few dozen others who have passed through its doors. Members live and pray together, dedicate themselves to work with their poor neighbors, contribute part of their outside incomes (everybody has a part-time regular job) to maintain the house and generally aspire to upset the established order through acts of radical Christian love. Those acts of Christian resistance have included running an art camp for their inner city neighbors, opening the door to prostitutes in crisis and visiting Iraq to perform circuses for war-battered kids. These acts are equal parts punk rock and monastic.

[..]

What distinguishes the house from other locales where cool, politically minded denizens split the rent is that these young adults gather expressly to share in each others’ religious lives and to follow Christ together. While members do not take vows and can stay for as long as forever or as little as a month, the best way to understand The Simple Way may be as a religious order, albeit an anarchist one with no Mother Superior and no dress code (although dread locks and piercings seem to be de rigeur). Living in community means conscientious dedication to each other’s spiritual journey.

[..]

The Simple Way is part of a growing movement of mostly young evangelical Christians and Catholics who are dedicated to taking the Gospel—not Genesis— literally. The group makes common cause with Catholic Worker houses of hospitality and dozens of other alternative communities that operate below the radar of American Christianity.

It’s something that looks and feels very different from traditional Christianity. This is what Rob Bell calls “Repainting the Christian Faith.”

For thousands of years followers of Jesus, like artists, have understood that we have to keep going, exploring what it means to live in harmony with God and each other. The Christian faith tradition is filled with change and growth and transformation. Jesus took part in this process by calling people to rethink faith and the Bible and hope and love and everything else, and by inviting them into the endless process of working out how to live as God created us to live.

The challenge for Christians then is to live with great passion and conviction, remaining open and flexible, aware that this life is not the last painting.

Get ready, because I’m going to start repainting what I know and do regarding Christianity. But I can’t do it alone. This vision of community kind of requires other people to be involved (you can’t have a community of one!). I have 1 friend who is interested in helping, but she is married and can’t be completely involved. Here’s what I need:

1. Prayer partners. Without prayer, this vision will never get off the ground.
2. Physical partners – people who have this same kind of vision and want to see this kind of community take off in Denver, CO.
3. Professionals who may not want to live in this kind of community, but have the knowledge of how to get a non-profit going and would lend their brains to the cause to get us up and running (I’ve been researching laws and how to incorporate and it just makes my head swim).
4. A name. I was hoping to use “The Gathering Place” in either Hebrew, Greek, or Latin, but I don’t like the way any of them sound. And there’s already a women’s day shelter in Denver called “The Gathering Place”.
5. A neglected or abandoned house that we can take over and move into in a neighborhood that will benefit from this type of community.

I’m not asking for much, am I? Even if you only have advice, I’ll gladly take that too.

Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, third world county, The Random Yak, Woman Honor Thyself, Right Truth, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox Daily News, Conservative Cat, and Church and State, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Cameron is 36 now and still has the boyish good looks of his TV character — but with a few of the wrinkles and creases that go along with self-reflection and fatherhood. He and his wife have six children, four adopted and two of their own.

He says he is more comfortable in his Christian skin today, his convictions just as strong, but without the isolating air of self-righteousness. He has reconciled with former “Growing Pains” cast members and even was part of a reunion show in 2000.

But Cameron says his priorities are very clear: God, family, career — in that order.

My opinion of Kirk was largely based on my opinion of Ray. I think Ray does more harm than good to the cause of Christ. His heart is good, and I know that. But the way he does things drives me nuts! Or maybe it’s really the banana thing that’s biased my opinion. Either way, it drove me away–and I’m a Christian! Imagine how unbelievers feel when they come across this ministry.

But I’ve watched some other clips now, and I really appreciate the effort that these men are putting forth in order to teach people about Jesus.

Watch ‘The Firefighter’ now

What are you doing to invest into the lives of those in your neighborhood?  How are you building community with believers and initiating ministry with unbelievers?  It’s convicting for me because it’s so much easier to live in my own private world and forget those whom God has placed right in front of me where I live.  Maybe I have some things to learn from you and good ole’ Mister Rogers.

I have to say that I fall short here. I’m much “happier” (not really, but it’s perceived happiness at the moment) when I’m a hermit. Isolated. Alone. Away from the effort it takes to be part of a community.

For some of us, it’s really hard to be emotionally intimate. We’re naturally loners and it takes a lot of effort to be around people. After awhile, it doesn’t seem worth it. When it gets to the point that just being in the same room with another person can make you irritable and grumpy. When you feel as if you’re expending all of your energy to make community work while no one else is. It doesn’t seem worth it.

But big picture? It really is worth it.

Often, in my circle of friends, one of the ways we show affection is to tease. In our minds it’s no big deal because it’s intended in the spirit of friendship and love–we forget that not everyone thinks like we do. It turns out that the incessant teasing of this person had deeply offended him, but he hadn’t known how to tell us until it hadn’t gotten so offensive that we made him feel like he wasn’t a man anymore. He felt completely disrespected and as if he didn’t matter to us in the slightest except as the butt of our jokes.

Then he raised the matter of the purity of our speech. Particularly coming from the girls in the group. We often joke around about things that we shouldn’t. We make flippant offhand comments that allude to sex or are blatantly about the topic. And he called us on it. I’m glad he did. I’ve never really been convicted over that aspect of my speech until he stood before our group last night and tried to explain how hard it is for him to keep his thoughts pure when he has to listen to us carrying on like that.

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.

1 Timothy 4:12

But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.

Colossians 3:8

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Phillipians 4:8

Those are certainly things that I haven’t been very concerned with. It’s “fun” or “funny” to joke like that, except it’s really not. It’s definitely not pleasing to the Lord.  It’s going to be hard to break the habit, but it can be done.

Why is it so acceptable, even among Christian circles, to talk about things that should remain in the bedroom?

Trackposted to Pirate’s Cove, third world county, Conservative Cat, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Before I proceed, I want to admit that I don’t know much about the politics involved in recent issues of immigration, especially in regards to controlling the influx of Latinos coming through the Mexican border. I know that it is a hot topic, and there are a variety of opinions out there. I don’t profess to know the answer to such political dilemmas, but that’s not what this conversation was about. It was about Hispanic places of worship and the white American Church “catering” to them.

A worship service consists of more than going through familiar motions. A really good worship service involves feeling. The multitude of believers (some more multitudinous than others) gather in one company, in one voice, lifting up the one Lord, Jesus Christ. It can be incredibly moving and inspiring.

Now, the ever-present question is, how do we worship? And the answer is different in every culture. Hispanics worship in a much different style than white Americans do. Africans worship in a manner that is very distinct from the way in which an Asian believer would praise God. It is important to not only allow the freedom of different worship styles in context, but to make sure that we do not impose burdens of style on churches that we plant or support in other cultures. The Holy Spirit is very relevant to different cultures, and there is nothing wrong with following his lead in such relevance.

I bring this up because I believe it is appropriate and befitting to allow Hispanics to gather and worship in a manner that suits their culture and adheres to biblical principles. In contrast, it is most certainly not the will of God for us to force a bunch of Mexicans, Hondurans, and Guatemalans into a dry, lulling service of pasty-white Anglo-Saxons, devoid of tambourines, dancing, and the songs to which they are accustomed merely because we are trying to create good, American Christians.

I love that he immediately points out that it isn’t the politics behind the issue that concern him. The politics of the matter shouldn’t be an issue. What we’re talking about here is how the church treats people.

What a horrid injustice it would be for us to take such a passionate culture with such “undignified” delight towards the Lord and stick them into our biased prototype of what a “good church” looks like. I admit that the fact that I don’t get a bulletin or that someone may randomly call upon me during the Hispanic service is a bit uncomfortable. Yet, it’s what keeps me coming back for more.

I know that I don’t have everything figured out; in fact, I’m quite sure that the American church does not have everything about Jesus figured out (despite what the top-ten best-selling Christian self-help books might claim). And so, I am searching for pieces of Jesus in different cultures, hoping to see a larger picture of the mosaic called the Body of Christ. Let’s drop our facades and prejudices, please; it’s time to start learning from immigrants.

I wish it were as simple as white and Latino worship services. But, there is something deeper at work here, and it makes me ill – racism in the Church. We fear the things we do not know, and that is a large part of why we fear other cultures “not assimilating” into the American way of life. I think that this whole Christianity-becoming-a-worldview fad is overall a good step for the Church. Our faith is very relevant in culture, politics, and daily life. Men like Nehemiah teach us this. Yet, this kind of proactive political forwardness needs to be done in humility, and I’m afraid that we’re falling away from this. Having a biblical worldview does not mean taking your Republican or Democrat ideals and justifying them from a pulpit.

So, my question is not, “Should the Church shun immigrants?” I’m afraid that’s too big of a question and nothing real would result from this little conversation that we’ve been having. For some churches, it wouldn’t even matter; politics have polluted much of the infrastructure of American churches to the point that someone piping up and saying, “That’s not biblical!” makes little difference in the grand scheme. My question is, “Should you, should I, shun immigrants?” Let’s take off our institutional hats and speak from our hearts. What does Jesus tell you to do about it? Not George W. Bush. Not Jerry Falwell. Not even Tony Campolo.

You see, we in America have too many options. Too many choices of cereal. Too many ways to give to various charities. Too many radio stations and TV channels. We are crippled by indecision. How many times have you thought, “I’d really like to sponsor an orphan or missionary, but I don’t know where to give my money”? And what have you done? If you’re like me, probably nothing. You put the checkbook away for another day – you may have even resolved to pray more about it.

If you’re in this group with me, can we just quit with the hypocrisy? Let’s stop hiding behind what our preacher says. Let’s stop hiding behind the safety and security of our Western comfort. Let’s stop hiding behind our limited giving to charitable organizations. Let’s start really doing something about the injustices in the world, in our communities, and in ourselves. Let it begin in our individual hearts, as they break for the other, the least, and the deserted.

Yes! It’s so frustrating for me to hear people parrot their pastors leaders. Perhaps because, for so long, I was a parrot. I spouted off so much crap because it had been spouted off to me. I can remember when a good friend of mine got saved in college – I was thrilled! But then I matter of factly told her she must get a KJV. *sigh* But the truth is, it doesn’t matter what people say. If Jesus says give to the poor and your pastor says you don’t have to give if you really feel like you can’t…who should you listen to? If Jesus says to love your neighbor and your Christian friends tell you to leave the illegal immigrants alone…who should you listen to? If you answered anything other than Jesus, I’d like to see you answer the same way if Jesus asked you.

The Israelites were commanded to welcome the stranger, remembering that they, too, were once strangers in a foreign land. The New Testament calls us to a deeper understanding of who we are in this world – aliens. Jesus sent out his disciples as wanderers and vagrants – truly homeless – as if to point them to acknowledge their true homeland. And we are to entertain visitors in this world, never sure of who may be God’s messengers in disguise.

Trackposted to Planck’s Constant, third world county, Dumb Ox Daily News, Conservative Cat, Right Voices, Conservative Thoughts, and Pursuing Holiness, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

 Watch the slideshow!

Shortly after midnight I received a phone call that jolted me out of bed.  There was a fire at the mission….and my heart raced.  Had anyone been hurt was my first thought and I am so thankful to report that no one was injured.

A fire had started in our food storage house from a woodstove.  With temperatures dropping below freezing we cranked up our wood stove and a spark from the stove caused a fire in our food storage house.   It wasn’t long before a fire was blazing and our food supply was going up in smoke.

Just a couple of weeks before young students at Wake Christian Academy in Raleigh had collected 10,000 cans of food for us.  Our staff was so thrilled to have such a good supply of canned goods to help with the thousands of meals we prepare each month; but now a lot of that food has been destroyed. 

Our immediate need is to replace the food we lost in the fire.  Would you come along side of us and help with this need?  Please consider conducting a food drive in your neighborhood, at your church, civic club or office to help us restock our food pantry.  We can use all types of foods such as canned meats, soups, vegetables, crackers, and staples such as flour and sugar.  Food donations can be dropped off at 1201 E Main St (corner of Main and Alston Ave ).

If you aren’t able to conduct a food drive, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to help us replace our food supply and to replace our heating source that was destroyed and other expenses incurred as a result of the fire.  Just mark your donation FIRE EXPENSES.  Please mail donations to PO Box 11858 , Durham   NC   27703 or make your donation on-line at www.DurhamRescueMission.org  

Thank you for considering our need and we pray God will touch your heart to help in our time of emergency.

God Bless,
Ernie & Gail Mills
919.491.2041

Ministries like Rescue Missions survive solely on donations (and God’s provision, of course). If nothing else, please pray for this ministry and the people fed there daily.

In addition to the quote in the previous post, here are some gems:

[Jim] Wallis agrees. “The religious right is being replaced by Jesus,” he says. “They’re just really digging into Jesus, and what they read in [the Book of] Acts doesn’t correspond to their churches. And so they’re changing them or going out and creating new communities.”

The Revolutionaries’ faith in the Bible leads them to a gospel of social justice, but it also leads to a morality that is far out of step with mainstream American culture and the left. Sex outside of marriage, divorce, “lust,” “sexual immorality” and homosexuality are all things Jesus or other New Testament voices spoke about with varying degrees of intensity.

According to Wallis, the Revolutionaries are “breaking away from the Right in droves — but they will never be captured by the left. They’re going to challenge the left on a lot of things: For these Christians, sex is covenantal and not recreational. And they oppose abortion and they are not going to move away from that.”

Never in history have we had a Christian theocracy where it wasn’t bloody and barbaric. That’s why our Constitution wisely put in a separation of church and state. … I am sorry to tell you, that America is not the light of the world and the hope of the world. The light of the world and the hope of the world is Jesus Christ.

He also spoke out against the exclusive focus on abortion and gay marriage by many evangelical leaders. “Those are the two buttons to push if you want to get Christians to act,” he said. “And those are the two buttons Jesus never pushed.”

Yet the Revolution is not primarily a reaction to Republican attempts to politicize the church. What sets it apart from mainstream evangelicalism is not a liberal rejection of Republican politics, but rather a more radical rejection of conservatism and liberalism, and anything else that is not the “kingdom of God.”

To the Revolutionaries, what seems righteous or commonsensical to humans does not matter; all that matters is what God wants. Boyd writes in Myth of a Christian Nation: “To the extent that an individual or group looks like Jesus — dying for those who crucified him and praying for their forgiveness in the process — to that degree they can be said to manifest the kingdom of God. To the degree that they do not look like this, they do not manifest God’s kingdom.”

God, give us a vision for a new kind of world. We grieve, we honor, we condemn. But we want to move through that. We want to have asked the hard, hard questions. But we want to move though that too. And we want to be people of a dream, which we believe is your dream for the world. But then, God, we want to move past that. We want to move to action. … God, what would this look like? Show us millions of different ways to bless — to bless in such a way that it would literally shake the foundation of the Earth and capture us with this kind of dream. … Please, God, open our eyes.

Amen!

A roll of electrical tape – The next student said, “This tape reminds you that the devil cannot bind you.”

A somewhat pointy potato peeler – The next creative thinker said that this potato peeler reminded him of the dagger that Ehud used to stab Eglon in the book of Judges.  (By the way, if you’ve never read the book of Judges, and you like unusual stories, I recommend reading it.)