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!