Trailer Park Pastor - The Next Chapter

“This is your last walk home.”

The thought plummeted from my head to my gut yesterday as I paused on the trail that bridges the trailer park to the church parking lot.

The trail itself suddenly seemed sacred to me. If there had ever been holy ground in my life, I was certainly standing on it right then. 
And after nearly five years, this was the final trek.

To be completely candid, I had originally expected this day to come sooner than it did. When I unpacked my life and few belongings into that doublewide in the Fall of 2011, I planned on giving it two years. I had no clue what to expect. I just figured I’d learn a little, teach a little, do some Good, then I’d be off to my next venture.

God, as he often does, had other plans.

For two years turned into three. Then four.

Then one day last summer, my life altered course.

~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a crazy weekend, as most summer weekends are at church. But I remember that day vividly. Due to a fluke (aka a hot, sunny day), a sudden shortage of adults left us a tinge outnumbered by children. Our staff was testy, the children were testing, and I was having a hard time finding a smile to stick on my face.

Luckily, I bumped into someone who had enough smiles to share.

Well, ‘bumped’ might be too tame of a word, truthfully.

A tsunami of kids bounded and bansheed around the corner, bowling me over. But in the middle of the deafening wave, I noticed a smile.

Perhaps I noticed it because it was the first one I’d seen all day.

Or perhaps because the smile stood about twice as tall as the wave.

Regardless, I saw the smile, and when its owner saw me, the smile split into a laugh and shouted “This is so much fun!”

“Well it is, now!” I thought.

I discovered that the smile belonged to a beautiful gal named Elizabeth. At that very moment, she lent me a smile, and a year later I still haven’t given it back. People say it looks good on me, and I tend to agree, so I’m planning on just keeping it. She’s got more than enough of them anyway.

~~~~~~~

In a few short days, I’ll be marrying the girl who gave me my smile.

We’ll be packing my bag and moving it to join hers in a cool little town that has practically everything. Well, everything except a discernable street pattern.

Amid the avalanche of feelings in my head and heart, joy and excitement currently have the lead in delegate counts. Don’t get me wrong… there are other feelings in the running, but there will be no contested convention in my July.

The only thing that outnumbers the feelings in my head is the amount of questions I’ve been asked. And none has been asked more than this: What am I going to do with the trailer?

Will I sell it? Will I move it? Will I turn it into a spaceship? (Kindergarteners rock.)

Well, the much-awaited answer is…

I’m giving it away.

Why?

Because I didn’t pay a dime for it. 

Since someone bought it and gave it to me, the least I could do is give it to someone else.

Although I never knew when I would leave the park, I always knew that whenever it happened, I wanted to give it away.

So as soon as I DID know that I was moving out, I started praying and asking God to send someone who wanted to take over. I didn’t want to have to search. Planning a wedding would give me enough to do.

I asked him to have this person seek ME out, since this kind of work requires a person with high initiative.

I asked him to send someone who would be coming with a roommate, because it’s difficult to do it alone.

I asked him to send someone who could take it over immediately after my wedding, because summertime is the best time to connect in the neighborhood.

And as He has done with every prayer that I’ve prayed about/for this place…

(That’s right… Every. Single. Prayer.)

…He answered it.

About a month later, an intern at our church asked if she could talk to me. She wasn’t in my department, and I didn’t know her well. I’m not sure we had ever had a single conversation before.

Not knowing that I would be moving out, she told me she felt like God was pushing on her heart to do trailer park ministry stuff like I was doing, and she wanted to know how I thought she should go about getting started.

I asked her if she had a neighborhood picked out, and she said she hadn’t.

I asked her if she was planning on doing this venture alone, and she said her roommate was planning on doing it with her.

I asked her when she was hoping to move into a new place and she said they were looking at July. Right after my wedding.

I then asked her if she wanted my house.

Because if she did, it was hers.

No strings attached.

No expectations.

Because that’s how it was given to me.

Needless to say… we are excited to announce that in July, I will be turning the trailer and the trailer park ministry over to Brooke Holtslag.

If you don’t know who she is, you need to. She’s awesome.

And we can’t wait to see what God is going to do through her.

~~~~~~~

There are so many things I could write right now.
And by the grace of God maybe one day I will.

But wedding details await.

So for now, with grateful tears swelling my eyes (seriously, the people in Starbucks must think me crazy), I have one last thing to say today.

Thank you.

Thank you to every person who has supported this journey.

Thank you to every person who…

tutored a park kid

sent a kid to camp

bought a Christmas gift

filled and hid an Easter egg

gave furniture

helped a resident find a job

volunteered at VBS

donated snacks

lead a Bible study

picked up trash
sent your kid to pick up trash

covered a utility bill for a single mom

dropped off a Thanksgiving dinner

planted a flower in someone’s yard

mowed a lawn

raked some leaves

fixed a leaky toilet

painted a wall
lead a game of soccer on the playground

gave a ride to a resident

lead a small group

joined me in praying for my neighbors

loved like Jesus

replaced a window or two (or eleven)

You have no idea how you’ve impacted me.

You have no idea how you’ve impacted them.

You have no idea how you’ve impacted the world.

Thank you for being the hands and feet of Jesus to this community.

Elizabeth and I have NO idea what’s next.

But if the last five years are any indication, we know it’s gonna be one great, wild ride.

“Come further up, come further in!” – C.S. Lewis

Trailer Park Church - How It All Began

My buddy Dan Sadlier asked me to share the cool story of how the trailer park ministry began.

After you've read it, check out Dan's blog here, and make sure to bookmark it, because God's doing some crazy-awesome stuff with that guy and his family. 

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It’s not every day that God gives you a free house.

~~

About two years ago, an idea sparked in my heart, and I couldn’t douse it.

I wondered what it would look like to move into a rough community, a place with a bad reputation, and tackle the darkness head on.

I remember being mesmerized as a child by a book called The Cross and the Switchblade, which centered on the true story of a young Christian minister who moved into NYC and tackled the gang and drug scene, impacting the lives of countless people. I was fascinated by the concept of taking Jesus to the places no one else wanted to.

I’m sure much of this desire was spurred by the story of my own hometown. As a child and teen, I sadly watched the city of Flint crumble while “the Church” responded by hiking up its skirt and rushing to the pseudo safety of the suburbs.

It wasn’t much of a surprise when this spark, this nudge to impact a low-hope neighborhood ignited into a flame last spring. After some prayer and consideration, I felt like God was behind the tug on my heart, and I started looking for such a place.

I spent the summer praying checking out trailer parks in the Pontiac area. Along the way, my buddy DJ volunteered to help me search.

Eventually, we heard about a little park that was tucked away behind the new church building, so we went to check it out. We walked the length of the park on our first visit, praying as we went. With every step, both of us felt an undeniable peace. We knew this was the place.

When we asked our friends about the park, we were bombarded with reasons why I shouldn’t move in:

Pontiac schools.

Highest crime rate in Orion.

Weekly appearance in the police blotter.

Drugs. Poverty. Theft. Invasions. Murders. Convicts. Illegal immigrants. Domestic Violence. Child neglect. Joblessness.

But every reason they offered to convince me that I shouldn’t go only served to solidify my belief that I was needed there.

Because JESUS was needed there.

There was only one tiny problem. 

I couldn’t afford a house.

I could cover the lot rent, and could just scrape by with the utilities, but I didn’t make enough to purchase one. I also didn’t think it would be wise to go into more debt for this adventure. So one night, after one of my many visits to the park, I laid my head on my pillow and did something I’d never done before. I asked God to move a mountain.

“God, open the door for me, and I’ll go.”

I spoke it out loud. I meant it, but I’ll admit, I wasn’t convinced He would answer this one. I wanted Him to, but believing God for BIG things was NOT commonplace in the church circles I grew up in, and was often met with high amounts of skepticism. Nevertheless I prayed it anyway. Couldn’t hurt, right?

Two weeks later, an elderly lady from my church approached me between services and asked me to tell her more about my interest in the trailer park behind the new building. I thought that was interesting, because I didn’t really know her well, and had only told a handful of people about my recent request to God. Word sure travels fast.

She informed me that her and a group of others in our community had been praying for months that God would send someone from Kensington into that community.

They felt like God had assured them that someone would eventually go, so they continued praying and waiting. Also interesting.

I told her all the things I would love to see happen there, things like tutoring, bible studies, community BBQs, rides to church, etc. Then I explained to her how I would love to go but couldn’t afford it yet.

With a knowing smile, she stopped me mid-sentence by grabbing my arm. Then she said something that changed my life, and my faith in the power of prayer.

“We know, because God told us to buy one for you.”

I needed a crane to pull my jaw off the floor.

That stuff only happens in cheesy Christian books.

Or for equally cheesy televangelists who want people to give them money.

This former Baptist boy didn’t quite know what to do with that sort of thing.

So, backed by a group of people I didn’t know (and still don’t know…they wanted to remain anonymous), I returned to the park the next week to find a place to live.

The weeks that followed can best be described as whirlwind of God’s grace, as He dropped the biggest trailer and biggest lot in the park (which hadn’t been up for sale since the day it was placed on the lot in the 60’s) in our lap for $10,000 less than the asking price.

But God didn’t stop there. He provided a slew of volunteers who knocked down walls, painted, and made a large space for tutoring since there is no clubhouse. Then he brought donors to provide appliances, furniture, and flooring.

As a bonus, people gave bags and bags of clothes, toiletries, winter coats, and boots so we could hand them out as a welcome gift to the neighborhood.

I was amazed, and in near disbelief that God not only gave me a house, but added all this extra stuff too. Apparently, I had forgotten how big my God is.

~~

I’m coming up on my one-year mark of being blown away by God answering prayers in a way I can hardly believe.

Although I’m living here alone, I’m not in this alone.  God has brought a cadre of cohorts alongside me, from preschoolers to octogenarians. And in the last 10 months, together, we have…

…handed out Thanksgiving baskets

…given a truckload of gently-used clothes

…prayed with strangers on my porch and in my streets

…called out the enemy and watched him flee

…hosted an Easter Egg hunt and shared the gospel with 50+ kids and their parents

…provided food, furniture, and funds to families in need

…helped those very families begin to start serving others back

…changed tires for the disabled

…tutored over 20 kids on a weekly basis

…taught students to read, create stories, and do triple-digit multiplication

…had tough conversations that college Bible courses never prepared us for

…shown love to people, some who are just seeing it for the first time in their life

And if that’s just year one,

I can’t wait to see what happens next.