Sorry for the late update. Got up late, left early and just now sitting down at the computer. I guess, I am running slower like most of us in this terribly hot, dry weather. I talked last week about how hot it has been around this part of the country, well we need to add dryness to our update. Two different groups I have been with this week, prayers for relief in the drought conditions we asked for.
We had an incredible Saturday last week. I met with two gentlemen from Airline Baptist church in Bossier one day last week. They walked through and were trying to decide on what their men's group would like to do. One of the guys said, not sure how many will come in this hot weather or if they are committed to working. He said there maybe 2 or maybe 10, with him leaning towards 2. Well, when I pulled up around 8, there were 10 trucks parked in the parking lot with over 20 men working all around the center. It was amazing to see. We had some completing the painting of the chapel, we had some edging and cleaning up the sidewalk out front of the garden and sanctuary, others were trimming the big bushes in front of the sanctuary, others were trimming around the back, some were mowing, still others were trimming bushes at Abbie's house and the Bright House. Dust was everywhere, it was great!
As the Airline group was leaving, we were able to talk a few minutes and share our story with them. One of the leaders talked about how he thought their time with us was God directed. He said they had been praying for a local mission project for several months with no answers. Then last week, the leader gets a call from one of the guys and says, I just met these people from Common Ground and I think God has answered our prayers. They mentioned, they will be back and continue their work. Also we discussed about starting a men's Bible study for the community. God is good!
At some point early Saturday morning, I woke and said, man is this the second Saturday? And it was, so we had some folks from Brookwood show up also. The men from Brookwood, reprimed the hallway, applied window tinting to the glass in the fellowship hall and then went into the chapel and worked in there.
One of the special moments of the morning was the work on some bicycles. I had picked up three bicycles from Pastor Rich's house. His company was going to throw them away and he grabbed them for us. The bikes were still in the back of my truck. When the Brookwood guys got there, there was a man and his son walking up. I said to the young man, Seth, would you test drive these bikes and get them ready to ride? Seth said sure and he and his dad worked on them. When it was time to leave for our visits I asked Seth if he thought the bikes were ready to go and he said two of them were good to go. So we loaded them back into my truck and I asked Seth if he would like to go with us to the camps to see if the guys would like a bike. Seth said sure. What a special young man.
We met up with Mr Scott and the van of folks at our first stop at Robert and Turner. Some of us walked to Turner's camp, talking along the way telling Seth, we have not had much conversation with Turner, but let's see if your bicycle will be the opening we have been looking for? When we got to Turner's camp, he was frustrated with an old bicycle tire he was trying to repair. Mr Scott had brought him a new inner tube last week and Turner was unable to get it to fit into his old tire frame. I said to Turner, this young man has been working all morning fixing up a bike to give to you, would you consider coming with us to see the bikes and see if you would like one? Turner thought for a moment, looked at Seth and said ok let's go take a look. Turner followed us, walked over to the truck, looked at the bikes and said, I'll take this one. Seth helped Turner get the bike down and Turner walks off with his new bike. We all looked at each other, speechless at what we had just witnessed. A young boy, full of life and wanting to help others, was able to accomplish in one moment what we have been trying to do for a year! God is good.
Hat and Joey are continuing what Gus has started in opening the Friendship room Saturday afternoons. Several of the young men from the neighborhood have been coming to improve their reading and writing skills. A couple of our friends joined them as well. They wash clothes, watch some TV, relax and get out of the heat. Thank to those who continue to think of others. If you would like to help out, please let Hat or Joey know.
Got an email from Cassie from the Hub the other day. She asked about me about what we had talked about, opening up the new Basement on Saturdays. I told her, I thought it would be too much for us to do it every week but what about her contacting other churches to see if they would help out. She said they have Brookwood coming on the second Saturdays. So I am asking, do you think Common Ground could commit to one Saturday a month? With us beginning to visit the neighborhood on Saturdays, only opening the basement a month would take some of pressure off of us. But I don't want to commit to Cassie we will help out if it is too stressful for us. Think about it and let us know what you think.
We had a fun day on Wednesday. We prepared pancakes for supper. One of my favorite supper meals is pancakes smothered in syrup! Ms Abbie wouldn't let me take a picture, but it was funny to see, Ms Abbie at one plug in the fellowship hall cooking pancakes. Ms Dorothy was at another plug and then Grandma(Spencer's mom) was in the kitchen cooking on the third griddle. The smell was awesome, the pancakes were great and everybody seemed to enjoy them.
Thursday we had a nice group enjoying some sandwiches made from our left over ham from Wednesday. Chuck, Byron, his brother-in-law Ed, Beth, Charley, Lomax, Hat and Joey were there. We read from Acts Chapter 8. With the stoning of Stephen and Saul going house to house, the believers left Jersuleum and started preaching the Good News to many. People were amazed at what they saw and what they heard. Are we sharing the Good News with others in a way that is unique or special, maybe showing the lvoe of God to others for the first time? As the disciples were allowing God to work through them, we need to do the same.
Ooops, almost forgot, breakfast this Saturday at 9am. Momma T will be working her magic in the kitchen. mr brian will be out of town, so if you would like to help her, please be at the center around 8.
Something that has been on my mind for the last several weeks is the education of our children of the community. Did you all see all three schools that most of our children attend, are academically unacceptable? Our children have no shot at improving their education if during their academic lives they are not being taught at the right level. How can we help them improve or how can we help their schools improve? Maybe one way for us to improve our learning center is to become more scholastic focused? We can still have fun at the appropriate times, but make a real effort to have our center a place where real learning takes place.
We did not have our Allison with us Thursday night. She is the last of our interns, really I don't like saying interns, they are our family members now. She left for school on Friday, with this being her final year. She is preparing for the future as she will be contacting various sites to start her journey as a pastor. Allison is always missed by us, doing so many things for our community. We are blessed by her in so many ways and always look forward to her return.
Mr Scott text me earlier in the day Thursday asking if he could go out into the neighborhood and hand out ice cold Gatorade? Around 5:30 he shows up with some ice, fills the ice chest with Gatorade. He, Chuck and Byron go out and meet some of our neighbors and hand out all the bottles! Awesome and something we may do again.
Prayer concerns. Continue to keep Gus and his mom in your prayers. Wes Ackerman has two job opportunities in front of him. One is a special one, taking him to China where he will teach English. Mom and dad are not too excited about this but will see where God leads him. Lomax's other grandmother is ill in Tyler. Prayers for Ms Abbie. She lost her sister last week and preparing to say goodbye to her Saturday afternoon.
You just never know what God is going to do around our community. Bringing people here with great ideas. Directing our paths, serving others. All the time blessing us along the way. Hope you have the opportunity to be a part of this. Come when you can.
Stay inside if you can. For those of you who know a rain dance, I would ask you to perform one! Have fun and lvoe others as He has lvoed you. Amen.
We had an incredible Saturday last week. I met with two gentlemen from Airline Baptist church in Bossier one day last week. They walked through and were trying to decide on what their men's group would like to do. One of the guys said, not sure how many will come in this hot weather or if they are committed to working. He said there maybe 2 or maybe 10, with him leaning towards 2. Well, when I pulled up around 8, there were 10 trucks parked in the parking lot with over 20 men working all around the center. It was amazing to see. We had some completing the painting of the chapel, we had some edging and cleaning up the sidewalk out front of the garden and sanctuary, others were trimming the big bushes in front of the sanctuary, others were trimming around the back, some were mowing, still others were trimming bushes at Abbie's house and the Bright House. Dust was everywhere, it was great!
As the Airline group was leaving, we were able to talk a few minutes and share our story with them. One of the leaders talked about how he thought their time with us was God directed. He said they had been praying for a local mission project for several months with no answers. Then last week, the leader gets a call from one of the guys and says, I just met these people from Common Ground and I think God has answered our prayers. They mentioned, they will be back and continue their work. Also we discussed about starting a men's Bible study for the community. God is good!
At some point early Saturday morning, I woke and said, man is this the second Saturday? And it was, so we had some folks from Brookwood show up also. The men from Brookwood, reprimed the hallway, applied window tinting to the glass in the fellowship hall and then went into the chapel and worked in there.
One of the special moments of the morning was the work on some bicycles. I had picked up three bicycles from Pastor Rich's house. His company was going to throw them away and he grabbed them for us. The bikes were still in the back of my truck. When the Brookwood guys got there, there was a man and his son walking up. I said to the young man, Seth, would you test drive these bikes and get them ready to ride? Seth said sure and he and his dad worked on them. When it was time to leave for our visits I asked Seth if he thought the bikes were ready to go and he said two of them were good to go. So we loaded them back into my truck and I asked Seth if he would like to go with us to the camps to see if the guys would like a bike. Seth said sure. What a special young man.
We met up with Mr Scott and the van of folks at our first stop at Robert and Turner. Some of us walked to Turner's camp, talking along the way telling Seth, we have not had much conversation with Turner, but let's see if your bicycle will be the opening we have been looking for? When we got to Turner's camp, he was frustrated with an old bicycle tire he was trying to repair. Mr Scott had brought him a new inner tube last week and Turner was unable to get it to fit into his old tire frame. I said to Turner, this young man has been working all morning fixing up a bike to give to you, would you consider coming with us to see the bikes and see if you would like one? Turner thought for a moment, looked at Seth and said ok let's go take a look. Turner followed us, walked over to the truck, looked at the bikes and said, I'll take this one. Seth helped Turner get the bike down and Turner walks off with his new bike. We all looked at each other, speechless at what we had just witnessed. A young boy, full of life and wanting to help others, was able to accomplish in one moment what we have been trying to do for a year! God is good.
Hat and Joey are continuing what Gus has started in opening the Friendship room Saturday afternoons. Several of the young men from the neighborhood have been coming to improve their reading and writing skills. A couple of our friends joined them as well. They wash clothes, watch some TV, relax and get out of the heat. Thank to those who continue to think of others. If you would like to help out, please let Hat or Joey know.
Got an email from Cassie from the Hub the other day. She asked about me about what we had talked about, opening up the new Basement on Saturdays. I told her, I thought it would be too much for us to do it every week but what about her contacting other churches to see if they would help out. She said they have Brookwood coming on the second Saturdays. So I am asking, do you think Common Ground could commit to one Saturday a month? With us beginning to visit the neighborhood on Saturdays, only opening the basement a month would take some of pressure off of us. But I don't want to commit to Cassie we will help out if it is too stressful for us. Think about it and let us know what you think.
We had a fun day on Wednesday. We prepared pancakes for supper. One of my favorite supper meals is pancakes smothered in syrup! Ms Abbie wouldn't let me take a picture, but it was funny to see, Ms Abbie at one plug in the fellowship hall cooking pancakes. Ms Dorothy was at another plug and then Grandma(Spencer's mom) was in the kitchen cooking on the third griddle. The smell was awesome, the pancakes were great and everybody seemed to enjoy them.
Thursday we had a nice group enjoying some sandwiches made from our left over ham from Wednesday. Chuck, Byron, his brother-in-law Ed, Beth, Charley, Lomax, Hat and Joey were there. We read from Acts Chapter 8. With the stoning of Stephen and Saul going house to house, the believers left Jersuleum and started preaching the Good News to many. People were amazed at what they saw and what they heard. Are we sharing the Good News with others in a way that is unique or special, maybe showing the lvoe of God to others for the first time? As the disciples were allowing God to work through them, we need to do the same.
Ooops, almost forgot, breakfast this Saturday at 9am. Momma T will be working her magic in the kitchen. mr brian will be out of town, so if you would like to help her, please be at the center around 8.
Something that has been on my mind for the last several weeks is the education of our children of the community. Did you all see all three schools that most of our children attend, are academically unacceptable? Our children have no shot at improving their education if during their academic lives they are not being taught at the right level. How can we help them improve or how can we help their schools improve? Maybe one way for us to improve our learning center is to become more scholastic focused? We can still have fun at the appropriate times, but make a real effort to have our center a place where real learning takes place.
We did not have our Allison with us Thursday night. She is the last of our interns, really I don't like saying interns, they are our family members now. She left for school on Friday, with this being her final year. She is preparing for the future as she will be contacting various sites to start her journey as a pastor. Allison is always missed by us, doing so many things for our community. We are blessed by her in so many ways and always look forward to her return.
Mr Scott text me earlier in the day Thursday asking if he could go out into the neighborhood and hand out ice cold Gatorade? Around 5:30 he shows up with some ice, fills the ice chest with Gatorade. He, Chuck and Byron go out and meet some of our neighbors and hand out all the bottles! Awesome and something we may do again.
Prayer concerns. Continue to keep Gus and his mom in your prayers. Wes Ackerman has two job opportunities in front of him. One is a special one, taking him to China where he will teach English. Mom and dad are not too excited about this but will see where God leads him. Lomax's other grandmother is ill in Tyler. Prayers for Ms Abbie. She lost her sister last week and preparing to say goodbye to her Saturday afternoon.
You just never know what God is going to do around our community. Bringing people here with great ideas. Directing our paths, serving others. All the time blessing us along the way. Hope you have the opportunity to be a part of this. Come when you can.
Stay inside if you can. For those of you who know a rain dance, I would ask you to perform one! Have fun and lvoe others as He has lvoed you. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment