Currency from Mexico, Kenya and Latvia.
I was recently asked to share a written testimony of how we got out of debt from a friend that will be leading a Dave Ramsey course at his church in Louisville Kentucky…
Here’s a bit more of our getting out of debt story than I shared in that testimony.
When we got married 3 years ago on August 23 2009 we started out our marriage with over $30,000.00 in debt. Mostly school loans, some credit card debt and a bit of personal debt.
On December 11th 2011 we became debt free. In 28 months, we paid off over $30,000. Most of that was on one income, and not a large income at that.
Jess and I had intentioned ourselves to get out of debt so that we could serve the Lord more freely. The same week we got out of debt we were asked by our current school leader to pray about the possibility of joining her in Hawaii to staff the YWAM School of Biblical Studies. We didn’t find that to be a coincidence.
How’d we do it? Well its certainly a miracle of God’s provision and faithfulness. But on the tangible side…
We did our best to follow Dave Ramsey’s steps.
It took some determination and some changes in our lifestyle. We weren’t losey gosey about it, we weren’t just paying the minimum payment on our loans. We were throwing large chunks of money at it every month. We sold a lot of things, things that were valuable to us, but weren’t being used. I sold my pro cymbals, and all of my digital music recording gear. Jess sold her trumpet. We even ended up living with friends and family over the course of that time.
We were on a written budget, using cash. We just went back to both of these things this month because we noticed we were spending to much. Being back on a written budget and using cash really helps.
Engage: Are you debt free or working on becoming debt free? Share your story with us in the comments!
You have a lot of good things to say.
Don’t let those good things be lost amidst mediocre filler.
I often write a full blog post, then before posting, delete multiple paragraphs of distracting and unnecessary information.
Ask yourself “What am I truly trying to communicate?”
Then ruthlessly edit out anything that would distract from what you are really trying to say.
This is the saddest photo of me that I could find. This was part of my 365 project in 2008, after all my friends (one of them being Jess!) left Kona.
Since I’ve been posting about others being vulnerable, I guess I’ll be vulnerable. I struggle with depression.
This past week depression has manifested itself like this. I’m not excited about anything, I don’t look forward to anything. My alarm goes off in the morning, and instead of doing my normal routine, I turn my alarm off and don’t care if I do any of those things or not, I don’t see the point, I’d rather go back to sleep. I wait until the last minute to wake up. I can’t focus in class in the morning, because I’m struggling to care. In the afternoon, I feel like the best use of my time is taking a nap, because what other important thing do I have to do? Then I force myself to do whatever I have to do in the evening all the while I can’t wait to go to sleep for night. And I don’t have an appetite. (I realize that there are many important things I could be doing, but when I’m depressed I don’t feel like doing any of them because I don’t feel at the time it’s important)
My back is feeling better than it was. The pain flared up a few weeks ago but it’s getting better. The muscles are still tight and its stiff when I go from sitting to standing. I’ve had mouth sores for a week now, the ones on my tongue are gone but the one on my lower lip is still hanging around, making talking painful and eating a nightmare. My vision feels dull, tunnel vision, like colors and life aren’t vibrant. I’m an introvert naturally, but depression pulls me even further inside of my shell. And I’m grumpy.
I’ve never been “clinically diagnosed” I don’t think I need a professional to tell me that I’m depressed, and I really don’t care to go on some prescription drug for the rest of my life. I do understand there are chemical imbalances, but I think proper nutrition has a lot to do with that chemical imbalance.
The past two weeks I’ve been intentional about trying to eat a lot more nutrients. Eating clean; fruits and vegetables, not eating processed foods. I’m still taking my fish oil and my multi vitamin. I’m realizing more and more how I need to get control of my health. I’m conscious of my own health as we’ve been praying for people with cancer, and I see older people walking around with ailments, I want to get do everything I can do on my part to make sure I’m healthy. It’s certainly not easy though.
I drank coffee this morning, hoping that it would help me push through the day, all it did was make me even more on edge and grumpy. Caffeine is a drug, I should quit.
This has been the most tragic season of my life. More bad things have happened in the past 6 months than I’ve ever had happen in my life. I’m not going to go into detail, but crazy things have happened in my family, and with my friends.
It’s hard to share about being depressed, because it seems ridiculous. In my head, I hear someone saying… “get over it Jim, pull yourself up by the boot straps and do what you need to do. You live in Hawaii, don’t tell me you’re depressed.” And there probably is some of that that I just need to push through. Unfortunately the very things that I need to be doing that will help are the very first things to get dropped when I’m feeling under the weather. The walks, the quiet times, the healthy eating. Strange how depression sabotages you like that.
Is there a stigma in Christianity that we’re not suppose to struggle with depression? Or maybe because I’m in full time ministry I feel like I shouldn’t struggle with it.
Engage: Do you struggle with depression? What do you do that helps you get through the hard days? Let us know in the comments.
A bottle a friend bought for me while travelling, I never ended up drinking any of it though.
Last week I posted about Jim who although he was covered in blisters and had been throwing up blood refused to go to the hospital.
After I finished my conversation with him, emotionally and physically exhausted, I went and found one of my students who had been sitting on a park bench talking with a guy the whole time. I sat down and joined in on the conversation. The man, was gripping a bottle of alcohol. He asked me if I was part of the church too. Not wanting to go into a in-depth explanation of the international interdenominationl missions organization we were a part of, I simply told him, yes. He responded, excuse my alcohol, I’m a good person, I’m a minister, I got my credentials and everything.
I got kind of indignant and asked him why he was sitting here drinking alcohol on this park bench?
He told me about all of the loss that had happened to him recently. After getting his ministry credentials, his brother died, and then his mother, and that his cousin was missing. As if it hadn’t been an emotionally wrenching night enough… I started tearing up as I told him about the recent loss that I had gone through and about the losses that our student had gone through, and even though that horrible stuff had been happening, that we weren’t sitting out here on a park bench drinking alcohol, instead we were out here on the streets so we could talk to him. He looked at me and started tearing up too, “It’s hard man, people want answers when you’re the minister.” He started shouting, “People want to know why these bad things happen, people want you to do something, they want you to make things right and I got nothing for them.” I responded, “We just have to keep pointing them to Jesus man.” “No,” he replied, “they want YOU to do something.” The reality of ministry rang true.
I felt that God was telling me that this guy was a soul winner. I was fired up and just went for it. I hate watching people who have an evident calling on their lives, live in less than what God has for them. I again, asked him what he was doing out here on the street, drinking, I told him that He was created to be a soul winner, to win souls for Jesus. He smiled, and my student smiled too. My student said that Cisero had just told him that. I asked Cisero if I could pray for him, and he said yes. I put my hand on his shoulder. He set the bottle of alcohol he had been gripping down next to him. I prayed, reminding Cisero of the calling that He had on his life. When I finished, he wanted to pray for us and we let him.
On the ride back, my students said that they could see what a good heart Cisero had. While yes, that is true, he isn’t walking in the fullness that God intends. It was a great teaching moment. I told them that we all have things in our lives that will keep us from being effective in ministry. That the devils nature is to steal kill and destroy and that we need to identify and destroy whatever is trying to disqualify us.
**Update on Jim – this past Tuesday Jim was not on his usual bench, word on the street was that they thought he want to the hospital.**
Engage: What is lurking in your life, that is seeking to take you out of the fight? What is going to take to destroy it? Pray for Jess and I that the snares in our lives would get stomped out before they destroy us. Thoughts? Share in the comments.
The women praying for one of the female staff here at YWAM Honolulu
We had something beautiful happen during our monday morning worship time…
It started out with one of the leaders asking the women to come pray for one of the female staff members. The women gathered and prayed.
The woman that was being prayed for then wanted to share a public word of encouragement. It was for us! She thanked us for being here and said that after the first month of us being here she realized we had YWAM Honolulu DNA and hoped we stuck around for a while. A couple of people said amen to that.  That was a nice encouragement.
After that, something beautiful happened. A guy in his early twenties walked forward and began to share. He shared that God showed him that he often hides, and needs to be transparent. He then confessed publicly to us his addiction to sleeping pills. The room went silent.
The leader didn’t skip a beat, she asked anyone who ever struggled with addiction to come forward and pray for him. Knowing full well that I have struggled with and still struggle with having an addictive personality, I went forward and we prayed.
My back was hurting me after we had prayed for a while so I left the front and returned to my seat. I realized there was hardly anyone in that room that wasn’t standing with this young man, praying for him, and admitting that they had struggled with or currently struggle with addiction.
It reminded me of this:
but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said.“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”– John 8:1-11
I applaud our leader for dealing with the public confession well. There was not a call for public confession, it was just what the Holy Spirit was stirring in people. I’m grateful for this man’s obedience, his humility in admitting his struggle. I’m grateful for a community that also walks in humility, grace and forgiveness.
Watching and being a part of authentic faith and biblical principals walked out in this community is what has always attracted me to YWAM.
Engage: Read James 5:16. I encourage you to find a community that you can trust, and be transparent and bring things into the light. Leave us a comment and share your story of a beautiful time of worship.
A car accident I came upon in Columbia MD in 2008.
Every Tuesday night I take a team of our students down to Waikiki to do street ministry. There is never a dull night…
We had just returned from our “Wilderness Wandering” camping trip. When we headed to the van to jump in, all the students complained that they were tired, I was tired too. I told them that we’d just take it easy this week, and instead of me dropping them off where I usually do, we would park all together and go from there.
I went to go see Jim who is always on the same bench. He is always pleasant to talk to, which is not always the case with everyone we run into down there. When I came up and said hello, I noticed his legs were covered in broken blisters, and he was swollen. His arms and hands had open sores on them too. I kept my distance, fumbling with the hand sanitizer I had in my pocket, with which I wanted to take a bath in right there. I asked him what happened, he responded it was sun burn, from sitting on that bench all day. Flies were crawling all over him. He then went on to tell me how much pain he was in and how he was throwing up blood last night. I told him I was going to call an ambulance for him. He insisted that I didn’t do that. He told me someone else had already tried earlier and he told them he didn’t want help.
I stood there and talked with him some more. I realized that I couldn’t just walk away. If something serious happened to this guy, I would feel responsible. I told him that, I told him that I cared about him, and that I enjoyed seeing him every week and it was something that I looked forward to. He was quite taken a back by that. I think it had been a while since he heard anyone say that they cared about him.
The ambulance came, and they checked his vitals. They told him multiple times that he needed to go to the hospital to get checked out. That throwing up blood and the pains in his stomach were not normal and he could have internal bleeding and that the he could die tonite. His response, “that’s the easy way out.” They had him sign a document saying that he refused to go, I had to sign the document too as a witness. I stood there on the verge of tears, angered and upset. I realized that there was NOTHING I could do to change this guys mind to actually get the help he needed.
Like, (lee-kay \ R.K’s wife, the couple that hosts this outreach) came down and sat next to Jim. She put her hand on top of his and talked to him for a while. Since he was unwilling to go to the hospital, Like offered to clean out his wounds. I stood there amazed. Like and RK are the real deal. They give out their cell phone numbers to the people they are ministering to in the street, they go the extra mile, and they get their hands dirty. They are willing to get down on their knees and clean out the infected wounds of a dirty, 60 year old homeless man. I’m really really challenged by that.
I said goodbye to Jim and went back and found one of my students… read part 2 here.
Engage: Go read Deuteronomy 15:11 and let me know how you think that verse applies today. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Grand Opening of Charity’s Closet in Savage, MD.
I’m a starter, I like starting things, I like dreaming big…
I’m good at starting things, not always great at finishing. The older I get, the better I want to finish.
There is a lot of encouragement right now to jump in and just go with your good idea. To not allow fear stand in your way and to not let your dream be shelved.
While I agree… I also have seen way too many good ideas die out. Most of them dying due to a lack of good planning. So yes, your idea is a good one, but before we jump, let’s ask ourselves these questions.
1. Why?
Why is this good idea needed? Why are we going to invest time, effort, and resources into changing something?
2. What is the end goal of this good idea and what steps do I need to take to achieve the desired outcome?
If everything works out perfectly what do I want the result to be? How do we get from where we are now to where we want to be?
3. How do I communicate these expectations and steps to the team I will be working with?
4. What can I learn from other people that are doing similar things?
Are there any mistakes or road blocks that I can avoid by talking to them? What other resources could I be learning from?
5. If this is a one time project, how can we make sure it’s a success? If this is an ongoing project. How can we ensure that this project will have longevity and continue to be successful?
Engage: What other questions should we be asking before we take the start? Let us know in the comments.
A photo from Monday Morning worship here at the YWAM base.
I’ve been wanting to write a series of blog posts on worship for a while now. I think this is as good of a starting point as any…
My friend Phil Cunningham the other day tweeted this:
“Thank you for leading me in worship but please don’t tell me what posture I need to take while worshipping Jesus”
I asked him to expound on what he meant, so he blogged about it.
I don’t have a strong opinion on what he wrote at all. Phil is expressing how he feels and probably expressing how a lot of people feel.
I’m both a worship leader and someone that struggles to engage in corporate worship. The struggle is sad, and it’s no one else’s fault, but worship times used to be the one time that I felt most connected with God.
I can relate to what Phil is saying. On a recent sunday, I got quite annoyed with the worship leaders rock concert-esque questions. “Are you guys ready to worship?!” He was a “younger” guy and it made me thankful for all of the people who have been gracious to me when I was leading anything when I was his age. I probably did similar things. It’s tempting to want feedback when you’re on stage. My dad always reminded me that I can’t judge what is going on inside of someone by their outward expression.
From a worship leader perspective: I’ve sat in meetings where I’ve been berated (literally brought to tears) because of my worship style not being what others expected or were used to. It was too dark, too heavy, not happy enough. I think it hurt a lot because it was my personal expression of worship to God. It’s how I connected most intimately with God. I’ve also been challenged on my use of pronouns in the songs I’ve selected. Too much “I” and not enough “we.”
When we come together corporately, your worship leader can’t please everyone. So please, be gracious.
From a worshipper’s perspective: No matter what annoyance, discomfort, stylistic preference, distraction, lack of atmosphere, sloppy powerpoint slides, poor musicianship, bad sound mix, it’s still my responsibility to use that time to give God worship.
That DOESN’T mean that worship leaders shouldn’t be careful to serve the people they are leading and be sensitive to what God is saying and doing, and sensitive to the needs of the people. But at the end of the day it’s not the worship leaders complete responsibility for how YOU engage in worship.
We’re going through Leviticus right now in our SBS. Chad Lewis’ teaching is amazing, its really opened up the book to me, things that I would have never understood or picked up on my own.
We’re learning that tabernacle worship always COST something. The 5 animals that were sacrificed were the currency of the day.
What is worship going to cost you? Don’t let your personal preference get in the way of your worship to the King of Kings.
Enage: Weigh in on this conversation. What are your thoughts as worshippers and worship leaders? List your pet peeves and favorite worship times in the comments.
Anneli caring for an orphan in China.
I wrote a guest post for my good friend Anneli’s blog today.
T-shirt design
If you don’t know already, Jess and I LOVE adoption! Check out how you can support some friends of ours!
Our friends the Reinards are adopting their 3rd child!
I met Aaron (the dad) in 2007, he came and spoke at a Christian summer camp that Jess and I were working. I then had the privilege to eat breakfast with him and some other youth pastors once a month in 2009-2010 when I was pastoring in PA. Whenever I’m back in that area I always try and grab coffee with him. We always leave mutually inspired. You can check out his blog here.
They have designed these awesome t-shirts to help in their adoption process. Jess and I are going to be buying two and I encourage you to buy this awesome shirt as well and help out a good cause.
To buy these shirts go to their adoption blog and follow the instructions there!
Here’s the rest of his family modeling the t-shirts!
We are also still giving 20% of everything we make in photography to our friends the Rainwaters who are in the process of adopting a boy from Haiti. More details here. If you are interested in booking us as your photographers check out our website here. www.thebakersphotography.com
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by Jim Baker
The only debt I still have is my house, and it will be paid off by the end of this year!! woot-woot To do this, I have learned that I don’t need everything new or right away. I have also purposely paid more on the principal each month. I keep an account of how much I charge and pay off my credit card bills in full each month. I think having parents that were raised during the Depression helped to set my understanding and value of money. I learned from them the real value of a dollar and how to save. I learned that some things are worth waiting for and that reusing and recycling isn’t just for paper and cans.
Hey, I recognize that photo!
yup! It took me a while to find it though, it was the first critique that we moved over to facebook. good times!
awesome about paying off the house soon! complete financial freedom!
Reba and I are finishing baby step #3, a fully funded emergency fund of 3-6 months expenses. It feels great to not just be debt free but to have the cash reserves piled up in the event of an emergency. House you’re next!!!
Great story Jim.
awesome congrats!