God is in control

We have come to the end of another year! Wow, how time flies when you are having so much fun! Hope your year was a good one and the new year will be even better.

We got our week started off on Friday night, with a pizza party hosted by Punkin and her group of ladies. Did not know what to expect, but Lisa and Tim reported over 100 neighborhood folks showed up. They had games and prizes to give away.

While that was going on, Sarah and her band of elves were busy transforming the fellowship hall into our first Christmas Market. They were busy, pricing, sorting, displaying all sorts of nice things donated by many different people. Grace Methodist led the way in supplying a lot of the items.

Saturday morning, was the wettest it has been all year long! That didn't discourage over 70 folks from coming to the Market, purchasing items for their families. It was a great morning, with servants acting as personal shoppers for the community, some helped wrapped the gifts, some took the money and others helped carry the gifts to the cars. What an experience and one we plan to do again next year.

While the Market was going on, we said our prayers for drier weather as we visited the camps. As God does, we pulled up to the camps the downpour subsided for a few minutes while we visited with the guys. Thank you Lord for taking care of us.

Saturday night, many of our interns from all over the country gathered at the Bright House for what has become a family tradition. It is great to hear about their gathering and catching up on everybody's lives. A special bond has been formed with this group of young people.

In the local Sunday paper was a nice article about our Christmas Market. For those out of town, the link to the article is:http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20131221/NEWS01/312210034/Common-Ground-holds-special-shopping-event-Cedar-Grove?nclick_check=1

The Tuesday night's Bible fellowship has become so important to most of the guys, we gathered on Christmas Eve to share our stories. Lots of new faces beginning to come to hear about what God is doing in the lives of these men. Brother Elbert led the evening, sharing from Ephesians 1: 15-21.

With the holiday week, many of our helpers were out of town, so we were short handed. But as usual God provides and we had a great evening. Our pastor for the week did not come, so we all gathered in the fellowship hall waiting on the food and groceries. Kings Highway Christian church provided the meal and helpers and we all had a great time.

I saw a program on TV this week, talking about the year in review. It is where they showed things that happened during the year, those who passed, and awards given out. I said, that would be cool to do that here. Let's see what happened this year. I started looking back at past notes and started writing down all the different things we experienced this year.

After looking at the January letters, I started to realize, wow, this will take forever to write down all the things that has happened to us this year! We have lost some of friends, we have made new friends, we have experienced new adventures, we have been challenged, we have been lvoed. In reading our letters each week, God has been busy in our community!

The exciting realization of it all, is we have yet to see what God is about to do this year! Amazing things are about to happen and God continues to be in control.

Hope your new year is full of treasures and surprises, full of God's richest blessings. Knowing that each one of you are special in the eyes of the Lord. Amen.

Happy Birthday!

We have a birthday this week! Can anybody guess who it might be? Can give you some clues but I figure you might not need them?! Hope this past week for you all was special.

No better way to get our week started than to visit our friends and our neighbors. The weather has not been cooperating for neighborhood walks, but through perseverance and some young hearts, we still made an effort. Tim and Matt led our children around as they picked up some trash. Dawn and Scott dodged the mist to visit our friends. No major drama going on, which is a blessing. Finishing up the visits, with Smokey and his hooked cooked meals. What a treat to have some warm food for our cold bodies and a chance to visit with Smokey and his friends.

With finals and Christmas holidays going on, we were short handed for our afternoon activities. Ms Lisa led the children in games and studies with help from a few of our friends. The next two weeks, we will not be meeting, while the children are out of school.

Tuesday evening was a record breaker for the men's fellowship. Over 30 men young and old attended, listening to the Word and each other as they shared their hearts. Matt read from Romans 5: 12-21, talking about God's amazing grace. It is nothing  we can earn, nothing we deserve, but God lvoes us so much, He wants us all to be with Him for eternity. It is very simple, nothing complicated, no rules to memorize, just let go and let God into your heart, He will do the rest!

Wednesday and Thursday we were blessed to have a group of young adults from far away and some from this area to spruce up our center. They were part of an organization called Americorps. First met them down in St Benard's parish after Katrina, spending time with them helping to rebuild a church in the New Orleans area. They mainly work with the Fuller foundation here in Shreveport. The house they were suppose to work on was not ready, so we were blessed with their talents and hearts. The hallway and fellowship hall have all been repainted, giving the center a fresh new look. They helped Abbey in the grocery area and decorated the dining hall tables for our meal. Hopefully, they will be able to help us in the future with other projects.

We had more fun Thursday evening. We had Pastor Jackson leading us in song and Pastor Warren from Grace sharing the Word in chapel. St Luke's medical van was open for business. Lots of good help with our meal and clean up. The guys from the macroni camp washed all our dishes. We had our annual visit from Santa. Big bags of groceries were handed out. Lots and lots of people joined in for all the fun. A great evening! Thanks to all of you for making it so special.

Lisa, Ms Abbie and all her family were missing out in all the fun because they were at the celebration of one of our young people, Kierra, Ms Abbie's granddaughter, was being pinned as a nursing graduate from Northwestern. What an accomplishment for this special young lady and all who have taken a part in her life. No better example of the saying, it takes a community to raise a child.

Don't forget tonight we will set up our first Christmas Market in the fellowship hall, starting at 4pm. Then Saturday at 9, the Market will open. Help will be needed, prayers for all who will come and those who will be helping.

Pastor Roger at Grace last weekend coined a phrase, get off your donkey and help someone! Cute Pastor well done! I would like to run with that phrase a little and say, especially during this time of year, it's ok to rest! 

Our community is blessed with many donkey servants, accomplishing many wonderful things for the glory of God. I was reminded of that this week, listening to Lisa share our story with the young people from Americorps. No matter how many times we have heard our story, it never gets old. I marvel at everything that has happen, that continues to happen and overwhelmed with excitement in things that have yet to come.

Everything that we have been blessed with, is all because of you allowing God to work through you. We all have "day" jobs, we all have "other" responsibilities at home, but you find time and energy to continue come to our community and share your hearts with others.

I worry somethimes you all are doing too much. I use to work under the premise, if I don't do it, it won't get done. Now God has showed me, He will bring others to accomplish what needs to be done, I don't have to worry!

During this time of year, we get even more busier with "stuff". I worry we won't find time  to stop, relax, reflect, and enjoy the gift of grace and the gift of our savior. Everything that we are, everything we are about, everything we accomplish is for Christ and the building of God's Kingdom. Allow your souls and your hearts to accept these gifts, to refresh your mind and heart for the challenges we will have in the coming year.

Have you guessed whose birthday we are celebrating this week! Let's celebrate the birth of our savior, not by doing more, but by doing less and doing with it our family and friends! Amen.

Have a great week. See you at the Market on Saturday. Merry Christmas to all! May God's amazing grace abound in us always!

Lvoe and love

Baby it's cold outside! Someone said to me this week, we have had our coldest days this week in several years and we haven't gotten to the first day of winter yet! We need to all think warm thoughts this coming season!

We got our week started off, by shivering, trying to stay dry, and visiting our friends. We heated up some soup and loaves of bread and took it with us to the camps, it was a welcomed addition to our visits. As we walked to Turner's camp, a few snow flakes started falling. I was reminded, how crazy are these people, getting up early in the morning, walking on frozen ground, dodging snowflakes to go visit our guys. It makes no sense to those who would rather stay home, but we are out there, lvoing others as God as lvoed us.

The camps were cold and wet. The guys were doing the best they could. One of our friends, was shaking so bad, he had a hard time drinking his hot chocolate. The sad part of this past week, the temperatures never got very high, so you could never warm up. Two camps had fires burning in their fire pits, which helped, but when you moved away from the fires, you got cold. We asked if we could take them to a shelter and they said thanks but no.

The morning visits ended up at Smokey's apartment. We were cold, wet, hungry and in need of some warmth. What has become a tradition of sorts, we walked into Smokey's apartment, with him getting out of his oven, hot cornbread muffins, ham and bean soup simmering in his pot and a delicious deer meat casserole! Some of the guys from around the complex was coming by to eat a little and Smokey said to them, ya'll need to come back at 12:30, we need to let the church people eat first! What a treat, what a servant of God!

Sunday, our guys who live outside were treated to a special Holiday meal by our friends from Christ United Methodist church. Sara LaFortune and her youth group went around to all the camps, picked up the guys and brought them to the church. They played games, had a great meal, were treated to some nice gifts and got to visit with Santa! Even Turner was there, Sara got a great picture of him with Santa! I asked the guys about it and they went on and on about, who did what, who got that prize, can't believe that guy won! It was great to hear the excitement of the afternoon in their voices.

Our afternoon activities continue to stay strong, with lots of help and children willing to learn. Missing some of Centenary students, God provided unexpected others filling in for them. It is a blessing to see each child having their own helper and enjoying each other's company.

Tuesday evening, our men's fellowship was led by Tim. A big group, talking about the fear of God. Some translations talk about, respect of God, others said the reverence of God. When we start to know God, we begin to understand what God is all about. He lvoes us, only wants what is best for us, nothing more. Those who don't know God may have a fear of Him because they don't know Him. Do you know God? Does God know you?

Thursday our chapel time and meal was provided by our friends at Cypress Baptist church. What a treat to have them all with us, the youth helping with children's church, serving our meal and cleaning up after wards. We had a big crowd, even Santa showed up and visited with everybody! It was a good evening, with some challenges but with God's help we got through it all.

Prayers for my wife who continues to struggle to get to feeling better. She goes back to the doctor Thursday, so hopefully after the visit she be able to get to feeling stronger. Prayers for Ms Dorothy. She has moved in with her sister. She has come down with a bad cold, along with all the other struggles she is going through, not doing well. Prayers for our upcoming Christmas Market, those who will be helping and those who will be coming. Prayers for those traveling during the holidays.

We have a birthday this coming week. Momma T has her big day Wednesday. Happy birthday Momma T, you are a blessing to us all!

We will have an unexpected visit this week from a group of college students from Ohio. Friends of the Fuller foundation, who will be visiting us on Wednesday. We hope to put them to work, doing some painting around the center.

Don't forget our Christmas Market will be next Saturday, the 21st. Set up will be Friday evening. We can use your help and your smiles.

Due to the Market being set up, we will not have our breakfast on the 21st. Please join us in January and get the new year started off right!

Next Thursday we will have our Christmas meal. Lots of good food, Santa will visit, medical van will be with us, come and enjoy.

Lvoe and love. Had someone ask me, did you know you misspelled "lvoe". I remember several years ago, after Sarah and the youth finished painting the Bright House, one of the youth put lvoe on the breaker box, facing Ms Abbie's house. Ms Abbie asked me, did you see they misspelled love! You need to fix it mr brian. 

During the summers when we have visiting youth groups, we show them around and purposely do not say anything about the spelling. Usually by the time they leave someone will ask, why did you misspell love. With all our new folks, some of you may not know what the spelling all means.

Many years ago, most of our correspondence among us was done by emails. This was before there was a common ground, before there was a center, before there was a garden, before there was a Bright House, before there was Ms Abbie's house, we just had each other and dreams. In this age of fast paced talking, information gained with a click of a mouse, we would share with each other through emails and texts. One of our folks, typed faster than her brain could react and would always typed lvoe instead of love. When you read her emails, you knew it was from her because of her spelling of love.

Gradually over the years, the spelling of love because second nature with us and we all began to spell love, lvoe. Then we started to say, maybe our lvoe is different than the love we have known for all these years. Now it has become to symbolize our recognition of God's lvoe in us and through us lvoing others as God has lvoed us. 

Our lvoe should be unconditional, should be compassionate, should be nonjudgmental, should be with joy, should be respectful. God has done the same for us, He wants us to do the same for others.

Let us celebrate the birth of our Savior this season and then the coming year with lvoe in our hearts, filling our community with the light of Christ, breaking down barriers and starting new relationships with all who we meet. Amen and amen!

Peace and joy to all this week, Praising God in all we do and say in our days ahead!

./Does He know you?

Have been thinking, this might be my favorite time of year. Not when it is 35 degrees, cold, drizzly and wet, but when it is 65 degrees sunny and windy. Seeing all the fall colors as I drive around is magnificent. On a stretch of interstate, I drive a lot, you get to ride along the tops of the trees, like you been climbing them! God's glory is at full bloom this year.

We got the week off by visiting our friends on Saturday. Doing the best they can in these conditions most seem to be ok. The most important thing on their minds is trying to stay warm and dry. We try to take blankets with us each week to hand out, socks, gloves and stocking hats are always in demand. Hot coffee and hot chocolate is welcomed.

Monday and Wednesday we returned back to our after school activities. With the end of the fall semester fast approaching some of our Centenary students will be missing in action this coming week. If you have an hour or so, come by and join us. Also,  a couple of our students will not be able to join us this spring, so we could use a hand with our children. Let Lisa know, if you can help us out.

Tuesday evening, we gathered for our men's Bible fellowship. Matt reading from Matthew chapter 7, starting in verse 7 - 23. Ask God for what you need, living by the most important rule, the way to Heaven is hard and people know you by your actions. We talked about God wants a relationship with us but we need to make the first move, have you?

Next time you come by the center, please walk through the gardens. Walked around with Rickey Wednesday afternoon and it looks amazing. Don't forget to go into the greenhouse. Rickey has plants growing in there, starting to look like what the greenhouse is intended to look like. Amazing things happening in the garden.

Thursday evening, with the rain, colder temperatures, made for a miserable night but our community came. Our friends Heather, Derrick and Richard continued a Christmas tradition of reading about the birth of Jesus and singing hymns during the readings. We realized, they did the same thing last year, a year all ready! TJ cooked up a meal fit for a king. We had lots of help from some students from Northwestern. With all the bread we have been receiving everybody got loaves to take home in their bag of groceries.

Continue to lift up William. He got to see him Tuesday evening and he looked great. He is continuing to stay strong in his battle with his addictions. Many of the guys Tuesday evening said, if he falls they are going to shoot him! Pretty cool, the guys taking a part in William's battle. Tim was under the weather this week with a cold. Prayers for my wife as she continues to recover from her surgery. One of the doctors we saw at clinic Thursday, said it would take at least 2 weeks before she started feeling better. She is on her second week. Pray warm thoughts for our guys living outside. Pray for our college students as they prepare for their finals. 

Santa will be arriving Thursday December 19th for our evening meal. The children, young and old enjoy meeting our friend. Our first time having a Christmas Store will opening Saturday December 21st. Please come and lend a hand.

It was brought up on Tuesday evening, if we don't show Jesus to the world who will? Being a follower of Christ takes action on our part. Growing up in church, I attended church every Sunday. Went to Sunday School. Showed up on Wednesday nights for supper. I heard about Jesus from the preacher, learned Bible versus from the Sunday school teacher, but never "knew" Jesus. Being a follower of Jesus is such much more.

It seems, we have grown up in a society, where if we attend church each week, we have done our part of being a Christian and we are good for another week. I never heard or wasn't listening, from our preacher or our Sunday school teachers, ask, search and knock. Being a Christian required me to be assertive and go to God. Start a relationship with Him. Just sitting in church would not, will not make me a good Christians. 

As it was mentioned Tuesday, Satan is busy walking around the earth, evil is everywhere, if we don't take the lvoe of Christ into the world, then evil will run rampant. The world needs to see crazy folks like us, because there are so few of us. The fruits of your ministry needs to be good, not show evil. It does no good to lvoe the Lord with all your heart, mind and soul inside the walls of the church and not take it to the streets. 

In the last part of our reading, the church people were saying to Jesus, we did all these nice things for you, we followed the rules, we wore the right clothes, Jesus says to them, only those who do what my Father in heaven wants, get away from me, I never knew you. 

Let us ask, let us search, let us knock, knowing that everyone who asks will receive, everyone who searches will find, everyone who knocks the door will be open. Jesus is waiting on us to take that first step. Jesus wants that relationship with us. It is up to us.

Then take that indescriable joy, peace, compassion that comes over you into the world and do to others what you want them to do to you! Amen

Try to stay warm and dry this week. Many blessings of joy and peace to all, in the coming week. A celebration of the birth our savior is fast approaching!

God is good!

You just never know what life will deal you each day. To get us through those days when things don't go according to our plans, we need God by our side. We need people who will comfort you during those times. We need family to pray for you when you are trying to understand what happened. You wonder, you ask questions, you get frustrated, you wear down, but knowing you are not going through these times by yourself is a huge comfort. Words can not express the gratitude we have felt from all of you during this time. Your prayers, your phone calls, your texts, your emails are all such a comfort, My wife is home but still has away to go for complete recovery so please continue your thoughts and prayers for her in the coming weeks.

It was not until late Friday afternoon did I realized it was Friday and I forgot to share the news of the week. Sorry, but when someone in your family is sick, things just revolve around them and you loose track of time.

Last Saturday was a morning of cold, drizzly skies, not a good day to be outside. Matt and Tim led the girls around for a short while picking up trash in the neighborhood. Elbert led Bible study with some of our guys from our Tuesday evening fellowship who showed up to help with our visits. Scott, Dawn and I made our rounds visiting the camps. Man it was cold, can't imagine trying to stay warm and dry. We quickly went around to the camps, not wanting the guys to stay outside any longer than they had to. By the time we got to the Macroni camp, our feet were wet, cold and we were shivering. The Macroni camp was as wet and sloppy as I have ever seen it. Mud everywhere. The hot chocolate and coffee were a welcomed relieve for the guys.

I will admit, I was looking forward to visiting with Smokey, at least he was inside and dry. When we got to Smokey's place, he opened the door and said, could ya'll use a warm bowl of chili! What a man of God. He had fixed a big pot of chili, not only for us but for anybody else in his building. Sione and his troups for the last several years, would brave the cold and ice to bring a warm meal to the camps. Now I can relate to what that does to your soul as well. Not only does hot food warm the body, being remembered warms the soul!

Also on Saturdays, Ardis brings in her haul from Panera Bread company. Ardis shows up late Friday night and they give her a bag of goodies from the store. So now we are able to provide, bagels, rolls, bread to our friends, and use the bread at our meals on Thursdays. What a blessing.

Sunday evening, the Ackerman's entertained the multitudes at their home. I asked the guys Saturday, what they were doing for Thanksgiving and the first thing they said, was going to the Ackermans! Sharing your home, sharing a meal, sharing your heart with others, makes a difference in people's lives.

Also Sunday evening, Lisa and Ardis were attending a mission's banquet at First Baptist church. We had been invited to set up a booth and tell everybody about Common Ground. The ladies did an outstanding job, hearing good reports from the congregation already.

With Thanksgiving break for the schools, no tutoring was going on. It will resume next week.

Tuesday evening, the men met for fellowship and Bible study. Matt and Joey can fill us on with what went on.

Thursday evening we hosted our soup and bread meal. Not many of our community showed up, maybe 15 or so. We got to visit with those that came which was good. We had some new visitors come and help out, along with a lot of you. Joey set up our TV and we watched some of the football game. It was a nice evening.

William is in his rehab facility and doing ok. Continue to lift him up in your prayers. Pray for our guys living outside. This past week with all the rain and then the cold, living conditions are horrible.

While I was with my wife in the hospital for two days, don't know if I was more attuned listening for God, but heard his name mentioned over and over again by various people. It reminded me, how big God is and all He is dong in the world. We never hear about it on the news or radio, so to hear about him over and over again was inspiring. While we were waiting for my wife's surgery to be over, a young lady on her cell phone, shouted, it's a miracle, it's a miracle! Whoever she was talking to on the phone, she said, thank you, thank you for all your prayers it worked!

Another reminder, prayers work! We may not get to hear about the end result, but that is ok, just be faithful and God will provide!

Hope you have a great week. Hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving with family and friends. Life is good, even when we are dealt obstacles, because our God is by our side, lvoing us all the way! Amen.

Christ first

Hope everybody had a great week! God is good and will be all the time!

We got our week started off in a good way by sharing breakfast with our community. Momma T and her kitchen crew cooked up goodies enjoyed by all. We enjoyed French toast, bacon, strawberry and blueberry toppings, yummy! One more breakfast this year! December 21, don't miss it!

Following breakfast we broke up into our groups. We visited our guys in the camps, all doing fine. Met some new friends and old friends have returned. Robert has joined Brad at his camp. Matt talked about their visits into the neighborhood, sharing a story about a gentleman they met. He said, the churches are upset with us. Doing things in the neighborhood for the folks, providing food for our neighbors, chapel times. We have tried for years to build relationships with the churches but have not made a connection yet. But we can't wait, God is pushing us forward. In His time, we will all come together and tremendous things will happen.

We finished our visits with stopping by to check on Smokey. He showed us into his apartment and the first thing he did was to reach out his cane and push on the Christmas lights on his new tree! He was so proud of his Christmas tree. The first one he has had in 35 years! All because of you all. He feels like this is his home now, welcomed into our community, a place where he can rest, share his stories, be cared for and lvoed. His smile never left him while we visited with him. Amazing to see God at work in this man. One other story about Smokey, with the help of Hat and Karl, he feels now it is the time to contact his family in Illinois. He says they do not know if he is alive or not, so he is in the process of creating a journal/letter to them about his life and where he is now.

Our last week of afternoon activities before the Thanksgiving break went by in a hurry. The children run over when they see our college students drive up, wanting to be with them as soon as they arrive! Great to see and hear the interactions of them all.

Tuesday evening, Brother Elbert led us in our mens Bible fellowship reading from Ephesians 4, talking about anger and forgiveness. If our hearts are full of anger or bitterness, there is no room for the lvoe of Jesus. We need to get rid of it by turning it all over to God. We had a challenge offered to the men, who do we need to forgive this week, do it and feel the peace of Christ come upon you. A challenge we all need to take on.

We had our annual Thanksgiving meal Thursday evening. What a great evening. 

We had the honor of our first lady pastor to share the Word for us. A young lady who is going through seminary and interning at Grace, Kelly Berne. She did a great job and hoping to get her back in the coming year. We knew she was coming but did not have any musician lined up, so mr brian was trying to put something together on the computer. Not doing a very good job and getting frustrated, after Kelly walks in, one of the musicians from Grace comes in and says I am here to play and sing! So we were treated to have Mickie play her guitar and led us in worship. Did I say God is good! Always providing!

Through the hard work of Lisa and Abbey all week, they had everything prepared to make everything run smoothly for the evening. We had a great meal provided by some of our old friends, lots of good help in the kitchen, groceries were all bagged up ready to go and then the community had their personal shoppers as they were treated to more goodies in the Friendship Room.

We had the medical van in the parking lot checking on our community, we had children's church going on and Momma T and her girls Bible study was all happening! What an evening. Many thanks to all for making it all such a special evening.

We will be having our meal Thanksgiving day at our regular time. A simple meal of soup and bread will be provided for those who might need a meal. If you want to join us, please do so. It is a good time to sit down with each other and visit.

Don't forget this Sunday, the Ackermans will be hosting their monthly supper at 6.

Continue to lift up William. Matt took him to the Rescue Mission and he was settling in there, but now he has been transported to a rehab unit behind LSU hospital. Joey asked for prayers to him and Allison. Both will be preaching this Sunday. Joey at a church in Bossier and Allison in her church in Atlanta, very cool! We had an old friend show up Thursday and he asked for prayers, Richard is back! Richard is now living with his daughter. He is glad to be off the streets, but is struggling with his living arrangements. Keep warm thoughts going our way, as a cold front approaches us, with very cold temperatures, for our guys living outside.

As I was driving around in a neighborhood this week, I started to notice holiday banners on the light posts. Very nice at first. The banners were colorful, saying Peace, Joy, Happy Holidays, Holiday Traditions. As I drove around, I started looking for the Merry Christmas banner? I didn't drive the entire complex but of the 20 or so banners I saw, didn't see a Merry Christmas banner! 

As we all know for many years now, people have been wanting to take Christ out of Christmas. But it hit me in seeing the banners and looking for the Merry Christmas banner, if it weren't for Christ there would be no Christmas. It all starts with Christ. This week we were asked to get rid of our bad thoughts. How do you do that, through Christ. We are told to forgive, but we can't on our own, only through Christ can we forgive. We ask our neighbors to stop fighting, shooting each other, stealing, using drugs. Change will come when Christ enters their hearts. How do we not let our addictions control our lives, through Christ. How do we lvoe one another, through the lvoe of Christ.

By taking Christ out of Christmas, we are taking the one thing away that will change the world. It all starts with Christ and it will all end with His coming. We see it all the time as new people come and visit our community, they see something or they feel something, they do not see or feel in any other place. It is not because of us, but because of Christ. Christ is first, now and forever! Amen.

Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving week with family and friends. Don't forget to put Christ first in everything you do this week!

Patience, are you ready?

And old saying in this part of the world, if you don't like the weather today just wait! Well we got it this week, from the 70's last weekend to the 30's during the week and back to the 70's this weekend! God is always full of surprises!

No better way to start our week than visiting our friends and neighbors. Icee Joe and Tim led a big group of ladies from the Centenary swim team around to visit our friends. They took supplies, covers and hugs to them all. Everybody seems to be doing ok. Scott, Matt led some of our young men from Tuesday evening around the neighborhood. They filled 3 bags of trash and visited many folks. Met a new owner moving back into the neighborhood and talked at length to the famous "candy lady".

Don't want to start a new ministry, but in talking to our neighbors, we have several older folks who don't or can't get out of their houses very easily. We mentioned to them would they like a hot meal if we could bring them one, they all said yes. In the early days of our meals, we had more food than people, so we would pack up to go boxes and walk the neighborhood until the boxes were gone. It was a good way to meet folks. Anybody interested in doing this again?

Our afternoon activities continue at a great pace. Our college students continue to come and offer their hearts to our children. On Wednesday, we had a lady teaching the children nutritious ways to eat. Also on Wednesdays, the children will go through the clothing room picking up clothes for church and school. Gabrielle posted a picture of Anthony with his new outfit! We also have a new volunteer, Carl helping us out in the afternoons. Carl is a member of Grace and also drives the medical van that comes each month.

Tuesday evening, we had a packed house as Matt read from James 2, talking about not judging and faith.  A lively discussion about we all judge people by their looks, their talk and not by their hearts. One of my favorite passages, faith without deeds is dead, took up a lot of talk. We all too often get comfortable in our surroundings and never move out into the streets to share the lvoe of Jesus with others. If we don't do it, who will?

Wednesday evening, we gathered at Momma T's home for our family time. Lots of good food and good conversations. Momma T passed around index cards with questions on them, answering them in our own ways, bringing up more discussions. We did finally get to Dr Phil's book, concluding Chapter 11. We summarized the chapter, lvoe God, lvoe your neighbor, be humble. Good way to live our lives.

Thursday evening, Wes and Willie got chapel going in a good way. If Wes didn't know the song, Willie sang it anyway and Wes picked it up! One of community came up to Willie in the middle of chapel and asked a question about the chaff and the wheat, which led to our sermon. Not what Willie had planned but the Holy Spirit evidently wanted us to hear it! Our children's church continues to be a blessing, with lots of activities going on. Momma T shares what God has placed on her heart with her young ladies.

A big crowd for our meal, clothes and groceries. A crowd of folks with lots of unrest going on. Someone said, maybe it was the almost full moon! We have not had a crowd with troubles in awhile but it was a reminder of where we are. Our folks are hurting, our community is constantly being beaten down, dealing with drugs, addictions, financial issues, families. I am not approving of the disagreements happening but we need to show lvoe as much as we can because if we don't, they will not see it in their world.

A reminder, next Thursday will be our Thanksgiving meal. Momma T will be decorating the tables Wednesday evening, she could use your help. Abbey could use your help, carving up the turkeys Thursday afternoon. Helping with getting the food ready for the meal. We will offer two bags of groceries, our regular bag and then they will pick items they can use for their Thanksgiving meal at home.

We will have a meal on Thanksgiving Day. Our regular time. No chapel is planned, but you never know? We will not have groceries to hand out, but the clothing room will be open. 

This Saturday at 8:30 is our monthly breakfast time. French toast and all the trimmings will be prepared by our kitchen staff! Come and enjoy!

We have a birthday this coming week. Beth Ackerman will be celebrating her special day on the 20th. Happy Birthday Beth!

Prayer concerns. Pastor Roger and his crew leaving for a week to help those in Oklahoma. Dr Phil for travel as he is taking a much deserve vacation to west Texas. William as he continues his rehab and where he goes from there. During our cold nights, continue to lift up our outdoor friends. Hard to stay warm in that kind of cold. Ms Abbie and Ms Dorothy. Abbie has vertigo right now, having to keep quiet, rest as much as possible. Dorothy as she rests up from her radiation and begins her chemo treatments. Her spirit is still strong. My golf instructor's nephew, who was injured in Afghanistan, Mitchell. Pray for our neighborhood. God is beginning to make small steps into our community and Satan is fighting at every turn. Prayers were said Tuesday night for jobs for our young people in our community, giving them something to do instead of drugs and gangs.

Life is hard. The world is full of hate and selfishness. Nobody looks out for you but you. For us to lvoe God, lvoe our neighbor and be humble is not natural. It goes against everything we have been taught or seen on TV or read about in the paper. One of our older guys on Tuesday night, said, I find it hard to forgive someone who has put a gun to my head! Another response, how can I lvoe someone who has taken away my house? Still another, how can I take care of my neighbor who is selling drugs? Don't ask me to forgive that guy who turned me into the police.

Hard questions. Common questions in our community.  But questions we need to answer and work on finding solutions. As we all know, we can't forgive, we can't lvoe, we can't be humble on our own. That is one of the reasons the world is so messed up. We have taken God out of our jobs, our schools, our society and even our churches.

For our community, the one bright spot in their dark world is each one of you. We continue to shine the light of Jesus, when all around them they see no hope. We told the young men Tuesday night, do not give up hope, be patient, keep praying, read your Bible, God will provide. God continues to bring people into our community who will provide the means to solve some of our dreams and answer some of our questions. It is coming, it will happen! 

But until it does, each one of you will have to stay strong in your walk. You will have to continue to show the lvoe of Jesus. I know at times when things are not going as you would like them to go it can be frustrating and hurtful, but don't give up hope. God has brought you this far, and He will not turn His back on you or our community.

Just a few short years ago, we did not have a center, we had a driveway to serve from. We did not have a Bright House, we had a crack house. We did not have a food pantry, we had car trunks and truck beds. We did not have a garden of life, we had weeds of sin. We did not know our neighbors, they did not know us. But oh how God has changed all of that. And the exciting thing, it is just the beginning!

Patience, don't like that word or what it stands for, but evidently it is very important to God when He wants to expand His Kingdom. In our patience he prepares our souls and our Spirits for things to come. Change, God's kind of change is upsetting to a lot of the world. Where the first will be last and the last will be first, is not what society wants to hear. 

So as we wait, ponder on what is ahead for us, remember God is working on and through you to not only to change you but the world around you.Amen!

See you Saturday for breakfast. Blessings to all! Have a glorious week!

Through the eyes of Jesus

Another week in the books. And what a week it was! Hope your week was as fun and full of joy.

Scott and Tim led the way Saturday to visit our friends. Pretty quite, which is a good thing! While Matt, Elbert and Rickie walked the streets of our neighborhood. God at work through these servants.

Sunday afternoon, Momma T, Ardis and Ricky hosted our first group of Centenary athletes. They spent a couple of hours in the garden. The beds are now numbered, so we can keep track of what is planted. The compose bins were moved and filled up. Cleaning up, painting trash cans to be put out around the grounds to help with trash. Pictures are up on our Face book page. Also, Ms Patti's husband, David, has hung the green doors, painted by Ricky, on the greenhouse. When you have a chance, walk through the gardens, have never seen them look so pretty!

Monday afternoon, we had another group of Centenary athletes come and work in and around the center. They power washed all the tables and chairs from the dining hall with Ardis, changed out a light, helped Lisa organize the storage room, worked with Abbey in rearranging the food pantry, hung ceiling tiles, cleaned the chapel, cleaned the kitchen, painted hallway doors, all in a span of 2 hours. Huge amount of work done with smiles! More pictures are up of the afternoon.

We had to keep it quiet because, tutoring was going on at the same time. The different rooms were filled with children learning and reading. Amazing to see it all.

Tuesday evening, was another Spirit led night, as Matt read from Mark chapter 10: 32-45. The men of the neighborhood continue to come and listen, sometimes sharing and hearing what God is doing in our lives. We talked about becoming servants of all. Jesus came to serve not be served, hard act to follow, one our society says, be the best you can be, take no prisoners, look out for number one! I remember hearing someone say years ago, if we learn to serve others, we have no time for our pity parties!

Forgot to mention last Wednesday, Lisa and Abbey spoke to a local Kiwanis chapter at noon. Their talk was well received and they were asked to come back and also speak to other chapters. You never know what God will do when lvoe is talked about to others!?

Thursday evening was full of activities and fun. We again had the privileged of having the Centenary basketball and tennis team and also another group of nursing students. Everybody was busy helping with supper, doing more cleaning up, serving, washing and visiting. Chapel was hosted by our friends, Derrick and Heather and their dad Richard. We talked about how long they have been coming, almost two years now! Isn't that amazing! Abbey prepared supper with help from some of the students. Lisa and Abbie with the help of more students handed out groceries. Matt led Bible study for the girls in the absence of Momma T. A great evening, thanks to all for making it happen.

Continue to lift up William as he goes through rehab. His biggest challenge will be when he is released and goes back into society. How will he handle it all? Tim and Hat continue to be there for him, but William will have to decide if God will be in his heart and run his life.

In this morning's Common Prayer devotion, a thought that has been running through my mind was shared. "Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, wrote, "Whatever I had read as a child about the saints had thrilled me. I could see the nobility of giving one's life for the sick, the maimed, the leper. But there was another question in my mind. Why was so much done in remedying the evil instead of avoiding it in the first place? Where were the saints to try to change the social order, not just to minister to the slaves, but to do away with slavery?"

This week, two different organizations have come to us about working with our children. One to help our children learn about their history and the other one about working with young ladies in making the right choices. I have been involved in this community for almost 20 years now and have begun to see the same situations happening over and over again. Our young girls dropping out of high school, getting pregnant, our young boys, getting in trouble and going to jail.

Years ago, when I visited The Simple Way, Shane Claiborne talked about the Samaritan story to us. He said, it was sad some passed and did not help, he said the saddest part about the story is that the Samaritan was there to begin with. At the time, I was not interested in why the Samaritan was there, I just wanted to help.

Now seeing a new generation of our children doing the same thing their mothers were doing 10 years ago, I am starting to think we to do more than just help them with their babies or visit them in jail. We need, God needs to use us, to stop the cycle of poverty. To show the girls they don't have to have babies to feel love. The boys don't have to steal or lie to get ahead.

I asked another agency this week, is there a place a young teenager can live to get out of their environment and learn about Christ. She thought a minute and said, she didn't know of any? That is amazing to me.

With all the help we had Thursday evening, I got a plate and sat down to eat. I glanced around the room and noticed a young man, who I have seen coming these past few weeks. God forgive me, but I have not stopped before now to say hi to him. We talked and he shared his story. A story that brought tears to my eyes and broke my heart. He is going back to jail because he can not pay his fine of $750 a month. He got out 3 months ago, found a place to live on 61st street, found a job at a restaurant in the kitchen but does not make enough to meet his financial obligations. He was a chef, working at a fancy restaurant on Line but now they won't hire him because of his record and can't make the money he needs, so back to prison he goes. He said, the prison folks knew he could not meet his financial obligations, so they were expecting him back. Sad, sad, sad.

I know we are a small volunteer group, trying to find our way, trying to help all we come in contact with, but there is more. God knows the bigger picture and he is beginning to show us the way of where we need to be going. Is it overwhelming to think, the neighborhood of Cedar Grove needs our help, yes through our eyes. But what if we look through the eyes of Jesus? What can we see? 

We might see a place where little ones can come and learn to read and write before they get to school. We might see houses where children will have their own room and not worry about the roof leaking. Have a kitchen where meals are served, people are learning to cook, girls are learning to serve and learn a job skill, a place where housing is provided for those who are looking to get out from under a bridge, a dorm where young children can come and live, getting away from the unrest of their environment, providing jobs in a retail and grocery store atmosphere acquiring much needed experience. What do you see looking through the eyes of Jesus? Nothing is impossible through God. Isn't that exciting! Amen and amen!

Hope your week is full of blessings. Begin to look through the eyes of Jesus this week, to the people God brings before you, what do you see?

Doing the same thing?

How was your week? Did it rain in your part of the world? Did the sun shine down on you? Did God surprise you with something special? All the above happened to us!

We had another one of those Saturdays, where things were happening all day long. Tim and Matt led our visits. Rickie and Joey led our neighborhood visits. No drama reported in the camps. Some of the guys were still talking about William's incident. Some were trying to stay dry. Some were fighting off the mosquitoes. 

We visited our neighbors on 69th and 68th streets. Meeting new folks. Catching up with our old friends. We had a group of children with us, filling up 3 bags of trash as we walked. As we were leaving the neighborhood, we glanced over and saw two young men, with trash bags in hand, picking up more trash! Wasn't that amazing.

Later on in the afternoon, Ms Lisa and others hosted our One Day to Make a Difference event. Different folks from several organizations came to read to our children, serving cookies and punch and beginning to make relationships with our community. God will lead those who have a heart for our community to us in His time.

Our final activity of the day, was our first Praise Dance Team practice. Tim and Ms Abbie's daughter Peaches hosted the practice. I forgot to ask Tim about how it all went, so Tim fill us in. Lots of music, smiles and enthusiasm by the children was seen by others. A good start into something that will last a life time.

Ms Beth and Tim have begun picking up one of our families for church on Sundays as well as Ms Beth's stops for our friends. Up to two van full of folks! Remarkable! Dr Phil did that with a family many years ago. He began to take the children to church, then the mom started coming and then the dad followed. One family at a time will make a difference in the lives of others in our community.

Our afternoon school activities continue strong with our college students coming and our community children showing up. We have a display of some of their art hanging on hallway wall. Great things are happening to both groups of young people.

Tuesday evening, the men of the community were led in Bible fellowship by one of the men of the community. Matt is asking different men to step up and lead our study, what an amazing thing to see and be a part of. Rickie West, who has been with us for years is now walking the streets, working around the center, leading Bible study, cooking hot dogs all because you all are allowing the Holy Spirit to work through you and empowering others to share their lvoe of Christ. What a blessing.

Rickie talked from Exodus 14, talking about the parting of the Red Sea. God saved His people by parting the waters. Rickie asked, what is our Red Sea? What do we need to let go of and turn over to God? Rickie talked about verse 13, where some translations said for His people to "Stand still", other translations said to "Stand firm" and you will see the Lord save you today. How hard is it for us to stand still or firm in our actions and wait on the Lord? I know it is hard for me, always wanting to take the reigns myself.

Wednesday evening, Joey and Ricky hosted our family gathering in the Bright House. It was nice to come together and catch up on what everybody has been up to. The food was good and our time together was even better. We continued our discussions of Dr Phil's book talking about, "It's a man's world". We need to go to God for our direction in life, not others.

Thursday, we had our Fall Festival. What an afternoon of fun, fellowship and food. There were some discussions about postponing the event because of the 3" of rain we had the night before and the leftover rain of the morning. But a decision was made, thanks be to God, to go ahead and have it. The afternoon couldn't have been better. A cool breeze, nice sunshine, great weather for outside activities. Everybody stepped up and got things done. Huge thank yous go out to Ms Vicki and her crew for getting the games together, Joey for sharing his college students with us, Ms Abbey for having everything ready for us, Ms Abbie for hosting the cake walk and bagging the groceries, our outdoor friends for setting up and cooking, Sonotra and others for moving tables and chairs, it was great. Ms Lisa has already posted her pictures of the evening, please go to our facebook page to see all the smiles, the hugs and laughter happening. Thanks to all for making it such a special time!

As we drove home Thursday evening, we drove through Cedar Grove and not one child did we see walking house to house for treats. We go a few blocks, we begin to see more children, getting to Highland and the streets are filled with children going house to house. One day, our God will transform our neighborhood, so our children can walk house to house! Won't that be amazing!

Prayer concerns for the week, a friend of Hat's going through the same illness as Cari Bollinger. Continue to keep the Bollingers in your prayers. An uncle of Ardis' is sick and needs prayers. Prayers for Hat's daughter as she deals with life. Continue to lift up William. As many as you have seen with Hat's post, William is now in a rehab facility. Prayers, that William can finally let go and allow God to come into his life. Prayers for our family members who are dealing with the day to day struggles of life, from jobs, to family mattes, to health issues. Life is hard, you need God at your side to help you through those times.

We have a unique opportunity next week to be a part of something special in the life of our community. Through the relationship of Ms Abbey and the athelic department of Centenary, we will be hosting the entire athletic department of Centenary in projects around the center. Starting this Sunday afternoon, with Momma T, Ricky and Ms Ardis working in the garden, you can help out and welcome these amazing young people. Ms Abbey has projects planned each day, some are in the mornings, others in the afternoons, some in the evenings, we need your help, your support and your prayers. These young people are from all over the country, some have never seen communities like ours, exposing them to a way of life they are not use to. You never know how God will use this week to change lives, to change hearts and make a difference in God's Kingdom. Please come and meet, help out and share your story with these students. Contact Ms Abbey and let her know when you want to come.

My mind works very slow, so patience with me. I will admit, the older I get the slower it functions! A thought came to me last night, about what we are doing and why? Ricky and I were in the garden Thursday afternoon, talking about life in our community, and Ricky said, if it weren't for common ground, what would all these people be doing at 5 pm today? Where would they be? If common ground was not around there would be no light in the darkness.

Smokey walks over and stands with us, looking at all the activities going on, and he said, God is doing something special in this place.

Tuesday evening, we host a group of men, some are on drugs, some have alcohol troubles, some have been in jail, all have addictions of some sort, coming together to talk about life. I hear the young men talking about  the fights they got into last week. 

What is that phrase, you do the same thing over and over and expect different results. It seems to me, our community has done the same thing over and over, girls getting pregnant, boys going to jail, men getting shot, drinking and drugs running rampant, the same thing over and over and not getting anywhere in life. No job, no education, no home, no future.

We know who saved our lives, we just want the same for our community.

For whatever reason, we have been put in a place where our job is to show hope. I think the young men of Tuesday night are reaching out is a small way, very small way, to listen, to hear about another way to live their lives. The Sonotra's, the young boys of the community, see a place where people will lvoe them in ways they have never been lvoed before. The young girls are learning God is there for them.

We are exposing our community to a God they are not familiar with. A lvoing God, a God that will help through their problems. A God that will provide a way out of no way. A God that will bring people who lvoe them in a way that is not judging, but compassionate. A God that gives hope, brings light, lvoes unconditional!  A God who brings people like all of you. Our community sees a God like no other because of you. The light of the Holy Spirit shines so bright in your hearts, the dark is starting to recede. Continue to stand firm. Continue to stand still. Knowing that our God will save us and our community! Amen!

Make plans to be with us this week. Don't miss this opportunity to meet some special young people. Have a blessed week! God is sooo good!!

Signs?

October is a pretty month in this part of the world. Leaves beginning to change, cool mornings, mild afternoons, a little rain, sunshine, full moons doesn't get any better. Hope your week has been a good one, enjoying God's wonder all around us.

Saturday, we got our week started off by having our breakfast cooked by Momma T and her peeps! Lots of help from the Small family and Sonotra. Pancakes, sausage, coffee and laughter were on the menu. We had Pastor Jackson and his family helping out in the kitchen, a nice surprise. Good to see everybody.

After our breakfast, we did not have enough folks to break into two groups, so we all went with Icee Joe to visit our friends. Turner, I mean Bernard was fine. Mr Scott brought some snacks we had gotten from one of our friends. In the snacks were Slim Jim's. Not sure you know what that is, but they were the hit of the morning. We need to buy cases of Slim Jim's for the guys! Brad was fine, having moved into a huge tent. The tent even has a screened in porch, nice for getting away from the mosquitoes. Travis and Dave walked up just as we were leaving and showed us their new camp. On top of a hill not far from Brad's camp. Knowing Travis, won't be long before their camp will be the talk of the camps with all their improvements. 

By the time we got to Robert's camp, some drama had gone on the night before. We were asked to take one of the guys to the ER. Another example of why addictions on top of trying to survive life outside creates hardships. So sad, these men can't break the chains of violence and surrender their lives to Christ. We then made our way over to the Macroni camps visiting with Joey, Tex, Tim and Jerry and finished our morning visits seeing Smokey. We timed our visit with Smokey just right to enjoy a bowl full of chili he had just finished making, yummy!

Our afternoon school activities continue with great results. Great to see it all coming together.

Tuesday evening, Mr Matt turned over the men's Bible fellowship to Pastor Elbert reading from Luke 8 40 - 56. Talking about the lady who had been bleeding for 12 years, touching Jesus's robe and a ruler going to Jesus to heal his dying daughter. Both stories, the folks had tried everything else to help, but nothing did, so they turned to Jesus. Both had faith, both believed and both were saved. Do we believe, really believe Jesus can save us? Easy to say we believe when everything is going good, but where do we turn when things go bad?

Thursday morning, we all have now heard William was shot. Thanks to all for your prayers and Hat for her heart, William will have family to go through this with. As both Smokey said to me Thursday evening and Hat said in her email, maybe this will the turning point in William's journey to let go and let God in his life.

Thursday afternoon was again full of activities. We had the medical van from St Luke's set up in the parking lot, seeing lots of our community. We had a spokesperson from Martin Luther King medical clinic give us a talk on the new health insurance law. Then Ms Abbie led us in songs preparing our hearts to receive the message given to us by Pastor Eddie. Pastor Eddie, reading from Daniel, talked about three Jewish boys, who refused to bow down to the king, being sent into a furnace of fire only to come through it because of their faith and belief in God.

Ms Sarah and Mr Scott led the young adults class rom Grace, as they prepared our meal of hamburger helper as requested from the kids of our community. A huge success, the plates were clean before we washed them! Ms Lisa came for a few minutes, still not feeling 100% but doing better. Ms Ardis helped with the handing out of the grocery bags in Ms Lisa' absence. Momma T was busy teaching her young ladies. Gabrielle had the little ones coloring. We have a new friend now, who visits with our community, handing out prayer concern sheets. Our community puts down what they need prayer for this week and the concerns are prayed for, very cool. A great evening of food and fellowship.

This Saturday from 2 - 3, we will be hosting one of the events for Making a Difference Day. Several different groups will be coming to the library and reading to our children. Everybody is welcomed to attend. Following this, Tim and Peaches, Ms Abbie's daughter, will be hosting their first Praise Dance class. Can't wait to have our children perform in chapel one day. Very exciting.

Don't forget supper at the Ackerman's this Sunday at 6pm.

Next Thursday, we will be hosting a Family Fall Fest. It will begin at 5, lasting for an hour or so. Joey has lined up the BCM folks to come and help run the games being supplied by Ms Vicki and Mr Matt. Please come and join in on the fun.

From our discussions on Tuesday evening, a thought came to me, what does our belief look like? We tell folks to believe and God will move a mountain. We tell folks to have faith and God will make a way out of no way. But what does our belief look like? What does our faith look like? Where does our belief come from? 

As I travel in my day job, I am on the road all day everyday. I see signs on the roads, I see folks driving and wonder where are they going? I see speed limit signs, which most everybody ignores. I see road construction signs telling us to move to another lane and most ignore until the road runs out. I see stop signs, where very few of us come to a complete halt, ask my wife!  I assume someone smarter than me puts these signs up for our safety, so we can arrive at our destination without drama. We can see the signs, we can look at them if we want, but they are real. What if all the road, construction signs were taken down, how would life be on the highways?

Then I thought about, what signs does God use to direct our paths? God's signs are not posted along the highways or at the intersections, so how do we know He is there? This lady we read about in our men's fellowship, made her way through the crowd of people, just to touch His robe and by her faith she was healed. The ruler of the land, humbled himself to allow the lvoe of Jesus to heal his daughter. Pastor Eddie talked about the three young men had faith enough in their God that they knew they would be protected from the fiery furnace. There were no signs telling the lady to go touch the robe. The ruler didn't see a sign somewhere and say go talk to Jesus. The three young men didn't see it posted, your God will protect you. So what does our faith, our belief look like and where does it come from?

Our road signs of God's Kingdom are written down, just not the way we are use to. We don't see God's commandments written on a street sign, lvoe your neighbor or lvoe the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul. I don't know maybe we should?  We have God's Word to help us along our journeys. Everything we will ever need to know about life and how to live is in the Bible. So we must read, get to know, understand the passages to make them apart of our lives. Then we must take what we know into the world and live it! We don't need the road signs, because we have God at our side. We know where we are going, we don't need a sign to tell us. 

As we talked about Tuesday evening, God's signs are with us everyday, we just need to recognize them. They are not posted on signs, but through people. We are made for community because we need each other to help us along our paths. Our paths are guided by those who God puts before us, not by the signs we find along the way.

May your path be bright and full of joy this week. May your road signs come from your heart and not what you see. What a blessing to be a part of a community where faith and belief are live out everyday. Amen!

See you Saturday and Thursday afternoons. God is good!!

To our pastors

Another week is in the books, wow! Where does the time go? Hope your week was filled with everything God wanted you to experience!

Our Saturday mornings are going great. Some getting to visit our neighbors, others visiting our outdoor friends. Relationships beginning to be formed, which will lead to a transformation of God's Kingdom. Scott and Tim lead the way to our friends living outside, with all seeming to be ok. William has joined us again living with Robert. Daniel is back on his own living elsewhere. Brad has a new tent provide by some church friends. Matt and Elbert along with Rickie had great talks with our neighbors. Learning more and more about our neighborhood.

Our afternoon homework sessions continue to do well. Great to see the children's rooms being used for studying and learning. After the children complete their work, some move into our library and find a book. They begin to read it with help from their friends, learning all sorts of new stuff, just great.

Tuesday evening, Matt led a discussion from the reading in Matthew 22, talking about who we invite to our meals, who gets our money, and teaching about the most important commandment.  Jesus talking in parables, talked about the king inviting folks to his banquet and nobody came. Then he sent more servants out and got street people, much to the displeasure of the king when they didn't have on the right clothes for a banquet. In God's Kingdom there is no difference in us. Young or old, rich or poor, white or black, educated or not, we are all the same. Lvoe, lvoe, lvoe is God's most important commandment. Lvoe the Lord with all your heart, mind and soul and then lvoe your neighbor. When you let Christ in your heart, you are transformed, almost making it impossible not to lvoe everybody!

Wednesday mornings, our Stephanie and Ms Abbie continue to work in the clothing room, sorting and cleaning. With Ms Dorothy still out, it is great to see these ladies continue the work. It is much needed and time consuming. If you have a few minutes on Wednesday mornings, I know they would appreciate some help.

Wednesday we gathered at Ardis's house for our family time. Great food and even better conversations happened. Any questions about our new friend Ricky, you can ask Ardis, Hat and Momma T. We had the privilege of getting to know Ricky a little better and learn about his unique travels as he began to discover the Bible for himself.

Ricky has begun working in the garden and doing great work. Driving up to the center each day, you see him pulling weeds, preparing the beds for our fall planting, nice to have him with us.

Thursday brought another day of fun and unexpected blessings. We were unable to make connections for a pastor to show up for chapel, so Tim was asked to share his heart with us. Ms Abbie got us started off with This Little Light of Mine, with hands clapping and community singing. With the nice weather, the doors of the chapel were opened and folks started coming in as we continued to sing. A big round of applause went out to Ms Abbie for using her gifts of song, praising God. Then Tim got up and shared some of his story, talking about John 3:16 and Matthew 22, lvoe. By the time he finished his talk, everybody was standing and Amening! Some pictures and a short video will be on our Face book page this weekend. Great job Tim, for allowing to Holy Spirit to flow through you and blessing us all.

Thanks to Ms Sarah and her crew as they continue to share their lvoe of our children in hosting our children's church. We also have a new young lady who helps us with tutoring and wants to help with the little ones during our meals. Gabrielle had them making marshmallows people Thursday evening! Not sure how many marshmallows made it on the sticks, more went into their mouths! Great fun for the children and an answer to our prayers. God is good!

Mr Tom used his talents and supplied us with a meal for the evening. He said, he bought 180 cookies and ran out, so our crowd was huge. Standing room only in the fellowship hall as folks sat down for the meal. We had another group of nursing students join us to help serve and clean up. Another great evening of food and fellowship. We missed AbbeyII as she was home with her sick children.

Prayer concerns for the week. Continue to lift up Ms Dorothy as she continues her treatments. The Bollingers, Cari has come down with a fever and her mom is sick. Momma T's parents. Safe travel for Dr Phil, Joey and Lomax. Prayers for Ricky's sister, Miranda.

Don't forget this Saturday is our monthly breakfast. Pancakes, sausage and hot coffee on tap for the morning. No better way to start the weekend, then to join us. Cooking starts at 7:30, pancakes will be ready by 8:30!

I heard it again Thursday evening. We had a visitor from a church down the street. She had heard about us, all the good things going on and she wanted to see for herself. After chapel, she walked up to me. I introduced myself to her and she asked me, are you the pastor?! I said, no, thanks for the question, but we are all pastors in this community. Don't know if you heard me, but you all are the pastors in our community! 

We have grown up in church settings expecting pastors to take the lead in church activities. If the pastor doesn't get to it, then it doesn't get done. Often times we run our pastors into an early grave because they are trying to do it all. It is our fault for not doing our part in the building of God's Kingdom. The end of Matthew, Jesus tells us to go out into the world and make disciples. It does not say, go get your pastor and follow him.

We often think, I can't preach, I can't teach, I can't pray good enough to go out. Who said, preach and if you must, say it with words, or something like that! It is not your words that will bring folks to Christ it is your actions. Tim talked about John 3:16, God gave his son for us. If God can do that for us, why can't we go out and lvoe others. That's the least we can do.

Your serving a meal, bagging a bag of groceries, singing, playing the piano, handing out drinks, playing with the children, gathering for Bible fellowship, walking the neighborhood, visiting, cleaning the tables, giving a hug, smiling, washing dishes, teaching, tending the garden, mowing the grass, buying supplies are all forms of preaching or pastoring. A pastor is one person, it takes all of us to let others see the glory of God and how God blesses our lives. Don't wait on your pastor to lead, you step out in faith and God will guide you, blessings will flow, guarantee!  Amen!

Have a great weekend pastors! Don't forget to "preach" often this week, remembering only use words when you have to!! See you around the neighborhood!

With God's help

Doesn't get any better than this! The weather, I am talking about! Cool mornings, low humidity, a light breeze in the afternoons,  good time to get outside and enjoy God work at it's best!

One way to do that is to join us on Saturdays! We started our first weekend of two different ministries taking place. One to walk the neighborhood and the other to our outdoor friends. Dr Phil, Rickie West, Elbert Brown joined Scott. The following is a recap of our neighborhood walk from Mr Scott: 

We started on East 69th Street, across the street from Dr. Phil's house is David Williams. Address looked like 123 East 69th. He needs roof repair, hot water heater and commode. We saw Gert and Co. next. Then at 336 East 69th we met a young woman named Cassandra. She has three kids (kindergarten, 2 and an infant). She asked for the house to be blessed. Told us later she had just moved in and was praying to God and then we showed up. 344 East 69th we met an older white guy named Mr. Price. He had no special needs, said he had been saved but wasn't going to any local churches. But he had us pray for him. We also picked up about 3 full bags of trash. We talked about maybe making it a contest for neighborhood kids to see who could pick up the most trash and then have a winner. It was a good time. Need to make sure that we see those same people for several weeks.

The rest of us made our way to visit our friends. We had a young lady join us from Parkway who is doing a paper on the homeless community. Everybody is doing ok. We got to see everybody Turner, Robert, Brad, and the Macroni community, finishing our visits with Smokey. You can walk between trees and trails and find camp after camp in the Macaroni area. The thing I remember most of the morning was the mosquitos! With the rain and high humidity, the bugs were glad to see us, gathering as much blood as they could! Ouch!

Mondays and Wednesdays continue to be a treat as our college students continue to teach and instruct our neighborhood children. Great to see and hear the silence of learning and building of relationships going on.

Tuesday evening, Mr Matt let the Holy Spirit guide the men as they shared their struggles and triumphs in life. Matt read from James 5, talking about a warning to the rich, be patient, be careful what you say, the power of prayer and saving a soul. As the men were ending their time, a young man asked for prayers. Prayers for grace of not being put in jail for killing a man. Hands were laid on him for a hedge of protection from the darkness that surrounds our community. What a place the Holy Spirit is creating, where men can come and release their pain and frustrations and receive the gift of lvoe from Christ. Very powerful evening.

Thursday, with our pretty weather, it was time to open the doors of the chapel, to let God's voices and praises reign out through the neighborhood. Pastor Jackson and Wes allowed the Spirit to flow as songs were lifted up to His Glory. Tears of joy and gratitude were flowing from my face as we sang and sang, not knowing the words but allowing the Holy Spirit to flow. Wes made the comment, as he played and Pastor sang, goose bumps appeared on his arms as the Spirit took over worship. Sorry for the extended time of chapel, but to be honest, I didn't want it to end!

Good food was provided by Punkin's soriety and Abbey handling dessert. A youth group provided our good help. As I walked in, everything was under control, so I just stood back and observe the controlled mayhem of the evening. Everybody working together. What a blessing! Ms Lisa and Ms Abbie and others were busy handing out the grocery bags. Momma T challenging her young ladies with God's amazing gifts in Bible study, Ms Sarah showing the young people God's blessings in the garden for children's church. Doesn't get any better than this.

We lift up all concerns to God, knowing nothing is too great or too small for Him. We lift up prayers for comfort, healing, patience, guidance, endurance, perseverance, travel. Know you are not going through this alone, we have each other to help you along your journey.

Something that has been on my mind for years, something I don't know how to do, or where to start, but something that was reinforced this week in several instances.

Reflecting on our men's Bible fellowship of this past Tuesday, men are hurting, they have no place to turn to, nobody will listen with a caring heart without judging, needing the kind of help only God can provide. We meet once a week, but that is not enough. Life is hard, especially in our community. With no jobs, drugs, alcohol, physical abuse, Satan is running freely, life will knock you down, daily. So what do the men do? They have no where to go. The church doors are locked. So they turn to violence and alcohol. God's Kingdom's doors need to be unlocked!

In chapel this week, I look down at my watch and it was 5:45! Way past time to leave, but nobody was leaving! The songs were flowing, God was being lifted up, people were crying, lives were being touched, souls were being saved! Awesome, but that was Thursday. What about the rest of the week? When you need help, when you need God's help, where can you turn to? The church doors are locked. We tell the community, just wait until next Thursday, chapel will be open again. We all need God in our lives everyday, every hour, every minute, not just on Thursdays.

One of our families has moved from the neighborhood. Nothing new in our community. The families trash the house where they are, or they can't pay rent, or find a cheaper place and off they go. Usually they will be back at some point. Many years ago, when I was first introduced to our neighborhood and began working with the children, I was dumb founded  they couldn't read or write, their manners were none existent, steal at the drop of a hat, would consume you with requests. Not until one day, it was raining, they came, felt bad and took them home, did I see what I took this little ones home to. It was appalling, our children living in conditions there were deplorable.

People coming and going in their houses, not knowing if they would have a meal or not, usually no air conditioning, sometimes no heat, sometimes no electricity. Playing outside in the dirt, because it was cooler outside the house than inside. Multiple families living in the house, drugs, alcohol running ram pet by the adults. We wonder why education takes a back seat.

That is why the elementary school where most of our children go to is failing. They have a whole school of children living in poverty, where education is not important to the children or their parents. Our children are just trying to survive day to day. No wonder our children don't want to go home when they visit us. Their time with us is calming and lvoing, something they don't have in their worlds. So what do we do?

I have seen this same story play out for almost 20 years now. Drugs, alcohol, child abuse, lack of education, no jobs, no housing, babies being born to our young girls, our young men going to prisons, when will it end? What is the answer? Who will make the change? How will it happen?

As we all know, Christ is the difference. Christ in our hearts will produce change. Christ in our hearts will provide people working together, not others doing for others. We have to get together, we have to get to know each other, we have to lvoe Christ as a community. This community is not bigger than what God can handle. He has the answer, we have to let go and let God direct us. We need to have men's Bible study every night. We need to have chapel every day. We need to have meals every day. We need to open the doors to God and never ever lock them again.

Is all of this too big for us, yes! But not for God. We need to step out in faith, He will bring people together to make it happen. We need to ask ourselves, how can God use me to bring others to Christ? And then do it! Don't wait for somebody else to take the lead, you and Christ together can change one life, Then somebody else can change one life and before you know it, we will have have changed a community!

Our challenge in the coming weeks, how can I lead somebody to Christ? And then tell us your story. God's Kingdom is waiting on us to build it up one heart at a time. Amen!

Have a great week, lvoe somebody like they've never been lvoed before! Share your story with us, inspire us!