81,

Dear Eric,

Greetings in the name of Christ Jesus.  Thank you for sharing your time with me the other day and suggesting some assistance.  I forgot if I had sent you this web site plan, so I decided to send it to you maybe again along with some new notes. 

There is some new information that I would like to add for a supporter and director of the Waikiki Beach Outreach Ministry, namely Randolph Amen.  He is reestablishing his paralegal logistic service here in Honolulu, and I would like your help to guide me to set up a new domain and web site for him called www.123lawhonlulu.com or some other name he desires.  He wants to blog his services on that site so he will also need an easily updatable site he can change daily, like Ron Richey's www.diamondheadtraders.com site.

The following represents the present web site operating plan:

1. Keep www.waikikibeachoutreach.org with Bob Leveilee as long as he will continue to host and manage the DNS for free.  (Ask him to put include an additional new link to www.liferecoveryministry.org when set up)
2. Move the renewal of the domain www.waikikibeachoutreach.org to www.HawaiiDomainNames.com from Network Solutions.  This will reduce the renewal cost from $35 to $8.95 per year.  This will need to be done soon before it expires.
3. Set up a new domain and web site called www.liferecoveryministry.org for Bible study comments.  It will link to www.waikikibeachoutreach.org and others.
4. The new web site needs to be hosted by an inexpensive easy user DNS.
5. The new web site should be designed to be able to set up at least 5 email addresses to the domain and send out many emails to several hundred addresses several times a week (with the potential of sending out 1500 per week within one or two years from now).  Consideration for easy email marketing should be determined and when it might be appropriate.  This Bible study emailing is presently being done out of yahoo which limits about 90 emails per hour; this may continue if it is the most cost effective way.  Prayer requests, testimony and praise reports should be available.
6. The new web site should have the ability to accept contributions for the Waikiki Beach Outreach Ministry (and the Life Recovery Ministry when that bank account is set up if needed).  And it should be set up for purchases as noted below.  I believe a Pay Pal merchant account is already set up under Waikiki Beach Outreach Ministry (Bob Erb did this last year but never followed up with being able to use it yet, so further research may be required to make use of it on the new web site).
7. The new web site should be designed to add sale of products when opportunities come about.  It should be able to sell 10 or 20 products on the site, or on ebay, as an online store site.
8. The new web site should be easily modified, preferably using Front Page, and have an easy FTP system set up so anyone signed on can modify (like how Eric set up Rons www.diamondheadtraders.com ).  Additional pages should be able to be added for new Bible study materials each week.  Some kind of control may have to be established to ensure the minimum amount of space is paid for each month so determination of what to archive or of what should be removed may be made.  If cost is affordable, it would be nice to be able to continually add Bible studies and keep them available forever (something to consider for the future if not affordable yet).
9. The new site should have some type of system to make it easy for other sites to link up to it and for it to link up to many other Christian and Bible sites (especially www.biblegateway.com , www.christianet.com , and many others) that is easily found on the menu bar.

Thank you for your support and for any assistance you might be able to provide me and my friend.  We will pay you whatever your time is worth to start the ball rolling.  God bless you and your family.

Your brother in Christ,

Bob @ www.waikikibeachoutreach.org

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82.

Dear Luam and anyone else who reads this,

Greetings in the name of Christ Jesus.  Thank you for sharing God's Words in Joshua 1:9.  Thank you for reminding me of how I must continue to obey God's will for me.  Sometimes I seem to be inadequate.

A truly repentant person will immediately begin striving to obey God. The changes that I make in my life are the "fruits" that demonstrate that my repentance is genuine. This does not mean that I, the repentant sinner, obey God perfectly. Even those of us who have received the Holy Spirit do not obey God perfectly.  It means that we turn our life around and orient it toward obeying God. Upon producing the fruits of repentance and demonstrating faith in the sacrifice of Christ through baptism, God gives us His Holy Spirit. As Peter simply stated in Acts 5:32, God gives His Holy Spirit to those who obey Him!

As I read the scriptures you have shared, I felt impelled to include the previous verse also.  My ability to obey God's will for me did not come until I read the Bible every day.  Then miracles began happening in my life and it has led me to be doing what I am now doing.  And He is giving me a sense of love, joy and peace that no money could ever buy.  Praise the Lord.

Joshua 1 (New Living Translation)

8"Study this Book of the Law continually. Meditate on it day and night so you may be sure to obey all that is written in it. Only then will you succeed. 9I command you--be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."

Joshua may have been devistated by the death of Moses, his close friend, mentor, and father figure.  But he was immediately thrust into a leadership role for which he undoubtedly felt unworthy and unprepared.  How could Joshua ever fill the shoes of the man who had talked to God face to face (Exodus 33:11)?  Joshua dared not show fear before the people, or they would have lost confidence in his ability to lead them to victory.  He needed to demonstrate a bold obedience to God's commands iin order to ensure success.  Joshua was able to do this because he was willing to turn his life and will over to God.

The Lord appoints Joshua to succeed Moses.

Joshua had attended upon Moses.  He who was called to honour, had been long used to business.  Our Lord Jesus took upon him the form of a servant.  Joshua was trained up under command.  Those are fittest to rule, who have learned to obey.  The removal of useful men should quicken survivors to be the more diligent in doing good.  Arise, go over Jordan.  At this place and at this time the banks were overflowed.  Joshua had no bridge or boats, and yet he must believe that God, having ordered the people over, would open a way.

God promises to assist Joshua.

Joshua is to make the law of God his rule. He is charged to meditate therein day and night, that he might understand it.  Whatever affairs of this world we have to mind, we must not neglect the one thing needful.  All his orders to the people, and his judgments, must be according to the law of God.  Joshua must himself be under command; no man's dignity or dominion sets him above the law of God.  He is to encourage himself with the promise and presence of God. Let not the sense of thine own infirmities dishearten thee; God is all-sufficient.  God has commanded, called, and commissioned us to do it, and we will be sure to bear it to succeed.  When we are in the way of duty, we have reason to be strong and very bold.  Our Lord Jesus, as Joshua here, was borne up under his sufferings by a regard to the will of God, and the commandment from his Father.

Thank you for reminding me of my duty to God, the Father, and what He shows me in the Bible, studying it daily.  Praise the Lord.  God bless you and your family.

Your brother in Christ,

Bob Erb @ www.waikikibeachoutreach.org

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83.

Dear Everyone I Know Who Cares About The Homeless,

Greetings in the name of Christ Jesus.  I am thinking of one of my constituents who recently left the island and felt I needed to share what I believe God is putting on my heart.

A homeless friend who is a journalist just moved back to the mainland because Hawaii would not allow him to work his profession.  He wrote many letters to the editors and proposed many columns to the few newspapers in Hawaii, but was rejected for payed jobs.  He suffered the hardship of homelessness and finally cut his losses and moved back to the mainland.  He experienced the lack of help and the pain for being homeless.  He suffered, as I did when I was homeless, and could not endure the pain any longer.  He did have an opportunity to leave, which most homeless do not, nor do they wish to leave this so called "paradise on earth." 

Today, a neighbor who was just forced into homelessness and is now one of my constituents that I feed, was ticketed today for trying to earn a few dollars teaching surfing to visitors on the beach.  He was ticketed for not having a permit to use the beach, even though he is a licensed surfer.  What a shame we allow our politicians to give the authority to police to stop our citizens from trying to earn a living and doing what God requires everyone else to do.  I guess he will resort to pan handling on the streets of Waikiki soon.  By the way, this man has a college degree and nobody will give him a job.

Every day I speak to homeless in Waikiki. Every homeless person has been ticketed for sleeping, something God requires that every human being to do, including police who give them the tickets.  Every day I see the police arbitrarily ticketing a few homeless for sleeping on the beach or on the street with a "camping violation."  This is absolutely outrageous.  We are supposed to be a country of equal rights and equal treatment, but our police do not ticket the 150 homeless who live on Waikiki Beach every day of the year, they only give 4 to 8 of them a ticket every day to ensure no homeless person has equal treatment.  As I see these police doing this, I always ask them how can they sleep at night when they just ticketed another human being for doing something that God requires even them to do?  They tell me that their boss tells them to do it.  So I tell them that I understand that their boss and the dollar bill they represent is more important than what God requires people to do.  I then suggest that their boss is more important then God to them, the dollar bill is their idol, not God, and then tell them that I understand their values now.  These words do not seem to go any place because the next day I see more police in Waikiki ticketing more homeless. 

I guess Waikiki police believe it is okay for homeless to breath, because God requires that and there is no way to ticket them, but they will control whatever they can.  I have even been threatened several times for not having a permit for serving food to the homeless.  As I tell them go ahead and write me up for giving away everything I own, for having a picnic with my family, or they can arrest me for breathing, or for eating, or for sleeping, of for whatever God requires me to do.  And I will make sure the public and the world will know how Hawaii treat a pastor who is feeding the homeless on Waikiki. 

Just in the past 2 weeks, 4 police have stopped me to tell me that somebody is complaining about what I am doing.  I tell them that every day I hear people complaining about what they are doing, but I don't go to the police station to tell them that.  I did go to the station last week because an officer asked me to share some information to anyone at the desk, but as I was sharing my feelings, one of the officers insulted me and said "so what's the point."  So I said that it was obvious to me they had no interest in listening to me and I said, "Praise the Lord, God bless you" and left in the middle of a sentence.   Obviously, most of the public don't know how the police are treating the homeless (who are given that authority by the politicians we elect).

The police in Waikiki are ticketing the homeless every night for sleeping and calling it camping.  Of course this does give a homeless person a sense of peacefulness that our constitution guarantees.   One of the adversities of keeping these homeless awake and insecure every night is watching these perfectly normal human beings who never chose to be homeless, but the system allowed them to get there, move into a world that our society says is mentally disturbed.  Just think about it, do you think you could maintain mental health not having the freedom to sleep?  I know when I was  homeless, my mental health sure did not improve, and I have 4 college degrees.  My education did not get me a job, nor did it keep me sane being homeless.  I see doctors and very educated people not very well anymore, now that they are homeless. 

This is a sad state of our society in Waikiki, maybe throughout Hawaii and the United States.  We take care of so many in so many parts of the world, but we do nothing for the homeless right where we live.  What a shame. 

As he still communicates with me, he shared a message he sent the Honolulu Advertiser, which I am sure they will not print, that I felt I should share to you.

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84.

Dear Everyone I Know,

Greetings in the name of Christ Jesus.  Thank you for your messages.  Thank you for your prayers.  Thank you for giving me feedback on the stuff God is leading me to send you and others.  Happy Valentines Day.

Love is the greatest gift
this world could ever give
It has the mighty power
to heal and to forgive

It's what binds hearts together
with honor and respect
Gives us hope for tomorrow
and brighter days we can expect

So I wanna share my love
with someone sweet as you
'Cause when I'm in your presence
you make me feel brand new

Happy Valentine's Day

Today God allowed me to serve 98 homeless and hungry folks ham, mashed potatoes, sweet rolls, bread, and iced tea.  My day started at 7 AM and I got home a few hours ago and it is now about 10 PM as I am writing this.  Another great day serving Him.

God bless you and your family.

Your brother in Christ,

Bob @ www.waikikibeachoutreach.org

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85.

Dear Mary and anybody else who reads this,

Greetings in the name of Christ Jesus.  Thank you for your timely response.  Thank you for caring about my time.  Thank you for your understanding.  Thank you for sharing your desires about hearing the voice of the Lord.  Thank you for your prayers.

Your desire to have more of Him and less of you inspires me.  That one is a real challenge for me.  I have been very ego centered all of my life and I never knew how to be the opposite, humble.  But when I was at a church about 2 years ago, a pastor was speaking about his wife when he referenced Philippians 2:3-4, but God showed me something much greater that turned me around and gave me a new understanding, a revelation.

Philippians 2:3-4 (NLT)

  3"Don't be selfish; don't live to make a good impression on others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself. 4Don't think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing."

My understanding previously was to clean toilets and dog shit and I might be humble, but God told me to take care of the needs of others and He would take care of my needs.  My life is now evidence of His promise.  As I give away everything I own every month, He has provided me with more stuff than I could have bought if I had saved my money instead of giving it away.  I have an office copy machine that was donated yesterday.  I have a van that was donated last week and another car was donated last year that I sold to buy more food.  I have at least 8 computers in this house and have given away at least 8 more.  I had 2 backpacks 19 months ago, I have over 80 shirts, 2 tuxedos, a cashmere jacket, 11 pairs of shoes, etc. etc. and I have given away at least a thousand pieces of clothes and shoes over the past 19 months.  I can go on and on about the miracles that are happening in my life.  Just because I now think of other peoples needs more than my own, I see my life differently.  Praise the Lord.

We are never an island unto ourself; we are a part of a whole, a member of Christ's body.  If we are part of a loving community, when others hurt, we hurt; when we hurt, others hurt.  Early in the recovery process we may need to concentrate on our own welfare.  But as we  grow, we have to move beyond self-centeredness and become interested in others.  Part of making amends to people we have harmed is showing them that we have changed.  As we love others, we will find that others will love us.  As our relationships grow stronger, our addiction will lose its grip on us.

As we read further to Philippians 2:5-11, we get more reinforcement on this concept.

Philippians 2:5-11

 5Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had. 6Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God. 7He made himself nothing; he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form.  8And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal's death on a cross. 9Because of this, God raised him up to the heights of heaven and gave him a name that is above every other name, 10so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus Christ is our ideal model for humility in obedience and service.  Our thought, attitudes, and actions are to be patterned after Christ.  His willingness to humbly obey His Father is a great example for us.  As we take an honest moral inventory of our life, we must humbly admit our faults so we can begin to change our destructive patterns.  If we follow Jesus Christ in humility, learning to admit our failures without hesitation, nothing will be able to stop our recovery.

Exhortations to a kind, humble spirit and behavior.

Here are further exhortations to Christian duties; to like-mindedness and lowly-mindedness, according to the example of the Lord Jesus.  Kindness is the law of Christ's kingdom, the lesson of his school, the livery of his family.  Several motives to brotherly love are mentioned.  If we expect or experience the benefit of God's compassion to yourselves, be compassionate one to another.  It is the joy of ministers to see people like-minded. Christ came to humble us, let there not be among us a spirit of pride.  We must be severe upon our own faults, and quick in observing our own defects, but ready to make favorable allowances for others.  We must kindly care for others, but not be busy-bodies in other men's matters.  Neither inward nor outward peace can be enjoyed, without lowliness of mind.

I hope something touches your heart or someone you pass this on sees life in a different way as I have.

I served speghetti, cherry pie, dinner roll, and real lemonaide to 101 homeless and poor on the streets and beach of Waikiki.  Many came back for seconds, so most enjoyed it. 

I have started tomorrows meal today.  I am cooking creamed potatoe and meat variety soup right now.  I hope I will serve an early meal including more cherry pie (it was donated by Sam's Club yesterday), french bread, and strawberry juice tomorrow.  My son will be picking me up at 6 PM so we can share the weekend together.  He is working and living on the Pearl Harbor base, so I plan to stay at his place till Sunday.  When I get home, another volunteer will have 120 sandwiches ready at 7 PM so I just need to put the stuff in the wagon and get on the streets.  I don't expect to do Saturdays until he goes back home in April unless I get another volunteer to prepare the meal and serve it on Saturday.

Thank you for your concerns and sharing your desires to want more of HIM.  God bless you and your family.

Your brother in Christ,

Bob Erb @ www.waikikibeachoutreach.org

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86.

Dear Luam and anyone else who reads this,

Greetings in the name of Christ Jesus.  Thank you for sharing God's Word as you are led. 

As I was reading this while I am preparing a meal to serve to about 100 homeless, I am being led to expand the verses and share some comments within the text of your letter.  I hope it touches somebodies heart.

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87.

Dear Mary (and anyone else who reads this),

Greetings in the name of Christ Jesus.  Thank you for your messages.  Thank you for thinking of the me and the ministries God is leading us into.  Thank you for sharing your feelings. 

I believe I just responded to another email you had sent me yesterday, but I noticed I hadn't responded to this one yet.  Sometimes I am so busy, I do not respond to all of my mail until a week or so later.  So if this is the case, please forgive me, but at the time I had thought others were more important at that moment.  Right now, you are the most important person in my life.  Thank you for understanding that what God is leading me to do takes about 14 hours per day to feed 100 or more people when I don't have volunteers (which I don't most of the time, at least not yet).

As I am writing this I am feeling led to share a message with you about the five fold ministry for some reason:

Ephesians 4:7-16

Unity in the Body

7"However, he has given each one of us a special gift according to the generosity of Christ. 8That is why the Scriptures say,

    'When heascended to the heights,
       he led a crowd of captives
       and gave gifts to his people.'   

9Notice that it says "he ascended." This means that Christ first came down to the lowly world in which we live.  10The same one who came down is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that his rule might fill the entire universe. 

11He is the one who gave these gifts to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ, 13until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ.

14Then we will no longer be like children, forever changing our minds about what we believe because someone has told us something different or because someone has cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like the truth. 15Instead, we will hold to the truth in love, becoming more and more in every way like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16Under his direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love."

We have been gifted in ways that make us necessary to others.  Others have been gifted in ways that make them necessary to us.  Some of us have special gifts for teaching others about God.  Others may have thee gift of caring for hurting people.  Our individual gifts are important for the emotional and spiritual growth of others.  God has a purpose for each of us, so we must strive to know Him better through prayer and meditation on His Word.  He will show us what our gifts are and how we can use them to help others.  As we share our gifts and receive the benefits of other peoples gifts, we will find the body of Christ growing stronger and full of love.

Nothing is pressed more earnestly in the Scriptures, than to walk as becomes those called to Christ's kingdom and glory.  By lowliness, understand humility, which is opposed to pride.  By meekness, that excellent disposition of soul, which makes men unwilling to provoke, and not easily to be provoked or offended.  We find much in ourselves for which we can hardly forgive ourselves; therefore we must not be surprised if we find in others that which we think it hard to forgive.  There is one Christ in whom all believers hope, and one heaven they are all hoping for; therefore they should be of one heart. They had all one faith, as to its object, Author, nature, and power.  They all believed the same as to the great truths of religion; they had all been admitted into the church by one baptism, with water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, as the sign of regeneration.  In all believers God the Father dwells, as in his holy temple, by his Spirit and special grace.

I must now get back to cooking.  I will be serving speghetti, dinner rolls, cherry pie, and real lemonaide today.  I hope to start serving about 100 homeless and poor before 3 PM today so that I might be finished by 9 or 10 PM today; it is almost 10:30 AM right now.  I started preparing the food last night for a few hours before I fell asleep.  Now that I studied His Word, I am ready to go!

God bless you and your family.

Your brother in Christ,

Bob Erb @ www.waikikibeachoutreach.org

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