VIRB

...The story of faith hope love, starts a very long time ago. I was raised in a christian home forced to attend church, forced to be a good kid. the problem was, I wasn't. at a very young age i began my life of experimentation with all things bad.. The more i did the more i wanted. I'm not sure why I love the things that get me into trouble so much...i just do.... So being raised in a christian home, i always thought to truly be a christian you could only act, talk, or be around people who believed what you did. There was no freedom to make mistakes, or be yourself. I felt trapped by religion, organized church became a subculture for those who pretended to have it all together. But I didn't have it all together.... My life could best be described as a roller coaster of ups and down's with God. I felt as though i lived two lives.... On one hand I would be absolutely militant about serving God...to the point I would cut all ties with "unsaved people" Go to church, read my bible and feel as though i was better than everyone else...Then I would begin to make mistakes, one thing would turn into another before to long i would be back in the world of sex, drugs, and rock'n roll......

however a strange thing happened in my life, I began to really start questioning my faith, i began to read books that challenged institutional religion. I started to talk to God with a sense of relationship, as a father, and a friend instead of a list of do's and dont's .... things started to click. I began to understand the story of salvation, of loving the people who the world has forgotten about. I began to learn about Jesus, his character...how he treated the lost. Jesus began to open up my eyes, with compassion and i started looking at these people and i saw myself in there story's. Story's of addiction, depression, hopelessness, suicide, and i quit judging them and started loving them.....

faith hope love started one morning as i was driving to work, I wanted to do something good. I wanted to be apart of something other than punching a time clock. something that would feed my God given creativeness. Something that would make me feel alive. So I started asking God for an idea...asking what was on his heart, where would he be...What would he do with his time if he were walking this earth?

In a an instant I had a mental image of a homeless man wearing a black sweatshirt that read "faith hope love". It happened so fast. I thought about that image all day. I couldn't shake it. Over and over It played in my mind. But here's the cross roads we all face when we get an idea. Let it pass, or do something...... I chose to do something.

My wife and i put some money away each month to go on little mission trips or to give to people in need. So i asked her If she thought this would be a good thing to do with our money... She agreed..... We bought 30 sweatshirts, had the faith hope love put on them.... so now it was just where to go, and who to give them too......The story from here is just one instance after another of God leading us to people who have given up. Who have succumbed to this world's harsh reality's of survival of the richest.... if you have seen the video we made. you should understand what we do, And why we do it......

This is only the beginning of the story, were on a journey to love the unlovable. To tell people about hope, that someone does love them..that God has a plan for there lives........ To tell them of a story, the story of faith hope LOVE..........