December is a great time to reach out to others.  We have four outreaches planned for this month and there is plenty of opportunity to help through volunteering your time, making a donation and/or praying for each one. More details are coming but here is the quicklist of the Front Porch outreaches: Adopt-A-Family for Chirstmas (still need families or groups of friends to help) Women’s Christmas Gathering (still need women to help) Christmas Party  (a group has tentatively been penciled in) Family Portraits (photographers booked; may still need a few volunteers) An announcement and email will be coming with more details on how you can be a part whether you have plenty of time to give, very little time or not even close to Nashville. I also need to pre-warn you that we will be … [Read more...]

Last night I had the honor of baptizing my daughter Anabelle and two of our neighborhood friends, Demont and Simone.  I thought I was well prepared.  I had physical things to be worried about.  Due to my recent back surgery my doctor has recommended that I only be up about an hour a day and not to pick up anything heavier than a gallon of milk.  I also was prepared in what I was going to say for each of the three being baptized.  I have witnessed Simone and Demont choose good over evil since they first talked about following Jesus and had a story to share about each of them. With Anabelle I could think of a million things, like crying because I forgot to pray for her before bedtime, or taking the opportunity when a kid said how much he liked our house she told him that we … [Read more...]

It's Saturday, October 4 at 2am in the morning...I am awake all of the sudden and my heart is BOLD to trust God for his provision and step out in faith for the ministry God has called our family to... God began this Front Porch Ministry.... and for some reason, He called our family to live it out daily... the mission "trip" He arranges everyday with what seems to have an "open ended" plane ticket back to the life we were living before we "arrived" in the land far away from our home as we knew it....the land called "The Front Porch" where we arrived almost 4 years ago when we bought this house in East Nashville. Life as we knew it changed permanently for our family that day... December 2, 2004 and God became the "mission leader"… the tour guide of this un-ended "mission trip" to a … [Read more...]

It's Saturday morning and I am truly excited to prepare to go to a brunch with friends this morning. This brunch won't taste like the amazing chicken salad from The Puffy Muffin or fruit tea with mint sprigs and cute little petit fours for dessert. Actually I don't know what we are serving for sure. It's been donated. The conversations won't be about how we spent our week or the trip we are planning for next month. There won't be references about going to the zoo or how we haven't visited the Science Center enough this semester. Or even how our children are doing in school. No, the conversations will be drastically different than that... more raw... more about the hardships that seem to live on the surface for these friends of mine. Life is hard day by day. There are no thoughts about … [Read more...]

http://www.rccbirmingham.org/sermons.htm Listen to the one entitled Seek the Welfare of the City. I was blessed by listening to this message. It was so affirming of what the Holy Spirit has been working on through us, without ever hearing a sermon exactly like this. Amazing how God works in our hearts for His Glory. I couldn't sleep this morning after my young son woke up and wanted a bottle. I have been wrestling with all of this formalization of "Front Porch Ministry" and what direction God is leading us, how to unashamedly ask for financial support, not so much struggling with asking for our neighbors sake, but struggling with asking to launch a full-time ministry out of our home, how to move forward, answer people's email requests, questions and desires to get involved. It is all … [Read more...]

It is 6 in the morning and I have been awake for 2 hours. How does the happen to a pregnant, non-morning person. My only explanation is God. He is the only one brave enough to wake me up and KEEP ME UP this early in the morning. I think He knows I wrestle harder in the morning (maybe He knows that I want to get down to business quickly so I can get back to sleep before the little ones start to wake up or maybe He knows I am not yet affected by the highs or lows of the day, and therefore I am more raw in my emotions and thoughts). Whatever the reason.... I am awake and wrestling. I have prayed, listened to a sermon (link below) and in my effort not to feel so alone in my wrestling, I have even learned how to post a "note" on facebook. I guess hoping for an answer (from someone in … [Read more...]

I spent the morning with a mom who is struggling to get back on her feet. Two of her 6 sons recently spent time in Juvenile for a crime that ultimately got her evicted from her housing. She is currently had to split her kids up and stay with family who spends more time judging her than they do helping to encourage her. She starts a new job at Wendy's tomorrow and is working to get back on her feet. She does not have her GED, nor does she have a car or a penny to her name. She started having kids (like the generation before her) as a young teen and is basically "growing" up with her kids. She has bills (like NES) that she is behind on and cannot obtain help with Housing from MDHA until she pays it off. Until then, she struggles. Life is a struggle and yet somewhere inside of her, she knows … [Read more...]