Hope Village

July 1st Thursday

2009-06-25T22:45:00.000-07:00

All,

OK. Spring break is over and it's time to get busy.

I've been spending time on church projects, personal projects, projects to make my wife happy and just a little time working on trucks :)

Now it's time to refocus on Hope Village.

Our First Thursday meeting will not be on the 1st Thursday of July, big surprise. We (Board of Directors) will be meeting at the Custis house on July 9th to renew our commitment to Hope Village, to refresh our relationship as the board, to reinvigorate our passion for this mission, and to reengage ourselves to advance The Beautiful Vision.

We will be discussing team building in the sundry departments. It is time to commission volunteers to explore, investigate, define, and create the departments which will become the managing organization for Hope Village.

I look forward to seeing all of you again. It has been too long since we've broken bread together.

humbly,

JohnDana

Where have you been?

2009-06-25T22:41:00.000-07:00

Hey.

Hey.

How you doing?

Good. You?

Good. Where you been?

Around.

What've been doing?

Not much!

"What's Up?"

2009-06-03T05:07:00.001-07:00

There will NOT be a First Thursday meeting this month.

I have received several e-mails inquiring about Hope Village. "What's Up?" was the title of one. Well, what's up is not much.

In the last message, I shared the idea that I believed the Lord was giving me a break, a little time off to recuperate. That may have been wrong. The devil is known to use our strengths against us. Perhaps, the past 8 weeks of highly productive, worldly labor has been a distraction from the Godly work I should be doing which is Hope Village.

In order to get back on track, I ask that you pray for me and for Hope Village. Your prayers are VERY effective. They worked both for the radio interview in April and for "A Vision Revealed" in May. Let's put that spiritual energy to work now and all pray for protection, peace, and productivity for yours truly; that I get back on track and continue to push forward our mission.

Please do not lose faith. Since Mother Theresa's death, her personal letters have been published. She spent nearly 60 years not feeling the presence of God. In one letter she writes, "the silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see, — Listen and do not hear — the tongue moves [in prayer] but does not speak ..." She did not lose faith. Nor should we.

Remember, faith is belief without proof. It is something we choose. I choose to believe that Hope Village will be. My faith says it will be. I believe God will make it so. Thus, I can only move forward, believing it will be. Jesus said in Mathew 7:7, “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you."

As you pray, so do I. As you hope, so do I. As you want so do I. This mission will not fail. Persist in your faith and prayer and we will be rewarded as his good and faithful servants.

humbly,John Dana

Day Off

2009-04-09T21:17:00.000-07:00

I took a day off from the village today. Instead, I spent the day serving my father in law, age 90, and the church. Howard is a wonderful man. Everyone who knows him, loves him. We went to see his chiropractor and his GP. Then we went to Lutheran Church of Hope to work on a project for Easter Sunday. Everyone at the church knows Howard as well. It's a great thing that we get to share time together.

One item of note from the village. Iowa Medicaid Enterprises heard about our project and is now calling me to arrange a get together. My how things have changed.

Tomorrow will likely be another light day regarding Hope Village. I have numerous church / Holy Week projects to wrap up. I promise to keep you all appraised of any significant events.

JohnDana

A Vision Revealed

2009-04-08T22:16:00.000-07:00

Well, I have to say our big invite went exceotionally well. We had 122 people turn out for "A Vision Revealed". 63 people resonded to our request for information cards. Better than that, 2 people asked to be our Volunteer Director of Fund Raising, two more people asked to be the volunteer CFO. And about 1/2 dozen asked for a tour of Village Northwest in Sheldon to see the inspiration for Hope Village.

I was overwhelmed. Apparently, the performance improved over the dry run last week. All I can say is the Holy Spirit showed up and did his thing.

Now, the hard work begins. We are comitted to contacting everyone who responded to the information cards with in one week. The we need to schedule a volunteer meeting, identify top performers, devide into teams and start work n the business plan. Like I said, now the hard work begins.

More Good News

2009-04-06T20:13:00.000-07:00

When you are on a mission from God there are great moments…and not so great moments. The great moments come when you KNOW you are doing His will. The not so great moments always involve doubt.

I’ve just had a great moment. Last Thursday, I did a radio interview on “Here’s to Your Health with Karla Calumet”. I was nervous. I called many of my friends and asked that they pray for me. I asked them to pray for peace, calm, and that the Holy Spirit would use me to advance the mission of Hope Village. You know what? That is EXACTLY what happened. As I waited on hold for the interview to begin, I could feel your prayers. I felt calm, joy, and peace. I knew He was with me.

So, why I am writing about it now? Well, I finally got to hear the interview. Karla has posted it to her web site, www.herestoyourhealthkarlacalumet.com . There is a tab for “radio shows”, then 04/01/09 links to an mp3 file. The quality isn’t great but the message is loud and clear. God showed up and used me to spread the word, Hope Lives Dream Big! What an absolute joy it is to be his servant.
And tomorrow is our big invite. A Vision Revealed is our public launch. We are meeting at Lutheran Church of Hope at 925 Jordan Creek Parkway in West Des Moines, IA. Our meeting begins at 7:00 pm and will run for 45 minutes with a question and answer session to follow. I hope to see you there.

2009-04-05T20:46:00.000-07:00

I apologize to anyone following the blog who may have expected daily posts. If you don’t know me, that may be a reasonable expectation. But I am not what you would call normal, average, or ordinary. I don’t fit the mold, ANY mold. When God created me he had a special purpose in mind. And now, after dozens of years and many seasons, I know why.

God chose me to build a village. Hope Village. I don’t know why he chose me. I don’t need to know why. He did. Truth be told, I’m a coward. After considering the fates of Moses, wandering in the dessert for 40 years, and Jonah, three days in the belly of a whale, when He called, I said, “Yes Lord!”

He has blessed me with many gifts: a gift of grace, lots of love to give away every day, compassion, a bit of bizarre, a dab of disrespect, an immeasurable drive to accomplish the undoable, and friends in abundance. Which brings us to the point of this post, my friends.

On April 2nd, we had a dry run of the “A Vision Revealed” program” and it was BAD and my friends let me know it. In the words of Donkey, “Wow! Only a true friend could be that truly honest”. I knew I was blessed when the development team, my friends, asked what they could do to make the presentation better.
So, on April 7, (see events tab on the web site), I only need to tell the story of Hope Village. The team will take care of everything else. This serves as one more reminder that Hope Village really is a God thing. I hope to see you all there.

March 09, 2009

2009-03-10T06:06:00.000-07:00

Our team meeting went very well. We distributed the invite cards and reviewed talking points. Our team is laser focused on the upcoming "A Vision Revealed" meeting for April 7. We are each challenged to invite 10 people to the evnet. John Dana has promised to cook dinner for the team member and a guest for whom ever delivers the greatest number of guests to "A Vision Revealed"