We texted this out to friends and talked about it the next morning when we gathered with our church. By the time the gathering was over, we received more than $250 to help provide much needed toiletry items. (Thanks for being so generous!)

Buying and Delivering Toiletries

We drove straight to the Dollar Store around the corner and loaded up on toothbrushes, toothpaste, body wash, hand sanitizer, and deodorant.

From there we drove to First Christian Church of Clearwater to deliver the items purchased plus those brought to the our church gathering. They were warmly received!

Future Opportunities to Donate and Volunteer

While at First Christian, we talked with Kim and Maria who shared with us their future plans…

The donation site is moving to Iglesia Pentecostal Getsemani located at 21330 Drew St, Clearwater.

• They will be receiving donations all week cash or check donations directly to the church.
• They will give donations on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 10am until 5pm (volunteers are welcome)

What is needed most?

• hygiene cleaning supplies (soap, shampoo, toothpaste razors etc)
• new pillows
• new blankets
• diapers of all sizes
• water
• food (non perishable)
• new socks

PLEASE NO used items of any kind
Please no toys/school supplies/bikes/furniture

If you’d like to go and serve Thursday or Friday, let me know. Maybe I’ll cut out of work for a big and join you.

September 26, Hurricane Helene caused historic flooding in coastal areas. Then October 9th – with debris from Helene still piled on curbs all across the region, Hurricane Milton hit as a category 3 hurricane just south of Tampa Bay. The winds knocked down many trees and and caused wide-spread power outages, and 10-15 inches of rain caused unprecedented flooding to areas near creeks and rivers.

The biggest impact near us, was to the Standard Apartments at Drew St. and US 19, where nearby creeks overflowed, flooding some apartment buildings up to the 2nd floor. More than 500 people were rescued and lost their homes.

Jen and I have been wanting to help (volunteering and/or donating) those impacted by Milton but were having difficulty finding detailed information online. So, today, we drove to Light of Christ Catholic Church, where the Red Cross has set up a temporary shelter for those with nowhere else to go.

We brought with us water and MREs a friend of ours gave us earlier in the day (Thanks Kim!)

Here’s what we learned about the Red Cross shelter:

• There are about 80 people staying in the Red Cross shelter
• The shelter will take water and packaged food, but not much else (no clothes, shoes, etc)
• They do not need local volunteers (Though the people we talked to were super-friendly and encouraged us to register to be Red Cross volunteers for future needs)

From there we drove by First Christian Church of Clearwater, which is a donation site for people from the Standard Apartments.

What we learned about the First Christian Church donation site:

• They are accepting donations of just about everything. We saw clothes, shoes, toiletries, non-perishable food. I even saw to-go boxes, which I presume had prepared meals in them.
• The most pressing need they have is for toiletries, especially soap, body wash, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and deodorant.
• If you want to help, just show up and they will put you to work sorting and distributing items.
• They said they would be there tomorrow 11am-6:30pm tomorrow (Oct 20). (Not sure beyond that)

I did not see more info on the First Christian Church website (though I could have missed it). Their Facebook page says “Donations and volunteers are welcome through Sunday, October 20 (11am – 7pm)” but does not make it clear whether or not donations and volunteers would be accepted after that.

If you’d like to help…

I know this is late notice, if you bring toiletries to the Journey Community Church gathering tomorrow morning at 10am, we will drop them off at First Christian tomorrow afternoon.

Or course you are welcome to drop things off yourself and volunteer.

When we go there tomorrow, we’ll ask if they’ll be accepting donations and volunteers in the future, and we’ll update this post when we know more.

I was going to post an update about the fundraising, school registration, and other things Pastor Mel and Sister Faye have been working on, but Sister Faye asked me not to share updates on Facebook, and I want to honor that request.

Therefore, if you’d like to get updates about Sister Faye’s school, subscribe to my email list.

God is up to some other exciting things in my life, in Safety Harbor, and elsewhere! I’d love for you to read about them and maybe even join me in them. Subscribe to receive those updates too.

They were wonderful hosts! We spent many hours sitting around the table, enjoying Sister Faye’s wonderful cooking, sharing stories, and getting to know one another.

Sister Faye has been teaching preschool in the room shown in the photo above, which is attached to their home. However, she shared that she will not be able to continue teaching for two reasons.

1. The families of her students could only afford to pay 250 PH peso/mo (about $5 US), which means she was only earning about $40/mo to teach 8 students.
2. She was teaching under the registration of another school. To be legit with the PH gov’t she would have to register her school. The cost of to register is 30,000 pesos ($600 US), which is obviously impossible for someone scraping by on $40/mo to pay.

Sister Faye shared with me that because she cannot afford the this, her plan was to teach at another school which is about 2 hours travel from her home. Because the travel is so long, she would stay with a friend during the week (away from Pastor Mel and her community), and come home on the weekends.

As you can imagine, this “solution” is less than ideal for Pastor Mel and Sister Faye. But just as important, it would prevent her from helping students and families in their neighborhood.

This does not sit well with me at all, so…

Would you help me raise the $600 my dear friend, Sister Faye needs to register?

Because the new school year starts in July, she needs to register ASAP, so I’d like to raise the money and send it to her by Wednesday, July 3.

GoFundMe – Help Sister Faye Continue her Preschool

(If you’re interested in sponsoring a $60/yr scholarship for one of the students, message me. But first priority is helping to make the school registration possible)

Any amount is welcome… $5, $20, $50, $100…

Thanks for your support and for sharing this with others!

Update July 5, 2024: Yes! Praise God! We exceeded our goal to raise $600 so Sister Faye can register her school and continuing teaching at her home in Pinugay Baras, Rizal, PH! Thanks to all who contributed to make this possible!

Pls continue to pray that the funds would transfer quickly, and the school registration would be approved quickly. I’ll continue to share details as things progress.

I got to share a little bit about the experience this past Sunday. See the video below…

The difference between our externship and a mission trip is we didn’t go to build a building, teach bible school to kids, bring money, or serve in some other way.

We went to experience life in community with the Filipino people who live with very little and learn from them.

My roommate, Brent, and I stayed with Pastor Mel and Ate Faye in the small town of Pinugay Baras in the province of Rizal, which 27 miles east of Manila, but takes 3 hours to get to in Manila traffic.

To be honest, many aspects of our stay were uncomfortable…

The 32 hour trip, including a 7 hour layover in Chicago and 15 hr flight to Hong Kong were pretty uncomfortable.

The weather in the Philippines is similar to Florida in the Summer, except in Pinugay Baras no one has air conditioning.  So, it’s uncomfortably warm most of the time, and we were uncomfortably sweaty most of the time.

Trying to sleep was rough. Around 10pm the neighborhood dogs would start barking, at 4am the roosters started crowing, and in between Brent snored like a motorcycle in the bed next to me. (love you, bro ). Even with earplugs it was challenging to get good sleep.

There were other challenges too… the bathroom situation, the language barrier, cultural differences.

So, why go through the discomfort?

Couldn’t we have just sent money instead of going there?

Couldn’t we have stayed in an air conditioned hotel and done daytrips into poor areas to help people?

Sure. And to be clear, I’m not criticizing people who choose those options. People in poorer countries need financial support. Serving can be beneficial to both the giver and recipient.

Following Jesus’s Example

The second day of our trip, our scripture reading and devotional time was based on John 1, and specifically verse 14:

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. – John 1:14

Jesus, co-creator of the universe, chose to become a human being a live with us.

He chose to abandon the comfort of heaven, to join us in the muck and the messiness of life on earth.

Why?

He could have just sent the resources we need from afar, right?

He could have been born into a wealthy family and lived in a comfortable, luxurious home and ventured out periodically to help those in need, right?

But He didn’t.

I don’t presume to understand all the reasons Jesus chose to become human and live among the poor, common people, but I think…

One of the big reasons he did it was Love

In his book, the 5 Love Languages, Gary Chapman explains 5 general ways people show love to one another.  They include:

• Physical touch
• Shared experiences
• Words of affirmation
• Acts of service
• Gifts

For just about all of them you need to be present with the person to use that language (or it greatly enhances the expression).

Read through the list again and imagine the difference between not being present and then being present when its expressed. Huge difference, right?

5 New Love Languages

What became clear to me in the Philippines, though, is that these aren’t the only “love languages.”  There are other are other things we can do to express love for someone that can only be done when we are present with them.

1. Be Seen Together

Many people who are poor, disadvantages or face injustice are constantly told (implicitly or explicitly) they don’t matter, they are second-class citizens. When we are willing to be seen with them, it communicates dignity, value and equality.

I’m not talking about photo-ops in which people try to look like they care about people but make no personal connections.

I’m talking about visiting someone’s neighborhood, visiting their home, treating them as equals.  One of the things the kids we visited seemed to enjoy most was taking selfies together, sharing and tagging each other on social media. 

2. Listen to Your Story

Another way we can show we care about someone is to ask them about their story, to listen, and ask questions.  It shows we are genuinely interested in them, and we are willing to take the time to slow down and hear them.

3. Walk in Your Shoes

A willingness to see and experience parts of a person’s life demonstrates interest and love, whether it’s visiting someone’s home, going with them as they serve, or the most extreme, actually living with them.

It’s one thing to hear about the challenges a person faces, but it’s completely different to experience them for yourself. The experience brings a greater level of understanding and empathy.

4. Stand with You

Often when we see poverty and hardship from a distance, we try to rationalize it, excuse it, or assume the hardships are their own fault. Sometimes we think, “They are probably lazy, or not that smart, or made poor choices.”

That could be true of someone, but we’ll never know we don’t take the time to get to know the person, hear their story, and walk in their shoes.  When we do these things, often we hear stories of abuse, discrimination, injustice, lack of access to education or financial resources.

If it was your own son or daughter, brother or sister, mother or father facing these challenges would you stand idly by?

Or would your love for that person compel you to stand with them and against injustice even if at the risk of some personal cost?

5. Partner with You

When we genuinely love someone, we want to work together with them to accomplish things that are close to their heart.

How do we know what is close to someone’s heart? You guessed it – by spending time with them and getting to know them and their story.

When we genuinely love someone, we see it as a partnership of equals. I have some things you lack, you have things I lack, and together we can accomplish something that we could not accomplish on our own.

It could be as simple as a one-time trash cleanup or as big and complex as starting a business or nonprofit with them.

Resist the Temptation to…

During one of the learning sessions we had on the trip, after explaining all of the challenges people face in the slums of Manila, the speaker told us something I found to be very profound.  He said (paraphrasing)…

Resist the temptation to go in and solve the problem… Instead, focus on your relationship with Jesus, spend time getting to know people in need, and let the Holy Spirit lead you.

This cannot be done from 9,000 miles away.

It cannot be done by staying in our comfortable, American middle-class neighborhoods.

It cannot be done by just sending money.

It can only be done when we are willing to sacrifice our own comfort, sacrifice our time, spend time with people, and let Jesus show us the next step.

Doing this will not “solve the problem” of poverty in the Philippines, the US, or anywhere else. But I believe it is that way of Jesus, the way of the kingdom of God, and the way to love people… one person at a time.

What do you think?

I and some other brothers and sisters in Christ from several Safety Harbor churches invite you to join us as we gather to pray from 8-9am, the first Saturday of each month, under the sails at Waterfront Park in Safety Harbor. (Bring a chair)

Join us as we pray:

• Praise for what God is already doing in our community!
• For our non-Christian friends, neighbors, and coworkers to be open to the good news of Jesus.
• For our local churches, local church leaders, and unity in the body of Christ.
• What God puts on your heart

Just to be clear, this prayer gathering is NOT about:

• Politics
• Recruiting anyone to join a particular church or organization

What is an externship?

You’re probably familiar with an internship, where a person goes into an organization and learns inner workings of that organization. Well, an externship is similar, except we are going, externally to a different culture to see, experience, and learn from each other.

Who is Tampa Underground?

It’s a network of over 100 microchurches (small missional communities) in the Tampa Bay area and 15 city-wide sister movements across the world. Read more at TampaUnderground.com

What will you be doing?

Honestly, I’m not exactly sure, but here’s some info that helps to explain how this is different from the typical missions trip

“We want to create an experience which immerses us into personal, face to face, relational encounter with the poor and the effects of poverty. Rather than going to provide relief or save them from their situations of poverty, we will go to mirror as many of the realities of their lives as possible, even if temporarily. It is our conviction that this experience has more impact on participants and transforms them into true advocates.”

Lord willing, I also hope to be able to meet in person several members of the SkywayWeb.com / OurChurch.Com team I work with who live in the Manila area.

When are you going?

June 11-22, 2024. (That could change slightly to get less expensive flights.)

Where can I go to read more about the Manila Externship?

https://www.tampaunderground.com/manila2024

How can I support you?

• Prayer – Join the team of people who are praying for me.
• Financial support – Cost of the trip will be ~$2,500 ($2,000 is due April 1 so airline tickets can be purchased). I am hoping to raise half of that and pay the other half from my own savings.
  • You can donate online
  • Mail a check to Underground Network, PO Box 75157, Tampa, FL 33675 (put Paul Steinbrueck – Manila Trip in the memo)
  • Or Zelle 727-492-6255

Complete the form below to let me know about your support!

I don’t recall exactly how we came across the idea for a free little pantry, but we decided to do this as a family project.

Jen and I went to Lowes to get supplies…

Aidyn helped with cutting the wood (but I forgot to take a picture.) When I tried to cut the wood by myself, this is what happened…

Constructing the Blessing Box…

Ainsley’s experience replacing roofs on youth group missions trips came in handy…

Aryn chose the paint colors and did most of the painting…

And this is the end result…

We added this note to the Blessing Box so people understand the purpose behind it and how they can give, receive, or contact us…

In addition to canned goods, we also added some toiletry items, and a couple of bibles.

We’re excited to see how God uses this!

If you have any comments, questions or want to build a Blessing Box / Little Free Pantry yourself, post a comment below and let us know.

I wrote back in September:

The primary purpose of the group would be to foster relationships among people who are passionate about understanding Christ and his Kingdom and living within it every day…

The purpose of the Practical Kingdom Living blog would be to challenge the conventional thinking of our culture and share ways to do work, family, education, health, friendships, church, serving, and more according to kingdom principles. These would not just be cool ideas, but real stories from real people who are living “outside the box” and want to share with us the path they took to get there.

One of the other roles God has me in right now is serving as an elder in Journey Community Church. As I’ve been praying, thinking and planning for this, God has been challenging me with this question…

Why are you trying to create a new, online community, when I already have you in community that is also trying to figure out how to live in the Kingdom of God every day?

So, for now I’ve pushed the pause button on an online Practical Kingdom Living community/podcast so I can focus with the other elders at Journey on how our local community of faith can do this.

Just as I had a sense that there was both an online community element and a story telling element of Practical Kingdom Living, I have a sense that there is an online community and a story telling element that God is calling us to at Journey.

So, that’s where my focus is for now. (Well, one of my foci. I am also learning to let Christ live through me as the CEO of OurChurch.Com, a husband, father of 3, and a few other roles.) Once I have more clarity on what we’re doing at Journey, I’ll re-visit whether God is calling me to start an online community/blog/podcast outside of what we’re doing at Journey.

In the mean time, I’ll post thought-provoking content related to the kingdom of God here.  Subscribe below so you don’t miss future content or updates.

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Back to Kingdom Work vs Humanitarian Work

One of the many misunderstandings of the kingdom of God is that it’s primarily about social justice, social activism and making the world a better place.

Yes, I realize that statement is probably going tick off a lot of people.

But before you post a nasty, condemning comment, listen to this podcast episode by Frank Viola and John Nugent:

The Insurgence Podcast #5: Kingdom Work and Finding Kingdom Community

It’s spot on and provides a lot insight into how Christian churches and individuals followers of Jesus can serve people in their communities in ways that point people to Jesus and exemplify what the kingdom of God is all about.

Discussion

• Do you think there’s a difference between kingdom work and humanitarian work? If so, how would you distinguish between the two?

Foreseeing this circumstance, Pastor Wang Yi wrote “My Declaration of Faithful Disobedience” and gave instructions that it be published should he be detailed for more than 48 hours.

I find the declaration remarkable for many reasons.

Here in the United States, many Christians are “outraged” when people wish us a “Happy Holidays” instead of a “Merry Christmas.” We seem to spend a lot of time complaining about the way our cultures values have changed, fighting for rights we think we should have, and advocating for politicians and policies we think are in line with our values.

We have Republican Christians who seem more Republican than Christian and Democrat Christians who seem more Democrat than Christian.

A lot of people have made it their mission to change the government, change the culture, or to fix the country.

The dysfunction, persecution, and infringements on freedoms in the US are nothing compared to what they are in China where pastors like Wang Yi are often arrested, beaten, and imprisoned indefinitely. If anyone would want to see their government, culture and country change, it’s a Chinese pastor, right?

What does Pastor Wang Yi have to say about this?

Here’s an excerpt from his declaration:

On the basis of the teachings of the Bible and the mission of the gospel, I respect the authorities God has established in China. For God deposes kings and raises up kings. This is why I submit to the historical and institutional arrangements of God in China.

As a pastor of a Christian church, I have my own understanding and views, based on the Bible, about what righteous order and good government is. At the same time, I am filled with anger and disgust at the persecution of the church by this Communist regime, at the wickedness of their depriving people of the freedoms of religion and of conscience. But changing social and political institutions is not the mission I have been called to, and it is not the goal for which God has given his people the gospel.

For all hideous realities, unrighteous politics, and arbitrary laws manifest the cross of Jesus Christ, the only means by which every Chinese person must be saved. They also manifest the fact that true hope and a perfect society will never be found in the transformation of any earthly institution or culture but only in our sins being freely forgiven by Christ and in the hope of eternal life.

Wow! This is the gospel of the kingdom of God in a nutshell!

I encourage you to read the full Declaration of Faithful Disobedience.

I pray for Pastor Wang Yi, his wife, the 100+ other members of their church who have been arrested, and for their families.

I pray that I might have the faith and the courage to live like this.

I pray that more of us who follow Jesus would do less complaining about our culture, less fighting for our rights, less trying to change institutions, and more living life by the Spirit of Christ – the Creator, the Forgiver, the Liberator, the Peacemaker.

I pray that through us, those who do not do life with Jesus would see Christians not as a bunch of rule followers or a bunch of people trying to impose their values on others but as people who are so filled with the love of God we would do anything and give anything for God and others.

What do you think about Pastor Wang Yi’s situation and his declaration? Post a comment and continue the discussion.

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