Asking for help is tough!

I have been in a very unusual situation over the last 5 years in watching God raise the funds necessary to help our South Phoenix neighborhoods and be able to ‘love on’ our teens and kids. Anne and I have this discussion often about how she has such a distaste that I have to raise the funds necessary for us to live and see New City – Barrio exist. Obviously this journey is one that has required a faith and trust in God. I know that asking for help has never been the strong suit for most guys, including myself!

As I write this blog my prayer is that God will raise a significant amount of funds that will better enable us to serve our families with their real needs. I know that I talk a lot with our teens about dreaming, praying and then making baby steps to see amazing things happen. I know that I selfishly don’t want my wife to have to work outside of our home and the work she does with New City. This dream can only happen as more individuals, churches and businesses participate in an ongoing fashion.

Let me share a few of our prayerful dreams that we hope God will touch a few to help so our marginalized neighborhood can see real change. One of the great needs in New City is to help older teens, who are on their own have a chance to learn about becoming responsible in life. Last night I had a call from one of our teens that was being kicked out of her house. I can’t go into the details but after her mom’s death, a cousin’s death and now an uncle’s death she and her dad don’t get along. She asked if she could stay with us. I said it would be ok for the weekend. We already have a teen and her mom staying with us. She gave the phone to her dad who said that his daughter needed a permanent place to stay. Wow – I explained that I couldn’t make that commitment without my wife’s input and much prayer.

We have many teens that don’t have dads or homes that need extra help in figuring out life. One of my wives’ dreams is for God to raise up the means to buy a larger house, six bedrooms, on an acre to turn into a New City House. Here we could purposely help a few of our teens learn the basic life skills needed to succeed in life with the gospel being at the center. We have had a few live with us over the last four years where this has happened. The challenge is that our house isn’t that big and we need to be away from a normal neighborhood.

We are blessed to have many friends who have the means to help out. The opportunity is to know how to approach these friends and other new friends to come up with a plan that sees a New City House happen in the coming year. We walk our dogs every morning on the SRP Canal that is close to 19^th Ave and Dobbins. As we finish our walk we come up to a large house on a couple of acres that has been abandoned and now gutted. It also has a casita in the back that would work great to have us live there while the house is being redone.

The other dream, which is going to happen in the coming year, is the birthing of small businesses that will provide jobs for our teens as they graduate from High School. I have a few special friends who have shown an interest in helping out in partnering, training and providing the mentoring and financial backing to see this happen. We so much appreciate your prayers, friendship and help in seeing our kids and teens be given the best opportunity to succeed and honor God in their young lives.