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! 

Where is your focus?

Let there be rain! Amazing how a little water will wash away the old, brown, dying grass and restore it with beautiful bright and green grass. Sort of like us being baptized a new!

We had a long time friend take over the duties of driving last Saturday. Icee Joe returned and boy were the guys glad to see him! Joe's heart is with our friends and it was time for him to return. Joe will be driving once a month for awhile, glad to have you back Joe. Next is Joe's report on their visits: The visits went good no drama. Turner or should I say Bernard, was good and very appreciative. Joey and Julianna picked some wild flowers and put them in a bouquet. He was the recipient and accepted them. Then we went to see Richard and he wasn't there. Then we went and saw Robert, Travis and Dave. They seemed to be doing good except for the pesky mama raccoon and her 3 little babies terrorizing the camp. Lol.  Robert ended our time with prayer. Then we went and saw brad. First time I met him. Nice guy and having phone issues. Waiting on them to send him a new one because labor ready now fills jobs through text messaging. Doesn't sound real efficient and accessible for some. Very nice and very appreciative.

While Joe was out having fun, Ms Lisa and Ms Abbey were holding a planning retreat for Common Ground. It was great to hear from everybody their thoughts and dreams of what God is putting on their hearts. Some dreams put on the table: kindergarten school, organic garden, crisis pregnancy center, adapt a block, treatment center, council on ageing, chapel time during the day, rock climbing wall and cafe, daycare center, cafe and bakery, grocery store, clothing store run by the community, computer lab, ride share, tool rental, community involvement. All great dreams. We then broke into groups and started putting our dreams on paper, to see how God wants them to work out.  More as they begin to take shape.

Monday and Wednesdays continue to be special as our Centenary students get to know our neighborhood children. Lots of learning and relationships being formed.

Tuesday afternoon, with the help of Ms Amanda, we hosted our first National Night Out event. There are pictures up on our web site of the afternoon. There was good hot dogs, good times, and good conversations. Not as many of our neighbors came as I would have liked. That is our task for the coming year, to get to know them, so when we host next year's event, they will come.

Following our party, the men gathered for Bible fellowship. Mr Matt read from Ephesians 6, about the armor of God. How many times have we read that passage and still it is fresh and new. As Matt was reading, I thought to myself, wow that is a lot. God has given us a blue print of what it will take to have God at our side as we meet our challenges of the day. It is up to us to put that blue print into action and actually form that armor. Are we doing that? You can't go to a store and purchase it. God has challenged each one of us to make our own breast plate, belt, helmet.

Joey and Ricky hosted our family gathering at the Bright House Wednesday evening. As soon as you walked into the house, a fragrance of clean came over us! A smell not smelled in awhile! Ricky had been busy! Then you walked into the dining room and smelled the yummy aroma of Joey's meal. Following our meal, we talked about relationships. Relationships between husbands and wives, friends, relatives, each one being different and unique. We came to the conclusion, as long as the relationships had God as the center, then they would likely survive.

Being the first of the month, our crowds are not as large. Not sure why, but we served almost 140 folks Thursday! The chapel crowd continues to grow. Heather and Derrick, who are now worship leaders at First Methodist church, led us in song and their dad Richard shared the Word. Heather sang about needing God every hour. Richard talked about keeping our focus on Jesus. As the world around us seems to be in chaos, we can be assured God is in control. 

Carmen, one of our cooks from this summer, prepared our meal. We had a group of nursing students from Northwestern help out. Grocery bags were handed out, young ladies Bible study was going on, children's church went on, a good night of food and fellowship.

We will begin a new ministry this Saturday. Many of us have a desire to go out into the neighborhoods and meet our friends. They don't know us, only what they assume we are like, so we need to show them we are about Christ and lvoing everybody. We have no plans of what we will be doing, our neighbors, our God will show us. We will have two ministries going on each Saturday. One will still be going to the camps and one to the neighborhoods. Both will leave at 9:30. Please come and join us. We need you, we need your hearts.

Prayers for those who are hurting both spiritually and physically. Prayers for our new ministry. Prayers for our country, that their egos can be put aside and that compassion for the country can reign. Prayers for the violence happening all over the world can subside and lvoe can rule the land.

God is good! All the time! Not just some of the time. When Heather was singing her song, it talked about needing God every hour. How often do we go about our daily lives, not thinking or turning to God until something bad happens? Richard said his wife, who works at a Federal Government office, has peace in her life, because she is focused on Jesus. 

As Richard shared in the Word, Peter walked on the water as long as his focus was on Jesus. Then when the waves and wind around Peter became contrary, Peter took his focus off Jesus and he began to sink. How often each day do we face distractions, irate phone calls, bad tempers, people having a bad day, all causing us to take our focus off Jesus and we begin to sink?

Then Richard goes on to say, the remarkable thing about Jesus, when He sees Peter begin to sink, He stretches out his hand to save him! Isn't that amazing, we have a God so lvoing that He will do anything He can to save us! When we face our challenges of the day, or our demons of the past begin to rise up again, go to Jesus, focus on Him, His hand is waiting for us to grab on to. What a friend we have in Jesus!  Amen!

Have a great weekend and blessed week. Join us Saturday morning. God is good!