DTS students and two of the street kids gathering to pray for the Pastor and his family | Waikiki Hawaii | Iphone 3gs
Part of my responsibilities here as staff for YWAM’s School of Biblical studies is to lead local outreaches. This past Tuesday, I tagged along on the Discipleship Training School’s last outreach to Waikiki. The students are headed overseas in the next couple of weeks…
We left soon after dinner, and I hopped into a 15 passenger van with some of the DTS students. YWAM Honolulu currently does homeless ministry in Waikiki and downtown Honolulu. They also do outreach on the University of Hawaii campus. We rode down past the main strip of Waikiki, watching tourists enjoy paradise. We drove past tons of places to shop, and places to eat and a slew of high end designer stores like Chanal and Louis Vuitton.
We arrived and waited in a pavilion for R.K, a local pastor and former YWAM Honolulu staff member. He approached pushing a double stroller with one of his kids in one seat, and 3 boxes of pizza in the other. His wife was walking with him with their other daughter on her hip.
I was introduced to R.K and he shared his vision with me. He felt like the Lord had given him a vision, that people would come to Waikiki not because it was an amazing vacation destination, but because the presence of the Lord was there. “What would it look like if Jesus was in charge down here?” R.K asked me with an excitement.
People started milling around, coming to pick up pizza, and pick up a hygiene kit with soap and other toiletries in it. R.K prayed for one of the younger guys that was there. While RK was praying, the kid drank alcohol out of a brown paper bag and shared a cigarette with his friends.
I was just observing at this time, feeling awkward. I snapped a quick photo with my iphone to document the night, it instantly separated me and made me a casual observer instead of a participant.
I stood up and decided that I should get engaged and not just be a spectator. An elderly lady picked up her pizza and sat down at a picnic table by herself. I went up and introduced myself, she told me her name was Adrianne.
Adrianne then asked me if we were here with a religious group. I told her we were. In between bites of pizza, she then told me about her Catholic upbringing. She shared with me what she knew of the bible.
She told me how she took a world religions class and liked Buddhism more. “Buddhism says that all life is suffering” she said. I guess for a lady that has lived on the street most of her life, maybe knowing that all life was suffering would be comforting.
She asked me if I believed in Heaven and Hell. She asked me what I thought about purgatory. She asked me why God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac? She asked me why Jesus had to die? She asked me what sin was.
I fumbled over my words as I did my best to answer these questions. I wasn’t expecting to dive into a theological discussion that night with a homeless lady. Why do I assume that because someone is homeless they don’t have an opinion, much less an educated one. Jesus forgive me.
She finished eating, and thanked me a couple of times for the pizza. I asked her if I could pray for her. She said sure, I asked her if I could put my hand on her shoulder, she again said yes. I prayed out loud and thanked God for this woman, thanking Him that she was created in His image, and thanking Him that He loved her so much that He sent His son to die on a cross for her. She was antsy as I prayed this short prayer, and said that’s enough, thanked me again for the pizza again and walked away.
The DTS students had gathered to pray and bless R.K. Two of the younger street kids had joined hands with the team to pray and thank God for R.K too.
We walked back to the van, and drove to the YWAM base, and I went to my humble abode where I share a bathroom with 8 other people. I had a bed, and a pillow that night. I was out of the elements. Adrianne went to sleep that night without any of those comforts.
The night started out awkward, I didn’t know what to expect, and I didn’t really have a “heart” for homeless outreach. But by stepping out and doing, facing the fear that these people are really different than me and just having a simple conversation, and listening… my heart of stone began beating for the homeless. The issue of homelessness stopped being an “issue” and became a face, a person with a name; a woman named Adrianne.
If I see Adrianne again, I will tell her that all of life isn’t about suffering as the Buddhists believe. It’s about good news, that the Kingdom of God is here. That God walked on the earth as a man, was crucified for our sins and rose again.
So, what would it look like if Jesus ran Waikiki?
Oahu | 2009 | 20d
As promised, in last Friday’s post, I told you that I’d answer the questions that I posed to you about the WHY of blogging. So here we go…
What was it that got you to start a blog?
I’ll answer the reason why I restarted blogging recently. It was two fold:
1. I was INSPIRED by listening to Michael Hyatt’s podcast on blogging.
2. I needed to do a better job of communicating what is going on in our lives with family and friends. Since we’re in a new exciting chapter, I thought this was an appropriate time.
What is your blog about? Sum it up in 1-2 sentences.
1. Our blog is a personal blog to share what we’re doing and what is going on in our lives.
2. Our blog is also a place to share what we’re learning and what we’ve learned as we’ve tried to be obedient in following and serving Jesus.
I feel like we’re offering our readers a place to stay connected with us. And I also feel like we are offering and will be offering people insight from our lives as we’ve served Jesus in various contexts and cultures. We hope that this will serve as a resource and encouragement to anyone that is trying to follow Jesus and walk out their Christian faith.
Engage: Do you think this blog is fulfilling its intended purpose? What else do you think this blog provides? Let us know in the comments.
Waikiki | Iphone 3gs/Instagram | Taken Yesterday
When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” So they set out and went from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere. – Luke 9:1-6
Take nothing for the journey…
At least we got to take some stuff for this journey. We obviously had to pare down what we brought since we flew here.
Our school leader has apologized multiple times for our living situation. Currently there are 3 families living under one SMALL roof. We all share one bathroom. At the end of the month the other two families with children will move out and another married couple without children will move in.
It’s not ideal, but we didn’t come back into YWAM for the luxury housing. We came out of obedience to what we felt God was asking us to do. We have seen and are learning to understand that whatever God calls us to do is always in our best interest.
I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. – Philippians 4:11-13
I need to be like Paul, and be content whatever the circumstance. I’ve noticed that being inconvenienced, not having my “normal luxuries,” makes me a little uncomfortable. We don’t have a car here, and we don’t have Jess’ second income. I get bit by mosquitos constantly and we share 1 bathroom with 8 OTHER people.
I know this might sound ridiculous. I’m sure there are people reading this right now that would gladly trade their car and second income to live in Hawaii. And if that’s you, I challenge you to step out and be obedient to whatever He is calling you to, because however good Hawaii sounds right now to you, it pales in comparison to the perfect plan God has for YOU.
I am thankful for being forced out of my comfort zone. It makes me reexamine what’s a need, and what’s a want? It makes me realize that the majority of the world does not live with the luxury of things I think are normal everyday necessites. It makes me realize how ridiculously comfortable my “comfort zone” really is.
These tiny steps outside of my comfort zone help me to re-prioritize what’s important in life. Serving Jesus sometimes comes with a cost. I want to be ready and willing to pay whatever cost, for the sake of Him who paid it all.
I challenge you to intentionally step outside of your comfort zone for a bit. I promise it will help recalibrate you in a good way.
Engage: When was the last time you stepped outside of your comfort zone? What did you learn along the way? Share with us in the comments!
National Cathedral | 2007
So you’ve chosen a blogging platform, and chosen the layout of your blog. You wrote your first blog post and published it and you told people about it! Great job! But now what?…
Clearly Identify why you started blogging. What was it that got you to go through all of the work to start a blog?
Take a couple of minutes and write down the reasons you started your blog. Save these reasons somewhere so you can easily go back and look at them. Better yet share them in the comments!
THEME – What is your blog about?
You probably inadvertently answered this question when you finished the exercise above. But if you didn’t, ask yourself to sum up in a sentence or two exactly what the purpose of your blog is.
Maybe as you’re starting out you don’t need a clear vision of what you’re trying to do long term, but you should be thinking about that as you continue to blog.
I haven’t quite figured this one out for myself. I just wanted to get back into the habit of writing and posting blogs. I plan to really think about what this blog is becoming soon. I promise next week, I will post a blog that sums up what this blog is all about.
As your thinking about what your theme is consider the following:
One of my photographer teachers and friend, Stanley Leary, says that you have to offer people something for them to keep coming back… what do you have to offer your readers?
Or as my friend Dave Heiliger is asking recently “What is it that only YOU can do?”
Further Customize – Add your personal touch
Make this blog your own, make sure it visually represents what you are trying to say.
Schedule/Consistency – Find your sweet spot, how often are you going to commit to writing?
Jon Barnes of The Munich Group recently e-mailed me and congratulated me on my recent consistent blogging and told me that there is a huge relationship between site traffic and blogging frequency.
Too many people have started out blogs and had a great start only to let them die out after a few posts. I’ve been there, but lets really go for consistent blogging!
I really enjoyed only posting 3 times last week, rather than 5. Why? I tried to write every day even during a busy move, and only posting 3 of them allowed me to get ahead.
Engage: Why did you start blogging? Or what are some reasons you’d like to start blogging? Tell us in the comments.
This lady’s name is BS and she bought Jess a cup of coffee for her birthday.
On Sunday when we arrived in Honolulu, we stopped into Starbucks to get some anti-jet-lag-juice aka coffee. We were accompanied by Eric, our school leader, and Krista Beihl, our good friend. What happened next is pretty random…
Jess was wearing a birthday tierra, given to her by Krista. As we were waiting in line, the lady behind us started up conversation. She asked Jess if it was her birthday and then insisted that she buy Jess her drink. She said something to the extent of “when you get this close to the grave, you’ve got do random acts of kindness before time runs out, please let me buy you your drink.”
We struck up conversation and learned that this lady’s name was BS. She told us proudly that she is the only one with that name in the United States and had it legally changed. She then went on to tell us about how she had walked in all 50 states.
We got our coffee and walked outside, after thanking her, I asked BS if I could pray for her. She looked at me and asked me, “Is that what you do?” Not really knowing how to respond to that question, Eric jumped in and said, “Thats not all we do.”
I asked if I could put my hand on her shoulder, and I prayed a simple prayer out loud. I thanked God that He has a plan for BS’s life and proclaimed the love of Jesus over her. I gave her a hug and we listened a bit more to what she had to say before we were on our way.
If you know me, I have a very low tolerance for small talk. I’m not good at it, and I really don’t like it. But on the plane ride here, and at the beginning of this new journey, I’m realizing that people talk because they want to be validated. They need to be listened to, and need to be valued. They are talking, because they want to be heard. My question to myself, and to us, is are we listening?
We always say we want access to peoples hearts. Luke 6:45b tells us that “out of the overflow of his heart, his mouth speaks” We gain access to people’s hearts by listening.
It seemed like a message directly from heaven to me. Jim you need to listen to BS, both literally and figuratively. You need to value her as a person created in my image, with a plan and a purpose. You need to love her, be patient with her, and remind her that I created her, and that I love her. You need to listen to what people are saying no matter how absurd. You need to hear what their heart is saying, and then love them with My love.
Engage: Are you listening? Take the time to see who God is putting in your life to listen to and listen well. Share your story with us in the comments.
Honolulu Airport | March 11, 2012 | Iphone3gs and Instagram
Aloha and greetings from Hawaii! Here is a quick update…
We are HERE! After about 24 hours of travel and 4 flights later, we are in Hawaii!
We started out Saturday March 10th 2012 in Maryland celebrating Jess’ birthday with a pancake-palooza! We had some friends meet up and bring various pancake toppings and we made some crazy good pancakes
We then headed to BWI for our first of four flights. The curb side check in guy saved us a ton of money by telling us transfer the stuff from our two overweight checked bags into a carry on and make it a checked bag. Two overweight suitcases would have cost $200 EXTRA. Checking an extra bag was only $60!
We flew from Baltimore to Chicago, then to Seattle where we had a long layover but enjoyed a breakfast burrito from Qdoba, which was the only place open in the airport after midnight. From Seattle we flew to San Fransisco and then to Honolulu, Hawaii.
Our leaders picked us up and managed to fit ALL of our luggage and the 4 of us, into a two door coupe.
We were shown our home for the next a 4 months which is a small 1 level, 4 bedroom, 1 bath, house that we are sharing with two other families that both have children. I’ve heard that there might be some adjustments to our living situation so we will see what happens.
Jess’ sushi (top) Jim’s mix plate (bottom)
We went to walmart to pick up some essentials like pillows and a blanket. Then we ate some local food.
We grabbed some starbucks to get some assistance against the jet lag which brought about a CRAZY story that I will write about in another post soon.
We returned to the base, went over some paperwork, had our first staff meeting and then went out to dinner as a staff.
Tomorrow we have the day off to get settled in.
Thank you to everyone that has prayed for us, encouraged us and given financially so that we can be here!
Jim and Jess Baker
Chicago | 2008 | 20d
So I’ve given you reasons WHY to start a blog… well here’s HOW to get started!
Choose a blogging platform.
A lot of professional bloggers buy a wordpress theme and host it on their own. If you’re just getting started use a free service for now and get in the groove of blogging.
Hey Jim, what do you use and why?
I am using blogger. Why? It’s what I started using when I started my first photography blog back in 2007. I’ve stuck with it because I know how to use it comfortably and its free.
A lot of popular blogs use blogger. Strobist and HowChow to name a couple. I’m proud to say that they are both successful Howard County, Maryland bloggers!
Other options: Here are some of the other most popular platforms and a quick thought about them. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts on each blogging service in the comments.
WordPress: This seems to be the “industry standard.” I have no experience with their free option, but I know they do have one.
Tumblr: Also a free option. I feel like tumblr is a larger twitter. You can REBLOG other peoples posts on your blog. The tumblr culture seems to be really SHORT posts with lots of photos/graphics and a lot of reposting. This I’ve been informed is called microblogging. Jess’ best friend uses Tumblr.
Posterous: Another free service. You can write an e-mail to your posterous account and it will automatically post. Other platforms you might be able to do this with as well. Posterous also allows you to reblog other peoples posts on your blog.
I’m sure there are others as well but these are the ones that come to mind.
Customize! – Chose a layout and theme that you like!
Your blog will come with some basic layout templates that you can choose. Chose one that you like and use it. You will most likely have some options to do some easy customization as well. You can get into some of the more “complicated” customization and fine tuning later.
START WRITING!
BONUS – If you were inspired by this blog to start your own, you could give us a little shout out in your first post, we wouldn’t mind at all. Make sure to link us as well –> http://www.jimjessbaker.com
TELL PEOPLE ABOUT IT!
Use your social media outlets (facebook and twitter) to tell people about your blog. Don’t overwhelm them. Twice a day is probably enough, once in the morning and once in the evening. Or since you’re just starting out, you can send out an e-mail to people that you know and encourage them to check it out!
Engage: Did you start a blog? Leave us a link in the comments and we’ll check it out and comment!
Bad menu spelling | Taken May 2008 | sd870
I’ve been sending out a monthly e-mail update since 2003. Here are 3 things I’ve learned along the way…
1. KEEP IT SHORT – Shorter is better.
When I first started, I used to send out lengthy, multiple paragraph e-mails. Now I send out an e-mail with a few large photos and a couple of sentences of text.
If my blog post is getting to long, I break it up into multiple posts.
2. DIRECT THE VIEWERS EYE – This is actually something that I learned in photography, but it completely applies here too.
It’s your responsibility to show the reader what is IMPORTANT. Accent the main ideas.
You can do this by USING CAPS, bolding, italicizing, underlining and using a larger font size.
3. USE PHOTOS – They say a photo is worth a thousand words.
I don’t know if thats true or not, but having a photo or two will hopefully help capture your readers attention enough that they will stick around and read what you have to say.
Your reader will probably:
– Look at the photo first.
– Read whatever you have directed them to (step #2!)
– Then if they are still interested read the surrounding words.
Engage: Do you have any other tips on making your writing more readable? Tell us in the comments!
Photo from the Brigade N-Counter weekend April 2011
Last week I got really gung ho about blogging. Here are some of the strategies I’ve implemented this past week, and my thoughts on them…
Frequencey – Last week I posted 5 blogs in 5 days.
History and Data:
In 2011 I only posted 2 blogs the whole year.
I had a 1200 pageviews in 2011.
In 2010 I posted 77 times
I had 13,585 pageviews in 2010.
In 2009, I posted 52 times in 3 months
I had 7,568 pageviews in that 3 months of 2009.
I think there is a definite correlation between the amount you blog and the amount of page views you get, but finding that sweet spot is pretty important. I felt productive and enjoyed blogging every day last week, but I’m not sure its sustainable. I’m also afraid that 5 posts a week will overwhelm and fatigue my “audience.”
This week I will trying posting on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Bit.ly – I’ve been using bit.ly to share the links to my blog.
Using this service allows me to see, how many people are clicking on each link. If I just used a normal link I wouldn’t be able to see that information. Using bit.ly links inside the post also allows me to see if people are interacting with the page and clicking on links that I’ve placed throughout the post.
Data:
33 people clicked on my link to Monday’s post.
387 people clicked on the link to Tuesday’s post.
43 people clicked on my link to Wednesday’s post.
113 people clicked on my link to Thursday’s post.
16 people clicked on my link to Friday’s post.
Push Marketing – Using the word marketing sound so crass.
I have been sending links to my blog posts twice a day on twitter, which then pushes to my facebook. I have been using hoot suite to schedule these tweets.
We also send out monthly e-mail updates. Usually I send these out as a pdf, this time I simply wrote our update and put it on our blog. I then sent our update e-mail with a link to the blog.
E-mails were sent to people for Tuesday and Thursday’s posts and had a much higher view count. The links to Monday, Wednesday and Fridays posts were only posted to twitter and facebook. They had a much lower view count.
Jump – A lot of successful blogs use a jump.
A jump only shows the top of your blog post on the index page and to read the whole thing you have to click to continue reading it all. For thursday and fridays post I posted with a jump and plan to continue to do this from now on.
Using a jump cleans up your index page.
It also REALLY makes me focus on my lead paragraph, making sure that I’m writing something that is hopefully enticing enough to get someone to keep reading.
Writing and formatting – What you write and how its presented
I am trying to make sure:
– The title says what the post is about in an enticing way
– The title is SEO friendly
– The opening paragraph is strong
– The conclusion gives a strong call to action
– The conclusion gets people thinking and hopefully interacting
– There is no real unnecessary information in the post
– That the post is formatted so its easily scannable
Engage: What strategies have you seen blogs use that keep you coming back and interacting? Tell us in the comments.
Howard County Police taken in 2007
Wednesday on my way from hanging out with Mike to my next appointment I was driving and ended up in a right hand turning lane. There was a car in front of me, and then a bus in front of that car…
This is Part 2 of this post: Read part 1 here.
The bus was trying to get from the right hand turning lane into the straight lane. I was far enough back that I could see that this was going to slow things down, so I cut into the shopping plaza on my right and cut through there to make my right turn. Once I’m there I see two cop cars with their lights on about 10 car lengths ahead of me in the right lane. I made sure to get over to the left lane while I could.
This reaffirmed to me that:
Being aware of what is ahead, allows you time to more easily avoid a road block. The longer you wait, the harder it gets to make necessary changes.
Consequences: If I would not have seen the bus and been aware of what it was trying to do, I would have been stuck behind it, and had to wait until all of the traffic going straight passed so that the bus could get into the center lane. Then I would be free to make my right turn.
If I would have not seen the police officers stopped in the right lane I would have ended up right behind them and had to wait for all of the cars that were in the left lane to pass before I could get in that lane.
The longer time you spend getting closer to a road block the harder it is to make a change.
On a Personal Note:
If I don’t do something about my weight now, its going to be a lot harder to do something about it later. Keep praying.
Our Pastor, Jay, recently encouraged us to “fast forward the consequences.” That simple visualization has really impacted me.
Engage: What potential road block do you see that you need to avoid now rather than later? Is it a relationship? Is it a daily habit? Let us know in the comments.
jim baker
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by Jim Baker
Thanks for giving us something to think about. We all have our our stereotypes and assumptions of people.
yeah, stereotypes are gross, I’m glad God is exposing them so I can deal with them. Seems like stereotypes are only resolved through relationship.