Friday, May 24, 2013

Introducing Grace Klein Community


In my interview with Larry King, founder of the Hands of Christ fund, I asked him, “Who are some of the most influential people in your life and why?” One individual who had shaped him spiritually was Jenny Waltman of Grace Klein Community. He noted that she “opens my eyes to the needy and reminds me to reach out.”

After reading her responses, you will quickly learn that Jenny is a true servant of Christ, embracing His command “…to love your neighbor as yourself…” (Ref, Mark 12:31). Her mission fulfilled by Grace Klein Community challenges us to redefine the barb wired boundaries of our comfort zone, and resuscitate the dying breath of community that has been strangled by the hands of intimidation and isolation.

She knows the secret of fulfilling eternal potential and purpose is intricately and architecturally cemented between the precious souls that populate our realm of influence. I recently watched the 2011 children’s movie Hugo, a story about an orphan boy who lives in the walls of a train station in 1930s Paris. Hugo discovers he has a special ability to fix clocks and other gadgets. Hugo reflected, “I’d imagine the whole world was one big machine. Machines never come with any extra parts, you know. They always come with the exact amount they need. So I figured, if the entire world was one big machine, I couldn’t be an extra part. I had to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too.” With God as your Creator, you can rest assured that you have been expertly engineered, functioning as a catalyst in the community in which you find yourself.


1.       What is the mission of Grace Klein Community and when did it get started? 

God has entrusted to us a construction company and a non-profit. They are both totally His and we are His servants.  We long to prove faithful.  (1 Timothy 6:20) When Grace Klein Construction, Inc. started in 2006, we knew we were called to use the company as a means to give as much as possible to help those in need in our community. We wanted to use the business to fulfill Jesus’ command to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Our company motto is “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord and not for men.” (Colossians 3:23) 

After a while, as we grew and had more volunteers serving and giving, we realized it would be a good idea to start a separate entity as a non-profit. God led us to begin Grace Klein Community – we used the word “Community” because we wanted it to be just that, a community of friends serving each other, living life together. And, that’s what it’s become. 

Grace Klein Community, Inc. seeks to serve the poor while fostering long-term meaningful relationships between recipients and volunteers.  We all suffer from some type of poverty, whether spiritual, physical, emotional or financial.  When we take away our masks and our stuff, we are all the same and we can be real and intimately relate to one another.  When we have the privilege to walk through life with others, we all grow.  Ultimately, we trust the relational investment will have eternal impact. 

We began with a donation room in 2006.  God showed us that our plenty could meet another’s need so that their plenty could meet our need.  (2 Corinthians 8:14) We began to share the excess of others to meet the needs of our staff and families in the community.  The donation room is now used to help with such needs as adoption fundraising, clothing provision around the world, special ministry collection projects, and new home setups for people who suffer fire loss or graduate from a rehabilitation program. 

In 2009, God showed us that families were hungry right here in Birmingham, AL.  We began to pray about how we could share food and build friendships with families in need.  We personally related to their discouragement and we believed God could use us to spread the hope of Jesus.  We received referrals from a variety of sources for families in need and we matched volunteer families to groups of five families that needed food.  The ministry grew and we now deliver food boxes to around 200 families per month. The volunteer families spend time with the food recipients and build relationships with them. They talk about their own struggles, in order to relate, they pray for the families and celebrate God’s goodness with them. As the donation room, food ministry and mission opportunities continued to grow, we felt God leading us to start an official non-profit ministry. 

We exist to unify the body of Christ as we work together with local ministries. We believe God has created us to be more effective together than we could ever be apart.  Grace Klein Community operates to provide relief to the poor, distressed or underprivileged; lessen community tensions, eliminate prejudice and discrimination and combat community deterioration and juvenile delinquency.  We exist to teach and live out the community Jesus prayed for us in John 17:20-23.  We exist to stir the church and provide opportunities for individuals and families to serve others in Jesus’ name and share the hope of Jesus.

2.       In addition to finances, what are some items that people can donate?

·         TIME!! Serve with us in the donation room, on special projects, during community events, delivering food once a month, etc.  Watch our website (gracekleincommunity.com) or follow us at Grace Klein and Grace Klein Community on Facebook or gk_community on Twitter to know how to get involved.  Serve with your family.  Email gabe@gracekleincommunity.com for more ideas on how to serve and how to get involved. 


·         Donate the following to help with various types of ministry:


        clean empty milk, juice and detergent jugs for volunteers to make homemade laundry detergent
        sturdy shoe boxes to be decorated for Happy Boxes for children in the hospital
        Non-perishable food
        Toiletry items
        Paper products such as Toilet paper or paper towels
        Any household goods –dishes, glasses, pots/pans, utensils, etc.
        Furniture
        Appliances
        Towels
        Knick knacks
        Any size clothing
        Cleaning supplies
        Reams of paper
        Paper ream size empty boxes (to deliver food each month)
        Pre-reading to adult books
        Small size bookcases for cancer/dialysis treatment centers
        Linens
        Sports equipment
        Instruments
        E-readers
        New underwear and socks
        Durable recyclable bags
        Any gift cards that have money left on them (no amount too small)


3.       How do you balance being a wife and mom while working and ministering to others? 

God has been teaching me that when I am walking with Jesus, I will feel used up every day. If I do not feel used up, my selfishness got in the way. The Bible teaches us to lay down our lives, pick up our cross and follow Jesus. Laying down our lives is difficult. We need the power of the Holy Spirit to fully obey that amazing command from the Lord. We cannot die to ourselves on our own. But, if we die to ourselves, Jesus can produce fruit from us. Amazing, huh?

When we realize we are missionaries right where we are, God turns our lives upside down. We become the aliens and strangers the Bible tells us we will be (1 Peter 2:11-12). God exposes that our lives are often segmented and teaches us we need Him for every moment and in every area of our lives. We do not have to balance or juggle because life all fits together; the work, the ministry, the kids. Life blends into this beautiful comfortable place where nothing ever stops or starts, it just is.


Our kids serve with us. Our kids work with us. Our kids pray with us. Our kids sing loud in the car and dance in the kitchen with us. Our kids bike, hike and sleep on the back porch with us. We are in this together.


Amelia Grace and Denver know where our help comes from (Psalm 121:2) and they are called by God to trust too. They believe for the next construction project and help spread the apples in the food boxes. We are all growing in our dependence on and intimacy with Jesus. We are constantly evaluating and praying for God to help us set aside the good for the best.
Jason and I easily work together. We are best friends. We enjoy being together. We share the load. We do not have designated chores. We each contribute where we can and let go of the rest. Organized chaos is where we thrive. What is ours is yours. God is constantly reminding us to hold tightly to Him and lightly to the things of this world. He is growing us in a life of faith and trust in Christ.

Our family is very close. Our kids are close. If they both are not invited to a birthday party, they are known to decline. We read a lot. We share our home. We love adventures. They practice their math and reading if we have to work late. We go to the library on Mondays and eat dinner with grandparents on Waltman Wednesday.   We love our community and find encouragement and challenge as they spur us on to love and good deeds.

 
We all get just one chance so we choose to live; to live fully in the midst of work, serving and family. We exist for these moments. We are called. We are chosen. We have a mission and we cannot lose heart.  

2 Corinthians 4:1 "Therefore, since through God's great mercy we have this ministry, we will not lose heart."






4.       You and your husband have a business, Grace Klein Construction to reconstruct and remodel houses. What are some stories that stand out to you in which the Grace Klein Community has rebuilt and remodeled lives spiritually?
  
Grace Klein Construction Team

Grace Klein Community is a fluid, moving, living thing where people love, serve and share life together. The early church in Acts has given all of us an amazing example of how to live in community together. We exist to be the body of Christ to one another.

We all have different gifts and abilities and God has set it up perfectly that if we all bring our best to the table that He will use us to accomplish great things for Him (1 Corinthians 12). One thing we find so fascinating: He does not have to use us. God is great, mighty and powerful and He can accomplish all His purposes without us. But yet, out of His great love and mercy, He uses unlikely people to make His name great.

God does the amazing work among us. We are nothing. He uses us to plant seeds and water seeds, but only He makes things grow (1 Corinthians 3:7). What freedom to know the results are on Him, not us!

Grace Klein Community experiences so many God stories. Sometimes we even forget how amazing it is to see God work because we see an overflow of His faithfulness so much. We are guilty of not telling more of His mighty deeds.

A few favorites...


·         Mission trips around the world changing people, changing the way we think, spend, live.
·         Food boxes being an open door for building friendship and sharing the love of Jesus.
·         Friends coming to know Jesus and wanting to share the hope they have found in Christ by serving too.
·         Baptism services to celebrate changed lives; people who want the world to know that they love Jesus.
·         The Giveback program providing the opportunity for friends who have received emergency assistance to serve the community to "pay forward" the assistance they received and to realize their value. It is so amazing when someone who is broken, beat down and hurting finally realizes that EVERYONE has something to give.
·         Hosting ministry partners from Africa and watching God open doors and giving favor with many local schools.
·         Investing in volunteers who are completing required community service.
·         Engaging other businesses, as partners with Grace Klein Community, to serve together as a staff and watching God deepen unity and motivate giving.
·         The donation room providing home setups for people graduating from rehabilitation programs and homeless shelters.
·         Picking up clothing from the Mercedes Marathon and watching God use those discards to provide for people all over the world.
·         Families learning how to live life with other families and experience the community Jesus prayed for us in John 17. 


Courtesy of His Hands Photographs


5.       What are your spiritual gifts and how have they been used to complement your husband’s spiritual gifts in order to fulfill the purpose of your calling?

Jason's spiritual gifts are a mixture of leadership, shepherding and service. My spiritual gifts are poverty, prophecy and service.  We love to serve together as it fuels the intimacy of our relationship and brings us closer to Jesus. We were both created to serve and it is a high gifting for each of us. Serving is a part of our everyday lives.


1 Timothy 4:14 reminds us not to neglect the gift we have. God will put specific truths on my heart that He asks me to share with specific people. Many times I am misunderstood and sometimes I offend others when God has asked me to speak into another person's life. Some days I selfishly do not want to practice my gifting because it gets frustrating to be misunderstood. However, God continues to teach me that I must not neglect the use of the gifts He has given me. Americans tend to avoid and cover up inadequacies when God wants us to deal with the deepest places of our hearts. God has used my African friends to teach me that sharing and receiving the truth in love is a powerful gift. The point of our existence and relationship with Jesus is to be refined, looking more like Him and less like us every day.


The gift of poverty is the ability to live with less in order to relate to the hurts, life and challenges of the impoverished. God has made me comfortable with little and taught me to see the resources we can share to allow our plenty to meet another's need so in turn their plenty would meet our need. As Jason's gifts of serving and shepherding connect us with many people, the gift of poverty allows me to easily share all we have as a natural overflow of holding loosely to our home, transportation, money, time and stuff.


In leadership, we have learned that the greatest leader is a servant. Jason's gifting of leadership and service are interwoven together and operate together as he seeks to lead like Jesus, as a servant. Galatians 2:20 explains how we desire to live each day, through the grace of God, "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."



6.       What is your prayer for your children and this next generation that God is raising up?     

Father, give us the nations. Use us to share Jesus to the ends of the earth. Allow our kids to know You more and depend on You more than they depend on us. Let them see we are nothing and You are everything.  Help our kids to look different from the world. Please help us teach them to find all their security, hope, protection and dependence in You.  Give them hearts for only that which has eternal value. Keep our children from wanting the things of the world so that they might find all their competence and sufficiency in Christ.  Protect them from any idols of this world that may tempt them to value anything above You. Give our children intimacy with You and teach them to receive Your love and in turn love like Jesus. Teach them to find all their hope, faith and provision in You. Make them desperate for Your power, mercy, and love. Give them a hunger for Your Word that keeps them girded in Your truth. Let their minds be fixed on You as the author and perfector of their faith. Allow them to receive the desires You have for their lives so they will walk confidently on the path You have for them.  Keep them from “I” and “me” and let them be hidden in Christ so people see You and not them. Give them boldness to share, kindness to love and self-discipline to obey your commands. Use them to take the hope of Jesus to the ends of the earth so that every nation, tribe and tongue will praise Your name.  Be enough for them, their all in all, their closest friend, their strong hold, deliverer, comforter, King. AMEN


Courtesy of His Hands Photographs


Special Project:

FILL PILLOWCASES FOR KIDS IN OKLAHOMA!!


 1. Decorate one side of a pillowcase with permanent markers.


 2. Inside the pillowcase, put the markers in a ziplock bag with a note encouraging the child who will receive it to use the markers to decorate the other side of the pillowcase.


 3. Fill the pillowcase with small toys, a child's Bible, pre-packaged healthy snacks, small craft projects, band aids, toothbrush, toothpaste, bar of soap, stickers, an encouraging note/scripture, etc, and tie with a ribbon.


 4. Label the ribbon as boy or girl based on what is in the pillowcase.

 5. Drop off the filled pillowcases to Grace Klein Community at 2652 Old Rocky Ridge Rd, Hoover, AL 35216.

We are also receiving monetary donations as well as donations of cleaning supplies, toiletry items and healthy snacks. Spread the love.

“And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” – Hebrews 13:16

 gracekleincommunity.com --- 205.390.2211
Shop YesStores through Yesboxx.com and select "Grace Klein Community" from the charity menu and a percentage of your total purchase price will be donated to this worthy ministry.

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