The Well

Journey is a place that offers many gifts including blessed community, intelligent conversation, and opportunities to reach out to the very real needs in the world around us. That is one of the things I love about it. We really live out the message of Christianity in very real and practical ways within our community and the ways we love each other. But also in the small gestures (and big) that we extend towards our global and local community.

One of the things I look forward to the most each month is The Well.

One Saturday a month, Journey folks gather in Oak Cliff to prepare a meal for the members of this unique community. The Well’s mission is to “engage people with mental illness in a life-giving community of peace, love and hope.” Each month, we have the opportunity to participate in that. The amazing part is that I always find myself leaving with a little more life than I came with. The economy of God’s love is often more backwards than we think. I think a lot of us have really begun to feel at home at The Well. We help folks eat and simply talk and listen. It’s really pretty simple. We prepare a home-cooked, nutritious meal for the community members, enjoy their worship service, and clean up! Mother Teresa said, “We can do no great things, just small things with great love. It is not how much you do, but how much love you put into doing it.” And I’m humbled every week as my friends at Journey reach out, with great love, to these friends. In their eyes, we see God. And so, really, they minister to us as much as we have the chance to minister to them.

- Michelle Randall

ReGift!

Danielle spoke last Sunday about regifting the things that we have been given. When we begin to see all that we have as a gift from God, not as something we've earned or are entitled to, we are compelled to want to give those things away again. Here are some ways you can give:

www.thewellcommunity.net
Journey partners with the Well once a month to serve them dinner. This ministry for people with mental illness has plenty of opportunities to serve.

www.kiva.org
Microfinancing organization that allows you to loan money to specific individuals throughout the world. When the loan is paid back to you, you can re-invest it in someone else. Talk about regifting!

www.planfund.org
Local Dallas branch of microfinancing.

www.heifer.org
Provide livestock to families in need. The livestock gives the family both food and income, and Heifer’s “Passing on the Gift” program allows recipients to give offspring of their livestock to other families in need.

www.servlife.org
Sponsor an orphan for $30/month and provide them with food, clothing and private Christian education.

www.ntfb.org
North Texas Food Bank. Volunteer to feed those in our own village.

www.habitat.org
Help build houses for people.

www.wilkinsoncenter.org
Local Dallas organization serving children, the elderly and those who are hungry. Volunteer opportunities abound.

The Latest from Africa

As many of you know, Luke Miller, our very own Community Pastor (and the North American Coordinator of Amahoro) and John Venuto, one of our fearless Leaders, are in Uganda right now at the Amahoro conference.

Amahoro is a place of conversation for those engaging the church in post-colonial Africa, and a place for those of us in the postmodern West to learn and listen to what God is doing in their midst.

Luke has been busy posting blog updates for those of us state-side.

Check it out here.