Hi all,
Overall, we are doing well. Chris had a bad fall close to a month ago that required an ambulance ride to the ER – the aide had not been trained (as I repeatedly asked for) and didn’t seat belt him into his wheelchair. He bent over to pick up a toy metal plane on the floor and fell out, his left eyebrow hitting the metal tail of the plane. The cut was a jagged 1” or so (2.6+ cm) gash, glued rather than stitched shut due to its location and Chris’ lack of tolerance to allow shots and stitches (NOT!). 2 weeks later, the lower part had opened up again with lots of blood flowing all over his face, shirt, pillows, and such, so another ER visit. Got that closed up last week. The whole left side of his face was bruised, under his eye, eyelids even – he looked like he had lost a fight lol. But he had a great attitude.
One week later, yesterday, in Tulsa while Barb and I were in one of the house church meetings, they called that his wheelchair was broken…(90+ minute drive back) by the time I got there, then home to drop Barb off and get parts (Chris lives 30 minute drive from us), then pieced together parts to fix it I got back home about 7pm…such is life with Chris, lol. We have another wheelchair on order. It is a self-drive wheelchair, meaning it has an arm that Chris moves backward and forward to propel the chair. Expensive, but it allows him the freedom of movement that a regular chair that requires both arms can’t give him. (He only has the use of his right arm)
I mention these things because they caused Barb and I to reflect on life’s priorities.
We were thankful we were spending the day with our house church family, that the Father had ordered our steps. I could have been out of state or out of the country when he fell, and yesterday when his wheelchair broke. But we were just in Tulsa.
I have many opportunities for ministry, but only accept them according to if I can keep my wife first, kids (Chris and Brian) next, and then to ministry. Priorities flow from the heart, but are reasoned out in the mind and applied to life. In John 2: 1-11 Jesus was with his family at the wedding of Cana. In Matthew 8: 14 Jesus stayed at Peter’s home, in 12: 46 and 13:55 they knew of Mary and Jesus, and his brothers and sisters. (Joseph, we understand, had died somewhere between Jesus’ 12th and 30th year of age). In Matthew 20:20 the mother of James and John came asking Jesus for her sons to have places of honor in His kingdom – so she was close enough to know Jesus and what He taught and who He was. In John 7, his brothers are mean to Him, and at the cross, His mother and aunt were there…and so it goes. Tradition says the 120 at Pentecost in Acts 2 comprised the 11 remaining, their families, and some of the 70 who had been sent out late in Jesus’ ministry. Pentecost was a family event.
So in the midst of the greatest ministry anyone ever had, Jesus’ family and the families of some of His closest disciples were with them, woven through the narratives in each gospel…His family, Peter’s family, James and John’s family…If you win the world but lose your family, you’ve failed. The classic Preacher’s Kid (PK) rebel often reveals messed-up priorities. Kids have their own will, I understand, but sometimes messed-up priorities opened the door for their rejection of Jesus in the church package through which He had been presented to them. Being the dad, the mom, the parent, isn’t glamorous, but being a mom and dad are the first and remain the highest calls in life.
If we keep priorities in the right order, everything else falls into place – eventually. At the time, Jesus visited me twice in 2001 and told me to start CWOWI. I was earning a very good living traveling North America, ministering in churches and Bible schools, and one of the featured speakers in various conferences. I went from all that to a few people in our living room, having to get a job for 2 years to support ourselves. I worked in hospice, dealing with end of life care, before CWOWI got to the point of donations I could return to full time ministry. We’ve very rarely asked for money, relying on Christ in people to give from the inside out, not with an offering basket pushed under their nose.
I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count all the pastors who have told me they would love to do church in the home, but their retirement is with the church, or they would have to get a ‘regular’ job, this or that…priorities. Risk. Consequences. Obedience. When the Lord appeared to Paul and told him that he was called to teach Jesus among the Gentiles, the Lord also told him if he would do that, he would suffer great persecution* – priorities always come with a cost. He gives a revelation, we move on it, facing whatever consequences may come in obedience to that direction from our Lord. (Jesus said He would show Paul that when talking to Ananias in Acts 9: 16)
When we were homeschooling our boys and looking at starting a Kindergarten through high school Christian school, a Christian class book salesman told us this: You will pay for your child’s education one way or the other. Either more money and time and sacrifice now to give them the education that will equip them to be successful in life, or you will pay for their education later by having them live with you when they are adults, unable to find a good paying job…priorities.
There was a pastor years ago in a western Colorado City…
…who called me to convince me to join with him in a multi-level company that sold soaps, shampoos, washes and such. A multi-level marketing company (MLM) is where you join and sell to another. Then what they sell gives them a commission, and you a commission as well. Then they sign up someone and they get a commission and get part of that as well. You sit at the top of a pyramid getting part of the commission for all the sales through the people under you. The more people under you doing their own selling, the more you make. People become evangelists for their MLM trying to sell the product and then sign up people who will use and sell the product.
He excitedly told me how most of his congregation was part of his group and he was making thousands of dollars every month from the sales within his congregation. They were using some of the money to pay off the church mortgage and make him a healthy living. I told him he was wrong to use the influence Jesus gave him for the gospel, for personal gain. I told him he would surely lose the church and all he had gained if he didn’t judge himself. He rejected that of course, and within a year he had lost it all.
Priorities flow from the heart.
SO many people serve their ego in the name of spreading the gospel. They think if they preach Jesus in some far off land Jesus will take care of their family. Nope. Jesus wants you to take care of your family. Go into far off lands yes, but only if it can be done as part of the properly aligned priorities in life. The things I shared above were learned and the price paid because for us, ego, making a name for ourselves, getting rich, was never important. Making sure our 3 sons were taken care of was our priority- Barb and I together prioritized our sons above us, above career, above money, above ego. If they don’t all go to heaven, we’ve failed. That’s how we look at life. We know all 3 are citizens of heaven, so we are already successful in life – success isn’t measured by bank account or how many possessions one has.
We learned through the school of hard knocks for there are always consequences to proper priorities. The phone would ring during dinner – I wanted to get it knowing it was someone in our church in need, Barb and the boys reminding me of priorities – don’t answer it, let it ring. Hard on the flesh, my flesh, to let it ring…but after some ‘discussion’ between Barb and I, we made it policy no interruptions during dinner. Period.
When the full weight of Chris’ condition of Cerebral Palsy (and mentally about age 4) became evident when he was 11, we realized he needed therapy and education our small town in SE Colorado just did not have. At the same time we had gone as far as we could with Jason and Brian in terms of home school and church school. We longed for, especially Barb, mom’s heart, to move to a place Chris could get the care he needed and the boys could go to a Christian school that they could attended without further moves through graduation – that meant for at least the next 8 years or so the boys were ages 12, 10, 7. That was the natural realm. In my spirit my heart was larger than where we were in that church and location. But it was the priorities of making sure our sons had what they needed in life that caused me to seek the Father for the spiritual things in my heart. Priorities.
Because we kept things in proper order, I was asked to be the Director of the church Bible school, and one thing led to another. The main reason I resigned after 6 years on staff, in May of 2000 was because the job had become so demanding, sometimes 80 hours a week, that I was losing my family. My sons were becoming distant and resentful. Chris hated the fact I wasn’t there to put him on the toilet and mom had to clean him up, forced to wear an adult diaper because dad wasn’t around to help…and so it went.
I knew if I resigned with my priorities straight, to reclaim time lost with my family, we might suffer financially, might suffer in my career in ministry and such, but we were more confident that if we kept our lives in order, family first, then the Lord would honor that. So when the Lord visited me asking me to ‘start a house church and house church network, and structure it in such a way to facilitate the development of house churches around the world’, I didn’t think twice about giving up a very good paying ministry traveling North American in favor of obeying Jesus to teach a few in my living room. We started in January 2002. Now, with CWOWI affiliates in some 54 nations, we see the fruit of the last nearly 25 years. But it would never have happened if Barb and I hadn’t kept our priorities in right order.
Tulsa conference October 15-18. It is also a celebration of CWOWI’s 25th anniversary so we will have a lot of information, handouts, panel discussions about house church – so please consider joining us! Registrations are coming in so quickly we’ve had to increase our capacity with the hotel.
2027 conference is in England, May 27-30, Yarnfield Park, Stone, England. Registration will be posted later this year. If you’d like to see the facility here is their link: https://www.yarnfieldpark.com
From Brian:
I’m excited to announce the launch of a dedicated CWOWI Podcast with John & Brian.
Many of you know John from over 40 years of ministry experience, teaching, and helping believers around the world grow in Christ. My own journey has included ministry, military service, law enforcement, and a lot of time wrestling with some of life’s hardest questions. Together, we believe this combination of experience helps bridge both generational perspectives and real-world challenges facing the body of Christ today.
Our goal is simple: to have honest, relevant conversations about the issues Christians are dealing with right now. Faith, culture, discipleship, church life, current events, science, scripture, and the practical realities of following Jesus in a changing world are all on the table. One thing that makes these conversations unique is that they are not scripted, not rehearsed, and not heavily edited. What you see is simply two generations discussing real questions, sharing real experiences, and seeking biblical wisdom together.
Our first episode, Deconstructing Faith, explores my personal journey through doubt, suffering, and the process of rebuilding a resilient faith.
If you enjoy it, please consider sharing it with a friend or family member. We hope these conversations will encourage believers, strengthen faith, and spark meaningful discussion throughout our network. Watch Episode 1 here:
KWOWI Kids: You can see in the information above 2 testimonies as examples from our business training efforts. This is an ongoing effort as multiple sources tell us jobs are very scarce in rural Kenya, so starting a business by meeting a need is key to providing for one’s family.
We are in the process of starting a separate fund within the KWOWI umbrella just for helping children who graduate high school continue to receive support through scholarships in higher education. We still need the young children to be supported and are thankful for our sponsors! Your monthly support according to recent statistics of rural Kenya, is about 20-40% of monthly household income. You really are making a difference. Communication with the children is difficult for our sponsors, but there are few smart phones and fewer computers. But we hope that will change in the coming months. Thank you for your support and patience.
Once a child graduates from high school, they ‘graduate’ from KWOWI support, and look for further education. The best ways to start life and provide for themselves is either to start a business, or get vocational or college education. We haven’t wanted to just say ‘goodbye’ to those young children, thus the start of a new fund using specific gifts or undesignated funds to help with tuition and business training. We welcome undesignated donations and those marked ‘education’ for this purpose. More to come!
Thank you once again, for being in our lives!
Blessings! John & Barb, Brian and Amy.
