Oh my gosh. It’s been entirely too long before I’ve written here! Just when you think you have a grip on things man do those things change quick!!!

I’ve been in a complete whirlwind for these past 3 months or so. Last time I wrote an update we were expecting our second child. We ended up having Luke on November 27^th. It was an amazing event because my wife actually had him at “home” (in our apartment…yes, on purpose). That was incredible and a culmination of a lot of things God was teaching us that year. However, a week prior to that event we got 2 big pieces of news that pretty much shook us up!

The first news was the Joeleen’s mother’s ovarian cancer returned (after 7 years of being clean) and this time it was accompanied with lung cancer as well. The other piece of news was the people that were renting our house (with the intent of buying it) decided they didn’t want to buy the house after all and told us they were leaving by December. So we had a newborn to deal with, moving and Joeleen’s mother’s news. December was completely crazy for us.

January wasn’t much different. Bottom line, we’re back in Bixby, in our old home, right back at square one!!! Hahaha….This has been one of the only things I’ve had to do that I REALLY didn’t want to do at all. The last thing I wanted was to end up back in Tulsa.  It feels like I’ve stepped backwards.   But, I’ve slowly given it over my pride to God since it’s quite obvious He wants us back here.

Since I’ve been back God has really been teaching me about community and what the “church”  is really supposed to be about and look like. I have so much to talk about, but I don’t know how to articulate it! It’s very confusing to me. I hope I’ll start writing again and possibly it will come out in some new articles.

I haven’t been doing much street ministry. I’ve been focusing a lot on this community thing and really let God develop that in me.

There’s a bunch more to write, but hopefully this will suffice at least for a bit. I really want to write more, so maybe this will be a nice primer for me!

We started this “journey” in October of 2005.  Here it is November of 2007 and we’re moving right along nicely.

I haven’t written a post or an update in forever (I know it’s been 10 months since I’ve written a personal update) so I think now is a good time to bring everybody that is interested up to speed with what’s gone on this year and what I’m doing.

First of all.  In March we took our first trip to visit a friend of mine Steve Youngblood in Kirksville, Missouri.  It was going to be our first stop of a summer long trip to Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee and Georgia.  In the fall of 06 when we got rid of our house we bounced around a bit between in-laws until the trailer was finished and until the winter season ended.  I had never done anything with an RV so I didn’t want our first trip to be in the middle of winter!

We ended up staying with Joeleen’s father in Oklahoma City for quite a while.  They were nice enoug to let all 3 of us stay in their house with them.  It was great.  After the cold broke a bit we decided to go. 

Somewhere between Oklahoma City and Kirksville Missouri.

When we got to the small town of Kirksville it was pretty good weather, but then all of the sudden it snowed on us!! Go figure.  It wasn’t too bad really.  It’s amazing how much space you can really live on.  One thing I realized….no matter how big your house is, you can only be in one room at a time…why not just have 1 room that is your whole house!! Thus, the trailer was a great idea :-)!

All in all we had a great time with the Youngblood’s and friends in Kirksville.  Steve is an awesome guy to talk to and he has a lot of wisdom to offer a young “know-it-all” like me!

We were doing fine and dandy in Kirksville, just the 3 of us packed in the trailer (it was so much fun!), then we found out there was 4!  We found out Joeleen was pregnant!!  What a crazy twist of events!  We laughed the whole time. 

So, that’s a little bit why I’ve been a little absent from the site.  Joeleen is due this month and we’re looking forward to having another little boy running around with us soon (we’re naming him Luke).

So I didn’t really have any idea what we were going to do.  We gave away everything we had and we were homeless (although we did have the trailer).  It was a little confusing that this would happen immediately, but it’s turned out to be such an awesome blessing.

We stopped by Branson on the way back to Oklahoma City and when we got here Joeleen started to get really bad morning sickness (that lasted all day long).  We didn’t think living in the trailer was the best decision at this point so we decided to get an apartment and post up here in Oklahoma City until the baby comes. 

So here we sit, in a 1 bedroom apartment in Oklahoma City waiting for our new family member to arrive.  At first I was a little discouraged.  I was really tied to the whole RV/travelling thing.  It was actually a hit to my pride because I wasn’t doing what I had planned.  Here’s something I’ve learned…just go, flow with God and wait for the surprises! 

Being here in Oklahoma City has been such an unbelievable blessing.  And it’s not because of the city, we can’t stand the actual city of Oklahoma City, but we love the people we’ve met.  I’ve had such a priveledge to make some lifelong friends here.  I now see why this has happened.  I’ve learned this summer that the Kingdom of God is all about relationship.  Relationship with God and with other people.  It’s so simple.  I’ve met many people here with like minds and some with not so like minds, and the relationships are so awesome regardless!

I now know a little bit more of what I’m doing and going to be doing.  At first I thought we would go from town to town preaching in whatever way I could.  Stay for a few weeks and then jet out of town.  Now I think it’s going to be more of a longer short-term than I thought.  If I were to guess anything (which I don’t do anymore because of the wild turn of events this year) I think we’ll be traveling at a little slower pace and staying a little longer at each place.   We are talking about leaving Oklahoma City sometime after little Luke is about 6 months old.  This means we would’ve been in Oklahoma Ciy for over a year!!  Definitely not what I had in mind in the beginning.  But I think I understand why.  It’s all about building relationships and growing with people through things. 

I’ve never posted the “vision” God gave me in 2005 that I’m trying to pursue with all of this, I’ll try to get it up in a few days.  But I’m beginning to see it all come together more clearly.

So, we’re currently in Oklahoma City.  I’ve hooked up with a bunch of little ministries out here and I’ve learned not to tie myself to any organization or function, but to people and relationships.  It seems that the church these days has this competitive mindset of “building ministry” that is completely counterproductive to the Kingdom.  Not being “committed” to a single organization or ministry has enabled me to be committed more to people and relationship.  I’ve met and worked with Baptists,Prophetic,Non-Denominational, a Deliverance Ministry and a few small house churches and it’s all been beautiful. 

My favorite thing to do these days is meet people and talk.  I’ve learned to appreciate all types of personalities and I’ve learned to not be so tunelled in my vision.  I’ve relaxed and allowed many different people in my life.

So I guess that’s a bit of an update.  I haven’t gone out preaching in a few weeks because right now I’m preparing for the new addition and trying to help my wife as much as possible.  My marriage counseller has given me the best advice I’ve heard on ministry and marriage.  He says “Your wife is not only your wife, she’s a part of your church/ministry so she get’s twice the amount of attention than everybody else.”  So that’s what I’ve been doing.  And while doing this, God is doing some deep inner healing work in me, showing me some things I’ve needed to deal with for years and years.  Hopefully I’ll be sharing some of it soon.

In the meantime, don’t think I’ve fallen off the scene.  God has taught me so much this summer I can’t wait to share it all.  I have so many articles to write it’s not even funny.  So I’ll be working on those.  Also, for those of you that listen to the David Hogan audio, I’m going to try to get more audio up in a timely consistant flow.  I also have about 15 never before heard messages from him during the 94-95 years.  I’m really excited to share those with you!

So, if you’ve read this far.  Thanks for sticking in there with me.  I’m going to try to post more regular and restructure the site a bit to help it navigate better.  In the meantime, keep commenting on posts and sending me emails, I get so encouraged reading them. 

Thanks for all your support!

Paul & Joeleen

Preaching In Bricktown

Just wanted to post a quick, light, update.  Last night (9-1-07) I went to Bricktown (downtown Oklahoma City) and met a few friends to do some open air preaching.  Here are a few pictures from our outing (sorry they’re just pictures from behind - my wife had the camera and she was keeping tabs on our son so it was difficult for her to move around):

We had such an awesome time out there.  I met up with Mark (pictured with me above), Adrian, Chris, and Remy from an awesome group out of Edmond, Ok called His Tribe .  Mark had been out with me once before but it was completely new to Remy, Chris and Adrian.  I give them a ton of credit for just coming out!!  Not a lot of people want to do anything like this.  It was such an awesome blessing for me to have some familiar faces out there.

Mark preached for the first time, and it was awesome!  I was thrilled that he gave it a shot, and he did a great job.

It was so much fun just talking about reaching people with the good news, sharing ideas and thoughts, and trying out new things (this environment was different for me too, I’m used to preaching at gas stations, so we all had to stretch our comfort zones ). 

I can’t wait to try out some more ideas.  I think we’ll be hitting the bar district next time…we’ll see.  Hopefully I’ll get better pictures too (and one of the group, I wish I would’ve remembered to get a group shot this time, but it completely slipped my mind).

If anybody else is around Oklahoma City and wants to come out, shoot me an email and we’ll hook up some time.

Since we’ve made the decision to "go" we’ve had to make some tough decisions.  One of them has come down to our dog.  She’s too large for where we’re living now and since we’ll be travelling we won’t be able to take care of her properly.

Her name is P.D.  We found her in my parent’s neighborhood about 3 years ago.  She was a stray and we brought her to our home.  She’s got to be one of the smartest dogs I’ve ever known.  We think she’s a mix between a border collie and lab.

She’s the best of both worlds…she’s an excellent guard dog and she’s the sweetest at the same time.

The best home for her would be a single woman,  man, or married couple (young or old).  She’s "tolerant" of small children.  Our son was about 6 months here in the picture.  But, the best home for her would be one with no, or big, kids.

Please email me @ paulferree@gmail.com

We live in Oklahoma City and would be willing to travel or meet (not too far though).

Her shots were updated last fall.

Joeleen and the "poor missionary meal".

    Wow!! It’s been a year since I quite my full time job, January 28th 2006.  I remember how nervous I was.  How would I support the family, can we afford the house payment, what happens if…?  All those things clouded my mind, but I knew it was the right decision. 

    It was funny.  When I came home that night Joeleen decorated the house in tinfoil and trashbags.  She made bean soup with toast and water, and for dessert was dirt pudding.  It sure is nice to have a supporting, loving wife that can take things like this lightly and with humor.  While most young wives are dreaming of  the day when life will be easy in a nice big house and her husband getting a secure well paying job, my wife is taking the plunge in the complete opposite direction!!  She’s strong in her faith so there was no contention with this decision.  And if you ask her today it was the best thing we’ve ever done, and we wouldn’t go back. 

   It is weird looking at the pictures of our house a year ago and seeing where we are now.  We went a whole year without a fulltime job and we never went hungry, never were late on a bill and we never had to go into debt.  God will provide, believe it or not.

    What a crazy adventure we’re headed for!

Things have been a little hectic since we’ve been out of the house and living in the trailer.  We’ve been bouncing back and forth between living arrangements and we’ve finally landed at a place called Warrior Campgrounds here in Tulsa.  It’s been great so far.  I was afraid after all the work I did on the trailer that something wouldn’t work, like the electrical or plumbing…but, *sigh*, it all works.  Well, except the water heater, haven’t figured out whats wrong with that yet, but I haven’t had much time to look at it.  It’s not that pressing now anyway.
 
I’ve also been doing a lot of open air street preaching here in Tulsa with John Robb.  There’s nothing like on-the-job training when it comes to ministry!  I’ve learned so many things preaching to the world.  I plan on writing about them soon.  I see the gospels from a totally different perspective now, and I am eternally (literally) greatful for what John has done for my walk and ministry.
 
On Dec 29th we’ll be uprooting and moving to Oklahoma City.  Joeleen’s father lives there and they have welcomed us to stay with them.  I’m looking forward to this next phase.  I’m not sure what is in store, but I know it’s going to be an adventure.  There is nothing dull when it comes to serving the Lord.
 
That’s a brief update.  I have a lot of things to add to this site when things settle down a little, so keep checking back!

Well, it’s not DONE done, but it’s done as far as I’m concerned.  All we have to do now is finish painting some of the cabinet doors, and some other minor things and then we’ll be taking it for a test run at the local R.V. park.  We actually slept in it one night last week and it was great :-).

[ FOR ALL TRAILER ENTRIES SEE TRAILER PICS 1 ,  2  ,  3  ]

Anyway, on to the pics. 

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I met John Robb one day a few months ago.  He was standing on the street corner preaching at a QT (Quik Trip gas station).  I drove by him thinking I probably should’ve stopped to talk.  God gripped my heart 2 blocks down and made me turn around.  I’m glad I obeyed!!! I met John Robb that day and ever since then I’ve been meeting with him to pray in the mornings and now I’m going out on the streets with him.  He’s been such a blessing to me.  He "kick started" my preaching gift and now I go on the streets with him for my on-the-job training.  Anyway, I’ll be talking about that later…

My wife did some covert hidden camera action yesterday and took pictures while we were at Admiral and Yale.  We didn’t spot her for a long time, we thought she was some shady person spying or doing something until we finally recognized her.  Haha…it was funny.  Enjoy.

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We’re still working on the trailer!!  Wow…more work than we thought…but oh well, I’m learning a ton.  It’s going good so far. 

[ FOR ALL TRAILER ENTRIES SEE TRAILER PICS 1 ,  2  ,  3  ,  4  ]

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Then one of the teachers of religious law said to him, "Teacher, I will follow you no matter where you go!"
But Jesus said, "Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but I, the Son of Man, have no home of my own, not even a place to lay my head."
Matt 8:19-20

    It’s a done deal, we’re out of our house.  I’m sitting in what used to be my kitchen, in the morning we "go".

    We’ve found a couple that wants to do a rent-to-own deal on our house.  Honestly, I didn’t want anything to do with renting out a house.  But luckily my wife can feel the flow of the Spirit.  It was about 3 weeks ago that she said, "Paul, I know you don’t want to rent, but you need to keep that open in your mind.  You never know how God might want to use the house.  There might be someone out there that needs help and we might be able to help them."  I hated thinking about it, but she brought that up about every 3 days or so.  Then it happened.  Her friend called up and said she had another friend that wanted to buy a house but due to some circumstances couldn’t right now.  Well, there it is.  We’re now landlords.  Luckily we really like the couple moving in and throughout the process the Lord has taught me more about living in His Kingdom and trusting in Him. 

    So, it’s off we go.  We don’t really know what we’re doing past a couple of weeks…but we figure from the above verse that we’re in good company!  We’ve hooked up the trailer and now we’re off to OKC to try to finish the repairs so we can begin living in it.

Our house for sale.

    As I asked the question, “What excuse is good enough?”  Probably, the largest hurdle was my house. Is my house worth not fulfilling the calling of God in my life? Because honestly, my house payment is the largest payment I have. Which means that it is the bulk of the reason why I have to work so many hours for and in the world.

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"And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property, for my sake, will receive a hundred times as much in return and will have eternal life."
Matthew 19:29 (NLT)

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Here are some more pictures of the trailer and repairs being made!!

[ FOR ALL TRAILER ENTRIES SEE TRAILER PICS 1 ,  2  ,  3  ,  4  ]

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    When we started this path in October 2005 and I can still remember sitting on the couch in the den with Joeleen.  She said, "Why couldn’t we just travel all the time and live out of an R.V.?"  It was weird to think about.  "Can we do that?"  Was what we kept asking each other.  We have a 3 year old, a dog, 2 cats, we live close to all of our family, what about our house, how would we make money, how can we afford an R.V., were just some of the concerns…and still are for the most part. 

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    It was October of 2005.

    But to really start, it was about a year before that. Sometime in the fall of 2004 the Lord made a drastic change in my walk and understanding of Him. I had only been saved for about 3 years (Feb. 2001) and I was raised (in Christ) in the Word Of Faith doctrine. I knew about faith, but I think it was a little presumptuous. It was that fall when I stepped into a used bookstore and bought the book “Surprised By The Spirit” By Jack Deere, for $ .25. The book changed my life. I saw a genuine faith and a genuine demonstration of the Kingdom of God. This book really started it all for me. After I read it I began to seek after the true power and anointing that Jesus has to offer.

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