Stomping around

How was your week? What special blessings did God share with you?

Last Saturday, we had a big group visiting our friends. At one of our stops, a new friend Pat was having problems, so Mr Scott put him in the van and took him to the hospital. Turner is still looking for a new camp. We are trying to come up with places for him. As Dawn said, God will provide. You just never know what drama you will experience each week, isn't it cool to be a part of their lives.

Ms Abbie, Joey and mr brian went to Ms Ruby's funeral Saturday morning. The funeral home was packed with friends and family. Great talks were given by various preachers, some we will invite to speak to us in the coming months. Ms Ruby's pastor said about Ms Ruby, I noticed a change in her in the last several months. She started going to church to bring her grandson who was having trouble. When her grandson stop going, Ms Ruby went by herself. The pastor said, he started seeing Ms Ruby smiling all the time. He said, God has got hold of her heart. Wouldn't that be a nice way for folks to speak about us, smiling all the time, saying, God has got a hold on their hearts.

Ms Sarah and Mr Scott along with Krysten, were in the last hours of their 30 hour famine with the youth, joined us at the center. They worked in the garden, cleaned up around the center and gave our hallway a nice new coat of paint. The hallway looks great, gives a fresh feeling when you walk into the center. Thank you guys so much.

Afternoon activities continue to go along, spending time inside the center or like Wednesday, with the afternoon feeling more like spring time than winter time, we spent the afternoon playing football and games. Great to see our young adults leading the way as they continue their relationships with our community children.

Another blessed evening on Tuesday, as Matt led our men's Bible fellowship. Noel brought Catfish and Smokey for the first time. Never know what God will do, if you let go and let Him lead. We talked about letting go, letting God lead our lives. Serving, not for the recognition but for God. Trying to get past our egos and our pride and letting the Holy Spirit fill our souls.

Thursday was full of activities at our meal time. We had the blessing of Summer Grove Baptist group hosting our meal. It was great to have them. The food was delicious. We also had a group of young people from various churches, working out of Broadmoor Baptist, called Stomp, perform for us. It was funny as the young people were bringing in their trash cans, ladders, paint buckets, one of the Summer Grove men came up to us and said, looks like you guys are fixing to do some serious painting! Told him, no, this stuff is their musical instruments. Ms Lisa has already posted some pictures, I took some video and will try to get them posted this weekend. In between each song, the young people would share their testimony about what God has done in their lives. One young person shared, we see these containers as trash, God sees them as treasures. Another said, what we throw away, God uses for His glory. Amazing young people. It was great to see our children interacting with the Stomp youth as they were leaving. Hopefully this is only the beginning of a new relationship.

We celebrated Lomax's birthday in the chapel following our meal. Unlike Allison's blaze of candle's, Joey lite just two of them for his 26 years. We talked about his trip, leaving in a couple of weeks. If you have any family members in the California area, email Lomax with the information. He will be returning the end of April, so he can travel with the Yellow House group as they make their way to Haiti in May.

We had a small number Thursday evening, and ended up we talked about everything. I thought, man we can get away early tonight, but as we talked and shared, looked down at my watch and it was 8pm! We talked about Sinotra. He is not in school. On probation. Not doing good. How do we help? We talked about jobs for our community. But not just jobs, but how do we minister to the whole spirit of a person. We talked about our favorite books of the Bible. How some are harder to read than others, but Joey shared, a lot depends on where you are at personally as you read them and remembering it was written for the people many, many years ago. Dr Phil said, it is amazing how those stories were written for the people so many years ago, but they still apply to us today. It was a good evening.

Prayers were lifted up for Beth's neighbor. Prayers for U2 Saturday, as Momma T and Dr Phil will take the group to an outdoor park. Prayers for William. He was having heart attack problems Tuesday evening but would not go to the hospital. He was doing better Wednesday but still reluctant to go. Prayers for William, for God to fill up his heart with joy and peace, not leaving room for addictions. Prayers for Hat's back.

We have several groups coming to the center this Saturday. Brookwood will be joining us. A life group from Brookwood will also be coming to go with us on our visits. They have been making care bags for our friends and want to meet them. We have another group from LSUS coming. They came a month or so ago, and have more young people who want to join in. We also have a student from Louisiana Tech who will be joining us. Lots happening, very exciting.

John Sauls assumed his duties at the sink Thursday evening. We talked about the upcoming kitchen do over. It is close to beginning. Plans are at the final stop where the permits will be approved. Equipment is purchased, companies are lined up, we are close. Patience, patience, patience.

Dr Phil and his crew are having the same issues of permits and zoning approvals for his community village. You take one step forward and two other obstacles stand in your way. If we were trying to do this ourselves, the obstacles would seem too large. But we are not in this by ourselves, God is in charge, God has people who deal with these challenges and we move forward. How does it go, "with a little faith, I can move mountains". Another example of mountains being moved in order for the Kingdom to be built.

So cool to experience all of what God is doing in our little community. We have youth groups writing to us asking to come this summer. We have young adults sending in applications to come and experience community. We have new ideas and dreams coming to us everyday, challenging us to follow His path. We have new groups joining us every weekend, wanting to experience God's blessings. We have come so far, but we have so far to go. We are just at the beginning of what God has in store for us. It is so exciting to think about the possibilities of tomorrow. Thank you all for allowing God to work through you to get us where we are today. Thank you all for allowing God to work through you tomorrow to expand the Kingdom of God here on earth. God is sooo good!.

Have a great weekend with your family and friends. Hope you can join us around the center next week. Amen and amen.