I am sorry first of all for not providing updates more regularly, but I wanted to take this time to update you on my family, peculiarplace and all that God is doing and how you can be praying with us.

The last two and half months have been a major adjustment. A good one at times, and well a difficult one at others. The boys are back and in school. Enjoying, so that is something to get up and do a praise dance for…lol Esther and I are in an amazing place as far as our relationship is concerned. Still growing, but enjoying the time and growth as opposed to fighting it. Did I mention my little man, Zion, is now 9 months old!!! Whew! He will be 1 in less than 3 months, where does time go?

At this point, she (Esther) is a full time mom, and I have found myself being a pastor, freelance graphic designer and a potential business owner. With that said, things are tight, or are getting tight. We are needing God to show up in a MAJOR way in our sources of finances whether that is support, or a job for me. My desire is to raise enough support, 2500.00, to pay our bills- rent utilities and car insurance, and get a PT job in our community to pay for the rest of our daily lives. I include numbers because I believe in being specific when going to the Father. A PT job would give me the freedom to BE in the community working versus OUT of the community with a job. I believe God has called us to this community and therefore want every stitch of our efforts, work, toil, frustration & joy to come out of this community.

We have an amazing project coming up next month. God has shown us a possible way to touch the lives of 10,000 people with a simple flier. We are going door to door with a flier we are designing that will ask our community “How can we serve YOU?” on one side and on the other will ask how we can help making this a better community. We will then direct them to a website where they can submit their ideas. We will also provide a phone number for those who do not have computers or cant get to a computer. We will take those ideas and create a list of serving opportunities that will run every month until our public launch. We will also be asking for those who share ideas to get involved and help, a way to get some face time and build relationships with people in our community. To top it all off, i must brag on God, we have a possible army of 200-400 college students who will provide 3 hours of their time to help us pass out these fliers next month!

We had a meeting this past weekend where two important things came out of that meeting. One, we will begin sometime next month, all of us, serving at least 10 hours in the Old Fourth Ward community. Whether that is at John Hope Elementary, the school we partner with, or at a homeless shelter, or at a community clean up… this is going to be somewhat STRONGLY encouraged behavior for the peculiarplace launch team and then the church when we go public. Imagine a community where 80% of your church membership spent 10 hours somewhere, someway affecting the lives of others by giving up a small amount of one of the most precious commodities, time. That’s what we are striving for!! Serving Groups!!! We want to BE the church Monday through Saturday, giving us a REAL reason to come together and celebrate on Sunday!!

Also out of that meeting we discussed finding a person or couple to begin mentoring/discipling. We are all praying right now for God to openly make plain and share with us who in our lives or what “perfect” stranger He would have us invest in!! God is going to do something BIG here I know He is. Again, this is something we are starting today, that will continue long after we launch.

How can you pray for us & peculiarplace:

1.)Finances, we all could use more right now, but this is a prerequisite to us being able to live in the community God has called us to serve. Pray that He open doors for support, that He opens doors to freelance design gigs, pray that He multiply seed sown!

2.) A successful flier, “survey project” next month. We possibly have the man power, but we need funds to purchase fliers(270.00), tshirts 500, water for army of volunteers, & snacks(150.00). Pray that God through this simple flier awaken His sleeping spirit in this community. Pray that lives will be invested in, hearts will be changed, minds renewed, hope restored & that peculiarplace will be in the position to Shepard those who heed the call to be a part of what God is doing in O4W. Pray that the lives of those college students will never be the same after this project!

3.) Pray that our volunteer hours spent in this community are not in vain. Pray that Lives our touched, relationships are built, God is Glorified in our efforts to serve this community through a number of venues. Pray that doors are opened to new and innovative ideas in which we can serve this community in the future. Pray for our safety as we venture into realms outside of our safety zone in our volunteering efforts.

4.) Pray that Esther and I will come up with the finances to make two very important trips next month. One is to Houston, TX for an assessment. The other is to Tenn. for an amazing opportunity to be in the presence of people who can teach us and build relationships that may lead to partnership.

5.) Continue to pray that our marriage, our ability to parent, our ability to be sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, as well as friends continues to look like the image God has created these relationships to look like. We must first be an example of His Grace, Mercy & Redemptive Power before we can ever honestly share Him. The evidence MUST BE evident in our lives!!!!

Thank you and let me know how we can pray for you, because I BELIEVE HE IS A GOD WHO ALWAYS, and I MEAN ALWAYS, ANSWERS PRAYERS!

Love you!

GIVING BIG… GIVING BACK… GIVING BEYOND OURSELVES!

What are you waiting on? Why do you assume that hoarding  and heaping material, physical, mental, emotional and even spiritual benefits, blessing in a safety deposit box, saving account or your heart are whats going to satisfy you in the long run? People are hurting, dying, and losing everything right around us and yet we do nothing. OK, well we do Christmas, Thanksgiving and if they are lucky we do Easter. We go out and “give” to the “needy”. I am generalizing, and understand there are those who actually get it and GIVERS are who they are and GIVING is what they do!

peculiarplace, GIVING is a MUST! It is not some line in the Bylaws or some slogan that sounds great on marketing material, but it is who WE are! He is and has required it of us, so make no mistake, it is a principle that will be a building block for our celebration/gatherings as well as our daily lives. Give what? Give of your time, we have adopted John Hope Elementary School and will continue to pursue that relationship with a ferocious fervor. Give of your monies, we blessed Old Fourth Ward last Christmas by randomly giving away 2000.00 worth of Visa gift cards to the community. Give of yourself, your dreams, ambitions, love, heart, strengths, business, network, and and and… the list goes on forever JUST BE PREPARED TO GIVE AND GIVE BIG at peculiarplace.

Imagine a community in the heart of the city, who was not only proud of the community itself and its history, but proud of each and every individual in that community who COMMITED to play a part in making Him famous, bringing the community together, the schools better, the neighborhoods safer and bringing a nonnegotiable peace to the  life of its residents!!!

That is peculiarplace….

Not the crap we see on television, that “out the side of your neck love” that most of us have experienced in our lives that have left us broken, searching, insecure, hiding, lonely and afraid to be vulnerable, but the LOVE that only He can share through us with anyone and everyone willing to receive it!

What’s the difference? I believe today we have dressed tolerance up in drag and called him love, hoping to fool those on the receiving end into thinking we actually would go to the ends of the earth for them. Hoping that they never see through our facade as we move across the room from them or ignore their plea for help. TOLERANCE IS NOT LOVE!

We are creating a place, a gathering, a community of “the church” for anyone and everyone who is curious, frustrated, broken, at their wits end, wanting more out of life, wanting to change their life, wanting to encounter face to face the God of truth, love and life, anyone who just is fed up with what they have and where they are and a place where LOVE truly RULES.

A place where all decisions are made in love, where we are treated with love and CORRECTED with love.

We are creating this place, this gathering, this community of “the church” in Old Fourth Ward, a historic and beautiful community in the heart of Atlanta!

We would love for you to be a part, whether physically, through prayer or giving (it takes money to do His work and if it were to fall from the sky… it would be counterfeit). Think about it, pray about… I would love to hear from you either way send emails to lowens@peculiarlove.com.

We ordered these last night and they have shipped today. I am so excited, even after i said a million times I would not do fliers, well I guess i have to take that back dont i. You will be seeing the “making Him famous” a lot more in the very near future as you ride through downtown Atlanta and the Old Fourth Ward. So be on the look out.

I designed this flier to simply spread the love about our soon to be released peculiarlove website. A website we decided to create to share with you and others the work in the community we plan to engage in. Our first effort came during election, and this weekend we are doing our GiveBack, where we will place $2000.00 worth of gift cards in the mailboxes and hands of the residents of Old Fourth Ward. Shhhh! They don’t know yet, so don’t tell them!

Looking forward to your thoughts on the flier and the website as it launches – really hope you add your stories to the peculiarlove website!!

With 182 students, the majority of them being boys, the teachers and admin are doing an impeccable job with these little darlings. The principle Dr. Ashley in her first year and a half has already seen to some important changes and improvements.

So why adopt a school that appears to being on a track for success? Because everyone deserves to be pushed, helped and given a chance or the tools to succeed. I am so sure that this is the school we adopt, that i have already committed to helping with as much as we can, and working on ideas and strategy to get things done!!

What do they need? Volunteers!! uniforms, supplies, did i mention volunteers, monies to be able to take field trips. I am making it a priority to engage the community of Old Fourth Ward, the students of Georgia State and Morehouse to assist us in our volunteer efforts. I plan to seek help from John Hope get a chance to experience LIFE outside of their neighborhoods.

My thoughts are all over the place, my passion for our children’s future and the restoration of a sustainable and successful public education system are second behind my passion for seeing these kids and their parents who are far from God be led to living a lifestyle centered in Christ!!!

Until later.

In just a week or so, peculiarplace is going to do for the first time something we plan to do forever! Give Back! At a time when so many people are hurting, so many shelters and food pantry’s have more people in need than food, we wanted to provide some people with a little something to maybe help them have a glimpse of Christmas.

I ordered these bad boys today and cannot wait until we get them. I have been so blessed to be surrounded by a family and launch team who are givers and believe in sacrificial giving! I love my crew!!

So, here is how it is going to work. We are simply going to ride around Old Fourth Ward, jump out of the car and place a gift card, denomination between $10.00 & $100.00, in their mailbox!!! We plan on saving at least twenty of the cards to walk through, Underground, Five Points Station, as well as Auburn & Edgewood Ave., putting these cards in the hands of individuals we randomly pick out. We plan to do the face to face action two days before Christmas and be “mailbox bandits”, striking at anytime when the gift cards arrive.

We are also creating a website to allow you and others to tell us how you are giving back, what you might be doing for someone in need this Christmas, and also a chance for those who received the cards to tell us what they did with their “extra” money.

What do you think?

A place where no matter who you are, where you are from, no matter how imperfect you have been, no matter what you look like, how much money you make or don’t make, how or where you last went to church or whether or not you have never been to church, you will have a home here.

A place in the heart of Downtown Atlanta that is insistent on changed lives, that desires to create lifestyles patterned after the Kingdom of God, where sharing your heart is crucial, judging is unacceptable and JESUS LIVES.

A place where the Gospel is taught in a relevant, effective and easy to understand fashion for ALL to understand and ALL are able to apply to their everyday lives.

A place where WORSHIP SERVICE VOLUNTEERING JOY CHANGE GROWTH HOPE GRACE POWER & FAITH are essential.

A place where baptism is physical evidence of life change.

A place where we only do the things that we are really really really good at and leave the rest alone!!!

A PLACE WHERE YOU and YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS ARE WELCOME!!!

Welcome to a peculiarplace…