Not so Haunted House

About a year ago we thought that G-d was calling us to start a church in cincinnati that looked differently then any other church. In the beginning of this process we figured there was no way we could start a church without a house...so we logically bought a house. But, Little did we know that the church was not going to turn out the way we expcted! Throughout this past year we have expereienced life as the church in ways that we would have never imagined a year ago. We have learned and are still learning what it means to live life as the church and part of where this life as the church has taken place is under the roof of a house where a family developed - a family of friends, disciples of Jesus, and random people who found their way to the front porch and even beyond.

These past couple of months I have been frustrated with this house. I have been frustrated with the work that we have had to put into it (i am not a fix-it man), the things that go wrong with it, cutting myself open (not purposly) trying to fix it, and the time that it has taken away from other things that I find more important. I even questioned whether we had heard from G-d when we bought it or whether we were just "stupid little kids" but God has recently kicked me in the butt and showed me that he has used this house to teach us what it means to live life as the church, used the house and us to impact people's lives, to be a light in a dark place, and to have a lot of fun as we worship Him through our lives!!!!!

Here are just a few of those stories:

1. When we first went to look for houses: sarah found a realtor who she thought would be able to help us out. Our realtor was incredible. she put up with the tons of houses that we wanted to look at. many of them were nothing but junk and other ones were more than we could afford. Not to mention we had it set in our minds that we were going live in norwood but G-d had other plans. Sarah finally found a house in clifton (which was not where we thought we were going to move) and so we walked in this house and we knew that this was the area and the house we were supposed to move to. But, with discouragment and fear from our parents we chose to keep looking. We looked at a ton of houses and then found another one and so I mentioned that we should pray (knowing our realtor was not a christian and curious to how she would respond). We prayed and felt that the orginal house that we walked into in clifton was the right house and then I got a word for our realtor. it was way cool! our realtor then said that she was greatly impacted through that prayer time - felt that the other house was the right house, said she had never really been "relgious" but felt she needed to talk to G-d more, said her husband was going through surgery and he needed prayer, said her friend has been telling her to talk to G-d more but she has not listened but felt because of this that she should do so. From the beginning God was moving.

2.There was a family whose car broke down right in front of our house. I walked outside to offer assistance. They said they didn't need any but I offered for them to ring our bell if they did. They later rang the bell to use the bathroom and we got to talking and found out that their six year old granddaughter, who was in the back of the car, had cancer. so, we gathered a couple of peeps around her to pray for her and her family.

We had continued to pray for them as a community and found out that Adia's Cancer is in Remission!!!!

3. Pat (our next door neigbor). An older man in his late 40s early 50s. We have had some strange conversations and some of them have been about G-d. he had mentioned that most people don't care and Christians are one of those type of people. He had lost his job a bunch of months ago, was struggling with money, was close to eviction, had contemplated suicide many of times and was about as down as you could get. We would get opportunities to talk and would check up to see how he was doing. Even helped him out with money at times but recently he stopped me in passing and excidetly told me that he got his old job back. he hugged me and thanked me. he said most of the time people say they care but their actions don't show it and then thanked G-d.

4.Mike and jillian - a couple who was introduced to us through some mutual friends. felt they needed to move in with us. This led to an adventure of questioning, learning, growing, challening conversations and situations, healing, friendship, life as the church, community, learning about Love and so much more. Crazy!

5. Nancy - she was a 60 something year old woman who lived 2 houses down. We had a few conversations with her but didn't know much about her. then some dude landed on our front porch who went by the name billy. billy told us she was going through a hard time so we invited her to dinner. We all went out to dinner and nancy became a part of our group (kind of). she would always stop by, we would pray and talk with her, we would listen, we would protect her, be there for her, feed her etc. at times she would even admit she didn't want to be here but she couldn't help but show up, had some wierd spirtual stuff going on but it was incredible how G-d worked on her life. she later on became more alive, credited her life change to Jesus, was excited about sharing Jesus with everyone around her, was happier and more lively, wanted us to pray for her, etc. very cool!

6. Billy - don't know where he came from or where we went but hope that we had some impact on his life. he taught us some interesting things about people that God was going to bring to us and even already had!

WOW! the more I think back this house has been an incredible blessing. I will continue with more stories later on this week. In my selfishness I have forgotton the incredible ways God has used us and this house to impact our lives and the lives of many people around us.

THANK YOU GOD! for being absolutly incredible! words can't describe!