Parea Community

Website under construction

2010-04-11T20:30:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone. I just wanted to let you know that we will no longer be updating this blog. Please check out our new website at www.pareacommunity.org. We will be updating the blog there and you will be able to learn more about Parea and who we are. We will also be creating photo albums and lots of other fun stuff. We are very excited about our new website!

Website in the works!

2010-03-28T11:44:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody! We have been taking some first steps in creating a new Website for Parea. We are very excited about this whole process. From now on, you can access our blog by simply typing in pareacommunity.org in your URL box. Stay tuned!

C.J. & Tisha's Visit to Eva Dell Park in CA

2010-02-08T10:37:00.000-08:00

C.J. and I were are able to come down to CA to visit family & friends for a belated Christmas in mid January. In this time they were able to stop by Eva Dell Park (where Parea Community gathers every Saturday to hang out with friends) and see some old friends. It was such a joy to be able to reconnect with friends that we have know for so long. We hung out and bbqed hot dogs and caught up on what had been going on in each others lives. -Tisha (Group Photographs by David C., other photographs by Tisha Speelman)

Cold Days, New Days!

2009-12-07T12:01:00.000-08:00

It's been a few months since we have updated the blog, partly because of this busy season encapsulating us in its grips. As the seasons turn and the cold Northwest winter sets in, we have a lot to be thankful for and a whole lot of exciting things to share with you!

We have been living with some amazing folks in community the last few months. Cory and Shelby are beautiful people who have incredibly hearts for God and serving people. We recently went through a season of fasting and prayer to gauge our commitments to each other and to our community. We really felt a strong sense from God that this time of living together was coming to its end. As happens often in community, we are having to say goodbye to some dear friends. Fortunately, they are staying in Portland and we will be staying connected with them! Tisha and I are remaining in our apartment complex but moving into a smaller apartment. We will take the next couple of months to take some time to deepen our relationship and to process all the things we have learned up to this point about our Northeast Portland neighborhood and living in community with other believers. We are strongly committed to two other ministries in our area and will continue to live and grow with them as well.

I would like to share a few things with you about those ministries!

HomePDX as you may know from other posts, is a close-knit community of people who live outside and inside. It has been a true blessing to be able to continue to build and form relationships with some of these amazing folks. We have learned so much about community and how to truly love each other from everyone at Home. It's very rare to be able to be yourself and still be accepted by a diverse group of people, and that is what we have found in this community! One of the most amazing facets of Home is that we are learning to love people with a love that transcends all boundaries... The kind of love that Jesus showed to prostitutes and lepers. As we are continually transformed by Christ, we give Him more and more of ourselves and it is only through that grace and love that we are able to love so extravagantly. It starts with sacrificing our own selfish boundaries that we are afraid to even let Christ into. What is the limit that you have set in your life for Christ to work in?

We have continued to grow with Bread&Wine over the last couple of months. Tisha and I have been leading a Gospel Community, which is a sort of house church model for doing church. It has been a great journey so far and we are loving every minute of it. We have several Rhythms that we as a church strive to follow. One of them is Generosity. This is a great challenge to many people, partly because of the negativity that the church in America has garnered from scandals and misappropriated funds and partly because we have such a deep connection to our money in an almost idolatrous way. We have been working as a community and church on a new project called the "Redistribution Experiment." This is truly exciting because we are able to redistribute our giving to those in need all around us. We believe that through relationship, we as a body of believers should use our financial resources to build the Kingdom of God in an outwardly focused way. 50 percent of our giving goes towards meeting needs in our neighborhood. We believe that through investing in people's lives through relationship, collectively meeting needs and pushing our personal boundaries that we will accomplish our goals! This is a radical approach towards giving and we hope that it will become a very integral part of our lives.

These are just a few of the exciting things that are going on in our lives! We hope that you will continue to check in on us! Give us a call or email us! We would love to talk to you!

Updates From Portland

2009-09-25T20:51:00.000-07:00

As the summer is quickly turning into fall up here in the great Northwest, we are caught off guard by the many blessings that we have received this past few months. I truly regret not updating our blog as much as I would have liked, but at the same time, we have been very busy making important connections and building a firm foundation for our community and neighborhood in Portland. We have been living in our apartment now since April and have adjusted well to living in our amazing neighborhood. I would like to quickly update you on what we have been up too:

HomePDX:
We have been serving some amazing people with this group that we have connected with for the last few months. HomePDX is really a community of people who live indoors and people who live outdoors. We meet under the Hawthorne bridge in downtown Portland and we share a meal, stories and love. It has been such a blessing to be a part of this! We will have more stories to share later.

Bread and Wine:
Bread and Wine is a new church plant here in the Northeast section of Portland, which is the neighborhood we live in. We are based out of three house churches that we affectionately call "Gospel Communities." We have quickly fell in love with all of the people who are involved in this endeavor to spread the Gospel and serve our neighbors. Recently, Tisha and I were asked to lead the third "Gospel Community," and we take it as a great honor to be able to participate at that level. Much of the vision of Bread and Wine aligns with our purpose of moving to Portland and I encourage you to check out the website to get a much better understanding of what Bread and Wine is.

These are just a couple of the ways that God has been using us in Portland. We are so excited to see what will happen in the future and we are working hard to make connections and to simply love people. Please continue to pray for us and check back soon for more updates!

Parea PDX update

2009-04-08T18:51:00.000-07:00

Hello! It has been a fascinating couple of months up here in Portland. Tisha and I are loving every minute of our experience here in the Rose City. It seems like everyday we are finding new and exciting opportunities to be involved in what God is doing up here in the Northwest. I would like to take a few minutes of your time to update you on some of the things that are going on.

About a week ago, Cory, Shelby, Tisha and I moved into a low-income housing apartment in NE Portland in what many locals might refer to as a "bad area." If you have spent anytime hanging out with us you will know that our heart is bring seeds of Christ's love into these so-called "bad areas." Our move from the Southeast area to our new home was, in our opinion, Divinely orchestrated. We had been pounding the streets, searching high and low, for a house that would be able to not only house our community but also house any "ministry" related ventures as well. We were looking for the perfect place to base our operations out of if you will. We had a couple of guidelines: the house needed to be in an impoverished and culturally diverse neighborhood and it had to be affordable. We stumbled upon the McCoy Village after almost loosing heart during our month-long search. Not only is this apartment complex in the exact middle of where we wanted to be, we are also surrounded by opportunities to love and nurture precious people in the name of our Lord. What a blessing!

We are in the beginning stages of developing some things that we feel could be very meaningful and beneficial to a lot of folks! Its very important to take slow, intentional steps when trying to become a part of a neighborhood, especially a neighborhood where there has been a lot of oppression and poverty. A lot of people do not trust us, we have to be able to show them love humbly and respectfully in order to be able to truly effective in gaining their trust. It's very exciting to see the connections that we have been beginning to make in the neighborhood just in the last couple of days! Stay tuned...

I (C.J.) also just returned from a trip to Nicaragua where I was able to minister and continue to build relationships with some very incredible people there. You may have heard of my desire to become a coffee farmer and to use a coffee farm to grow the Kingdom of God in various ways, this is one of the main reasons I went on this trip. I was able to search out and see a coffee farm that was for sale just to get a small feel for what the process would be to purchase, own and run a coffee farm in Nicaragua. It was an amazing experience! The team I was a part of literally had amazing adventures the whole time I was there including almost running out of diesel in the middle of no-where to getting in a very bad car accident! God truly protected us the whole time we were there!

We do have a couple of financial needs if you feel God is moving you to give financially. The first need is about $700.00 worth of bike tools. We have already started trying to fix bicycles for kids in the apartment complex. Unfortunately, we did not have the tools or the parts to fix a little girls bike already and we do not want to have to turn away anyone else because that would be very counter-productive. Please consider helping us out with this! Also, we need to start raising money to buy bulk foods like beans and rice that we will be able to use for feeding the hungry.

Thank you so much for taking a little time to read this update! I hope that God richly blesses you!

Our First Week in Portland

2009-02-13T00:06:00.000-08:00

Hello all! Greetings from Portland! Tisha and I have had a wonderful and eventful week up here in Portland. Mainly we have been adjusting to life in our new house and building relationships with our housemates! We left for Portland on Monday the 2nd of February. We got here the next day after a long and tiresome journey through California and Oregon. Its almost exactly a 1000 mile trip! My Mom, Dad and little Sister traveled up here with us in a separate vehicle with a bunch of our stuff.

On a ministry note, we have been taking time to plan some of our next moves with our housemates. The folks that are living with us in community will also be sharing that ministry burden with us. They are very experienced with the city itself and have been involved in meeting the needs of the poor and needy for the last couple of years as a YWAM base. We are really very excited to be working with these wonderful people and we know that God will be opening up some incredible doors for us in the very near future! Stay Tuned!

If you would like to get into contact with us... please email us at pareacommunity@gmail.com

Thanks for all the support and prayers!
(This is me in front of our new house!!!)

Parea Christmas Outreach Photographs (Better Late than never!)

2009-01-20T14:03:00.000-08:00

Dec. 20th, 2008 - Christmas Outreach at Eva Dell Park - Thank you so much to all who came out to help us from The Gate Church and other various places. The homeless in downtown Victorville that came to the park on Dec. 20th were truly blessed by you and by this event! Thank you to those that came out to help as well as those that cooked/provided food for this special day! Thanks to Marcie and Women's Aglow for making wonderful Christmas bags filled with essential toiletries and Christmas cheer! This was such a blessed day!

Big Changes Ahead!

2009-01-12T10:18:00.000-08:00

Parea Community is growing and expanding! I am very excited about what has been transpiring in the last few months. We have had some very succesful outreaches where we were able to expose what we do on a consistent basis to members of The Gate church. It is always exciting to see how people respond to a more relational approach to serving the poor; sometimes it catches them off guard, but eventually it turns into a beautiful thing! Most people approach ministry as they approach life: distant, closed off and cordial. Parea takes those things out of the equation. We cannot be succesful at our goal unless we become transparent, loving and gracious.

Parea is also entering into a major transitional period. My wife Tisha and I have been praying about what God's will is for our lives since we were married last September. On February 1st, we will be moving up to Portland, Oregon to expand the ministry of Parea. We are continuing Parea Victorville and Daniel and Juliet Aul will be the point persons in the Victor Valley area. This is a tremendous opportunity to continue building the Kingdom of God among the poor marginalized of our society.

Tisha and I will be partnering and living in intentional community with some incredible folks in the Portland area. We will potentially be working alot with homeless youth and doing ministry oriented things in our neighborhood. Our bicycle ministry that we started in Victorville will be moving to Portland and it will hopefully be a lot more productive as Portland is Bike City, USA. There are literally hundreds of different ministry opportunities that will be ironed out and strategically discussed in the first couple of months we are in Portland. Stay tuned for some very exciting announcements in the future!!!

A Thankful Thanksgiving Celebration!

2008-12-16T20:51:00.000-08:00

Saturday Nov. 22nd, 2008 Parea Community celebrated Thanksgiving down at Eva Dell Park with their beloved extended family. We served an amazing assortment of foods, such as turkey, green beans, mashed potatoes, and lovely desserts all made with love and donated by various members of The Gate Church of the High Desert and other various persons and churches. Thank you so much to all that donated food or warm clothes and sleeping bags/blankets. Also, to those that came down to help serve and get to know some of the homeless in Downtown Victorville, we extend a special thanks!

Everyone had so much to be thankful for, especially full bellies and warmed hearts! Blessings!

(All photographs featured here were taken by Tisha Lynne Speelman)

Tony Romo Joins with Parea to Love Homeless

2008-11-20T07:11:00.000-08:00

Some of you may know who Tony Romo is, some of you may not. He is a premier National Football League Quarterback. He is joining forces with Parea and many other people world-wide to show love to homeless folks. Just the other day, Romo paid for a gentleman by the name of Doc to attend a movie. When the man, who proclaimed to Romo he had'nt showered in a few days, walked into the theatre, he was waved over to sit next to the NFL star and his friend. When most people are afraid, self-conscious or just plain too guilty to even be within a few feet of someone they suspect of being homeless; this multi-millionaire super-celebrity, the boyfriend of Jessica Simpson, transcended the blockade of his social status and shared his life with Doc. Tony Romo loved Doc like Jesus would want him too... Romo did'nt preach at him, he did not offer him food at the expense of sitting through a long pointless service, he did'nt acknowledge Doc's social status: he just wanted to bless a person in need of a little love.
Check out the article for yourself:
http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/8821264?MSNHPHMA

Now, join the revolution yourself!!! Next time you see someone in need, just love them.

Buy Nothing Month

2008-08-12T10:02:00.000-07:00

This month, my wife and I (c.j. and tisha), are going to be embarking upon a journey. We are trying to live in a much more simpler way, without the bonds of consumerism, materialism and that pesky ol rat race. This is really one of the goals of Parea Community, and I believe, the Kingdom of God in general. Our specific goal is to limit our spending to absolute necessities like food and bills, thats why its called "Buy Nothing Month." We are doing this alongside some friends at YWAM Portland. They gave us the idea, and we really wanted to create a sense of unity with them. As a supplement to the act of not buying anything, we are reading the book "Freedom of Simplicity," by Richard J. Foster. From what I have read so far (the first chapter) this book is really going to make a huge impact on my life. It is very insightful in the practice of simplicity and being disciplined spiritually in general. It is very hard to practice simplicity while living in Southern California. We live in a very materialistic culture here: Las Vegas is 2 hours to the East, Los Angeles is an hour to the West. Both of these cities are world renowned for fashion, celebrities, sex and glamour. With all of that, there is a tremendous capacity for wastefulness and gluttunous consumerism. It seems like everybody is affected by this, that it is in the very atmosphere. Thus, I can already feel the struggle!

Please pray for Parea! We need the Lords provision with finances! The awesome thing is that we always have enough money to feed the homeless on Saturdays, but we really want to expand our ministry and that involves finances unfortunately:) We know that God will provide for these needs!

Update

2008-04-04T09:18:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! It is Spring again... I am very excited! New beginnings and opportunities are everywhere! Do you want to get involved with Parea? Its easy!!! Just DO IT!!!

I just wanted to give an update of what is going on here at Parea Community!

First of all I would like to thank our good friend Marilea, she prepared a delicious meal for about 50 homeless people on Resurrection Sunday, or Easter for all you pagans!!! (just kidding) The meal was absolutely wonderful... Ham, asparagus, buttered-up carrots, baked potato salad(yummy!!!) and desert... It is always so wonderful to be able to go a little above and beyond for these folks. They rarely get to eat anything nutritious or appetizing for that matter.

We have been continuing all of our food outreach ministries which are totally relationship based. It is such a blessing to be able to go down to Old Town Victorville and just hang out with these folks. I have learned so much these last couple of years about patience and unconditional love. It is so hard sometimes because of how hard a lot of these folks live, I wish that I could just say a word to them and save them somehow! But I have learned that I have just as many deep-seeded sins, just as many problems that these people have, they just aren't as apparent to all the world as theirs are. I may not be addicted to a drug or alcohol, but my pride runs so deep and so strong that it holds me back just as much!

Recently I read the "Wounded Healer" by Henri Nouwen. It is a very amazing book for those of us who wish to minister to people. Very simply, the book is about Jesus, how He became sin for us, but as ministers or servants we very rarely come to the point where we are that dedicated to those we are ministering too. Nouwen used an example of a pastor or leader being willing to leave everything to go after that one person like the parable of the lost sheep. I believe, like Nouwen, that we must come to point where we have to re-learn ministry! The western mindset is such that we do not let our weaknesses show, we hide every thing away under a rug somewhere in order to save face, to protect our rank. In some ways ministry is a power struggle, a way for people to have control over peoples lives. This is a false and dangerous approach, though it is practiced far and wide. The most important concept that Nouwen discussed addressed this very harmful condition. In order to be effective ministers of the Gospel, we must minister out of our wounds, out of our brokenness. This is the only way that a world full of wounded people will understand the power of the Resurrection of our Lover, our Saviour, our King!

In the future, you will be hearing a lot about Nicaragua. I recently visited this Central American country for about a week for two reasons. The first reason was to go serve an incredible ministry called Maranatha Christian Missions. The second reason I went was to explore the possibilities of purchasing a plot of land that would be able to support a Coffee farm(yeah that's right) and an orphanage/ministry center! I have a very ambitious vision for using coffee as a revolutionary, anti-corporate, ministry opportunity. Please stay tuned... we(as in you and me: we) are going to change the world!!!

Community

2007-12-20T07:19:00.000-08:00

Too many people come into community to find something, to belong to a dynamic group, to find a life which approaches the ideal. If we come into community without knowing that the reason we come is to discover the mystery of forgiveness, we will soon be disappointed.
- Jean VanierCommunity and Growth

Some of our Homeless Friends were in the Paper

2007-11-27T11:48:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!
Recently a couple of our Friends were featured in a front page article in the "Daily Press," our local newspaper. I am attaching a link for you to read the article; it is beautifully written and looks beyond their circumstances to show their love for each other. We know these two people very well and I am glad that the paper is taking an interest in the Homeless. The sad part of this whole article is that the reader comments on the internet are quite disappointing to me. They really show how angry and hateful we can be as a society. I hope that you read the article and the reader comments to get a good idea of how our area opperates!

http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/love_3784___article.html/life_tony.html

One Love!

C.J.

Homeless survey for San Bernardino County

2007-09-26T21:25:00.000-07:00

Hi! i just wanted to share with you some data that is hot off the presses. It is a study done by San Bernardino county which is the country we live in and where we minister to the homeless. Although surveys like these are usually bureaucratic in nature, and are really about numbers and money instead of people, it still provides some important information and really makes the actual situations hit home in a broader sense. The crazy thing is that when you put these statistics into practice, and touch and see theses precious people it is really quite life changing! if you are interested please follow the link and see for yourself!

http://www.sbcounty.gov/csd/homelessness_in_san_bernardino_county.htm

C.J.

Mobile Bike Shop???

2007-08-22T12:04:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone... you may be asking yourself "What the heck is a Mobile Bike Shop?" Well our little version of a "Mobile Bike Shop," pretty much consists of a rolling tool box, some random bike tools and a few miscellaneous parts. But the excitement is not in the actual physical expression of having a bike shop, cus who cares about that, its pretty easy to fix bikes. The excitment is centered around the fact that we will be able to use this little idea to impact the lives of many homeless people who depend on bicycles to transport themselvs around the city. Bicycles to the homeless in Victorville are very important! Obviously they do not have the money or the tools to repair their bikes! They certainly cannot afford to buy their own bikes. This ministry is two-fold: we want to give used bikes to those who are in need and to provide a free repair service! We are really excited about getting this under way and should have all our ducks in a row to begin bringing bikes and tools down to Forrest park during our already established ministry times on Thursdays and Saturdays! If you are interested in participating in this ministry at all: from donating money for parts, donating parts(anything really), donating bicycles(we are interested in all bicycles, even if they are really bad looking we can salvage parts or other things to use for repair) and most importantly yourself! Please consider coming down and helping out! Bicycles are revolutionary!!!
Pictures will come soon!!
c.j.

Wrecked for the Ordinary

2007-07-19T11:07:00.000-07:00

I would like to take a couple seconds and thank an online publication called "Wrecked for the Ordinary." They recently asked me to write an article kinda showing what we do in Old Town with our Homeless friends. The folks at Wrecked are really trying to create an arena where people and communities who are trying to make a difference no matter how big or small, can express themselves and their vision. Please go check out their site and read all the articles and submissions that you can! There is some pretty inspirational and intense stuff! The article i wrote is featured in the Community section of the webpage and is displayed in two parts... please read it if you like! They also included some of the photographs in the second part, that Tisha took(also featured on this very blog)! They are amazing photographs and really tell the story of Old Town on their own!!!

http://www.wreckedfortheordinary.com

One Love
c.j.

Parea Community Members at the traintracks

2007-07-11T20:29:00.000-07:00

On a Saturday in May, the same Saturday as the photographs below, which Saturday I cannot recall, some of the members of Parea Community ventured to the traintracks behind Forrest Park and took a stroll down to the bridge. Here are a few photographs documenting our adventure!

Photographs By Tisha Lynne Galvan

Saturday Morning Continued...

2007-07-11T20:23:00.000-07:00

After a long delay... (Tisha gets her film developed in San Diego) Here is the rest of the photographs from that same Saturday Morning in May 2007. These photograph feature community members as well as extended family members from Forrest Park.
*All Photographs are by
Tisha Lynne Galvan

The Family drinkin coffee and hangin out on a saturday mornin

2007-05-05T17:41:00.000-07:00

These are some photographs taken by Tisha Lynne Galvan a few Saturday mornings ago. Featured in these photographs are some of our beloved "extended family members" in the Forrest Park in Old Town Victorville.

Photos of some of the members of our community

2007-05-05T17:08:00.000-07:00

Hey! these are some photo's that we took after we served coffee down at the park one saturday morning. The bittersweet thing about Old Town Victorville is that there is a beautiful set of train tracks that disects the neighborhood, the downside is that it disects the neighborhood... and because it is one of the busiest lines in Southern California, there is constant train traffic, with loud horns that blow throughout the night! but we decided to take some photos of us messin around on the ol tracks! Some of the community is not pictured here regretfully...

The thing about thursdays

2007-03-26T17:11:00.000-07:00

One of the highlights of our week here at ol parea community, is thursday afternoons when we share burritos with our homeless friends!!! the fun starts on wednesday afternoon when i put the beans in the pot to soak, then on thursday the community gets together and cooks the beans and rice and wraps the burritos! then we drive down to the park where we are greeted by about 30 hungry, smiling, sometimes dirty faces!- c.j.

An Introduction to Parea

2007-03-26T16:05:00.000-07:00

Parea is a Greek Word that basically means “circle of close friends.” When we chose that name for out ministry, we wanted it to embody who we were, not just to ourselves as a ministry, but also those who we encounter as we minister in Old Town Victorville. It speaks of our desire to make a long term commitment to people in a radical, relational way. Parea Community is all about relationship. We believe with all sincerity that Jesus will use us to change the world one relationship at a time! With that declaration, I would like to tell you a little story…

One day well over a year ago, after months and months of intercession and planning, a couple of us decided to plunge headfirst into the murky and turbulent waters of the homeless population along the Mojave Riverbed (no pun intended). We hiked down the side of the highway 18 bridge that spans the river and ventured under the bridge around the girders hoping to find someone who was camping out. Our hearts broke. Graffitied all over the concrete pillars and support beams were cries of desperation, loneliness and brokenness. We read poems written in permanent marker that told dark and sad tales of lost love, abandoned dreams. An insurmountable amount of old clothing, trash and broken appliances littered the entire area. My friend and I were completely overwhelmed, all we could do was stare and proclaim “Lord have mercy!” After a couple of minutes we saw three figures (two men and a lady) walking down the railroad tracks, waving at us. Quickly looking at each other, eyes saying “this is our chance,” we scurried down the rest of the way, dodging empty tin cans and beer bottles to have our first contact with the locals. After a couple of minutes, our paths crossed and after hasty introductions we began to share with them who we were and what we were doing. With a skeptical tone, one of the men offered to let us camp at his place, mistaking us for being new to the river. “Oh, we’re not homeless, we just wanted to come down here to help in any way we can!” I awkwardly replied. With a collective nod of understanding and a singular “cool!” the ice was broken. The other gentleman told us how he had recently come to be homeless. A week previous he had gotten out of jail (CDC drops off new parolees at the bus station on 6^th and D st.) and found himself with no money, no way of getting a steady job because of a disability (he has only one leg), and no place to lay his head. The night before our encounter he had slept in an abandoned building and almost froze to death, frost covered his un-blanketed body in the morning. The other two had been walking around town in the freezing winter night in order keep warm. The intensity of their stories gripped our hearts and we could feel the confirmation of our decision to begin to minister to these precious people. It seemed that we instantly formed close bonds with all three of these people, and inevitably this encounter has opened up the doors to a blossoming new movement towards the poor called Parea Community.

To many of the Homeless, it is imperative that they form close, tight-knit social networks that really resemble a sort of family. It is really hard for someone outside of the network to gain acceptance into the family, especially when they are not homeless. Although all of the member of Parea love and support the many ministries existing in Old Town, our homeless friends look on most of them with a wary eye. I too have noticed that while many of them meet very important needs, the one key thing that they are missing is relationship. We may be the smallest ministry with a microscopic budget, but somehow God has blessed up with the most meaningful relationships and loads of close friends, most of which do not have a consistent roof over their heads and struggle daily to exist in this world. The other day, a friend came up to me during our Saturday morning coffee ministry and smiled. Then he proclaimed “every time you guys come down here, you brighten up everybody’s day, its one big family down here, and you guys are part of it.” What a privilege!