2020 for Spirit Led Development - what a crazy and wonderful year

(Note: I know 2020 was tough and even tragic for many. Some lost their lives, many lost loved ones, and almost everyone's job was affected in some way during the COVID-19 pandemic. I feel I have been blessed in many ways and my life as almost been "in parallel with COVID-19" while not severely affected by it, but wanted to tell "my story" of the past year. I hope it is encouraging in some way.)

This past year in retrospect has been amazing! I don't know that I would have said that at several points through the year, but looking back definity gives you perspective and honestly shows me how God has moved in my life and matured me in the process. I think the best way I can show this is with pictures and captions. I have led a group doing what I refer to as "passive evangelism" in a struggling part of Kenosha known as Uptown. Since September of 2014 we are on the sidewalk every Sunday morning for two hours, handing out coffee, donuts, fruit, water, hot chocolate, and prayers for people in the area, including the homeless.

We were out in the rain, snow, cold, heat, but just for a couple hours every week. I can not imagine actually living outside in these conditions! In February of 2020 I decided to take this effort, along with my 3D printing side business, and rent space in Uptown where I could do both. This would give people a chance to get out of the weather, maybe warm up, and I would have space for my fledgling business. I ended up renting 6118 22nd Ave, right next to "The Good Taste", a small family restaurant.

In the midst of this COVID-19 hit.

Like most people with 3D printers, we started printing the frames for shields, things related to masks, ear protectors, etc. Early on I even talked to Clint Woodman from the Woodman's grocery store chain and provided shields for them until they found a supplier. We printed, assembled, and gave away over 1800 shields while still working my regular job as director of software development at ATC Transportation. They allowed my schedule to be very flexible during this time and even made a monetary donation to offset the cost of the materials. We bought additional printers and I would have four going at a time, even coming home during lunch to swap out prints. We got to meet so many people from our community (dentists, nurses, people working at Amazon, cleaning services, etc.) during this time and even sent things to an eye care center in Montana through a friend of a friend. My wife also worked with a local group of people sewing masks.

During all of this, we continued to do our Sunday morning gatherings while I worked on my occupancy permit. We painted the walls, carpeted, got the electrical up to code including replacing the lights, exit signs, and all the things one normally does when rehabbing space. We even had a projector so we could stream the first service our church had while we were handing things out. On the Friday of August 21st, I passed my final inspection, the fire inspection, and things were looking great!

Over the next week Kenosha made the news in the worst possible way and everyone across the country heard about Kenosha. It was not the Kenosha I know or the people in it that caused most of the damage. During the riots, several buildings in Kenosha were destroyed. My building was set ablaze Monday, August 24th. A friend who lives in the area called my that night at 11:30. He was standing across the street with the flames shooting out the top of the building! The picture below of the flames are from the back of my building, off of someone's SnapChat. The damage was devastating...

Honestly this was pretty much a gut punch. The irony of the fire extinguisher on the wall. The mostly untouched display case that was there at the start. So many hours, early in the morning before my regular job and on weekends, just gone. I was pretty much in shock for several days. Things would be fine, and then it would hit me, several times over several weeks. I spent time praying to make sure God still wanted us in this area and that we weren't just wasting our time.

Fortunately I had not moved my 3D printers there yet, since I had just passed the fire inspection, so I lost the time and energy (and expense) of the rehab but it could have been much worse. We cleaned stuff up the following Saturday and on Sunday we did our outreach from the shell of what was there. In the weeks following we moved back onto the sidewalk. For a short time there was a lot of support from the whole community for this area, with people bringing in supplies and painting the boarded up buildings, so for a while our little outreach kind of took a backseat, but as the months have gone by and people have moved on, we have still been out there.

Now so far this sounds terrible, and I agree that it was terrible, but after all of this I feel God led us to and even great opportunity. Right across the street for my space is a building, more like a house, with upper and lower tenants and office space in front of it. In what I can only describe as miraculous financing, I was able to PURCHASE this building on December 22nd. So I have gone from renting space to owning it with rental property as well!

I am now working on my new occupancy permit, but I believe this place needs much less work to get there. In the meantime we have been able to start meeting there on Sunday mornings, so we are back inside for winter.

I reluctantly started doing this 6 1/2 years ago, thinking that maybe I could help a few people, but over the years the people of the area have really touched me and helped me grow in so many ways. We have relationships with people that we have now known for years and we have done life together. I just don't know that I have the words to describe how strongly this experience has affected my life.

If you have stuck with me through all of this, thanks! There were several times last year that I want to give some kind of update, but just didn't feel the timing was right or that "it was done yet". This is still a work in progress, just like all of us are, but I thank God that he has helped me weather the storm and I know that He has a plan even when things look grim. Hopefully this helps you in some small way as well.