Balance

We had a nice time on our family trip last week. But I will admit, it is good to be home! Thank you Joey for handling the update last week, a job well done. Amazing to read the Joey's note and think about all that is going on in our community. God is indeed busy.

Last Saturday was no exception. Mr Scott led the way, as we visited our friends who live outside. It is definite, the Murphy street bridge is closing so some of our friends who were there are having to move elsewhere. Mr Scott gave them tarps and getting a tent to help them set up in a new camp. It is becoming harder and harder for our friends to find new places. I remember years ago, passing a block or two of land for sale, not far from downtown, saying to the group in the van, we should buy this land and let our guys stay there as long as they want to. Maybe it's time!

John Sauls and Karl are busy every Saturday, working in the kitchen. Amazing progress is finally coming around. John and Karl put up the new back splash for the sink. The sheet rock is all taped and floated waiting for it to be textured. The a/c unit has been installed. The range hood is up and connected. Bevel and company hooked up several more water lines. The new ceiling is up, with the panels ready to be installed. Cabinets will be installed this Saturday. Painting will begin shortly, we are getting close. Keep the faith!

Following our visits with our friends, we continue to go out into the neighborhood and meet more of our neighbors. You just never know what will happen and the conversations we will have, very exciting. Ms Dawn and Mr Matt do an incredible job of meeting our neighbors, sharing their lvoe of Christ, and telling them about our community. During most of their conversations with our neighbors, they begin to explain where we are. Last Saturday after 3 different conversations, our neighbors asked, is your building next to "that" garden? I called Ms Patti to tell her about the garden and how it is making an impression on the neighborhood. So Dawn and Matt will now say in their introductions, our center is the building next to the garden! Very cool!

Over the weekend, Grace Community celebrated the last 20 years of being led by it's only pastor, Rob Weber. Rob is leaving to start a new career. Rob has always had a vision of having a presence in the Cedar Grove neighborhood. He has always been a supporter of Common Ground and has helped us along the way, often behind the scenes, making phone calls or having negotiation with the "right" people. Ms Lisa is putting together a photo album and other things for him, letting him know how much we have appreciated our association with him. Also, as an added bonus during the celebration, we got to see our ZigZag dance!

With me busy with work and unable to attend Summer Camp, I asked Joey to summarize the week for us; The chapel continued to open at 7:00 AM this week!    This week hasn't seen that many visitors, but that's okay. It is here for anyone that needs it! :)

This week marks the interns first full unaided week of camp!   It went fairly well.   Our theme was around the world.   Monday we learned about Mexico, and ate Tacos!.   Tuesday we learned about India, and we ate beans and rice!     Wednesday we learned about Italy, and we ate spaghetti.   Thursday we learned about France and ate..... PIZZA? hah! Every day we would learn about words from each country and compared them to the words we use.    We even had a rap contest for the Italian words we learned (the kids had to create a rap using all 3 words we learned that day).  Each day was fun, but tiring!  I think all the interns were worn out.     We hit a few bumps on Thursday, but life goes on and we looked forward to the upcoming weeks! :)  

Also we held our first interview for camp helpers.  ( We have alot of request from the community to help with camp, so in order to see if they are really interested we hold a group interview)  Ashley Small will be joining us next Monday.  It seems like she really wants to help out, which is awesome!  Hope more of the community will take interest!

For those of you who don't do Face book that much, Gus has created a blog site about the goings on of Summer Camp and the Bright House: http://lvoegeneration.blogspot.com/.

We now have cool air in all parts of the Bright House. We had several challenges in the last couple of weeks, but with the help of our friend David Serra, we have overcome our problems. Thank you David.

Our Tuesday evening men's fellowship was great. Matt continues to ask the right questions and the guys continue to share what is on their hearts. It is a blessing to hear from everybody, getting to hear different perceptive about life. We talked about, not judging, about being the Body of Christ, sharing lvoe with others when it is sometimes difficult to do so. Fastest hour of the week!

Thursday was full of blessings and surprises. Our chapel time was blessed by the playing and singing of Ms Abbie and Ms Dorothy. We need to have more of that! We were then blessed to have our new friends, Rev Eddie come and share the Word and his wife singing a song. We went past our time to end, but I didn't hear anybody complaining! Powerful, emotional and uplifting to hear the Word is such a dramatical fashion. I had to leave the chapel for a moment, but when I came back in, I had to step over children, dogs and folks sitting on the floor, standing along the sides, the chapel was packed. What a blessing!

As we sat down for supper, we had to go find more tables and chairs. We had an overflow of people. New folks I have not seen. Wondering how they found us and what their stories are. Mr Scott had problems with our weekly order from the Food Bank, so our bags were small. Well they were small until we got a phone call from a friend who had an over stock of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, squash. So Ms Abbie and Ms Dorothy were able to fill another bag with vegetables and everybody got two bags this week! God is good!

Added to all of this was the gift of having Amanda and Joe and their family joining us. They are long time friends, and have been missed. It was great to have them. At some point, we had to tell them to stop cleaning up and go home! What a delight to have family come back and step in. That is what family members do. Joe or as all our outdoor friends call him "Icee" Joe, will drive the van this week, as Mr Scott will be taking off a Saturday.

Ms Beth led us in our Bible study after supper. Talking about how everything comes from God, everything. And again, a common phrase that has been coming up, it is not about me but about God. Are we living a life that God gets the glory?

Prayers, for Gus having some health problems. Prayers for Catfish and all of us suffering from addictions. William as he continues to allow God into his life to conquer the disease of alcohol. Don't forget to write William a note of encouragement. We will have cards in the Friendship Room Saturday, to sign and forward on to him. Continue to keep our interns in your prayers as they led Summer Camp. It is so great to see them interacting with the children and the families of our community.

I was asked this week, I need to find a balance. A balance of working and of serving God. When Common Ground first started and we became overwhelmed with following God, some of us started struggling with finding a balance. Balance was the word we hated to talk about, just like patience is now for me. Rev Eddie talked about it Thursday, reading from Romans. Balance, how do we find it between the way of the world and God's Kingdom?

I had one of those talks with the Spirit many years ago. I was shown a scale. Not sure what the name of the scale is? But one that you put an object on one side and then you use weights to put on the other side until the scale moves until it is balanced.

I put an image of a new TV on one side of the scale, with it's price tag and then on the other side, I knew I needed to work "x" amount of time to get it paid for. So the more I worked, at obtaining the TV, the scale would become balanced. You could put anything on the scale of the world, a new house, boat, clothes, shoes, golf clubs, fishing equipment pretty straight forward. I could understand that. Then I was asked to place, compassion, patience, lvoe, other fruits of the spirit on one side of the scale, how much would it take to balance it out? I tried to box lvoe up, tried to think how to put a price on compassion, it can't be done! The more I tried to balance the scale, I began to understand, God's wants all of us all the time, not sometimes, not after work, not on Saturdays, not on Sundays, not when I retire. As Rev Eddie, said, God's son died on the cross for us, can't we do the same for him? That's the least we can do.

Balance, I have come to realize is not possible. I understand that what I am doing is only a small part, a very small part of what God is asking of me. I work at my day jobs and give my time to His Kingdom when I can. That is not right, but I understand it.

We all need to understand what God has called us to do and go for it. We are blessed beyond measure by God's grace, enjoy it and praise God for it. Exciting times ahead for us. With all of us working together to build up God's Kingdom, maybe we can find our balance. Some can work during the day, others at night. Some can live in community, others can support it. Some can teach, some can clean. Some can build, others can lead. I am thinking finding a balance is maybe not so important, as living for others is? All of you are examples of that. Continue your journeys. lvoe, lvoe, lvoe !!!

Have a great weekend. Amen.