Throw back thursday

I found some old photos and hope to do a few throw back post.

I am going to start with Frankie the dog.  Frankie was our community's first dog.  He was given to us by "outside John".  John was given the name "outside John" to by the children as a way to distinguish the man living in his truck in the parking lot from my husband Jon, who lived in the house.  "Outside John" was a bit of a trouble maker.  I remember the day I came home from work and he told me that he had just been to the Jimmy's John's downtown and that he ran out of that store with several bags of potato chips before they chased him out.  He also stole a lawn mower once from our neighbor in order to bless us by mowing our lawn. 

Outside John had been loitering in all kinds of church parking lots around the city and if he was kicked out by them he would write curses about them on his white truck.  Since our community was founded by many people who worked at the homeless shelter in Lincoln we welcomed this homeless man into our parking lot with open arms.  He set up his camp right outside my bedroom window, he would start his day by blaring music and yelling at his dog Frankie.  One morning I actually was woken up by a very very loud noise, when I looked out the window Outside John was standing there with a chain saw, ready to mount a ladder to trim some branches off a tree, "for us". 

One day, the police came by to talk to Outside John about one of his escapades and they began to ask him about his dog Frankie.  I think Outside John saw the writing on the wall and he quickly pointed to Grace and told the officers that she was Frankie's new owner....and so she was.  Then when she brought her daughter Samantha home from Bulgaria, Daniel became Frankie's owner, then when Frankie caused his final disaster in Daniel's place, he became the Schmeeckle's family dog....and he will forever remain their dog, as it was in this family that Frankie took his last breath.

Here's to you Frankie, you were one smart dog and the biggest lap dog I have ever seen.  You lived your life like a true adventurer, we were proud to be apart of your latter days.  thanks for taking us on so many walks, see you on the other side buddy.

R12 House

Sorry for the radio silence friends, whew, things got a bit busy there.  Tons of exciting stuff has been happening in our neck of the woods, and I am happy to be finally writing to tell you about it!

Well at the end of February we moved 2 men into our NEW transition House.  Which has now been named......drum roll please......the R12 house.  We are excited to be a place where men are transformed by the gospel of Christ and by community!!  (read Romans 12).

 

 Pictured above is the "alpha" group of the R12 house.  From the left, our male support staff Anoroy, Quinton, Frank, Johnny and Rachel, our female support staff.  We have enjoyed extending our family to include the house across the alley from the Bolivar house.

Because of being able to take custody of his children Quinton moved out but is still an active part of our church and we are hoping he will still come visit us at the Bolivar house this summer, so his kids can play with ours!  Frank has been an amazing addition to our house.  He has said that this house has been an unbelievable answer to prayer.  He can't believe how comfortable his transition out has been thanks to all the people around him suppoting and welcoming him.  We look forward to watching Frank build a garden this summer!  Johnny is working to move home to be closer to his beautiful daughter and his dad and grandmother.  We will be sad to see him go but we feel fortunate to have been part of his transition story. 

D'Angelo joined us just 5 days ago, I look forward to getting a new  picture with him in it and one other guest we hope will be joining us on May 10th.  It is my goal to keep introducing you to the men whose lives are changing due to your support of our community.

We haven't figured out how yet but we do still need to raise a HUGE amount of money to buy this house....don't forget you can click on the donate button on the top right hand corner of this page to contribute to our purchase of this property.

Please be praying for the men in this house that God would provide for their needs and that they would accept the love and care of our community.   Praise God for what He is doing!!!!