PAINFUL Dental and Housing Update March 22 2017

DENTAL

I talked with a clerk at the dental school and learned that the students are on spring break this week. Pray for me to make good contact with my dental student next week.

May we come to an understanding of how much money will be needed to complete the implants.

According to my understanding there is hundreds of dollars of difference between the invoice provided in November versus the invoice provided in February. I might be wrong. Or they may need to apply what I understand is a large discount.

HOUSING
I went to the Housing Authority and got a one month extension on my section 8 voucher. Thankfully that went smoothly.

I picked up a revised list of the maximum rent paid for apartments in DFW. There are dozens of zip codes in this area. The maximum varies from one zip code to another. Most of those maximums increased by 50 to 70 dollars. That made me happy.

I spent hours online using this new list but I found that most apartments charge more than that maximum. That was discouraging.

I continued to expand my search scope. I went from the most desirable to just about any option.  I set up a spreadsheet to collect the data on the few that feel within my range.

Then yesterday I called many of them. I found that most do not have vacancies in the next few weeks. Those that said that they might said that they do not accept section 8 vouchers. That was mentally and emotionally painful. It was like I hit a brick wall.

Over the recent months I have wrestled with internal resistance. I have procrastinated. I have had all kinds of internal excuses. I prayed and I requested much prayer.

My initial goal was to do my online research including the comments of residents. Then go visit the best prospects. Narrow those to a 4 to 6 complexes that would be acceptable. Then choose the one that was the best. My intention was that I would have peace of mind after such a filtering process. When I finally relocated I would have found the best possible option.

SENIOR

While reflecting on all this yesterday the Holy Spirit prompted me to next seek help from the senior services agencies. While I have a gray beard and I am 63 years old I do not think of myself as old. Yet those people have helped lots of others like me to navigate the housing obstacle course.

During my investigations I did bump into a few listing of senior resource centers, I have no idea right now how many there are or what they offer.

Pray for God to guide me in exploring this avenue. May I soon get connected with the right agency and get the right caseworker or how ever they help people.

When I worked at the seminary God used me to help several disabled people to find help within the government agencies and Christian organizations. Often they would take a bus to the far side of the city to wait a long time to meet briefly with a person. But more than half the time it was a waste. They got the runaround with a list of others to go to see. Or they were put on a waiting list that never ended.

So I fear such waste and discouragement going down this new avenue. Surely God can guide me and God will provide right on time.

FEELINGS
Recently I have been thanking God that while I experience feelings, they do not dominate my life.

Typically for me feelings come and go like clouds that pass over in a clear sky. But lately there have been more dark clouds than usual.

I have felt frustrated, aggravated, depressed, discouraged, helpless, hopeless, disparaging and more. Mostly this is related to the housing search.

Pray for me to best cope with these feelings.

SERMON

Thanks to answered prayers the first sermon in the new series on prayer went smoothly on Saturday. I have dozens of ideas in my notes about prayer. So this will be a very long series.

I feel prompted to preach on the armor of God as it relates to daily prayers for this Saturday. I request your prayers for the preparations and delivery of that message.

My audience is mostly African American men that are homeless. Most of those grew up in the church as a child. They have an active faith walk. They have heard every Sunday school lesson lots of times.

Pray for me to do a good Bible study about the armor of God. May God use me to bring fresh understanding to this familiar passage.

I want to make this and all my messages both theologically rich and packed with practical applications.

Due to the hardships that I have been coping with and that they face may that part of the Bible in Ephesians 6:10-18 become alive and very useful.

Lord willing I will offer a handout for those who attend and others I will meet later. One side will have this diagram of the armor of God http://www.freewebs.com/simplelessons/PDFs/Armor_of_God_--STAND.pdf and the other side will have related Bible verses.

SPA

Along this bumpy path I have felt weary, worn and emotionally exhausted. I have sensed the edges of burn out. I have wrestled with the willingness to keep moving forward.

Due to my very thin cash flow I do not have many options to take a vacation.

I do not have a car or much money to spend on myself. Yet I need to take a break from all the matters mentioned previously. I need to get away from the pressures, people and screens for a while.

Thankfully I came on a day spa in the area called King’s Spa http://www.kingspa.com/dallas/  I met a man at church that had gone to that family oriented spa. He enjoyed the relaxation and strongly recommend it to me.

That has been in the back of my mind. Then 3 things happened. The El Centro Community College library stopped welcoming the public 2 weeks ago. It is part of their increased security measures. Recall they had an active shooter there last July.

I had been going to the downtown Dallas Public Library across from City Hall. They will be closed on Friday March 24 for a staff training.

So I could go hang out at a public park or at the shelter or go to the day spa.

Pray for me as I intend to stretch my cash flow to go to King’s Spa this Friday. If you want to help me with that cover charge and to buy food there then here is my Pay Pal link

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

CONCLUSION

I heard a podcast that made a statement that indirectly comforted me. I forget who the speaker was but the sentence that stuck went something like this: lasting change or character development comes from suffering or love. That is just the way things are.

So my character will be better when this housing adventure is done. But just now it is painful.

THANKS again for ALL your prayers.

God is answering your prayers in His timing and in His way.

Shalom

John S. Oliver