Remembering my experiences living in communities

When I was in the New Age cult in 1974 I visited several communes that included one that was on a farm, and 2 that were folks renting apartments in the same area and had an office space rented for workshops and offices.

When I was in the church based rehab in 1975-1976 they had bought many run down houses in a depressed neighborhood near an Episcopal church that was their home base. They renovated the houses in Montrose long before it got trendy and packed the renovated garages, attics and any room with lots of bunk beds. Some people worked at the church but did not take a paycheck. Some worked at secular jobs and brought the whole paycheck to help the household and some stayed at home to shop, cook, clean and watch the children.

I was there 18 months. The first half I was in intense recovery working at the church on the maintenance team with a few other men that did the janitor jobs. We had daily group counseling, quiet times, communion and work duties. The latter half I worked at a hospital and signed over all my check. If I needed a money for a haircut, birthday present or other I asked. There were just a few cars per household.  I could use a car if I needed but that was rare. 

They shopped at the farmers market and bought other items in bulk. They cooked giant batchs of dinners. Those who had secular jobs took sack lunches. So our food costs were tiny.

There were about 9 households ranging in size from 7 to 16 with a core leadership team at each household. Most of us could walk to church that was 4 to 8 blocks away.

We began the day in each house with prayer and Bible study.

We did outreach to the community that was mostly Hispanic. 

There was a Christian coffee house where members interacted with neighbors.

This was at the dawn of what is now called contemporary worship. It was revolutionary to have guitars instead of organs and pianos in the church services. The new songs were mellow and intimate. They had a tour bus that went around the country leading other congregations to worship in this new way.

When I arrived I was a basket case. My brain had been scrambled on over use of LSD. I went on too many acid trips. I was painfully shy socially. I did not trust anyone. I knew I had hit bottom and I needed help. That was a super prayerful community that was genuinely devoted to know God and obey Him. It was easy to get into those healing streams. 

http://www.celebratethewhole.net/Redeemer/memories.htm 

Tell me more about your neo-monastic community

Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

My name is John S. Oliver. I am 64 years old and retired. I have been a committed Christian since the Lord redeemed my life at 23 years old.

Jesus Christ used a church based rehab community in Houston. Previously I abused alcohol and drugs.

I had lived in a New Age commune in Atlanta.

I have never been married nor had any children. But I have been engaged 3 times.

I made a deep commitment to follow Jesus Christ during my water baptism on January 30, 1977. I have been a zealot for the Lord ever since. Such commitment to eagerly follow all the promptings of the Holy Spirit and be a doer of the Word has made me to weirdo in the local churches where I have been a member in Houston and Dallas.

I have been in Dallas since 1985. I lived in East Dallas most of that time.

I have sought God earnestly to know and do His will these 4 decades. I have requested many people to pray for me.

I have prayed about that considered joining lots of missions agencies but that door never opened.

What I have received from the Lord in terms of guidance over and over again has been to apply the latest communication technologies that are being used by the business communities to reach out educationally to make disciples and equip leaders.

I have literally dozens of plans for systematic ways to harness the Internet for reaching and teaching both Christian and secular subjects.

I have been self taught on many techie skills. My current focus is to launch a ministry named Let’s Pray Better that will hopefully include short videos weekly with a practical application worksheet. That will gradually become an ebook and an ecourse. There will be an interactive online community about prayer.

I invest most of my waking hours at the downtown Dallas public library working on this and other projects. For example I preach on Saturdays at a small church for homeless people named Mercy House http://www.mercyhousedallas.org/ Today I am preparing another sermon about prayer that will become part of the ecourse someday.

I have been living at the Dallas Life Foundation homeless shelter https://www.dallaslife.org/ for more than 2 years. It is not pleasant, but it is tolerable.

I receive an income monthly from my social security retirement.

I have a section 8 housing voucher. I have been searching for months to find an apartment that will take this. But the best I have found were waiting lists of 6 months.

I learned about neo-monastic communities on Good Friday this year from a pastor. Before that I had said dozens of times that I would love to live in a monastery. All I want is a safe place to sleep and shower. I want lots of quiet time for online research and writing. I want to be free to pray and meditate often. I would be glad to help with the common chores and outreaches. I just want some simple healthy food.

After literally dozens of people have been praying hundreds of prayers for 10 months I have had zero options to accept or reject. So I speculate that God might be keeping those doors closed in order to open the door to a neo-monastic community.

I have lived in community before twice in my 20s and I miss it.

Please pray for me along this journey and reply to this message as the Holy Spirit prompts you.

Shalom

John S. Oliver

IMPORTANT Answer to MANY Prayers TODAY

INTRODUCTION

Many have been praying for me for many years.

God always answers prayers in His timing and in His ways.

Our challenge is to keep the faith while waiting patiently.

Keep watching for the answers with relaxed high expectations.

Then notice when the answer arrives.  

Then both thank Him privately and testify publicly.

SO this is my testimony of many prayers by many people over many years.

SUMMARY

Here is a summary and the details follow.

Lord willing I will offer these separately soon.

I have wanted to teach online for more than 20 years.

There is not a single book or college course to teach all about it.

There are lots of parts including the planning, creation and marketing.

There are plenty of technical skills required.

I have been self taught from a wide range of online experts.

Each one is an specialist.

None of them know much or teach about the other areas.

TODAY the Lord led me to a ONE PAGE flowchart the puts the parts together.

This eliminates my confusion and overwhelm.

This is my roadmap.

Pray for God to bless me to use this flowchart and start teaching online SOON.

BACKGROUND

I am a lifelong learner. I enjoy learning EVERY day. There are several subjects that appeal to me currently. Mostly I consume Youtube videos, blog posts and some online courses.

It is not a good day unless I have learned something. A HUGE appeal about being retired is that I have LOTS of time to learn daily.

Before the Internet I would invest MANY hours at the library and checked out books, tapes, and videos.

Over the decades I have taught myself such subjects as the basics of management, marketing, writing, public speaking, computer skills, psychology, creativity, time management and many facets of history. ALso I have carefully studied Bible doctrine, theology, apologetics, comparative religions, church history and much more about Christianity.

More than 20 years ago I began to gain an interest in teaching what I had learned. I believed then and now that it could help others. I could offer simple summaries of the huge volumes that I had explored.

After a near death accident on my bicycle I spent a year in rehab in 1996. During that time I took classes at community college on computer software and web publishing. Since then I taught myself to blog, publish short videos and slideshows online.

Later I studied online how to write ebooks, create ecourses and create online communities.

DISUNITY

Due to my small income I could only afford the free lessons, videos and podcasts. Most of those that teach online have a specialty. They give away generous samples of their lessons. This attracts paying customers. Then the prices are like 99, 499, or 2995 dollars.

They share testimonials of those that used their lessons to build an online business. These are not get rich quick schemes. They are ways that real teachers connect with real students and gradually grow an income so that they can afford to leave their corporate jobs.

In order for this to work in the long term the online teacher needs to tap into their passion for the subject and the audience. It is like a marathon with lots of difficulties so passion is needed.

I have lots of passions so one of my challenges has been to FOCUS. I struggled to narrow the MANY potential subjects down to Let’s Pray Better.

I have dozens of mind maps that I have made over the decades. On the mind map for Let’s Pray Better I have hundreds of tiny ideas and a dozen outlines that I used in my Saturday sermons.

I knew that the long term big picture includes weekly short videos with worksheets, short ebooks, an ecourse and an online interactive community. That would be promoted using social media and email subscriptions. I had learned all these facets over the many years from those that were specialist in those fields.

BEFORE today I was just going to start putting part of it online and hope for the best.

BUT by the grace of God things changed for the better TODAY. I believe it was due to answered prayers.

ORDERLY

I came upon a summary that was EXACTLY what I needed TODAY. I had saved the attached document back in 2012. I was not ready then. But I am NOW.

That attachment is 10 pages long. But it is the 1 page flow chart that is EXACTLY what I need TODAY.

The name of the attachment is The Teaching Sells 20-Step Process for Building an Online Business.

This is like a map of the interstate highways that this company has use to lead thousands of others like to go go from zero to livable income. It is like a filing cabinet with 20 folders arranged in a logical way for me to organize my many notes and ideas.

I can start at the early part of the 20 steps and have peace of mind that the other steps will follow when the time is ripe. My problem before had been that my thoughts and feeling kept jumping back and forth all along this timeline.

I have put these on an online  mind map at www.comapping.com that is like my workshop.

I will still need the Convert Kit and several other tools. But now they have a context that will serve not only to get started but also make improvements as needed.

Pray for God to use this to guide my research, plans and especially ACTIONS.

Shalom

John

I turn 64 years old on Sunday April 23 --- Woo-hoo!

SUMMARY

This Sunday is my 64th birthday. There are links to online gift cards that follow.

THANKS to answered prayer my rent is paid up.

Meeting with accountability partner went well last night. He brought fresh leads and challenges. We will meet again next Wednesday for an update.

Preparing sermon for Saturday that is part of the series on how to pray better.

Completed a webinar today on how to build an email list and began 1 month trial of the best service and training I have seen for beginners. The company is called Convert Kit.

Been making gradual progress on preparing the content for launch of online ministry named Let’s Pray Better.

 

When I have learned how to use Convert Kit then I will segment my email lists into those who want just the summaries from those that want the detailed updates. There will be short, medium and long lessons about prayer promoted.

The best birthday gift you can give me is to read this entire message and pray as the Holy Spirit prompts you.

GIFT CARDS

Amazon

https://smile.amazon.com/Amazon-Amazon-com-eGift-Cards/dp/BT00DC6QU4/

Jason’s Deli

http://www.jasonsdeli.com/gift-cards

Whole Food

https://wholefoods.buyatab.com/custom/wholefoods/

DETAILS

BIRTHDAY

I have had an internal debate about if I will share the date of my birthday.

Normally I do not tell anyone. And just my dad and brother acknowledge it. That was fine with me.

But this year I have passing through a very rough patch for a long time. I have known more depression and despair in the last few months than ever before. I could use some encouragement.

Mostly what I need again are your best prayers.

I am a simple man with few needs or wants. My biggest want is to FINALLY launch an online ministry that earns a good income.

I greatly enjoy giving gifts. So to not let those who like to give gifts would be denying them that joy. That is why I mentioned that date and listed the gift cards.

MEANINGFUL MINISTRY

The main thoughts that God has used hundreds of times for many years to encourage me is that my dad is 93 years old and still going strong. Both of my grandfathers lived into their 80s. The life insurance industry says that the average life expectancy these days is about 80. And by the time I get to 80 then the advances in medicine will likely increase that number.

For years people have fussed at me about not getting a job. I told them that in this job market I would get the same kind of dead end job that barely provides me enough to break even. And I would come home emotionally exhausted with little time to devote to my dreams. I have had many such jobs for 4 long and painful decades.

These days Uncle Sam sends me my modest retirement income that covers most of my bills. I still need to look to God to make up some needs each month. But I have 60 hours a week to work on my dream. I do not have to deal with customer complaints, office politics and long bus commutes.

I am most creative from 10 PM to 2 AM. So that motivates me to keep seeking an apartment in order to produce good content.

I admit that I am a recovering workaholic. My life is out of balance with too much learning, researching and planning. I must turn the corner and apply the dozens of lessons I have learned to publish online and market my materials.

The Seven Habits of Effective People includes to Begin with the End in Mind. My strength is to imagine the long term and big picture. Yet my weakness is making the daily implementations. I spend many hours every week on project management and task management. I get lots of things done. But none of those have broken the glass wall between me and the public.

The Convert Kit trial comes with many training materials. They say that the best goal to set is 1 thousand subscribers in about a week. And they have proven systems to reach that goal. With that critical mass then more thousands can be added. It is common for those in this industry to have more than 12 thousand subscribers.

When I am offering a little valuable content on a regular basis to that many people then it will be easy to both get more than enough donations. The feedback from them will help me make lots of short videos with worksheets as well as ebooks, ecourses and an interactive online community.

I have been struggling for decades to improve my prayer life. I have requested prayers to improve my prayer life many times. I have gained wisdom and insights that I am glad to share with others. I have already preached for hours on prayer that can be reworked into tiny lessons.

I believe that lots of people can gain much value from what I have to offer. And I know that after I have a moderate amount of content online that will serve as the initial hub for an online prayer community.

We will pray for each other. That will lead to answered prayers. That will lead to testimonies that glorify God. God will draw many people to this membership site in due season.

CONCLUSION

There are reasons that that it has taken so long and been so difficult.

I have never done anything like this before.

I do not know any person on a first name basis that has created an online ministry from scratch to mentor me.

I have needed to prune the dozens of subject that I would love to teach down to just prayer. Then when I began to fully embrace prayer I realized that it is a huge and complex subject. Only recently have I begun to get the initial sketch of a diagram that will serve as the core of my many teachings. It is a tapestry of dozens of Bible verses.

I think that if I was working toward selling secular products or services online then it would have been much easier. Somehow the world, the flesh and the devil have been attempting to detour me. I intend to bring spiritual light that will dispel spiritual darkness.

I have been studying internet marketing for 15 years from dozens of online experts. I could never afford their courses. So my understanding is a mosaic of all their free blog posts, video and webinars. I know what all the techie parts are and how they can work together. That is why I like Convert Kit because it offers all the basics for the beginner in one integrated system. The founded started this company due to frustration in attempting to get several other services to interact properly.

So my ongoing challenge is to FOCUS. I need to both take action steps to seek an apartment while also learning how to used Convert Kit and harness it to FINALLY launch the ministry soon. Lord willing there will more than enough income in May to pay my rent thanks to progress on this front.

FINALLY

I have heard stories of those that did not tell other that they had cancer. THANKFULLY I do not have cancer. But I can understand the tendency not to admit weakness and vulnerability.

As much as it was difficult to inform you of my birthday, what follows is five times harder.

Henry Blackaby of Experiencing God teaches that God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes and His ways.

I dislike it when God uses circumstances to speak to me.

Troubles finding an apartment has been emotionally and mentally painful yet it caused me to know Him better.

The recent financial pinch has been used to guide me to take seriously the needed steps to not repeat this discomfort. I have spent many hours for the already preparing the initial content about lessons on prayer.

Here is the deal. I have less than 5 dollars to get me to next Wednesday. I have not been this tight since the first weeks I was homeless 2 and a half years ago.

I rarely present the donation link in such a prayer request but here it is in case God guides you to help me financially.

http://www.freewebs.com/jsohub/give.htm  

THANKS again for ALL your prayers.

There is NO way I could have made it this far for the last 40 year without thousands of answered prayers.

Shalom

John

Old and New Housing Search April 18 2017

RENT

Last night I had trouble sleeping. Normally I easily sleep through the night. Maybe my subconscious was more worried than my conscious mind.

Thankfully my rent in is paid up through until tomorrow, Wednesday April 19. It is 7 days until my retirement income arrives. So at 12 dollars a night I will need 84 dollars to close that gap. They may carry me for 1 or 2 nights. But sooner than later I expect God to provide the money.

It has been long time since things were this tight. When I was first homeless 2 and a half years ago this was common. My provision for housing was just a few nights at a time and I did not have a monthly retirement income arriving on the 4th Wednesday.

When I am awake I have peace of mind that somehow God will provide again right on time. But when asleep I think my faith is not active.

What I have been preaching about on Saturdays is centered on improving our prayer life by reflecting on the attributes of God. When I am awake my faith is strong because I know that God is faithful. He is my provider. Jesus is my Good Shepherd. He will never leave or forsake me.

PUBLISH

What I do have trouble with consciously is resisting the feeling of guilt and shame. I have been telling myself and others that I would have published valuable items online long ago. It has not happened yet. That disturbs me.

I keep researching, planning and preparing. But I have not yet gone public. It is my hope and expectation that when that happens then I will reach out to more people who will value my writings, they will pray for me and there will come more income from donations.

HOUSING
By the grace of God my housing voucher was extended for one month until May 13.

I have been reviewing my notes from my previous searches to notice what I might have overlooked or is worth repeating. That is repeating the old way.

Then there is a new way too. During this round I will also explore leads to locations that I has ignored like Fort Worth, Duncanville, Lewisville, Rowlett, etc.

I will also expand my search to some other cities. There are ways to search for those to accept section 8 housing vouchers in other cities that I had ignored. If I get a good contact outside of DFW then I can get another extension. I am especially interested in College Station and Bryan Texas. About 5 to 6 years ago I felt strongly led to move there to work with the students of Texas A & M. Besides apartment complexes the voucher could work with a duplex, garage apartment or rent house.

A pastor suggested that I consider moving into a neo monastic community. I had never heard of these before. But after just a little online research they seem appealing. These are intentional communities that seek to share their lives in a Christ honoring way in the cities and suburbs. They are small and scattered all around the country. They may or may not take a voucher. But all I really want is a place to sleep in peace and Internet access. By sharing expenses I might be able to stay there just on my retirement income. I would likely need to do some chores and that is fine. Plus there are shared spiritual practices and community outreach. What most have in common are these 12 Mark and I align with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Monasticism#.22Twelve_Marks.22

I meet for the first time with my accountability partner about this process tomorrow, Wednesday April 19. Pray for God to guide and bless our relationship.

PHONE

By the grace of God, the Lord provided a phone. I need a carrier. I forgot to mention previously that besides using a cell phone as a clock, alarm and podcast player, I also use it as a hotspot for my Chromebook. That allows me to work online in the shelter after the 8 PM curfew and before the 1030 PM lights out. That is when I am the most creative.  

As I have shopped around it seems that 65 dollars a month is the need for limitless data.

I could do the housing search using the Contact forms of the apartment complexes and wait until Wednesday April 26. But the searching and my life would be easier if I had that carrier before then.

PRAYER
I request your best prayers.

Pray for the Lord Jesus Christ to guide and provide again.

Here are the needs.

84 dollars rent

65 dollars phone carrier
159 dollars total

More would be nice, I have very little money for the next week.

Just like 2 years ago, I requested much prayer when I faced such a situation. Then God gave me the humility and courage. He guided me in who to ask for help. The need was met on time and my faith improved.

THANKS again for your prayers.

Housing Update April 13 2017

HOUSING

By the grace of God my voucher was extended for another month today.

I learned some important details today.

The number listed for a 1 bedroom apartment in the 400 zip codes  is for both the rent and utilities. I had assumed it was just for rent. The clerk there said that the average total utility bills that they pay for a 1 bedroom apartment is about 120 dollars. That means the many fewer apartment complexes are in my range. And when the electric bill goes up in the summer due to air conditioning, then that is on me.

I have no idea how thousands of people have found a place to live using a voucher within these limits.

On the bus route to the housing authority office I saw yet more apartment construction. It was in a heavily industrial area west of downtown Dallas. It is not an appealing neighborhood. But it is proof of the massive demand for housing currently.

I was told that I could transfer the voucher to anywhere else in the USA if I gave them notice before it expired. I mentioned that because if 1500 people move to Dallas daily, then they leave behind many vacancies somewhere.

This voucher could also apply to rent houses and condos if they meet the right criteria.

I asked if they had a listing of the complexes in DFW that they work with that are oriented to serve senior citizens. They said they cannot provide that list because they do not want steer me. I said please steer me.

On Friday I complete the preparations for my sermon on Saturday. And I file my 1040EZ taxes. Pray for these to unfold gracefully.

Next week my plan is to diligently search for apartment complexes within my range including those away from the DART trains that I has avoided before.

For those who receive this both local and out of state please pray and ask around about rent houses or garage apartments that would be willing to be inspected and fall under the ceiling for that zip code. Those are long shots but I do not want to leave any stone unturned.

A member of my church offered to hold me accountable as I follow up my plans to email as many apartment complexes in DFW that are prospects. From those actions I hope to have some appealing prospects. Then I will go to see them in person.

There have been lots of prayers for this already and I am grateful for each prayer. It is my hope that God will not leave or forsake me as I continue on the quest.

Like I have requested before, please pray for God to guide and provide.

DENTAL

I canceled the dental surgery for April 17. I will reset it when we come to an agreement on what is owed. In round numbers one invoice says 1500 and the other with the discounts says 500.

I am not willing to ask for people to support me financially for these implants until I know I have all the discounts that I qualify for. Please pray for to be resolved soon.

PHONE

A gracious family has offered to give me a phone.

It has been strange to not have one. I do not make many calls or texts. But those few are essential. I used a pay phone today for the first time in years.

Mostly I used my cell phone for podcasts and alarms and as a clock.

Podcasts educate and inspire me as I am walking and waiting. They keep my mind occupied in a constructive way. That prevents depressing thought patterns.

I use several alarms repeatedly throughout the week and I use special alarms to remind me of special events.

I am old enough to remember wearing a wrist watch. But my cellphone took the place of that. And with a dead cell phone I recognize that besides the clock on my computer plus at the library there are very few to be seen in my daily life.

Shalom

John