July 23rd of each year is always a great day for me. It ranks right up there with my belly button birthday (May 24th – 1970), my Salvation Birthday (May 31st, 1992), and my wedding anniversary (August 27, 1988).

It’s my sobriety birthday July 23rd 1996. As of yesterday I enjoyed 11 years of continunous sobriety. One might say why publicize it? Well I have been rather vocal about my sobriety withthe hope that my story might help other people realize that they too can live life without drugs or alcohol.

Growing up in Miami, I was introduced to drugs and alcohol at a very young age. Experimentation with friends to fit in triggered something in my DNA that some call a disease. Once unlocked it is one of the more difficult things in life to defeat.

But thanks to God, my family, and the brothers and sisters of AA who helped me get pointed in the right direction my life is totally, totally different and I can now be of better use to my God, my family, and my fellows.

That change in my life springboarded me into service. It took some years to hone in the fact that I wanted to live every moment of every day to make a difference in the lives of others. So moment to moment I seek God and continunally have my eyes on the lookout for divine connections with people to whom I might serve.

I often come up short and am still easily distracted, but I know my purpose in life and believe with all my heart that God knows the desires of my heart in this area and will continue to provide opporunities for our family to be difference makers.

So, if your out there and you are reading this and you are struggling in any area of life, know that there is hope and a life beyond your wildest dreams. You don’t have to life in bondage to anything! If your struggling, feel free to contact me 904-302-5320 or ejaffe@journeychurch.org and I will do my best to connect you with resources that could change your life! You don’t have to be alone. There is help and hope for all who seek it.

What a month or so it has been and what a year for that matter.

At the end of last year I spoke about creating a personal development plan for 2007, I took a moment to relook at it and boy did the plans of man get thrown out the door. I thought I had prayerfully considered things and in fact I did, but God allowed for some amazing changes to happen to bring us to where we are today.

A month ago we were believing God for an opportunity to be in full time ministry again. We are believing that that dream may be a reality again someday in the not to distant future. Journey Church has met 4 evenings and hosted numerous family gatherings and outreaches during it’s first 5 weeks of existence. Attendance is already close to 175+ on a weekly basis mid summer. So I can’t help but stand in awe of God and what he has in store for the future.

We are still believing and shooting for moving to Sundays sometime late August, but God has yet to reveal the facility, so we are doing our best to pray, plan, prepare and save approximately 75% of each weeks income in an effort to be positioned for a full blown launch soon. There is much to buy and believe God for, so please be praying for us in this area.

We have a huge announcement to make next week. I think everyone will be extremely excited! I will keep it under wraps for now. You will have to show up to see it.

We are also hosting our first womens event this saturday morning from 9am-11am at the church building. So ladies come out and represent. Click here for more details.

A special thank you to everyone who is praying for us and believing with us. Mary Jo and I earnestly love doing life together with you.

Have a blessed week.

Friends in the blogosphere (is that a real word?)

Pray.. and stay tuned.. Good stuff coming Monday.

PS – anybody like the new header on the blog? We are correcting the type a little, but a special thanks to a dear friend Christian for helping build out the graphic. Christian I love you man!

I’m not sure if you ever noticed the Donations Welcomed button on the left hand side of the blog? 

You might ask, why is it there?

Well since it was tax day and finances were on my mind, I re-examined it my thoughts on the topic.

• Why did I put it there?
• Am I dreaming for fame and riches?
• Is it stupid to have it there?
• Should I remove it?

Well as with a lot of things lately I could use your comments on the matter. Let me know if you think I should keep it or drop it.

Here is the "Why Behind the What" for why I originally added the TIP JAR.

I have a real passion for developing online ministry and have visions to expand it well beyond this blog. In fact right now I have a number of websites:

• God First Business – Which also has forums for businesses to exchange thoughts and ideas.
• Impact Clay - Non-Profit
• Integrity Consulting Group – For Profit Consulting

I also have 3 different podcasts, and Online Christian Bookstore, an online email broadcast tool, and even a project planning website for churches and church plants using Central Desktop.

Here are some of the dreams:

1. A site to leverage video messages in a nooma like fashion.
2. A online university type setting to help churches do assimilation, online training, and more.
3. A monthly Christian Electronic Newspaper that may start as early as May of this year.
4. Consolidate the sites for better accessibility.
5. Enhanced graphics and feature sets.
6. Publicize the sites.
7. I have started to write a book, "Church Leadership for the Rest of Us!"

As you might imagine, the current sites and tools cost $ to maintain and these dreams will cost more $ to bring to fruition.

So where does the money go? Well honestly I have only gotten 2 donations in a year. Those donations have gone to cover the cost of keeping the blog alive which is about $200 per year. I have made up the difference for the cost of the blog, web sites, podcasts, etc from our pocket because we believe in them.

So if I do get donations, they would be used to further the web ministries described above. So if you pray and feel led to help The Jaffe’s further their local or online ministries then feel free to use the "Donations Welcomed" button on the top left hand side of our blog to send us some $. If you think we should scrap the idea, comment and let us know as well. Donations are currently *NOT* tax deductible at this point.

If you prefer to mail:
Eric Jaffe
1512 Brookstone Dr
Orange Park, FL 32003

For tax deductible donations to further the ministry of Impact Clay and/or it’s web ministries visit: Impact  Clay’s donate online page.

or Via Mail –
Impact Clay
5000 Highway US 17
Suite 18 #95
Orange Park, Fl 32003

A blog worthy beginning to out trip.

From recent blog posts you probably sense that this transition in our life has caused us to do a lot of reflecting, a lot of soul searching, and even some dreaming about the future.

As a child  in the mid-1970’s there were 3 movies that really stuck in my head. 1st was Star Wars, Jaws, and Rocky! They sit as indelible ink impressions in my mind.

This morning as we woke up in North Carolina we popped in the new Rocky Balboa. Seemingly un-acclaimed in the theatres and I was actually shocked how quickly it was on DVD. Maybe it was a bit of nostalgia, but, what a inspiring movie it was. I was incredibly moved by it and Mary Jo actually cried 4 times.

Just as we went to south Florida a week or so and walked through a journey of our past and our roots, Rocky did the same in the movie going back to the places in Philly where it all began for him. In watching the deleted scenes Sylvester Stallone was truly reminiscing as well as he knew it would be his last go round as well.

There was one particularly moving scene where Rocky is speaking to his son who was obviously disenchanted with his life and his relationship with his father and Rocky responded with..

The world aint all sunshine and rainbows. It will try to beat you down permanently.. It’s not how hard you get hit. It’s how you take the hits. How you can take it and keep working forward, but you have to be willing to take the hits and you can’t blame others. That’s what cowards do and you aint a coward.

How true is that. The world/the devil wants to bring us down, knock us out and unfortunately he is successful way too many times. The bible tells us in James that in this world we will have trouble.

But how inspiring. How do we react to those difficulties, those punches to the gut, those right crosses that sometimes hurt? Do they knock us out, or do they make us stronger?

The bible says that in Christ all things are possible to him who believes. Christ is our hope. Christ is our Joy, Christ is the one who gives us strength to soar on wings like eagles. I say never give up, never lose up, press on, take your licks, get your black eyes and run your race knowing that Christ has got your back, knowing that there is a great cloud of witnesses cheering you on.

And knowing that age doesn’t matter, your past doesn’t matter. Today matters, what we do with the time we have left matters. Living our life to make a difference in the lives of others matters.

As I wrap it up, I obviously encourage everyone to watch the movie. But I was also moved by one other theme. Rocky obviously was past his prime in terms of fighting, but He was still young at heart. A line from the movie said, “The heart is the last thing to get old.” Man is that important in life and ministry. Never discarding those with more grey hair, never looking at someone as past their prime. Especially in Christ. Think of the wisdom, the knowledge, the heart that can be transferred to the next generation.

A good set of friends, Diane and Harry Brutt once shared that they had heard that it wasn’t the job of one generation to necessarily pass the torch to the next generation, rather it was to keep the torch lit. To inspire, to encourage, to fire up, to challenge, to share. To hang in there and be a part of ….

Aw heck, I am on a roll. I think of my Great Grandma Lila, I was 15 she was probably 85. We missed the bus that was to get us home. She walked with me probably 3 miles to the house stopping only at burger king to get a drink. How I miss those days with her. But how awesome it was to hang around her as a little kid. Every Saturday she took care of me, taught me about hard work, taught me to enjoy being out in the garden. Taught me to cherish people no matter the age.

Lord thank you for moments of reflection mixed with joy, pain, uppercuts, even the occasional choke hold. But how fun is it when we get through those challenges and grow from them. Lord prepare me for the next legs of the journey!