I know we have mentioned them in past newsletters, but I want you to meet friends of ours, George and Kimmy Stacy. They are part of the skoolie community, and we got to know and love them through the Skoolie Swarm events.

George and Kimmi are not your average folks. First, they live in a bus. But, then again, so do we. 🙂 Next, they LOVE their tie-dye! I honestly can’t remember seeing them wear anything else. In fact, at one of our Swarm potlucks, Kimmi carried in her hot dish contribution with tie-dye potholders! Thirdly, they love Jesus and have an incredible passion for the marginalized that compels them to seek out truckers, homeless, drug addicts, and more as they travel. That is the reason they are on the road.

This passion was born from their own experiences of being marginalized. Kimmi grew up on the streets of Hawaii. Homeless, she did things no young girl should have to do in order to survive. George’s story is below:

I started drinking at age 11, smoking and dealing weed at 13. By the time I was 16-17, I was heavy into hallucinogens. The Air Force tried to slow me down, but alcohol and opioids were always available. My 20’s and 30’s are still a blur. Using crack, cocaine, and meth were added to my repertoire. My mainstays continued to be alcohol, opioids and Benzodiazepines. My addiction had taken over my life. I wanted to get clean, but I felt as if I was too far gone. Thankfully, Jesus saw things differently. After attempting to quit a thousand times, I tried something that I had never tried before. September 28, 2008 I asked Jesus to save me. He slayed the old me in an instant and totally took away the desire to ever use again. The Holy Spirit filled that “hole” I’d been trying to fill for nearly three decades, with a compelling desire to serve folks who feel hopeless.

“I felt as if I was too far gone,” George said. He thought he had made too many bad choices that now he was stuck in a life he couldn’t get free from. Kimmi wrestled with the pain and shame of her innocence being stolen from her. In so many ways, these two were people we could so easily chalk up as lost causes. But God….

God took their messes and turned them into ministry (Isaiah 61:3). He saw them, loved them, healed them, and showed them who they really are – a son and a daughter of the living God made in the image of their loving Father. Then He sent them forth to love on others in the same way God loves on them.

When he speaks at the Swarm Sunday services, George reminds me of the disciples in the book of Acts. He is an uneducated, ordinary man who speaks from his heart with boldness, clarity, and conviction (Acts 4:13). After three decades of frying his brain on drugs, that alone is a testament to God’s amazing love.

George and Kimmi were the people that they now serve. They spend nights in truck stops, keeping their eyes open for hurting souls that need some love. They volunteer at music festivals (armed with Narcan in case they see anyone overdosing) to minister to the drug-laden people who tend to frequent these events. And they go out of their way to find homeless encampments, bringing food and essentials, as well as God’s love, comfort, and hope.

From the highways to the hedges (Luke 14:23), George and Kimmi go where the church most often doesn’t. They reach more homeless, hurting, and needy people in a month than an entire church full of people is likely to reach in a year. They are just two people who love Jesus and spread His word outside the four walls of the church – far outside. They have no restrictions – no religious rules, no traditions to tend to, no doctrine from this group of believers or that to tell them how to handle the ministry God has clearly given them. There are no walls and no “signs” confining them. (Check out our last newsletter for more on that.) God alone directs their paths, their words, and their hearts. Can you imagine how big their church is in God’s eyes, full of all the homeless and hurting they serve?

On his Facebook page, George describes himself as “a little less ‘pulpit’, a little more ‘hands & feet’ kinda dude.” Amen to that!

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To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.   ~ Isaiah 61:3

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.   ~ Acts 4:13

Then the master said to the servant, “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.”

~ Luke 14:23