 by Hayne Steen Let me begin this by asking a few questions;
Let’s face it. We’ve all been there. On both ends of hurt, we have each been the offender and the offended. Every day we endure hundreds of little and no so little losses that over time can accumulate like cholesterol. Words get exchanged. Feelings get felt. Silence gets deployed. Words get withheld. Messages get mixed up. Memories get messy. Our body holds that hurt. Grief is our body's logical mechanism for managing the loss. When we refuse or don’t know how to grieve, that hurt turns into resentment. Think about that word. Resentment. Re-sentimenting. Re-feeling. We are hard wired for hope. That’s why we “re-feel” things. Over and over, we attempt to digest our hurt. We are determined to feel it over and over and over again, with the expectation that it will crunch up the memory once and for all. Have you heard this saying before? "Unforgiveness (aka resentment or undealt with hurt) is a poison we drink hoping it will poison the other person or offending party." Hurt demands healing. Our bodies won’t leave us alone until we do. Just like a death, we hunger for healing and relief from our pain. When an injury has taken place in a context of relationship, the only way for us to heal is the same way we were injured. We heal the way we were hurt which is why we resist it so much. Someone has already broken our trust or confidence so the least logical next step is to trust someone else. It’s far more safe to remain in the hurt than to risk in relationship, with the one who hurt us or someone else. When we do not pivot toward healing, we remain stuck in resentment which guarantees that we will begin to over identify with our pain. In order to talk about healing resentment, we’ve got to talk about grief and forgiveness. Grief is a process that we go through in order for our brains, bodies, and souls to accept the reality of what or who has been lost. Like I said, we sustain hundreds of losses every day. People are notoriously injured when;
We all have the capacity to hurt and be hurt. The good news? We all have the capacity to heal. Grief is this incredible piece of technology that were made with in order to navigate life in a tragic place. Another beautiful piece of technology at our disposal is forgiveness. Both of these have the power to set us free, if we will engage them. One of the best ways to engage grief and forgiveness are in a context of trust. This is why counseling can often be such a powerful tool to utilize. It is a laboratory where we have permission to experiment with the toxicity of our hurts, feel what we need to feel, own what we need to own, lay down what needs laying down and move toward whomever we need to move toward. Grief allows us to forgive. We do not want to live with unattended heartache. It will poison us from the inside out. When we are stuck in hurt and heartache we will make attempts to invite others INTO our pain. Forgiveness, though, can allow us to no longer be bound by or stuck in that hurt or loss. It can open us up to more wisely and freely give of ourselves. We all need time to grieve in order to give ourselves away again. And with enough willingness, patience, work and time, we can feel the freedom of unburdening. May you find some space to sit still enough to notice and name your own unattended heartache. And may you find a waymaker, someone who can sit as a quiet presence with you and hold space for you and your resentment as you lean into your own unique healing process.
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 by Hayne Steen There are seasons when life that can be extremely intense. It does not matter whether you are an entrepreneur, a pastor, a first responder, a psychotherapist, a missionary, a pilot or an oncologist. Not every profession shares the same exact kind or threat level of trauma but each of those mentioned above brings with it the likelihood of experiencing some form of trauma, whether actual or vicarious. And even with a well designed and executed plan for self care, our bodies, minds, and souls can still experience significant break down from the prolonged stress. A Soul Care Intensive is simply a guided way of helping your body to slow down, to relinquish being so necessary for a period of time, helping your mind to be at rest, helping your heart enter into an open and spacious time of listening, and for your soul to be replenished. If there is anything intense about a Soul Care Intensive, it is the detoxing that occurs when we lay down the many forms of busyness that have become so intoxicating. Purging all those poisonous patterns can feel rather intense because a body in motion wants to stay in motion. We have all become addicted to many forms of busyness and accomplishment, pointing to impressive outcomes that do not and will not satisfy the soul. Busyness is not bad. Toxic busyness will corrode us from the inside out while everyone cheers us on from the sidelines to keep going. The gift of a Soul Care Intensive is the opportunity to unlearn that toxic pattern and re-learn what it can mean to slow down, to truly be fully present with ourself and with God. One wise counselor in my life described, “Christians have plenty of well formed Orthodoxy (knowledge ABOUT God) and scads of Orthoproxy (service FOR God) but we are starved of Othopathy (experience WITH God). This same wise sage went on to tell me, “If we had more experience with God, it might actually inform what we believe about God and what we agree to do for God.” In essence, we all need something like a Soul Care Intensive from time to time to help us attend to those easily malnourished dimensions of our lives. Who is the ideal candidate for a Soul Care Intensive? YOU. If you have read along this far, and if any of it resonates, you are likely the ideal candidate. So what does a Soul Care Intensive look like? A Soul Care Intensive most often kicks off on a Monday morning and wraps up on Friday afternoon. We meet for 3 hours every morning for five days and you are provided with some self guided spiritual exercises every afternoon with the evenings to yourself, by yourself. Prior to the intensive you will be sent several assessments to complete, along with some short reading, audio and video to digest. You will also want to explore some form of inexpensive lodging like an AirBNB which there are many of in our nation’s oldest city. Travel, lodging and food are not included in the Soul Care Intensive fee, so we can help you consider where you might like to stay in order to have the most restful and life giving experience while you are here. On the back end of a Soul Care Intensive, it is my practice to schedule at least one follow up session to check in with each retreatant one month following their intensive experience. Many often schedule monthly spiritual direction that we can facilitate using an online video conferencing platform.
 by Hayne Steen Why do we resist what we know is so good for us? We know a walk on the beach is good for us, even restorative to our soul, yet we still can tell ourselves, "I don't have time for a luxury like that!" There is a hunger in the human heart for beauty. When we deprive ourselves of the experience of spending extended time in a context of beauty and wonder, our souls shrink. When our souls shrink, we become vulnerable to the disease of despair. We begin to believe the lie. Every future day is doomed to be like every one of our worst days. What can rescue us from the soul shrinking disease of despair? Some believe accomplishing more will take away that ache. Others think earning more money will cure it. Yet still some believe having more stuff will solve it. What is the enemy of true soul rest? More. Ted Turner was interviewed years ago at the height of wealth. When asked how much money was enough, he offered a simple but painfully honest answer. "Just a little bit more." When we resist the temptation to succumb to our addiction to "more" we can begin to reach for the pause button. We need to climb out of our wardrobes of self importance into something a little more comfortable, like maybe a bathing suit and some flip flips. Let's ask this question again...what CAN rescue us from the soul shrinking disease of despair? Walking barefoot on the beach. Reading a good novel. Journaling your desires. Listening to bird song. Going for a bike ride. Building a bonfire. Handwriting a letter to an old friend. Go to the circus. Shop at the local farmers market. Do something you've never done before. These are just a handful of practical ways we can begin to remind ourselves that we are not defined by how much "MORE" we can accomplish, earn, or have. We have been given unclaimed treasure in Dallas Willard's divine invitation to "ruthlessly eradicate hurry" from our lives. If momentum robs the human soul of intimacy, the power of pause becomes the well worn wagon trail to our soul's flourishing. Our soul knows the way, if we'll give it permission. May you find physical spaces of beauty and wonder, and may those lead you inward to enjoy the beauty and wonder within you.
What does it mean to be fully human? On a day like today, there could be no more appropriate question. We can not celebrate the birth of Jesus without the awareness that for some reason, God took on human form. He came near to us. Could it mean we are born vulnerably into circumstances we do not choose in order to rely on caregivers whose nurture we can not provide for ourselves? Nashville based therapist and author, Chip Dodd, says, "We are born with the desperation of hope and the courage to cry out. Over time, the world beats both of these out of us." To be human, then, demands a restoration of hope and heart. I love the scene when the shepherds catch wind of the birth of Jesus. Luke's Gospel records their response beautifully. See if you can sense their hopeful hearts! "Let’s get over to Bethlehem as fast as we can and see for ourselves what God has revealed to us.” They left, running, and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. Seeing was believing." —Luke 1:15-18 These humble Shepherds are among the very first to eyewitness the vulnerability of God so closely. They had been surveying the scriptures and the skyline for decades. What had been told by sages they now witnessed for themselves. "All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet: “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’ —Matthew 1:22-23 NLT So what does any of this teach us about being fully human? Let's hear what 2015 Templeton Prize Laureate, Jean Vanier, says as he speaks on this Big Question: “What does it mean to be fully human?”  "And what about this feeling that I'm never good enough? Will it wash out in the water, or is it always in the blood?" Recently one of my great friends sent me this song. We tend to share music, films, TED Talks, Podcasts, TV shows and books, especially when they begin to hover near a few familiar themes. This music video by John Mayer touches on family systems, jealousy, shame, identity, divorce, brokenness, rising, painful emotions, hope, transformation and getting the love we want Are any of these familiar in your story? We'd love to walk with you in them and help you get oriented in your story as you interact with these parts of yourself. "In The Blood" lyrics John Mayer Lyrics How much of my mother has my mother left in me? How much of my love will be insane to some degree? And what about this feeling that I'm never good enough? Will it wash out in the water, or is it always in the blood? How much of my father am I destined to become? Will I dim the lights inside me just to satisfy someone? Will I let this woman kill me, or do away with jealous love? Will it wash out in the water, or is it always in the blood? I can feel the love I want, I can feel the love I need But it's never gonna come the way I am Could I change it if I wanted, can I rise above the flood? Will it wash out in the water, or is it always in the blood? How much like my brothers, do my brothers wanna be? Does a broken home become another broken family? Or will we be there for each other, like nobody ever could? Will it wash out in the water, or is it always in the blood? I can feel the love I want, I can feel the love I need But it's never gonna come the way I am Could I change it if I wanted, can I rise above the flood? Will it wash out in the water, or is it always in the blood? I can feel the love I want, I can feel the love I need But it's never gonna come the way I am Could I change it if I wanted, can I rise above the flood? Will it wash out in the water, or is it always in the blood?   "In this world there will be trouble." My heart knows this full well. Not too long ago, every morning, I would wake up with a pack of spider monkeys waiting to pounce on me. They seemed to gather in the form of concerns, worries, anxiety and stress. Concerns that could grow into worries. Worries that might produce anxious feelings. Anxious feelings that so easily would morph into stress manifesting in my body. And there is a tempter who can scream into the flurry of my troubled heart. It leans in close and shouts, "Get busy!" And how many days do I obey? Far too many. There is another voice who whispers an alternative pathway, inviting me to suspend my busy spinning mind by entering the day through the gateway of my heart. God does not desire for me to ignore the trouble. No, if anything, God is inviting me into a deeper engagement with what troubles my heart. His invitation is into my fear. "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." In a world of peacekeeping, God is in the business of peacemaking. What's the difference? Peacekeeping is a fear based avoidance. Peacemaking is a deep soulful engagement. Peacekeepers avoid telling you hard things in order to avoid upsetting the apple cart. They tip toe around the awkward truth. This is not love. It is the opposite of love...it's apathy. Peacemakers speak the truth in love. They speak up when its uncomfortable and work for the shalom of the world. They graciously enter into the troubled space with a whole heart. This is risky love. It's messy but worth it. Being a peacemaker involves diplomacy - which begins and ends with the "fruit if the spirit.“ Any voice (yours or any other) that do not sound like love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control is the voice of the accuser. May you join me in embracing fear, pushing into the dark of our discomfort. May we also take courage in the truth of what professor and priest, Barbara Brown Taylor suggests in her helpful book "Learning to Walk in the Dark." "New life starts in the dark. Whether it is a seed in the ground, a baby in the womb, or Jesus in the tomb, it starts in the dark.” —Barbara Brown Taylor  I recently received an email from a young woman interested in exploring Christian Counseling as her calling and profession. Here are the six questions she asked me that I really needed to be asked.
1. What steps did you have to make to get to where you are? What colleges did you go to and what degrees did you get? I went to Flagler College, studied English and Youth Ministry, which were both infused with professors and students who were deeply interested in spiritual formation and human flourishing.Before attending graduate school, my wife and I were on staff with Young Life and the local church for 20 years. During countless hours of one on one appointments with students or parents, I consistently found myself addressing family situations with them such as dealing with a parent’s divorce, sexual abuse, facing family wounds from the past that had never healed, dating, marriage, etc. Seeing these needs, I sensed a calling to pursue advanced psychological studies and devote my life to helping people conquer life issues. In 2011, I received my Master of Arts degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Richmont Graduate University. Over the past 20 years (in youth ministry and in private practice), I have counseled individuals, children, adolescents, families and couples with a variety of presenting issues pastorally and as a lay counselor. For over eight years, my work with ETCC has involved these, as well as other types of presenting issues. Bachelors Degree + Graduate School + 3000 supervised counseling hours + National Mental Health Counselor Examination (NMHCE) + a handful of Florida Board of Health requirements = Licensure as Licensed Mental Health Counselor 2. How many years did it take for you to get there? I started graduate school in September 2007 and graduated in May 2011. It took four years because I was also working full time as a Youth Minister at a large church in Chattanooga, TN. I elected to remain in weekly post-gardaute supervision for 5 years ($75 per week) while in private practice. When I moved to Florida in summer of 2017, I hit the ground running and prepared for the NMHCE, passed it, handled a number of state requirements and received my Florida license in April 2018. Florida was generous to receive all of my work in Tennessee as eligible work toward my FL license. I started seeing clients in my 4th year of grad school, but my Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy was 97 hours where the Professional Counseling degree was 66. In that last year of school you would begin seeing clients as a graduate intern. Right now I have 3 graduate interns seeing clients earning hours toward their degrees. *Clarification: You can move through a graduate counseling program in mental health counseling full time in 2 years. You'll have a minimum of 2 years of supervision beyond graduation which then can lead to licensure. So, four years if you aggressive and do not have an other irons in the fire. 3. What's the hardest part(s) of your job? There are a number of challenging parts to the job. One is the learning curve to discern what clients are in your wheelhouse and which ones are not. Learning to refer to qualified colleagues becomes a wonderful way to grow your network, develop some partnerships and cultivate a referral base (both give and receiving). Another dimension is definitely financial. Launching a private practice takes time, which also means it takes some money. I launched Elbow Tree last fall in August and it has been my all consuming focus, even when I was not making money for my time. Thankfully I embedded in with my best friend in his practice in the early stages of when he launched Elbow Tree in Chattanooga. I still had to learn all the in’s and out’s of launching a private practice from basic bookkeeping, marketing, networking, while also continuing to sharpen my therapeutic skill beyond graduation. Being in a counseling practice that cultivates competent and compassionate emerging counselors is something I desired and am hoping to cultivate here in St. Augustine. One other dimension could be loneliness. So much of your day as a therapist is spent with clients and many therapists report feeling lonely in the work as so many are hanging a shingle as a solo practitioner. That is another dimension to why I launched Elbow Tree here. I need community and wanted to be able to choose who I surround myself with. Our counseling team is a wonderfully gifted and skilled community of Christian counselors who have/are continuing to hopefully be formed into Christ’s likeness in and away from our counseling work. Self care is every counselor’s highest need and yet, often, it can become shuffled to back of the list of priorities. I ask everyone of our counselors to describe in writing to me how they are actively cultivating their 6 month "self care plan" and we check in on that when we grab tacos or coffee together. I am chief sinner in this area and need the accountability, which I work on with a mentor in my own life. 4. While I know it must be a hard job, do you guys enjoy it? Do you think it's worth it? I love it. Being trained as a Christian Counselor is a professional pivot that will prepare you to serve the world and God’s church in some specialized ways. You effectively would be preparing yourself to become a mobile missionary with a highly specialized set of skills that will serve a multidimensional target audience. I work with pastors and missionaries who are exhausted and broken to entrepreneurs who feel lost in their sense of purpose to families struggling to love one another well to deploying into 3rd world global disaster zones to offer critical incident stress management and post traumatic interventions. It is not for everybody. If you struggle with offering empathy and compassion, I’d urge you away from this space into something else. If you have a hyper need to be needed then I’d recommend doing some deep inner work around that with a competent therapist. If you have good boundaries and a deep heart for walking slowly with people as people heal and begin to reorient toward flourishing, then this is the place for you. To speak of its worth would never be able to declare the truest and highest sense of the need and worth…the Holy Spirit refers to Itself as Comforter, Counselor and Friend…and while we are not abdicating or taking on the role of the Holy Spirit as junior holy spirits, we will most definitely image (aka look like) God most when we orient toward people with lovingkindness, gentleness, non-judgement, warmth, curiosity and empathy. It’s God’s kindness that leads us to repentance…(aka it’s God’s kindness that captures our heart, opens us up to change, walks with us into the most painful patterns we have developed and invites us to hope in the ongoing work of Christ even when our traumatic injuries tell our bodies and minds that we need that old pattern or attachment). 5. What is the demand for Christian Counselors in today's world? I have many friends who are amazing Christians who do not fly under the banner of Christian in their counseling practices. It’s a rigorous process to decide which you will choose in order to serve the clients you feel most called to serve. In my work, I feel particularly called to be a beacon for the local Church and then to the surrounding community. If Christians are seeking wellness in our world they will look more like the Jesus we love and then the world will see and know the beauty of Jesus radiating in His healing community…who also invite people broken, sick and sore into their midst. Hurt people hurt people. In and out of the church. I also believe that healing people heal people…so if our church can orient toward healing and cultivating this ethos among themselves, then those outside the church may feel drawn to the depth of inner hope that would inevitably leak from the believers. So, that is why I target pastors and missionaries…caring for caregivers…if these elders among us have permission to be broken and imperfect then we too will find a safe place in them and the believers can come out of hiding and become open to vulnerability…which is the birthplace of human and heavenly innovation and change. Jesus modeled vulnerability among from the moment he was born unto His dying breath. The world desperately needs highly competent skilled clinicians who are dispersed into the entire work force…bringing this ethic of deep heavenly care into those paces. I moved to St. Augustine with the stated intent of opening Elbow Tree as a beacon for Christians…and I was honestly really worried that being overtly Christian would be a hindrance to the growth of my business. There is a need for Christians to be highly skilled when caring for the multi-dimensional needs of our hurting world. Counselors are sharp instruments that God can use to serve a deeply traumatized and aching culture…to speak to the truths revealed in research and science…and the scriptures...and to operate using the best trauma informed best practices as they serve clients well. The need is absolutely enormous…some markets are certainly saturated. So, find a community who has an unmet need that is not being met. St. Augustine was this place for me. 6. Is the money that you are earning now sufficient for living? Yes. It takes time so you’ll need something to float you while you get things up and running. Every person’s needs are different but I can tell you that if you are creative and patient, the Lord will use those gifts and strengths to help you provide in ways you could never imagine. If you’d ever like to talk more, feel free to email or call. I’m always eager to speak with interested counseling students If you are reading this and think you'd like to have a conversation like this, please email me at hayne@elbowtreeforida.com.  Some of my favorite people on the planet are firefighters. My brother has been a professional firefighter for 15+ years and I've loved having a front row seat into firefighter culture, living vicariously through him. I've hung around the firehouse from time to time, shared a few meals with his crew in restaurants and at the firehouse. Earlier in the year, a couple local firefighters invited me into their developing conversation about Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) as a means of serving firefighters after a critical incident occurs. More than anything, it is exciting to spend time with first responders who see the need to deepen their care for one another and the next generation of firefighters. Last week, I was given the rare opportunity (by these same local firefighters) to be fully immersed into the world of a firefighter. The "Florida Firefighter Health and Safety Collaborative" have developed an amazing strategy for streamlining psychological care for firefighters. FFHSC invited 40 licensed clinicians (mental health counselors, licensed social workers, clinical psychologists, etc) to an historic event tailored specifically for counseling professionals hoping to serve firefighters with even greater professional insight. Here is the general description: "This 2 day full immersion course is designed for clinicians and providers who desire to learn more about the unique firefighter culture in order to be more effective in treating firefighters. The class provides an extensive and understanding of Firefighter culture, lingo, lifestyle and details about the unique stressors the job entails. This training includes both classroom and live scenarios, including wearing turnout gear, watching a live burn training scenario, visiting fire stations and interacting with firefighters." Firefighters and counselors have a shared sense of calling between them that is poignant. Neither group wants bad things to happen to people. However, when bad things do happen, we both want to be there. "Being there" comes with a heavy price tag. . Over time, firefighters will be exposed to untold numbers of critical incidents that can wound them, often in unseen ways. Thankfully, there is a ground swell of interest among seasoned firemen who are actively curating care protocols for psychologically injured firefighters. Over the course of the two day immersion, we heard from firefighters who had been the first on the scene at the Pulse Nightclub and Parkland High School shootings. One by one, we heard the brave and heroic stories from these firefighters., who generously invited us to catch a vulnerable glimpse of the emotional aftermath of a terrorist attack. It was holy ground to hear them tell their story. As the brother of a career firefighter, I thought I had an understanding of what firefighter culture looked like. It was not until this immersion experience that I could even pair my perception with an actual live experience. Coming away from my time in Orlando, I am looking forward to continuing to sharpen my craft in caring well for first responders. Minimally, spending a day with high speed professionals like these men and women will only make me a better therapist. In a couple weeks, I will log 24 hours of live ride time with the St. Johns County Fire Department. This, paired with 16 hours of immersion, will vet me to be included on the statewide "Redline Rescue" database.
  A LITTLE MORE FROM FFSHC:
The Clinician Awareness class was held June 26-27 at the Central Florida Fire Training Facility. Instructors Chris Bator, Jeremy Hurd, Larry Doelling, and Dustin Hawkins utilized this intensive class to provide clinicians an opportunity to learn more about the firefighter culture in order to be more effective in treatment of firefighters. The class was full with 45 attendees who enjoyed the unique learning experience and intimate insight. The intensive 16 hour program's content immerses the student immediately into the unique language, dynamic personality, and trauma immersed life of the first responder. The Second portion of Day One allowed the clinicians a hands-on perspective of the intensity and physically demanding nature of what it means to "walk a mile in our boots". The clinicians "gear up" and got to work in the training tower in a simulated smoke environment with the goal of better understanding how the first responders function as a cohesive unit by preforming a building search and victim rescue. Day Two allows the Clinicians to interact one on one with first responders whom have successfully developed resiliency skills through professional programs to better understand the mindset of first responders in crisis and how to bridge the gaps in treatment. The participating clinicians and mental health professionals are being utilized to populate a resource map which is being shared state wide to increase the support options to all first responder agencies across Florida to meet the expanding mental wellness needs. We are thankful to Lt Jeff Orrange City of Orlando Fire Department and Lt Anthony Willis from Orange County Fire rescue and the FFSHC Central Region for coordinating and planning this event. The Central Florida Fire Consortium provided an amazing facility and all the local Departments that committed resources made this event a huge success. In addition, we are very proud to have the support of the Central Florida fire service, Fire Chiefs Association, Cigna, University of Central Florida Restores program as well as the vendor support for this event from Ten-8 Fire Equipment.  On the day after Father's day and in the midst of a hailstorm of upsetting news about immigrant children in danger, maybe this could be a practical way for us to invest in children today. We are selling handmade tote bags from Haiti. Read a little more here on my blog about how this connects to the lives of beloved immigrant children, one of which calls me "Dad." The 2010 catastrophic earthquake leveled much of Haiti with an epicenter approximately 16 miles west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. Little did we know it, our (soon to be adopted) daughter was trapped underneath rubble, where she would remain for days without water or food or hope of rescue. Help did come and she was rescued from the rubble. Soon after the earthquake, a number of Elbow Tree therapists from Chattanooga deployed on disaster response teams to Haiti offering psychological triage to pastors, community leaders and orphan care workers. Much of their interaction occurred in an orphanage in Port-au-Prince, where many would meet and interact with our daughter. Still, we had not met one another yet. In the months and years following the earthquake, a number of Haitian children were being adopted into some amazing families in Chattanooga. In the fall of 2012, my wife and I were introduced to a little girl whose story gripped our hearts. Each little detail of her precious life only confirmed evidence of God's invitation to open up our family to her. Our hearts are now forever marked with a distinct affection and love for the precious people of Haiti. Our daughter's story is now our story. We are forever linked to a place and a people whose beauty and resilience outshine any limitation they may face. Some of our mentors and heroes, Charlie and Mary Scott, have been deeply invested in Haiti for a long time. Their work continues today and Elbow Tree is lucky enough to be able to play a small role in supporting their great effort selling a handful of hand made goods that support the Good Shepherd School and the ministry of Young Life in Port Au Prince. We'd love your help... Clean water is extremely scarce in Haiti. 4 million plastic water bags are purchased daily in Haiti and each bag contains 4 oz. of water and costs 4 pennies. Because there is no formal sanitation system, most bags end up on the ground. They have developed a process of turning those water bags into renewable goods. More specifically they are turning these water bags into a wide range of beautiful and unique tote bags great for the beach or grocery store. We are selling these bags for $30 in our office. Proceeds go to the continue the work of bringing hope and help to a special place and people. Join our efforts to support this great work in Haiti!
Thank you for taking the time to watch this important short film featuring a friend of mine, John Marsh.
John is from Opelika, Alabama. So is my dear friend, pastor and mentor, Dr. Bill Dudley. Bill was my wife's childhood pastor. He later married my wife and I, baptized all three of our children and I was blessed to serve in ministry with him during a special season of our life at Signal Mountain Presbyterian Church. Bill Dudley was the first person I'd ever known from Opelika and he spoke of his hometown with a fondness and special appreciation I envied. John and I first met a couple years ago in Nashville at an artist retreat. Over the course of several days together, we were often seated together at a couple meals or on a bus traveling between historic homes and event venues around the Nashville area. Conversation was natural and easy. I attribute much of that to John's own transparency. The time with him marked me for sure and I've continued to savor the connection. Meeting John Marsh and getting to spend some impromptu time together was a real treasure. His kindness and his vision remind me of my great friend Bill, who invited me into a sweet friendship that fostered an enduring trust and vulnerability. I can safely say that Bill Dudley has been someone who invited me to bring my weary heart to the front porch of our friendship, and together we would trust Jesus to bring healing and wholeness into the lonely places. He saw beauty where I only saw brokenness. These two men from Opelika have very different stories but the aim of their life's work has been dedicated to restoring broken places. The integrity of their mission begins in the seat of their own lives. Their kindness and accessibility are incredibly disarming. Both would not take credit for work only God could accomplish. Earlier today, John sent me a link to this new film that features a taste of he and his wife's story. I was in tears as I watched. What a gift to individuals or couples in difficult seasons of life who are hanging on by a thread. "Their story as a couple mirrors the story of a city once neglected and now reclaimed. Through a vulnerable recount of their past tumult, the Marshes share how healing in their broken lives became their inspiration to bring hope to others. John and Ashley Marsh are the proprietors of The Marsh Collective, a conglomerate of business ventures dedicated to resurrecting the city of Opelika, Alabama." If you are inclined, please pass this along to a friend who you think might appreciate watching this. Trust me, John and his wife are the real deal. They are living proof that we are loved beyond any measure of performance or attempt at perfection. May you also sense the kindness of God through the kindness and tenderness of my friend John. Thank you John and Ashley for sharing your story. And for your vision to bring healing and wholeness to communities and cities! |
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