His City

I just got home from seeing an old friend that I haven't seen in a while. This old friend of mine lives here in the city and at one time he use to sleep on the streets here in Philly. He now lives in an adult care home where he is happy as he can be. It was great to see him but I was also sad to tell him that I was moving down to North Carolina, I assured him that he could call or write me as much as he would like. He is a great guy that the Lord uses to remind me that no matter what our circumstances He will always provide for our needs.

We had our annual Christmas Party at Cast Your Cares the weekend before last. It was freezing, raining and even snowing at times. But the weather was not a huge issue because we had a huge tent set up with heaters and hot chocolate inside for everyone. We invited everyone from the neighborhood into the tent where we had ourselves a little Christmas service. The guy speaking was a pastor who had once lived on the streets himself at one point in his life. He spoke about the freedom that is only found in Jesus and shared about what that freedom has looked liked in his life. It was extremely powerful and the Lord drew many hearts toward Him that night. After the service, for the first time in years, we had our Christmas dinner inside. We opened up our doors and were able to feed over a hundred people a hot meal. We also handed out gifts to everyone that came as they left. It was a wonderful night.

The thing we will miss the most about Philadelphia is the people we have grown to love over the many years of being here. They are people that we am so thankful to the Lord for, ones that we will never forget. It is funny to look back and remember my first day in Philly. I was nervous, in culture shock, and a little scared about what I had gotten myself into. The Lord reassured me that day to continue loving and seeking Him and to love others as He loves me. That simple truth stuck with me all these years and I have been able to be a part of something wonderful here in Philadelphia. Jesus has blessed both of our lives while living our lives here. We have seen many things that have broken our hearts and many things that warmed our hearts and made us smile. We have watched Jesus do some pretty amazing things, and we are confident as we leave that He will continue to do amazing things here in His city Philadelphia.

Big Changes

Well it has been a while to say the least since our last blog post. We have both been doing well and the Lord has been doing some great things not only in our lives but in the lives of others as well. Life has been crazy for both Anna and I. Anna has continued to work at her after school program as well as working at an internship at a children's hospital. She has really enjoyed it but she hasn't had much free time to do anything else. I have been taking online classes on top of working at Cast Your Cares during the day. So my free time has become no existent as well. I decided to start taking online classes in order to finish up some basic classes that I never took when I was in college years ago.

Many of you know but for the one's that do not know Anna and I are going to be moving from Philadelphia to Raleigh, North Carolina. After a lot of prayer and tough decision making Anna and I decided that our time here in Philly was coming to an end and that the Lord had some new things in store for us, one which involved me going back to school. It is something that we are very excited about but at the same time we are very sad to leave a place and a people that we love so very much. Both of us have grown so much through our time here in Philadelphia. The Lord has led us through so many adventures here. We got to see God's heart for his people here, watched peoples lives be dramatically changed by Him, and this is also place where we first met as well. So to say the least Philadelphia is a very special place for both of us.

With that said ministry has continued on even though my blogging skills happen to stop for awhile. Some updates from ministry include giving out 32 turkeys to families for thanksgiving which was cool to see, hitting an all-time record of a busy day at the food cupboard by giving out 60 bags of food and my favorite of the past month was getting to go out with Anna and her afterschool kids on a bowling outing. It was the first time I got to meet all the new kids from this year, which I must say are some very sweet kids.

We do have some really big changes coming up in our lives, ones that I don't think either of us know how to handle. In the mean time we are just going to soak up all the Lord has to offer us here in Philly. I will try to get a little better a my blogging skills as I have sort of gotten a handle on managing my online classes because well they are almost over. While we are still here we will continue to try to update you as much as possible with the wonderful things the Lord is doing here in Philadelphia.

School Kids

We live next to one of the high schools here in Philly. Almost everyday I watch kids running from the school. They are running not because anything is wrong but because they saw their break and are running so they don't get caught skipping school. I sometimes see them in the morning from my window or other times they run right past me on my way to Cast Your Cares. I always just shake my head and think to myself "what a shame". I wonder why in the world is it so easy for so many kids to skip school everyday and why there is no one trying to keep these kids in school. I remember growing up, I couldn't wait to leave either, when that bell rang at 3 pm I was one of the first ones out of the school. But what breaks my heart is the brokenness that I see in these kids. Around half of the high school students in Philadelphia drop out school and out of the ones who do graduate the percentage of those who go to college is not very high.

One of the neat things that goes on in the city to fight this brokenness is after school programs. Anna has been working at an after school program here in Philly for over 5 years now. She has worked with kids of all ages from elementary school to high school. I have been a few times over the years and they can be a little rough but she loves them and wants to see their lives changed not only in their school work but have their lives as a whole changed by Jesus. Our hope is always to see the Lord redeem the brokenness all around us, whether it be in our own lives or in those lives around us. The Lord has given Anna a huge heart for kids of her after school program. She always does the best she can with the strength He has given her, whether it is helping the kids with their homework, keeping them in line, loving them, playing with them, and even teaching them about the love God has shown us through Jesus. She has seen success and failures over the years but has always maintained that it is all worth it because whatever is done for God's glory is always worth it.

Yes there is brokenness in the schools here in Philly but I praise God for the work He is doing and the wonderful people He has placed in it to show His redeeming power and love. We all live in a world that is broken and sinful, we all experience it no matter where we live, in the cities or in the suburbs, in our own lives or in others. The one thing that always blows me away is God's continue redeeming work wherever that may be.

Cast Your Cares Mural

This past week we had a team at Cast Your Cares doing a unique project, Painting a Mural. They designed the mural themselves and painted the mural themselves as well as having some assistance from Frank and Jim. They painted throughout the week but also got to experience the people here in Philly and what the Lord is doing here as well. We took them on a prayer walk one day and they did a wonderful job in sharing the Lord with people as well as praying for them... it was a joy to watch. They brought their own uniqueness and well as their own gifts that the Lord has blessed them with. This morning we had a breakfast for the neighborhood and our neighbors were able to see the mural for the first time. It has definitely brought some character to our side lot as well as some nature. The group worked their tails off this week and did a wonderful job. Here is some pictures of the new look at the Cast Your Cares Ministry.

Depths and Richness of Grace

Life here in Philly is going well... the Lord continues to amaze us and bless us everyday. This past weekend Anna and I took a last minute trip with some friends ours to their uncle's cabin in the mountains here in Pennsylvania. It's a beautiful place that we have been to a few times over the years and like every other time we have gone it was great. We spent the weekend catching up with our friends who we haven't spent time with in a while, had a fire going the whole weekend, and really just had a fun with our friends. I especially liked the part of the weekend where I was able to show my manliness by chopping wood as well as showing the kid in me by running around with my buddy getting all dirty and exhausted at the same time. It was a wonderful surprise to our weekend, one that I know the Lord blessed us with.
I have been learning a lot about God's grace lately. Last week a guy came to the door at Cast Your Cares while the food cupboard was running, he wanted to sign up to get some food from us as well as talk about life. It was a guy that I have known for a while but haven't seen in a few months. He caught me up on what was going on in his life and the things that were weighing him down. I tired to encourage him the best that I could, with some guidance and God's truth. I felt like we kind of got some where in our talk but as he left I couldn't help but feel for the guy, thinking to myself "if he only understood the grace God has for him in his life things would be so different for him." Later that day after I got home I was listening to some music by Shane and Shane, the song Saved by Grace in particularly. As I listened to the song, a song I have heard a hundred times before, the words "we have been saved by grace" rang over and over in my ears. I began to see the very thing that I was hoping for that guy earlier to understand, I fail to understand at times in my life. I think at times we get stuck on auto pilot and began to try to do things solely on our own, most of the time not even meaning to. Grace is a very hard concept to understand sometimes because we think we need to fix whatever problem is in our lives. We even do it with our relationship with Jesus, we say I need to fix this or do this but the truth is "that God has raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace we have been saved, through faith- and this is not from ourselves, it is a gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast" . The words in those verses in Ephesians 2 show that we don't have to do things all on our own and that God graciousness is completely free. The depths and richness of His grace I will continue to learn and for that I am excited as well as thankful.

3 Years in the Making

Well it has been a little while since our last post. We usually try to write on the blog at least once a week and well it's been a little longer than that. Things have been going well for us here in Philly. Ministry continues to be fun and challenging at the same time. Anna and I hit a big milestone in our lives, we celebrated our 3 year Anniversary on the 19th of August. We celebrated it by having a wonderful day and night out in Philadelphia. We went on a fun carriage ride around the city in which our carriage driver was actually from our neck of the woods here in Kensington, she was a lot of fun. We also went to this awesome desert place where everything you ordered was made from chocolate. They had chocolate burgers, chocolate pizzas and anything else you could think of that you could turn into chocolate. We had the chocolate pizza, it was great but we want to die after we ate it, it was a lot to handle. We had a great day and night in the city celebrating our wonderful 3 years of marriage.

Meanwhile ministry has been keeping us busy and I have really enjoyed having Anna with me more than usual these last few weeks between her breaks in school. I love being side by side with her as we serve Jesus together, it is such a blessing, something I cherish.
For those of you who love praying for us and the ministry here in Philly, we have some prayer requests. So if you could keep them in prayers that would be awesome!

Prayer Requests:
For the wonderful people we serve on a daily basis- that the Lord would continue to penetrate their hearts with His love and truth. For the men and women who continue to lose the battle with their addictions, that the Lord would show them the freedom that is in Him.

For Anna and I- that the Lord would continue to stretch and grow us as we seek to live life out for Him. As well as for the Lord to provide for our financial needs.

The Food Cupboard in Action

Well today we have something special for you. After 4 years we did something today that we have never done before. Today we took some pictures of the food cupboard in action. So you are going to see a rare glimpse into the food cupboard and who we serve. The reason why we haven't taken any pictures of the food cupboard over the years is because the majority of people we serve don't really like their pictures being taken and we want to honor that. But lately we have tried to think of some different ways to raise money for the food cupboard and we came up with some different ideas involving making brochures, pamphlets, and some other creative things along those lines. So with that we realized we needed to get some pictures of the food cupboard actually running.

So today I asked all of the people we serve if it would be okay if we took some pictures of the food cupboard in action. They were kind of hesitant at first but they eventually all agreed that it would be okay. I hope you enjoy seeing the food cupboard in action. And oh ya I also have a 20 second video as well....it is not too exciting but it's a glimpse into what we do on a daily basis.

Ahhh... the City of Brotherly Love

Ahhh... the City of Brotherly Love. For those of you who do not know, Philadelphia translated in the Greek means the "the city of brotherly love". On any give day the City of Brotherly Love is tested to it's core by crime and violence that breaks you heart and doesn't feel much like a city of "brotherly love". But the one thing that is very interesting about the Ghetto is with all it's issues there is a huge sense of community among everyone who lives there. It is very different from the life I once lived, one where everyone has their own house with their own yard and fence....their own little life. Here you live pretty much right on top of one another and if not on top of one another you at least share walls with your neighbors. You can't help but live life with everyone around you. With that you get to know your neighbors and everyone around you pretty well. You become very aware of who they are as people. You learn their likes and dislikes, wants and desires, as well as their needs. We have gotten to know so many people because of the simple fact that we all live so close to one another. And hey, don't get me wrong their are times we need to get away from people from time to time...(I think that is why we love to go camping.. haha). But their is definitely something I believe the Lord has placed here in the Ghetto to glorify Himself and that is community. I think sometimes we miss out on all the Lord has for us because we live secluded lives. When we get out and interact in people's lives we experience the life that the Lord has always wanted us to have...with people. It is something to think about..... So after all I believe Philadelphia does actually live up to it's name as The City of Brotherly Love.

Some Faces of Philadelphia

To Peru and Back

Well it has been a few weeks since our last blog, we have been all over the place this past month. I've been on a mission trip to Peru, visited my family in Texas, and just this past weekend Anna and I and her whole family went to Chicago to see her brother and sister-in-law and their new little arrival into their family. So it has been a crazy month full of great times all that I am so thankful for. I went to Peru with a good friend of mine from Texas, I went with him and his wife and some college students from their church. It was an awesome experience for me to see what the Lord was doing in Peru. We were in Peru for 9 days and were busy every single one of them. We partnered with an American missionary couple who live in Iquitos, Peru, they work there with a local bible school who trains and equips their students to go out and share the gospel through church planting. We went up the Amazon River and visited one of the church plants from the bible school. It took a 2 hour bus ride and a 6 hour boat ride up the Amazon to get there. We spent 5 days at the village in the jungle building a house for the pastor and his wife, doing VBS with all the children(where I got to dress up as a clown...I was kind of frighting though), as well as having church services at night. I was blown away by the joy of the pastor and his wife, though they had very little they were so happy and joyous... and children of the village... well they just touched your heart by the all joy that they had. On the day we left the village we stopped in Nauta, Peru and got to play football, soccer, ultimate frisbee, and volleyball with some local young men and women there. We had a great time playing sports (esp. football) and at the end I got to share the gospel with all of them. It was awesome to see how the Lord can use something like sports to bring people to know him as Savior. We got a lot accomplished on the trip, we built the house of their dreams for the pastor and his wife, we brought joy to children through loving on them, and we brought the wonderful news of Jesus to many who had never heard it. All in all it was an amazing trip, one that I will never forget as long as I live. I know I am forever changed from it, in many ways that I have not even realized yet. I thank the Lord so much for it. I have also enclosed so photos from the trip, I hope you enjoy them.


Iquitos, Peru


Village in the Amazon Jungle


Our team


The Amazon River


The House being built


Children from the village


Yes that's me as a clown...


Told you I was frighting


Need a Peruvian house built? We can build you one..


Kids swimming in the Amazon


This is what not shaving for 9 days can do to you...