the world we touch, we want to change

a new friend asked me what we do today, i try to answer this a lot, but i'm gonna start writing what i write, hoping it will keep making sense and... ya know when you make soup? there's a pretty wide variety of things going on, but when you simmer that stuff all day, the extra stuff kinda just cooks away, leaving only the necessary... so, we're heading there- making soup, sauce, a reduction for you Top Chef peeps. anyway, this is what I wrote to the asker today:

What do we do?
...that may look different to different people we’d serve, but it’s discipleship, training, help, hope and health care- so, we want to help the person find light in their darkness. We believe that ultimate light, and hope, come from a relationship with Christ, but that someone may not be able to look there if they can’t see to begin with, so we want to address concerns holistically. We want to help artists, bands, speakers, that are traveling and away from community, from family, and for a lot of them, away from quality care- we want to help them to connect with those things, including medical and dental care while they are in this area. We plan to travel to the summer music festivals and develop and deepen relationships with these individuals, and just really be a pastor to them. Talk to them, care for them spiritually, be a confidential, non-judgmental listening ear, and help to pull them through what can be a tough way to live. We also want to provide an early year and late year (winter/spring and fall/winter) retreat experience where they can be ministered to, trained, taught, and given hope for themselves, help to be able to STAY hopeful, and also some training to stay healthy and be a healthy help to others as well- it is tough to give when you are empty.

We put a lot of weight in what these folks on stages say, the things pouring out of vessels mean a lot, and affect a lot of us. How much MORE effective would this be if the vessels were truly healthy? The sad reality is that they often are broken, cracked, dirty and without much hope to get out of that space. We want to help, to pastor them the same as any person needs a pastor, needs community, needs care, needs accountability.

So… it’s kinda all over the map here, I know… it’s a wide task, a deep breath to think about what it will take. But, we really believe that changing one, because of their stage and their impact, will change thousands. And, changing one today, and another tomorrow, and another.. why not change the world? Someone’s gotta, we want to do our part- the world we touch, we want to change.