WEEKEND ROUND-UP

So much to blog about this week, where to begin?

*Ministry to Prostitutes- Last Friday night, around 11pm, I lead a group of six others onto Harbor blvd. to minister to prostitutes there. It wasn't so pretty. We intended to pass out free coffee to the girls in hopes of striking up conversations. Instead, they all avoided us like the plague and some ignored us completely when we tried to talk to them.

We did pass out one cup of java to a man at the bus stop, and another man at a different bus stop asked us for fifty cents, but declined to receive prayer.

In hindsight we realize that most of those girls ignored us because their pimps were just a few feet away watching them and they needed to appear busy and not chit-chatting with passers-by. We'll modify our approach next time and adjust our methods.

One group I'm in touch with up in the Los Angeles area passes out gift bags to the girls with perfume, lip gloss, jewelry, etc. That sounds like a much better idea to me.

I can't help but wonder, however, how effective we can be in the long run since no one in our group has ever walked in this world before. The LA group is made up of former prostitutes and drug addicts and gang-bangers. Our group is made up of housewives, pastors, and desk jockeys. Do we have any hope of relating to them at all?

*My Ooze Article- There's a great storm of responses being made over at TheOoze.com on my article, "Destroy the (Christian) Subculture!" which really makes me smile. One person emailed me directly to say that he forwarded it on to his blog subscribers (about 150 people) and one of those in Brazil loved it so much he did the same.

Maybe there's hope yet for an awakening within the American Christian Church? I pray so. I pray.

My favorite comment was about my use of violent imagery to communicate my passion to destroy this subculture. He suggested that I probably sit at home playing hours of violent video games and watching porn. Ha! Oh yeah, I play "Halo 3" all day, watch porn and then I sit down to write articles on discipleship to Jesus in my spare time. That's the "ABC's of me, baby".

Riiiight.

Or maybe I'm a writer who uses language to communicate ideas and sometimes gets creative so that people will have a reaction to my words that goes beyond passive complacency? Maybe I realize that people need to be offended or shocked before they will respond and act and wake up? Yeah…maybe.

Ok, got to get back to my Halo 3 and pornos now.

*The [Subversive Underground] e-newsletter: For the first time in almost two years my free, weekly e-newsletter missed a week. Not because I didn't write it. Not because I didn't post it. But because the good people at Feedblitz didn’t send it out. Usually I catch these little hiccups, which happen almost every other week, and I email the customer support people to wake them up and remind them that they need to send it out because I've posted it and after almost 48 hours it hasn't been sent to the list.

This last weekend I had too much going on, with the Harbor blvd ministry, friends coming over, a sermon to preach at Soul Survivor Church, and family life, and so I wasn't quick enough to email Feedblitz and ask them to send out my [SU].

So, last week's article was sent yesterday. This means I'll have to send out two this week in order to keep the "weekly" promise I made to my subscribers.

To correct this on future articles I've re-set my Feedblitz account to manual send. This means that after I post the weekly article I'll have to go over to Feedblitz and login and send it out
myself. Every time.

See what I do for you people? It isn't all porn and games over here ya know?

*PODCAST SERMON: "LIVING THE MISSIONAL LIFE" - If you use ITunes you can search "Keith Giles" under podcasts and listen to my sermon last week over at Soul Survivor Church. It's more of a conversation than a sermon, really. I purposely tried to engage people in a dialog rather than deliver a prepared speech. I think it came out ok. If you listen to it let me know what you think.

*THE NON-CON UPDATE: As of this moment I am seriously praying about whether or not to throw the switch on the Non-Con for March 2008. Jackie Pullinger is confirmed. David Ruis and all the rest are still on board with it. I've got the location nailed down and I've done like six other conferences like this one before, so it's not that I'm not sure if I can pull it off.

What gives me pause is the fact that all of this stuff is seriously hard work. Because I've done a few of these before I totally understand what this does to me, and to my family, as the date approaches. The time it will take to set up the service projects, the financial risk to my family (since this is the first conference I'll do on my own...not for a non-profit ministry, but all by myself), and the stress that goes along with all of that, makes me really want to pray about doing this.

I have people emailing me all the time asking me when I'll open registration for this event. This is October. The event is in March. I know people are very excited about this, and because of that I want to make it happen because I know it has the potential to really bless a lot of people and especially to educate the Church about the Kingdom and to invite people to step out of their comfort zones and serve the poor. This is very exciting to me.

Please pray for me about this. Please ask God to give me wisdom and guidance about doing this Non-Con. I want it to be His will and His plan, not mine.

Thanks for your support.

Peace,
Keith