A Thankful Thanksgiving Celebration!

Saturday Nov. 22nd, 2008 Parea Community celebrated Thanksgiving down at Eva Dell Park with their beloved extended family. We served an amazing assortment of foods, such as turkey, green beans, mashed potatoes, and lovely desserts all made with love and donated by various members of The Gate Church of the High Desert and other various persons and churches. Thank you so much to all that donated food or warm clothes and sleeping bags/blankets. Also, to those that came down to help serve and get to know some of the homeless in Downtown Victorville, we extend a special thanks!


Everyone had so much to be thankful for, especially full bellies and warmed hearts! Blessings!

(All photographs featured here were taken by Tisha Lynne Speelman)

Tony Romo Joins with Parea to Love Homeless

Some of you may know who Tony Romo is, some of you may not. He is a premier National Football League Quarterback. He is joining forces with Parea and many other people world-wide to show love to homeless folks. Just the other day, Romo paid for a gentleman by the name of Doc to attend a movie. When the man, who proclaimed to Romo he had'nt showered in a few days, walked into the theatre, he was waved over to sit next to the NFL star and his friend. When most people are afraid, self-conscious or just plain too guilty to even be within a few feet of someone they suspect of being homeless; this multi-millionaire super-celebrity, the boyfriend of Jessica Simpson, transcended the blockade of his social status and shared his life with Doc. Tony Romo loved Doc like Jesus would want him too... Romo did'nt preach at him, he did not offer him food at the expense of sitting through a long pointless service, he did'nt acknowledge Doc's social status: he just wanted to bless a person in need of a little love.
Check out the article for yourself:
http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/8821264?MSNHPHMA

Now, join the revolution yourself!!! Next time you see someone in need, just love them.

Buy Nothing Month

This month, my wife and I (c.j. and tisha), are going to be embarking upon a journey. We are trying to live in a much more simpler way, without the bonds of consumerism, materialism and that pesky ol rat race. This is really one of the goals of Parea Community, and I believe, the Kingdom of God in general. Our specific goal is to limit our spending to absolute necessities like food and bills, thats why its called "Buy Nothing Month." We are doing this alongside some friends at YWAM Portland. They gave us the idea, and we really wanted to create a sense of unity with them. As a supplement to the act of not buying anything, we are reading the book "Freedom of Simplicity," by Richard J. Foster. From what I have read so far (the first chapter) this book is really going to make a huge impact on my life. It is very insightful in the practice of simplicity and being disciplined spiritually in general. It is very hard to practice simplicity while living in Southern California. We live in a very materialistic culture here: Las Vegas is 2 hours to the East, Los Angeles is an hour to the West. Both of these cities are world renowned for fashion, celebrities, sex and glamour. With all of that, there is a tremendous capacity for wastefulness and gluttunous consumerism. It seems like everybody is affected by this, that it is in the very atmosphere. Thus, I can already feel the struggle!

Please pray for Parea! We need the Lords provision with finances! The awesome thing is that we always have enough money to feed the homeless on Saturdays, but we really want to expand our ministry and that involves finances unfortunately:) We know that God will provide for these needs!

Update

Hey everyone! It is Spring again... I am very excited! New beginnings and opportunities are everywhere! Do you want to get involved with Parea? Its easy!!! Just DO IT!!!

I just wanted to give an update of what is going on here at Parea Community!

First of all I would like to thank our good friend Marilea, she prepared a delicious meal for about 50 homeless people on Resurrection Sunday, or Easter for all you pagans!!! (just kidding) The meal was absolutely wonderful... Ham, asparagus, buttered-up carrots, baked potato salad(yummy!!!) and desert... It is always so wonderful to be able to go a little above and beyond for these folks. They rarely get to eat anything nutritious or appetizing for that matter.

We have been continuing all of our food outreach ministries which are totally relationship based. It is such a blessing to be able to go down to Old Town Victorville and just hang out with these folks. I have learned so much these last couple of years about patience and unconditional love. It is so hard sometimes because of how hard a lot of these folks live, I wish that I could just say a word to them and save them somehow! But I have learned that I have just as many deep-seeded sins, just as many problems that these people have, they just aren't as apparent to all the world as theirs are. I may not be addicted to a drug or alcohol, but my pride runs so deep and so strong that it holds me back just as much!

Recently I read the "Wounded Healer" by Henri Nouwen. It is a very amazing book for those of us who wish to minister to people. Very simply, the book is about Jesus, how He became sin for us, but as ministers or servants we very rarely come to the point where we are that dedicated to those we are ministering too. Nouwen used an example of a pastor or leader being willing to leave everything to go after that one person like the parable of the lost sheep. I believe, like Nouwen, that we must come to point where we have to re-learn ministry! The western mindset is such that we do not let our weaknesses show, we hide every thing away under a rug somewhere in order to save face, to protect our rank. In some ways ministry is a power struggle, a way for people to have control over peoples lives. This is a false and dangerous approach, though it is practiced far and wide. The most important concept that Nouwen discussed addressed this very harmful condition. In order to be effective ministers of the Gospel, we must minister out of our wounds, out of our brokenness. This is the only way that a world full of wounded people will understand the power of the Resurrection of our Lover, our Saviour, our King!

In the future, you will be hearing a lot about Nicaragua. I recently visited this Central American country for about a week for two reasons. The first reason was to go serve an incredible ministry called Maranatha Christian Missions. The second reason I went was to explore the possibilities of purchasing a plot of land that would be able to support a Coffee farm(yeah that's right) and an orphanage/ministry center! I have a very ambitious vision for using coffee as a revolutionary, anti-corporate, ministry opportunity. Please stay tuned... we(as in you and me: we) are going to change the world!!!