Lake House: Solar Initiative

I just finished writing a report for my solar energy class. For the report I had to determine the energy usage of our house and design a photovoltaic system to supply its needs. I was able to design a system to supply all of the needs of the back house. Here is a short video from the report showing what they system will look like. I am excited to say that we are going to go ahead and start building it. But for right now we just need to figure out how the heck to fund it. The total cost will be around 2 thousand dollars. If you have any ideas or suggestions please contact us.

Thanksgiving Tents

We had a wonderful thanksgiving! We always have a dinner at the house for our friends from the neighborhood that might not otherwise have a family to spend it with. Historically we have dinner but most people show up full since there are so many places to get food on Thanksgiving. This year we had about 35 people at our place for dinner and the majority of them had not eaten anything. It was awesome and everybody ate their fill and pretty much polished everything off. Many of those who left our house that night had no home and were headed back out to their spots on the streets. They would sleep outside, try to stay warm, safe, and avoid the police who are constantly running them off. Like Jesus they have nowhere to lay their heads. Being that it was thanksgiving and I knew that a ton of people in our city were headed out to sleep outside of stores for the Black Friday sales i couldn't help but compare. If you are sleeping outside for the purposes of consumption and purchasing it is not just legal but encouraged in our society. If you try to sleep outside any of those same buildings on any other night of the year because you have nowhere else to go you will be run off, trespassed or arrested. After everybody left and we got the house somewhat cleaned up and we headed out with tents too. Not to the street corners or the market places but rather the 6 of us Lake House guys hit the road to head for Georgia. We drove through the night and arrived at Rock Town Friday morning. We spent the weekend camping, rock climbing, laughing, and just being together with each other and God's beautiful creation. It was a much needed rest and photos and possibly even a short movie are coming soon.

A Brief Reflection on Erica and Jon's Experience 'Surviving Tampa'

Lake House - Foreground from Underground Network on Vimeo.

Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

Last night at home church we went over Luke 6:12-26. A pretty familiar passage for most us, but there was something different about this passage last night. The Holy Spirit took charge and dropped it hard on us, especially me. Here I am, living a "lifestyle" that from an outside point of view might seem radical and extreme sometimes, being challenged by the words of Jesus about the poor. Sure, I live in the innercity supposedly living "among" the poor not realizing that I've been living, to be sincere, far away from them. The thing is that we think we believe something, but when it comes down to act upon it we don't.

Just to be clear the Lake House is a place that where your views will get challenged and when you're getting most comfortable with the lifestyle...Jesus drops the gauntlet. I felt like we were getting away from our call to serve our neighbors, from making room for those "less deserving".

Jesus not only made room for tax collectors, fishermen and zealots, but also for a traitor. Jesus spent the whole night praying and then he calls the twelve among the many. He then proceeds to heal people from diseases and evil spirits. He spent an entire night with the Father...only God knows what went down.

But then Jesus gathers His disciples and the many people that came to see him. He looks at them and goes off with His sermon on the plain. He blesses those who are poor, because the Kingdom of God IS theirs. He also explains how those that are hungry and weeping will be satisfied and filled with laughter...I'm not going to repeat what He says, just look it up.

As I sat in the living room, I looked around me and what did I see? Not the poor. Don't get me wrong--I love the people that come to our house every Wednesday. I love how they love Jesus, I love being in ministry with them. I see many different gifts among them...It's awesome! But one thing we lack is room. We have filled our house with very dear friends, but have forgotten to invite those we were called to serve, those who Jesus calls blessed.

I will stop here for now, and I leave you with a song by Gungor