FlowerDust.net | Anne Jackson

Safe with a Drug Lord

Hola, everyone! I am back on Southern soil in Nashville after a great week in the Dominican.

Last week, I posted about some time I spent in The Hole — which is a trash dump in Santiago where squatters have taken residence over the last decade or so.

The story of The Hole is one that is grander than anyone could ever dream up.

Years ago, the city of Santiago set aside a large area (which is sunken in and dug out, thus creating “the hole”) to be a landfill. The river is filled with trash and raw sewage, and it is here that Santiago’s poorest call home.

And the mayor of The Hole? A drug lord. It’s his territory, and even in the midst of poverty you see proof of his reign. Nicely dressed young Dominican men with gold jewelry walk along the open sewer with expensive motorbikes, following prostitutes. Children who have no contact with the outside world flash gang signs and chant Dominican rap songs.

A man named Felix is the pastor of the church and feeding center in The Hole. He’s been around for seven years, getting to know the children and their families.

(Here is Felix praying with the kids before lunch one day).

One day, the drug lord requested a meeting with Felix. He saw what he was trying to accomplish in The Hole.

As long as you are here, the drug lord said, you will be safe. Anyone you bring to help will be safe. And if you have any problems, you tell me, and I will take care of it.

And it was true. As nervous as I should have been walking around with expensive video equipment in the lair of drugs and prostitution, I felt safe. We Americanos were welcome and loved.

That’s just like something God would do, isn’t it?

the trap of freedom, part 1 of 2

this past weekend, chris and i went to his hometown of kansas city for a quick trip to visit his family before we move to nashville. on the itinerary was a trip to westside family church…the church where i received my call to vocational ministry six years ago, the place i fell in love with the body of christ, where i loved and dreamed and had my heart broken, only to love and dream again.

dan deeble, who is the senior pastor at heartland community church, was the guest speaker. dan began sharing about what we, as the church, could do if we served together. he told a story of a time he was in washington dc with a friend. he had stayed in a fancy hotel, had eaten an amazing steak dinner, and on a walk back to his hotel, had a homeless man in a wheelchair approach him.

long story short, after going through his internal conflict of “oh crap, if i would have only made it twenty more feet, i wouldn’t have to deal with this” and knowing what he needed to do, he offers to take the man to a local burger king. on the way, the homeless man stops in a print shop and gets fliers for the ministry he is starting for the homeless. dang. a brother in christ. he is totally humbled. dan and the homeless man continue on to eat and head back to the hotel.

the homeless man stops about twenty feet from the hotel — the same place he had stopped dan earlier. he knew that there was an invisible barrier…of wealth and of class…preventing him from going further.

dan turns around to bid him farewell, and the homeless man pulls dan down to where he sat, reaching around him and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

dan continues by saying he doesn’t remember what the suite in the hotel looked like. the taste of the steak he had was long gone thirty minutes after he ate it. but he will never, ever forget the touch of the homeless man’s kiss on his cheek.

galatians 5:10 was the verse dan centered his message on.

You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.

i’ve written a lot about the freedom we have in christ, but during dan’s talk had one of those moments when head knowledge becomes heart knowledge.

we have been given freedom in christ. and instead of making ourselves gluttons of our culture, we are given this freedom as a gift to serve each other.

galatians 5:19-21 describes the things we aren’t supposed to indulge in…

The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.

i struggle the most with this still in the area of how i spend money. it’s not necessarily how much i spend, but why i spend it.

to be quite raw, it’s mostly because of envy, selfish ambition and jealousy. why can’t i have the perfect house/wardrobe/car/gadgets or eat at the most posh of restaurants/bistros when others can? i want to be perceived as trendy and well-off, like they are. and so my bank account suffers.

is there anything wrong with any of those things? i truly believe not. again, it’s the why.

am i serving myself or am i serving others with my freedom? if i serve myself, does my freedom actually trap me?

WE ARE MOVING FROM OKC TO NASHVILLE!!!

June 27, 2003 - We got married.

June 27, 2008 - We are moving to Nashville.

Since we have been slowly leaking this information (work, family, friends)…I thought I’d try and answer most of the questions we have been getting…

Q: Didn’t you, like, just move to OKC?
A: Yes. Actually it will be six months to the day when we unload the moving truck in Nashville.

Q: Why are you moving so soon?
A: Why not? Actually, my husband has an amazing opportunity to do what he loves and earn a living doing it (film/music), and I have been praying for ways to support that. Be careful when you pray for something…about a month or so of praying about this, an opportunity fell in his lap, and we couldn’t say no. IT ROCKS TO SEE MY MAN PASSIONATE AND THRIVING!!!! Anyway, God has taken care of the rest in ways I could have never imagined.

Q: God’s taken care of the rest…what do you mean?
A: Like a place for us to serve and a place for me to use my gifts in an amazing local church (Cross Point Church in Nashville) with a great team of people (including these bloggers who I will be on staff with: Pete, Jenni, Pat, Chad, Matt, George, Jarrod. You also should check out these blogs: Brandi (Pete’s wife), Brian (He’s an elder) and LukeGiant Idiot (who’s a giant idiot), Kari, Jessica and Julie are also Cross Point peeps I have gotten to know!! )

Nashville also holds a bunch of welcoming friends…some who I have known since high school, others from the trip to Africa, and even more from our last few visits. I have no doubt this is the tribe I’ve written about in the past. We also found an incredible and insanely affordable place to live, exactly in the area we were hoping to live. And it all happened with perfect timing.

Q: So, what about LifeChurch.tv?
A: What can I say?? The last few months have been unreal and wonderful! Even though we have only lived here for six months, I’ve actually been working with Bobby and Terry for about a year. I never knew God could show me so much in such a short amount of time. I feel I should clarify (because unfortunately people typically assume there is something “more” going on that what meets this eye) There’s NO drama. NO scandal. Bobby didn’t throw chairs at me when I told him. We are honored to be walking away with their support, blessings and encouragement. We will miss everyone dearly. They have shaped and influenced us in so many ways. We are very excited and at the same time, not a day has gone by where I haven’t cried because we are really going to miss these amazing people.

SO THERE YOU HAVE IT!

I know we would both appreciate your prayers as we pack, say goodbye, and travel two days (June 27 and 28) to Nashville.

INVITATION TO PARTY!! (Or so I call it…) If you are in the Nashville area and want to help us unload (we don’t have a lot of stuff, I promise!) shoot me an email (anne [at] flowerdust [dot] net) and I will hook you up with the details.

I’ll share a little bit more this week some things we love about Cross Point Church and how everyone there has been an answer to our prayers as we have (quickly!) been put on a new and exciting journey!

ALWAYS HOPING!
Anne

American Airlines Apology

i usually don’t answer my phone when i don’t recognize the number, but since it was a DFW area code, i figured…

what the heck?

on the other line was a very nice gentleman from american airlines. evidently they thought my online complaint from april had been resolved (because of this post).

he was super nice, apologetic, and even posted some miles to my american advantage account. and he told me my email to them was the first one to really ever point them to a blog post. and now they are going to pay a little more attention to their online reputation.

so…i wanted to share the happy ending with you guys. maybe there is hope for airline travel after all.

the tattoo adventure [unexpected!]

pinkhairedgirl.net (her real name is crystal) and i have been friends for about five years or so now. and, every year for the last three years, we’ve upheld a tradition of body modification (tattoos, piercings, etc.)

this year was no different. she flew down to okc, we made an appointment…and this is what happened. (and seriously…could my freeze frame be any more awkward?)

after you watch, click here for more information.

nashvegas recap

we have had a great time in nashville, getting to hang out with so many truly amazing people, some were old friends, and some were new. we are driving home now & we just passed through memphis and are driving through arkansas.

i met brock face to face at the compassion dinner last night and because he remembers stuff much better than me, i am stealing this from him. the guest speaker at the dinner was tony neeves, (VP of international development for compassion)…a lovely british gentleman with humble and challenging thoughts.

one that stood out to me was “children in poverty aren’t the problem. children in poverty are the solution.” he went on to say that these children are “bundles of potential” — and if they receive positive support, they have the potential to be world-changers in the best way possible. yet if they aren’t loved, aren’t cared for, they have the potential to be world-changers in the worst possible way.

wow.

other things (from brock):

third world people press their faces against the windows of our lives because of technology, internet, tv etc. and they feel as if they have no hope. it is because they are seeing soap operas and game shows on tv and see how we live. they cant afford a bowl of rice. they realize they have nothing and have no hope.

also, churches in western world are far more introverted than third world churches. this must change.

and, third world churches are growing fast in some areas not because of a great pastor or sermons but they are loving people and meeting needs. then the community sees the love and want what they have.”

a few other highlights from the trip:

i honestly don’t listen to much christian music. but i did when i was 13. a little bit of me thought it was cool when toby mac walked into starbucks. then i realized how truly cool i was when jenni went to hug him. (julie, i thought you’d get a kick out of that!) :)

we got to hang out some with mark and stephanie lee. mark plays the guitar in amazing ways for a band called third day. again, it’s probably been a good decade since i really listened to third day, but as we saw them play at a showcase, some of their new material really really touched chris and me in ways only god could know.

it was just truly amazing to reconnect with some of the uganda bloggers. twice.

i really wish i could link to everyone we met and hung out with but i am about to have to drive. so to all of you, thank you for making us feel so welcome!!

i am leaving for a while…

chris and i are headed to nashville tonight for a little mini-vacation and i am not going to be blogging while we are there. i will be twittering and maybe even live video-casting via mogulus (if i’m having an adequate enough hair day). :)

to keep you busy during my absence, i thought i’d leave you with a few blogs (people from nashville to keep the theme) i am enjoying, and also one more opportunity to sponsor a child!

you should check out:

–pete wilson
–brody harper
–brock gill
–spence smith
–shaun groves
–randy elrod

is it just me or does everyone in nashville have great hair?

and you should sponsor:

liz.

LIZ HAS BEEN SPONSORED. THANK YOU! click here to go directly to liz’s sponsor page.

kim from baltimore sponsored pravallika earlier today. pravallika is an orphan. when i was searching for another child to post on here, i noticed something i guess i had skimmed over for some reason in the past: you can select a child with special needs.

liz is obviously a beautiful girl from uganda. but what you can’t tell from the picture is that she is both deaf and mute. and she is an orphan, too.

from the site:

Liz lives on the plains of Kyesiga Parish, Kyamukaka Subcounty, home to approximately 12,000 residents. Typical houses are constructed of dirt floors, mud walls and thatch roofs. The primary ethnic group is Bantu and the most commonly spoken language is Luganda.

The regional diet consists of maize, beans, bananas, fish, cassava and potatoes. Common health problems in this area include malaria, worms and HIV/AIDS. Most adults are unemployed but some work as subsistence farmers and earn the equivalent of $5 per month. This community needs capital for income generating activities, scholastic materials and farming tools.

LIZ HAS BEEN SPONSORED. THANK YOU! click here to go directly to liz’s sponsor page.

you guys and gals are making a HUGE difference by sponsoring these children. it means the world to me, but more importantly, it means life and freedom and love to these children and their families. so thank you.

see you all in a few days!