Fort Worth Public Market Building

About fifteen years ago a concept began to develop in my little pea brain. It wouldn't leave me alone. I ignored it... It wouldn't leave me alone...I ignored it - as best I could. Ten years ago an addendum to that concept began to bubble to the top. The addendum was a "book" compared to the part 1 "article" of this concept. On the canvas of my mind, some elusive brush kept painting this concept -- this "vision" in greater and greater detail.  This vision is now called The Vine. The Vine is a completely unique concept for a Christian Performing Arts and Entertainment ministry, venue and school.

Seven years ago I lived in beautiful downtown Ft. Worth. At that time, I was developing a ground-up company now known as Texas Power, a retail electric provider entering the market in the second year of deregulation. This was an exciting young industry, brand new to Texas and I was knee deep in the demands of birthing our little contribution to this new market. The electric provider was a company nestled in under the umbrella of my father's existing natural gas firm, which I helped launch shortly before I ran (for my life) to be a songwriter in Nashville in 1994. I was now back from Nashville with a new and very different passion and calling on my life.

Every morning I drove from my downtown apartment to our offices in Arlington. If you don't know this about me already, I am a believer in Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. I believe that the Holy Spirit still speaks and guides His people with His own voice in this modern day. I didn't always believe that but He had His way of proving it to me through a "cancer scare" in 1999. The Holy Spirit spoke up one morning on my way to work and pointed my eye to a downtown building and simply said "This is the building that will house this vision I am giving you."  No thunder. No lightning. No finger dangling from out of the clouds - just the simple, to-the-point, matter-of-fact "still small voice" of God. "Oh." I replied and sat in silence for a brief I'm-not-even-going-there moment.

"Do...do you realize I'm really busy right now with this other thing you've given me to do? ... and did I mention that I'm really a songwriter God, not an electric company developer? ... Yes, never mind that, we've been over that a thousand times! Anyway, so, what are you saying? What is it that you want me to do about this building, Lord?"

"Walk through the doors." 

After a month or so of finally working up the guts to do just that, I was met at the door by a female employee who exited her cubicle to assist me.  The interaction went something like this:

"Uuuuh ... do .. uh .. is there ... do you know if there is any... office space ...for lease in here?" …WHAT am I doing?

"Oh no honey,” she exclaimed, with a chuckle in her voice.  “We've been in here for 20 years and we aren't going anywhere! Sorry!"

"Oh no problem, thanks anyway!" …Just turn and walk away and go to work you idiot! "Nice Lord! Thanks! Thanks for that! …I've lost it! ...I'm losing it!" 

Two months later the building was completely empty and there was a big "For Lease" sign in the east window! And so, the adventure begins! To no avail, I made several attempts over the following months and years to approach the owners and share the vision. In the one and only meeting I was offered, which was actually held casually, during an art exhibit they hosted in the building, it seemed clear the owners had their own future vision and plan for the building. Their assistant finally encouraged me to move on with the vision and find another building. 

In August of this year, I was required to give a presentation of the vision the Lord had given me to our ministry’s overseeing organization, A.C.T. International. After my presentation, Dr. Lou Campbell, Executive Director of the Enclave for the Arts, wanted to meet and discuss the vision and take a look the building.  The group encouraged me not to give up hope on the building because, they shared, it seemed to be a real “God thing.”  I agreed to meet with Dr. Campbell and even offered to call the Frost Brothers to see if someone would be available to show Dr. Campbell the inside of the facility.  Edmund Frost invited us to his offices just down the street and suddenly we were miraculously having the sit-down meeting I had been waiting seven years to have.  Plans had shifted for the Frosts over the past couple of years and I now had their ears and the open door to fully share the vision with them. After all this time, it seemed I could now hear the “sound” of the walls coming down. Things just simply snapped into place. Edmund Frost seemed to grasp the vision and quickly became the biggest cheerleader of the vision to date. Our relationship immediately clicked and “synergy” became the word of the day. We have had several meetings with the Frost Brothers since, and continue to further develop our plans together.

 

Michael

He said his name was Michael. That stopped me in my tracks! I'd been thinking about my little brother, Michael all day. I have a wooden airplane Boompa carved for him before Michael passed away. It was handed down to Slone. I had it in my car to give to Slone last week but I wound up not connecting with Slone before I had to leave Fort Worth. I noticed it as I was loading the latest Wal Mart do-it-yourself needs in the backseat of my car yesterday.

The Lord was speaking to me all day yesterday, sometimes about random things I didn't yet understand. Then at 6 o'clock this stranger ... a tatted twenty-something, walked into my kitchen behind one of the young "men of the village." He had brought this kid over to help with the studio. My first reaction was along the lines of not necessarily wanting every "punk kid" in town to know where I live -- Fear! Judgment! Hypocrisy! Prejudice!   (Let me call it what it was.) I'm honestly not usually like that.

Two minutes of conversation revealed that he was yet another artist wandering across the path - a fashion designer. He's good at it too. I can see it on him. I immediately check in with the Holy Spirit "What's up with this kid?"  and begin to tame my dancing-browed, beady-eyed discerning prophetess chick thing. He's familiar to me. Actually his tattoos are familiar to me. He's familiar to my husband. We don't really know him from anywhere -even though "ironically" he just moved to ...DUMAS??? from ... LA??? -- actually a few burbs east of where we moved from ... a year ago today? WHAT????  

And then he says his name is Michael and the air changes. "That's my little brother's name!" The power of the Holy Spirit hits the room and off it all goes! "Synchronistic" elements begin entering the stage like a cast of characters. Things the Lord has been speaking to me during the day start to line up and make more sense. The Lord begins feeding me statements and questions. Michael tells some of his testimony and recent story. The presence of the Lord is thick thick thick! Michael is precious! Michael is in need. Michael is tired. Michael has been "delivered" ..."to your home" (says the Lord) for reasons that are not all revealed yet. One reason I know: Here, Michael is loved! The Lord has invited Michael to "Go in peace" which translated correctly reads "Go INTO peace." Michael is aware of the invitation and I discern he is filling out the rsvp.


I relish the supernatural life! It is the biggest kick this side of dying and going to heaven. Everything that happened in this house last night was supernatural. It is a pure air that I can easily breathe in.  The heavens have opened over Dumas in the last few weeks and He is pouring out His Spirit on us. My spirit has recently been ripped back out my fleshy chest again and I am once again, gratefully, living "beside myself." It's the only way to fly!

2nd Corinthians 5:13

New International Version (©1984)

If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.
New Living Translation (©2007)
If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit.
English Standard Version (©2001)
For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.

Peace In Him,
Jill Welch

Our New "Arts Ministry House"

"This is an arts ministry house!" I was buzzing in and out of this house we bought a couple of months ago...painting things purple for Rona's debut production of Butterfly MasKerade (more on that later) and this declaration came up from my spirit and out of my mouth. Rona had glitter and feathers and masks all over the kitchen table...and floor...and in her hair and on her face (you can imagine, it's Rona after all). I loved the sight of it!! Jenna was there at the table acting as accidental production assistant - something she's very gifted at actually. My brother-in-law, Jeff and I were preparing to go up and create a "set" from ...nothing -- something we are both gifted at. Watching people in their giftings thrills me to no end!

This week Jamie Sloan, an up and coming country artist, will be staying with us and recording in our (not quite yet built) studio. My husband has been pounding lumber and crawling in a 150 degree attic for a couple of weeks racing the calendar and clock. He has been lit up like a little boyscout seeing smoke, real smoke rise from that stick he's been ruthlessly twirling for what seems like hours. I've sensed the covertly silent tribal grunts filling the air in there as the men of the village have shown up to lend a hand. But not to worry! Jamie and I will fill it to overflowing with luminous estrogenetically charged radiation - a God given, undetectable yet powerful, protective force field few men can survive. Yes, I will mark my territory! The truth is, Kirk has been lit up because the finished space is a gift he is giving me and giving it makes him deeply happy. He is wonderful that way!

The next week we have visual artist, Lance Brown scheduled to come in. He will be doing a live artist interview from Java Casa. Java Casa is what I would call "the beginning stage" ---get it stage --- of a vision for a Christian arts venue the Lord began giving me years ago. A truly remarkable happening took place last week that more than affirmed this arts ministry house notion. It was the biggest miracle to happen to me since I watched an orange size mass, in my very own body, disappear before my eyes over time. It's a little too soon and too long of a story to blog right now but 'tis "coming soon"...

WOW! It is blowing my mind thinking of it again.

We are completely re-decorating the house inside and out. It will take us a very long time to finish what we've planned but we are dedicated to our "slow flip" concept. I'll share some before/after shots soon. It's fun stuff! As a matter of fact, it's time to paint again. So there's blog #2. This is a super charged season of my life - a good time to start this blog, I suppose. It's about to get good. I can feel it in the air!!!!  

Peace In Him,
Jill

My very first blog ever... ever!

Why now? I don't know. I don't have time. I have 50 other technical ways to express myself. I've been feeling led. That's it. So here I am.

Let's start with this bothersome title I chose. Seems ...self centered (but then isn't blogging just that?) I wondered if this title would offend people - a flippant slap to those who did and did not survive the great depression. It came out of my head and then out of my hands and into the sign up text box. Usually there's more attached than I realize at first when things come out of my head and then out of my hands. Some things that come to mind...

~~~~~~

I too have been poverty stricken in my life.

The heart is a hungry beggar waving around an empty tin cup
we stick it under any spicket we can find just to try and fill it up
So why are we still so empty...

(Those are lyrics from a recent song I wrote.)

~~~~~~~

I preached a sermon one time based on a bunch of grapes sitting there on this grand piano beside me...well not really but the women of the group were visualizing it there ...like I asked them to. I realized that we are like those grapes. We have been cut from the vine. They look beautiful for a while, with vibrant color and plump full of water but they are dying there in front of our eyes. Disconnected for their source of life, the vine, slowly they wither, dry up and die.

I found that source... I mean He found me! He came and sat patiently beside that spicket I was bowing to and offered to fill that empty tin cup, forever -- with "living water" and as long as I placed the tin cup under His spicket, He promised I would never again find myself empty. He was clearly the miracle that had come to reattach me to the life source -- the vine. I was suddenly no longer dying. I was gaining life upon life upon life, eternally.

~~~~~~

I am the vine, ye are the branches: 

He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit:

for without me ye can do nothing. 

John 15:5 

Receiving that life upon life thing caused an almost immediate explosive passion from deep within to "bear much fruit". Over the past few years, I began to wither a bit. I don't believe I became disconnected from the vine but it was more like I was refusing to receive the "living water". Turns out it comes at a cost. Once you've had this water you find it near impossible to live without it though. Out of desperate thirst, I finally pushed the blockades out of my spiritual veins and set myself to recieve again. Maybe that's "why now". 

I've written my testimony in book form and titled it "Time In The Sun." It is about to be published by Westbow Press. In a few days it will be available on BarnesandNoble.com and Amazon.com and a few Christian bookstores. I plan to write a follow up called "Chapter 2". There is intentionally a ten year block of time missing from the first book. It is during that ten years that I stepped into the super freaky, mind bending, life changing, flesh eating ways of the Holy Spirit and this incredible place called the Kingdom of Heaven I suddenly found myself living in.

 

I didn't start a blog to sell a book. I wrote a book to avoid a blog -- but here I am. Who knows what this blog is about. But I pray most of all that it is fruitful. 

Peace In Him,

Jill Welch 

P.S. We dig and dig but have not yet found that my husband is an heir to the Welches Grape Juice fortune -- or Raquel's. No worries! We are heirs of the KING OF KINGS!