project homeless shelter

Today my family and I got to volunteer at Mary’s Place in downtown Mpls. Mary’s place is transitional housing apartments connected to Sharing and Caring Hands, the largest center responding to the needs of the poor in the Twin Cities.

I have been convicted by how much I talk about how important serving and loving other people in different circumstances than our own is, and yet I don’t see myself and my kids doing it all that much. I want our life to be lived in responding to the needs of the others. It is a priority of our family, and yet, it has slipped through the cracks of daily living with small kids and all the management that goes along with that.

So, today we embarked in playing with the kids in the after school program over at Mary’s place. There is roughly two nuns who play and look after anywhere between 20-30 kids each day. It is a great center, with lots of really wonderful things to play with, but again, only two adults for that many kids. That many accidents. That many arguments. That many bathroom needs. That many emotional needs. It’s a lot.

So they love having volunteers come in and spend time with the kids. Play with them, hang out with them, do activities with them. And that is what my friend Tabitha and I did. We each brought our own three kids and added to the chaos. It was amazing.

I had great conversations with Zoe about life and her seven brothers and sisters. I played on the playscape with a little boy named Dream. Yeah, that’s right, his name is dream. My Noah got a good start on learning on how to ride a two wheeler. Lulu discovered how much she loves the slide, and all the little girls discovered how much they like having a baby around. The nuns were wonderful and so fun and sweet to visit with.

As we were getting ready to leave I was struck by my normal rhythm of investing in people. I am usually the gal who comes into an event or place, or camp or church and gets to hang out for the night or the weekend. We have an amazing time, and then I go home. The youth directors, pastors and parents are there for the long haul. Not me. I go home. Sure there is Facebook and emails to keep in touch, but the real investing is left to those who live in that place. But here I am in this place getting to know these kids, their names and what their life is like. I live roughly less than two miles from them. They want to know when I’m coming back. My kids want to go back. Everyone involved wants to build a relationship and keep this going.

I was reminded that in its truest form, that is what living like Christ is all about. It’s about the relationship and investing in people. It’s about showing up and being there. It also mandates that it’s authentic and not duplicated in a program type relationship. One that would say I have to be here, but instead communicates that I want to be here.

So we either go once to Mary’s place and my kids can remember that one time that we played with those homeless kids. In this scenario, it very much reflects a program that I would do for my kids to teach them about loving and serving others.

OR…

We continue our relationship with Dream, Nikki, Zoe, and the others. We invest in them. Get to know them. Keep showing up and communicate that we are people who care. People who want to know them for who they are. Love them where they are at. Then it isn’t a program, its apart of life. Getting to know people in a different situation and building relationships with them is a part of life. It’s living a life of a Christian. It’s being involved in relationships.

I was thankful today for the reminder that my ministry often lacks the depth that I pray for. And in this revelation, I have a place and some new friends to invest in. To love and walk through life with in an authentic and real way. God is going to do something for them, for me and for my children in these new relationships. He always does.

Palm Sunday

This is my favorite week in the whole year. This morning in my devotion time (which is never long enough and it seems my kids always know I'm in devotion time because they always wake up a little earlier when I have woken up earlier to devote) I was reading the story of the Triumphant entry in Mark.

A couple years ago I was chatting with a friend of mine who told me that the Triumphant entry marks the week of inspection. On Sunday night/Monday morning was when the High Priest would march the sacrificial lamb into Jerusalem for inspection. The reason so many were gathered in Jerusalem was because the Imperial parade was happening on Sunday in preparation for Passover and the gathering of all the Jews. Pilot and all the soldiers were expected to come in from the west, riding horses in sign of power and coming from the direction of Rome, as a reminder to all the Israelites that even though they have been freed from Egypt, they were still under the authority of Rome. The Imperial guard would then camp out around the temple in preparation to keep riots from happening among the Jews.

Then here comes Jesus, riding in from the East on a donkey, a sign of peace and predicted in Zac. 9:9. He comes in from the East where all the poor are gathered and live. He himself is the sacrifice, offering himself up to be inspected and judged, and to challenge anyone to find fault within him. What is great about that is simply just by offering himself up to be inspected is a sign that he proclaims to be the Messiah. This claim and offering in the end is the fault they find in him.

I love Holy week. The constant reminder of YWYH's power and intention to bring redemption, healing, love, forgiveness. It's so beautiful.

(Zec. 9:9, Mark 11:1-11, Luke 19:28-44, John 12:12-19, Psalm 118:26)

Two years ago when we were in church, the song "God of this city" by Chris Tomlin was sung. It was beautiful, because even though it wasn't written for Palm Sunday, its a perfect fit.

You're the God of this City
You're the King of these people
You're the Lord of this nation
You are

You're the Light in this darkness
You're the Hope to the hopeless
You're the Peace to the restless
You are

There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God

For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater thing have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City

There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God

For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done here

There is no one like our god
There is no one like our God

Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done here

Its a look to Holy Week. Greater things are coming. May you be blessed this week and find some extra time to spend time with YWYH. If you get a chance today, try to listen to this song in some great quiet reflection time.

a brief reminder

Tonight I got the opportunity to speak to Seniors in High School and their parents at a dinner in a church in Eden Prairie. It's fun to talk with students who are on the brink of the rest of their lives.

Through all the advice people gave me, I realized that one of the most important things to remember is;

Who do you belong to? Who are you?

See our identity can be shaped by so many different factors; where you live, how much money your family makes, marital status, activities that you participate in, music, friends, mistakes, awards, accomplishments, etc. These things may be part of what you do, but they are not who you are.

When embarking on new adventures, making decisions about life, or just living every day, its important to remember who you belong to. In John chapter 3 it tells us that we are children of God. No matter what else happens in a moment, in a day, in a week, or in our past and present, those things help create what we are, not who we are. Whether you acknowledge it or not, you breath because God made it so. You were created by him, and you belong to him.

There is peace in knowing this and being able to make decisions in life. When my identity is clear, I make life decisions based on the truth, and not on a lie of what I think I am and who I'm striving to be. I don't need to strive to be anybody, I already know who I am.

Speaking this truth to H.S. students was a great reminder to me.

Journey through vitamins and whatnot

Tuesday was a marathon day for me. Not literally, I don’t do marathons, but it was the never ending day, leading into another exceptionally long day on Wednesday. A lot has happened in my small little world, so I might have a lot of words. Please be patient with me.

I posted before describing our world with Noah, my eldest who will turn six in Sept. Noah is a very sweet boy. He has a big heart for people, he is concerned with others when they are sick or left out. He is the star host when you come to our house, always trying to think of your needs before you have them. He will sit and color for hours. The only other thing that would tear him away is reading. He can sit and read book after book after book. He is also very busy. He doesn’t walk anywhere, he runs, he climbs he is falling down every other minute. He loves being busy, wrestling, biking, dancing, cooking, gardening, battling. All of these things are very normal. However, I like to describe Noah as getting all of my emotion (which is a lot) and all of Paul’s sensitivity (which is a lot). The poor kid got a double whammy. He unfortunately got mine and Paul’s side of the family’s temper as well. He has passionate, intense, strong willed parents. He is all of those things from both of us. I just kind of feel bad for him. Someone described kids like that as world changers. I am choosing to raise him as such.

Last year, I discovered Noah was allergic to artificial food coloring. It makes him rage. Not angry. Rage, violent, scary, eruptive. You could literally look at him and not see Noah inside his eyes. We went with weeks dealing with this behavior, me calling my mom twice a day crying, and lots of praying and reading trying to figure out what was going on. After we cut artificial food coloring out of his diet, it was incredible to see the change. He is still passionate, intense, and strong willed, but its all age appropriate.

Until recently.

Old Noah was back. I describe it as Jackel and Hyde because truly, it’s a switch that gets flipped and I have no idea what the trigger is. I found myself saying a lot of the same things to my mom on the phone. I was crying maybe not twice a day but at least once. I was looking at our schedule, our lifestyle, our disciplines, our family time, our alone time, our food, everything. I really didn’t know what to do. I also want to be clear that my husband and I are far from perfect parents. We are just trying to figure it out like everyone else. After my last post about this, many people gave me great books to read on parenting, and I am excited to read those, but I knew something different was going on with Noah. Loosing sight of him in eyes was my key. He was so filled with rage he couldn’t see straight. That didn’t feel normal to me, so I went with my gut and started researching body imbalances.

Then a friend told me about Wyndgate Health. Her first thought was that Noah might be Vitamin B deficient. She had said that she knew a kid that struggled with anger and anxiety, and they found that his vitamin intake was off. I went on Wyndgate Health’s website and was really pleased with what I saw. At the very least, I had a direction to move in because nothing we were doing was working. The next day I had an appointment for Noah the next week. I was really excited.

HERE IS MY DISCLAIMER:

I am not educated in what I am about to write.
I am not a nurse nor anyone who knows anything about the body.
I am not stating that I am an expert on this.
I am not saying that there aren’t other ways to fix problems like we are having or that this is the best way.
Our issue doesn’t involve Autism, ADD or ADHD, although Wyndgate Health does help families in those positions. I just understand that those are not situations we are facing.

What you will read is my understanding from Wyndgate health. You will read our story with our son while it’s happening. We are still in the middle of figuring this out. His appointment was on Tuesday. It’s not fixed. I will do my best to communicate what happened on Tues. to the best of my knowledge. If you want to know more about Wyndgate Health, I recommend it and you can find out what they are about and what they treat on their website www.wyndgatehealth.com

What I love about Wyndgate Health is that they take an all natural approach to healing the whole body. They look at family history, symptoms, blood work, and a consultation with the patient. Noah and I dropped off the other kids at a friend’s house and then drove over to St. Paul to meet with Health specialists. They talked with Noah and myself and then gave Noah a physical. The first thing they looked at was his nails. He has white spots on his nails, which is a result of a zinc deficiency which causes hyperactivity. They also noticed that Noah has pink puffiness under his eyes, which is the result of more vitamin deficiency. His throat/glands are swollen to a frightening degree. The purpose of the glands is to trap infection so something is going on that is attacking his body. They also asked if Noah has a hard time sitting still, yes, some times are worse than others. They also asked how Noah goes to sleep. I told them he crashes as soon as his head hits the pillow. Noah also has a hard time walking heel to toe, heel to toe. All of these things alone might not communicate much, but together, his body is trying to tell us something.

They mentioned a potential allergy to wheat or dairy. I had to ask about what feels like a very random spike in so many people being allergic to wheat/gluten. This is where I found out that after World War II, American’s become obsessed with Hybrid plants and making bread fluffier. We want to make new plants out of originals. Well, in order to do make bread fluffier, you have to add 40% more gluten to wheat. 40% is significant, especially when your body isn’t created by God to process it that way. So the reason so many bodies can’t process wheat/gluten anymore is because the product of wheat isn’t the same. We literally aren’t eating the same food that our grandparents did. (There are many great websites that describe this better and with greater research than I am here.)

So at our appointment, we discovered that day that Noah has a zinc and Omega 3 fatty acid deficiency. We also got a full blood work up that will test for deficiencies and allergies. We have an appointment in three weeks to go over the test results, our first consultation, family history and the 13 pages of symptoms and behaviors that I notice in Noah. They gave us fish oil for Noah to take to help increase his brain activity and zinc to help even out his body. If they find other vitamin deficiencies, the goal is to formulate an all natural vitamin that is specific for Noah’s body. They will look at his body levels and find out what he is in need of and what levels he needs them. Then he can take his one multivitamin each day.

What I love about this, is the approach that you are really looking at the body and what it uses to live and exist. I think we can all agree that even healthy people need to take vitamins. There is no way to physically or financially eat all the food that is necessary to keep your nutrient levels where they need to be. This approach sees where the body is lacking most and providing the means to be healthy.

What we hope this does for Noah is take away his anxiety and rash response to things, while also giving him the ability to think when things in his world become tragic. I think about how hard it would be to make and keep friends when your response is so explosive. I can only imagine how difficult school would be when your body is so preoccupied with adjusting itself, that you can concentrate on what the teacher needs from you.

I am hoping we have answers and a plan in three weeks. I want our house to be peaceful. I believe it can be. I want my son to be confident in whom he is. I hate watching him loose himself in anger and rage. I think there is a way to help him, and I hope we found it. Regardless, if this doesn’t work, than we still love our son as much as we ever did, we pray even more for wisdom and continue to seek God for all our answers.

Again, please understand, I just want to share our story as its happening. This is our journey in understanding parenting, our bodies, food, discipline, life, love and sacrifice.

Turning life into ministry

So, I have this dream that my children could walk outside and play with all the neighborhood kids. They would play in the warm weather for hours on end right in front of our house. They would explore rocks, bugs, the swing set, imagine they were flying, or detectives, cops and robbers, create races on bikes, play with sidewalk chalk, play basketball, whatever, it doesn't matter. They would be outside in unstructured play time left to create their own adventures and bit of trouble.

Currently that is happening. There are two brothers about my kids age that live five houses down. Then there is another little boy that lives two houses down, and right next door is the gaggle of kids living with their grandma, aunts and uncles. It's really pretty great. They all meet up in the afternoon after school and play and play and play. They primarily play in our yard, because we have a rule that I have to be able to see them. I bring out snacks and drinks. I have also been the mom who brings out band-aids when there are cuts, corrected the way they talk, and settled arguments.

This has all been well and good, until more recently.

Things have felt a little too unstructured. They are getting a bit rowdy and out of hand. There are more arguments. There is more bad language coming into the house. This has led Paul and I to discuss what our life looks like in our neighborhood. How do we let our kids play outside with boundaries, loving others who don't believe what we do, enforce rules without hoovering, play without structure yet keep things controlled, allow them opportunity to stand up for what we believe in without giving into peer pressure?

What does it look like to teach our kids to be a light in our neighborhood without darkness overshadowing them?

Part of my problem is I know what I can do. I even know what I should do. But it's gonna be a lot more work. A lot more time. A lot more attention. And yet, when I look at what it would do for my children and the kids in the neighborhood, I know it is right.

I don't know what the lives are like for the kids on our street. When I have been in the two boys house down the street, I saw immediately the lack of toys and the abundance of video games. Every time dinner is called for in our house, the one little boy down street always asks to eat with us. He doesn't get much food in his house. They like playing in our yard. They like having snacks and talking to me on the porch. They always want to show me their new tricks and skills. And their parents are never outside. I am usually all alone. No other adult can usually be accounted for.

So, I have decided to take a more active role in the afternoon with the kids in my neighborhood. I want to plan a story time once a week. Create a game for the kids to play on another day. I want to get the kids involved in making the snack. I want my kids to buy new sidewalk chalk to share with their friends and we can create a drawing day. Maybe even ask the other parents if we can take an adventure walk with all the kids. We could even do a craft with stuff we find on our walk. Or I can rally the other kids to do a clean up walk with us one afternoon.

Most of the things I've shared probably sound like a small version of VBS, or community action kid summer program. That really isn't my intent. Yes, I want to be more active in my kids live outside with influences that currently seem a little questionable. I want to give my kids freedom to figure out who they are, develop friendships with people in their neighborhood, and learn how to cope when things go wrong. But I also want to be that presence in their life that helps guides them, protects them and reinforces what's right and wrong.

I also understand that our lives, just our everyday mundane existence is to reflect the glory and power of our God. Who we are, how we live, the choices we make. All of that in the every day living experience could point others to know and love God.

We have a great opportunity here. I could get some great cleaning time, blogging time, down time, whatever I want to do time while my kids play outside. But then I'm not really taking an active role in their development and understanding of living as children of God. Plus I could be missing out on really great relationships with these other kids.

See I'm not a big fan of programs. As soon as something authentic and genuine turns into a program so that others can join or recreate it, I don't like it anymore. I don't like our everyday living experiences turning into a program. I just want to live my life. But I do see a great opportunity here to take a more active role in my kids relationships with non-believers in just living our life. In creating a safe place for them to come. To create a time in their day that is filled with a very genuine love. (I do not assume that there isn't love in their homes, I'm just talking about Christ centered love and know they aren't believers.)

I also want to model to my kids how to stand up for boundaries in love. How to love others in Christ without turning them into a project. I don't want these kids to be a project to me. What I truly desire is to help bring a little structure to their hours of free play. To be a strong adult presence that represents a safe place. To help create safe boundaries so all the kids feel safe and the smaller ones don't feel bullied.

So please pray for me as I venture into creating a fun activity for my kids and their friends each afternoon. That I would never turn them into a project, but truly just love them for who they are. That I could help model love and intentionality to my kids. That I could be a healthy presence while leaving the kids to discover their own limits with friends. That this idea isn't totally lame and the kids enjoy spending time with me and each other.

Also if you have some good ideas, please share them! I need all the help I can get.