Welcome Home: Wisdom
“By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches”
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”
As I look out the window of my house, I see the beginnings of community. Our neighbors are sitting on their porches together chatting, cooking together, and helping one another. What I really see though is the realization of a vision and calling that the Lord gave us, one that was FAR too big for us to accomplish in our own strength. What I am really looking at is a concrete representation of God’s faithfulness and provision. By the world’s standards and expectations, this really shouldn’t have even been possible, but with God all things are possible.
Our initial call to start The Field’s Edge began in 2016 and it has felt simultaneously like a slow grind and a tornado. There have been many times along the way that we were not sure how things were going to pan out, and many times things happened differently than we expected, but as things are with God the results have been more than we could ask or imagine. There have been incredible joys along with dark nights of the soul and I wouldn’t change a thing. He has been with us through it all.
We hosted the Grand Opening of the Village in August 2022 and since then things have been happening very fast and furious. We moved our offices to the village shortly after the Grand Opening while the houses were being finished. With the help of some amazing volunteers, we got the houses ready for our neighbors to move in. With many hands and a lot of love, we moved 7 neighbors into their permanent homes the week before Christmas and got to celebrate our first Christmas as a family here at the Village. It is honestly surreal when I stop and think about it. What an incredible blessing!
Our neighbors have many challenges and the work necessary to help lift them off the streets is immense. Thankfully we have an incredible staff, but this is new territory for us and we are all working very hard and learning a ton. Some days are so heartwarming and we just get to be in awe of what God is doing out here, and some days are incredibly difficult and frustrating. We have known all along that the Village was not going to solve all our problems and become a land of sunshine and rainbows, but we regularly find ourselves in desperate need of the strength and wisdom of God. Thankfully God has promised in His word that when we don’t have wisdom, we can ask for it and He loves to give it to us.
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”
In addition to all the Village happenings, Briana and I welcomed our 4th child at the end of November, Lois Nadeen. We named her after our friend Lois “Plum” Williams, who we came to know and love while she lived on the streets of Midland. We had hoped that she would come to live with us here at the village, but life on the streets is hard and she died before we even broke ground. Even though Plum didn’t get a chance to live here, we are reminded of her sweet life and friendship by our daughter Lois.
As the first Missional Family living at the Village, we are in uncharted waters but it has been an incredible privilege to live here among our formerly homeless neighbors. It certainly hasn’t been without its challenges, but overall our family is thriving out here. You can imagine that with four kids including a newborn, now 8 new neighbors, and all that’s going on out here can be stressful. Briana and I have had plenty of moments that we felt overwhelmed, but the goodness of God has always carried us through and we trust that He will continue to do so as long as we are called to this work. One aspect that has been particularly hard for us pertains to my health. I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia back in 2021 and it has been a very difficult road. Widespread pain, fatigue, and vertigo among other symptoms have put constraints on me that I never anticipated. Truth be told I’ve never felt weaker and more dependent on God, but I know that this is exactly where He wants me to be, and I can see Him using my weakness for my good and the good of our community out here.
“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
Time and time again God has made a way when it didn’t seem like there was one to be made. Time and time again He has proven faithful to His promises. He is revealing to me that I cannot trust in my own strength, but that I can and must absolutely bank on His. I must wake up every day and remind myself of His new mercy for me, and practice daily dependence on Him. You can imagine that this affects my family significantly, and I thank the Lord for such a loving and patient wife. Honestly though, we have all been brought to the point of relying on God, which is exactly where He wants us; that His power might be made perfect in our weakness.
My reason for sharing that is not to elicit sympathy, though your prayers are always so welcome. Truly what I want to share with you is that I am just as needy, if not more needy than the people that have just moved in from the street. Not only that, but I need my neighbors just as much, if not more, than they need me. It is an easy temptation in homeless ministry, or ministry of any kind to feel like those of us with access to resources are supposed to be the hero, or even the savior. But the truth is that we are all broken and sinful in our own ways and we need each other to grow in grace and become whole. This is how we are designed by our Creator.
I want to invite you into our beautiful mess; to be part of the TFE family. We definitely need your gifts, your skills, and your resources, but we also need your weakness. You bringing your whole self to the table is what it is going to take for us to truly build community across socioeconomic lines. Our TFE Family wants to come alongside you in your own journey toward becoming whole. I promise you two things: That your life will be greatly enriched by entering into relationship with our formerly homeless neighbors, and that God will use your service to conform you to the image of His Son. When you become part of our community, we want your whole self and we want you to experience the transformative power of God bringing diverse people together and building us up into His spiritual house, that we might all glorify Him as one. God chooses to use broken vessels to accomplish His will. Are you willing to be vulnerable and put yourself in an uncomfortable situation that the Lord might do something amazing in and through your life? Along with your time, talent, and treasure, bring us your mess and let’s place it at the foot of the cross together and watch Jesus build His beautiful home.
“As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”