Crowns of Beauty

Rest, restoration, and renewal has been a theme of the last couple of months for our family. With the coming of fall, camp life has become slightly lower-key and we have been able to enjoy some vacation time, free evenings, and time with friends.  In September we spent a week at the beach with my Indiana family and our once-three-year-old Micah turned four (how does this happen?!). Earlier that month, we celebrated the baptism and new life of our sweet "adopted daughter" from the Leaders in Training program, Shelley. (This was Micah's first encounter with a baptism and, as he watched her come out of the water with the pastor's hand on her head, he asked if she was taking a swimming lesson!) September also brought with it five camp interns who will be spending the year at The Oaks helping in the program department and joining with us in our mission of changing lives, impacting communities, and pursuing God's heart for the poor.

just enjoying the ocean view.

Micah turning four at Chuck-e-Cheese! With Grandma and Grandpa!

such loving brothers...most of the time.

our four-year-old, Micah.

some of the Leaders in Training at their retreat at The Oaks in October

The slower season at camp lends opportunity for reflection and future planning for our camp staff, and Jared has been involved in many meetings in which key ministry leaders have been reflecting on years past and looking ahead to future years in order to map out new ideas of how God might want to use this place for His purposes among the urban poor.

view of the lower Oaks property around 1970

view of the lower Oaks property today

Since 1960 this property has been set apart for God's purposes.  The original homesteader donated the property to a different ministry under the stipulation that they use it to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. In 1986 it was donated to World Impact by God's sovereign hand, and given its current name. The Oaks, unbeknownst to many, was not named The Oaks because of the presence of Oak trees. It was named after the mention of "Oaks of righteousness" in Isaiah 61:3, where Isaiah prophesies the coming of Christ and his redemption for mankind. According to this verse, Christ came for these purposes:

to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,

the oil of joy instead of mourning,

and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness,

a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor. 

Crowns of beauty instead of ashes. Joy instead of mourning. Praise instead of despair. Earlier verses talk about freedom and expectation of God's coming judgement. The Oaks, along with World Impact, desires to be the hands and feet of Christ, offering a crown of beauty even to--especially to--the unloved and unlovable.

"Crowns of beauty instead of ashes" pictures a complete change of destiny because of God's grace, and for His glory. Sometimes I think its easy to only focus on the "big" examples of God's redemption and grace, which are indeed worth thanking him for.  But, if we look hard enough and deep enough, we see God's redemptive power at work in the smallest of things.  Without His death for us, we would be destined for death and destruction. We were blind but now we see! So isn't everything good and beautiful in the world an act of grace from Him?

God gives us crowns of beauty everywhere we turn.  Our Micah turning four was a crown of beauty, a blessing that we don't deserve but that God has graciously given us. Joey, who almost died of a heart defect as a newborn, is now the most rambunctious, joyful, bouncy little almost-three-year-old you've ever seen. That we get to enjoy his life today is another act of grace from God.  Shelley's baptism was a gift in which we got to see her give a public demonstration of the crown of beauty God bestowed upon her! New relationships, like the five new interns, are jewels of grace which God has already used to enrich our lives--for His purposes--as we teach and invest in them. 

A couple of weekends ago, Jared went with the interns and some other camp staff to Fresno, Oakland, and San Francisco to visit our partnering World Impact ministries and YWAM San Francisco. The brokenness they saw there was overwhelming at times, but the work these ministries are doing there offers light in the darkness: crowns of beauty for so many who were destined for ashes. YWAM San Francisco offers free manicures to prostitutes each week at their center (which is in the middle of the sex-trafficking part of town), a small act of kindness that is opening up doors for God's transforming power to break through. World Impact Oakland has been serving breakfast to the homeless every single Saturday for years, through which they are building relationships with the needy and building God's church in a destitute place. They also have taken a camping trip each year in the Sierras, bringing some local homeless adults with them so they can experience the wilderness!

inner-city San Francisco

family enjoying World Impact's Saturday morning breakfast in Oakland

homeless Camping with the Oakland World Impact ministry

The same weekend that Jared was visiting the bay area, I attended an adoption matching event (through the Children's Bureau) in which we looked through books full of biographies of children who have been in the foster care system for years, waiting for an adoptive family to call them their own. These waiting children are often cloaked in mourning and despair, never having received or experienced unconditional love. You can see it in their faces. Their situations are so sad and appear hopeless, but organizations like the Children's Bureau are offering them hope by finding permanent, loving homes for kids who are starving for love.  We can pray that this love someday opens up the opportunity for these kids to choose Christ and receive their own crown of beauty.

In other exciting ministry news, World Impact is launching a new program in Los Angeles called the Center for the Urban Family, to help rebuild broken families and empower urban churches to effectively minister to urban families and the problems that they often encounter.  The Oaks will be hosting couples retreats and fathering conferences to enhance this new program. God's redeeming power is at work!

As we approach the holiday season and are reminded to count our blessings, take a moment to look for crowns of God's beauty in even the smallest of things.  Beautiful jewels of his grace are sparkling all around us, not for us to hold onto tightly but for the purpose of bringing Him glory and honor. And above all, let's not forget Jesus Christ, who came to earth to give it all so that we can be crowned no longer in ashes, mourning, and despair...but in His glorious splendor!

view outside our front door