Faithventure Forum

Tonight the Denver NBC affiliate 9News is running a story on our New Beginning's Custom Woodworks project.  As I've shared before, Mark Koebrich's support of Bud's Warehouse has been a big reason for our ability to create hundreds of transitional employment jobs over the last 13 years for people rebuilding lives from addiction, homelessness and prison.  I am excited to see this newest story. As I wait to see the final product, I pray the story successfully captures the heart of the various faith ventures of Belay Enterprises . Our Christian faith is a deep part of all we do at Belay. It's why 40-50% of our program participants with significant barriers to employability successfully transition into jobs in the community compared to other organizations that see lower success rates. I pray that New Beginnings Custom Woodworks presents an example of grace to a world where grace is sadly absent.  And I hope that the message of our faith c...

Relapses happen. The old life sometimes exerts a seemingly irresistible force on people rebuilding lives from addiction, homelessness and prison.  I remembering feeling great discouragement when I first faced that reality at Bud's Warehouse . An individual who had come back from heroin addiction, who was thriving in our program and ready to graduate to a job in the community, suddenly disappeared back into the world of drug abuse.  Perhaps, I unrealistically hoped that once people experienced new life and the satisfaction of supporting themselves in a job, they would never be tempted to make their former mistakes. It seems so naive to write that down today almost 13 years later. But the unsatisfying truth is that sometimes people never relapse but often they do...and that is all part of God's plan of redeeming lives where brokenness is the only path to life.  I remember my surprise when our former employee returned f...

You've been given a gift. Carefully, I sometimes say that to someone sharing that they are struggling with addiction.  Spent time in prison? You've received a gift. Dealing with a broken relationship? Facing an illness? Gift.   On the face of it, these things are awful. God never wants us to experience the pain of addiction, prison, broken relationships, and illness. But we live in a broken world. A world where our single-minded pursuit of self-- a what's in it for me world-- has tragic consequences for all of us. When we come face to face with our own brokenness, we experience our need for God and the forgiveness that comes through Jesus. Today, it's possible to miss our fundamental brokenness and need for someone to save us. We are the wealthiest nation in the world...and if you earn more than $10 a day you are richer than 80% of the world. We can bury our inherent need for God under the trappings of our success, pleasures, food, relationships, homes and pursui...