God truly does great things...

"What do you think of the name Tommy's? my dad asked. "Ha," I laughed, "it sounds like a seafood place--are you kidding?"

How could I have known God's amazing plan back then--not in my craziest dreams could I have foreseen the blessings that would stem from the creation of Tommy's; blessings that molded and shaped my life and those around me. Tommy's Interactive is a church that my dad started in Columbia, SC. It is still going on and while most of the original people have left, there are a few crazy followers that have stuck around to invest their lives in this beautiful operation, inviting many more new faces to the picture of what Tommy's is about. The name "Tommy's" comes from Thomas, one of Jesus's disciples. Now, Thomas liked to ask Jesus alot of questions and although some of the disciples may have questioned him for this, I think secretly in their minds alot of them were thinking, "Man, I was wondering that too." Thomas is also known of doubting that Jesus had come back until Jesus did indeed reveal Himself with the marks on his hands from the nails. So what can you take from a guy like Thomas? Doubt and questions? Indeed, Tommy's goal was to be a church where people could voice exactly that---and it did, and people found that it was different. Sure, we had our flaws--I mean hey- we were encouraging doubt and questions--but because God was the foundation, we took stuff right to Him, right to His scriptures....it was beautiful.

My dad encountered quite a few churches that didn't want the kind of people we had in our church--misfits I guess you could say--and other churches refused to help, and would you believe--my dad had more support and encouragement from non-Christians than Christians...shows you something...we are all prone to human-like notions and ideals and behaviours and it's quite suprisingly sad sometimes...but God forgives and He chose to influence Tommy's with the most unlikely people...and it worked...take our family for example, a family of 6, trying to get our green card in a country we've lived in for 12 yrs--not wanting to abandon our british citizenship for american we danced around the outskirts of that but alas, our green card was rejected and every thing my parents did was bittered by all the loopholes they had to jump through as non-citizens...and God wants us to begin and continue a church?! God's reasoning is insane I think but as the same time I suppose it's logical in His realm because He sees the big picture...and so we stayed in the states on a visa and other technicalities and God made it possible...looking back on Tommy's I realize I don't know too many of the stories in there, but the stories that took place within God's church setting rippled off of everyone who took notice...and God was in all, and through all...

at one or two points I realize I may have bragged on Tommy's to other people because the setting itself felt cool. For example: One building we got for free in downtown Columbia and we took one look at the 80's-style colors slashed across the walls, and painted the whole thing black. We made traffic lights out of old computer modems and set them up for the stage. We took a computer and put a light in it and a glass top over it and made funky tables. Concerts were held in that building and who cared if it got messed up--the whole thing was gonna be torn down in 6 months (why do you think we got it for free). Half of it was already torn up--something us photography-lovers found rewardingly fascinating.
Another building we stayed in for a while used to be a hole in the ground--was transformed into an underground Christian cafe (Jammin Java)--the space was long and people were sprawled on couches and behind tables across this artsy setting and it felt safe and sweet.
One time we held church at 11ish in a "Rising High" Cafe...the sweetest part of that building was the basement (we had planned to eventually use in the future)....it was huge and the acoustic were sweet and I couldn't help belting out a few notes whenever I was down there alone...the back part of it was torn up with trashed bathrooms and smashed toilets and ---man I'm getting off topic--haha see how it still gets me going...
But after listing all the cool places, I think back to settings like a top floor of a building and an old health gym room and when I can't find anything 'cool' to talk about that transfers me to to the people of Tommy's....man they're all amazing...

I suppose a few posh churches were skeptical of our church cuz we had such a strange mix..hahah, there was our family, with my parent sporting the accent and us kids trying to pretend it was still in us; random people from all areas and ages of life; a bunch of people sporting crazy tatooes/piercings/and crazy hairstyles (in some cases, smelly hairstyles-haha)....but man, when you get down to it, it's not about how we or those settings came across, it's the reason God brought us all together, into that setting....honestly though I knew pretty much everyone in the church, I only really knew specific individuals---haha I was young, a teenager, and usually rushing off after church to random social gatherings...but within the church man, we got to experience so much of God's love.. because of the different backgrounds, we'd all seen God's love in different ways, in different community settings and it was like a giant meltingpot of God's love...can't get much better than that!

Some fantastic people spoke into my life there: Wendy, our 33 yr old dj who gave me her guitar to learn on and would take me ice skating every sat night--man we had a blast. it was usually us and a bunch of random college couples on those late sweet cold night; Sharon and Jeanette who invited me in to this hospital to share in doing a bible study with a bunch of roughed up girls who felt no love in store for them--and because of Sharon and Jeanette's consistence and love, felt like they could open up a bit of them to even a pastor's kid like me...man I remember so clearly talking about Jesus's life with one of those girls..she'd never heard it before and I had never shared it like that before...man God's hand was on that bible study; Luke was one of the original guys in our church to do worship stuff (He's off in Iraq now I believe) and he took me in onto the worship team with no previous experience, just a love for God's worship songs; there were a whole community of people who were at Tommy's who'd arrived, homeless, churchless, we'd seen them change from broken individuals to ones who were embracing God through marriages, through births, and baptisms. I had the amazing opportunity to be baptized by my dad under a bridge in a river that was cold and muddy and, according to those who were watching, also being visited by a snake that was perched on a branch pretty close to me......but man, it was a huge blessing to be surrounded by a church that meant so much to me, by my dad who I love so much, friends and family that supported me and those other people to be baptized that day, and our amazing and loving God who brought it all together overseeing it all...Thankyou Father for that chapter in my life.. it was a huge long chapter...some parts were painful and confusing...some extrordinary...on a whole looking back, God's power is even more evident in the plan that unfolded during our time there...I pray for Tommy's as it is still going on; I pray for those involved and their hearts for God that they would "trust in the Lord with all their heart and lean not on their own understanding" (I can't remember that reference but it's been ringing in my head lately).....God bless Tommy's and those in it....God truly does great things...