My Guests

One of the things I learned* (present participle) here is that your time is really not your own. Often when I'm mentally or emotionally 'off the clock', God brings someone to remind me why I'm here.

Usually, I need alot of reminding. Consequently, I often have alot of guests!

Behind me right now I have some visitors in my house. Junebug (a nickname) lives across the street. He lives with his mom and sister in his grandmother's house. There is another 9-10 people that live there, all related in some round about way.

They have three more days to live there. The grandmother, it seems has grown weary of everyone landing in her home so.... she sold it.

In the five years we have lived here we never really knew who really lived there or who was just stopping by.

Junebug, his sister Felicia and a cousin?, Tooty have been hanging out with us pretty regularly for a couple of months.

Junebug, to my knowledge has never really had a father-figure in his life, which is the norm. Estimates state that 70-80% of kids growing up here are growing up without a father. Imagine people tellng you about a heavenly father without the concept of an earthly father.

Junebug and his immediate family aren't sure exactly where they are going in three days. Maybe into an uncle's house, but who knows. That is the reality of life.

There is another boy, from our church here as well. He is from a broken family as well. The dad is in the picture, but that may not always be a great thing, according to his mom. She is an amazing woman, one of our new heroes. She is raisingfive kids as a single mom. Tonya and I have trouble getting our two ready for church, she has 5!

This boy has some of the same issues as Junebug, with a few small differences that will lead to completely different life cirscumstances.

First, this boy's mom is following Jesus. She has amazing faith that challenges ours. Secondly, this boy is growing up in a loving, caring and nuturing community at church. There are many people investing into this family, as they are investing back.

This is the true example of the Body of Christ in action.

Last week the Senior Pastor came up to Tonya and I said he feels affirmation watching us as he preaches. That's because our hearts are being healed by the power of the Gospel. Practically every week I cry in church because I see testimony after testimony of transformed lives. This church in Paramount is living out what is meant by the new emerging church, except it is not new and has been 'emerged' for a while!