My Rent is Past Due

I request your best prayers.

May God guide me and provide my needs.

SUMMARY

Today I owe 72 dollars for the previous 6 days at the homeless shelter.

And I will need 72 dollars for the next 6 days until my next retirement income arrives.

The total need for rent is 144 dollars.

And I can use another 50 dollars for train fare, laundry, photocopies, snacks, and more.

So pray for 194 dollars during the next few days with at least 84 tonight.

The following tells how I got into  this mess and how I plan to not repeat this next month.

What I need mostly is MUCH prayer. When I have been jammed up before I sent out prayer requests like this. Then God connected me to people that met the financial need. When you pray believe that God will both meet the immediate need and lead me to a system so this does not happen in the future.  

Please pray and if you feel led to help me then know that any amount will help like 5, 10, 20 or 50 for it all adds us. Here is my Paypal link that will also appear at the end of this message http://www.freewebs.com/jsohub/give.htm

CONTEXT

Today I am 6 days behind on my rent at the homeless shelter. And it is 6 days until my next income from my social security retirement. The rent is 12 dollars a day for a bed, shower and 3 meals. SO I owe 72 dollars for the previous 6 days and I will need 72 dollars for the next 6 days.

I have faith that God will provide right on time just like He has for the last 35 months that I  have been in that shelter. Every month God made a way for my financial needs to be met. Every month it was different. God used that to stretch my faith and improve my trust in Jesus as my Good Shepherd.

Previously the most I got behind was 2 days. This time God gave me much favor with the leadership to be carried this long.

There are a few reasons that I got this far behind. Unlike any previous time God has had me working closely with several other homeless men. Previously I only had brief social conversations. But for weeks God has brought men to me that are in major transition. We have had deep and intense conversations. The Lord has led me to pass to them various helpful resources and to send out prayer requests for them. Here is an archive of those prayer requests https://prayer.mychristiancare.org/profile/3345

For 3 years I helped 1 man at a time over a long period of time. And there were many months that I did not minster directly to any individual.. But recently God brought to me Frank, Ernie, James, Swannie and Chris. I was blessed to serve them in their times of crisis. But that cost me time and energy. Also I made many dozen photocopies.

I saw this financial pinch coming. God use that to motivate me to finally start to publish vlog posts. It took much pressure for me to get over my internal obstacles. Here is the Playlist for the first vlog posts http://bit.ly/2r0RaId

Then as I maintain the healthy habit of vloging nearly each day that will help to grow a support base that will lead to more prayers and more donations.

The vlog is just the first of 3 pillars. The next pillar is the online workshop that I give an overview of here in this vlog post https://youtu.be/GveXTdFb8d0 This will be like a staging ground to share some of my works in progress. I will request comments and suggestions to make improvements before presenting the digital products to the public.

The workshop will have about 5 to 7 projects in various states of completion. Some of those could go online in less than a week and others will take months to reach full maturity. But the online teachers say it is always best to have beta testers.

The third pillar is the online course on prayer named Let’s Pray Better. I have already preached on prayer many times. I have lots of materials that need to be formatted as lessons instead of sermons. I recall when I preached on the armor of God my hands suddenly got bad cramps shortly before I began to preach. I had not had that before. And I did have cramps in my hands when I was just about to put the vlog posts online. Then ended as soon as it went live. SO there might be spiritual warfare that has been making it difficult to teach prayer online.

I have begun to create 3 free websites with 1 for each pillar. I will include Patreon and other ways to receive donations.

CONCLUSION

The bottom line is that NOW I need your best prayers and your generous support.

SO please pray and if you feel led to help me then know that any amount will help like 5, 10, 20 or 50 for it all adds us. Here is my Paypal link  http://www.freewebs.com/jsohub/give.htm

Shalom

Brother John

REJOICE - After nearly a year of procrastination I have FINALLY begun to vlog

I set a goal to publish 30 vlogs on Youtube in 30 days at the end of last summer. 

That goal stayed high on my To Do list ever since.

I knew that in order for me to connect with people online I needed to make lots of short videos. 

I have several online mind maps full of outlines and notes for lessons. But my tendency to excessively research, study, plan and prepare has kept those on the back burner for many years. 

I have invested untold hours studying how to podcast, create ecourses, write ebooks, build email lists and much more. I took many notes today at a webinar on internet marketing.

As a retired man I watch dozens of hours of educational videos and read all kinds of blog posts each month. I love to learn.

I know God has called me to teach and I want to but ... that is where my perfectionism bogs me down. I know that what I consume is done by those that have been improving their craft for years. What I will make initially will not be nearly as polished. I know that rationally but emotionally that has been one of the internal obstacles.

So God gave me this idea to invite others to come into my virtual workshop and observe the works in progress. Get their comments and prayers. Then with a lower threshold of excellence  I hope to get moving forward.

Also I know that a vlog is just an informal chat. It is not intended to be polished. That too is a lower threshold for my internal critic. 

I have an abundance of short messages I am willing to share. So I have organized them into 5 categories that are Family, Friend, Minister, Community Leader and Investment. 

What has had me jammed up the most are my fears of rejection, failure and success. I know that when I confess these and request prayers then they will have less power over me. 

I have used the nickname Brother John for my online workshop because that is what many people call me.  

Also using a vlog is a way to share updates about my seeking housing. 

So what follows are the links to my first 5 vlog posts. You are invited to view them and comment. Also please pray that I will gain as well as maintain the healthy habit of making vlog posts an average of 1 per day.

If there are any technical troubles then please let me know.

Introducing Myself as Brother John

https://youtu.be/-VSYd6U6qfg 

Introducing the Five Kinds of Vlog Messages

https://youtu.be/-h_elA1Nv2g 

Confessing My 3 Biggest Fears

https://youtu.be/zuZolzqhuVY

Update on Seeking Housing

https://youtu.be/jp0Lgm1g9ao

Introducing Brother John's Workshop

https://youtu.be/GveXTdFb8d0 

Shalom

Brother John

MAYBE an open door for housing in Ennis Texas

During the past months I have invested untold hours on online research to find my next housing. I have called dozens of apartment complexes. Most of the rents are too high to be covered by the voucher. Some are not too high but will not accept the voucher. A few are low enough and accept the voucher but the waiting list is 6 months to 3 years.

The reason for my difficulties relates to more than a 100 thousand new jobs in the greater Dallas area added recently. So this article says about 200 move here daily. http://www.jphomesforsale.com/blog/YES+That+Many+People+ARE+Moving+To+DFW+Each+Day

I talked to a friend yesterday that is moving out of state from Dallas. He put his house on the market and in 2 days he had 9 appointments to show it. He had 2 offers immediately. He sold it for more than he was asking in less than a week.

In the middle of this buyer’s market a dear friend from church recommended that I search Ennis. So  yesterday I called many apartment complexes and at first heard over and over that they do not accept section 8 housing vouchers.

I was about to give up. Then just at the end of the day I heard that the last 3 said yes they take vouchers. And they put me on their informal waiting list. I did not need to go there in person to fill out paperwork like those in Dallas wanted for a waiting list.

They have a waiting list but it is much shorter than those in Dallas. One manager suggested that I call every day at the end of May and start of June. Then if someone leaves they will basically bump me to the head of the waiting list.

Also the ones I talked with in Ennis were far more friendly and laid back. Ennis https://www.visitennis.org/ is a small town that is 33 miles south of downtown Dallas. One apartment manager said that some of her residents like it and others miss the big city. They miss all the restaurants, bars, and social activities. I told her that my top priority was a quiet place to read and write. As long as I have access to a grocery store then Amazon will ship everything else I need for my modest lifestyle.

NEXT WEEK

Just because I am on informal waiting lists that is not the end of the story.

I will continue to search next week.

I will expand my search to St Louis where my brother live and College Station where I had felt led to relocate years ago.

There remains a chance that a door for ministry and housing will open in LA. But I do not hold my breath on that.

I have added the Philippines to my list of options. The voucher will not work there. But the cost of living away from the major cities is so low I could live on my retirement income. Every Filipino that I met at the seminary was super friendly. This is at the bottom of my list of priorities but it is a new entry there.

TODAY

I need to focus on completing preparations for my sermon on Saturday. It is part of a long series named Let’s Pray Better. I enjoy preaching. I think others receive my messages well.

I need to move toward ways that my sermon preparations times and visual aids will also become parts of future online messages that will lead to income streams.

I have begun a short course on how to publish videos on Youtube. It is helping me get over my internal barriers that are mental and emotional.

Shalom

John