Freelance

A Not-So-Brief Look Into Bernt's Freelance Jobs.

While Erin has been trying to paint and organize our townhome, I have been tackling freelance. It has left me "feeling tired; like butter spread on too much toast." (A paraphrased quote by Bilbo Baggins in Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.)

My freelance work has consisted of helping John Mayer (not the musician) and Steve Harrison.

Rev. John A. Mayer: Creator and founder of Religion Information Resources (RIR). He is able to dig up exhausted info concerning the churches state in the Twin Cities. Just a glimpse of some of the topics he tackles consists of: Church age, attendence, size, race to name a few. He also researches the homosexual and cult climate. (Did you know there are several homosexual churches in Minneapolis/St. Paul. And their are Wiccan/Witchcraft day-care centers.) The minority population is also a big part of his research. (Minneapolis is the most diverse city in the United States. The Phillips Neighborhood, located in south Mpls., alone has over 125 different languages spoken their) He not only keeps up-to-date info, but John also charts and graphs the trends over the past 10 years. Very in-depth. Very interesting.

So what does John do with all of this info?
1. He is mainly used as a consultant and a speaker for plantning churches. He is asked by several churches to speak and make known his findings as well as help them in the who's, how's, when's where's, and why's.
2. John helps make know what is going on in here are his "Discover You City" tours. A charter bus is rented and a group of about 20-30 people have their eyes opened as John speaks about the goings on outside their very windows.
3. Every year he publishes his findings (over 100 pages worth) into a publication called CityScopes. Besides being a great tool in church planting and keeping up-to-date as too what's going on in the city we live in, several pastor's utilize the info in their sermons.

Steve Harrison: Involved with Bethany Urban Development (BUD), the Urban Jungle, and BUD's Spiffy Clean. BUD's focus is inner city missions. Steve is also one of John Mayer's board members.

So what does Steve do with BUD?
1. Bethany Urban Developement does a lot of what STEM does only it's urban Minneapolis focused. Whether it's cleaning up trash around a ministry, helping with construction, or street evangelism.
2. Urban Jungle is a coffee shop located on Lake street in downtown Minneapolis. (It's one of those area's where you don't want to be at night.) It's used an outreach tool. The staff (Bethany College of Missions students) can openly share the gospel and their testimonies with the patrons. A very cool idea and a great place for an espresso.
3. Spiffy Clean is not even a microscopic speck on COIT's radar. It's a small group of people who help clean churches for discounted prices.

Anyway, those two guys/organizations have dominated my nights and Saturday's recently. Both are great guys working for some great causes.

A Brief Look Into Erin's Non-Paying Freelance Jobs.

Erin Eidsmoe: Wife and caretaker of Bernt Eidsmoe. Here are some of the projects she is currently ivolved with:
1. Painting and cleaning new townhome.
2. Helping coordinate Bible study on Tuesday nights.
3. Awana on Wednesday nights.
4. Babysitting the two-month old puppy named Bella.
5. Babysitting the four-year old Anna who is supposed to be looking after the two-month old puppy named Bella.
6. Babysitting the 27-year old Bernt who is supposed to be looking after four-year old Anna who is supposed to be looking after the two-month old puppy named Bella.
7. Taking on-line Bible classes from Northwestern College when not involved with numbers 1-6.

—b