Do you believe?

And you said it couldn't get any hotter than 100! Don't you just love this weather! Hopefully the weather where you are, is not as hot, dry and humid as it is here. Hope your week was a good one, full of blessings!

We got our week started off by visiting our friends outdoors. We saw big numbers at the camps this week. Turner was quiet as usual, until Ms Dawn asked what kind of books he might like to read. He mentioned National Geographic magazines, westerns, science fiction and on and on! Smokey had asked us to ask him so Smokey can get him some books from the VA. Robert was back along with Travis. Several others were around the camps. We got to see Catfish at Smokey's with Tim and Sara.

Pretty quiet around the center. No after school activities yet. No feeding going on. Giving us some time to get things cleaned up a little bit. Still need to have a work day, maybe Saturday September 21st?

Ms Lisa and Ms Abbey met with one of our new interns from Centenary. We will blessed to have two Centenary students with us during the school year.

Mr Matt had a full chapel Tuesday evening with men wanting to share their stories about their relationships with Jesus. Matt read from Matthew 6, Jesus teaching about giving, about prayer, about worship and not storing up treasures. Putting God first in everything we do is what we are about.

Another great Thursday evening. We got started our evening off with our long time friend Spencer sharing his gift of song. Then Pastor Roger from Grace shared the Word talking from Matthew 9, sharing if we believe then it will be done. Not what others say will be done, or what others say about you. it is about our relationship with Jesus that matters.

Mr Tom fed us with another one of his delicious meals. Ms Abbie and Ms Lisa handed out bags of groceries. Momma T and her girls were busy in their Bible study. And then we had a new group of friends show up.

Ms Abbey had been talking with the Centenary Basketball team, telling them about us. Well they showed up, all 23 of them! Great group of young men, helping us serve, clean, pass out bags, wash dishes. As they were leaving, Tim was sharing some of his story and he said to the young men, we usually like to circle up when we visit our outdoor friends, can we do that now? So we formed a big circle of young men from all over the country, our community of adults and children, praising God for all He does for us. What a fitting end to a great evening.

Prayers for the Bollingers as Cari continues her chemo treatments. Prayers for William as he continues to struggle with his demons. Prayers for our community. Prayers for our path into the neighborhood.

Do you believe? Do you trust God? Do people see Jesus in you? We are beginning a new chapter in our journey, we must put our faith in God, God can handle it. He wants to handle it! God is bringing new people into our community to help us build His Kingdom. It will take all of us working together to make God's vision come true. Won't you join us? Pray for us. Share our story with others. Thank you for being the kind of people you all are.

Blessings to all this weekend and for the coming week. God is indeed good!!  All the time!!

Swing thoughts?

Did somebody pray for cooler weather?! Well thank you, because this week has been gorgeous in this part of the world. Hope your weather has been beautiful also, God is Good!!

Tim, Matt, Scott and Dawn made their way around to the camps this past Saturday. Not much drama to report, which is a good thing. Everybody seems to be doing ok and surviving the life of living outside.

It was a quiet week around the center. With school back in session for our kids, not many activities going on. The summer feeding program has ended, summer camp is over with, quiet at the center! Spooky!

It would be nice, if we could get together one Saturday morning and spruce up the center. We need some mopping, cleaning, waxing, maybe even some painting done. With all the activity, dirty hands and feet have made their marks on our floors and walls! Check your calendars and let's see what date we can come up with.

One tradition that continues to happen every Tuesday evening, is our men's Bible fellowship. A full house of guys, wanting to see each other, learn from each other and hear what Matt has to say about the Word of God was there. Matt read from 2nd Corinthians, talking about forgiving. How can we not forgive others, since God has forgiven us?

Joey and Lomax on Tuesday went to visit Sonotra in jail. He seems to be doing ok, waiting for his court date the end of August. Prayers for him as he deals with life and the decisions he will have to make when he gets out.

Another tradition that continues each week is our community choir leading us in song. Ms Abbie plays her piano, leading the choir as we join them in song as we begin our chapel time. Following chapel time, we were treated to a delicious meal served up by our community ladies. Carmen, who became our cook for the summer feeding program, prepared our meal and other ladies from the community helped her serve. Ms Lisa, Abbey, Abbie and all the other community ladies help hand out our grocery bags and made sure the evening ran smoothly. Tim and Dawn manned the washing of the dishes. Ardis lead the drink committee. Community in action, doesn't get any better than that.

Also going on Thursdays now, is our young ladies Bible study. Momma T is leading a group of young ladies in exploring the Bible and how their lives can be transformed. What a special treat this is for the girls. Can only imagine how this will effect their young lives as they grow up, what a blessing.

Don't forget, this Saturday is our breakfast time, 8:30. Momma T and Tim will be serving pancakes, bacon and all the trimmings.

Continued prayers for Ms Lisa's son Michael. He is having another procedure done Monday. Hopefully he will be all better by the time he starts his college classes in September. Prayers for Henry, Ms Abbie's grandson as he leaves Sunday for military school. Prayers for our community and for the children who live there. Satan has a strong hold on our neighborhood and He is not going to let go without a fight. Prayers for the direction Common Ground needs to take to fight this battle.

Don't laugh, but I have been taking golf lessons this past month. Several of us got together, to help out a friend. As we were listening to what our friend was telling us about golf, I got to thinking, swinging a club is much like life, much like living a life serving God.

He started off, with the fundamentals. Good posture, good stance, good grip pressure. As he continued, a good golf swing starts with a solid foundation. We need to have good balance, weight evenly distributed, relaxed. Isn't that same for us in life? We need to be focused on God. We need to learn, we live in this world but not a part of this world, finding that balance of life. When we find that focus, we become at peace.

As he continued his sermon, I mean his instruction, he said the golf swing starts from the ground up. Our body begins to turn, bringing our arms along with it and then our hands with the club. Our life in Christ needs to start from Word of God and what He is leading us to do. Not like so many of us, wanting to do things ourselves and then asking God for help. Like in golf, so many of us swing the club with our arms and finding problems along the way.

When it was my turn to swing the club before our friend, one of the first things he said to me, you need to let go, don't control your swing, let go - relax! I want to control my swing like I want to control my life. But we all know, that is not the way of the Lord. We need to let go and let God into our lives, allowing Him to control our ways. And as we know, when we let go, what happens! Peace, joy, and lvoe reigns down!

We went into these lessons, wanting to help a friend and instead God blessed us through this man. Isn't that the way of the Lord! God is always teaching, is always lvoing us in ways we don't always understand. But if we take the time, to listen, to let go, to relax in His presence, blessings will follow.

How is your swing? Are you grounded in the Word of God each day? Do you start your day from the what the Lord is telling you or are you starting off on your own? Are you allowing the Spirit to flow through you or are you trying to control everything? Are you relaxed - at peace or are you wound up like a top ready to explode? We have the best swing instructor in the world, go to Him, listen to Him. I bet your swing will become better. You will find peace, you will find joy and you will learn to lvoe others more freely. Amen!

See you Saturday morning. Have great weekend, have a better week! 

Thirsty

With summer camp over with, a week before school starts, the center was pretty quiet this week. It was a good thing. We have had temperatures making their way to the 100 degree mark each day. We are ready for the fall weather to arrive!

Our camp visits were pretty quiet also on Saturday. Turner and Brad were the only ones in the camps. Tim and Matt visited their groups, with some missing also, taking relief from the heat in hotel rooms. Richard was in the hospital, but is now out. Still no word on Robert. We picked up Smokey at a bus stop after his visit to his doctor. For all of those thinking, these guys want to live outside, well they don't. Very unpleasant outside, with it not cooling down at night, you sweat all day and all night, no fun.

Monday morning, Ms Lisa and her boys met the folks from Christ Methodist as they again shared their blessing of groceries with us. Our pantry shelves have never looked so full, even after making all our bags for Thursday. What a blessing for the folks to share with us in this.

We had another Spirit led evening at our men's Bible fellowship Tuesday evening. We had several new men from the neighborhood join us for the first time, very exciting. Matt read from John 4 and  8 talking about Jesus' encounter with the lady at the well. Good discussions about how we all need to drink from the water where we will not be thirsty again.

Wednesday evening, Lomax hosted our family gathering at the Bright House. Ms Ardis shared it was a good evening of conversations and fellowship. Chapter 9 from Dr Phil's book was discussed and we are ready to move on to the next two chapters.

Thursday evening, was started off with song and music led by our Community Choir and the playing of the piano by Wes. Pastor Jackson shared his thoughts on, We have to be careful who we talk to! We all to often go to everybody else, read books on the subject, try to come up with our own ways, when we have a problem or obstacle in our way, when as we all know, our answers need to come from God.

We had Mexican night for supper, Spanish rice, tamale casserole, chips all supplied by our friends from Airline Baptist, yummy. Following our meal, through the generosity and the caring hearts of the congregation of Grace Ms Lisa and Ms Abbey gave out over 60 back packs with supplies to the children. Very, very nice.

Ms Lisa arranged for two suggestion boxes to be put in the chapel and the fellowship hall. We shared with both groups, we have organizations who want to help our neighborhood. We asked our neighbors to tell us know what is important to them. Ms Lisa collected some suggestions. We will leave the boxes out for a few more weeks. Ms Lisa is putting together a group of community folks to get us started in our discussions, very exciting.

Prayer concerns for Momma T's mom and dad. Continue to lift those up who are living outside. Prayers for God's direction in our community discussions. Prayers for our children as they return to school next week. Prayers for direction we need to take in our after school program. Prayers for Joey as he travels home today and for others who will be traveling this week.

This is the final week of our summer feeding program. All and all, it has been a good venture. We were able to give our community jobs. We were able to reach out to those in the neighborhood who did not know about us. There have been challenges, which we will talk about in the coming weeks to determine if we want to do this again next summer. From a building that sat vacant for several years, to a place where it has been used every day of the week for the community, pretty awesome, God is good!

Ms Abbey has met with the folks of Centenary and we are not a partner with them. This will allow students to get to know us and maybe be a part of our ministry. Very cool, great work Abbey.

We also have been contacted by Judy Christie to be the recipient of another one of her book signings in September. Awesome! Great way for us to meet folks in the community and for us to help restock our children's library.

Been thinking about our discussions of Tuesday night. In the conversation Jesus had with the woman at the well, telling her, the water I have, you will never be thirsty again. The woman saying, I want what you have! With this hot dry weather, you can try soft drinks, tea, power drinks, but like one of our men said, when you are so hot and thirsty, nothing will quench that thirst like a cold glass of water! We need to share this water with others, to quench their longing for trying other things, instead of the Word of God.

When Jesus met this lady, He did not condemn her, but in a loving way, said, what you are doing will lead you to destruction, I have a better way. He approached her in a way that did scare her off. He talked to her even though they were not of social equals. Great lessons for us all to learn.

We need to be able to share our stories of why we turned our lives over to Christ. We need to be real. We need to be honest. We need to be able to share our lvoe of Christ in a way that others will understand. We need to remember in the Kingdom of God, we are the same. We don't condemn, we lvoe. Jesus, in a few short moments, shared His story about living water in away that she wanted some. We need to be able to do the same. Our stories need to lead others to Christ, not turn them away.

Each one of you have such special stories. Each unique and your own. That is why this community is unique and special. You willingness to reach out, lvoing unconditional, bringing hope to those who do not have any, showing compassion to the lost, and thinking of others before you think of yourselves.

Amazing people you all are!

Hope your weekend is full of blessings and your week is full of surprises of lvoe! Amen.