Brent Jarvis
Brent and Shannon are Personal Contact Ministers in Missouri
Lake of the Oaks, Missouri
Background
I'm told I arrived in this world in 1968 :) I have a lovely wife, Shannon. We have been together for over twenty years. We have a 19 year old daughter, 17 year old son, 5 year old daughter and 3 year old son.
I am currently the Minister of Record (His Church at Lake of the Oaks) for, and an elder in, our congregation. Our congregation has decided to have a rotating minister until we decide who the "real" minister is from our group of elders. Our hope is that we'll learn how to be better elders through this process of serving each other.
We've hosted a spring gathering, in northeast Missouri, each of the last few years for HHC/The Living Network, where we've enjoyed getting to know some really wonderful people in the Network.
Since about 2003, we've tried to change our "way of life". In 2006, we sold everything in the city and moved to rural Missouri. This allowed us to get out of debt and to learn to live with what we can afford, when we can afford it. I provide for my family by means of my freelance graphic design services and a small advertising business that involves my whole family. We gave up a business when we moved to the country and we've discovered that without debt, a family can live on very little.
We enjoy heirloom gardening, composting, seed saving, and learning to use our small greenhouse. We hope to expand our efforts over the years to include a u-pick orchard and maybe blueberries and blackberries. If you'd like to share seeds or would just like to have some of ours, let me know and I'll send some to you.
We also enjoy hunting, fishing and basically most any outdoor recreational activity. We have no tv reception, so our entertainment is in the form of good books and movies.
We have been home educators for over 12 years and are constantly reaping those benefits. My wife and I are somewhat extreme advocates for this. Along the way, we have encouraged our children to discover and hone their skills and talents so they will not have to rely on a someone else to provide them "employment". My wife's blogsite is: http://learningtowaldorf.blogspot.com/. And we've contributed a lot to the PreparingYou homeschooling page.
My eldest daughter just finished her "formal" high school education. She's taken a few college courses (though college has not been encouraged nor has it been entirely discouraged) and is getting ready to travel to New Zealand for 3 months. She is a talented seamstress and artist. Her website, if you're interested in her Zombie Apocalypse bags (or clothing & accessories) is: http://www.crashlandingcouture.com/
My eldest son is an apprentice for a local chef and works during the summer doing lawn mowing and other handyman jobs. I believe he could be a candidate for the order at some point.
We've been fortunate to live near, and establish relationships with, many amish families. We've been able to learn quite a bit from them and we've grown to appreciate their own efforts to support their families and community. We also enjoy their fresh milk and eggs since we have yet to buy a cow and chickens.
My Hope
Scripture counsels us to be long suffering/patient, wise and harmless. His commandments are summarized by 1) Love God and 2) Love each other. We're explicitely told not to steal, kill, covet, adulterate or bear false witness against our neighbor. So why not learn to live by honest to goodness charity instead of through the covetous arm/agency of man's governments. If we're going to change from being the covetous, thieving, murderous, lying, adulterers we are, then we've got to step away from the paradigm society has trained us in. There is an alternative to the religions/governments of man. It's His Way that's outlined in scripture.
As a Husband and Father, I am learning how responsibility is key to our Liberty. The more we distinguish ourselves and the more we refuse to access the benefits taken from our neighbors, the more the Kingdom structure becomes important to our survival. I believe with the proper motivations, we can unlearn the corruptions and learn the ways of our Creator/King.
We'd like to find or be found by others in Missouri who are seeking the Kingdom of God. We're determined to order our lives now in the ways of our Father and to strive for His favor and seek His mercy as we take two steps forward and one step back.
Contact Me
You can contact me via email at creativeimpactatcenturyteldotnet. My phone is fiveseventhree twoeighteight zerozeroninenine.
A WEEKEND TO REMEMBER!
I had a weekend that I never would have expected.
Sunday morning, June 16, 2013, I attended church with my family. This is something I haven't done for years. My wife and children have wanted to get involved in church again for some time but I've pushed back. My family craves the fellowship...not so much the churchism. I had also been encouraged to go by someone I will only give initials for (SCOTT HOSTETTER). He encouraged me to go in order to expand fellowship and keep peace in my family. I've had a tough time in the last several years attending "church" for a variety of reasons (I imagine most here will understand so I won't go into them). Anyway, most of the message was good and focused primarily on keeping God's Commandments. I'm glad Scott encouraged me for what happened next.
After the service, we headed into downtown Hannibal to explore an art festival and get a bite to eat. We took somewhat of an obscure route and went past a house that had some smoke coming out from under the rafters. We pulled into the lot across the street and I hopped out and ran over to the house. Another guy had stopped to check it out too. By the time we got up to the house (10 seconds) it was pouring smoke out of every corner of the house. A woman and 3 babies peeked their heads out of the 2nd floor window. They knew something was wrong but didn't know the house was on fire. We pleaded with her to drop down the babies, but she was unsure and ducked back in the house.
We went to the front door which was locked and broke it down, but it was too hot to go inside...pretty much a furnace. Fire was everywere I looked. I couldn't go in over a step without feeling like my skin was on fire. (I have a greater appreciation for firemen today). The two of us ran back to the window and hollered up to get the woman's attention. She came back after what seemed like an eternity and was convinced by that time that the house was indeed on fire and the window was her only option. She must have tried to get out of the room while we were trying to get in the front door.
The woman dropped her youngest baby into my arms. While I was handing off the first child, she dropped her second into the other guys arms. Then we caught the 3rd baby together. He was maybe 3 or 4yrs old. Me and one other guy (someone else who had just come up to help), put our hands together and pleaded with the woman to jump. She was a rather stout woman....I would guess in the neighborhood of 300lbs. She came out of the window into our arms. Ok, so it was mostly us breaking her fall...I don't think we could have picked her up, let alone catch her from ten feet up. Either way, she was unharmed. The whole thing probably took place in under 5 minutes.
Police and firetrucks got there a couple minutes later after everyone had gotten out of the house safely. The family had some pretty bad smoke inhalation, but nothing serious. The house was pretty much a complete loss.
I tell you this story because it was something I was involved in, that I wouldn't have been, if I had stayed home (like usual). It was safe at home and I know mostly what I'd have done. I certainly wouldn't be offending anyone with my often uncontrollable urge to share my opinions. But, on that day, I mostly kept my opinions to myself. I mustered up what I could in order to do something for my wife who has been craving fellowship. We went somewhere I normally wouldn't go and at the end of the day, my wife was looking at me like I was wearing a cape or something....pretty cool feeling.
Somewhere along the line, I've lost my desire to interact with the masses. I've gotten tired of raining on parades. We have a hard truth to tell, but we need to remember it's a beautiful, life altering truth and some will be saved.
I don't want to be a dark cloud, I want to be a soothing cool shower on a hot, muggy day. I want to be a light. Not a blinding, avoid the area light, but one that lights the darkness. I want to be a cool drink, not a firehose. I want to be a little bit salty, but not so much so that I overwhelm the message; faith, hope, charity. I think I took a step in the right direction Sunday. I hope I'm able to continue taking steps forward and not slipping backward. Looking for opportunities with a sense of empathy, listening, and learning how to control my tongue will likely be a lifelong challenge. Sharing love instead of wallowing in self pity, selfishness, and defeatism is something I need to work on too. I don't imagine I'll have this kind of opportunity every day, but maybe over time I'll be able to pull some more souls out of the fire.
Faith, Hope and Charity
So does all this faith, hope and charity talk amount to anything or is it just a bunch of nonsense? Who puts it on men's hearts to give freely? When no one is standing there with a gun, Who moves men to give selflessly? Isn't it the Spirit of the Almighty?
Of course there must be men and women to hear. To the ministers of His Holy Church who heard our plea....THANK YOU for hearing.
One of the things we did when we moved to the country was to give up half our income. I was running two businesses to support our family in the city. Logistically, I couldn't continue to do one of the businesses, so I continued with design work and gave up the other.
I knew what I wanted to do and had some ideas about how to do it. I was pretty sure we could live on a limited income if we had everything paid off. We did and we have been able to for going on 8 years. It's a struggle most months to make ends meet, but we have and He has provided. We have many friends/neighbors who get thousands of dollars in benefits from uncle Sammy. Tax rebates, soc sec, medicare, medicaid, food stamps, farm subsidies, healthcare, education...etc. We don't and we won't. Where does that leave us when things get difficult?
I'm sure there are a lot of people in similar situations, earning even less, so I'm not complaining....just explaining.
What I didn't account for, with our move to the country, was just how stupid I am. Call it ignorance if that sounds better, but I didn't realize how much I didn't know, and I grew up in rural Missouri. It's been a steep learning curve trying to figure out how to do more for ourselves when the city way is to have someone else do it for you. We had latched on to that ideal w/ a stranglehold. It's far easier to call the plumber when the toilet doesn't flush. Or when the water heater goes out, it's easier to buy a new one than replace an element. Gardening is something, I thought, just happened. You put the seed in the ground, you do a little weeding and wah lah.....an abundance of fresh veggies. Uh, not quite! How do you start a project without the proper tools? Especially when you can't just run to the store and buy whatever you want like we'd been used to. We learn patience.
I have enjoyed the learning, mostly, but it hasn't been easy.
My family has never been the kind to expect more than we have. I never have to worry about one of my children or my wife complaining about not having enough. For a poor man, I have it pretty good. We also made some good decisions early in life that has served us well. A big one was deciding early on to live on one income. We've never been big spenders so the debt was relatively minimal. When we made the decision to get entirely out of debt, our earlier choices allowed us to do it less painfully. That was a huge blessing.
What my family hasn't understood until now, is why I am spending time on HHC. I have tried many different ways to explain, but it's always come back to everyone being too distant. It's just idealism. It amounts to chat groups with an occasional gathering thrown in....not much more. It was taking more time and energy than what is justified.
These are things I heard more than once and that was the attitude around here. We're struggling and Brent's spending his time on idealism run amok.
When my eldest son had an issue with his leg a few months ago, I didn't even consider asking for help....at first. We had a huge hospital bill to contend with. It was going to be a heavy burden. My Minister of Record (Scott Hostetter) and I talked about it being an opportunity to practice faith, hope and charity. I was intent on doing it myself until it became evident I needed help. I knew I had to feast on my pride. I don't usually go hungry in that regard. Scott helped immensely in getting me beyond my selfishness. Thank you Friend.
When we received funds from His Church to help with our hospital bill, it was a God send. My wife and children saw things differently. All the talk I had been filling the air with for 4 years about HHC had found ears. Gregory's words on Saturday mornings weren't just dead, they were alive. Why? Because people we don't really know offered us some relief....some Charity. We were Loved by Him through people far away. For me and my family, that was sweet relief indeed. There's a better understanding around here of what Faith, Hope, and Charity looks like. The talk has taken shape and for that I am forever grateful.
My family's small offerings, through our minister of record, may take several months or longer to add up in order to help replace those funds. Personally, I wish there were more to give....and there may be at some point....who knows. But as I've said, if it's truly from our King, then it can't possibly be repaid like a loan anyway. I can strive to refill, but all my striving will never repay what has been sacrificed.
Ministers of His Holy Church are entrusted with a big responsibility - handling Chist's property. So whether, offerings are distributed to help someone on the other side of the country pay for a medical bill, or rent, or food....it's done with the intent of providing an alternative to the world's form of charity, which often involves force. Our offerings help ensure that when someone really needs help, they can get it without having to pray to foreign gods. As we know, there are gods many....but there's only One who taught us to live through Faith, Hope and honest to goodness Charity.
Message from Brent <mp3player width="300">http://www.preparingyou.com/wiki/audio/PCMsoundbiteBrentJ.mp3</mp3player>