Safe Haven

When Bill Johnson was at CotH recently, he spoke of God raising up "houses of hope for the hopeless" and of spiritual parenting. (As you know, the latter has long been near and dear to my heart.) I'm not sure exactly what Bill was envisioning when he spoke of houses of hope, but that is an excellent description of something else God has called me to.

We keep coming across refugees-- Christians struggling to hope, spiritually homeless, either burned out or hurt by churches (or feeling that way). These are folk who have been out of church for a while, people basically afraid to go back to church.

So several of us are starting the Refuge, a House of Hope. This will be a safe place, part spiritual homeless shelter, part halfway house, part short term church home. The goals are:

1. to love people back to health in a restored relationship with Daddy God;
   
2. to help people see themselves as God sees them;
   
3. to help them forgive any who they feel hurt them;
   
4. to help them get back into a long term church home.
   

God has already brought others with like visions to help with this, and provided a home to meet in. The timing is typical God-- while this has been on my heart for a couple of months, in mid-December I realized that as we visit bodies in the area we are not only forging or reviving relationships, but we are gaining understanding of the gifts, callings and personality of each body. This means that when people are ready to plug in, we don't just say, "OK, go find a home", but can provide starting points where they will feel comfortable.

If you're in need of a safe haven, feel free to contact me!