God is in control

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Birthday!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lvoe and love

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

./Does He know you?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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