SON Update Report
Name:
SON Update Report
Date:
April 15, 2023
Event Description:
In 1970 (53 years ago), at the age of 5 years old, my parents presented me to international speaker & author, Derek Prince, wherein he prayed over me and dedicated my life to God (this was also the year that the Holy Spirit visited Asbury College, wherein several students came to our First Baptist Church of Camilla and shared their personal testimonies, which stirred up revival fires throughout south Georgia or Florida). Then in 1979 (44 years ago) at the age of 14, I fully surrendered my heart & life to Jesus, which completely transform a shy, lonely, suicidal teenager into a straight A high school student, who began singing solos in churches and traveling around the US and northern Europe in summer of 1982. In 1993 (30 years ago), I had my first personal encounter with the manifested power of Holy Spirit, during a Sunday morning worship service, when the grandson of Oral Roberts, laid his hands on my chest & released the Fire of God, wherein I felt like I was plugged into Heaven’s electrical circuit of incredible, overwhelming love & power. Then in 2010 (13 years ago), I was awakened to His Kingdom & began to experience a relationship with our Father. It was also during this past decade, that our Father began to give us understanding, wisdom, favor and access to strategic leaders throughout our community, region & nation, so that we could fulfill our assignment to help others in fulfilling their assignments and truly be a SON, serving our neighbors.
In the 1850’s, all the men of Portland (except for two) left our city to pursue their fortune in the California Gold Rush and never returned to the wives and families, which created a massive abandoned, orphan heart during the early years of our city’s foundation and future destiny. My wife, Susan, was raised in Oregon City and then Vancouver, between the years of 1970’s to 1994, when she was transferred to be a Sales Manager at the Red Lion Hotel in Modesto, California (where Billy Graham established his ministry manifesto) and then we met in 1995 at our Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International - Northern California Convention (I was her client). We married in 1996 and then moved to Portland (when I began working for Crawford Broadcasting’s radio stations), wherein God gave us a heart for our city and we founded Serving Our Neighbors (SON) in 1999, then set it up as a public charity in 2008 to receive funding and support our work with the National Day of Prayer, as well as the new Christian Chamber of Commerce of the Northwest. In 2015 & 2016, our Father led us to start our weekly Saturday morning prayerwalks in downtown Portland, asked us to close down the Christian Chamber of Commerce of the Northwest, and launch our annual Northwest Prayer Summits, as well as support and manage our annual Clark County Prayer Breakfasts.
Throughout the past 27 years in the greater Portland/Vancouver metro area, we have been directed by our Father to launch and work with many different groups of leaders, including our friends at the faith, government and business collaborative in Beaverton, BESThq (& their annual Business Expo West events), the Helping Hands Reentry Outreach Centers & their new Bybee Lakes Hope Center (formerly the never-used Multnomah County Wapato Corrections Facility), as well as the City of Portland Mayor’s Office, in managing their Portland Sister Cities Coalition, their annual Rose Festival Receptions at City Hall and their annual entry in the Grand Floral Parade (wherein last year, Mayor Ted Wheeler & his team joined us on our rose decorated trolley in partnership with the Royal Rosarians). Many times, we would launch a new initiative that would transform our city, but then our Father would ask us to pause it & move onto to something else, like our annual Marketplace Summits & our recent Marketplace Catalysts – Business Development Group Forums & YouTube Channel. We didn’t understand it at the time, but we trusted our Father’s process and at times felt like we were still missing something!
In the summer of 2021, we had the opportunity to be a part of the Kingdom Congressional International Alliance (KCIA) annual Global Summit in South Dakota, wherein we were introduced to Ken & Teena Starr with HomeComfort USA. As our Father continued to lead us to learn more about their ministry Heal Our Land, now based in Vancouver, Washington, we asked Ken & Teena to share their story in what they have experienced in their family, business and ministry, and in regards to what George La Du (one of the Founders of SON) & I are calling “Our Father’s Secret Sauce.” It’s like we’ve been working with all the different ingredients of this amazing stew, that our Father is preparing and now He has placed us all in a huge pot, wherein He is turning up the heat and beginning to pour out a fresh revelation of His Love, that changes everything!
Several years ago, during our Saturday morning SWAT Prayer Team, our Father began to show us a massive Tsunami of His Glory, that is now crashing upon the earth and specifically Portland, wherein He has now revealed that His Glory will be release as the Father’s Love to heal the abandoned orphan heart of our city and thus release healing around the world, as every aspect of Portland is healed and it is raised up as a model to the nations, as to what a “Healed By Our Father’s Love” city looks like! In April of 2022, Ken & Teena Starr were directed by our Father to have me work directly for Heal Our Land and cover about 75% of our family’s financial needs, so that Serving Our Neighbors, could shift its funding to provide more for our current initiatives and upcoming projects, wherein we were able to reduce my monthly retainer with SON by 66%. Our goal in this new partnership with Heal Our Land is bring what they carry (a fresh revelation of the Father’s Love) into all the relationships, initiatives & projects that we have been working on, as well as those that we’ll be given in the future.
In October of 2022, Ken & Teena were directed by our Father to put me on sabbatical for six months to a year, wherein I would work from home, be more available to my wife and sons to experience more of our Father’s Love, as well as become a better husband and father, so that my family could begin to move into our family assignment for His Kingdom purposes. But, we have maintained some of our regular community activities on a limited basis [i.e. our weekly Saturday morning prayerwalks/prayer zooms, our weekly Restoring Oregon prayer zooms, focusing on government leaders with Vicki Norris, our monthly Portland Sister Cities Coalition meetings at City Hall, our monthly Steering Committee meeting for the launch of our new PDX CRN (Community Resource Network), our monthly Steering Committee meetings for the annual Clark County Prayer Breakfast, our monthly connect & seminars at NPIM’s new NW Nehemiah Entrepreneurship Community Center & World Headquarters in Battle Ground, Washington, our bi-monthly Advisory Board Meetings for the Bybee Lakes Hope Center and our quarterly Board Meetings for Worship 24/7 (with plans to purchase an FM frequency in the Portland/Vancouver metro area, as soon as one becomes available), as well as working with Pray Oregon (as of February 2023, Pray Oregon is now under SON’s 501 C3), that coordinates various state-wide prayer projects, like National Day of Prayer, Prayer At The Heart and it’s ongoing Prayer Zooms and working with PrayerPDX (various local church Prayer ministries) that supports the work of TogetherPDX (led by Kevin Palau), which also includes PastorsPDX (our leading local Pastors), ServePDX (our leading local Outreach Pastors) & SharePDX (our leading local Evangelistic ministries).
For 2022, we received the following Words . . .
- FLIP is Fearless Leaders Inverting Protocols
- HOPE is Helping Other People Excel
- KEYS is Kingdom Explosions Yielding Success
- DARE is Determined Apostles Reforming Everything!!!
For 2023, we have received the following Words . . .
- EPIC is Explosions Penetrating Internal Controls & setting everyone FREE!
- FAMILY is Finally Acquiring Multiplication In Liberating Yields
- HARVEST is Having Abundance, Rest, Victory, Eternity, Sustainability & Transparency
If you can help us, by donating on a monthly basis ($1K, $500, $250, $100 or $50) go to the PayPal button on the front page of our website, www.ServingOurNeighbors.org or you can make a one-time donation of any amount via PayPal. To help us avoid service charges, mail a check to PO Box 90784, Portland, OR 97290 or use Venmo (our account is @servingourneighbors) or CashApp (our account is $servingourneighbors).
James Autry Facebook 503-515-5647
Executive Director & Community Collaborator
PO Box 90784, Portland, OR 97290
www.ServingOurNeighbors.org Facebook
www.MarketplaceCatalyst.org Facebook
www.MarketplaceSummit.org Facebook
Strategic Collaborative Events
www.HubNation.global Facebook
www.BizExpoWest.com Facebook
www.HeartsOfFireIntl.com Facebook
www.PrayerConneXion.com Facebook
www.MissionConneXion.org Facebook
www.LeadercastMtHood.com Facebook
www.NationalDayofPrayer.org Facebook
www.ClarkCountyPrayerBreakfast.org Facebook
Strategic Collaborative Initiatives
www.RISE7.org Facebook
www.PrayOregon.org Facebook
www.MorePrayer.org Facebook
www.Worship247.com Facebook
www.PrayingForPDX.org Facebook
www.Commissioned.global Facebook
www.PortlandAshkelon.org Facebook
www.CompassionToAction.com Facebook
www.BybeeLakesHopeCenter.com Facebook
www.PortlandSisterCitiesCoalition.org Facebook
Strategic Collaborative Partners
www.BESThq.net Facebook
www.ICCCUSA.org Facebook
www.KCIAlliance.org Facebook
www.TogetherPDX.org Facebook
www.HealOurLand.org Facebook
www.KingdomLeague.org Facebook
www.IdentityProject.us Facebook
www.TransformLead.com Facebook
www.NehemiahProject.org Facebook
www.KingdomInitiatives.com.au Facebook
www.ChristianEmergencyNetwork.org Facebook
