Updates From Portland

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

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

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!)

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!

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!

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

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.