Deck The Halls With Dignity

     All day today both in the communities of Oakwood and Brookside my friends at The City of Hope Outreach (www.cityhopeoutreach.com) are hosting what we call "The Christmas Store". The way it works is each family that wants to participate pays $5 per child and receive vouchers for the store. The vouchers include toys, books, and clothing for each child. The purpose of the store is to provide the families in the park with gifts for Christmas without taking away dignity from the parents in the process. This is an event I look forward to each year and I just wanted to take this time to give them a shout out and also to use this initiative to discuss an issue that often times Christians in the Church overlook this time of year--a matter of dignity.
    The holidays can often be a very stressful time for everyone with planning, multiple stops, food, what to get everyone, etc. But, this time of the year can be especially hard on those in lower income areas because of the struggle to provide a memorable time for their families on little to no means. Most of us know this. Those of us who grew up in church can remember going with our youth group and taking either food or clothes or toys to families that were selected by the church in lower-income areas. But I want to push back for a moment. Is that really the best thing we could be doing Church? We show up to this house, be the equivalent of Santa to his family and walk away filled with "Christmas cheer" about all that we did. Still, while you were there did you look in the corner? There sits the parent, grateful that his or her kid(s) is getting Christmas but at the same time is crippled with the feeling that they couldn't do this for their children themselves. Unintentionally, in the name of Jesus, we have taken dignity away from this parent. Perhaps there's another option....
    Let's go back to the house and start this again. For the sake of this scenario let's say it's a single mom named Jill. The difference is this time, you aren't going to a random person's house, you have been visiting Jill occasionally and have recently built a new friendship with her and her little boy. Over coffee a couple of weeks ago, Jill let it slip that she was stressed out because she didn't think she was going to be able to do Christmas this year for her son. Her car has been acting up a lot and she has had to use the money she has been saving for that expense. You listen and begin to think of a way that you can serve your new friend and show her the Gospel. Just buying her son gifts actually does more harm than good because in an effort to serve you would actually be taking away the opportunity from this mom to give to her child. You think....how can we serve this family and still let this hard working mama have the dignity of doing for her child this holiday season? Come alongside don't do for. Come along side don't do for. When we do for people whether it is in an area of benevolence or another area of life, we don't promote ownership and dignity but the opposite, dependence and despair. Taking that principle to heart, you invite Jill to shop with you one afternoon. You share with her that you have been praying for her and know how stressed out she's been. You shop with her and tell her that you can pay for half. Ownership and dignity is kept in tact. This single mom is able to give gifts to her little boy. Did she need help? Yes, we all do from time to time but at the end of the day you did it with her. You helped come along side and were a bridge.
     Jesus tells us something very special about our heavenly Father in Matthew 7. Here in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us, "Or which one of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!" And again James, who heard this sermon, echoes a truth in his epistle when he says in chapter 1 "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with who there is no variation or shadow due to change." Our Father has given us many great gifts. Among those is the gift of Life, and not just life, but life full of dignity. Even when we failed him and we left dead, hopeless, and without dignity because of our sin, The Father chose to give us good gifts anyway by sending us his Son. Jesus the Advocate stood in the gap and took the punishment for our sins and gave us dignity through our new identity in Him. Jesus reconciled our broken relationship with Our Dad. This holiday season Christian as we go out spreading our Christmas cheer, in the name of Jesus, take a second to think on the implications of every thing we are doing. Are we showing a very clear picture of the Gospel in our giving? Think about the poor this season, but don't just do it to gain "jewels" in your crowns(that don't exists anyway). DECK THE HALLS WITH DIGNITY.

Merry Christmas

Gage and Katie Jordan

Gun Shots, Kids, and God's Glory

"Wasn't that shooting in your trailer park?"
"Yes ma'am"
"How close to your trailer?"
"Five trailers down"

"Don't you think it's time to move out?"



No we don't.

      Welcome back to our blog "One Year in Oakwood". Sorry it has taken us two months to write but needless to say we have been busy and God has been good to us in the process. We moved in August 1st and have been on a rollercoster ride ever since. As we sit here and write to you there are so many stories we could share with you and so many conversations going through our heads. Example.... One evening we had just gotten off work and were fixing supper, when I(Gage) hear this hammering on my porch. I open the door and there is our next door neighbor's son-Trey, hammering down the loose nails...in nothing but his draws(Draws= slang term for boxers for those not fluent). I was so taken aback by the fact that this little boy wanted to fix my porch that I don't think I noticed his unusual attire at first. That...and there are multiple stories I could share with you about our little friends Trey and his little sister Anastasia and most of them would involve Trey in his favorite attire.
     But, I want to share with you the most recent event that we have experienced during our time in Oakwood and show you how God is so very good in all things and how you can pray for us and Oakwood going forward. Every Monday night we have our community group for The Church at Oakwood South. We call it "community group" for two reasons. First, we cook a meal and have open discussion (often based off of the sermon, sometimes not) in hopes of having people from the community come into an environment that is a bit more laid back than a typical gathering on Sundays. We also call it community group because we aim each week to practice "community" among our church members as well as any visitors in the park. Community is the concept of doing life with a group of people and growing and learning together while pushing each other closer to Christ. We first see that God is a Trinity, one God in Three Persons:Father, Son, and Spirit. This Triune God has been in relationship to one another forever and we who are created in their likeness and image are made for relationships with one another and where better to do this than with the Church.
    Sorry for the mini sermon but after all I am a preacher...now on to the night. A few months back we started  a kids ministry called "Roots". This is being led by Brian and Erin Kingston (go check out their blog it's great) and it's a great way to not only build relationships and share Jesus with the kids, it connects us to the adults and allows them to come and have adult time while discussing Scripture. Well, each week we go and pick these kids up from their homes and bring them to ours. So, as per the routine, we went in adult pairs from our trailer and set out to get kids from all over the park. Jarod Williams (one of my elders in training) and I set out towards the north part of the park to get kids while Kristen Williams and Erin Kingston go to pick up the kids on the south side of the park. We had hit a couple of trailers and were at a third when we heard in the distance what seemed like someone hitting a hammer. I remember looking at Jarod and telling him whoever that was needed to chill because it sure sounded like gun shots going off. About that time, Eric, one of the kids say, "Oh, someone's got fireworks! Let's go see." Immediately, I got a sick feeling in my stomach...they weren't fireworks. We went to the next trailer to our friend Brandi's house to get her daughter Deja. Immediately, I see 5 cop cars come flying down the road headed to our part of the park. I told the kids to go play in the yard for a minute. Katie calls me. "Hey stay where you are...someone has been shot on our street." "Ok, lock down the trailer. Love you. Bye." And just like that we were in the middle of it all.
    We would end up making it back to trailer with all the kids and be just fine but that is a moment I will never forget. Not because Oakwood is a horrible place full of nothing but crime. It's our home. Because I knew, we knew, in that moment why we were there and that things like that weren't scaring us off. They drive us to do the hard things. To stay...so the Gospel can advance, Jesus be made known more, and God get all the glory. We aren't heroes. I don't want you to think I'm playing the martyr card or wanting you to think we are the "Seal Team Six", or the "Special Forces 31" of church planting. After what Jesus has done for us and specifically what he has done in Oakwood South, how could we give him any less? We have seen an incredible growth in Roots since we launched it in July and have the privilege of sharing Jesus each week with 15-25 kids or more on any given Monday night. I love my church. They responded with intention and care in all of this and I could not ask for a better set of people to do life with and plant a church. In fact, last night they came together again and discussed how best to organize the kids since we were getting so many and have come up with a great system which now gives us preschool, kids, and "youth" in groups with 2 teams to rotate and share the opportunity. We have seen The Cligans, Mike and Jessica and their two kids, take ownership in our church and become a family. I have seen a guy in Mike who was apathetic to the things of God a few months ago and who socially wanted to be away from people and with his family only, open his home and host a group of adults on Monday nights so the kids had more room to meet. Just last night, I let Mike borrow my Systematic Theology book and Vintage Church by Driscoll so he could "go deeper in his beliefs" as he put it. We are so blessed. How could we give him any less?

How can you pray? Pray for us for wisdom moving forward as we continue to work to figure out how to serve the kids and their parents in Oakwood South with the Gospel.
Pray for Oakwood and for the young men involved. The young man shot is going to be ok, but pray that we have a chance to share the Gospel and he stops the foolishness that led to this altercation. Pray for the cops. Yes, pray for the law enforcement that they find the shooter and execute justice. Pray for Oakwood, Oakwood South, and City of Hope that we would continue to have perfect vision of our Servant King Jesus and what He did for us in "making himself nothing" so that we would be that much more pushed to go. Pray for the Jordans that we continue to have God's favor among his people here.

And read our blog....:)

Grace and Peace.

Gage and Katie.

Getting Ready!...

In getting ready to move in to Oakwood- my one stipulation was that the back toilet get fixed.  In our bedroom there is a bathroom with a huge tub and shower and a toilet.  There's also a vanity area with two sinks!! However, the toilet had some flushing issues.. well it got fixed and then, well, now it can only flush liquids.. oh well.  I really wanted the room we would  be staying in for the next year to be pretty, or at least not have crayon alllll over the walls. 

This is the bathroom before...

See all the crayon over the wall.. it was actually worse in person.  Apparently the paint wouldn't adhere over the wax over the crayon so 3 magic erasers later and all the crayon is gone and ready for paint!

First coat of paint.. I thought it would take a million coats..

But just 3 coats later and it's green! VERY green.. It kind of looked like baby poop green but over time it has set and looks ok.. I think I can handle it.

This is the sink area after! See Gage even approves!

Love the birds!

Gotta support my CoHO! visit www.cityhopeoutreach.com for more info on how to volunteer and support!

I love my mirrors from Ikea!

In my remodel I had to remember that it doesn't have to be perfect.  I'm such a perfectionist at times that it was hard to not be in painting.  Over the past 6 months I've learned a new big word- are you ready for this?! Gentrification... It's where middle class individuals come in to lower income areas and remodel and renovate to the point that it either increases the property value or allows the landlords a reason to raise the rent thus making it impossible for the community members to live there defeating the purpose of moving in to begin with.  So with that in mind.. not much else will be done to the trailer.  The cabinets will remain warped and unable to function fully, the carpet will remain stained and old, the kitchen will remain unpainted, etc...

At this point the trailer is ready for move in.. join in next post to hear about the wonderful church family we have in helping us as well as the Wrights move it!

Wright Turn....

     So we are moving to Oakwood...that much we know. Now comes the part of the story that I think highlights the amazing sovereignty of our God and Savior Jesus in all things. You see moving to Oakwood sounds great until you start to analyze all the things that will have to go right for this to take place. First of all, we have this 3 bedroom house that we have to do something with. Do we sell it? If so, do we sell it ourselves or get a realtor? How much do we sell it for? That means we are going to have to get an inspector. The last time this happened, the guy missed the issues with the hot water heater and we ended up dropping 600 bones on the whole deal. Needless to say, we had a lot of questions. Well, like Katie and I shared, we had been looking at downsizing and had looked at a few houses; so we were already in contact with a realtor to help us sell and/or buy a house. We sat down with her and were basically dealt the nicest this is going to be nearly impossible speech we could be given. Meanwhile, somewhere in Northeast Arkansas, God was moving a family to register at CBC, pack up everything and move to Conway. Pardon the How I Met Your Mother reference, but kids....this is the story of how we met the Wrights. So like I said we are moving to Oakwood, Katie and I were only sure about 2 things at this point in the adventure: 1. God had put it in our hearts to move to Oakwood. 2. Somehow, this whole house thing would work itself out...even if it didn't look promising. We spent the next weeks praying, talking, crunching numbers and daydreaming of this random knock on  the door where someone loved our house so much they would just buy it on the spot. Well, our God had something so much better for us.
     We hadn't advertised because we weren't sure how much to sell for, weren't sure if we could do it ourselves or needed a realtor. Then one day it hit us. What if we rented? Yes that's right, rented. Sounds simple right? I mean after all, we've never done this before and I'm not exactly Mr. Handyman but the more I thought about it the more it sounded appealing. We could rent and know that the house was settled as oppose to wait and wait and wait for the house to sell in a market that isn't promising, in an economy that isn't stable, before we went to Oakwood. We could rent with a deposit and have an account to use for any repairs and maintenance. This could work. Once again, this was totally outside anything that we had planned or even anything we thought we could do. But,  as with every other step in the story, we knew if this was what God wanted he would provide and that's just what he did.
     We announced to the church Sunday that we were hearing God tell us to move to Oakwood and all that it would involve and asked for prayer. Monday, I got a text from my friend Jay Sawrie and he had met this guy named BJ Wright who was asking on Conway Online Yard Sale if anyone in Conway knew of a 3 bedroom house available to rent for his family when they started CBC in the fall.. Could this be it? Jay commented on his post on the Facebook group and told him about our house. I messaged this guy and we literally spent the rest of the afternoon while I was at work talking about the house, exchanged pictures of our home and talking details about renting the place. They loved it. It was exactly what they wanted. We had a deal. I called Katie and shared with her the potential answer to our prayers. The Wrights were planning to come to Conway on Wednesday so that BJ could finalize his transfer to McDonald's, where he would be a manager over several stores in the city. Could this really be happening?
     The Wrights came Wednesday night to view the house. It was everything they were looking for and instantly we became friends with this great family. The amount of rent and deposit was perfect for their budget. The yard was great for their dog. The location was great for BJ's commute to work. This was the best thing for both of us. We found renters that we could have a relationship with and that agreed to everything we desired to rent for and our timelines to move matched perfectly. The Wrights found a home, and not just a place, but a home that they said they would want to keep during the entire time they would be students at CBC. God had orchestrated our stories together in such a way that can only be His Hand and He alone should get glory for it. This was an answer to prayer. In case you missed this..no advertisement...we prayed on Sunday, answer on Monday, were landlords with a date set to move to Oakwood by Wednesday. Is anything too great for my God? I think not....

So here we are, a little over a week out and I still can't get over His Wright Turn.....Stay tuned readers because I have a strong feeling that we ain't seen nothing yet.

Left Turn!

Gage already explained how we were praying about moving and cutting our budget. I (Katie) was praying about possibly selling our house and simply renting for a while, but with having a dog- by the time we found a place and paid the pet deposit we would be saving little money if any at all. Actually, I guess I should back up some. For about ohh 3 months or so before thinking of moving I began to find myself frustrated with our house, frustrated with having to leave the trailer an Oakwood to return to our house, and frustrated with leaving the little girls who wanted to stay and hang out and talk. Most of all, I was getting tired of feeling like I and we were living two separate lives- one in Oakwood and one at our house. I can look back and see now how this heart changing was God's way of preparing me for his left turn. So back to praying- it was Benchmark week at school and I was in charge of administering a small group their test for a whole week. During one of the writing sections I gave the students their prompts and struggled to think I what I was going to do for the next 45 minutes and maybe even longer with no phone, no book, no magazine, no nothing!! I began talking to Jesus telling him what I was thinking and feeling. I began asking Him for clearer direction with what we needed to be doing with moving and the house. I felt the Holy Spirit say 'Oakwood'. Immediately I began Questioning God. "Are you telling me we need to move to Oakwood?! No, No surely not. We can't do that- that's not part of the plan!". At that moment I felt peace and excitement with a little nervousness as well. I began thinking of what we could do to the church trailer, what we would take with us, an what we would sell. All the while continuing to question God if he was really telling us to do this?! As soon as testing was over I went straight to my closet to get my phone and sent my husband this text, 'soooo I think God wants us to move to Oakwood.'

The Story Begins....

       So what causes a working middle class couple to walk away from a 3 bedroom house in "old town Conway" and move to a 2 bedroom, trailer in much need of attention and TLC? Simple answer...The Gospel. Now I know that sounds uber-spiritual, but that's actually our motivation and the story is pretty awesome to be honest. It started about 6 months ago when we started looking at other houses in the city because ours was too much to handle and we wanted to down size some and cut the budget a bit. Now, to be honest the Lord had been dealing with my (Gage's) heart a bit in this area after reading Radical Together by David Platt. And I know what your thinking, typical American evangelical feels guilty about his possessions so he is going to dream about selling them all in order to right the wrong of his excess living. Not exactly...I mean I do think we have way more than we need and often times struggle with wanting more all though I don't need any of it. But the truth is, I felt the Lord pressing on me that our family needed to reconsider our position in life and reevaluate what we were doing with the things God had given us. 
       We started shopping around for the house we probably should have bought to begin with and found a few very promising prospects. There are hundreds of houses sold every day in the city and it really is a buyer's market right now. Still, when we crunched the numbers, talked and prayed, it was as if we were trying to force this to happen as opposed to this landing in our lap the way God provided for us with the house we are currently in. So, with a lot of uncertainty and confusion I left for a week to attend a conference called Together For the Gospel in Louisville, KY. 
         As we landed in Louisville, me and several pastor friends from Conway settled in for the week at one of the pastor's parents house. This was going to be a great time to rest, pray, and listen to what God had to say in regards to my life and answer some questions that I had carried to Louisville with me. I had no idea that God had answers but not to the questions I had been asking....I shared with my friends the burdens on my heart and spent a lot of time silent-hoping to hear from the King. And hear I did....Jesus began to speak to my heart regarding my giving, my stewardship, my viewpoint on those with less than me and my overall role as leader of my family and pastor in South Oakwood. I began to re-evaluate this downsize plan of ours and spent the first couple of nights sharing my thoughts with Katie over the phone. Truth is, I had fallen in love with the American Dream and these new houses were nothing but a highway to bigger, nicer, better, more comfortable place. But none of them had any ounce of Gospel focus at all. If I'm honest, the only focus in the decisions so far was me. So I shared with my wife that maybe we didn't need to buy again, maybe we could rent, I mean honestly who cares what the "standard" is, we need to be faithful. We both agreed. And then the Lord took a sharp left as the driver of our life....