girls (written by laurie)

Over the last two weeks I've had the opportunity to spend time with a woman in Tijuana, who's a wife and mom of 3. Over lunch one day, she talked about a ministry she's involved in that gives food and a bath to the poorest of poor in Tijuana, in addition to trying to get them uniforms so that they can attend school. She has a heart for the girls but the ministry she works with tends to prioritize the boys. As she shared her struggle and frustration, I thought about the book my family and I have been reading this summer, Three Cups of Tea.

It's the story of Greg Mortenson, a mountain-climber who came face to face with poverty in the rugged mountains of Pakistan and began building schools for children--but especially schools for girls. When asked why he focused on educating girls, Mortenson says: "Once you educate the boys, they tend to leave the villages and go search for work in the cities," Mortenson explains, "But the girls stay home, become leaders in the community, and pass on what they've learned. If you really want to change a culture, to empower women, improve basic hygiene and health care and fight high rates of infant mortality, the answer is to educate girls...If the girls can just get to a fifth grade level, everything changes."

This has caused me to think about the Nepalese refugee families here in San Diego that we work with as they struggle to figure out life here in the US. We primarily work on their English but this gives rise to many other significant challenges. Things like how to deal with children whose behavior is out of control. Or what to do with a teenage daughter who is depressed. Or how a mother can stay healthy and keep her milk supply up while her newborn son is in the hospital.

And then there's the recovery home in our neighborhood where women of different ages fight to stay sober and change destructive patterns of behavior in their lives. Or the old homeless woman who lived in the alley behind our house for a few months, tenaciously fighting for what she needed each day. And I think of my sister and brother-in-law who have lovingly raised and continue to care for their 35 year old daughter who has Down's Syndrome.

I'm sure as you read this, you can think of girls and women in your life who have needs, some of them very great needs. Why not take a moment to pray for them and even ask God how you can be a part of changing the lives of girls nearby as well as girls far, far away? Sometimes our world is changed one girl at a time.

a kingdom investment in real estate

Twelve months ago we moved two streets over into an old Victorian house in our neighborhood that has quickly become our home, the home to another family in our community, and the home-away-from-home to many other friends and family from around the world. This big historic house is more than just a home though; it's the hub for our missional community; it's the site of countless times of leadership training and coaching; it's a house of worship and prayer; and it's a lighthouse in our
neighborhood.

It's also up for sale. Our landlord recently told us that he needs to sell the house and that he would really like to sell it to us so that we can continue to use it to advance the Kingdom. Well, we'd like to buy it. We've seen God bless this home and those that pass through it and we just don't feel like God is done with it yet! But if God wants us to keep this home, we'll need help. If you're potentially interested in investing in a property like this, read further. If not, could you simply stop and pray that God would provide all the resources we would need to keep and use this property for God's purposes? Thanks!

Property details

The property is a 5-bedroom, 3-bathroom house on a huge lot with an unfinished granny cottage in the backyard. The main house is approximately 2300 sq.ft. and the cottage is another 400 sq.ft. With 20% down, the rental income on the house would more than cover the PITI payments and leave sufficient reserves for maintenance, improvements, and potential cash flow to the investors. The house may also qualify for historic property status and that would reduce the property tax rate by
approximately 90%.

We are personally ready and willing to invest in the property but we would need a small handful of kingdom-minded partners to
invest with us as equity share partners. If this is something you might be interested in considering, can I just ask you to do 2 things? First, click on the link below to watch a short little video that was taken in our house a few months ago and ask God if He might want you to invest in this house and the ministry that flows from it. And second, if you feel God nudging you, (or you're at least interested in getting more information to explore it further), let me know and let's talk. Thank you!

A Day in the Life of NieuCommunities