Family

In the photo below, you have the "Greathouse" kids and our spouses and our kids. My sisters husband is MIA because of job commitment, he just began a new job. Next year, we all should be there ...... look at Isaiah, I do not think he wants to be in the pic ....



Same group, however we convinced Isaiah to "join" us:



My parents and the grandkids:



These photos were taken in June of 09 at our family reunion. We are looking at doing this annually at this campground. It was very nice to have us all together. We are looking at extending it a day or two.

Love you guys !!

Camping in Pennyslvania

We are in New Castle, Pennsylvania. My parents reserved two mini cabins for a few days. Thus, my family is over there, my parents are there, my brother and wife and son is over here and my sister and three of her kids are here. We got to the campground around 1:30. We have had a good time and just finished up hanging out at the campfire. Here are a few pics, more are over at facebook. If we are not friends there; friend me :)







More later, getting ready to go to sleep.

National Donut Day

Two of the biggest dougnut players are celebrating National Donut Day on June 5 by offering free donuts. Krispy Kreme and Dunkin' Donuts are handing out the sweet goods to celebrate the 71-year old holiday. National Doughnut Day is the first Friday in June and was started in 1938 as a Salvation Army fundraiser to honor the donut "lassies" of WWI who took baked goods to the front lines.

You have to buy a drink to get a free doughnut if you're runnin' on Dunkin', but Krispy Kreme are just giving the their golden goodness away with no purchase required.

Silence & Speech

I am pondering this quote this morning as I am listening to music and working on some vacation bible school material:

The mark of solitude is silence, as speech is the mark of community. Silence and speech have the same inner correspondence and difference as do solitude and community. One does not exist without the other. Right speech comes out of silence, and right silence comes out of speech

This is powerful and challenging for me. I am going to have to mull on this for awhile.

Bee @ T-Ball

Bethany had her first t-ball game last night. We had a great time. It is really fun to watch 5 & 6 year old boys play the game of t-ball. I am coaching the team and am having a good time coaching and cheering them on.

New Orleans: Dry Ground

In about 7 weeks, we are headed down to New Orleans. it has almost been 4 years since Katrina hit. i cannot believe that it has been that long ago. At the time, we were living in Birmingham and we "felt" the effects of the storm and our church made several trips down to the coast. I remember going down there about 6 weeks after the storm and was amazed.

Please take a few minutes and watch the video as it explains that, yes, there is dry land, but that is just the beginning.

Live Openly & Expansively

This morning, I took some time to reflect on yesterday and I have to be honest that I am a little sad and my heart is broken a bit. I am not sure if it should be, but at the present time it is and there was a scripture that came to mind. I am going to share that scripture with you and then I am going to share a little bit about what occurred, what I observed and what ticked me off. But, first, the scripture. Please read with fresh eyes:

Companions as we are in this work with you, we beg you, please don't squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us. God reminds us, I heard your call in the nick of time; The day you needed me, I was there to help.

Well, now is the right time to listen, the day to be helped. Don't put it off; don't frustrate God's work by showing up late, throwing a question mark over everything we're doing. Our work as God's servants gets validated—or not—in the details. People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly . . . in hard times, tough times, bad times; when we're beaten up, jailed, and mobbed; working hard, working late, working without eating; with pure heart, clear head, steady hand; in gentleness, holiness, and honest love; when we're telling the truth, and when God's showing his power; when we're doing our best setting things right; when we're praised, and when we're blamed; slandered, and honored; true to our word, though distrusted; ignored by the world, but recognized by God; terrifically alive, though rumored to be dead; beaten within an inch of our lives, but refusing to die; immersed in tears, yet always filled with deep joy; living on handouts, yet enriching many; having nothing, having it all.

Dear, dear Corinthians, I can't tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn't fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren't small, but you're living them in a small way. I'm speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!

Maybe my bolds interfered with you reading it freshly. But, the bold is what stood out to me and that I needed to scream.

Yesterday, we had our Guiding Coalition ( Board of Directors ) meetings on the Bridges out of Poverty. Overall, it was a very good meeting and the updates from the family meetings ( there have been 3 ) were fantastic. I cannot wait to be at the meeting tonight, meet the families going through the support system and hear their stories. From what I gathered, they have already taken big steps and that is just unbelievable and rockin' news.

The part that turned my stomach however was the report from the faith community and their lack of response in my opinion or the strings that they want to attach for them to be part of the partnership.

I really wish that we, as a faith community, would see this "program" as an opportunity to help 10 families who are willing to commit to make a change and get out of poverty. We are not asking a great commitment from you. But yet, you want to raise numerous yellow and red flags and you want your hands ( it seems ) in the program for interior motives which just makes me want to go ugh.

The aspect that I guess that makes my heart break is that as I look around the room and see all the folks working on this program and the bad taste that they are getting in their mouth about churches, Christianity and religion. That is sad.

There was a letter that was read/outline about why some of the churches are not willing to help. I have to say that I did not "react" to the letter too well. I asked the board if I could address the letter and comments that were given as a person who is a "paid-staff-person" in the faith community.

I may have given a 5 minute rant, I am not sure. There were numerous shaking of the head in agreement. Which is good and bad. The reason that it is bad, I wish there would have been stop sighs going up saying, "Jeff, no that is not how we see the faith community ...."

I am really not even sure how to put this feeling down, it is very odd. Also, I have been getting flack from some locals when I put things on my blog or facebook status about the faith community in our county.

We, I believe, are putting up walls that we do not need to be putting up and I am afraid that the walls that we are putting up are hurting our image in the community and to me that is sad. Let me "list my bold highlights"


please don't squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us.

Friends, God has given us a great life. Too many times, I think that we squander it away and we focus and put time & energies into things that do not really matter. I want to encourage you to take a look at your life and ask the question: am i squandering my life away?

People are watching us as we stay at our post

Folks are watching us and they are making decisions and determinations about Christianity, religion, church and spirituality based on what they see in you. I can tell you that there are a lot of people who are turning their nose to the church because how they see us reacting to community issues. I know that there are many that say, " but we are called to focus on .... " All I am saying is that people are watching; let us try to make sure that we are not the reason they do not want to give Jesus a chance.

I can't tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life.

I think that is still the case today but too many times we are in our gated fence, we do not live out the call to wide open spaces.

Your lives aren't small, but you're living them in a small way.

As Paul says, these are simple words and pretty straight-forward. Our lives are lived so small, so many times and that should just not be the case. With Christ living in us, our lives are large, live large.

Live openly and expansively!

I just want to close my eyes for a few minutes and dream. Dream what our lives would be like, what are friends lives would be like, what our churches would look like and what would happen in our communities if every Christ follower lived openly and expansively.

Examine the Role of the Family

In Think Orange (pg. 47, 48), Reggie gives three statements that I have been mulling on the last few weeks. Here are the statements:

1. What would happen if parents began to see the family in the same way believers should view the church, as a human part of God's design to demonstrate who He is to the world.

2. It is important to help parents understand that their role is not to impress their children or anyone else with their ability to parent. Their role is to impress on their children the love and charachter of God.

3. God is at work telling a stroy of restoration and redemption through your family. Never buy into the myth that you need to become the "right" kind of parent before God can use you in your children's lives. Instead, learn to cooperate with whatever God desires to do in your heart today so your children will have a front-row seat to the grace and goodness of God.

To me, these are some very powerful statements and it comes to me at two levels. One, it comes to me as a parent. How is this playing out in our familiy ? The second one is the church. How are we as a church guiding parents and letting them be the spiritual leaders ?

One of the things that has occurred over the last 40-50 years ( I think ) is that we have become a very "professional" society. We, as parents, turn everything over to the professionals and let them guide and lead them. Parents find coaches for everything in their lives; thus why not in church and religious/spiritual life.

We, as the church, in return; have bought into this full-line and sinker and have begun to offer everything and we have tried to take it under the guise of we know what is best and then at the other angle the consumerism mindset. Let us provide a service for you that you cannot die and we will "help" your family.

The question is the following: Are we helping our families or hurting our families ?

My initial gut reaction is that most of us (churches) are hurting families. Now, here me out, I do not think that we are intentionally doing so; but I think that "in the name of the church", we are hurting them.

I wish that I had the answers. I am struggling with these issues and how this can truly be played out in the church and specifically in my context. For so long, I have done ministry in a "yellow" setting ......

I will finish with a Reggie quote:

The heart of God was communicated primarily through the heart of the family

Church & Parents Partnering

Casey has put together a great video about the influence/impact of church & parents:

Ending Poverty: Listening

One of the things that is occurring in our National Gathering meeting is that the students are picking up on one big word. That word is LISTENING. We need to hear the voices that come into our lives. Too often, we do not listen and ignore their voice and their stories.

We are also stressing that an important part of listening is hearing their story. Now, this post is not about our youth, our gathering preparation or what my hopes and dreams are for the 36,000 folks headed to New Orleans ....

This is about me listening to voices and stories. Poverty is an issue that is close to me and I need/want to hear individuals stories. I came across a charity video on poverty recently that "highlighted" stories. Take a listen.



37 million living in poverty in the US ..... that is 37 million too many