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.
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?
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.
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.
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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