This is a list of things we always need . The list will change over time, so we will keep it up to date. If you can help with any of these, please shoot me an email and let me know.

• Men’s white tube socks
• CAT Bus Day Passes (They cost $2 each at Moore Square Station)
• CAT Bus 11 Ride Passes (You an get these at Harris Teeter – $9 each)
• Large – 33 Gallon or bigger- black trash bags (for waterproofing)
• Backpacks, new or used
• $5 CVS Gift Cards
• $5 McDonalds Gift Certificates or Gift Cards (The paper ones are better than gift cards, but either is good) These are great for emergency meals.
• $10 or $25 Food Lion or Kroger Gift Cards
• Tracfones - the cheap ones are about $13 at Walmart. (Do not buy the more expensive ones… buy the Net-10 phones instead.) Great for getting them a phone number for the social workers and employers and so on. The Net-10 phones are a much better deal, as far as minutes go, but they cost more upfront ($30 or so).
• $30 Net 10 and $20 Tracfone phone cards (available at Wal-Mart)
• Toothbrushes (Dollar stores often have 2 and 3 packs of these for $1)
• Razors (Disposable. Dollar stores have 5 packs for $1)
• Chap Stick (Generic works fine)
• Quart size ziploc-style bags (Check the dollar store)

Toiletry items:
These folks travel light. Please focus on finding travel-size items of the things below.

• Toothpaste (Target and Wal-Mart are good for this. Also, dentists are a good source, and can order these in bulk, should you happen to know a dentist)
• Shampoo (Encourage friends who travel to save theirs)
• Soap/ Body Wash (See Shampoo notes. Body wash is preferred)
• Feminine hygiene products (Regular pads are best)
• Deodorant
• Body Lotion or Baby Oil (Baby lotion works best)
• Wet wipes (Travel packs of 10 or so are good)

Lisa has sent us some more pictures she took of the Fourth of July shindig. If you go here, they are the first 10 pages or so of pictures. Thanks, Lisa!

Right now, I am in The Dip.

For example: I have the good fortune of not being materialistic, but still, rent and rice and beans (and coffee!) do come at a cost. Unlike Jesus, I am yet to find some wealthy women to front my ministry costs. Instead, I have a hodgepodge collection of churches, widow ladies, schoolteachers and business people (all of whom I thank God for daily) who each contribute toward my goal of paying my rent and eating regularly each month, but it is a work in progress. I am about 1/2 of the way toward having enough ongoing support to pay what it costs me to live now and almost 1/3 of the way toward what I need to support myself and actually get health insurance, both figures being less than I could make working full time as a stockboy at Harris Teeter.  Right now, I (mostly) make up the balance by doing some freelancing and some web design, but the more time I spend doing that, and marketing that, the less time I can spend, heaven forfend, actually doing ministry.

Or, take my recent announcement about our little discipleship gathering we want to do with the homeless and poor people we work with. I have had a lot of interest in it, and a lot of suggestions about how to do it, and a lot of people want to be notified when we get it going (all of which, by the way, I am excited as can be about, seriously), but the work of putting it together, the sorting it out, the finding a venue (we really, really need a venue – see this post for details) is pretty much on my shoulders. Meanwhile, I am helping drunks go to rehab, sitting at food pantries to get groceries for shut-ins, getting emails calling me a heretic and all the time trying to complete a freelance project I really need to finish because rent is due next week.

The recent project we put together for the Fourth of July was beautiful and inspiring. I just received an email from a charity downtown (which will go unnamed) who wanted to know if “my organization” would be throwing another party on Thanksgiving or Christmas, so they would know if they could take the day off, or if they had to feed people that day. This organization is world-wide, has paid staff and a HUGE list of volunteers and contributors. I have trouble paying my cellphone bill each month.

Please do not misread me; I am delighted to be here, and I love the work, and it is good work and it is work that very few other people want to do and it is work that needs to be done and should be done. And not all the stress is financial. In fact, most of it is not. It is just the stress of being on the cusp of really succeeding and not seeing how in heaven it is going to happen.

I know God wants me doing this. I know this is worthwhile. I know it is showing fruit. I feel like this discipleship group could be the tipping point for our ministry to the poor and homeless. I can see huge potential just around the corner and I get so excited I can hardly stand it and I want to shout… and then reality returns and I realize my cellphone bill is due, that rattle in my chest has still not went away, there is another week to go before the next round of pledged support checks come in and I have over 100 emails to answer.

The good news is that if I lean into this dip and push on, I will get through this, and things will take off and I can get about my real business of building the Kingdom of God and quit building websites and selling my plasma in order to eat and pay the rent. I believe it, I can see it – shoot, I can feel it. It is right… there.

Meanwhile, I will not quit and I am not giving up and I truly covet your prayers. I will get through this. Right now, though, I am sitting in my dip, feeling very tired and very alone.

Yesterday our monthly letter from me to our base of supporters, cheerleaders and prayer partners went out via email. In it I talked about our current plans to build a weekly bible study/discipleship group.

It is an exciting project, but we are running into a few snags. The biggest thing we need right now is a place to do it.  We are looking for a place within walking distance of Moore Square in downtown Raleigh. We envision starting with 10-15 people, so we do not need a huge space initially. For several reasons, we do not want to do it outside nor in a private home. Oh, and we have very little budget (practically none), so very inexpensive or free would be good. We are very partial to doing it on Saturday afternoon late, but ultimately, I suppose venue will determine time. If you know of such a venue, please email me and let me know.

By the way, If you did not get our newsletter, that means you are not on our email subscriber list. If you did not get one but you want to in the future, please go to our newsletter sign-up page and give us your info. We will never spam you or give your data to anyone else.

I have known him for almost a year.  I have helped him move into three different places in that time, have watched him enter and end bad relationships, have been incredibly blessed by him, have laughed with him until my sides hurt, have been frustrated with him, have yelled at him once or twice, have held him as he cried, have held his daughter in my lap and fed her my breakfast and wiped her nose on my shirt tail. By any definition of the word, he is my friend. » Read the rest of this entry «

All my life, I have been warned about the ‘wrong crowd’. We are told the way the world works is that one bad apple will ruin the whole barrel, that the bad kids will influence the good kids, that bad is more influential than good. It even sounds right.

The big thing for me, though, is that Jesus did not seem to believe it. » Read the rest of this entry «

It will come as no surprise to long-time readers of mine that I believe in the Kingdom of God, not as an abstract concept or just the hope of heaven when I die but also as a present, current reality and the Gospel Jesus preached.

I came across a beautiful discussion of the Kingdom of God by Brian McLaren. While his views will not be a surprise to anyone who has read his The Secret Message of Jesus (which is a must read, and one of the 10 or so most influential books on me and my ministry), they are definitely different than what is taught in churches all across America.

The kingdom of God, Jesus said, was “good news for the poor.” There is a personal dimension to the kingdom of God, to be sure, in which we have a personal relationship with the King. But there is also a social dimension to the kingdom of God, a dimension that challenges normal human (and religious) assumptions about peace, war, prosperity, poverty, privilege, responsibility, religion, and God.

You can go here and read the whole article

By the way, I know I have been largely silent on the blog of late. It is not because nothing is happening, but because so much is happening. I hope to get caught up on my blogging soon. In the interim, feel free to peruse the archives and please, tell your friends about us.

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Lisa took some pictures of the event last Friday and submitted them to the Daily Tar Heel, which is the house organ for some school around here (just kidding). They were used in a slide show of images about the fourth of July; if you go here, our images are on slides four, seven, eight and nine.

There was a writeup about Tony Cartledge and his new book in the News and Observer. Tony came out last friday and served lemonade to hundreds of people – The N&O caught him doing it in a picture that was published in the paper today.

In one of his books, Brian McLaren talks about how he often prays the Lord’s Prayer. but will try to put it in different words, in order to not merely recite by rote.

Recently I was looking at Eugene Peterson‘s translation of the Bible (The Message) and seeing those familiar words in a completely unusual way really shook me up… in a good way. I was captured by the awe, the beauty and the simplicity of the prayer Jesus taught his disciples.

Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what’s best— as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You’re in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You’re ablaze in beauty!
Yes. Yes. Yes.

Has something similar ever happened to you, where seeing something in a new setting changed the way you viewed it?