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!!