People

The week has flown by on one respect, then the week has taken it's time! Where do you stand? Excitement, jubilation, dread, anxiety? Another month has come and gone, Wow!

We started our week Saturday on a sad note by saying goodbye to Ben. Ben was with us all week and did an outstanding job of working his heart out for our community. The biggest task he accomplished was the organization of the 2 story building in preparation of our garage sale. Don't know when he found time, but he built a wheel chair ramp for the chapel, attached shelves in our kitchen refrigerator, served our meal on Thursday, cleaned the tables, fixed the wind chimes at the Bright House and went with us on our visits! Words are not sufficient to say Thank You Ben, just know you have a special place in our hearts.

Everybody seemed to be doing fine as we went around on our visits .Turner, really Bernard, was fine, Richard had his story, Robert was not in his camp because he has gone to rehab, Brad and Charles were waiting in their camp for us and Smokey was full of stories and thoughts. Tim and Matt made their way out to Catfish, Daniel and the Macaroni camps.

While most of us was enjoying a holiday on Monday, Lisa and her family was putting up a chain link fence behind the JJ houses. It looks great and will help with the foot traffic not crossing through the houses. Great job guys.

Matt led the men's Bible fellowship Tuesday evening, reading from Luke 15, reading about the prodigal son. Can't we all identify with both of the sons? Some of us have been lost, some of us has shown jealousy and envy, but in the end our Father loves us and isn't that what is important!

Wednesday afternoon, Ms Lisa had a small informational meeting with some of the interns, talking about plans for the upcoming summer camp. Joey shared his thoughts about getting to know the children and where they are coming from. After the meeting was over, Joey took Ashley, one of our new interns and they walked down the street to meet the children and their guardians, very cool.

Also on Wednesday, we walked the neighborhood handing out flyers for our upcoming feeding program. We even had one of our neighbors offer to walk and hand out flyers in her block, very nice.

Wednesday evening for our family time, Lomax was apologizing profusely about putting the lasagna in late, so we worked in the 2 story for a couple of hours getting things all priced. Dr Phil accused Lomax of making us work for our supper, I think he was right! We had a nice group of folks helping us price things, then enjoyed the late, very late supper prepared by Lomax and Sinotra! Thank guys it was great.

Thursday was filled with more excitement as Ms Abbie and the ladies shared their gifts of music and Brother Brown shared his gifts of words as he shared his thoughts about God. Mr Tom, served up his meal, Ms Abbey and Ms Abbie gave out grocery bags, Ms Lisa conducted the Legal clinic and handed out garage sale coupons, Ms Ardis handed out the juice, Momma T and Ms Dawn washed dishes, a very busy night!

Prayers for the week include, William as he gets settled into his new home. Robert as he goes through his rehab. Ms Patty's daughter, Megan as she has surgery today. The folks from Haiti returning home. Lift up our summer feeding program that it will be a blessing to all who come and for those who will serve. Prayers for our interns as they are introduced to our community and share their hearts with our children. Prayers for our new group of youth arriving Thursday. Roger's former church, Luke Simpson in Lake Charles, is making a return trip to visit with us. Prayers for relationships. Relationships are hard, they need to be nurtured, lvoed on, listened to, spoken softly, prayed for. Prayers for mr brian as he and his wife travel to Dallas for a grandson visit. It has been 2 months, 6 days, 13 hours since we have been there, but who is counting!

Don't forget, our first raising the roof garage sale will be happening this Saturday, June 1st, from 7am to noon in the 2 story. Come by, visit, help, walk through the building, imagine rooms filled with laughter in the coming months, very exciting.

Starting Monday, June 3rd at 8:30 for breakfast and noon for lunch, our summer feeding program begins. Come by, encourage those that are working, sit down with those who are eating and let's get to know our neighbors.

The thing that over whelms me this week is  thinking about community. Often when someone say the church, you first think about the pretty buildings, the fancy sign, the big steeple, the manicured lawn. When I think about Common Ground, is not about the buildings, the clean restrooms, the good food, the clothes, the groceries, it is about people, it is about all of you. If all you do do not show up, open your hearts, allow the Spirit to flow through you, Common Ground would not exist.

Ben shows up from Lake Charles by himself. How easy it would have been to call and say, I am not coming because nobody else decided to come. We have folks taking time out of their busy schedules to buy food, pick it up and bring it to the center. We have folks who take it upon themselves, to build fences, mow weeds, make flyers, offer legal advise, over see the funding, supervise. Others, on Saturday mornings, instead of sleeping in, visit with our friends, offering hope, listening to their problems and lvoing them. We have people who hang clothes, hand out juice, water the gardens, plant seeds. We have people who open up their homes, open up their hearts to those who have no where else to go. We have people who allow the children of the neighborhood to come and find a safe place to stay for awhile. Our people, show up to help get things ready for a huge garage sale. Our people, play the piano, si ng, share the Word. Our people reach out to those who are hurting, through a circle of compassion or a visit in their homes.Our people share the lvoe they experience with others, allowing more to come. Our people are flexible, meeting the needs of others. Our people greet and meet our families from out of town.

All of you are special in the eyes of God. Continue to reach out in the name of Jesus. Blessings will follow and God's Kingdom will grow. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you all! 

Have a great week, see you Saturday at the sale and next week during the meals. Amen!

Neighbor, you are lvoed!

How is everybody doing this week? What challenges did God help you through? What joys did God bless you with this week? What an amazing God we have!

We got our week started off Saturday by checking in on all our friends living outside. Everybody seems to be fine, except for Robert, Dale's former camp mate. Robert had just gotten back to camp as we arrived, with tears in his eyes, sharing with us, he has stomach cancer. Ms Dawn, Mr Scott and I sat there listening to Robert talk about his life. He was heading to a rehab facility Monday and then to John's Hopkins hospital for treatment of his cancer. So much emotion was flowing from Robert, worrying about telling his mother of the news, wondering what God was up to in his life and what tomorrow may bring. Robert's mother is a preacher. Robert grew up in church, but as he shared with us Saturday morning, as we were sitting in broken down chairs, under tarps made to keep shade from the heat, swatting away mosquitoes, Robert told us, he never knew lvoe until he met the folks of Common Ground. God came alive for him, by us coming every week to visit with him and his friends, not judging him, but just talking and listening to him. Amazing visit.

Sunday afternoon, we met our friend, John Williams, our electrician. He again worked his miracles and got us light into the second story. God continues to bless us with special people who share their gifts with us. We walked through each room seeing things we had never seen before, what a blessing!

Monday afternoon, Ms Lisa and her newly graduated boys were weeding, mowing, and spraying the weeds around Ms Dawn's house. It will take awhile until the grass can take over but it will happen, so lots of work will be needed to keep the vines from growing back. If you have some time and want to help out, Ms Dawn can always use the help.

Tuesday morning, we had an old friend join us for the week. Ben, from McNeese Wesleyan community in Lake Charles arrived to share his gifts with us. Unfortunately, we did have others come but it was not time for them yet, so we have been blessed by Ben's presence. His main task, has been organizing the second story in preparation of our garage sale June 1st. Ben has worked tirelessly all week and now we have a building where you can walk through and see what is there. Thank you Ben for your heart.

Later on Tuesday, we had our first Summer Feeding Program training session. Under the direction of Pastor Eddie, he shared with the ladies on how to prepare the food, store the food and serve the food to our community. Our supervisor will be the daughter of one of our longtime friends Vonita. Cornisha is a brand new mother with a willingness to support her family. Our cook will be the sister of Ms Dorothy. Gerlien, has worked in the kitchen before and will be able to get everything all organized. Our server will be Gloria. Gloria and her family has been with us for many years. What a blessing to have a program where we can feed our children and give jobs to our community.

We had strong storms predicted for Tuesday evening, so we decided not to have our mens' Bible fellowship.

Wednesday afternoon, we met with the health inspector to get our kitchen certified for our summer feeding program and we passed with flying colors. Pastor Eddie had walked through with us several weeks ago, telling us things we needed to have. We got them all done and the inspector was very impressed. Thanks to all for making our new kitchen the best kitchen ever!

Also on Wednesday, Pastor Steve from Grace, brought supper from the New Room. He wanted to keep the food warm until his helpers could pick it up to serve to the homeless population downtown. Glad we were able to help them out and great that Steve called us when he needed the help.

Joey told us Wednesday, Robert Gibson has finally completed all his requirements and has passed his GED! Yea! Lomax had been working with him in areas he was struggling with and it paid off. Robert is still living at the Grace house on Southern. Robert is now wanting to continue his education and look into getting some college courses done! Wow, that is awesome.

Don't know if you all know, but early every Thursday, Ms Abbey and Ms Abbie and others gather at the community center and get our grocery bags ready, begin to prepare our meals, make sure the clothing room is ready, get our paperwork done, check the center in preparation for our neighbors. What an outstanding job they do behind the scenes, thank you ladies.

Without much rest from all their doings on Thursday, mr brian walks in and asks Ms Abbie and the ladies to bless our chapel time with their gifts of singing and playing. I think I heard Ms Abbie say, she is getting the locks changed to keep out mr brian! What a great way to start chapel, by hearing the ladies sing and Ms Abbie play the piano. Pastor Jackson filled in for us and shared the Word to all. Much of chapel is not planned, but what an experience of the Holy Spirit filling the room each and every week. It is awesome.

With a large crowd of folks, great to see everybody working together to make our supper, clothing room and grocery bag giveaways so smooth. Ms Abbey said we gave out 70 bags of groceries. Thank you all for making it happen.

Prayers concerns this week. William and Robert Harp. William continues to recover at the hospital and not knowing where he is going when he gets out. Continue to keep Cari Bollinger in your prayers. Cari is back home recovering from her stem cell treatment. Everything is looking good but still a long way in the recovery process. Momma T as she travels to see Georgette this weekend. Dr Phil as he returns from his trip. Prayers as we continue our journey that God has laid before us. Let those plans be of God and not ours. As we celebrate Memorial Day this weekend, prayers for all of our military, the sacrifices they have made to make this the great land that it is and the liberties we enjoy.

As far as I know we are planning on opening the doors to the second story and having our garage sale Saturday June 1st. We will need help to monitor, answer questions and hopefully help load items into cars. Start time 7, going to noon. Come if you can and help us out.

Monday June 3rd, we will begin our summer feeding program. Breakfast will be served from 8:15 to 9:15, lunch will be from noon until 2. Come by and say hi, maybe enjoy some Cheerios and support our folks in this new adventure.

Lots going on, God is busy, He is up to something, preparing us for bigger and greater things to come. Won't you come. Won't you share in God's majesty. For those of you who are far away, please continue to pray for us. As Pastor Jackson said Thursday, together, all things are possible through Christ. A favorite saying at chapel time, holding hands with the person next to you saying to them, Neighbor, I lvoe you and there's not a thing you can do about it! Know you are lvoed by us and especially by God, doesn't get any better than that! Have a great Memorial Day weekend and a great week ahead. Amen!

God's Light

Where did the days go? So much going on in and around our community, God is busy. Hope your week was filled with joy and blessings.

This past Friday,we got a call from a friend of ours. Mr Scott went and picked up two big bags of bread and 25 frozen turkeys. The bread was put in our grocery bags this week. Momma T wants to cook some of the turkeys for one of our meals and we will give the others away, what a blessing.

We visited with our friends on Saturday. Didn't mention last week, but we got to talking about Turner, whether or not that is his first or last name. Ms Dawn asked him and come to find out, Turner is his last name! His first name is Bernard, pretty cool to know one more thing about Bernard! Lvoe listening to our morning prayers given by Richard and Robert. Always praying for those who are less fortunate! Isn't that amazing! Homeless guys praying for those who don't have good friends to come by and visit with them each week.

Following our visits, Mr Matt and our new friend Elbert visited with a couple of families in our community. Beginning to build relationships with our neighbors. Ms Dawn goes out every week, meeting new friends and neighbors. What a blessing these servants are, opening doors to new relationships, building common bonds and learning we are more alike than we are different.

The Ackermans were busy over the weekend selling their wares and posing for pictures at a downtown market! For those of you out of town, you can go to the Shreveport Times web page and find the link.

Monday afternoon, an unexpected meeting happened with a new friend of ours Ms Jean from Catholic Services. She is located at St. Catharines. Jean has developed a compassion of caring for our community. She wants to see if we can partner together with other groups and churches in the community to better serve our community.

Tuesday afternoon, Lomax, Joey and their group took the children to the duck pond for this week's field trip. Always a favorite trip for the children to play on the swing sets and feed the ducks.

Tuesday evening, the men of the community gathered for their Bible fellowship. Good food, good conversations and lots of thought provoking ideas. Matt read from Luke 11, talking about being the light of Christ. We talked about how the light of Christ is in each one of us and we should take that light to others. Gatherings on Thursday or Saturday nights or Sundays, should be a places where that light is rekindled, made stronger, then it is our tasks to share it with the world. Don't let the light die or fade out, the world needs it!

Wednesday at noon, some of us had the privilege to attend a function sponsored by the Shreveport Bar Association. Common Ground was the recipient of the highest award  given by the lawyers, The Liberty Award. The award is to recognize community service among other attributes. Normally it is given to an individual, but we were selected this year. Ms Lisa, accepted the award on our behave and did an outstanding job in her acceptance speech. Reading the back of the program, listing all the recipients since 1965, the recipients are a who's who of Shreveport. What an honor to be included with such distinguished people.

Wednesday evening, we gathered at Ardis' house for our family time. We enjoyed all the great food and especially the great discussions of Dr Phil's book. We discussed chapter 5, the bipolarity of creation. Learning that every emotion we have has an opposite emotion. The book says, we must hate what God hates and love what God loves. God hates sin, but loves the sinner. We  will discuss chapters 6 and 7 next time we gather.

Thursday morning, Ms Lisa and Ms Abbey attended a meeting of non profits to meet and greet and see if the different organizations can work together. Ms Abbey made some good contacts for us. Hopefully we can begin new relationships and begin to talk about ways we can better serve our community.

Thursday afternoon, the rain came, the wind got stronger and the temperatures began to drop as we gathered for chapel time. Heather and Derrick were singing their hearts out, so we opened up the doors to the chapel and folks began to come inside. Richard shared the Word, of never giving up, because the reward is so great. Another great chapel time.

We had a new friend, Cliff bring pizzas and brownies for our supper. A big hit with our community! Ms Abbie and others, filled our grocery bags to over flowing, with the bread and snacks bought by Mr Scott, another great evening. What a treat to see new people come and experience what God is doing in our community.

Continue to lift up Cari Bollinger as she is going through her three week ordeal of receiving stem cells in her treatment of cancer. So far everything is going as planned. Prayers for our friends who live outside. Life is hard in the best of circumstances, you add the rain, the cold weather, it takes a lot to keep going.

Got two emails a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to share with you all. This first email is from our new friends from Baton Rouge who visited with us back in April. Melissa, the youth director had sent me an email about a story she read from the newspaper about a homeless person. She was concerned it was one of the guys her youth group had met. I wrote her back to tell it wasn't and asked how things were going. This is her response: "Thank you! We are doing well! The kids were so on fire about the trip that  we will be doing weekly mission work with Open Air ministries- the BR homeless ministry, during the summer. Thanks again for the life changing experience!!"

The next email is from our friends from Crowley. This is part of the email from Julie, the youth director, "We are ready to move into the direction of starting a homeless walk ministry.  I finally have some interest from others in getting this started. "  I sent her some words of encouragement and she responded by saying, "WOW!!  I'm over-whelmed with...well, not sure - fear, excitement, etc.Thank you for your time & concern.  Tell everyone we said hello!!" LVOE, Julie.

You never know, what impact you are having on people, whether it be good or bad! What a blessing to hear from others about the positive impact you all are having on those who visit with us. God is creating some special in our community through all of you. More and more people are beginning to hear about what God is doing here. Organizations are wanting to be a part of our community. Churches are coming to see what it feels like to be a light into the world.

It is all because, you all are allowing the Holy Spirit to work through you and letting God's Light shine! You are letting go of your pride, your jealousy, your envy and allowing God to shine through. A common theme, God keeps reminding me, it is not about mr brian but about God. You are showing that in your daily walks. As long as we move out of the way, and let God's shine forward, the Kingdom God is creating will grow. How exciting to be a part of this magnificent creation! 

May you have a glorious weekend and a better week. May God's light shine through you this week like no other time in your life! Amen and amen!