Reflections from Day Four of Our Great Work–This Work is Done

Our first great work of the summer is finished.

We’ve set aside 52 days to accomplish a great work for the glory of God.

In 4 days, over 300 volunteers from Journey Christian Church, Mosaic Church, and Amanecer Cristiano joined together and painted the walls of John Evans IB Middle School.  Several other large projects were also completed during this great work, but the major accomplishment was the painting of many, many walls.

As we wrapped up yesterday, I was asked, “What were the highlights to you?”

There were so many, but let me list a few.

• Being a part of a church where I could agree to take on this great work without having to go through a bureaucratic mess.  I knew I could just respond to the moving of God and just say “yes.”
• Seeing the hand of God moving throughout this entire experience.
• Working with a leadership team who all have ginormous faith.
• The meeting with the Principal of John Evans IB Middle School and the representatives from the School District where the District officials approved this job in about 5 minutes.
• People of Journey applauding as this great work was shared with them last Sunday and they were told that we were beginning it the next day!
• Watching my team immediately join together to get this project organized.
• When Steve Dale came up after church and volunteered to take a week of vacation and paint the school for free.
• Steve Dale and Steve Horton working together to paint the halls in 1 day.

Steve Horton & Steve Dale: Lead Painters for this Great Work

• Seeing volunteers walk in the front door and hear them ask, “Where do you need me?”
• The conversation I had with Justin at the Sherwin Williams store that began when he asked me why we were painting a public school.
• Gary Hamilton cutting paper and handing it out and refusing to take a break.
• The moment when we announced the floor of the cafeteria needed to be cleaned and everyone in the room dropped to their knees and started scrubbing it.

• Families working together on this great work.
• Getting to know the Principal of John Evans and watching her work beside us every day.
• Seeing relationships begin between volunteers as they met for the 1st time and worked together.
• Watching the kids work so very hard on this project.

My sons, Levi and Sylas cleaning baseboards

• Painting Niki Quinby’s classroom.
• Working with the people of Mosaic Church and Amanecer Cristiano on Wednesday.

Me with Pastors David Flores of Amanecer Cristiano and Angel Flores of Mosaic Church

• Seeing Patrick Lightfoot lead us passionately and humbly.
• Tilling the garden and enjoying a long conversation with God about His work in Greeley.

• The volunteers who brought food to feed other volunteers each day.
• So many people praying in the halls and classrooms of the school.

• Hundreds of Scriptures being written on the walls of the school.

• Those Scriptures bleeding through the freshly painted walls.
• Knowing that those dear students and staff of John Evans will be surrounded and supported by God’s Word every day they are in that building.
• The opportunity I had to reply, when someone asked me to stop working and meet with them, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.”
• The many Journey folks who have asked me, “What’s our next great work?”

Our next great work…stay tuned.

Reflections from Day 3 of Our Great Work

A District 6 representative just walked by me in the cafeteria. We both commented on how great the school looks and then he said, “I guess all of your writing on the walls was a waste of time, huh?”  He’s been very nice to us, so I know that he wasn’t being mean; he was just asking a question.

—

Yesterday was an exciting day because we finished painting and took off all of the paper and began to see the results of all of our hard work.

The transformation on campus is stunning.  Dark walls and halls are now bright and clean.

 Before

After

A group of volunteers also put all of the locks on the school lockers–registering each lock along the way.  This job was very tedious, but the volunteers worked at it with all of their hearts.

Another group of four people assembled tables.

 

While others painted the door frames.

 

After lunch, we scrubbed paint off of the floor of the cafeteria because we wanted to make sure that we cleaned up after ourselves and did everything with excellence.

 

Today was especially exciting because we were joined in our effort by members of Mosaic Church and Amanecer Cristiano.  Members of these churches wrote scriptures on the walls in Spanish and prayed for the school in Spanish.

Pastor David Flores of Amanecer Cristiano

We joined together, throughout the day, and prayed in the halls and in every classroom of John Evans Middle School.

 

Today was the day we painted over the last scriptures that we had written on the walls, which presented an interesting challenge because some of the scriptures could be seen–even after several coats of paint.  I can’t tell you how many times someone said today, “The scriptures are bleeding through.”

We promised to do this project with excellence so we will make sure that every scripture is covered up before we leave, but for anyone who is wondering whether or not writing scriptures on the wall was a waste of time, or not I’ll leave you with a reminder from Isaiah 55:11

So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Thanks to the mighty hand of our God, John Evans Middle School is now covered in the word of God so–even though we covered over the hundreds of Scriptures we wrote on the walls–we are expecting God to do a mighty work on that campus because His Word shall not return to Him empty.

Yes, you can try to cover them up, but the scriptures will always bleed through.

Reflections on Day 2 of Our Great Work

Some of the Scriptures that teacher, Niki Quinby asked us to paint on the wall in her classroom.

Yesterday was the 2nd day of our great work at John Evans IB Middle School.

Monday was about getting the work started, so it was very stressful and chaotic until we hit our stride and figured out exactly what needed to be done.  We accomplished so much on Monday and prepared the entire building to be sprayed with primer.

On Tuesday we hit our stride and many volunteers worked smoothly throughout the day doing final preps for the start of spraying paint on Wednesday.  We also finished painting all of the door jams and trim work, which was very tedious–but important–work.

Several side tasks were started on Tuesday, as well.

The Principal of John Evans asked if we would help fix their garden.  They have a garden that they use to grow vegetables that are given to students along with the meals we send home with them on weekends.  They had compost delivered to the garden but someone stole their tiller so the compost was in large piles in the garden and the garden had become overgrown with weeds.  Throughout the day, several of us took turns tilling the garden.  Whoa, that’s hard work! We worked all day and are only half done. We hope to finish that job today.

A team of volunteers spent the entire day just prepping the music room so that it could be painted on Wednesday.

I worked with another team to prepare and paint the classroom of the teacher whose faith birthed our connection with this school almost three and half years ago, Niki Quinby.

 Here’s a picture of Niki giving her approval of the paint job.

Niki is so very special to us at Journey.  Her simple faith that God would provide people to feed the hungry families at her school (back in early 2009) has grown to a powerful partnership with Journey Christian Church and John Evans IB Middle School to the glory of God.  God has used this humble young woman to impact the lives of hundreds of students and their families and we are so very grateful for her.

So….we asked her if we could paint her room and she excitedly replied, “Yes!”

She has a picture of a willow tree on her wall that has been there for decades…and she made it clear to us that it needed to go so, after covering her walls with her favorite scriptures, Grandmother Willow was covered up with primer.  And Niki smiled..I think, but couldn’t quite tell because she was wearing a mask.

As I reflect on yesterday, two special images come to mind.

One is of Wesley and Kelsie Williams, who came to work at the school while still on their honeymoon.  I married them just last week.  They are super young people who refreshed our spirits with just their presence yesterday.  They showed us what true love looks like.

In this picture I told Kelsie to act like she was “showing him who’s boss”

And here we both laughed because Wesley wasn’t affected at all.

And the second is of Tracey Lawrence sitting on the floor in the cafeteria reading her Bible, praying for the students of the school, and writing Scriptures on the wall.  It was a simple reminder of what God is really doing here–of the great work that is much too great for us to have ever imagined it.

Are you working with God?

As you think about your life and what you do with most of your time, are you working with God or are you working on your own?

How can we tell the difference?

1)    Have you heard his call?

2)    Do you feel his favor?

3)    Are God-sized things being done?

Noah was called by God to build an ark so—for 100 years—he did the hard work of building the ark and God delivered him and his family.

Moses was called by God to go to Pharaoh so he did the hard work of confronting Pharaoh and God delivered a nation.

Joshua was called by God to lead the Israelites around Jericho so they did the hard work of marching around the city once for six days and seven times on the seventh day and God knocked a wall down.

When our work and God’s will combine, miracles happen.

Watch this video and you’ll see what I mean.



Follow-Up Information On Our Effort To Feed Students at a Local School

The Greeley Tribune ran a front page article in Saturday’s paper about the work Journey and Niki Quinby are doing to feed students at a local school.

Here’s an excerpt from the story:

Niki Quinby refused to believe that everyone was too strapped to help.

To prove how easy it could be, she went to Walmart and bought Pop Tarts, a family size can of soup, two packages of Ramen noodles, a can of vegetables and macaroni and cheese.

The grand total — $4.88.

This is Quinby’s first year teaching at John Evans Middle School. In late November, the school was informed that Dream Team — a program that helps feed families over weekends — would only be able to sponsor six families from John Evans.

Out of 628 students at the school, 82 percent of them qualify for free and reduced lunch, which guarantees them two meals at school each day. However, this does not provide food for the weekend.

Quinby wanted to do something.

In December, she contacted the Weld Food Bank, and in the second week of January, she was able to get 25 families added to the list of six. But there were still too many families going hungry on the weekend.

Then she took her Walmart bag full of food to Journey Christian Church and put it on Arron Chambers’ desk. She asked the pastor for help from the church to ultimately feed 50 families on the weekends.

The church members responded — 70 people signed up to sponsor 50 families at $5 a week.

“Niki just put the school on my radar,” Chambers said.

Quinby and the John Evans staff were overwhelmed when the church made their first delivery last month. At the time, they were storing food in the principal’s office, and the members of Journey completely filled it.

Now, every Thursday, the folks at Journey load up the food and deliver it to John Evans, where it is then kept in a pantry downstairs. The cupboards are so full, bags overflow the counters.

You can read the rest of the story by clicking here: John Evans Teacher On A Mission To Feed Students

We got the following email from Miss Quinby last Friday:

Dear Journey Christian Church,

Yesterday Terry dropped off the food for our kids and said that some of you were curious “How are we are doing?” in regards to the food program you have sponsored here at J. Evans Middle School. So I wanted to pass on a story to you regarding your impact.

Track and Field has just begun here at J. Evans Middle School. It is an incredible turnout.  While last year we struggled to fill events with scarcely 15-20 kids, our 2010 roster of runners/throwers is up to 55 with students still coming out.  Several of them had no idea that track involved running so much. Some claims have been “I have run more here than I ever have in gym”.  And this was just day one of practices. It is quite humorous.

Yesterday one of our runners came up to me and told me she wasn’t going to track today.  I said, “and your reason?”  She said “I don’t know Miss. I just don’t feel good.” Being a pushy Track coach, I told her “No no. That isn’t enough. You can’t just come one day and not the next. Why don’t you feel good.”
“I don’t know Miss. I just, my stomach aches.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know….I just…It hurts like I’m hungry.”
The conversation turned in that moment away from Track to a deeper issue.
“It feels like I haven’t eaten for about four days.”
I asked her “Have you eaten in four days?”
She looked down and changed the subject back to practice.
I told her forget track for a moment.  Do you need some food to go home.  She informed me that she eats at school but…..there was a snow day and “We have been struggling.”  The truth was it felt like four days because it had been four days. We went down to get her a bag and then she went to practice.  She later came up and said “Miss, did you see, I didn’t quit. I ran the whole way.”

Because of your generosity, you made another students load a little lighter.  She ran the whole way without the worry of “what’s for dinner” or better yet “is there going to be dinner”.  This is just one of many stories.  You have enabled us to reach the students in a way we wouldn’t otherwise be able to.  You have quieted the voices of their stomach so they can hear the voices of their teachers and coaches.

So how are you doing? I’d say ”AMAZING”!
Thank you for feeding our kids.

Miss Quinby

None of this would have happened with out the love and faith of Miss Quinby.  She’s the hero of this story and I’m so grateful that God is allowing us to partner with her to share the love of Jesus through food.