Response of Responsibility; Return From Uganda

This is NOT a recap of what an amazing, inspiring and impactful (not a word) time we had in Uganda. Hopefully that will be soon to follow. This is more of a spew of thoughts and emotions that have been inspired by our recent travel....

We have seen and experienced that God's love is bigger than the United States and so is the responsibility He has entrusted us with. Take one look at the life of Jesus, take one listen to his desires for how we relate to one another, meditate for one moment on what he commands of our lifestyle and it is hard to miss. It has become ever-more clear to me that it is our duty to give, to serve, to be a resource and to fight for justice in the current state of life. I'm not sure I should of had to travel to Africa to see that.

   It is in our desire to see God's kingdom come more fully into the present that a passion is ignited that would move us to give our lives completely to His purposes. In love and compassion our actions can lead us to a place where we are no longer living for ourselves but allowing "ourselves" to be used in the restoring work God is already doing to create His will on Earth as it is in Heaven.

I can say with confidence that God's will is to see His plan of restoration come to full completeness. So for us, doing His will is as simple as following His commands to love one another, to die to ourselves and to care for those in need. Because when we do these things, God's will is being done as His creation moves closer to His desired state of peace, purity, and Glory...

You never know what kind of feeling you will have when you return to your home in America with all the cush and convenience our country affords us. Many warned us that coming back from Uganda we might expect to feel anger or disgust about all that we have...and all that we waste. I think it is right to look at all that we waste with a holy discontent but my perspective, returning to the U.S, was slightly different than I expected. Rather than feeling guilt or the need to renounce all that I have, instead I look at IT ALL and think of what a great responsibility we have as Americans who have been entrusted with so much excess of resources. Us Americans, who have been born into (with no merit of our own) this great country that affords us so many resources and liberties.

We often live life thinking we deserve what we have because we have "worked so hard" to earn it. We even wonder why we should "GO" to another country to help others. After all, we have all kinds of needs here and no one is coming to bail us out.We waiver, complain , him and haw about our 401K's and the condition of our financial portfolios. As if everyone in the world has them and we are the only ones who are having these little set backs.
            I even find myself regularly complaining about stupid things like the taste of the water (once a year) and having too many cars parked in my drive way... RIDICULOUS, I tell ya'!!!

But to me, it seems,.. that not a single one of us has done anything to earn the privilege to be born in a country that affords us so many conveniences to complain about.... You could call it lucky, but I am beginning to wonder. According to Jesus, these are the things that bring us farther from God's blessings because we become paralyzed, distracted and enamored by the tyranny of ownership.

So should we renounce all that we have? Maybe, if that's what God is calling you to do. But for me, I am reminded that perhaps with our great blessings comes great responsibility. The responsibility to give our lives and resources to helping the meek, weak, poor, hungry and oppressed of other lands.
 The truth as I see it is that our most desperate times in America hold a fraction of the struggle of those in a majority of the other countries in our world. Many of our our homeless in America live better than those with "homes" in other lands. This doesn't mean there isn't a great need for our love and compassion right here at home.

The point is that the terms RETIREMENT, 401K, CAREER PATH, WEEKEND, VACATION, ASSORTMENT, CHOICE and DRIVEWAY don't even exist in the world of many of those we share this planet with. Running water? Electricity? Closet? 2 pairs of shoes??? these are all things that would get you an unexplainable look of confusion from the hearts of many in conditions most of us could hardly comprehend. Myself included of course... but hat is the challenge I face today...

It seems we all have a choice,... We can sit on our piles of material accumulation with entitlement, like kings in our own domain... or we can humble ourselves and become the servants we are called to be. We can allow ourselves to be a conduit of resources to those who were not born into a life of excess. A conduit of resources to those who have not been afforded the opportunity to have, or better yet, to squander much of anything.... a conduit to those who live among words I don't understand; HUNGER, THIRST, HURT, HOPELESSNESS, SLAVERY, GENOCIDE, MALNOURISHMENT or just plain STRUGGLE... All which rise out of POVERTY, another word I can't really comprehend. But I am trying.

I personally have a long way to go. But I am now forced to live with this new challenge and conviction...
  That Heaven on Earth is not coming any closer through my stockpiles of meticulously collected objects and storehouses of carefully guarded liesure time. I hope as a community and a family under God you will all encourage me to remember that becoming great isn't about what I can GET out of this world but what I can ADD through the work our Lord can and will do through us. Many of you have already encouraged me through your great response to our preparations for the trip to Uganda. We loosened our grips on much of the stuff that cluttered our lives to help those who have greater need through that Monstrous Garage Sale and selfless contributions!
We look forward to where God is leading us through these revelations of His will above our own. We are praying about where He will lead us next. But until then we already know what He has asked us to do....

"Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”      Mark 10:43-45

Pray...

So, we are days away from leaving for Uganda.  We are super excited and can't wait to see how God uses us while we are there.  We have been preparing our hearts, minds, curriculum and luggage for this journey.  We appreciate everyones support and prayers and thought it might be helpful to attach a prayer calendar so you can pray for specifics each day.

Click here for Prayer Calendar

You can also get ministry updates by "liking" Uganda July 2011 on Facebook.

Click here to go to the Uganda July 2011 Facebook page

Thanks again, we'll see you and tell you all about our trip when we return.  Thanks for partnering with us!

Jason and Carrie Kanapkey

Women...Uganda...Blessings...What's this about?

As you know, we are going on a mission trip to Uganda!  Last night our mission team of women got together for our first training session! See, the women in our group are going this July to teach, and learn from, a small group of women. We will be teaching them some Bible study methods, as well as some important health and hygiene lessons.  It's exciting because this small group of women will be able to take what they learn and go out to teach and influence others in their community. We are so grateful that God is already preparing the hearts of these strong, intelligent, beautiful women to spend this week with us.

The ladies on our team have decided we'd really like to make this training practical by equipping them and leaving them with practical gifts when we go.  We have already been hard at work raising money for our trips and this would be an additional expense.  So, we are asking if any of you would want to help us bless these women in one of the following ways. We would be SO grateful and you would definitely be impacting many lives in a significant way.

1. Donate 20 of the same item. (There will be approx. 15 women in our training and up to 5 serving us at our guest house that we want to include.)  Please contact me for a list of items so that you can choose--we don't want the same ones to be purchased.  Examples are certain medicines for the health portion, band-aids, tweezers, markers or pens, magnifying glasses, page protectors, etc.

2. Donate money for items we can get there.  We would love to make sure all the women have Bibles and to give them Bible handbooks, but these would be better bought over there because of the weight in transporting. The same might be true for some soaps and other items.

3. Donate an item for a Facebook online auction.  We can't plan a fancy event because we're using our money and our time preparing for our journey, but if several people want to donate an item, we will be so glad to put an online auction on Facebook to run for a week in June and advertise for the donor.  We will let everyone know when it's up and send the link out!

Thank you for your prayers, support and love,

Carrie and Jason Kanapkey

Beer for the Homeless

I surely got your attention with the title. Don't worry, our passion for compassion did not lead us to go hand out beer to the homeless.... But it did lead us to spend a day volunteering at the first North Texas Beer Festival raising awareness of the Samaritan Inn, Collin Counties only homeless shelter.


Since the organizers of the festival were kindly donating the proceeds of the silent auction to the Samaritan Inn and we regularly volunteer at the Inn, we were asked if we were interested in volunteering for the Beer Festival. Being the brew enthusiast that I am, I jumped at the opportunity and volunteered us to represent the Inn.




Many people piled into Plano Center and stood in long lines to get their 1 ounce samples of the latest creations from their favorite breweries. We found our home sandwiched between the New Belgium booth and some college athletics something or other. Since we didn't have free beer to give out we weren't exactly the hit of the show. While people slowly moved by waiting for their samples of New Belgium's latest many tried their best not to make eye contact with us while others inquired about what we were doing sitting there is our purple Samaritan Inn shirts.


I must admit, I had a few samples of my own,... so we made small talk about beer, answered questions and educated the North Texas Beer Culture about the good work the Samaritan Inn is doing for the homeless in Collin County. We naturally did our best to tell everyone how they could get involved. Many were passionate about the work we were doing and others thought volunteering might be a great way to teach their families that there are people in need out there. The thing that most surprised us was how many people had no idea that there was even a problem with homelessness in Collin County. We had a chance to share our hearts with these people and reminded them that many of the people they know may be just one paycheck away from homelessness themselves. And that the families and individuals that find themselves in new of a place to stay are more often people just like you and me; trying to make ends meet, looking for purposeful relationships and hoping for a break.

We had a great time talking with many great people, and a few crazy ones,... If anything we were able to open a new groups eyes to the needs of others right here at home. And I was reminded once again that there is more to life than filling our bellies with beer, our homes with stuff and our lives with serving ourselves.



For more information about the Samaritan Inn, the amazing service they offer to the community or how you can get involved go to http://www.thesamaritaninn.org

$2170 Garage Sale!!!

Who would have ever imagined how God would show up at a garage sale!!! Your probably tired of hearing about the garage sale last weekend but I thought I would share the results.

After everyone came together with donations, help and prayer we had an amazing turnout. People were buying stuff left and right and we couldn't have done it without everyones help. We raised an astounding $2170 at our "standard issue" community garage sale!!!!



We have been humbled by how He inspired so many to partner with us, giving of themselves, crazy items and other resources. Considering we started with almost nothing to sell, there is simply no way this could have ever happened without the help and support of our loved ones and Gods clear blessing over the whole thing.
Already God has shown us how huge he is and how amazing an impact we can make when we unify as the body of Christ to show his love to the world.

We can't even smell Uganda yet and God has already begun working in our hearts and through our lives as we have been raising support for our mission trip to Uganda.

Each day God revives us with new passion and energy as we see that each action, each step, and every word we speak for Him matters and is actually making a difference. We move forward in amazement as He lights the path with victories and His undeniable presence.

It is such an honor to share in the work of living our lives as a ministry of compassion in partnership with you and the Lord Jesus at the center. Thanks to you all for your love and support!

In His Love, Jason and Carrie Kanapkey

He Works in ALL "Things"

God is Huge and so is the monstrous explosion of contributions that He has delivered to my Garage through faithful and giving souls. I cannot give enough thanks to all the wonderful people who have come together to help us work toward our goal to make the Uganda trip possible. But I will try,... Thank you!!!
We are blown away at how many people have given so much to the cause which is now developing into a MoNST3rOUs garage sale., which I am now calling the Godrage Sale!!!



Many people of the body of Christ (also called The Church) have unknowingly unified for this common cause.
They have come together and given:
- funds
- time
- sweat
- car loads of donation
- truck loads of donations
- helped pickup donations
- loaned us their truck to pick up donations!
- sacrificed things they once cherished
And more sweat equity beyond words!!!!  All this as answered prayer, which many others have done for us.
As we have rummaged through it all for hours on end and sweated getting the "Stuff" from one place to the other... the value of "things" seems to take a new life. As we price new items in their original box for fractions of the original price, we look forward to how it will put a dent in our fundraising goal. But in no way do the dollars compare to the joy we get in seeing people sacrifice for the love they have for each other and the passion they have for Gods work.





God tells us that " in all 'things' he works for the good of those who love him AND are called according to his purpose." ... And he has certainly begun using the "things" in our lives to faithfully do so. Funny how the moment we give things up for him he begins to use them for our good and his purpose. Better than sitting in a dark closet, I gotta say!
Through love effort and a nudging from the Lord, we have pushed through the tyranny of owning stuff and began to let the "things" work for us as we do the work of the Lord as a body of faithful believers.

The garage sale is this Saturday in Craig Ranch on White Stallion Trl. Starting at 7:00am.
You gotta see what God has done!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Why Garage Sales Rock!!! Un-Used and Un-Necessary!

It is so awesome to see people getting amazing deals on stuff they want and need while enjoying the therapy of having your home purged of items that clutter your life and your home! On April 30th the Grubbs family did us an amazing service of handing over "an entire garage sale" to raise money for our Uganda Mission Team (seen below)!

 As we unloaded their garage that was full of little treasures at 6:30am, we were amazed as people began to pull up and swarm around asking for pricing an hour before the sale was even supposed to start! We worked our butts off and God spared us from the dark storm clouds above. We raised over $600 for our team and had a great time helping the very generous Grubbs family unload the items that were taking over their garage.

When we look around our homes at all we have, we begin to see doubles, un-necessaries, un-used and un-appreciated items. It seems that all these items laying around our homes can be of good use to other people and help us to do some good in our communities and around the world.

 We are currently taking donations for The Kanapkey Garage Sale that will take place this Saturday, May 7th. If you have any of these "un" items around your home, you'd be amazed at what a treasure it could be for a "garage sale shopper". We would really appreciate your donations! All the proceeds from the garage sale will go to put a dent in the $6600 we have been asked to raise to make the Uganda Mission Trip possible.

Email us at imcreated@gmail.com or make a comment below if you have any items we can pick up this week! Thanks to the Grubbs and all you who are supporting us in any way!

For more inspiring ways to make good out of the "STUFF" in your lives. Checkout our friends site http://www.rethinkgood.com/.