WOW! Hard to believe we are at the end of this 21 day Daniel Fast. Spiritually this has been awesome. Today I finished a three day Street Retreat and I gotta tell you that was a great way to culminate this powerful fast. I witnessed some great transformation from those who participated. Also, have to share that I am witnessing a new level of desperation on the streets. Particularly downtown at 7th and Neches the epicenter of homelessness in ATX. Having been on nearly 30 of these retreats over the past 12 years there is something materially changing. I will wait for the next retreat to see if this is an anomaly or now the way it is. Regardless, it was a beautiful time on the streets!

Looking forward to coffee, cheese and perhaps a little chocolate tomorrow. I will weigh too and see how many lbs were lost. I know I lost a few. Perhaps I will report back.

Please continue to pray for Community First! We need to intentionally cover this vision in prayer. Also please pray for Mike, Zane, Will, Meliton as they need our special intercessions.

God bless!

-Alan

Tags: Fast, Fasting, home, Homeless

Day 20 on the Daniel Fast and Day 2 on the Street Retreat. In both cases there is light at the end of the tunnel. As I have said all along the fast has been spiritually awesome but not without a few attacks. The Street Retreat is also nothing short of awesome too. Don’t tell anyone but we found ourselves inside a warm cozy building last night thanks to one of our retreatants skillful past.

I love these retreats because you never know who God is going to bring into your path and this retreat is no different. One after another He has brought us some life changing colorful characters like Sassy Grace, Zion, Zane, Quinn, Budda and Aidan. Budda on our first night out welcomed us into his “home” with great hospitality. He guided our team to a place to sleep and helped us find cardboard which is “street gold”. He complimented me on my dumpster diving skills. He also pointed our team to places to eat throughout the week. Of course, as a Street Retreat veteran I know most of what is being taught but it is awesome to watch others experience this hospitality. It is a stereotype shifting transforming experience.

This retreat I succumbed to including a couple of meetings into the schedule dealing with Community First! This too has been an interesting experience for me. Living on the streets but floating in and out of my world and the world of those who live on the streets. When we share with our brothers and sisters that we are here spiritually and that we are not “pretending” to be homeless they seem to have a deep admiring respect for what we are doing. They resent the pretenders…a lot! They know, we know and God knows that we are not homeless so why pretend. They are astute at authenticity. Or in their vernacular, they have great bullshit meters!

Looking forward to what God will unfold today. He never ceases to surprise and entertain. He must be pretty humored at us.

Please continue to cover Community First! in prayer. There is a lot of great and exciting stuff happening and that always means the evil one is looking to mess it up. Lets rebuke together the evil wicked snares of the devil.

My warmest blessings to you!

-Alan

Tags: community, Fast, Homeless home

Today is Palm Sunday and for the eleventh year we begin a 72 hour Street Retreat on the streets of Austin, Texas. This year we have 10ish people joining us; some newbies and a few veterans. This retreat is a one-on-one retreat between the retreatant and God. It is absolutely not about experiencing homelessness or pretending to be homeless. It is all about finding the risen Lord in those we encounter while on the streets. AND, ladies and gentlemen, this is precisely what happens!

I have been on over 25 of these retreats and the transformation I witness and the fruit that is harvested is nothing short of a miracle. I guess I am addicted to witnessing transformation. Perhaps I need to look into a 12 step program!

I continue to thrive spiritually imperfect on the Daniel Fast. Highly recommend it and has been the most spiritually rewarding of all the fasts I have done. My goal these next three days is to continue to cover our Community First! Village property and vision in prayer. In May at a staff picnic on the property we are going to stake the four corners in prayer and raise a canopy of prayer over the entire property. I will share more on this later.

May the risen Lord warmly nourish you as we enter into Holy Week. We are an Easter people who anticipates and believes in the resurrection. May you experience the resurrected Lord this week!

God bless!

-Alan

Tags: community, Fast, home, Homeless

This morning during my hike and morning prayer time I began to reflect how spiritually nourishing this fast has been. I even love to say the word “nourish”. It sounds so refreshing doesn’t it? Nourish! Repeat it a couple of times slowly.

From this I began to prayerfully reflect on Genesis 2:10, “A river rises in Eden to water the garden; beyond there it divides and becomes four branches”.

How nourishing is water to all of life? Vital, to say the least! I love the word “vital” too! It is from Latin and means “life giving”. And, that God would have a river rise in Eden and divide into four branches. He intended to completely nourish the Garden of Eden. How wonderful is our God!

Then I began to imagine and dream that what if we, the Body of Christ, are the river that rises in Eden and that each of us individually are the branches that are being divided from the Body to go forth and nourish?

Genesis 2:5-6, ” While as yet there was no field shrub on earth and no grass of the field had sprouted, for The Lord God had sent no rain upon the earth and there was no man to till the soil, but a stream was welling up out of the earth and was watering all the surface of the ground”.

I believe you and I are the branches of the wellspring being encouraged to go out and nourish and till “souls” so that from them beautiful gifts will flourish for the glory of the Kingdom!!

Lets go out and nourish today those who need our vital, life giving, presence and see what God can restore.

May God warmly nourish you today!

-Alan

Tags: community, Fast, home, Homeless

Today is the 5th Sunday of Lent. Next Sunday is Palm Sunday. Every year now for 11 years we do our annual Holy Week 72 hour Street Retreat (www.mlf.org/streetretreat) that begins late afternoon on Palm Sunday. I have done all 11 of them plus about 25 others. You could say I have been there and done that! It is about this time when the anxiety begins to creep in. Both the joyful anticipation and anxious dread. Do I have to go??? Then God says something like, “Hey!, snap out of it! Your going and that’s all there is to it.” Okay Lord, whimpering somewhat. So you want to go? Powerful and transforming to say the least. You can register by clicking on the link above. Tonight at MLF HQ there is an orientation meeting if you want to come. Starts at 6:30. Powerful way to enter into Holy Week.

Day 11 of the fast is going well. No food temptations at all. Battling all the other temptations fairly well. Today I have a Community First! tour. It is a continuing dialogue regarding someone who may lead the spiritual direction of the community. Taking their whole family out this time. Part of their discernment is moving into the neighborhood and being close to not only the village but the surrounding neighborhood. Please pray for their and our discernment.

As Christians the joy of our essence is embedded in the passion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As we begin to approach the celebration of this extraordinary week I pray for you and ask you to join me in solidarity of prayer for our Community First! Village initiative. God bless!

-Alan

Tags: community, Fast, Fasting, home, Homeless

I want to quote from the Daniel Fast book.

“Even though you can eat during the Daniel Fast, it is no less effective than a complete fast. The power in fasting has less to do with food then with setting yourself apart for a specific period of time to focus more on the Lord, prayer, and worship. In other words, the power of fasting is found when you consecrate yourself to the Lord and discipline yourself to focus on him. That’s how your spiritual experience is enhanced.”

Most mornings I go out and hike in my neighborhood. It is quite hilly around here and provides a great deal of exercise. Normally I always begin my hikes with morning prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours. Most mornings I am very distracted and find it very difficult to focus in on the prayer time. This fast has genuinely centered me on my morning prayers unlike anytime before. When I finish my morning prayers and my intercessory prayers I now move into listening to Gregorian chant music. This too seems to keep me focused and centered.

Yesterday the Roman Catholic Church selected a new Pope. He will be called Francis. What is incredible about this selection is that he is from Argentina the first pope ever from the Western Hemisphere. What I have read and heard about Pope Francis is that he is an extremely humble man. Also, since he is a Vatican outsider, it will be interesting to see how his Papacy unfolds. This is an exciting time for the Roman Catholic Church.

Please keep your prayers coming I feel them, Mobile Loaves and Fishes feels them and no doubt our Community First! Village will benefit from them. Many blessings to you on this beautiful day.

-Alan

Tags: community, Fasting, home, Homeless, mlfnow

The best laid plans…. Was hoping to blog daily but wow what an incredibly busy, packed and joyful two days I have had. And, the fast is going great!

As you may know I have spent the past several days on the Austin Mission. 45 high school age youth and 20 supporting adults spent the past five days out on our property on Hog Eye doing mission work with the homeless in the city. Monday evening all of us went on a mini street retreat. We were dropped off in Zilker Park ate dinner from a Mobile Loaves and Fishes truck and then walked into downtown. With SXSW going on downtown was alive. However, when we got to the Austin Resource Center for the homeless transformation really began to occur. The kids began developing relationships with many of the homeless people that hang out in that downtown area. We spent over two hours there and during that time one young woman gave up her sleeping bag to a young homeless guy and at least one other kid took off his shoes and handed them to a homeless person. I was blown away!

The next morning we woke up at 5 AM and made our way through downtown to the First United Methodist Church. Every Tuesday and Thursday mornings they host the feed my people breakfast. This too was extraordinarily awesome for all of us to fellowship with our brothers and sisters who live on the streets over a meal. I’m confident that this will not be the last Austin Mission that we do for young people here in Austin.

I would like to ask you to pray for a couple of our residents who are battling addiction. The collateral impact that addiction can have can be quite incredible. For this couple it is no exception. I do believe however that there is tremendous hope and I would ask you to pray to intercede that they connect spiritually to our father in heaven as well as here on earth aggressively battle their demons through recovery.

In terms of the fast I am in a strong spiritual zone right now. I feel great and empowered. The coffee thing has really been nothing. What I really love most is when those hunger pangs come it really focuses me spiritually on my task at hand. I highly recommend the Daniel Fast. No doubt there’ll be some health benefits from this fast but I intentionally chose not to even weigh myself at the beginning in order not to distract me from my spiritual goals.

One last spiritual bouquet from the past two days. Two of my high school friends that I played football with have come into town. We reconnected on Facebook and I’ve spent the past two days sharing the ministry of mobile Loaves and Fishes with them. For one of my friends it’s been 40 years since I’ve seen him last. It truly has been joyful to reconnect.

Thank you to everyone who continues to pray with me and to cover me, Mobile Loaves and Fishes and particularly the Community First! Village in your prayer. May God warmly bless you!

-Alan

Tags: community, home, Homeless, mlfnow

Day 5 on the fast and day 3 for the Austin Mission. Both are going outstanding. The fast is centering me spiritually and I believe at the same time protecting me from the attacks we all experience in life. And the mission is surrounding me with young people who have a strong hopeful love for Christ. Tonight we will spend the night on the streets but in a protected area. Will be great to see the experiences that the Holy Spirit unfolds.

Last night a couple of scriptures came to me from two formerly or currently homeless brothers. The first from Sam from Ephesians 2:10; “For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.” Sam shared this with me as testimony that the Community First! Village is providence and will happen. The second from Mike from Ephesians 6:11-13; “Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil. For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens. Therefore, put on the armor of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil day and, having done everything, to hold your ground.” Mike wanted to fortify me. I thought both were awesomely timely.

Anyway, tonight will be great. Tomorrow even better. I feel your prayers. Keep ‘em coming!

-Alan

Tags: community, home, Homeless

I just watched a video blog post from Mark Horvath on our Street Treats launch today. He stated that more importantly than the money that they were going to earn as entrepreneurs running the mobile vending carts was the trust that we inspired in them to even run the carts to begin with. So now, in day four of my fast, trust
is on my mind.

Trust is easy to talk about and it’s easy to conceptualize but it’s not easy to live by. We all know that we can fully trust completely and implicitly in God but what does it mean to trust in each other. I know that I want to be trusted completely but sometimes my behavior dictates otherwise. Interestingly also, the first point of the Scout Law is a Scout is trustworthy. When we start to really and deeply examine this issue of trust we begin to realize how important it is in our day-to-day interactions with other people. Trust comes from the way we talk, our body language and from our actions. We are constantly being read and analyze from multiple different angles. Therefore I think it is important to always be centered on God in all of our relationships.

Day four of my fast is going great. This morning I did wake up to the smell of wonderful beautiful aromatic coffee but I’m able to resist. The intermittent hunger pangs that ensue from a fast of this nature constantly remind me of the presence of the Holy Spirit and the purpose of my fast. I am really enjoying this particularly being out here on the Community First! Village property with all of these young people is pretty exciting.

TRUST!

-Alan

Tags: community, Fasting, home, Homeless, prayer

This is my third day on the Daniel fast. This morning’s hike and prayer was as intense as it has been in a long time. I felt really focused and centered. I believe it is the intentionality of my spiritual purpose that’s leading to this centeredness. I know that Satan has not given up on me yet but I do hear some gnashing and gnawing of teeth in the distance coming from the evil little one. I can only laugh!

Today begins the first day of the Austin Mission. About 50 high school age kids plus adults will be spending four days out at our Community First! property. This will be a time in mission for them serving the least of our brothers and sisters. This will also be a time to encircle our property in prayer to further expand our prayer circle. Sunday we are going to build reflection spaces and consecrate the property. In addition to many other things, later in the week we are going to lift a brother up off the streets into a beautiful new RV home.

Hope you’re still hanging with me in prayer, I need you tremendously.

God bless,

-Alan

Tags: community, Fasting, Homeless, Homelessness