"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth" Matthew 5:5

His name is Norman Jones... but his street name is Thor. If you saw him from afar, you might run the other direction. But as he gets closer and you see the smile on his face and the light in his eyes.. you might just want to hug him. He is one of the few "street men" we know who has no criminal record. He wouldn't hurt a fly. He's a gift giver... he has nothing but the clothes on his back, but he always manages to come bearing gifts for someone on the staff. He doesn't say much at all.... he usually just stares silently and smiles. But the few little words he says usually consist of, "Hi everyone", "Please", "Thank you" and "I love you". If I could use a word to describe Thor, it would be meek. He is very loved.


He hasn't missed a Sunday night worship service, a Monday afternoon AA meeting or a Tuesday visit with the doctor to get vitamins in 6 years. So when we didn't see him on Sunday we got a little worried, when he didn't show up on Monday the AA leader drove the streets looking for him and when he didn't come into the doctor, we just knew. You see... it isn't uncommon for us to lose a few homeless men in the winter every year. Their feeble bodies just can't handle the cold weather and many freeze to death. So yesterday afternoon we got the call... he died alone sometime over the weekend in an abandoned house. But Thor wasn't alone.. Thor was a believer in Jesus Christ. So when his poor sick, cold body passed from this earth, he got to go to a much warmer place. Thor won't ever have to live through another cold winter. He is safe and warm in the arms of the King.



My favorite picture of Thor... kneeling at the foot of the cross to take communion.

Thanksgiving.

Yesterday I was reflecting back on this year and all the things I am thankful for ( I know it's cliche, but it's true) Here are a couple of things that popped into my mind.

The staff and volunteers- Did you know that there are only technically 5 full time staff members at Cross & Crown? But if you walked in on any given day you would swear there are at least 40-50 people working there. That's because they are. We manage to run a full time food ministry, clothing ministry, legal, medical and eye clinic. We also have just begun a community development project with properties in the neighborhood along with multiple youth ministries, childrens programs, addiction recovery and Sunday worship services (just to name a few) We do ALL this with 5 full time staff. That's because there are hundreds of volunteers who CHOOSE to show up on a daily and weekly basis. We are so blessed. I am thankful for the other full time staff members. They all have been given specific gifts that make them amazing at their job. Every day I am reminded of how well the Lord has molded us together for His purpose.

The neighborhood- I am thankful for the women who cook us lunch every day just because they want to, the homeless men who pick up trash in our grass because they want it to look pretty, the men in the neighborhood who mow when the grass gets to high without even asking, and the kids who come bombard my car and shower me with hugs when I get to work every morning. I never take for granted the graciousness of all the precious people who live and love in our precious community.

I am so fulfilled at this point in my life. There are days when I am discouraged, but when I look back on all the many blessings and miracles from this year, I can't help but be excited about the future.

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.
Psalm 91:1,2

Is there such a thing as normal? Part II

Today's schedule for comparison...
8:45-10:30 Took a prostitute from the neighborhood to get a state id at Department of public safety
10:30-11:00 Prayer time with all volunteers and staff
11:00 Let in about 200 people for thanksgiving food baskets
11:15 Translated for neighborhood woman who decided to preach about thanksgiving to our entire waiting area
11:30 Carried out t-giving baskets
12:00 Returned emails and made phone calls
12:15 Filled out christmas info on additional families
12:30 Drove to Yukon to pick up video games for Rock Island
1:30 Ate expired Food Bank food for lunch
2:00-5:30 Rock Island after-school program (Lots and lots of Halo 3)
6:00 Drove home

I know that isn't very exciting to read... but I was just making a point to some people who had asked. There is no such thing as normal... and I love it.

What do you want for christmas?

Today my aunt came and videoed part of our elementary christmas rehearsal. She also came out on the playground and asked kids what they wanted for christmas... watch this. Thanks Aunt Dawn!



By the way... which part do you think made me get a little choked up?

Is there such thing as normal?

People always ask.... "What is a normal day like at Cross and Crown?" I don't know what normal would look like, but here is my day today in a nutshell.... I will blog tomorrow and tell you about my day and then we will compare the two. It's an experiment... I'm not sure what normal looks like.

8:30 Arrived at work to see around a hundred people lined up around the block waiting to sign our food list
9:00 Made coffee with Ron for the spanish womens bible study... drank 2 cups of coffee myself
9:30 Began sewing some of the costumes for the neighborhood Christmas nativity.
10:30 Had prayer time with entire staff... laid hands on and prayed for one of our neighborhood women who is in the middle of leaving an abusive relationship. Prayed for her and her teenage son who are basically homeless.
11:00 Opened the door and let in about 150 people for thanksgiving baskets
11:30 Had an intervention with our first 16 year old "youth group prostitute". Confronted her about her behavior and prayed with her.
12:00 Carried 10 billion pounds of thanksgiving food up and down the Cross and Crown stairs (not really 10 billion... but close)
12:30 Called about 30 different people about Christmas adoptions
1:00 Ate Chille Rellenos with homemade tortillas, beans and rice made by one of the neighborhood women
2:00 Burned (and edited) CD's with a few of the Rock Island boys
3:00 Had elementary rehearsal for the Christmas nativity.
4:00 Played outside and ate snack with elementary kids
4:30 Unloaded 50 thanksgiving food baskets and 50 turkeys delivered by my church (Northchurch)
5:00 Sat on the curb and visited with neighbors
6:00 Drove home


I guess you could say today was normal. No major drama. My favorite part... sitting on the curb at the end of the day talking to neighbors.... My least favorite part.... I don't really have one. Today was good.

Lightbulb moments.

Alot of people ask me, "is your job super stressful?' I always answer the same.. the only time I am stressed is when I bring it upon myself. People don't stress me out, tasks stress me out. I have just recently realized that in order to stay relaxed I live from one "lightbulb moment" to the next. A "lightbulb moment" is a little glimpse of success in everyday ministry. It's an alcoholic coming to an AA meeting for the first time, a little street kid memorizing John 3:16 or a prostitute knocking on the door to ask for prayer. The stressful times like fist fights, gang drama and drug dealers don't stress me out... because I live from lightbulb moment to lightbulb moment.

This weekend I experienced one of those moments....

Since the holiday season is fastly approaching, I am in pure christmas decor mode. But, I ran into a road block this past week. I have not a clue how to hang Christmas lights. I am a new home owner and growing up outdoor lights were not one of my chores. My dad and brother always did the outdoor stuff, the girls did the indoor stuff. So when I noticed my neighbors putting up their lights I rushed to my local Home Depot to join in the fun. I had a feeling putting up the lights by myself would be a disaster so I enlisted the help of two Rock Island boys. I made an assumption that because they were boys and mexicans they could put up christmas lights. (Mexicans use xmas lights year around!) So yesterday we made a valliant attempt...after 6 hours and another trip to Lowes... it got dark and we gave up. But that's not the good part...

After the boys spent so long trying, I felt bad and offered to take them to dinner along with two RI girls that had a slumber party at my house last night. One of the boys is very hard to get to know. The only time I have ever heard him speak is if he is one on one with me and no one else is around. When he does talk it is very quiet and in broken english. I have known him for about 5 years and have never heard him pray out loud, say anything about God or prayer, or pay attention during bible studies or church. He seems completely uninterested in the whole God thing. We'll call him D. They decided they wanted RibCrib. So we sat down and ordered. They were all kind of hyper and loud and we were just having a good time. When the food arrived we all started digging in.... and then I heard a mumble in my direction "Can we pray?".... I thought I misunderstood the boy so I asked again. And D said loudly "CAN WE PRAY?" Everyone stopped and stared.. we bowed our heads right there and prayed together. During the prayer I got a little choked up. I began to thank God for each one of them and the young men and women of God they are becoming. I was like a proud mother sitting there with them.

Not that we don't have our dark moments at Rock Island... we do! BUT... every so often we have a lightbulb moment that seems to light the path a little until the next moment comes along.

I'm not alone anymore.

In the past few months we have had over 20 baptisms, and I'm pretty sure I can remember the names of almost all those people, but I want to share a precious story about "Gena", because her baptism is the one that will stick with me for a long time.

A little over a year ago a young woman stumbled into our Monday morning spanish bible study. She looked worn out and had everything she possessed in her car with her, including her two sons. They had just escaped from a horribly abusive home and had absolutely no where to go. They had heard about the bible study from a friend of a friend and didn't know a soul. That very first Monday with her little boys sitting by her side "Gena" shared her story with the entire bible class, and that very first Monday the women in the class passed around a bucket and gave her everything they had. These are women that come to the mission to get food so that they can feed their family and they were giving all their spare change to a complete stranger... that is love.

That was a year ago, since then "Gena" has gotten back on her feet with a job and a home for her children and she hasn't missed bible study since. She has formed a special bond with Suzanne and always comes bearing gifts like cookies and chocolates. This past Monday "Gena" decided to commit her life to Christ and be baptized. There were around 50-75 women there to witness her special moment. Women who a year ago had been strangers, but today are her best friends and accountability partners. Moments before Gena stepped into the baptistry, she knelt before her two sons (ages 7 and 8) in front of the entire sanctuary and apologized to them. She apologized for letting them be abused and not standing up, she apologized for their physical and mental scars, she pleaded with them to forgive her and give her a fresh start... and through many tears the little family hugged and committed to a new life in Jesus Christ.

After every baptism Pauls asks people how they feel and then he writes it in the back of his bible. When he asked Gena she said, "I'm not alone anymore". What special words from a special person. It's amazing how the Lord works. He takes people who are coming to us for something physical (food, clothes, etc.) and He overwhelms them so much with his love that they can't help but leave completely changed. That's good.

An act of love in a home of hate!

I have more than a few favorite moments in the last year at Cross & Crown. Some are funny, some are sad. On January 1 I plan to blog about the top 10 moments from the last year, but for right now I wanna share a little story from one of those favorite moments.

Every Thursday morning the mission is closed and the staff meets for a staff meeting, afterwards we try to do one act of community service out in the neighborhood, such as mowing a neighbors yard, planting flowers or just visiting one of the older people that can't get out. 2 weeks ago during our staff meeting, our truck driver from the Regional Food Bank called. He had just dropped off 10,000 lbs of food the day before that we had ordered and paid for, but because of our relationship with him, he had another load of produce that was about to go bad that he wanted to give us. We were expecting a few boxes of tomatoes, but we were shocked when Dwayne (the driver) showed up in the biggest semi the Regional Food Bank owns. Full of milk, eggs, tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, onions, mushrooms and tortillas. ALL FREE! We were so excited and immediately began loading the mission trailer full of everything. It was like Christmas, Paul drove slowly down NW9th, 8th and 7th as Ron and I knocked on every door and delivered the gifts. All the neighbors were coming outside and were so excited. Some even followed us around the neighborhood and helped us give away everything. It was a precious time in community.... I tell all that to get to the real good story.

There is a house in our neighborhood that I am scared of. I think to some extent I'm a tough person and not much in the neighborhood frightens me, but this house does. It's painted with all the gang symbols of a particular white supremacist gang, has about 10 different pit bulls strategically placed on chains throughout the property, and in the 6 years I've been at Cross & Crown, I've never seen even one person come out during the day. So, when we reached that house, I was not jumping for joy to walk up and ring the doorbell, but one of their neighbors said there were kids there, so we should try. So Paul, being the great leader he is, got out of the van and stood in the middle of the street yelling at the front door, the dogs wouldn't even allow us on the sidewalk. After a few minutes of yelling, the scariest looking man I have ever seen came outside. He was huge and buff, wasn't wearing a shirt, was a skinhead and had what looked to be the letters 666 tattooed on his forehead. I didn't say a word, I just stared. Paul followed by saying that we heard he had kids and wanted to bless his family with free groceries. The man just held his ground in the middle of his porch and scowled at us. I was on the verge of running screaming in the other direction when the man stepped out into the street and in complete silence he began picking groceries of our trailer that he wanted. ( I forgot to tell you that we blew a tire 5 minutes into our delivery and had been driving on the rim for the last 2 hours) Just as he was about to head back in the house, he turned and said, "Hey, do you need some help with that tire? I've got one in the back you can have." And then he walked to the back yard and came back rolling his peace offering... a great big Firestone tire. You see... this man probably didn't know the way or words to say thank you, so he did the best thing he could. As we drove off, he still never smiled one bit, but I could see the Spirit of God in him, I could feel it. Despite those letters on his forehead and the hate in his eyes, I can sense that the Holy Spirit is hanging around that house... just waiting for the right moment. I don't think it's the last we will see of him... and that doesn't scare me anymore.

I am going to start driving by that house everyday and I will pray the anointing of the Holy Spirit... I pray that the light will penetrate the darkness and the chains that Satan has placed there will be broken and that the people that live there will finally be set free by the blood of Jesus.

Jesus....the most important part.

This Christmas we are doing something very special. Our first EVER Christmas live nativity. The children in the neighborhood are the stars. Last month at the CCDA conference I was struck by something one of the speakers said. He said, "if you invite parents to church they might never come, but if you invite them to see their own kid dressed up and singing or acting, they might never leave."

So that is my goal for the Christmas program... it's a way to get parents to show up, that might otherwise never step foot in Cross & Crown. The night will be great, complete with a Christmas feast afterward free to the whole neighborhood that my church (Northchurch) will be providing. I'm excited.

Even though I'm excited about the program, I was dreading this last week when I assigned parts to all the children. I was so worried that some of the children would leave thinking their part wasn't important.. I didnt' want to hurt feelings. So, I had Luke read the Nativity story to all the children and then I marketed each part the best I could... The shepherds are the best because they get to carry big sticks, the wiseman are the most important because they get to dress in sparkly clothes and carry big presents, the angels are the GREATEST because they get to wear beautiful white robes and pretty wings, etc. And gratefully, it worked. Most every child got the exact part they wanted. As I got to the end of the assignments I realized that there weren't any parts left and one of our little boys didn't have one. He is the smallest kid in the elementary ministry. He is in 2nd grade and about the size of a 4 year old. Everyone calls him Junior. I noticed he was kind of sitting in the back and wasn't saying much... I was frantically searching my paper for any blank space I could plug his name in to give him a part when his hand shot up, "Can I be baby Jesus?" I was shocked... and I kind of stuttered and said, "Junior, Why do you want to be Baby Jesus?" and he answered, "Because He is the most important part." Reality check Chandy.... why was I marketing all the different parts as the best part? Jesus is it... I should have been preaching that to them all along. Thank God for little Junior and his sweet words.

She will give birth to a son, and His name will be Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. -Matthew 1:21-

The land of the free... but not if you're Mexican!

Many people have been writing me emails and little notes asking the same question, "what do you think about all this immigration stuff happening in Oklahoma?" They have been waiting patiently for me to blog about it and the waiting is over.

The truth is... I have nothing to say. I don't even read the papers anymore, because if I have to read one more comment from Senator Terril about how the goal of HB1804 is too make it impossible for Mexicans to live here, I'm going to lose my mind. Am I the only one that thinks the part of 1804 that says it is "illegal to transport or harbor illegal immigrants" sounds like the Holocaust?

I know literally hundreds of people that are living in fear. They stay locked up in their houses hiding in utter terror because they are being discriminated against. This is racism in it's most evident form. The only alternative our government is giving these families who have lived here for 20+ years is to go back to Mexico and live in absolute poverty, uproot their children (who are citizens) from our schools and take them back to a place that not only has ZERO education system, but has no access to medical care.

So basically, not only are we deporting parents, we are sending AMERICAN CITIZEN children back to live in a country where they have a high chance of dying from malnutrition, and if that doesn't get them, then the common cold or flu might... because they have no access to health care. And what about all the orphans that are going to come about from this? What about the families that are being torn apart? Senator Terril doesn't care about human beings, he cares about making a name for himself so that when he decides to run for a higher political office, everyone will know who he is.

I have never wanted to get political, but I just can't help it anymore. I've cried too many tears over this and lost too much sleep. I will pray for our government and leaders and hope that someone has the sense to stand up for these people. I also need to pray that the Lord will soften my heart towards all the people that are discrimating against my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and who are preaching the message to MY CHILDREN that they are trash and don't DESERVE to live in the land of the free.



"So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and DEPRIVE ALIENS OF JUSTICE, but do not fear me," says the LORD Almighty."
- Malachi 3:5-