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Just finished our first week of fall! How was it for you? The mornings have been nice but the afternoons get pretty warm. Hope your week was a good one. Ours was busy as usual.

Saturday was full of activities and adventures. Mr Scott led our visits to our friends. While they were at Richard's gas station, 4 train folks showed up and we helped them out. Then Richard took our group to a place where he knew a couple of folks needed some help. We then made our way over to check on Dale. Mr Matt and his group finished the morning by checking on Smokey. You just never know what God has in store for us on Saturdays, that is one of the coolest parts.

Momma T and Joey played host to our bikers. Showing them around the center and garden area. Momma T and Ms Patty worked all morning long in the garden.

We have been overwhelmed with children in the afternoons this week. We have had over 20 children each day with only Krysten and Joey trying to make do. Ms Abbie helped out Tuesday by pitching the ball as they all played kick ball. Ms Lisa was there helping out also.  Ms Dawn came Wednesday afternoon and joined in on the fun. Krysten and Joey could really use your help, just your presence will help, so come by Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 4:30 - 5:30.

We had a special treat Monday evening, as we had BCM students from LSUS come by to hang out with the kids. Krysten fixed pizza for the children's supper. Everybody had a great time playing all sorts of games. Joey  is working on the students coming once a month to hang out, very exciting.

Tuesday evening, we had a packed house at our mens Bible fellowship. Mr Matt brought Richard by for his first time. Richard said as we were leaving, this is pretty cool, I want to come back. Matt read from 1 Corinthians 12 talking about the Body of Christ. How all parts of the Body need to work together for the glory of God. Some of us talked about how we thought we wanted to be the head when in reality God wanted us to be a foot. How things just never seemed to work out, or we got frustrated with others, only to realize after a period of time, we were trying to be something we were not designed to be. We all have spiritual gifts, those gifts whatever they may be are important and if you do not exercise them and use them, then the Body will not be who God intended it to be.

One of our highlights of the week, was the return of Lomy on Wednesday! It was great to give him a big hug and see his smiling face. When the kids saw him, they all gave him big hugs. Can't wait to hear about his adventures. He said, he is headed to Center to spend a week with his grandmother and then come back home and settle in. Want it be nice to have our boy back with us again! Momma T would say, we will have all our peeps back with us in the Bright House once again!

Thursday afternoon was great, as Joey commented after the evening was over, this has been a good day. Pastor Eddie's wife Ms Jean got Ms Abbie to play the piano and we got off to a great start in chapel. Pastor Eddie took over and read from Mark 4 about the blind man sitting on the side of the road, asking Jesus for help. Pastor asked us, when was the last time we asked Jesus for help? Why do we try everybody else, read every self help book there is, and as a last resort we turn to Jesus? Awesome time in chapel.

Following chapel, we enjoyed a meal served by Matt and Ms Vicki and their helpers from Airline Baptist. They fixed the same meal as last month with left overs, this month they ran out! A huge crowd this afternoon. I think I heard Ms Abbie say they handed out over 70 bags of groceries.

While chapel, feeding and giving out of the groceries, St Luke's Medical van pulled up and began seeing folks from the neighborhood. Hopefully more and more folks will come as they become more familiar with the volunteers from St Luke's. They may start coming every other month.

To conclude the evening, we gathered in the chapel for our Bible study reading John 10, talking about Jesus knowing his sheep and the Pharisees fussing at Jesus for saying such blasphemy things. Know matter what we do or how much we do, if Jesus does not recognize us, it is all for nothing. It is not about us but about Jesus.

Prayer concerns were mentioned for Momma T's dad. He had a stroke Monday and is recovering from that. Continue to lift the Sauls up as they deal with the passing of John's dad. Keep the Bollingers in your prayers, for their son Nick's back procedure and Cari's treatments. Got a nice note from Pete. Pete said, "I miss everyone at Common Ground. Cari's in her second 3-week round of chemo, very time consuming. Tell everyone at CG that I miss them and send my love." Tim brought up prayers for the homeless who are being pushed around downtown, that tempers don't flare up and retaliations do not take place.

In my line of work, I drive to all parts of the city and out in the country each month. The last several years I have noticed a strange phenomenon, gates across the driveways of churches. Most of the gated churches, I have noticed are in the country where they have a gate across the one driveway going into the parking lot.

Many years ago in the beginning of my spiritual journey, when I saw these gates across the church driveways, I thought to myself, they are just trying to protect their property. But now, after realizing everything we have, everything we accumulate, is not ours but God's, how does God like the gates of our churches? If one of God's directives to us is to go out and make disciples, how does  lock gates of His churches accomplish this?

As we talk about in our mens discussions, life has challenges for us everyday, if not every hour. The church must think outside the box and become open to everybody every day, not just on Sundays. For whatever reason the chapel has a calming effect on me when I walk in. Most sanctuaries has the same effect for most people, so the church needs to recognize this and open the doors. Hopefully our churches are not more concerned about the buildings than the people who occupy them.

I have been asking the question to myself, Are we at Common Ground, opening our doors or is our entrance closed? Are we opening our hearts to all? Are we more concerned for the souls we meet or for the stuff we accumulate? Do we make sacrifices for others? Do we think of others first? Are we flexible enough to go with the flow or do we stick to our schedules?

What do you think? When someone asks you about Common Ground, what do you say? Who is Common Ground? Our mission statement says, we are committed to building community through compassionate outreach, genuine care and acceptance of all people. Are we doing that?

Driving up to the center Wednesday afternoon, I see all these signs along Southern Avenue in front of the center. I walk out to the signs and there is one for a free legal clinic, there is another one for chapel service, one for a free meal, one for medical van conducting free medical tests, wow. Then a few minutes later the green area is full of children from the neighborhood playing kick ball. And another group sitting in front of the chapel doing homework. I can think of no better examples of what Common Ground is all about than what we saw on Wednesday and Thursday. And that is just two days out of the week!

When I think of Common Ground I think of each one of you doing everything you do for others. Opening your doors to those who do not have a home to go to. Visiting those who do not have homes. Providing a place where the Word of God can be heard and discussed. Sharing a meal with those who might not have food at home. Giving groceries away weekly, no questions asked. Providing a safe place for our neighborhood children to come to. Building a home for those who do not have a home. The list goes on and on. Each one of you are living out your spiritual gifts as the Body of Christ should do. In so doing, the Kingdom of God is growing.

You guys are awesome and inspiring and a blessing to this community.

Have a great weekend and a great week. Amen.

Wisdom?

Another week has flown by. Hope yours was filled with blessings and surprises. We finally got some much needed rain and cooler temperatures in this part of country. Is the weather good in your town?

We started off last Saturday by preparing breakfast in our new kitchen. It was awesome. Joey grilled the bacon on our new stove, John W cooked the pancakes, James cut up the oranges. It may be just me, but I thought everything tasted a little better coming from our new kitchen! We were preparing breakfast  for a Sunday school group from Grace. Lots of folks showed up and worked hard all morning long. The group divided into two and some cleaned all the pots and pans and appliances in the kitchen. The other group worked across the street and continued the demolition of the Bright House II. By noon, they had filled up the second dumpster! Amazing group of people. Thanks to John Williams for making it all happen.

Mr Scott drove us around to make our visits. We first drove over to the JJ house and found Dave and his crew working, so we stopped and visited. We then made our way to Turner. He is doing fine. Richard is back and had a story for us as usual. Dale has moved back into the woods. Mr Matt helped Dale secure the tarps to keep out some of the rain. We gave him a few items to keep him going. We drove by Smokey's old camp and there was no one there. We finished our visits by checking in on Smokey at his new apartment.

Monday had been a day of rain. Joey showed up in the afternoon preparing for the arrival of the kids. I said to Joey, they won't come. Guess who showed up! No one had a rain coat or umbrella, they were wet, but they came! They came Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. Wednesday was a beautiful day, so games were played outside. Ms Abbie helped out by turning the jump rope for the kids. Come by and join in on the fun. Don't forget BCM folks will be at the center Monday evening, come by and meet them all.

Tuesday afternoon, Joey and I went by to see one of our long time friends, Curtis. Curtis has been around for many years, going with us on our Saturday visits, helping us cook breakfasts, coming by on Thursdays. Unfortunately, Curtis has cancer, and we found out, the hospital has released him and told him to go home because there is nothing more they can do for him. Tuesday was Curtis' birthday, so Joey and I took Curtis to the grocery store to get his favorite flavor of ice cream, strawberry and bought him some fried fish they had just cooked up. It is sad, to see this bright eyed young man, always had a smile, coming to the end of his life, keep him in your prayers.

Tuesday evening, we had to put more chairs in our circle for our mens Bible fellowship. What a blessing to have such a diverse group of men, coming together to talk about God and what He means in their lives. Mr Matt read from 1 Corinthians, chapter 1 starting in verse 18, talking about wisdom. We talked about there are two kinds of wisdom, wisdom of the world and spiritual wisdom. A question was asked, would you rather have youth or wisdom?

Thursday started off with a challenge, but as always God provides. About an hour before chapel, our piano man called and said something came up and he was not going to be able to play. I began to freak out because the piano man was to play a couple of hymns for Brother Bob. About 30 minutes later, as I was wondering what we were going to do, guess who walks in? Gus! He drove all the way from Longview, to play and sing if needed! I said thank you God! I told Brother Bob, Gus would sing a couple of songs and then he would have to lead us in the singing of his hymns because Gus did not know the songs. Well I was wrong as usual and God was right all the time! The second song Gus sang was one of the songs Brother Bob wanted to sing. So we all got to sing the song and have Gus play for us, isn't it amazing how God works!

What a treat we had in hearing the Word from one of God's mightiest players. Beth's dad, 94 years old, preaching for over 60 years, has not lost a beat. What passion Brother Bob has for the Lord as he talked about the Holy Spirit, forgiveness and his Father. Beth, please tell your dad how much we appreciated his time with us and if he ever wants to come back to let us know. Next week, Pastor Eddie and his wife from New Star Baptist church will be leading worship, come and hear what God is up to.

Ms Judy prepared a feast for our evening meal, serving over 125 folks. Ms Lisa and Momma T, helped out Ms Abbie in the food pantry to learn about our challenges there. New friends of Noel joined us and helped serve and clean up.

Be sure to stop in the hallway of the center as you make your way into the fellowship hall. Ms Lisa has gone above and beyond in putting together all our pictures from years past. You forget or at least I do, where we have come from, our humble beginnings, our friends, our children who have grown up. Wow, unbelievable, humbling to see these smiles displayed in such a unique way. Thank you so much Ms Lisa for all your hard work.

Got a phone call from one of the pastors at Grace, Warren Clifton. He is organizing a motorcycle ride for a group of folks this Saturday. They will be starting at Grace and their first stop is Common Ground. Joey and Momma T will be around to show them what God is doing in our part of the world. Please keep an eye out for Ms Abbie, she may jump on the back of one of the Harley's and we may never see her again!

As you all saw, the JJ house is coming along nicely. With the rain we had, the build was stopped for awhile, but now they have jumped up the pace and we now have a roof on the house. Very exciting to seeing it all come together. Great job Dr Phil.

Prayer concerns, Momma T's dad. Running tests to determine what is going on with him. God's direction for our challenges on Thursday evenings. Continue to lift up William and his challenges. All our outdoor friends.

Been thinking about the word wisdom and our discussions on Tuesday evening. Worldly wisdom and spiritual wisdom. One leads to death, one leads to life. Wisdom is something you have to work at, especially spiritual wisdom. We think if we show up on Sunday for an hour after 45 years of doing the same thing we will be wise in our spiritual walk. But we talked about, you have to work at obtaining spiritual wisdom. You need to pray, you need to read the Word, you need to listen, every day, every hour to develop a relationship with Jesus allowing us to become wise in God's Kingdom. Don't you find yourself, as you do this over the years, a peace within you, a joy not thought possible, a longing for a closeness with God, wanting to share this new found life with others. As Brother Bob said so eloquently in chapel, we serve others not because we are suppose to but because we want to. We serve, because of God's lvoe for us is so unimaginable, we can't help ourselves but to lvoe others.

Hope this week, you grow in your spiritual wisdom. Hope you find time to read the Word, to meditate on it, to listen to the quiet voice telling you, I lvoe you and there's not a thing you can do about it! To seek out those who do not yet know this lvoe and show them there is another way, a better way, a way that will bring life, eternal life.

Have a great weekend and a great week. Amen.

Our stuff

Can we say good bye summer! This week has been 105 heat index and unbearable. This weekend the temperatures are suppose to drop twenty degrees! Can we say Amen! Hope in your part of the world, the fall weather has gotten there, as we prepare for a new season.

With the van still in the shop, we made our way around to the camps in trucks and cars. Turner was waiting for us as we arrived. Ms Dawn and Mr Scott heard Turner say, as he was finishing shopping in the back of the truck, thanks, I really appreciate this! A first for Turner. Being the first of the month, Richard was not at his gas station. Hopefully he has stayed out of jail and the hospital? We went to Smokey's old camp and there was no one, so drove on! That was a first. We spotted John behind Labor Ready, so we stopped and visited him. Dave walked up not too long after that. Our final stop was to check on Smokey. He is doing fine, adjusting to his new surroundings. The apartment is very nice, clean and cool. We visited with the caretaker in the office and thanked him for watching over Smokey.

While we were playing with our friends, Karl was back at the center working hard in the Bright House II. We have a new empty dumpster, just waiting to be filled up with more debris, so Karl got the ball rolling. Starting to look better inside, not nearly as scary as it use to fill. Lots to do, so you never have to worry about something to do, just come by and take out your frustrations by tearing out some walls!

Some of us had the opportunity to visit Pastor Eddie's church Sunday. Bright Star Baptist Church, is over 100 years old and going strong. The numbers are small, but their hearts are willing. They made us fell welcomed and opened their arms to us. The Spirit was flowing through song and word.

Tuesday, we had our first afternoon back with the children. It was good to have the laughter, smiles and energy from our children. Krysten, Joey and Ms Lisa kept them busy with games and activities in the Friendship room. Come by any afternoon at 4:30 and join in on the fun.

Tuesday, we got our final inspection and it's official, we now have a working kitchen, all approved and ready to cook! John Sauls has done an outstanding job in coordinating everything to make a place where we can proud of for many years to come. Ms Lisa has left some before pictures on one of the counters.. Amazing to see the transformation. Come by and take a look and be sure to tell John when you see him around, what an outstanding job he has done.

Tuesday evening we had another lively discussion about life, as Mr Matt led us in reading from 1 John 3, 11- 24, we must love each other. Verse 18, said, we should love people not only with words and talk, but by our actions and true caring. We talk about getting past, looking at the color of our skins and seeing the color of our hearts. That starts by getting to know each other through Bible fellowship, working together, living together. And we can do that because the Spirit of God is in us and sees no color.

Chapel service started off our Thursday afternoon of activities. Heather and Derrick sang and their dad Richard shared the Word. We had a big crowd for our first Thursday in September, wow! Over a hundred, as we ran out of Kool-aid and food at the end. Ms Sarah and Mr Scott brought their Haiti friend, Diri JonJon, by for a visit. Mr Tom fixed a feast and everybody seemed to enjoy it all. Pastor Jackson will preach next week. TJ and the Brookwood folks will be providing the meal.

After our meal, Momma T and I met with Michele Sauls about organizing our kitchen tasks differently and seeing if we can get more help from our community and others. With our new kitchen up and running, we thought it might a good time to get more people involved. More to come.

Don't forget, Brookwood's 5K run is this Saturday, September 8th. The fun run starts at 8, with the 5K starting at 8:30. Still time to sign up or if you can't, just come on out and support those who are supporting us.

Has everybody seen the pictures Dr Phil has been sending out on the JJ house? We now have walls and siding on the house. One good thing about all this heat and no rain, construction has been going on everyday. Dave's craftsmanship in the building of the house has gotten the approval of our construction company. Everything is looking good, keep praying.

Looking at Amanda's birthday list, we had two birthdays this week! Sorry guys for missing them, David McCormick, our newest Board member. Long time friend of ours, married to the best pharmacist in Shreveport, Elizabeth. David's most important job, being a new dad. Great to see them at supper Thursday. You should have seen Ms Abbie's smile carrying around their new baby! Our other birthday was our own Zig Zag, Allison. Allison is in Atlanta beginning her studies to becoming a clergy in the Methodist church. One of her favorite things to do at school, is working with the children of homeless families, remarkable young lady! We have another birthday this Saturday, Ms Abbie. When you see her next time, don't forget to wish a happy day!

Continue to keep Pete and Cari in your prayers. Pray for Karl as he travels to California. Pray for the families in Haiti, trying to survive. Keep our families in your prayers, relationships that need mending with the power of God's lvoe. Pray for Charley and the team for Kiros as they go into the Wade Correctional Institution starting Thursday.

Next Saturday, September 15th a Sunday school class from Grace will be joining us for a work day. To get them started off the right way, Joey and mr brian will provide breakfast. We just couldn't wait to try out the new kitchen! Not sure what is on the menu, but everybody is welcome to join us at 8:30.

When we showed up Sunday at Pastor Eddie's church, there was preaching going on as we walked in, the Spirit was flowing already. As the Pastor was finishing up his talk, he asked another gentleman sitting next to him, to get up and say a few words. This elderly man told a story about seeing a light outside his front door. His wife called the man to the door and told him go see what the light was. There was a terrible storm going on, raining, wind blowing, trees down, electricity out, but they could still this light. The man got his rain gear on, walked out his door, checking out to see if there were wires or something connected to this light to make it glow but there was not. The man started wondering, what kind of stuff was inside this light to make it glow?

The elderly preacher looked at us and said, isn't that what God is concerned about for us? The stuff we have inside of us, do we let God in or do we keep it to ourselves? The stuff we hold on to, does it carry us down or make us better? Is our stuff more important than anybody else's stuff, occupying all our time? Heard two of our pastors talk about our attitudes over the weekend. How does our stuff affect our attitudes? If we hold onto our stuff, our lights are not as bright as they can be.

We all have stuff, but how we handle our stuff, makes us different. For most of us, we are learning, God is in the stuff dealing business. No matter how small or how large our stuff gets, we can turn to God for help. We are learning, God yearns to deal with our stuff, if we just let him. So, let go of your stuff, and let God in. The more we let go of our stuff, the more room there is for the light of God to shine through.

We talked about Tuesday evening, there are folks who don't want God in their lives and they don't want others to have God in their lives, so they do whatever they can to make everybody's life miserable. We have a choice in the way we live our lives, we can go along with them and fill our stuff up with their stuff. Or we can fill our lives with the power of Jesus and go about our way, full of the light of God. We read Tuesday night, the people who obey God's commands live in God, and God lives in them. Isn't that a better way to live? Each one of us has the remarkable ability to defeat the stuff of the world because God lives in us. Isn't that a better way to live?

Hope your week is filled with the glow of Jesus growing stronger inside of you. Hope your light shines bright with everybody you meet. What an amazing God we have, allowing us to deal with our stuff, so that He may grow stronger inside of us, so that His light will shine bright in our world. Lvoe to all. Amen.