Progress on my goals as of April 21,2012

	Target	Actually Done
Leadership Bible	Be on page 560 (5 pg a day)	On page 560
Faith in Action Bible	Be on page 672 (6 pg a day)	On page 672
Message Read Through	7 Days youversion program	On track
Running	25 miles a week	25
Running 2012 Overall	1212 miles by 12/12/12	263.5
Crunches	1000 a week	1000
Floss	7 times a week	7 Days
Face Cleaning/Lotions	7 times a week	7
I Like Book	7 times a week	7
Modules	2 a week	3
Social Events	3 a quarter	1
Guy Time	10 X a quarter	1
Self Exam	3 a week	1
Book Reading	1 Book a week	0
Evening Prayer Meeting	26 times a year	9
Paid Speaking	3 a quarter	0
Date with Cara	3 a quarter	0
Date with Rachel	1 a quarter	0

This was a bit of a sleepless week.  I have been working to finish the book.  I had thought that it would take a long time for a publisher to decide on whether to publish the book or not so I sent a sneak peak to a few publishers and was accepted by two.  That was great!  Except for the fact that I was only about 1/2 way through the first draft.  Now I have a deadline of April 30, 2012 to get them the book.  The way it's breaking down right now, I write futher.  Cara edits what I have written and then sends it on to her mom for a second set of eyes for further editing.  Once I finish the original I will take a final look at the book in its entirety. 
I continue to push myself to get this done by next Friday so that I can enjoy the weekend.  I am guessing that this will cost me one week of running but it will be worth it.

Hero Quest Chapter 2 part 1

Everyday Life- Tuesday

  John’s watch beeped.  He was going to just stay in bed.  The emotion from Monday had made the night’s sleep restless at best.  “No, John.  You have got to get up and run.”  The blankets hugged him tightly and seemed to encourage him to just stay right there in the bed.  “Why is it that the bed feels so much more comfortable when you know that you need to get up?”  John continued to try to motivate himself.  He then began to walk through his ultimate dream.  Every part of that dream had him walking around, fit and healthy.  In the dream he was 75 but seemed to be ageless.  As John saw himself in the dream he began to get excited.  It was time to get going.  The clock said it was 5:10 am.  Carefully making his way across the dark room toward the bathroom, John continued to try to motivate himself.  “If you are going to run 40 miles on your 40^th birthday you are going to need to just get out there and do it.  Besides, too many people know of your crazy goal to back out now.  But of course you need your rest, go back to bed.  You had a hard day yesterday.  You deserve to sleep, just another 30 minutes.”  The conversation continued but John dressed anyway and ran five miles.  Running always woke him up and got him past that morning lack of motivation.   

     After a cool drink of water John sat in his special chair and began to talk with Jesus, “So where were you yesterday?”  Silence.  “I mean I was left high and dry there, under attack and you did nothing.  I trusted You.”  “Did you?”  For a moment John was stunned.  “Of course I trusted in You.”  “Did you?” The soft compassionate but very serious voice again asked.  Now John was silent.  At least he was silent outwardly inside he began fuming.  “You know I need to get out of this job.  This is just too dangerous to my reputation.  What if the police believed her?  I would never be able to get a job again.  I would be disgraced in the papers.  My family would hide their faces when we went to church.  I can almost hear the people whispering, ‘There goes the woman beater.’  No doubt about it I need to quit.”  Again silence filled the house.  John listened to the clock tick.  The cat scratched at the carpet and John nearly dislocated his arm trying to hit the beast with his shoe.  Normally he would have just shooed the cat from his scratching duty but in the moment hitting the cat seemed so much the better.  “Stupid cat!”  The momentary pause in the prayer time reminded John that he was supposed to be praying and was wasting time letting his mind wander aimlessly.  “A hero must focus and I am John Hero so I will focus.”  John read a few pages from His Bible and tried praying a pre written prayer that he had once read from a book, copied and taped down in a journal.  Something seemed lacking in the moment though.  He closed the book and looked over at the empty couch across the room.  “Did you?”  Exasperated, John just stared at the emptiness.  Anger again welled up inside of him.  “I tell you that I learned to trust You 12 years ago and have never looked back.”  Suddenly John felt his face grow hot.  He was blushing.  Though there was no mirror near by him knew that he must be blushing.  That was a lie.  His faith had left him on many occasions.  Multiple times in his life he had resolved to abandon this whole God thing and just get on with a more normal life.  It might have been just coincidence but John felt a cool breeze blow across his face in that moment.  It felt like a soft inviting kiss.  “I love you John.  Why didn’t you trust me?”  The whole vivid, horrible scene replayed itself in John’s head.  He wanted to get away from it all and go eat his oatmeal.  But the scene played on anyway.  Again and again he watched things unfold.  Forwards and backwards the movie in his head showed him every detail in picture perfect clarity.  “Where did I fail?”  John watched it again and again. “Help me see this through Your eyes.”  Suddenly John saw himself sitting at his desk.  There was a woman talking to him.  But he could hear no voices.  Out of the silence he heard the voice.  It was silent for moment and then he heard it again.  “Let it go.  Let her steal the pillows, the blankets the sheets, let her have it all.  I will get you more.”  John wept.  He remembered hearing that.  But he had ignored it figuring that it was the voice of passivity sneaking up on him.  A small tear danced around the creases of John’s face.  “Now I see.”

Real Life at the Crisis Shelter April 9-15, 2012

Weekly highlights

Monday April 9:  A guest came to the staff office for Tylenol and through conversation we learned much of her life story.  While it was heart breaking it also gave an opportunity for prayer and healing.  A mom who has been working very hard toward her housing got a two day heads up from an apartment that she could move in.  We rejoiced.      

Tuesday April 10:    One of our children was out of control and hurting another child.  Staff stepped in to help restrain him.  It took over 30 minutes for the 9 year old to calm down.  Afterwards, he was a well behaved child again.  We encouraged mom to seek mental health help for the child.

Wednesday April 11:   One of our guests was becoming very anxious over the expectations for further stay.  She is also very bitter with her employers and transfers much of that anger toward staff.  We are working on helping her focus  A woman was wandering up and down East Sprague and was very confused.  Staff helped her in our Phase II room for the night since she did not seem stable enough for the regular shelter.  We will reevaluate in the morning.  One of our singles is also feeling very anxious by some poor parenting that she is seeing by one of our moms.  We have been working with this mom but not making much progress.  We checked in a mom who is definitely coming down from something.  Our goal right now is to keep the kids safe.

Thursday April 12:  Set up new entertainment cabinet in staff office.  We are looking much better and more professional.  The staff had a conversation with one of our guests who has been keeping their puppy (not service or therapy animal) in their car.  She told us that the dog will be moving to a kennel by tomorrow.  The child who was aggressive toward another child on Tuesday was walking around threatening others.  Mom didn’t seem to think it was a big deal despite many conversations and the issues on Tuesday.  She has been asked to leave Friday morning.      

Friday April 13:  Reports of a mom being abusive toward her child.  Several guests and staff have contacted Child Protective Services in the hopes of helping this child.            

Weekend:  Mom that had checked in high continued to use throughout the week and was asked to leave.  We also started working with a mom with a very sweet disabled son (25 years old)  since we are currently pretty stuffed at the shelter we are using our Phase II room for these two for now.  Otherwise we would need to double up and that would be uncomfortable for many of our moms (Put into a room with a 25 year old man.)    

General comments:   Anxiety seems to be higher among the ladies checking into the Crisis Shelter right now and that creates a stressful environment for others.  Interestingly most of those anxious people sleep a lot during the day so the day is very quiet!          

    

Current Crisis Shelter Purpose Statement:

 The Crisis Shelter for Women and Children exists to increase the impact of our ministries of rescue, recovery and restoration by partnering with staff, volunteers and donors.  We will do this by meeting basic needs in a safe, clean, temporary shelter, with instruction and guidance for life transformation in a healing environment.

Progress on my goals April 8-14, 2012

	Target	Actually Done
Leadership Bible	Be on page 525 (5 pg a day)	On page 525
Faith in Action Bible	Be on page 630 (6 pg a day)	On page 630
Message Read Through	7 Days youversion program	On track
Running	25 miles a week	20
Running 2012 Overall	1212 miles by 12/12/12	238.5
Crunches	1000 a week	1000
Floss	7 times a week	7 Days
Face Cleaning/Lotions	7 times a week	7
I Like Book	7 times a week	7
Modules	2 a week	3
Social Events	3 a quarter	0
Guy Time	10 X a quarter	0
Self Exam	3 a week	2
Book Reading	1 Book a week	1
Evening Prayer Meeting	26 times a year	8
Paid Speaking	3 a quarter	0
Date with Cara	3 a quarter	0
Date with Rachel	1 a quarter	0

The book that I finished this week was on servant leadership.  It was very challenging, not to read but to live out in the real world.  Among the most profound concepts that I believe will shape me in the future is the revelation given by Jesus in the feeding of the 5000 or the 4000.  There was a problem.  In this case the people were hungry.  Andrew worked at the problem and realized that he could not manufacture a response.  How true!  We try to do this with problems that we face all of the time and it is often impossible.  However, he goes to Jesus who is capable of manufacture.  Jesus multiplies the loaves and fishes and then shows Andrew and the rest our real part in God's plan.  We are to be distributors of God's blessings.  When we allow God to manufacture and we choose to distribute we will see miracles take place.
I fall a bit short on my running but feel good about my overall progress.  The next two weeks will be on finishing the book Hero Quest and getting it ready to send to the publisher before the month is out.

Hero Quest End of Chapter 1

Maggie nodded and went into action.  John called the mission to let them know that they would not be participating and also reported that the shelter was full.  “There is no way we will bring anybody else into this mess right now,” John told himself.  Then John called Corrina.  “I am so sorry honey.  I’m not sure when I will be home.  I know that I promised that I would be home a little early.”  John started to get choked up.  “What’s wrong John?”  “Just pray.”  John squeezed out.  “Everything is falling apart.  Look I need to go.” 

    John pulled himself together and sat in his office waiting to see what would happen next.  He focused his thoughts.  The waiting was killing him though.  “I feel like I am wasting time doing nothing.” 

His boss stopped by to check on John.  “Are you all right?”

“I will be.  Corrina was going to a conference tonight so I need to go pretty soon.”

“We’ll see what the police think.  But you should be able to leave soon.  She told me that I was as useless as you.”  John’s boss started to chuckle.  “She is not a nice woman.”

John nodded in agreement.

“For what it’s worth I heard several of the other guests telling the police that you had your hands up in the air and did not actually hurt her in anyway.  There was one gal; I think her name is Jennifer.  She told the officer that you couldn’t do that, because you had too much respect for women.”

John began to cry.

“Do you know how many times I’ve had to kick Jennifer out of this shelter for different reasons?  For her to support me is incredible.”  John couldn’t stop weeping now.  His boss went out to check on the latest.  Maggie returned with dinner.

After talking with the police John was free to go and returned home.  After a short recounting of events he encouraged Corrina to go to the conference while he stayed with the kids.  During devotions the reading particularly spoke to him and he started to cry again.  His emotions were frazzled.  Normally, he would have led the children in prayer but tonight, he simply asked them to pray for him.  All three of his kid put their hands on their daddy’s head and prayed for him.  After they were tucked in, John went for a run on the treadmill, took a shower and spent the rest of the evening seeking God.

Real Life at the Crisis Shelter April 2-8, 2012

Weekly highlights

Monday April 2:   Two of our ladies got jobs today!  One if full time and one is part time.  Two of our singles were having a dispute.  We are noticing a trend with one of them that she routinely has conflict with younger ladies that are coming from a more affluent background.  One of our guests was preparing to leave and had a ride on the way when she had a chance encounter with a staff member that spoke to her heart and she decided to wait out getting into the program.  Phase II went much smoother after a couple of small adjustments and a phase II guest added to the accountability list.    

Tuesday April 3:   One of our guests was smoking in the bathroom.  Another guest engaged in some heated arguments in the middle of the night with our guest assistants.  The Guest assistants did a great job deescalating the situation well enough to get us to the morning.  However, the guest was clearly threatening the guest assistants so she will be moved to phase II.

Wednesday April 4:  The threatening guest decided that she did not want to do phase II but was willing to do overflow.  The night was not much different than it had been as a regular shelter guest.  She threatened guest assistants and staff in the morning and is now on all three accountability lists.  This series of decisions was a difficult call since this woman has been going through chemotherapy. I understood the discomfort and the pain but the threats were not ok in community living.  A donor dropped off small cheesecakes for the guests.  They were all very happy!

Thursday April 5:  A huge verbal battle took place in room 5.  It seems that one of the women had stolen a sucker from one of the other guests in the room.  Staff was able to bring resolution for the night but there is still tension.  The police came to take in the son of one of our guests.  He has been running away from the juvenile center and mom has routinely protected him from them.        

Friday April 6:   The mom who’s son was taken on Thursday refused to take a drug test and was asked to leave.  Two of the three from room 5 battle decided to leave on their own.        

Weekend:  Incredible support came from the community to celebrate Easter.  On Saturday one church provided transportation to an egg hunt.  They all returned to the shelter in time to meet up with the Easter bunny.  Then on Sunday morning another church provided baskets full of goodies to everyone.  The shelter is well sugared! Thanks Spokane, I think.  

Progress on my goals April 1-7, 2012

	Target	Actually Done
Leadership Bible	Be on page 490 (5 pg a day)	On page 492
Faith in Action Bible	Be on page 588 (6 pg a day)	On page 590
Message Read Through	7 Days youversion program	On track
Running	25 miles a week	20
Running 2012 Overall	1212 miles by 12/12/12	218.5
Crunches	1000 a week	800
Floss	7 times a week	7 Days
Face Cleaning/Lotions	7 times a week	7
I Like Book	7 times a week	7
Modules	2 a week	2
Social Events	3 a quarter	0
Guy Time	10 X a quarter	0
Self Exam	3 a week	2
Book Reading	1 Book a week	0
Evening Prayer Meeting	26 times a year	8
Paid Speaking	3 a quarter	0
Date with Cara	3 a quarter	0
Date with Rachel	1 a quarter	0

This was a rough week in many ways.  I felt burned out and moody toward the beginning of the week.  After taking a day off of work I did feel much better but then was behind on my goals.  I might have gotten further but since I now have a couple of offers for my book I needed to spend some focused time on that task.  Being a hero takes lots of time, I don't take this lightly.  But I trust God to be my guide and help me to be the hero that he wants me to be.