Jubilee Community Garden Work Day

We got our hands dirty this past Saturday at the community garden constructing new pathways.  It was a replacement crew since we had originally planned for a group of high school students from Woodburn to come out and work.  Since part of the school was burned down, all field trips had been cancelled.  It was a mix of workers: Grace Chapel young adults, others from Grace Chapel (who happened to be young and adult), North Marion Fellowship and Christ Baptist members, a few of my teaching colleagues and even a few students.

The pathways look great, thanks for your hard work everyone!

JFP’s 2nd Anniversary

We will be having a VERY casual celebration of the JFP 2 year anniversary on Tuesday, May 29th! If anyone would like to stop by, eat some White Rabbit Bakery cake, and mingle, we would LOVE that. Anytime between 4-7, and feel free to stick around.

Translators

Recently, God has directed my heart toward the translators of many of the people we are acquainted with.  The translators happen to be the children, some as young as 5.  Elders, moms, dads, aunts, and uncles rely on their children to understand what is being communicated to them; whether that is through teacher conferences, going to the store, coming to the food pantry, reading fliers or newsletters, and so many other daily activities.  Education has given these children the ability to empower their parents in the world around them.  And often, if our parents are empowered, this overflows on the children.

I have pondered how powerful this is and how often He gives the power to the small and meek.  Many of these children do not know the power that they have, they only know that this help is needed by their parents who love them.  And so, the relationship between elder and child then dictates the way the child will communicate and translate.  If there is love, the child will uphold and help the parent as well as he/she can.  If there is fear, the child will only do what they feel at any moment, leaving the adult unqualified and unjustified.

As Christians, followers of Jesus, we have been given the role as translator.  We are translators of His love.  How educated are we (in God’s love/His Gospel) and how is our relationship with our Father?  These two are deeply intertwined.  I am again in awe of the position He has given me in His Kingdom….and so, so thankful for His Holy Spirit to continue to teach me wisdom, kindness, gentleness, etc.

Pray with us for these children who hold an important position in their families.  We hope and pray that each of them discovers the Love of our Father King and His kingdom they are called to live in.

Giving thanks

As we enter warmer days, it always brings new life as we get the garden ready, sow seeds, and see our neighbors more regularly outside.  We are approaching our 2 year anniversary and it is encouraging to look back and see what God has done and exciting to hope and dream of what He has for us as we continue to enter in every day.

Here are just a few things we wanted to share about and ask you to join us in giving thanks for:

1) Friendship-  We have seen our home become not only a place to meet some of the needs of our community but also a place of friendship, fellowship and even refuge at times.  THIS alone is worth it.  We cannot tell you how honored we are that God has given us such a gift.  Our dream of becoming a demonstration plot for the Kingdom of God is becoming realized and so much more than we had imagined.

2) Finances are abundant-  We are regularly supported by our home church, Grace Chapel, our seven other covenant congregations, as well as MANY others who drop by our home with gifts as well as give regularly.  This is SO encouraging to us as we have been able to provide for our own family, keep the food pantry well-stocked, keep the community garden running, and do other maintenance projects.  At this point, we still receive anonymous donations, but want to communicate our thanks for your continued support.

3) Community development-  We had a “community leadership dinner” a few weeks back with a hope to invite and bring our friends/guests of the food pantry into leadership.  A couple of the ladies brought some amazing Mexican dishes to share as we ate together and then gathered in our living room to discuss.  Andy and I had our first moment of sharing why and how we started the food pantry as well as opened it up with community garden leadership ideas as well as a vision of a ride-share program.  It was a very encouraging moment while a couple of the high school students translated for the group.  Lots of head-nodding, talking, and even giving ideas.  Something happened in the spirit realm that has allowed for more trust and friendship to occur here.  Praise the Lord!  But as always in friendship, it is a one day at a time, being present and available for each other.

4)  Spiritual growth-  Learning to love our neighbor and love God is often a journey of trusting and loving God by trusting our neighbor.  Loving our neighbors is about being confident in God’s love for us enough to be vulnerable with others.  This gets messy and intimate and mixed up with our own junk.  We have come to a place where we do believe that our ultimate Heavenly goal here is to become friends with our “neighbors” and live out His Kingdom together here on earth until He comes.  This is what Jesus did, and so, this is what we do or what we hope to do.  It has broken down our agendas and asked us the question, “What is a friend?”.

Jesus said this, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”  With Jesus as the perfect example as a friend and servant, we have our whole lives to discover this deep revelation over and over again.  And without Him, through His Holy Spirit, we cannot do this.

Please join us in giving thanks to Him who makes ALL things possible!

And pray for us as we enter the next year of community gardening and planning some fun events throughout the summer.

Why we do what we do

“We can’t love God unless we love each other. And to love we must know each other. We know Him in the breaking of bread and we know each other in the breaking of bread. And we are not alone anymore.” ~ Dorothy Day

There is something very symbolic about food, . . breaking bread together. It transcends language and culture. We had a “leadership” meeting at our home amongst our friends from the Jubilee Food Pantry last weekend. It was amazing and remarkable. Simple too. We broke bread (well, actually not bread we had homemade and authentic pasole and enchiladas) with our amigos. It was really the first time that we had the opportunity to share our vision for the pantry: build community, love one another and enter deeper into the Kingdom. It was especially cool for me in that many of the husbands came with their wives, which is usually not the case on Tuesday evenings. As what I shared about our hopes and dreams with this community was communicated by one of the family’s high school aged daughter, there were a lot of heads nodding and quite a few smiles. This is encouraging since many had no idea why exactly we do what we do ~ other than to love Jesus. I think the quote from Dorothy Day above sums it up very nicely and I will paraphrase: we cannot love God fully unless we are loving each other, we love each other by truly knowing each other, we can better know one another when we break bread together, when we break bread together we become community. Pretty simple and the posole was good!

Hospitality and Messyness

I think I can say that the honeymoon period of the Jubilee Food Pantry has officially ended.  Recently we have entered into a season of walking our faith out in the daily routine and sometimes monotony of life and finding an intense need to be relying on his Holy Spirit for joy, peace, and contentment.  Like many of you, Andy and I enjoy challenge, drama, and excitement, but there are seasons of life that are in, some perspectives, uneventful.  But I am seeing that this is where the challenge really is.  The challenge to find/see Him in the daily walk of life.  Every moment presents an opportunity.

And so, as we have prayed into this, He has given us a new perspective and a refreshing challenge to meditate on and teach our children.

Every Tuesday we have an unusual opportunity to teach our children the gift of Hospitality.  Our kids often struggle as other children, that they do not know well, come in and make a mess of our home.  Just a couple weeks ago our family decided to keep bedroom doors closed on Tuesdays because of the frustrations that came during and after food pantry hours.  The kids’ bedrooms were hit by a tornado of toys and made for cleaning up long, arduous and complainy.  After many kind attempts of asking the guests to help clean up, we decided that keeping the mess to one area was necessary for our family.

This was a good decision, however, here is the struggle; there is still a mess to clean up.

And the beautiful and challenging Opportunity reveals itself.  What is hospitality?  Why do we invite strangers into our home?  Who do we keep letting them mess up our home?  How are we going to continue this path every Tuesday and not become bitter, disillusioned, and ultimately invite a religious spirit to lead the ministry?

As parents, we are in the limelight.  In the heat of the moment, our children are watching.  When I clean the bathroom after Tuesday night and I am grumbling about the trails of stickyness that have gooped up the walls and doors of our home, my children will understand that attitude is okay.  They imitate.  When I look at the carpets and flop down all frumpy and grouchy while I scrub stains out, my children see my example and imitate.  So, what do I expect when their rooms are destroyed every Tuesday?  Hmmm…

We have an incredible Opportunity to take joy in cleaning the messes up.  The kids and I have been memorizing this verse:

By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.  2 Peter 1:3

Applying this to our family, God has given us everything we need for inviting the stranger into our home, serving and loving them.  Our children have been taught that everything means His Holy Spirit, or in Eva’s words, “all of God”.  Everything means power, love, joy, and the perspective to thank Him for the messes that we continually clean up.  Forgiveness.  In a sense we are forgiving over and over again, imitating Jesus.  He served and he loved over and over again until death on the cross.  And then, by His divine power, He gave us all of Him to do the same.

Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.  Romans 12:13

Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.  Hebrews 13:2

Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.  1 Peter 4:9

We ought therefore to show hospitality to such people so that we may work together for the truth.  3 John 1:8

Teaching ideals can be taught by anyone, but teaching by example is the most faith sharpening and Gospel revealing parts of Christianity.  We do not know what hospitality truly is until we get to a place where we wonder why we are doing it.  Suddenly it becomes an opportunity rather than a constant mess to clean up.  I realize that by inviting the mess and acknowledging the exhaustion of cleaning up, I can then acknowledge and receive the only Power that can clean without growing tired.  He then, heals and cleans up me a bit more on the inside.

So, our family has decided to verbally speak out the Truth in these opportunities by saying, “Thank you, Jesus, for another chance to clean up someone’s mess.  You have given me everything I need to have joy while I clean.  Thank you for cleaning up my mess.”

Please pray for our family as we work out our faith.

 

Christmas at the JFP

On any given Tuesday we may have 30 or more children playing in our living room.  It is wonderful to sit back and see the Kingdom at work in these little ones.  Our hope this Christmas is to bless each of these children and their family with a bible and Jesus storybook.  If you would like to help us out with this, click on the pictures below of the The Jesus Storybook Bible (Spanish/English version) for children or the NIV Bible (Spanish/English version) for the moms and dads.  Our goal is to have 30 of each of these books to wrap and distribute the Tuesday before and after Christmas.

   

It may be a little too late to order these via Amazon, but if you live in the Portland area, Powell’s Books currently has 25 of the storybook and more than enough of the NIV bible at their local warehouse.

If you do choose to purchase one or more of these for the families who come to the JFP, please notify us and let us know how many you plan to donate (serenity@sterling.net).  Please plan to get them to us by Monday, December 19th.

Holiday giving specifics

We have been approached a number of times recently by some folks who would like to help with the holiday season in some way or another.   Praying through this, so that we can direct you to something concrete and helpful, we have come up with some ideas.  These are items that could be handed out the week of Christmas and/or throughout the year to bless all of the families that come to the Jubilee Food Pantry.

• Turkeys!!!  We would love to hand out a turkey to each family who comes to pantry during the week of Thanksgiving and Christmas.  HOWEVER, we do not have freezer space, so please be ready to deliver them on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and Christmas.  And please let me know, by e-mail or facebook, if you have a turkey to give.
• The Jesus Storybook Bible (Spanish/English version)
• NIV Bible (Spanish/English version)
• Diapers!  We would also love to hand out a big package of diapers to each family who has children on Christmas.  The most popular sizes are 3, 4, 5 but we will take any size.

As always, we want to extend an invite to all of you to pay us a visit.  We have families come every Tuesday, all year long, who would love to meet you, know your name, and be known themselves.  And this invitation is not just to the Jubilee Food Pantry; there are families, elderly, homeless, orphans, EVERYWHERE.  Jesus came into the world as a helpless baby of a poor family to remind us that every nobody is a SOMEBODY.  Jesus came to be with the nobody’s and asked us to imitate Him.  He then gave us the power to do it, through His Holy Spirit.  So, before you quickly give to the nearest charity (which is not bad), stop and ask Him what He wants of you.  “With God, all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26

Thank you and may you be blessed by His amazing Grace this holiday season.

Stories from the JFP

Relationship.  This is what Jubilee Food Pantry was opened for.  Food is often the conduit for opportunity.

We wanted to share some experiences we have had with some individuals that might give you a better understanding of what happens here, who our guests are, and more specifics on how you can pray for us.

Margarita, or Margo, has been coming to the food pantry since June of last year.  She has become a friend of mine, not because we have a lot in common, but because God wants us to be friends.  I have grown to love her and think of her as family.  She is a single mom of 5 kids, lives in a tiny apartment around the corner from us with 4 of her children, husband/partner (not sure which) left her for another woman last summer, speaks little English, struggles daily with depression, anxiety, and voices in her head, and now works long hours sewing mattresses in Wilsonville.  Margo is caught in a life of strife.  She is poor, with little language skills, on lots of meds and young kids at home.  I see Margarita often (her family was one that took part in the community garden) on Tuesdays and then during the week.  She has grown to trust me and my family- this is big.  Her extended family trusts me- this is also big.  Please pray with us for her and her family, that they would find His Peace, His Love/Power, and His Faithfulness.

Cece (that is not her real name) has been coming to the food pantry for 2 months.  The second time I saw her on a Tuesday, I walked to her car with her and she shared with me that her husband had just left her and her two daughters (1 month old and 3 yrs old).  She was a wreck.  She speaks almost no English and my Spanish is very beginner with that kind of conversation.  I prayed with her and asked her how we could help more, she said “diapers”.  We supplied.  And she continues to come every week, for diapers, relationship, prayer and someone to listen.  As far as I can understand, she just found out that her husband is in Florida with another woman and has asked her to sign divorce papers.  Her heart is broken, angry, confused and so sad for her daughters who are confused as well.  Please pray that she would know our Father more and more each time we meet no matter what language is spoken.  Pray that Andy and I would not take these burdens on ourselves, rather, we would hand them to Jesus each time.

Al has been regularly coming to food pantry since last summer.  We have grown to love him.  He is a white, English speaking man (minority in our parts ) and lives in a very old house in the middle of town.  He is quiet, soft-spoken, and down-trodden.  His marriage has suffered many ups and downs.  He heats his house with scrap wood- whatever he can find, and struggles to make ends meet.  He is constantly thanking Andy and I for our generosity and always wants to make sure we know he doesn’t want to take advantage of us.  Him and I had a sweet moment one day in the middle of him grabbing food off the shelves.  He started crying big crocodile tears as I prayed for him. Ever since, he always says how much that meant to him, as well as how much God is good to him.  Pray for Al that He would know that he is KNOWN and free.

Bernadina has been coming since last winter.  She is a spicy character that has kept us on our toes.  Her grabby hands and intense fear and/or entitlement requires of us loving and consistent reminders that we will have more than enough if we each take what is offered.  She, as well as a few others, fear scarcity.  And this keeps me in check with myself as I speak these reminders to her.  We have more than enough, do not fear.  Pray for her, that her heart would be put at ease and the Holy Spirit would be able to speak Truth to her and that she would be able to see in a new way.

There are so many people….I could go on for a long time.  If you have read this whole thing, bless you!  Thank you for taking a few minutes to read about some of our friends and neighbors.  This relationship thing Jesus called us to can get messy, confusing, and just plain hard sometimes, but it is also a GREAT joy when you can push through with Him to see the beauty He brings with it.

Activities, family, and the Kingdom

School and activities have created more busyness for the Coulombes recently, as I am sure it has done the same for many of you.  And I have noticed less time in my schedule made for those outside my immediate family.  This has concerned me and I ask for your prayers that Andy and I would continue to keep our schedule as open as possible and become even more purposeful with our time.  As our kids get older and become involved in sports, or other activities, we as Jesus followers must be careful to be deliberate, make time, stop and think, say ‘no’, say ‘yes’, and look outward to those around us.  It is easy to slip into the “well, my family is important to me” mantra.  Who is our family?  In Matthew 12:46-50, Jesus says our family is those who do the will of the Father.

As Jesus was speaking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him.  Someone told Jesus, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, and they want to speak to you.”

Jesus asked, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?”  Then he pointed to his disciples and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother!”

Hmmmm….

I’m not exactly sure what Jesus would say exactly about busy schedules, lots of activities, sports, etc.  But I do know He lived his life fully available to those around Him.  He was ready and willing.  That is what we want to be and we ask for your prayer and partnership in this way of life.  The Kingdom of God cannot increase if we can only see or spend time on our busy schedules, sports, activities, and entertainment.  We are here to be Jesus to those who don’t know Him.  And if we are to be Him, we must act as He acted.