Another week of God's amazing grace has come and gone. Hope your week was full of blessings and special times with family and friends.
We had a small group from Grace join us Saturday morning for our visits. Momma T is part of the group. They wanted to experience God's lvoe in the world. Most folks have never had the opportunity to reach out to others in their environments, so it is sometimes very emotional. Everybody seems to be doing fine in their camps. No major drama for the week.
We again made our visits with our neighbors. We went back to 69th street to check on everybody. Ms Dawn, gave out flowers, she had potted in the little pots from the greenhouse. They were a hit! Everybody was very grateful for her act of lvoe. How ironic, the little pots, Dr Phils family uncovered many years ago while cleaning out the greenhouse, dirty, broken, now through the hearts of Ms Patty and Ms Dawn are bringing joy and hope to the neighborhood. Awesome.
More work continued in the kitchen as John was joined by Hat's husband Carl. They completed the building of the wall for our new pantry. Can you imagine one day, the pantry full of spices and fragrances, ready to spice up our bounty. John W, our electrician went above and beyond. He worked all morning, giving us new lights and getting the fans working in the chapel. Then he moved into the kitchen where the new electrical box and panel is all ready to receive electricity. Pretty awesome. Great jobs guys.
Our afternoon activities continued with the children playing games and having fun. Some of the Mitchells have moved so our numbers are not as large as they have been. Joey had some good help this week from Ray and Zigzag.
Tuesday evening, we gathered again for our mens Bible fellowship. Matt led us in reading from Romans 14. It is not our job to judge others, God will do that. In the Kingdom of God, living right with God, sharing peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Anyone who is living this way is pleasing God and will be accepted by others. Does our actions reflect peace? Do we bring joy to others? Are we building each other up? Is the Kingdom of God visible in our lives?
Big crowd on Thursday. New help continues to come. Mr Tom prepared our meal of spaghetti casserole. Ms Lisa was there with the Legal clinic. Ms Abbie had to make more bags after she gave out over 50 bags. We noticed on the tables, squash from the garden. Some of the neighbors walked by on they way to the meal and picked them. When other neighbors saw the squash they went over and picked more, it was great. So Ms Patty, we have no squash available to cook next week! Joey wants us to remind our friends the garden is theirs, to pick, to weed, to plant.
Joey led us in our Bible study in reading the first chapter of John, or almost the first chapter. What a way to end the evening by talking about Jesus, the Lamb of God, the Word, the Beginning, the Holy Spirit. Not sure why we are so blessed to be in the prescience of such greatness and grace but what a time it is.
Prayers were said earlier in the evening for William. Matt is picking up William Friday, to take him back into the woods out by Catfish. William can no longer live in a place where the temptations of alcohol is so prevalent. Please keep William in your prayers as he continues to struggle with his addictions and his transition. Taking him out the environment will help, but the desire to drink will still be there.
Prayers for Amanda, Krysten, Ms Sarah and Mr Scott as they leave for Haiti this afternoon. Challenges ahead, blessings abound.
Prayers for Charley as he continues his testing procedures. Prayers for Catfish as he continues to struggle with life. He came by Thursday with his granddaughter and her husband. Prayers for Robert as he deals with having to retest a small part again for his GED and setting up his new camp.
Don't forget next Thursday for chapel, we will have Spencer playing the keyboard and Pastor Jackson singing and then preaching. It has been many years since Willie has sung and preached. Long over due. Not sure we will be able to keep him to 30 minutes!
Also, next Thursday through Saturday, we will have the youth group from Luke Simpson Methodist church in Lake Charles joining us. The pastor of this church will be moving to Shreveport this summer to be the new pastor of Grace. They will be cooking our meal for Thursday, working in and around the Bright House Friday and joining us for our visits Saturday morning. Please try to come by and welcome them.
Saturday morning we will also have a youth group from Oklahoma joining us to go on our visits.
Ms Patty will host Grace's Super Servants group in the garden June 7th. There will kids from all over the city working and playing in the garden.
And then there will be Ms Patty and Momma T's U2 Saturday happening at 10 in the garden. Wow, what a week ahead.
I had a discussion with a person this week, that kind of struck me, we maybe doing what God is intending for us to do. This person is fairly new to our community, has been to our web site, been to some of our activities. Quiet, does not say much, but listening all the time. Has been associated with other non-profits before, so kind of knows how things work. This person has worked with these groups before, assisting in fund raising events. I was approached several weeks ago, about a potential fund raiser for Common Ground by this person. This week, the person, said they had been praying about the fund raiser, the idea. The thought that came up to them, Common Ground is not a non profit organization it is more of a church.
When I heard that, I thought, wow, that is cool. We are a non profit to those who need us to be a non profit, but those who we feed, cloth, visit we are a church. We talked about Tuesday night, how if you don't dress right, look right, smell right, or act right you may not be acceptable in the church. I noticed Saturday morning on our visits in the neighborhood, by noon, most of men are well on their way to feeling no pain through drink. Does that stop Mr Matt or Ms Dawn to walking up to them and saying Jesus lvoes you and offering them hope? Not in the least. That is where the church needs to be. If we are not out there offering hope and joy and peace, where are our neighbors going to hear about it? All they know to do is go to the nearest liquor store and drown out their pain.
When we started visiting our friends who live outside, we began to offer them hope by just coming by each week. Not asking anything of them other than to let them know they are lvoed by us and Jesus. Some have joined us for worship, Bible studies, and beginning to understand Jesus offers them a way out.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for being the hands and feet and most importantly the heart of Jesus. Gradually our neighbors are beginning to see the light of Jesus in us all. There is much darkness in our community and it will take time, but we have the great Comforter on our side and nothing is impossible. Continue to pray, continue to share peace, continue to show joy, continue to lvoe and amazing things will happen.
Have a great week. See you around the center. Amen.
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