The Jules Show

If you've ever worked at or volunteered with a non-profit organization, you learn quickly that generating funds to run the charity is hard work, for what sometimes seems like little financial reward. That's certainly how Dara Buczynsky felt. She worked for years, doing speaking engagements for various charitable organizations, but she became discouraged by what she felt was little money earned for the amount of time she was putting in.

She prayed about it for a while, and then one day, like He always does, God gave Dara an epiphany. She decided to open a boutique and give ALL her profits to charity. Take a guess what she named her store...Yep, Epiphany!

 But Dara is doing so much more than selling pretty things in an effort to give money to charities. She's sharing the Gospel, at every available opportunity, while she's doing it. I hope that after listening to my podcast interview with Dara, you'll be inspired to examine your life to discover the incredible, creative talents God gave YOU to help spread the Gospel.  Watch here. Listen below

Ok, so if I'm really being honest, I have a hard enough time sharing the Gospel with folks who kind of look like me and who speak my own language. So I'm a little unsure sometimes how to share Jesus with someone from a totally different culture. Thankfully, my friend, Pastor Bill Johnson of Reach the Nations Community Church in Clarkston, Georgia, has been able to school me on how to do a better job with cross cultural ministry. 

 As I mentioned, Bill serves in Clarkston, Georgia, a town with the unique distinction of being called the most culturally diverse square mile in America. This one town is home to over 40 different people groups, and the local high school has over 70 different dialects spoken by its student body. Most of the people who attend Bill's church are refugees. 

In my podcast interview with Bill, he shares his ministry strategy for reaching all the different nationalities and as you may have guessed, it all boils down to loving and serving your neighbor. Watch the video and listen below:

 

Jerry Williams, Rob Langer, and Benji Shepherd are on a mission to find JOY wherever they go with The Finding Joy Podcast. Whether it's inside The JOY FM studios or on the road, they'll be seeking out stories from people that help them - and YOU - find JOY!

Listen now for an example of what's to come. The first full episode comes your way on November 21st!

If you're a Christian, you probably know the Great Commission. Jesus tells us we are to go and make disciples. But let's face it, if we're really honest, we often wonder how we're supposed to carry this out.

The Great Exchange has a very unique approach to engage with total strangers in an effort to start up conversations about faith, so check out my podcast interview with Jon Deans to learn how a simple question can open a door to accomplish some extraordinary things, if we're willing to follow where the Lord wants to lead us. Listen below-

Brandon Heath has a song called "I'm Not Who I Was" and that song title personifies my friend Jamie Scott.

When I met Jamie, I didn't know much about his backstory. I just saw him as this big, teddy bear of a man with a bright smile who was funny, full of life and who had this amazing Godly light about him.So when he started unwrapping his life story for me in the form of his testimony...well, I just couldn't get my brain around it.

To say the deck was stacked against Jamie from the start is no joke. Born poor, grew up in a rough neighborhood in a housing project, father in prison. His early life reads like a sad TV crime drama. He got in trouble with the police early and often. Jamie's dad was the bad dude on the block, until he went to prison. So Jamie assumed his father's role. And he was a great leader, in the worst possible way - gang leader, dealing drugs, armed robbery, you name it.

Not surprisingly, Jamie landed in jail. More than once. The last time in, he was on trial, facing down two life in prison sentences. But as is often the case, God takes the bad things we've done in our lives and uses them for his glory. While Jamie was in jail, God used a man doing prison ministry to help him realize he was on the road to nowhere without Jesus. God granted Jamie favor and he was found not guilty of his crimes and became a free man.

Jamie did, however, leave prison with a conviction. The conviction that comes from giving your life over to Jesus.

Fast forward to today, and this once violent criminal is now the executive director of The Sparrow's Nest, a ministry in downtown Athens GA offering a day shelter providing refuge, resources and restoration to those in poverty and experiencing homelessness.

Seeing all the lives Jamie touches each day in a positive way at The Sparrow's Nest is just incredible. I watch his calm, compassionate nature and I still can't imagine him as a violent man. Ironically, though, it's his past that makes Jamie uniquely qualified to lead this ministry. He relates to the people he's serving like few people can.

When you read the Bible, you learn pretty quickly most of the people God tees up to be leaders don't have what you might call super resumes. Noah, Moses, Jacob, all tremendously flawed. But God used their imperfections to perfectly execute His plan. and I believe He's doing the same thing with my friend, Jamie Scott.

Check out my podcast interview with Jamie and hear his full story and learn his perspective on helping those in need in our communities. And watch my short interview with Jamie.

We all know nothing lasts forever, but when you're going through a rough season in life, it's hard to imagine things will get better.

My friend and The Joy FM colleague, Haley Radeka and I chat about times in our lives when we were both in a lonely, insecure place, and we both found ourselves responding in the same way.  During these times, when the last thing we feel like doing is helping others, helping others is the thing we need to do most.

Haley shared with me the turning point in her dark season was when she made the decision to step out on faith and start volunteering with Young Life. Then she took on being a small group leader. Before she knew it, she went from being anxious and unsure of what she had to offer to wondering what other ways God wanted to use her.

To hear my entire conversation with Haley Radeka, click below.

When my kids were little and I was deep in the diapers and runny nose stage, I used to think "Just a few more years and they'll go to school and I can catch a break!" Fast forward a few years and woohoo... they started school! But the peace I thought I was going to find, sadly eluded me. The break I thought I was catching, turned immediately into worry. Are they going to be ok? Will they make friends? Will the teachers understand them? The stress of the unknown was even worse than all the maintenance and upkeep!

If this sounds like you, you are not alone. Parents everywhere, especially moms, can have as rough a time with school as their kiddos do.

Thankfully, there is a ministry with chapters all over Georgia - our whole country, actually - dedicated to helping anxious moms by covering our schools in prayer.

Candy Barnett, with Moms In Prayer, talked with me about how this ministry grew out of one mom's feeling she needed to cover her middle schooler in prayer. She joined with other like-minded moms to form a weekly prayer group. Today, thousands of moms meet weekly to pray for schools - the children, teachers, administrators and their families - in order to blanket them with God's love, peace and hope.

Go  "on-air" with Jules and watch the interview with Candy Barnett.

To learn more about Moms In Prayer, give a listen below to my full podcast interview with Candy Barnett.

Tina Willaford was enjoying life as a stay at home mom when she became aware of a need to help women caught in the sex trafficking trade literally right down the road from her home in Marietta.

After a great deal of prayer, Tina helped to start the nonprofit, Table on Delk. Their goal is to provide all kinds of services to help women and young boys caught in the web of sexual trafficking with the hope and help to be free.

Listen to my podcast interview with Tina and learn all about Table On Delk by clicking here.

Bill and Melanie Reeves knew God had a purpose and a plan for their lives as he led them in a thriving church ministry in Newnan, Ga.  They were obediently in service to our Lord, but they began to feel a tug in their hearts to make a change. So, with no idea what that change should look like, Bill took odd jobs as a handyman while they waited on God to reveal His plan.  It took almost 10 years for RiverLife, a ministry dedicated to helping the needy with small home repair projects, to be birthed into existence.

Through RiverLife, Bill and Melanie are able to put together teams of volunteers to do local mission projects. The projects can range from something as simple as cleaning out gutters and doing yard work for the elderly, to constructing wheelchair ramps for disabled individuals. Bill shared with me that while the service project is a great blessing for the recipient, seeing God's people working together to show His love to others is the biggest blessing of all.

We live in a fast-paced, instant pot culture that tells us we have to always be busy. Sometimes as church people we are no better. We think if we're not hard at work, then we aren't good stewards of what God has provided, right?  Catch my podcast interview with Bill and Melanie Reeves here.

To find out more about RiverLife visit their website.

Big Problems oftentimes require Big Solutions. But not always. Take, for example, being a foster parent. Yes, that's a tough thing to take on, and we've all heard the stories. If you're like me, you look at that situation and think there is no way you can make a difference. But frankly, you'd be dead wrong to think that.

Chosen For Life Ministries is a foster care and adoption support ministry, dedicated to coming alongside parents who foster or adopt to provide all kinds of support. I came away from my time with Anna encouraged by the different ways folks like us can work together to take care of all the people in the foster care system - be it the kids, the foster families, even the government agency case workers. God challenges all of us to care for the orphans and widows in our midst. Chosen For Life Ministries is making it easier for us to do our part.

Learn more in my podcast interview with Anna Bearden.