Jon and I met on campus at the University of Nebraska. We were both in a class called "Place Conscious Writing." Although we were both pursuing degrees in English at the time, we didn't meet until Jon's final semester. I was initially drawn to him because he described his church as full of people overcoming addictions and coming out of prison. That type of "real" ministry intrigued me and since I was looking for a church at the time, I visited....and eventually I stayed. He tells me that he was drawn to me because of my wild hair, as well as the fact that during my assigned presentation to introduce myself, I mentioned that Jesus was the lover of my soul.
After years of friendship, we dated, were engaged and got married. After about a year of marriage and some career advancement and stability, we were ready to buy a home (which seemed to be what we were supposed to be doing as upwardly mobile Americans). However, God with His crazy plans and guidance set us on an unusual trajectory. Jon had been working in social work for quite a few years, including time spent as the youth pastor at the Northern Lighthouse, a church full of high risk youth; but at the time of their marriage, he was working at a homeless shelter as a case manager. Due to his heart for those without family, he had surrounded himself with several "lost boys" (as I liked to called them). We began looking at homes that would have extra rooms for Jon's friends to live with us; however, in the end God had different plans. When we went to hear Shane Claiborne speak in Bolivar MO, some of Jon's co-workers decided to go as well. After the trip God opened hearts and minds to the possibility of living in community and doing ministry with the poor and broken of Lincoln. After a few months of praying together, the perfect building opened up near downtown and our crazy group of ragamuffins moved in together and formed the Bolivar House. At that time our mission was to downsize our lives enough to work part time in order to spend more time with those in need, our families, neighbors and church communities--and to live like a family.
It has taken some time for the identity of this community to truly take shape, and it is possible that it will be forever changing, as things do over time. Currently the community's focus seems to be loving and living with people overcoming meth addictions, and those coming out of prison. Another aspect of our mission is the care of former orphans adopted into families. We don't know exactly what the future holds, but one thing's for sure, we will continue to depend on each other as we walk through what God has called us to do.
Our first child Ishmael was born in 2010, in our living room. He was born in the wake of Keyzer family tragedy and for this reason he was given his name, which means "God hears man." For it was a time in our lives where we needed to be reminded that even when God doesn't answer your prayers...He is still hearing you and even when we are thrown into a wilderness, God still has plans to lead us out and show us His blessing.
Through a member of our community we were introduced in 2012 to the plight of special needs orphans internationally. We learned that many, especially in Eastern Europe, are living in institutions where they are extremely neglected, underfed, and uncared for. Our friend Grace adopted a girl out of Pleven, Bulgaria--from an orphanage known to feed children 500 calories a day, change their diapers once a day, and leave them lying in their cribs without basic care. God led us to adopt, and in June of 2012, we began an adoption journey. In September we committed to "Peyton"--a boy who was 8 years old and weighed only 18 pounds. In March of 2013 we met our son, who we renamed Simon.
In August of 2013, we were finally able to bring him HOME. (Our journey to Simon is chronicled on my adoption blog.) The year spent on this adoption was both heartbreaking and inspiring. It was only through the grace of God and the donations of friends, family and strangers that we were able to pay Simon's $30,000 "ransom" and free him from his prison. We grew so much in our faith in God's provision and His call on our lives in that year.
Simon is such a gift to our family; we have watched him grow (he is up to 36 pounds now) and develop in many ways. His smile lights up the room.
In April of 2014, Jon accepted a grant-funded position as a resident at the Northern Lighthouse church. He left the world of social work to take on a different sort of ministry. My role at the Northern Lighthouse also changed at this time. Our church planted a sister church, the F street Neighborhood Church, and due to this church planting, about half of our core members went over to work at F street, which left a few of us behind to continue on with the ministry. What this meant for me was that I stepped into the role of the main worship leader at our church.
Around this time our involvement in the ministry really grew and we felt God's call on us as a couple and a family. Part of this happened shortly after our youngest was born. On September 27th 2014, our daughter June was born. While on I was on maternity leave from my job Jon was able to do more with his time at church as I was at home with the kids. Also, in November, we were able to invite a new friend into our home and into our family. Through this "adoption" of sorts we were able to see like never before, how God could use our WHOLE family to help someone heal from their past. It was a blessing to see how our home ministry and church ministry could combine and we were eager to see how God could continue us down this road.
That brings us to today and to this blog. We felt that Jon should continue down the road of working at the Northern Lighthouse church, but his one-year grant, the main source of his funding, was not renewed. The church stepped out in faith to commit to hiring him on as an Associate Pastor. However, our church, being mostly a ministry working with those on the margins, doesn't really have a huge budget--so we have also relied on God to provide friends and family to sew into our ministry....and miraculously he ALWAYS does!!
We are excited to see how God uses this year for His purposes and how He continues to provide for our family. Thanks for reading, and we hope that you will support us through your prayers and if you feel so led, that you would also support us financially.
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| Ishmael-age 5, Jon, Anna, baby June-8 mo., and Simon-age 10. |
A true power family.
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