Tapestry      

If you followed last week’s random thoughts, bless you. It takes a lot of random threads to make a tapestry. One is easily broken but two or more add strength. In the masters hand a beautiful picture emerges.

Community works like that!  All of us are unique and have special talents.  If you think about it for a moment, no one but you can see, feel or experience exactly what you are right at this moment.  Being short or tall your perspective is unique.  Where a child will see lots of legs in a crowd, myself I see heads.  All of your senses of smell, taste and sight are special to you.  Different perspectives are shaped through experiences, culture and the community surrounding you.  At this moment pause for a minute, sit quietly and exercise your senses.

One of the hardest thing of community is “greater good”.  Are you willing to sacrifice “me” for the greater good?  Who determines what the “greater good” is?  If a group of individuals are willing to work together for the greater good of others what is the glue that holds them together?  Discussions of goals, plans, objectives and a host of other terms meant to define one direction. 

Social media and the internet can shape opinions, prove any point and cause dissention.  So who do you believe?  Real news or fake news; pictures and videos; google; and the list goes on.  I have seen friends and family divided over religion and politics.  An old saying, figures do not lie but liars figure.  Now a days the one thing that helps me I call pulse check.  Gut instinct, Holy Spirit, that still small voice, if you occasionally pause, get still and just be quite for a moment you will hear a lot.

I am building blocks toward a bigger picture.  This block helps with community which leads to many opportunities.  Legal Immigration Volunteer Empowerment (LIVE) needs this building block.  The process would be built on a sense of community with military structure.  Individuals, gathered together to help others obtain the dream of freedom.  Military structure means the squads, platoons, companies and battalion over seen by a civilian council.  The Structure of the United States Army is complex, and able to be seen in several different ways: active/reserve, operational/administrative, and headquarters/field.  All of these pieces I will unwrap at a later time.  Basic premise now is to lay out a foundation for the grut in the field, on the front line.

This individual is responsible for pulling together a support community to provide all of the resources needed for five immigrates under their care for seven to ten years.  They will be the point person answerable to their Sergeant for meeting goals and quality of life. Those selected are not paid by the government.  Government social programs will not be a part of the support community.  Volunteers are allowed to be paid by their support community.  Each front line volunteer will have a background check, business plan and health evaluation.  Review committees will consist of the Sergeants, Lieutenants and Captain in their chain of command.   Each of these individuals will have under gone their own review process before serving as volunteers.  These same individuals will also be reviewing the immigrant applicates for placement in LIVE.  Understand this is for Legal immigration.  Those who have entered the United States illegally are disqualified.  Criteria for applicants will need to be spelled out.  For example criminal backgrounds would not be an automatic disqualification but full history of severity, circumstances surrounding the case and other factors will need to be considered.

This is a good start on this piece of the puzzle.

Sir Robert the Bruce.

Copyright 2020

Everybody has story. Your story is built upon life experiences. Some good and of course others not so but all build your character. I would not be where I am today without the trials, successes or fun times.  Recently I finally saw the answer to a 49 year old prayer.  This is a story for another day but through it all I have grown as a person, enjoyed an adventurous life and shed a lot of tears.

  On another point, sadly we don’t teach are kids how to loose. I have lost a lot through out my life.  Winning is fun but not everything. If you sacrifice all then what is left at the finish line. This does not mean that you should not give your best or push through some adversity.  Through loosing and loss I learned perseverance, what is important and how to get back up.

Young men it is time to stand tall and be responsible.  After God, family is second.  

Ladies you are more than your exterior appearance. You are the heart and soul of your family.

Hug the one next to you today.  Now a few more thought before I wrap up this post.

Community is connectiveness.   A community is a familiar thread used to bring people together to advocate and support each other.

Common destiny, a common purpose is one of those threads.

As a Christian, who has accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior you are born again.

Your a chosen people not because you are good enough but because your Dad is the coach.  Had to put this sport metaphor in because I was one of those who was usually picked last.

Are you on Christ’s team?

God’s mercy & grace abounds

We are the light of the world.

It takes courage to stand up to our enemies but just as much courage to stand up to our weaknesses.

So if any of you ever feel like life is too much to handle reach out to someone for help =

Connected community

So how does all of these random thought relate to each other.  Our society is one of isolation.  Social Media has become the norm for human interaction.  I have seen a bunch of teens, sitting in my living room having a group chat amongst themselves online.

We are in this life together.  You should be a part of a real life breathing human being community living life together.  Times are tough and there is no need to go it alone.  Finding that common thread that ties a group of people together is a goal all should have.  Using your story to benefit others along with talents that are your strengths build a community.  Be it combating poverty, helping immigrants or your church & neighbors you will be stronger.    

Sir Robert The Bruce

This week’s blog is called transparency.  While I was setting up the web page security was a big concern.  Not only protecting the site but also me personally.  I have chosen to be more open about who I am and my life in general.  This will allow people to better understand what I have been through and pray fully relate to what I have learned.

Each week I will post on Thursdays.  This will give me time to organize my thoughts and seek guidance. One of the lessons I have learned in life is that if you are on the right path, provision will be given.  Shortly after making the choice to move forward, out of the blue, a donation was given.  This gentleman was from a ministry that I had worked with back in the 80’s.  It was great to see him doing good and prospering.  Another help was my Pastor announcing the church sermon series beginning this month, yep, All In.  This will help me crystalize my thoughts and pull information together. 

 One key I have learned is that we are not perfect and mistakes will happen.  As long as I am spiraling upwards and growing closer to God that is were I need to be.  I am big on lists.  Task list, chore list, who to pray for and the list goes on.  But when it comes to being a good Christian, husband, father, friend and much more there is no How To List.  Bottom line it is a heart issue.  Spending time reading the word, praying and listening are important but being intentional with your choices, attitude and becoming more Christ like is a journey. 

Now a little sidetrack.  My friends refer to me at these moments as “squirrel”.  If you ever saw the movie up you understand.

My theory on Poverty is that I have the answer.  If you are RICH, then you will not be lacking.  Sounds simple enough as most stuff with God can be.  Let me lay it out for you> Respect-Integrity-Community-Have Fun.  This acronym came from the Dwyer Group as their code of values.  I changed the “c” from customer to community.  If you apply these to your life amazing things happen.  Used these principles working with youth back in the day and was blessed to see real results.  My challenge to you is come up with a poverty characteristic and apply a principle.  Need a job, I contend that if you are respectful and have integrity work will find you.  A community surrounding you will provide support and opportunities.  If you do all things with a joyful spirit bounty abounds.  Take you best shot.

My next tangent is on immigration.  Would like to start a grass roots swell of support for an idea.  Sent information to the White House (they have their own plan) and my congressman. 

LIVE = Legal Immigration Volunteer Empowerment   (yea I like acronyms).  Setting up a network of volunteers to mentor immigrates.  Each volunteer has their own support team (church, ministry, business, etc.).  They are responsible for providing ALL of the immigrants needs during set time frames of three, five and seven year goal plans.  Insuring compliance with all state and federal laws plus help them stay on track for citizenship.  People are unique in their talents and interpersonal skills.  The first level are limited to five immigrants (can be a family), five groups make up a squad will be supervised by a Sergeant.  If you know the military you can see where I am going with this.  A key point is that helping immigrants be responsible for completing the steps to citizenship with out government handouts.  This is a community based project.  There are guidelines and restrictions I will share later.  Currently it takes a legal battle to “adopt an Immigrant” so systems will need to be change.   I believe that ninety percent of any problem has a solution.  We just need to work on finding the other ten percent. 

bruce@allinforchrist.online

Copyright 2020- Bruce Brown

For days I have praying and seeking God for a blog name.  Today, while reading a devotional, it presented itself.   ALL IN or ALL OUT

It makes perfect sense when I chew on it a bit.  Yes, I have some country in my blood.  My thoughts have dwelled on content, purpose and circumstances of why I am starting a Blog.   I have been keeping journals for many years, God has been telling me to write, plus over 50 years of being a Christin there is a lot I could share, so content is covered.  For purpose, well that is easy, besides personal experiences there is a lot that has come to my attention in the last few years that needs to be shared.  Blog name, All IN or All OUT, fits the current circumstances to a tee.  In some recent shows I watch, two had a story line of a seal and “when to hang up your wet suite” and a SWAT officer thinking of how much more his body could take by keep kicking in doors.   Both had me reflecting on what I felt and knew in my spirit that now was a time for change.  

This will be a learning curve as I work through the process of maintaining a blog and keeping on track.  Let us start by clueing everyone in on the basic subject matter.  I will also point out that the information presented is copyrighted, see note, with my intention to collect information for book(s).  Another point to make clear is a portion of the proceeds from publications and this endeavor through donations or other monetary gain will go to a nonprofit ministry.

My Goal is to cover three key areas:

1.  The answer to Poverty
2. Immigration – a simple idea
3. Ministry Experiences and Discussion

All three by themselves could be a BLOG each but let us be brave and tackle all.  This will be an interactive Blog with you, the reader, providing guidance and feedback.  Let us all be civil during discourse, open minded and respectful.  Now I will sign off for now and figure out how to get this set up to post.  If you have a preference for which area to start with let me know.

My sign off will be Sir Robert the Bruce

A hero and villain who made some bad choices but in the end was a king.  I admit to some bad choices, having a hero complex but at the end of days just a regular guy trying to do what is right.  I choose ALL IN.   

Copyrighted 2020 Waco New Hope Ministries