Conveying My Vision

I'd like to convey my vision.  I'd like to very much.  But I fear that I've not the words for it, the words that could let you feel about it as I do.  Probably there are no such words for anyone to truly feel another man's dream, another man's vision, but I fear I may not even get close enough so that you can at least see dimly what I mean.

For you see, to me, this still small but now noticeable non-profit is everything.  Oh, not "everything", there's family and church, of course.  But besides my wife and my faith, it's everything.  Like a career and hobby and vocation and calling all rolled into one.

A vision of self-sustaining Christ-centered service to others.

I saw so much for it at the beginning - when I had nothing but some savings and a penchant for scanning ceaselessly around for the appropriate first house.  I had two requirements.  The house had to be under $10,000, and there were plenty of those in Springfield, believe me.  But it also had to be in a "non-crack neighborhood", and that condition was a lot harder to meet.

I spent many a day driving up and down streets in Springfield, getting out when the boards over the window let me know it might be affordable.  Looking about, getting a feel for it, marking down the address, so that later I could go to the court house and look up the property owner, get the valuation of it, and see what he might be interested in asking.

And evenings would be spent hitting "refresh" on a realtor dot com type site, where I had the parameters set for "Springfield Illinois" and "0 - 10,000".

Then the day when it flashed up, $8,900!  And in Harvard Park, even if only the poor cousin edge of it!  It was condemned, it had nothing - literally, no roof, no windows, no furnace, no water heater, no plumbing or electricity.  The exterior walls were there, and the interior walls were - mostly - intact.  The floor had a lot of the roof on it, from when the roof had fell in.

But I saw the vision of it all the clearer.

That was nine plus years ago.  Now two houses, one completely done, the other for all intents and purposes done, and six men being aided as we speak.  Fifty past guests before them.

I see the vision more clearly now, and it's yet even larger.

What is that vision?  Well, for all my speaking on it, it's not huge as such things as "visions" go.  We're not talking of the Red Cross or United Way.

The vision is this - a means of aiding those who have fallen due to alcoholism/addiction, but have got back up.  Aiding them in getting back on their feet, and aiding them in coming to have a real relationship with Christ that is more than lip service, but involves an actual realization of the importance of church going.

And in so doing, be fixing up various houses that otherwise would remain eyesores or become empty lots, and thus at the same time we're aiding others, we'd be aiding the community in looking better, too!

And further, that as each of these houses would then be - like these first two - paid off, that the program fees charged the men seeking a road to recovery would be enough to cover the maintenance and upkeep of the houses.  And with a bit left over.

A "bit" left over for two things.  One, for the continued growth of the non-profit.  And two, to aid locally in charitable outreach in general.  Both through whichever church the caretaker/program supervisor was affiliated with, and in general aid like food distribution and such.

In this manner, the aiding of the men seeking a new and sober life would also be aiding the community, and also a wider mission outreach!

In this scenario, a self-sufficient couple, since our by laws forbid salaries, can be the principle overseers of such projects.  My wife and I demonstrating it here shows that it could work else where.

And by "working else where", I don't mean that we grow that large, I think that growing too large can be it's own problem.  But that we could be imitated.  That would be preferable.  I see no reason why this model could not be duplicated in each mid-sized town.

I believe in my heart - though I'm obviously not listing out all the nitty-gritty details here in this lone article - that this is a sustainable and self-supporting business model, and that three to six houses per medium size town could be operated without undue or disproportionate difficulty.

I also see that each of these places could participate in local food distribution, becoming even more self-sufficient and aiding even more people, and in more ways than the core way of the sober living homes themselves.

Thus exposing even more people to the opportunity to learn about Christ and learn how to have a better, cleaner, more productive life.