An Announcement!

Well my blogging fast is finally over.  Of course I am 13 days late in breaking said fast but I needed to wiat for a few things to happen first before I broke my fast with our announcement.  So here it is…

Leanne and I are planning to move back to New Orleans. While leading Revolution’s annual mission trip to New Orleans during the first week of July, Leanne and I were overwhelmed with a call to return to a city we’d left almost 4 years ago.  After much prayer and fasting by us and many others, it became clear that we needed to take a giant leap of faith and commit to an unknown calling in a city that we care deeply about.

When that decision was made in early August, we only knew two things. 1. We were going back to New Orleans and 2. We felt strongly it should be near the beginning of 2010.  Other than that we knew nothing.  We had no idea where we would work or live.  Nor did we know what specifically we were being called to do in the city.  All we knew is that we had on overwhelming sense that we were supposed to go and serve the people as best we could in ways that would meet their tangible, emotional, physical, and spiritual needs.

Although we still do not know where we are going to live or work, there are a few exciting things that have become clear to us that we want to share with you.

1. Leanne is going to (once again) pursue graduate level studies in Community Counseling.  This is something that Leanne began before Katrina, but was forced to put on hold after the storm.  Leanne has never lost her passion for making a difference in urban areas and now, as we get ready to move back, it appears that God’s original call in this area wasn’t wrong…it was just preempted.

2. The Center – Having a job is one thing.   Having a call and purpose are entirely different. Last weekend, Leanne and I felt that God finally unveiled his purpose for our lives in New Orleans.  A community center.  A community center that targets kids, teens, and adults of every background, socioeconomic status, and education level.  A community center that lives out what being “missional” is all about–going into the community to be the hands and feet of Christ by meeting the needs of the people.

This is obviously not a small undertaking…let alone something either one of us knows anything about.  It is a God idea- something that we fully believe is from Him, but we want to be sure.  Which is why we are asking you to pray for continued clarity and direction.  We want to ask you to pray for us about this and give us your honest feedback.

We want what God wants. Period.  So as we begin to move forward, it is important for us to have people praying for us every step of the way.

Please pray for….

• Vision, Clarity and Wisdom.
• The time frame in which all of this is happening.  We don’t want to move before God wants us to move.
• Location of our future home as well as a site for The Center.
• Fellow workers who are committed to the city to be called alongside us in this endeavor.
• Financial provision/jobs
• Provision for Leanne’s schooling.  God began to answer this prayer four years ago, so we are confident He is able to do it again!
• Comfort for our families, friends and church family we are leaving behind.
• For Bella’s purpose in all this to be evident as well.  God gave her to us for a reason.  We want to honor Him with her.

Feel free to email Leanne and I with any questions, thoughts, and encouragements.

So there you have it!  As we move forward Leanne and I will both be blogging this process, and you know me, I’ll always have the random blogs thrown in.  We thank you in advance for being there for us.

Ready to see what God will do,
Christopher  and Leanne Lytle

Christopher@revolution242.com
562-505-8302

LeanneLytle@gmail.com
562-484-4852

Welcome Wifey!

My wife has finally joined the club…she started a blog!  Shoot on over and say hello.

New Orleans pt. 3 – My breaking point

December 29th

We got to start late this day. Not that we slept in…you see we found out quickly that Cheryl gets up at like 4:28 in the morning. She was our rooster as she made coffee and put out the breakfast goodies.

The plan for this day was simple…go work some more on the offices of BBC, and then around 2 we would head downtown to feed some people who were homeless. We would then clean up, get some dinner, watch a special on Hurricane Katrina and go to sleep.

Like clock work everyone dived in to their respective projects. We had some Popeye’s chicken for lunch (yummo) and then we tried to get as much done as we could before our 2 o clock departure for the downtown area. I found myself agitated that early afternoon and for the life of me I could not figure out why. As we went to McDonald’s to buy 100 double cheeseburgers I found myself becoming increasingly overwhelmed with everything. For 3 days I had been working and leading and I don’t know if I allowed myself a time to feel…anything. Leanne and the baby had arrived late the 28th and when they arrived I think reality finally began to catch up with me.

As a few of us waited in the van for the rest of the group Jessica told me she couldn’t look at the water lines anymore. I couldn’t tell her at the time…but neither could I. I knew I needed to face whatever was going on inside of me, I knew I needed to pray, but at that moment…at that point I just didn’t know how. I decided as the group gave out the cheeseburgers and prayed with people, then I would go and run to the store to get some supplies we needed. I dropped them off and away I went…running away…trying my hardest to not deal with the turmoil that lied just below the surface.

I went to three different stores…and all of them were still closed. As I drove around downtown my mind played images in my head. Images of when we would hold worship services for those without a home. Images of kids playing in the street. Images of life. But the pictures my mind saw were far different then the ones my eyes currently beheld.

I pulled over and parked and as I began to weep for the city, for what it used to be, for what it is now, for what it could be…I saw Charity Hospital. Before the storm it was the premier trauma center in the Gulf South. After Katrina hit they were literally forced to slide people down the stairs because the elevators did not work. The morgue overflowing, the stench of death and decay everywhere, and everyone was trapped…for days. This was a place of healing, of hope and for a few days in August and September it became a prison. Now it stands as an empty sentry overlooking the city.

The picture of that vacant hospital made me nauseous and quickly a flood of emotion hit me. It was as if all the things that I had spent two years pushing down came rushing to the surface with a fury that could not be stopped. Feelings of guilt, anger, pain, jealousy, selfishness, confusion, despair, frustration…so many thoughts rushing through my mind like a torrent. I sat in that van and all I could see was that hospital…that stupid hospital…and I realized that I had reached my breaking point.

The team came back and I sucked it all back in…

and the rain began to fall.

As the team was cleaning up, Leanne and the baby came over, and I had to go outside…I couldn’t let people see me like this. I let the cold rain hit my face wishing that it would numb the pain. Hoping that it could take away all of the anguish and confusion. I wanted to go back to LA and forget this place. I wanted to forget the city, the need, the pain, it was just too much…I thought I could handle it but apparently I was wrong…at least that’s what I told myself.

Then God gave me a word…hope.

I was hope. We were hope. And we needed to be able to offer that hope to the people who needed it the most. That was why we came. I shared with the team the realities of pain in New Orleans. The truth of the struggle that so many were coping with. I shared with them the fact that we were hope and we needed to offer that hope . That we needed to be people of hope…because those around us need it now more than ever. We came to work, we came to help, to make an impact…but above all other things God brought us to give hope to the people of New Orleans.

The 29th was a day of…understanding…it was a day of brokenness and of beauty. By the end of it I was exhausted…but tomorrow was another day, and it would be a day of celebration.

Part IV coming soon.

Rob Bell

So David, Leanne, Nitro, and I went to go see Rob Bell speak on his “The gods aren’t angry” tour.

Rob Bell is…well…brilliant.

I may not always connect or agree with what he is saying but the man is incredibly gifted in his ability to convey information, feeling, stories, biblical truth, and unique mysticism. It was a great time all around. Starting with a crazy Chinese dinner, hangin out in the Wiltern, and finishing off the night with a shake form Carls Jr.

Thanks David for the invite. And if you are not familiar with Rob Bell, you should be, he is good peeps with lots of great things to share.