The Least

What a morning! Fall has arrived in our town! Leaves are turning their amber colors, mornings are crisp and cool, God is in control! 

We got our week started off with our Saturday activities happening! Basketball, visits, gardening, straightening, cleaning, eating was all going on. Our friends living outside are enjoying a break from the hot and humid days. Their spirits are also being lifted up! We visited our long time friend Smokey. As usual, he had been to the grocery store, bought fried chicken, potato salad, cooked a couple of pies for us to enjoy! Humbled beyond words,  how this man of God displays his affection for us.

With the children out of school for a couple of days, we only met with them on Wednesday. Great to see all our tutors sitting with their students, learning, laughing and enjoying each other's company. There is more to just educating going on!

Tuesday evening the men of the community gathered, talking about the least of them. Society sees them as misfits, God sees them as saints!

Wednesday evening, Lisa held a Board meeting. So much going on in and around our community. A lot of exciting times ahead for us all.

Thursday evening, our long time friend, Wes shared his gifts of playing the piano and Brother George shared his gifts of sharing the Word. Z whipped up another feast, the Market and clothing room was busy all night as a large crowd enjoy it all.

A special blessing to all our veterans this day. I remember pushing my father-in-law through the various airports on family trips. He would always wear his Marine baseball cap. Strangers would come up to us, shaking his hands and thanking him for his service. It blessed him and us. In honor of him, since he is no longer with us, please do that today. If you see a veteran today, let them know how much we appreciate all they have done to preserve our freedoms.

Prayers for Momma T as she travels to Starkville, Mississippi. Not sure I have ever heard of anyone traveling to Starkville! Must be a reason for her journey!? Prayers for all the new leaders of our government. Praise report for Ginellen. She has passed her final test with flying colors! No fistula! We meet with the doctors on Monday to decide when her final procedure will be to put her back together again. It will be 3 years Thanksgiving week. A long, long road, but we are finally coming to a conclusion, praise God!

Next Thursday will be our annual Thanksgiving feast. We have several groups providing our meal. We will need all the help we can get to serve and clean up. Please join us if you can. Also, as usual, we will be having a meal Thanksgiving day starting at 5:30.

Heard a sermon the other day talking about Matthew 25, the least of them. One of my favorite verses. It has always been a cornerstone of Common Ground. When someone would come to us about an idea, we would ask, does it feed, clothe, quench, visit, invite. If it didn't we would rethink the idea. The least of them is important to God, not so much in society. 

Have you ever been hungry and someone offered you something to eat? What about a drink of water when you were hot and tired? When I got cold at a soccer game, I borrowed a blanket from someone who had two! For the past three years during my wife's ordeal, we have been visited by many of you at the hospital or at our home. We are all the least in God's eyes!

God lvoes the least because He can do the most with them. After hearing the sermon, I thought came to me about Moses and King David. We all know how important they are to our faith and to God, but they did not start out that way! The men of the community read from Exodus 3, about Moses tending sheep, minding his own business, out in the wilderness, and God sends an angel to a burning bush. Moses sees the miracle and hears God say to him in verse 10, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people out . . . We then go to 1 Samuel 16, God is looking for a new king. Many brothers were paraded out in front but they were not right. David out in the fields, tending the sheep is summoned to come to the house, in the last part of verse 12 . .  then the Lord said, "Rise and anoint him; this is the one." In verse 7, the Lord says to Samuel, "do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

We are the least! God uses the least for Kingdom building. God sees our hearts, not what we look like. God used the shepherds to tell the world, His son was born, He will use you to make our world whole again. Open up your hearts to His Holy Spirit. Allow His majesty to fill your soul with lvoe. Our community needs you to let go and let God in your life. Amazing things will happen if we do! Amen!

Have a great week. See you Thursday night. God is in control, let it also be in our lives!

Predestined

Good morning to all! Hope your week was full of blessings and joy!

Last Saturday, we started off the morning by hosting a talk in the chapel given by Dr. Julie Dodge. She was being sponsored by First Methodist Church talking about social justice and the realities of poverty. We visited our friends living outside. One of our friends, now living inside, made the comment, I don't need a water jug, I now have water that comes out of the wall! Wow, things we take for granted! Another stop reminded me of how blessed some of us are. We found our friends, sitting on cardboard boxes underneath a tree with their dog trying to get out of the heat. Sad, sad! To my amazement, their dispositions were great, excited to see us!  We are very blessed!

Monday was a "spooky" afternoon filled with fun and games! Many of our tutors and children dressed up in costumes, competing for prizes and treats! We had a dance off! Sorry to say Joey did not make the finals! Mother may I was a hit, with Lisa! Chuck confused the kids as he called out green light, red light! Not sure who had the most fun, the kids or the tutors!

Tuesday evening, the men of the community gathered for Bible fellowship. Brother George led the discussions from Ephesians.

Thursday got started off with a huge rummage sale in the green area. Didn't realize we had so much stuff in the two story! Everything was 25 cents at the beginning until darkness set in, then it was all you can take! We made room for our Christmas Market items beginning to come in. Chapel was led by a new friend of ours and of course the playing of the piano and singing of Ms Abbie. Z's supper was the best. The Market was busy. We had lots of help from the students from several Centenary sport teams. A great evening.

Congratulations to all our Chicago Cub fans!

Don't forget to move back your clocks Sunday morning.

Prayers for Hat and Karl. Hat is home with a broken leg. Prayers for Michele Sauls and her family as they deal with the health of her mom. 

How many times have we heard, God has a plan for your life. Yea right, if he does, what is it, some of us would say. God's timing is perfect, wait on it, I have been told. My lack of patience prevents me from doing that! God will make a way for us, if we just believe and have faith. Sounds good, but is it really true?

Last weekend I was looking through some old pictures and videos of the past of Common Ground. There are pictures of before there was a Common Ground! We often think things are going so slowly in our hopes and dreams for the future of our community. But looking at the reminders of the past, you think, wow, we have come a long ways in a short amount of time. Maybe there is something to this idea of God's timing and waiting on Him?!

As I was watching a video of one of our first Christmas parties, taken in 2005, I saw a face in the crowd that startled me. I continued to watch the video, but I kept thinking about that face and wondering, did I really see that person? I finished watching the video and then replayed it, stopping at the moment of this amazing capture. Yes, there it was, a face I knew now, but not 11 years ago.

I began to wonder, I don't know her story? Why didn't she say something to me, when I met her for the first time, that she had been to Common Ground before? My mind started to ask questions of all sorts of things.

So I brought the video to the office Monday for Joey to see if he recognized our friend, he did immediately! Chuck walks in, he watches the video, he immediately agrees! We were all amazed at what we are seeing! We ask each other, did you know, have you heard, what do you think??? It was agreed, when our "old" friend gets to the center we will ask her the 30 questions we have about her past! Not too long after that, she arrives and we escort her into the office to show her the video. She was not sure what was going on, walking into the office with some concern for her safety!  Then Joey plays the video!

About midway through the video showing people sitting at the tables, enjoying the Christmas meal having a good time, she blurts out, there's my mother, my aunt, my cousin, look there's my oldest son, oh know there I am! With a huge smile on her face, she sees herself and her family helping us serve our Christmas meal! I look at her, a smile indescribable, tears in her eyes, words can not express the expression of amazement!

Tuesday evening, the men of the community read in Ephesians 1: 5 . . . he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will. . . then in 11: In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will . . . Folks, I don't know if you believe about all of this predestined theories or not, but as of last Monday, I am a believer!

Oh yea, I forgot to say, our "old" friend is Z Washington! She had just moved back to Shreveport. She came with her Aunt to help us out that night. She was so amazed at the video, she took a picture of her family and called her Aunt to ask about that night, she doesn't remember! Her Aunt even told her, her son got a present from Common Ground, something that was on his Christmas list!

Several months ago, Z had the opportunity to accept a new job. The pay was good with benefits, but she chose to stay with us, saying she felt she was in the place God wanted her to be. Well she was right! God was preparing her a place, 11 years ago, a place where she could do God's work and bless us all by her presence! 

You have a place in God's Kingdom. He has prepared a way for you. If you don't know what your place is and where it is, you need to ask Him! He will bless you beyond your imagination! Ask Z her story, she will gladly share how God prepared a way for her to us! Amen

Have a great week. God is good! All the time, these past 11 years and more to come!