A new year!

We have done nothing this week but play with our grandkids! What a joy! What a blessing! Others will have to share the happenings of the week around the center!

We visited our friends living outside last Saturday. Presents were given away to the guys. Turner was as excited as Turner can get! Don't want to sound over dramatic, but the image of Turner walking away from the truck with his possessions in hand, walking away to his home, alone for Christmas, with no family, nobody to visit with, was a for a moment very sad. We need to appreciate those around us!

As we come to the end of another year and look forward to what God has in store for us in the new year, take a moment to thank God for His constant watch over us and our community. We have had many challenges during the year, but looking back, God has worked it all out! We have had many blessings during this year, truly undeserved, but richly received beyond our imaginations.

What a God we serve! What a community we have been blessed with! What exciting times ahead!

A very Happy New Year to all!

Sacrifices

What a week! Not sure we can explain it all, but just know God is amazingly good!

Really our week began early Friday morning as our Santa elves and God's servants started arriving at 7 am to turn our dining hall into our famous Christmas Market. People were everywhere, sorting, pricing, moving, arranging all the gifts from numerous groups, churches, organizations, clubs we have been receiving all year long. We ran out of room in our Christmas room in the two story, so we had to open another room!

Saturday morning, the community began lining up by 8, the doors opened at 9. Our community began to shop with the help of their personal shopper, pay for their gifts, then taken to one of many wrapping stations. Others helped carrying their gifts to their cars or to their rides.  First Baptist transformed our friendship room into a gathering place of cookies, coffee, hot chocolate and holiday music. While the community was waiting for their turn to shop, they enjoyed watching a classic holiday movie as popcorn was being popped! A tent was set up outside to give the children a place to create Christmas crafts while their moms shopped.  A big hit this year, was our Christmas train! The children were treated to a ride around our campus on Santa's Christmas train! We had lots of new faces and families join us this year.  What a special day. A huge thank you goes out to all who made it possible!

We visited our friends Saturday while our Market was going on finding everybody doing good. Christmas gifts for our friends will be arriving this week!

Monday afternoon, we had our Christmas party for our afternoon tutoring children. Lots of games, gifts, songs and fun was had by all! Great to see all the smiles and hugs from the young and young at heart!

Tuesday evening, the men gathered for their Bible fellowship. Brother George led the discussion reading from Luke 1 about the birth of John the Baptist. John was born first to prepare a way for Jesus. God's plan, God's timing is always the best!

Not sure why, but Thursday was one of our largest crowds ever! The warmer weather, the time of year, school being out, but the community came, came and came! We gave away more food than ever before. A huge night, but as always God has things in control and we were able to have enough for everybody.

This Saturday evening at 6 pm, Joey will host our Christmas Eve worship. If you are out and about, stop by, listen, sing and praise God for all He has done in our lives this year and what He is about to do in the coming year.

I have heard so many God stories this past week, too numerous to share now, but just know God is working in our community. Lisa has received keys to a new addition to our campus. The old bank building across the street is now ours to use as God sees fit. Hallelujah! We are being showered with gifts and donations for our children of the community. Praise God! God is amazingly good!

A couple of weeks ago, we read from Hebrews 13 verse 16, "And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased". A question was asked, what is a sacrifice? The act of doing good or to share is good, but is what we are doing, is it a sacrifice? Is it something we do, just to be doing good, to look good to others, to receive praise? Is going to church a sacrifice in our lives or is it just something we do? We have grown up saying the Lord's prayer, maybe taking it for granted, but do we realize the sacrifices God is asking of us?

God could have chosen for His son born in the mightiest of castles but He made the sacrifice of choosing the simplest of all places, in a stable in a manager. God could have chosen to tell the Kings of the land about the birth but He chose the lowest of all, the shepherds in the fields. God made a sacrifice for us all to have His son born in a world of sin, knowing one day His son would make the greatest sacrifice of all, his life. God is about sacrifices, not about doing good.

All of you make sacrifices for our community everyday. Some of you sacrifice time with your family to be with our community. Others give of your monies to our community making sacrifices with less at home. You sacrifice your promotion at your job to take time to be in community with us. You don't have to teach our children, serve our neighbors, listen to our friends, lvoe our families, but you do. You are people of God and He sees that . . . for with such sacrifices God is pleased . . 

How exciting to be a part of such a special group of servants. Your sacrifices for this year has not gone unnoticed. God is pleased! Amen!

I hope your time with family and friends this season will be a blessing to you all! God is amazingly good!

Miracles!

It is fast approaching? Time is running out? What are your plans? Is God there in the mist of your busyness?

We continue our Saturday activities in and around the center. Turner had his fire pit going Saturday morning. He has draped a tarp over his new tent to keep the rain and cold weather out. We couldn't fill his thermos with coffee because he had already made hot chocolate that he had filled the thermos with that! Another camp was closed because the guys were staying at apartments with their former camp mates. Very nice of them to get their brothers in out of the cold. Jerry's brother had brought them a load of firewood, so Outdoor Joey was busy building a fire with it. Anything to stay somewhat warm! Z and her crew were busy in the kitchen preparing breakfast for the community. We had a good number of friends show up to eat and enjoy each other's company. The young men of the basketball team showed up around noon to eat their lunch. Always a fun time on Saturdays.

More tutoring going on this week on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. The children were learning, playing games and listening to stories about Jesus. This week, they learned about the birth of Jesus. Next Monday we will have their Christmas party.

Tuesday evening, the men of the community gathered and listened and talked about God. Rickie led the discussions as the men read from 1st John 3: 17-18. Two good verses to live our lives by. What do they mean to you?

Thursday evening,  we sang Christmas hymns as Ms Abbie played the piano and one of our friends from Elizabeth Baptist Church shared the Word. Z prepared chicken and dumplings for our meal. Clothes were shared with the community. Pam and Bruce prepared the Market for our shoppers. A good evening.

Thanks to John W and Bruce K, we now have new lightning in our dining hall. We heard several comments this week, sure is bright in here!

Hopefully those of you in town are not reading this note this morning but at the center helping to set up the Christmas Market! We will be there all day, if you can go by and help out. Starting at 9 am Saturday morning the Market will open. We need your help, we need your prayers. Come and join in on the fun! Don't miss Santa walking around!

Please keep Ginellen in your prayers. She came through her procedure last Friday fine, but the outcome was not what we wanted. She has an infection in that area, that needs to heal before anymore work is done. 

The word that comes to mind this week has been miracles. In our busyness of life, I am afraid we don't see the miracles of God happening all around us. It is easy to pass over them, not recognize them or appreciate them. I think we all to often take for granted life and the part we play in it?

It all started Monday night as the men of Grace started reading about the birth of Jesus. Each year, Billy Graham puts out a list of Bible verses associated with the Birth. This week the men read from the Old Testament about the coming Messiah. We started reading Isaiah 7: 13 - 14, predicting the Messiah would be born of a virgin. Malachi 3: 1 - 4, which said the Messiah would be God's messenger, Then Micah 5: 2-3, predicting the exact place of the birth. We read Isaiah 9: 2, 6-7, announcing that God's son would be born as a baby. The question was asked, when did Isaiah take place. It was determined almost 700 years before the birth! 700 years! What a miracle, that God had a place in mind, knew He wanted his son to be born as a baby, from a virgin! Wow!

Tuesday night, Rickie brought pictures of his terrible accident he was involved in several weeks ago. Folks, I looked at the first picture of the burned out truck and could not look at any others! The shell of the truck, looked like some of pictures we have seen on TV of the horrors of the bombings in the Middle East. The only part of the truck left standing was the metal, no tires, no seats just metal! To see that picture and then to turn and look at Rickie alive, is a miracle! Rickie has shared with us, he knows God was there with them, sitting on the seat next to them, helping them get out! 

Several weeks ago, Scott told us his miracle story. He had taken his daughter's Jeep to a garage on Bert Kouns to get new tires. While the Jeep was there, he walked down to one of the restaurants and got something to eat. As he was walking back to the garage, he was walking across one of the bridges on the highway, noticed one of his shoe strings had come undone. He stopped reached down to tie his shoe strings, his phone fell out of his pocket. As luck would have it, the phone fell down one of the expansion joints on the bridge. The joint was just wide enough for his phone to fall into but not wide enough for his hand to reach down to get it. He tried to get it, but had no success. Frustrated and annoyed, he found a doctor's office near by. Going in, he said, I know this will sound strange but can I borrow a coat hanger! He went back, but ended up knocking the phone deeper down the expansion joint! Panic beginning to set in, as time was getting short. He took the Jeep in because his daughter was on a school trip, but he was scheduled to pick her up from the airport shortly. He hurriedly walks back to the garage thinking they would have some sort of something to get the phone out. They rig up a stick, he walks back to the bridge but no luck. He prays constantly now, Lord, I need my phone, please, please help! He thinks, I will call someone else to go get his daughter, oops, he does not have his phone. He goes back again to the bridge, tries other ways, but no luck. As he is walking back to the garage, a van pulls up behind him honking. He turns around and it is the nurses in the doctors office with his phone! No doubt now, Scott will tell you, God answers prayers, a miracle occurred on that highway!

Common Ground is a miracle! All of you are miracles for answering the call of Jesus! If you live out your lives, the way God has intended for you to live, miracles will occur! Reading some of my notes from 2007, a preacher told us, you don't need to advertise, you don't need to preach, you don't need to beat the bushes, just live out the radicality of the Bible, people will come. Why, because, nobody else is doing it. As we know, when people come, the presence of God is felt and miracles occur.

God is in the miracle business. If we take our time, begin to listen, understand His voice, stop and look around, we will see His miracles! We have experienced many miracles in our community, there are many more to come! Enjoy and be blessed by them all! Amen!

Hope to see you at the Christmas Market today or tomorrow. What a miracle!

Our calling

Here I sit in the hospital again! No I did not copy and paste this note! Ginellen has developed another fistula, the doctor wanted to take care of it sooner than later, so here we are! Please continue your prayers for her.

And you think it was cold last week! Our first really cold snap of the season has hit our part of the world! At least it is not raining or snowing! Hopefully your weather is not so cold!

Our cold, wet winter weather hit last Saturday. Usually on Saturday mornings, God let's the rain stop for a few moments to allow us to visit our friends, but that didn't happen last week! It was nasty, but as always it was a blessing to visit. With this type of weather, shelter and warmth are a priority, so our visits were short and sweet! Even though our camps are dwindling down, it still amazes me, the fortitude of the men still living outside. It is a hard life, but somehow they continue to survive.

Our Monday and Wednesday afternoons our after school activities continued. It is great to see the children come into the dining hall, find their assigned tables with their teachers. They stay standing until everybody gets in their places and then they start singing their blessing. Thank you Father for this food! I will admit I sing along with them and then continue humming the blessing the rest of the afternoon!

Tuesday morning we had a group of Santa elves from First Baptist church decorate the center and chapel. Great to see all the holiday cheer everywhere you walk!

Tuesday evening the men gathered for Bible fellowship and reading Matthew 25. God continues to bless the men of the community in various ways!

Thursday evening, we had a treat as an overflow crowd in chapel got to hear Christmas songs from St Joseph elementary school. Then our longtime friend Ms Jackie shared her testimony about loosing a child and her process of overcoming that hurt, very powerful. Z and Ms Abbie prepared a banquet.  The children from St Joseph helped serve, clean up, worked in the clothing room and were shoppers in the Market. A busy blessed night for all.

Prayers for Mr Joe. He had another episode. Peaches and Ms Abbie took him to the hospital. He is back home and resting. He was feeling well enough to help us Thursday night.

Don't forget our Christmas Market is next Saturday the 17th. Work of sorting and pricing will begin next week. Contact Abbey if you can help. She can let you know times and places to gather. It will take all of us to make this year's Market even more special.

It is easy for us to go our own way in life. Usually our lives do not affect other people.  Because of our sinful nature, we are selfish, usually only worried about how things affect us. When Christ enters our lives, we take on a new creation. We no longer are worried about just us but about others. Having a heart filled with the Holy Spirit will make us do things that we would not normally do. We are not living our own lives, but we are living lives directed by God for the creation of His Kingdom.

In living a life of Christ, we are put in circumstances that are not in our comfort zones. In being the hands and feet of Christ, we do things that others are not doing often being criticized or talked about. It is a hard price to pay sometimes. being talked about, trying to do what God is calling us to do, but it happens. Often we make sacrifices to our own families and love ones, to follow our callings. So what do we do? Do we give up and go home? Do we fuss at God and say why me? Do we ignore the Spirit and do nothing?

We each need to make those decisions for ourselves.

I have no doubt God is calling us to a place where His community is being established. God continues to bring others into our community who can and will make a difference. Each one of you have made a difference. Each one of you are servants. Each one of you continue to be a blessing to our community. Through our faith and obedience, we will enjoy the blessings of being faithful! Amen.

See you around the center next week and our Christmas Market next Saturday. God is good!

Is it magic?

Brrrrr, baby it's cold outside! Our winter weather is upon us. Cold, rain, dreary weather is here, time for God to brighten up our days!

Circle December 17th on your calendars. Our 4th annual Christmas Market will be here. We will need lots of help before we open the doors, so please be on the look out for opportunities to help in the coming weeks.

We had our annual inspection from the Food Bank. Lisa informed us, we passed with flying colors. A big thank you goes out to Bruce K for taking his time to straightened out the Market.  Pam W has not been around for awhile.  Sorry Pam for the over sight, but please keep her in your prayers as she recovering from a knee operation. I was told it was an old football injury?! Z had the kitchen spotless, so we are good to go for awhile.

Matt, Vicki and Chuck continue their work with the young men of our basketball program. First Baptist continues to support the team, offering their court for the boys to practice. First Baptist has opened up one of their meeting rooms, so the boys can do their homework before their practices. More exciting plans coming in the future for the boys.

Our guys living outside are ok. Really it is only Turner and Joey and Jerry at the moment. Friends from one of our camps, has moved. We have not seen them in a couple of weeks.

We had a big group of men for our Tuesday evening fellowship. They have heard about Z's cooking, so they are coming! Good discussions on what God is doing in their lives.

No tutoring on Monday with the bad weather, but everything was in full force Wednesday! Good interactions going on with everybody.

Please keep Ginellen in your prayers as she continues her slow recovery. Not feeling very well yet, still in lots of pain. Her body is trying to start working again, but it is a challenge.

There will be a memorial service for Tim's step mom, who passed away this week from a battle with cancer. The service will be at Grace, Saturday morning at 10 am.

The youth from First Methodist joined us Thursday evening, leading worship in the chapel, helping serve and clean up in the dining hall and participating in our Market. We had an unusually large crowd being the first of the month. Lots of new faces from the community.

The men's group read about Simon the Sorcerer from Acts 8. Simon was good at his job of deceiving people. He was a magician, making a living doing magic tricks. Simon ran into Peter and John and the Holy Spirit. Simon saw what Peter and John were doing, so he thought he could use this Holy Spirit stuff to further his sorcery business. He offered money to buy into this scam, but Peter responded to Simon in verse 21, You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God.

We can look the part. We can do all the right things. We can teach, we can visit, we can smile, we can hug, but if it does not come from our hearts through the Holy Spirit we are deceiving ourselves and those we come in contact with. We need to all exam ourselves and understand why do we do what we do.

For the last several years, I have heard, wow, what a great job you are doing here mr brian. For a moment, my chest gets pumped out, my ego glows, my pride is full, but then I remember, it is not about me, it is not about what good I am doing, it is all about the Holy Spirit and all the work that the Spirit is doing in and through me - through all of us!

Simon realized he could not buy the Holy Spirit, so he asked Peter and John to pray for him. It does not say if Simon's heart was changed but that is not our job. We need to pray for each other to accept the Holy Spirit into our hearts.  We need to get rid of our pride and egos. We need to remember whose we are. We need to remember we are in the God Kingdom building business. We are about changing hearts in our community through the workings of the Holy Spirit! Amen.

Have a great week. Stay warm and dry. See you around the center.