Snowskating!!!

     Hey...guess what we're doing on Saturday?  We get to officially open our outdoor snowpark!  Joel's Place offers a lot of great indoor options during the winter: skateboarding, BMX biking, scootering, concerts, free food, games, art, crafts and more.  It does a lot for our kids to be able to run and play during the long, cold winter months.  But there is something that Alaskan youth are missing if they are always indoors during the winter.  We are built for the cold and the snow.  This state tests the limits of what the human spirit can accomplish and that is the exact mentality of our members.  We now have winter outdoor recreation options and I could not be more excited about the prospect.  We will have ramps and rails that our kids can ride their snowboards or snowskates or sleds down...whooping and hollering all the way.

     Wait.  What's that?  You have never heard of snowskating?  You've heard of snowboarding and iceskating and skateboarding...but never snowskating?  Well consider yourselves planted onto the cutting edge of winter sports youth popular culture.  Imagine skateboarding on the snow...with no wheels...but without your feet strapped onto the deck like snowboarding.  Imagine the jumps and spins and grinds and flips of a skatepark...only covered in ice and snow.  The feel of a snowboard but with the control of a skateboard.  This is snowskating...now available at Joel's Place.  Where can you find a snowskate to purchase for this amazing activity, you ask?  Snowskates now available at the Joel's Place Ride Shop.

     We have a number of community supporters who have come alongside us to make this park happen.  Dan Cook and Josh Poe from Gripall have spearheaded the entire project, carving out hours from their schedules to help plan and build the park while putting this event on.  We are really grateful for those guys and eager to see how this new option changes Joel's Place.

     Feel free to swing by on Saturday the 13th between 4-8pm to see the new area...It will be the fenced in spot with music and food and a bonfire and a steady stream of whooping teens flying down the snow-covered ramps.  Hope to see you there.

The Joel's Place Staff

 From Left: Arlys, Sarah, Jacque, Tami, (Kneeling: Spencer and Jay), Leah, James, Colton, Johhny, Mark, and Kelli

These amazing people that you see up here are the staff members at Joel's Place.  We are actually never in the same place at the same time so it was a minor miracle to be able to gather us all for a picture at Ramp It Up.  We all have different backgrounds and abilities and there are different things that have drawn us to working at Joel's Place...but I am proud to call each one of them Joel's Place staff because they work really, really hard to make our Youth Center an amazing place for every single teen who comes through our doors.  The staff are a combination of quiet and loud, short and tall, athletic and...not, musical and...not, artistic and detail-oriented.  But they are all devoted to their faith and seeing the lives of the kids at Joel's Place transformed for the better.  I am honored to work with them all.

 Joel's Place is not always the easiest place to work.  There is a lot of drama that our members bring in with them.  There are cash-flow crunches.  There are things that break and take a while to get fixed.  These are part of depending on charitable giving and volunteers.  The pay is...better than minimum wage.  Everyone is here because they believe in the mission and want to make the world a better place by investing in these kids.  When problems arise the staff are good-natured and flexible, working to help solve the problem instead of becoming disgruntled and lashing out.

Over the next few months I would like to share some of the stories of our staff: where they came from, what brought them to Joel's Place and why they stay.  I am fascinated by these people and think your life will be better if you get to know them.

Thank you for your support and encouragement.  From all the staff here at Joel's Place:

Have a Joyful and Blessed Christmas Season!

What do you do for Black Friday?

     I hope that everyone had a spectacular Thanksgiving filled with laughter and fellowship and food.  Lots and lots of food.  My son, the 12 year old, ate himself silly yesterday.  He had an enormous dinner and then went off to play/read/watch Food Network.  Half an hour later he came back to the table and loaded up another massive plate of turkey, stuffing, potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, veggies, rolls, cranberry fluff and gravy.  Here's how our interaction went:

• Me: Son...are you hungry again?
• Boy: No.  I'm still stuffed.
• Me: Son...why are you piling food on your plate if you are stuffed?
• Boy: When I get hungry again I won't have to wait to dish everything up.

He then disappeared again.  In another half hour he was at the table devouring half the food on his plate.  He then groaned, staggering away from the table.  I watched this cycle repeat a couple of times yesterday.  My wife suggested that he is probably growing.  I told her to brace herself because this may not be a growth spurt...this may be the new normal.

What do you do for the day after Thanksgiving...other than avoid the scales?  I know a lot of people who shop.  I worked in retail for a couple of years and so at 2:30 on Black Friday morning I will wake up...look at the time...smile and then go back to bed...thankfulness and gratitude for this job washing over my body.  I know a lot of people who pull out their Christmas decorations and dive into setting up for December.  I know a lot of people who eagerly attack the Thanksgiving leftovers, vehemently claiming that the food is better on the 2nd day than it is on the first.

Here at Joel's Place we take a different approach.  We pull a Groundhog's Day.  We do Thanksgiving all over again for our kids.  Most of them had a chance to eat yesterday.  Some did not.  All of them are like my son who inhale food like oxygen.  We cook up a complete Thanksgiving feast with turkey, potatoes, green beans, pies and stuffing...remember the stuffing.  We will eat together as a family and then have a night full of entertainment and games.  We will have an open mic and talent show.  There will probably be some magic tricks involved.  We will have a stuffing carving contest...3D sculptures made out of stove top that are guaranteed to incite laughter and awe.

The Holidays are about joyful celebration, no matter what home is like for you.  Here at Joel's Place we have the privilege and honor to have Thanksgiving with these amazing young people...even if it is a day late.

Have an incredible holiday season!

The Business of Gratitude

     40 years ago I was born on Thanksgiving.  The doctor called me a turkey...I am still working through that.

I have been trying to write a post on Thanksgiving and Gratitude all day.  It seems appropriate with the national holiday coming up this week and having just completed our Ramp It Up Fundraiser this past Friday.  As I worked on a variety of approaches and angles for this post I came upon a profound realization: I work in the business of Gratitude.  We are usually grateful when we receive a gift that fills a need that we could not meet on our own.  Our culture frowns upon having needs, especially needs that you cannot meet with hard work and determination.  Fundraising is viewed as a necessary evil, grant writing just a little more dignified.  I had someone come up to me after our dinner and tell me what a great job that I do in begging for money.  I had mixed feelings over that statement.  On the one hand he said I did a great job.  On the other hand, the implication of begging is that there should be a better way for us to pay our bills.  I chose to take the compliment and move on.

Here's the thing.  When we are speaking about high-risk youth...from the entire community...who stand at the crossroads of their lives...who come from traumatic childhoods and are looking at adult lives that do not hold much promise...when we are talking about hundreds of young people who just need a little help to turn the direction of their lives around, that need is bigger than me.  It is bigger than me and my staff.  It is a community issue.  And it is a community issue that cannot be dealt with in the same way as other issues, because the young people at the very core have no voice.  So we have created a place where the voices of the marginalized can grow so that they can speak into the community dialogue and take ownership of their own narratives. 

So Joel's Place exists due to the generosity of this community.  This building is paid for, heated and populated due to the members of Interior Alaska declaring that our youth are important through their giving.  You give time, money, food, paper towels, lessons, video games and concerts.  You allow me to bring in the best people who call out the best attributes of these young men and women.  You pray for us. You encourage us.  You volunteer to clean up after us.  Because the need is just that valuable.

And so I find that a central piece of my job is to say "Thank You" and show you that we hold your gifts as precious and seek to use them to further this mission as best we can.  No one likes giving to a lost cause; no one wants to fund a sinking ship.  One of the central pieces to this entire blog is to show that your gift is valuable and we seek to honor it by using it for these young people who hold such promise.  Our gratitude should be expressed not only in words, but also in actions as we treasure every $10, $100 or $1,000 gift that is entrusted to us.

Joel's Place is a community endeavor.  Thank you for joining with us in raising up this generation of Alaskans. 

Ramp It Up 2014!

     You know how sometimes your schedule is a little slower than usual because you are waiting on everyone else to get back to you?  And then sometimes your schedule is a little bit more full than usual because everyone decided that they would call you back within the same half hour with urgent requests that had to be accomplished before their project could progress?  November has been the latter scenario for me.  Life has not been bad.  Not chaotic or catastrophic...just a little frantically busier.

     If you have not heard by now, we have our annual fundraising dinner coming up in one week (more on that later.)  We also received the go-aheads from 4 separate grants within the past week, meaning we could start buying things or recording things or building things or paying for things or hiring people...and every single one of those options included different paperwork.  Thanks to these grants, we are going to be able to:

• add more security cameras
• renovate the hallway rooms to increase security and functionality
• add an arctic entry and put up some more outdoor lights
• serve meals to 30+ kids at the Boys and Girls Club everyday
• fix our front door
• get more heating fuel
• add a Fund Development Director onto our payroll

It is worthwhile work, it just all kind of came at once...and came at the same time as

RAMP IT UP 2014!!!!

     I am so excited for this event.  Start off with a great location.  Thank you Friends Church for your help in this!  Now add an amazing dinner.  Those of you who attended last year know what I am talking about.  Jameson Kapec put together a spread that kicked off the holiday season in style and he's working on it again this year.  Our ride team will be helping serve, bus tables and generally be courteous and honorable young men and women of character.  One of the Board suggested that we let them ride so that every table could have "Skater Waiters."  No.  There is only so much good behavior that I want to ask of these great kids.  Preston Pollard is going to be speaking.  He is a professional skater that grew up in Anchorage and now travels around the world, inspiring young people.  He's going to be great.  Then you get to listen to me talk about how much progress Joel's Place has made in the past year and how we are going to leverage one great night (Ramp It Up) into a year of Free Skating for the kids.  We will start at 6 and be done by 8 for those of you who are concerned about fundraising events that drag on for 5 hours.

     Ramp It Up is a chance for the entire Joel's Place Family, everyone who really loves this place and these kids, to come together and celebrate as we move forward.  I hope to see you there.

If you do not yet have a ticket!  There is still hope!

     Tickets are going quickly, but we actually have a few table sponsors who are not able to fill their tables.  The tickets are prepaid (that means free for you)  and I would love to have as many people as possible during the event so e-mail me and I would love to hook you up with some seats: 

joelsplacealaska@gmail.com  

Next Friday, the 14th, will be a lot of fun.  I hope I can see you there.

Voices from the Past

Every once in a while we will get a note from someone who used to frequent Joel's Place and has now moved on in their life.   Kelli received one such letter this week from someone who needed a letter of recommendation for some future opportunities.  I thought I would share what I could:


Hey Kelli-
     Thank you for your time, and on such short notice. I appreciate it! I feel you can write a strong recommendation because I spent a lot of time at Joel's Place, and you can really see how I have grown mentally and academically throughout the years.
     I considered Joel's Place a second home when I was struggling at home and in school during my first two years of high school. Chris helped me a lot by tutoring me and Leah and you and Emma have been important people in my life, you guys really helped me out through a hard time. My freshman year, I was suspended from school and chose to do my about 20 hours of community service at Joel's Place, and the work I did there and the help I got there really helped me. It was during a time when my brother was very sick and my grades suffered, and I got in trouble for partying. I really felt the support and care you all gave me, like a family. You guys do wonderful things there, giving out free meals, tutoring, having awesome teen events, and helping underserved youth like myself in Fairbanks. Joel's Place helped me turn my life around.
But anyways, I wanted to share that with you so you could think about that. I really grew during my time at Joel's Place. Now, I am doing so much better- I feel like this is the happiest I've been in years. I'm in a really good place, applying for colleges, scholarships, being a part of the community, and learning more about my culture. 

 __________________________________

     I can wax poetic about the benefits to the community that Joel's Place provides.  I can write grants, raise funds, and put on events...but it is all empty unless lives are being changed.  This has been the best news that we have received in a long time and I am so proud to be part of an organization that has such a well-established legacy of transforming the lives of Alaskan youth.

     Special note: If you are a JP alum, write us and tell us where you are and how you are doing.  We would love to hear from you.

Gearing up for winter

In all the years that I have lived in Alaska, I have always had a white Halloween.  Sometimes it is snowy and warmish, like in the 20's.  Sometimes it is snowy and cold...as in -30 cold.  But there is always snow and it is always pretty dark.  Growing up we would go trick-or-treating door to door in our neighborhood with our costumes over our snowsuit/facemask/mitten attire.  I know that when the calender hits September 1, we are well within the range of snow that stays until spring.  I realize that is not true in other parts of the world...but that is the environment that I grew up in.

So here we are in the middle of October.  There has been a thin layer of snow for a couple of weeks, the temperatures are getting colder, the amount of daylight is growing smaller.  It is winter or at least the introduction to winter.  This is the time of year that residents of Fairbanks feverishly work to get their homes set up for the next six months by taking care of the last few details that they have not accomplished yet: putting away yard tools, disconnecting garden hoses, covering gardens, putting on snow tires, etc.  Here at Joel's Place we also have a few things that we are doing to get prepared for the snow and cold.

• Training the staff.  I just got out of a staff meeting where we covered winter protocol.  We have 11 staff here at the moment and it is important for us all to be on the same page.  Unlocking doors so kids are not trapped outside.  Making sure doors are closed and everyone knows where to look to see if we are closed for cold weather or not.  Small details that will go a long way towards happy and productive staff.
• Winter Programs.  The new season brings new programs...and lots more paperwork for me.  We are launching into another season of our CACFP feeding program; this year we are providing meals for both Joel's Place kids and the youth of the Boys and Girls Club.  We are building a snow park for snowboarding, snowskating and sledding here on the grounds.  We have our Red Room Concert Series and lots of development programming on the horizon.
• Ramp It Up!  Our annual fundraiser is November 14th at 6pm at Friends Church.  We are looking to raise enough money to cover free skating for the entire 2015 year!  Ambitious, but I think we can do it.  Let me know if you are interested in attending this amazing night.
• Parties, parties and more parties.  Between Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years (not to mention my birthday) the next 75 days are going to be filled with celebration and fun.  I know we are looking for candy donations for this coming Halloween party if you are interested.
• Facility work.  We have a couple of grants that have come in that will be upgrading our building.  We will be remodeling the downstairs, adding more security cameras, building the snow park, putting up an arctic entry and increasing a few security measures throughout the center.

Other than that...not much going on.  If you are interested in joining us on any of these endeavors, please feel free to drop me a line.

Winter is coming...and this year will be amazing here at Joel's Place!
Thanks for all your support,

James

10 years

     Where were you 10 years ago?  What was your life like then?  How have you changed in the past decade? 

     Kelli and I were talking recently and she said that she had this realization:  Joel's Place will have influence on the lives of these kids for 10 years, sometimes more.  10 years of a safe, affirming environment.  10 years of free meals.  10 years of lessons and concerts and events and parties.  10 years of mentoring.  The potential for transformation is enormous.

     Where was I 10 years ago?  I was still in Fairbanks but I that was before my 9 year old girl and that was before my 2 year old girl.  That was before I had even heard of autism, much less analyzed what kind of impact it would have on the life of our family.  That was before I worked at Joel's Place, before I worked at Sears, before I worked as a youth pastor at 1st Presbyterian.  I was working two jobs with InterVarsity and Northland Wood during the day and doing what I could to help out around the house in every other spare minute that I could find.  There was not much money and even less sleep to be found around the Menaker house.  We were a couple of years into planting the ministry at UAF and I was dreaming about being a campus minister for the next 20 years.  I had no idea...of so many things that were to come. 

     In the past ten years I have learned how to laugh and have fun; how to have authentic conversations and authentic faith; how to lead instead of dictate; how to let go of despair and cynicism; how to speak in public and write in private; how to listen without judgement and advise without a desperate neediness; how to build a plan; how to hope; how to suffer with grace...and how to braid hair.  It's not a bad list.

     Just imagine how the life of a young person can change in 10 years.  Imagine the difference between a 10 year old boy and a 20 year old man.  Imagine he has had an entire support network investing in him and building him up for a decade instead of being abandoned and left to his own devices.  Imagine all the thousands of pounds of food he will have eaten that have kept his mind sharp and his body growing.  Imagine the hours that he will have devoted to his body, developing his strength and his skills and his confidence.  Imagine what new passions he might have discovered...maybe an instrument, maybe a field of study, maybe a profession or a hobby. 

     10 years is a long time for anyone, but for a teenager in those formative years?  Pure gold. 

     Thanks for supporting Joel's Place as we play this long game with these amazing kids.

Surprising Connections

One of the best things about my job is discovering connections that people have, or want to have, with Joel's Place.  For example, here are some interactions that I had this week:

• I was at Joel's Place after hours this past weekend when there was a knock on the door.  I opened the door to find a very nice lady who was looking for a different building.  We got to talking and she asked if she could donate food and art supplies to Joel's Place since she was looking after an elderly woman in this neighborhood and drove past us regularly.  She may even put on a couple of art classes for the kids this winter.
• One of the dads from my son's youth group came by Joel's Place and asked me about our stove.  Odd question, but ok.  He then told me he helped buy, transport and install it and he may even know where we could locate some spare parts.

The most fun recent story comes from earlier in the fall.  We sent out a general mailing to dozens of individuals and businesses who had past interactions with Joel's Place to update them on where we are at and what we are up to.  When we talked with Design Alaska, this interesting connection emerged. We traditionally put on a concert or two each month for local bands to be able to have some fun and get some experience performing.  It turns out that Design Alaska has a passion for encouraging young musicians and creating opportunities for them to develop their skills and mature as bands.  We were both thrilled to figure out that if we worked together we could offer a significantly better experience for the young bands we are looking to serve.  So Design Alaska will be sponsoring our Red Room Concert Series this year.  Their sponsorship will allow us to book more acts, advertise the shows better and also increase our ability to help the bands develop their business and promotion skills.  Overall, this partnership should be a tremendous investment into this segment of young people in our community.

If you have a connection with the youth of the Interior that you would like to share, I welcome your ideas and brainstorms.  The passions, skills and abilities that we don't use in our everyday lives can be dismissed or forgotten but they don't go away.  Joel's Place is an exceptional place to try new things...or try old things if it has been a while.  I have a friend who is teaching saxophone lessons to a teenager here after years and years of not touching the thing.  Kids are eager to learn new things.  They are eager to be able to show off new skills.  Mostly they are eager to have adults who say that they are worth their time and investment.  A saxophone lesson is more than just teaching scales and enduring shrill honks.  It is an unspoken affirmation, a time when my attention is solely focused on you, a small section of our week when a young person is challenged to believe in themselves because we believe in them.

And I do.  I do believe in the kids of Joel's Place.  They are young and wild and fearless and quick to learn and eager to dare and ready to teach those who come after them.  Is there anything you would be willing to share with them?

Think about it.

Life is a Parable

    Special PFD Note!!!!!

     I know PFDs are out because the stores are crazy and the banks are crazy and my inbox is filled with ads and my e-mail is filled with requests.  I am not going to try and yell louder than everyone else to grab a piece of your check.  However, if you have been thinking that you want to give to Joel's Place but it just hasn't worked out yet, now might be a good time.  The bar on the right side of the screen has a list of ways that you can contribute.  Thanks for all your support!

_____________________________________________________________________

     I have a son who is 7th grade now.  Along with the growing and the eating and the raging hormones comes the opportunity to be involved in our church's youth group.  I, having a few years of experience working with teenagers, went into the pastor's office one day and said that I would be happy to help out with the Jr. Highers if they wanted me to do anything.  One thing led to another and somehow I ended up in the youth room this past Sunday night with over a dozen teenagers talking about Creation.  I handed out playdoh to everyone and told them to make something...as long as it was not a snake, a worm, a snowball or something of that difficulty level (1st rule of leadership: know who you are working with).  As they worked we talked over the accounts of creation from Scripture and I had them share about what they had made.  We talked about how God formed them, shaped them with the same focus that they had making these sculptures.  We talked about how just as their fingerprints were all over the clay, God's fingerprints are all over us.  I told them that God crafted them just as they are, taking delight in how he had made them...and no matter what they hear from others, they are not mistakes or accidents or epic failures.  They matter.  A lot.

     Some of it sank in.  Some of it bounced off.  It's teenagers...that's the terrain you are working with.  Towards the end of our time, I asked if they had any questions that they want to make sure that we touch on this year.  The one that sticks out to me right now was, "Why did Jesus talk in Parables?  Why not just be clear?"

     I love that question.  Partly I love that question because I know the answer.  But I also love it because the question is the answer itself!  See, we love to know stuff.  Or at least we hate to admit that we don't know stuff.  Especially guys.  Especially teenage guys.  They will blow up the car before they admit that they don't know how to turn it on.  When Jesus taught, he used stories...really simple stories.  If he had taught with theological manifestos, the religious academics would have had opportunity to debate lexicon or just argue about his word choice.  The heart of the lesson would have been missed.  Instead parables would give the listeners a taste of the deeper meaning and an invitation to investigate.  Those who were convinced of their own insight and intelligence would wander away, probably scoffing at how overrated a teacher this Jesus was.  Those who were curious, those who were passionate for the truth, those who were desperate to find answers would seek out Jesus and ask him to explain.  That was when he would open up the mysteries of heaven.

     I am convinced that we are surrounded by parables in our daily lives.  We have reflections of God's nature and His kingdom presented to us every day.  Often we are so sure that we already know all that we need to know that we don't stop to look, listen and learn.  But sometimes we are curious or passionate for the truth or desperate for the answers and we use these parables to come closer to Jesus to see what he will tell us.  Nature is filled with God's fingerprints, speaking to those who choose to listen.  I see parables everyday in watching a mother with her baby or witnessing the seasons change from Fall to Winter or watching young men and women navigate the rocky transition from childhood to adult life.

     Living Parables surround us and invite us to draw closer to God so that He can whisper the secrets of eternity to our hearts.

It's been a big week.

     It is time to dream.

     27 months ago I started working at Joel's Place.  The first year and a half were lived in crisis.  We were behind in our bills.  We were behind in our payroll.  We were way behind in our mortgage.  Money was not coming in and we were losing donors, staff and volunteers regularly.  There were two distinct moments over that period of time that we were only 6 weeks away from closing.  I actually wondered if I had been brought here to close down the organization.

     The Staff, the Board and I worked at clarifying who we are and what our mission was.  We slashed the budget down by 2/3.  We had a lot of turnover as we searched for the right mix of Board and Staff.  I did a lot of speaking in the community, writing grants, talking with donors, building partnerships, writing and praying.  A lot of praying.

     This past week saw the culmination of the efforts of the past 27 months come together in one piece of good news after another.

• We received a grant from the Rasmusson Foundation to upgrade our security system.  That is $15,000 that will go into making this facility safer and easier to monitor.  Special thanks to Kelli and the staff, Jeff Baird from Rasmusson, Mike Setterberg, Mark Lawson and Brian Palmer for their technical expertise and input over the years.
• We received a grant from the Murdock Foundation to fund a Fund Development Coordinator position that will work with me on grants, fundraising events, donor management and follow-up.  This is the most coveted position in the non-profit sector and will catapult us to a new level of economic viability.  A very special thanks to John Franklin from Murdock, the Board of Directors, Sarah Arnold, Black Gold and especially Chris Huffman (our Board President) for helping make this thing happen.
• We were able to pay off our balloon payment this week.  We found a local investor who was willing to partner with us and enter into a 15 year payment agreement. This allows us to:
• Dramatically lower our monthly expenditures
• Pay off the balloon payment
• Pay off our Key Bank line of credit from an event 6 years ago
• Begin investing in an Operating Reserve.

          There are a ton of people who contributed to this effort.  Thank you to Dennis Wise (see above), Ak Rare Coins, The Alaska Mental Health Trust who gave us a principal-reduction grant which made all this possible, Andy Warwick, Arlene Koenig, Yukon Title, Arlys Westfall, the Board of Directors and the dozens of donors from this past Ramp It Up who contributed enough to make this kind of loan feasible.

• We have come to a partnership with the Boys and Girls Club to provide dinners for them under the CACFP food program.  This is a USDA reimbursement program that will actually make our cafe profitable while feeding a lot of great kids each day.  Special thanks to the State of Alaska CACFP program, Sarah Nichols from B&G club, Jacquie Bourne, Johnnie Avakumoff and the rest of the staff who help with food preparation.

As you can see, there are a great number of people who have helped us get to where we are now.  Our auditor summed it up best when she said, "There is a distinct lack of crisis in this building.  It is a nice change."  We still have a number of things I would like to see happen, but I think I can say that we made it out of the pit.  Officially.  It is hard to believe, but I think we have arrived.  There will still be struggles and challenges and the need for creativity and miracles...but we are not in danger of closing our doors or losing our staff and supporters.  Praise God.

So now it is time to dream.  Now is the time to think about where we want to grow and what we want to develop and how to bless this community with all the abundant resources that live within these walls.  I am naturally a crisis manager, not a dreamer...but it is a hat I am willing to try on.  I welcome your thoughts, ideas, input, dreams and hopes for what Joel's Place can become.  I was not alone in getting us through crisis and I have no desire to be alone as Joel's Place matures and becomes a force in this region.

Come along.  Join us and see what comes next.

Two weeks start...now

     Allow me to tell you about my good friend Kelli.  Kelli is the Program Director here at Joel's Place.  She has done a remarkable job over the past 2 1/2 years in creating an atmosphere that is safe, welcoming and fun. She is passionate about teens having a space to call their own in order that they may have the freedom to grow and develop into strong and remarkable men and women.  She is great at juggling lots of different details and programs, dealing with teenage boys and adults, and keeping me sane when I am going a little off the deep end.

     And she is...clumsy.

     Kelli fell a few months ago.  Just walking around the Joel's Place grounds.  There were no kids or ice or skateboards flying at her.  Just her and the terrain.  She fell and tore her rotator cuff in her shoulder.  Didn't tell me about it for...oh, say a week or two.  Then kept working through the pain for another month.  Clumsy and stubborn.

     Finally the doctor took an MRI and told her she needed surgery.  And then she would need to be off work for two weeks.  And then she would need to wear a sling for a few months.  And then she would be able to do one-arm GI Jane pushups.  Kelli graciously scheduled her surgery during a time that would be most convenient for the Joel's Place staff...but here's the thing: We are facing the next two weeks without the person who keeps our house in order.

     I am not worried (much) that we will burn the place down.  My staff are really good at not doing that.  I am not worried that the kids will be ignored or the food will be raw or the bills will not be paid...although maybe I should be.  I was talking to a couple of friends this week who were looking after their kids while their wives went out for the night.  They both...BOTH...confessed that they forgot to feed their children dinner that night.  The rest of the staff and I are going to have a lot of details, both large and small, to remember while she is out...for two weeks...starting tonight.

     If you are looking for ways to help (and after reading this, I would think that you would be), here are a couple ideas:

• You could donate some paper products: TP, Paper towels, cups, plates, printer paper, etc.  Running low on those kind of supplies is the kind of detail that the staff and I will likely miss.
• You could donate a meal for our kids.  Kelli is our backup cook.  If our cafe manager gets sick or gets called away, she usually steps in (without complaining...much) and creates a masterpiece for the kids to eat.  I guess I am now the backup and while tonight worked (delicious spaghetti and sauce) I also had to answer 6 different phone calls while cooking.  Extra meals in our freezer would help...just in case.
• You could volunteer for an hour, helping sweep, mop, do dishes and that sort of thing.
• You could pray.  A lot.  Always and unceasing.  We may need it.

Thanks everyone for your encouragement and support.  Thanks to all of you who gave through Pick.Click.Give.  Your donations allow us to pay for our audit and tax preparations each year.  We are deeply grateful for all the support we receive from this community.


Kelli, the staff miss you and hope you have a good rest and a rapid recovery.



And you are never allowed to leave again.

I don't write characters that are stupid or evil

     As many of you know, I had a novel published this past spring.  If you didn't know...now you do.  It is a young adult adventure novel, pictured below.  Go buy it.  It is amazing.

     Anyway, the point of this post is not to plug my book (have you bought it yet?).  It is to talk about how I create my characters and how that reflects my views on people in general.  My book is filled with heroes and villains, right and wrong...there are no anti-heroes and very little moral ambiguity.  The temptation when writing the villain characters is to describe them as "Evil" or "Stupid" and  move on from there.  Why are they persecuting the heroes?  Simply because they are evil.  Why did the leader make such a bad decision?  He is a moron.  End of story!

     I did not take this approach...partly because I needed to add to my word count and simple characters use few words.  Mostly I did not write out stupid or evil characters is because I do not think that is how people are shaped.  Now I have worked for most of my adult life around teenagers so I am aware that people have a mean streak in them and I am also aware that some people (I am looking at you, teenage boys) will shut off their brains for long portions of their days.  But most people are not driven by a desire to be evil or a desire to be stupid.  Their motivations tend to all be about the same: how can I make my life better?  The answers can be wildly different, but that is mostly influenced by their past experiences and what kind of power they are able to exert on their environment.

     For example, my book's primary villain is King Ahab.  By the middle of the narrative he is hunting down Seers and killing the entire Order.  He is organizing manhunts and ordering the kidnapping of children and performing pagan sacrifices...leading his people to ruin.  No one is born that way.  No one is a child who says, "I want to be the most evil king ever!"  People are hungry to be loved, hungry to be accepted, hungry to be successful, hungry to feel at peace with themselves.  What they learn as children, what they have reinforced as they grow older, is that they have to fight for those things...they have to strive for those things...the world is constantly trying to take those things away and leave them alone and battered.  So they develop coping strategies.  Some cope through humor.  Some cope through apathy.  Some cope through overpowering others before they can be overpowered.  Some cope through work or relationships or food or drugs.  Ahab came to a position of power and wanted to go down in the history books as the greatest king ever.  So he entered into political alliances that required certain compromises.  He created enemies of those who would question his choices, tarnishing his legacy.  His goal remained the same but it kept slipping further and further away.  Every action, every choice dictated his next bad idea as his actions becoming increasingly violent and despicable. 

     I watch the kids who come through Joel's Place.  I watch the kids who attend school with my children.  I don't see evil.  I don't see stupid.  I see desperate to be loved.  I see terrified to be abandoned.  I see lashing out from insecurity.  I see degrading others in a vain attempt to finally belong.  I see wild eyes, looking for somewhere that is safe. 

     I see Joel's Place offering these young people a different alternative.  You need not be an outcast here.  You need not squash others in order to be respected here.  You need not be afraid to fall and fail here.  This facility was designed to be kid proof.  We can fix whatever they can break.  Similarly, we are helping our youth to be world-proof.  Whatever the world tries to take or crush, we reinforce within them the truth: 

You are not evil

You are not stupid 

You are loved and accepted

You can be successful and you can find peace

"Just Walk Away..."

Before I begin...a quick reminder.  PFDs are coming out this fall and they will be substantially larger than they have been in recent years.  You can donate a portion of your dividend directly to Joel's Place through Pick.Click.Give.

Sunday the 31st of August is the last day to edit the amount that you would like to donate.  If you are interested, follow this link to the home page.  It is literally a few minutes and few clicks in order to invest in a great cause.  Thank you for all your support!

 

 ________________________________________________________

Last fall I had the opportunity to takes some classes on nonprofit management.  I thought it would be good if I knew just a little bit about what I was supposed to be doing.  It was a challenging season for Joel's Place and I was struggling with how we were going to keep our doors open.  Every class I attended would have at least one exchange like this:
       -Instructor: "Never, under any circumstances, do ______________ because it will lead to ________."
       -Me (raising my hand): "Hypothetically...if someone were to have already done _______...and it did lead to _________...how would they recover from that?"

I learned a lot during my classes and am so grateful for the opportunity.  However my time in the fall had a couple of unexpected interactions also.  I put together a list of the foundational organizational problems that Joel's Place had, mostly concerning money (or lack thereof).  I was trying to figure out how to prioritize them and move forward.  The list included...or theoretically included:

• Cash flow.  We have a hard time meeting our payroll
• A large line debt of credit from a fundraiser-gone-wrong from several years ago
• No organizational reserves (the standard recommendation is 3-6 months worth)
• A $300,000 balloon payment due in September of 2014

There were a couple other elements to the list, but you get the point.  Each and every nonprofit professional that I spoke to said the same thing:  "Just walk away.  That is not fixable.  Go now before you are crushed by it."  This was not the strategic plan that I was looking for.

I came back to work knowing that the next couple of months would determine whether Joel's Place would turn a corner and become sustainable or whether it was time to close. 

The first eight months of this year have been focused on turning that corner.  Our summer of Free Skating was an incredible success (Thanks again Conoco Phillips and Fred Meyer!), transforming our slowest season into three months of nonstop kids and activities.  Usually we end summer in the hole between $10,000-$20,000.  At the end of August this year we will have our bills paid and have a little money in the bank.  More amazing than that, we have come up with a solution for the Balloon Payment.  Through the generosity of grants, donors and community support, we have secured a financing source that will allow us to check off many of our financial issues.  I won't bore you with amortization schedules and budgets, but here is the cliff notes version:

• Our monthly cash flow is improved by $1,000 per month, making it substantially easier to pay our staff.
• The line of credit is gone.
• We have an Operational Reserve fund that could cover one month's expenses in case of emergency
• The Balloon Payment is taken care of, replaced by affordable monthly payments.

There are papers to file and details to finish, but that is where we will be as we head into fall.  It has been a remarkable year and I am so thankful for the support and assistance that I have received, especially from our Board of Directors.  Thank you all for the ways that you have invested in Joel's Place and in the Youth of this community.  I am not sure which mountains we will climb next...the ink needs to dry here first...but I am eager to see how this amazing institution will continue to grow and develop.

I'm so Angry at the World

 My amazing wife is taking some classes in Spiritual Direction.  In the course of her studies, she has rediscovered the Enneagram.  The Enneagram is basically an ancient personality test, based off of 9 different core focus points or, depending on what tradition you are researching from, core sins.  (I apologize to all Enneagram zealots for the broad strokes I just used for that summary.)  As I have borrowed her books, I have confirmed that I am a 1.  Ones are known as the perfectionists of the Enneagram circle, marked by their excellence and easily recognizable by their anger.  Ones are able to see the world as it should be, working to bring order from chaos, and frequently our efforts are foiled or wasted by the brokenness and darkness of the world.  Our response is usually some form of anger at perfection being ruined.  I am angry all the time.  I have learned some healthy (and some not so healthy) ways to make that socially acceptable, but it is real.

One of the things that I have found over 15 years of ministry is that the sins that we most easily see in others are the ones that most prominently reside within us.  Makes sense; we know what to look for.  I mention  all this because I am continually amazed at how angry we are as a people.  We are filled with so much hurt and shock and disappointment and outrage and expectation and fear that it overflows and comes pouring out of us as anger and rage...especially across the internet.

It doesn't really matter what the subject is, although the last few weeks have provided us with some intense material: Israel, Palestine, Syria, human trafficking, Ferguson, guns, Robin Williams, oil, health care, immigration, politics, gay rights, Iraq...the list goes on and on.  You can look up the comments from the box score of a preseason football game and see people yelling at each other, venom dripping from their posts.

Some of this is simply due to the wonders of technology and the internet.  There is no consequence to trolling online; there are no valuable relationships to be damaged or reconciliation to pursue.  The internet grants us access to information across the globe; events that we would only have heard about days or weeks after the fact are now available to us in an instant.  We rarely know all the facts, but we have visceral first impressions anyway.

Some of our anger is due to the fact that we see and hear what we want to see and hear.  We accept stories and facts that support our beliefs about the world and the people within it.  We complain about the bias of the media and the stupidity of people who are highlighted in the news as we operate with a only a fraction of the information.

Anger is mostly a response to fear.  My Facebook feed shows that there is a lot to fear.  Life is volatile and out of control.  Just about everyone I know is one major tragedy away from being destitute and our hope is that if we could just fix one thing life would be stable and safe. 

• If everyone had guns, we would be safe
• If no one had guns, we would be safe
• If everyone could get married, we would be safe
• If we had smaller government, we would be safe
• If George Lucas had not made Episodes I-III, we would be safe
• If everyone would just smarten up, raise the level of debate and think like me, we would be safe

Here's the thing: this world, this country, this life are never going to be safe.  This is a fallen world filled with fallen people.  If our hope is in people or systems or movements or denominations or rhetoric we will be deeply hurt and disappointed.  If our hope is in the one true God who is big enough to tackle this world's messes and loving enough to hold a single heart in His hand...there may be a chance.

This is not a call into apathy or hiding from the world.  There are injustices and atrocities and systematic oppression that must be opposed...but they cannot be stopped by lashing out in anger.  Anger breeds mobs, not movements.

You want to make a difference?  Outstanding.  Calling someone else stupid will never do that.  Ever.  Try these instead:

• Stop trolling and start looking for ways to encourage people online.  Don't have anyone that you hang out with online that you agree with?  Find some.
• Start spending some of your time volunteering locally.  We rarely can touch the world's injustices.  We can have an impact on the injustices in our community every day.
• Start spending some of your money giving to charity.  Invest in those who are doing good work at home and around the globe.

The world is a dark place, but we need not be afraid.  We know who holds our lives in His hands, both now and forever.

Closed

So I notice that it has been a while since my last post.  I have good reasons, honestly.  A couple of weeks ago I was in Chicago with the wife and baby and our internet connection was...spotty.

 (Completely unrelated side note here.  Do you know how hard it is to find authentic, Chicago-style deep dish pizza in Chicago?  The North Side of Chicago, where we were based, had dozens of highly-rated pizza places that all served thin crust.  When I found a couple of famous deep-dish places in downtown Chicago the wait was over 2 hours.  My best deep-dish experience in the Windy City was at Uno's Airport Pizza.  It was not awesome.)

Last week I was busy setting up the Joel's Place booth at the Tanana Valley State Fair in the monsoon that we call summer 2014.  Joel's Place grew up at the Fair.  One of our first homes was at the fairgrounds and when we found a place to call our own, we picked it to be only a few blocks away from the fair.  We have had a presence during at the fair for the past 15 years.  Last year was the first year that we were actually allowed to set up a small skate park.  It was a small win, but a win nonetheless.  This year we have the same stretch of pavement as last year, but we are much busier.

We have had dozens of new youth sign waivers and ride with us for the first time.  When the sun is out, you can expect to see anywhere from 5 to 25 kids hanging out, laughing, riding, falling and generally enjoying themselves...it is just like being at Joel's Place except with more fried food.  Kelli and the staff have done a spectacular job of being welcoming to both our members and the new faces.  It has been a great success and, thanks to the Fred Meyer Foundation, we have been able to offer free riding during the fair which has served us well.  "Free" is not something that you see a lot at the fair.  I am sure this has contributed to our great attendance.

During this week of the fair, Joel's Place has been closed.  I was talking with our staff this week about the value of focus.  Last year we tried to keep Joel's Place open and run the fair site and it just stretched us too thin.  The staff were stressed and having to put in overtime; our volunteers were called in over and over; no one had much fun and kids tended to stay away from both sites.  Focus allows us to present a high quality product with an appropriate amount of support resources.  The kids win.  The staff win.  The fair wins.  The parents win.  It is tempting to think that our mission will be advanced more effectively if we are able to be more places, be open more hours, offer more programs.  In reality our mission thrives when we focus on what we do well and fades when we spread ourselves too thin.

So we are closed this week...and it is going great.  See you next week!

Growing Up

"I'm sorry for Breaking the Fence Locking peice.  I know thut I did something wrong once the Fence brocke.  I Feel sad that I pulled this stunt.  I hope that you can Forgive Me for what.  I wish I hadn't did this.

 Sincerily,                    

XXXXXXXXXX "

     I received this note and a $20 bill yesterday.  A few weeks ago we had a couple of our members show up to Joel's Place four minutes before we opened.  They parked their bikes and then started pacing, feeling bored.  Soon one of them thought, "I wonder what would happen if we pushed on this locked fence gate."  Well what happens when two large teenage boys throw themselves at a fence gate is that both the lock and the gate breaks.  We opened our doors to let kids in and discovered a ruined gate that no one accepted responsibility for.  Hello, security cameras.  Hello, sit-down conversation with the boys.  Hello, uncomfortable call to their parents.  Hello, two week suspension from Joel's Place.

     There are several different schools of thought out there as far as disciplining the youth that we work with. 

• One school says that they come from a difficult background and so they need to be shown grace at every misstep.  The result of that is usually that you have a broken down, thrashed youth center where the kids feel free to disregard rules and authority while trying to carve out their own sphere of influence and power.
• One school says that there is a zero tolerance policy for the breaking of rules or property.  However if you value the center more than the youth it was built for...that sends a clear message to the kids.
• One school says that kids are going to break things, so don't bother having anything of a high quality that you don't mind breaking.  I get it.  But again, the teens notice the quality that we set out for them. One of our staff mentioned last week that our members are taking better care of our facility since we began upgrading what we offer.

     What we did was suspend the two offenders for a week.  Their parents added on to that and told them that they could not come back until they had paid back the damage costs.  Yesterday was their first day back.  They were the same kids: laughing, running shouting to their friends.  However there was a subtle shift about them: a little more humble, a little more appreciative, a little more...mature.  This experience helped them to take some responsibility for their actions, take account of what was important to them and what was worth working towards.  They grew up a little bit this week.

     Growing up is not avoiding mistakes.  Growing up is using those mistakes as the fuel, the catalyst, for your development.  It is becoming a better version of you...a version that has been made stronger and more vibrant by the cutting away of illusion and fear and the reinforcing of integrity and character.  These two learned more about themselves; they learned about what they are capable of and what they value; they learned about responsibility and honor; they took a significant step towards becoming men.  That is worth a broken fence gate for me...

                                             but I am really glad they helped pay for it.

Joelstock!

So there's this little thing that we have coming up that we like to call

Joelstock is a 10 hour music festival that we are putting on next weekend that will have bands, games, vendors and a couple of food trucks for one spectacularly fun afternoon.  It is the brainchild of Joel's Place staff and riders and should be a great way to spend a summer afternoon/evening.  If you are interested in attending you are cordially invited to bring a friend along.  If you are interested in helping out, we still need a couple of things:

• Canopy tents to provide shade for our vendors
• Volunteers who would be interested in providing security or logistical help

If you can help with either of these, please give Kelli a call at 452-2621.

Music has always been a key component of Joel's Place.  In its earliest forms, even before becoming a skate park, Joel's Place served as a place for young people to come together and play music.  There are some real and vital life lessons that bands provide: communication, teamwork, presentation, creativity and boldness.  Even beyond the developmental pieces, music is an easily accessible way for people to have fun and express themselves in a creative and genuine way.
 We are looking forward to a spectacular event and hope you are able to join us.  There is so much interest that we have a waiting list of bands who are hoping to get called up if something happens to one of our booked groups.  Come on out Saturday the 19th and have a great time with the Joel's Place community.

The Secret of the Kingdom

     Jesus loved to tell stories.  It was really his favorite way to teach.  One day he went out to the lake and was surrounded by a crowd, eager to hear the profound wisdom of this miracle worker.  His story went like this:

"A farmer went out to sow.  He threw the seeds everywhere.  The ones that fell on the road were eaten by birds.  The ones that fell on the bad soil died.  The ones that fell on the good soil produced a rich harvest.  Thank you and Good Night!"

He then went on a hike up a hill.  The majority of the crowd, so numerous that they were not even counted, milled around for a while then dispersed.  A few, however, set off on that same hike in order to ask Jesus some questions.  They found him and asked what he had been talking about.  He answered "To you has been given the secret to the Kingdom of Heaven."  He had not explained the parable or given them any information that the rest of the crowd did not have.  What they had was the willingness to ask questions.  That is the secret to the Kingdom of Heaven: Questions.

     We prefer Facts to Questions.  We prefer Opinions to Questions.  We prefer Hunches, Feelings or the ability to "Just Figure It Out" to Questions.  Questions imply that we do not have all the information or all the resources that we need in order to move forward.  Most galling of all, Questions imply that someone else has what we need and we must rely on them in order to move forward.  Asking a Question, a real and meaningful Question, is a step of humility and one that makes most people very uncomfortable.

     Jesus taught in parables...stories.  Then he waited to see who really wanted to know more.  Who was so passionate about finding answers that they were willing to come ask a Question.  For in Spiritual Matters, as with many other things, it is more about Who you know than What you know.  We are not built to know everything.  We are built to learn.  And who better to learn about spiritual, eternal things than the One who created it all?  God can handle our questions...even our toughest ones...even the ones that rip at our heart when we whisper them.

     The Secret of the Kingdom of God is not to know the most or be the most eloquent or yell your position the loudest or get the most people to agree with you.

     The Secret of the Kingdom of God is to ask the best, most personal questions to the God who knows you better than you know yourself...and then act on His response.  That is how Truth is found and lives are transformed.

Ownership

     I had The Talk with my 12 year old son this week.  No, not "The Bird and The Bees" talk.  This was the "You have Autism" talk and it was time.  My son is at the age where he is noticing that things are different for him than they are for other people and he has been coming up with reasons why.  My wife and I had been discussing when to have this talk with him.  He came back from the Midnight Sun street fair this weekend talking about how it was so overwhelming for him...probably because of the sin and darkness inside of him.

     So...this conversation needs to happen now.

     For those of you who do not know, Autism is primarily a sensory issue.  Some senses are heightened.  Some are dulled.  The brain has a hard time filtering and prioritizing the senses.  Just think about everything your senses are telling you at the moment.  What does your room smell like?  What taste is lingering in your mouth?  What noises are in this room?  How about the next room or down the hall?  As you are reading, what do you see in your peripheral vision?  Are you walking, sitting or standing? Are you hungry or thirsty or tired?  What if every single answer to those questions was screaming in your brain to be the top priority?  What if all that was happening while you were trying to have a conversation with someone and pick up on the subtle non-verbal cues that their eyes were giving you?  People on the autism spectrum usually have to teach themselves a lot of social skills that other people pick up on naturally so as kids they are often isolated and have a hard time maintaining relationships.  My son is brilliant and talented and has the sweetest spirit I have ever met...and he spends a lot of time alone or being reprimanded.

     Our conversation went well, but I am under no illusions that it will fix his autism.  My hope was not that he would just alter his behavior through sheer force of will.  My hope was that my son would begin taking ownership of his life and his circumstances.

     I have spent the rest of the week thinking about ownership and taking ownership of our lives.  This means having an accurate picture of what is going on both around us and within us.  We know what is happening.  We may know why or we may still need to dig for some root causes.  This is the baggage that we carry around with us.   The Ownership comes when we make conscious choices to make our lives better with our baggage in mind instead of denying those realities and hoping they do not surface again.

     For example:  I get grumpy about going new places and trying new things.  Grumpy is probably sugar coating it.  I hate "new."  Where does that come from?  I have a significant perfectionist streak that resides in my heart...perfection or failure are the two options that live in my brain.  Doing new things usually does not result in perfection so I live under the shadow of failure a lot.  Failure equals rejection.  So when I do some introspection I find that I tend to avoid new things because I am afraid of rejection.  Taking ownership of that means

• verbalizing that fear in order to dispel it
• regularly trying new things in order to grow more comfortable with the risk
• setting up a routine so that I am not in a constant state of agitation
• knowing that new ideas will make me grumpy and being mindful to not communicate "I hate it and I hate you" to the people (especially my wife) who suggest them

     Here are some of the realities of Joel's Place that I am coming to terms with in order for us to take ownership.

• We predominantly have teenage boys attend here
• We do not pay our staff well
• We are better at asking for money than making money
• We have a faith foundation but are uncertain how to implement that into our programs
• Our community really wants us to succeed and is looking for opportunities to help
• Our cash flow is heavily, heavily weighted towards the final 3 months of the year 
• We have 15 years of history here which means there are a lot of positive and negative stories circulating about us.

How do we take ownership of these?  I am still working that out.  But if I can embrace the challenge with the same bravery, faithfulness, curiosity and character that my son displayed this week...we are in for an adventure filled with discovery and joy.