Where are we going?

Hope your week was full of joy and blessings. When the obstacles came along, hope God was there to help you through. Baby, it's hot outside! We could play that this week and the weeks to come. Wherever you are, hope the weather is a little nicer.

"Icee" Joe drove the van around on our Saturday mornings. He will be relieving Mr Scott one Saturday a month in the driving department. Great to have you back Joe. Everybody seemed to be doing fine, just trying to survive the hot days and nights and all the mosquitoes. We have the opportunities to get inside or get in our cars and turn the A/C on, our friends do not. Joe brings bags of ice from work and we hand them out to the camps to help a little during this time.

John Sauls and Karl continue to work tirelessly in the kitchen on Saturdays. All the countertops are installed, all the cabinets are hung, starting to look like a functioning kitchen. The last biggest task is getting our plumber back out to hook up the gas to the stove, make adjustments to the sinks and get the hot water turned on. We are close folks, won't be long, patience, patience!

As we were finishing up our work in the kitchen, Ms Dawn comes running up to me and says mr brian, mr brian! At first thought, I said to myself, oh no, what's happened now? Dawn said, you won't believe what happened on our walk into the neighborhood this morning. We met a lady on 68st, that has been walking around to her neighbors, talking about how we need to get to know each other, and sharing her love of the Lord with others. Exactly what we have been doing. God is up to something?! They also met 3 young men, tattoos, piercing's everywhere, sitting on their porch and Mr Matt and Ms Dawn walk up to them and share our story with them. After a few moments, one of the young men, started saying you are right, it says that in scripture. Then he started citing scripture to the group! No better way to see God's word come to life than to sit on a front porch and listen to God's people talk! Come and join us.

Summer camp continues along with new adventures and new relationships being formed. When you are in the mist of the storms, it is hard to see the calm, but after the storms are over, you sit back say, wow, that was cool. We talked about on Thursday, how we have seen a change in the children. How new relationships are being formed from different families, learning to live together instead of fighting. We have seen a calming of the children during our meals on Thursday. Not sure if is our chapel times or summer camp or the heat but whatever it is good to see. We have been blessed to have a great group of interns with us this year, hate to see the summer come to an end. One more week of camp. Come by if you can and tell our young folks how much we appreciate all their efforts.

Joey had a special prayer breakfast in the chapel Tuesday morning. There was Joey's on version of coffee! It was good Joey! All sorts of fruits for the stomach and then we had all sorts of talk for the soul. Years ago, we opened up the chapel in the mornings and a lot of us started our days there. I am sad to say, this was my first time back, but it won't be my last. Something about just sitting in this place, surrounded by memories of song, and hearing the encouragements of the Word, seeing Jesus looking down on us, puts you in a place where the Spirit can come a live in you. Thank you Joey for your steadfast journey in allowing the Spirit to flow through you in prayer and actions.

Monday, John Williams our extraordinary electrician called and got the final electrical inspection. Tuesday we got our electrical meter hooked up. Wednesday evening John and I were working in the kitchen and John said, plug in my saw. I said, let me go get an extension chord. John replied, don't need to do that just plug into this outlet! We have never been able to do that before. Now we can plug our grills, coffee pots, blenders into the outlets, with out having to run extension chords all over the place! Can I have an Amen!

The new sewing classes continued on Monday and Wednesday evenings. Lots of good things are happening in there and not just all about the sewing. Relationships are being formed, learning from each other, having good conversations about God and the power of His presence in our lives. Ms Abbie wanted me to tell everybody, Lisa's mom has donated irons and ironing boards for the class. Hopefully, in the near future we will get to see what all the sewing is about.

We got an email from Brookwood on Tuesday, telling us their Second Saturdays will be starting back in August. Then further down the letter was a special note to us about a special event they have every year, called the Brookwood Bk5 Run. Brookwood comes together and raises funds for one of their local missions they sponsor. Funds have gone to the Hub, The Yellow House, Rescue Mission. This year, Common Ground will be the recipient! Isn't that cool. So make plans for Saturday,September 8th. Ms Sarah and Mr Scott, you guys need to get a team together and run for us. Those of us, who have better sense, can help in other ways. Cheer for those who are running, work the refreshment booths, and help out where needed. There will be a link on Brookwood's web site, that will allow us to sign up shortly.

Tuesday night, sitting around our men's circle in the chapel, was special. To be honest, if I don't write down the chapter Mr Matt reads from, I forget. Because I don't remember the words we read, but I remember the comments made from the hearts of the men who God brings to us. The words are God's words, but they come alive when you hear men share how those words affects their lives. And one of the great things, we learn from each other by hearing their stories. Thank you Mr Matt for allowing the Spirit to flow through you and touching us each week.

On Wednesday, our Summer Camp got a treat. The new senior pastor at Grace Methodist, Roger Templeton, came to chapel and shared with the children about the bread and grape juice we use to symbolize our taking of communion. Roger did a great job, explaining to the children in a way they could understand. Then Ms Allison and Roger shared the elements with the children and all who had come to experience this special event. Our children being our children, once they went through, they got back in line and went again, and again until all the bread and juice was gone! Thank you Allison and Krysten for arranging this unique experience for the children.

Following Roger's experience into the unknown, we had the opportunity to visit with him and show him around God's center. He was very gracious and asked a lot of good questions. If it weren't for the support of Grace and Rob, we would not be where we are today. We want that relationship to continue for years to come. We told Roger, whatever God puts on your heart for that relationship to continue, we will support you and make it happen.

Thursday was a record breaking evening. We started off with Gus and his friends Amanda and Leah singing songs for the start of chapel. Unfortunately our scheduled pastor didn't show, so Mr Noel stepped up and shared a few words with us. God always provides. Then we were treated to hot dogs, chips and watermelon by a girl scout troop from Christ Methodist. The girls did a great job serving our largest group ever, close to 200! Standing out in front of the chapel,  you can see more and more folks walking from the neighborhood to join us. I am not seeing more cars, but more folks walking. A direct result of us visiting on Saturdays. That is awesome!

With so many people coming, we are going to change our times a little. We announced to the community, we will have chapel starting at 5pm and then our meals will be served at 5:30. We wish all would be in chapel, but for those do not want to experience chapel, they can start coming a little later. One thing I saw Thursday, is Ms Abbie and her crew let those who had just walked in from chapel, walk through the line first! Pretty smart Ms Abbie.

Ms Abbie continues to hand out 60 plus grocery bags filled with stuff bought from Sams by Krysten and Ms Lisa and Mr Scott buying stuff from the Food Bank. Thank you all for doing such an outstanding job.

Following our meal and clean up, we met in the chapel. Read a verse or two but ended up the evening sharing what has been going in and around the center. Pretty remarkable things. One of Gus's friends, Leah told us she wants to be an intern next summer. Wow, we already have interest in next year's camp! Always good to hear what God is doing in everybody's life.

Prayer concerns: Weekend of the Cross is going on. Prayers for Ms Sarah, Mr Scott, Momma T and everybody participating. This is a happening where youth from all over the state come together and share God's lvoe through painting, cleaning, building people's homes in our area. Today, God has covered the sun keeping temperatures down, thank you God. Prayers for William. Mr Matt's son, Eric took William back to Logansport on Monday, so William can continue his rehab. Let's pray William has no more strokes forcing him to leave and not complete this process.  Prayers for overcoming the hurdles to get our Building of Community houses going. You solve one problem and then something else comes up. It will happen when God is ready for it to happen, but those of us with our little faiths are restless. Prayers for our community. One day we see friends walking together, the next day they are fighting. Slowly God's lvoe is beginning to make inroads but it will take time, obedience, fa ith and patience. Prayers for family relationships. It seems so easy to lvoe others, but so hard to lvoe our family. Pray God's grace, guidance in dealing with these situations.

Joey wanted me to remind you, Joey and the gang will fix breakfast for us, this Saturday at 8:30. Please come and enjoy.

Where are we going? Please forgive this rant, but have been thinking about this for months. I am on the road all day everyday experiencing all sorts of drivers, maybe Icee Joe can relate. Don't know what it is, but it looks to me I am seeing less and less use of our blinkers on our cars. You wait at an intersection for a car coming, only to see they turn before they get to the intersection, no blinker. You follow behind a car assuming they are going straight down the road, but all of sudden they turn with no blinker. You come up behind a car at an intersection it is just sitting there. You wait, look, start to become upset and then they turn, where's your blinker? I could go on and on about this but it got me to thinking, is our lack of the use of blinkers, a statement of our society? Have we become so consumed with our own little worlds, we do not think about others? Is it all about me? Are we rushing around, not thinking about our actions, so many things going on, not enoug h time in the day to do it, so we kill ourselves trying to do it all? If we are not busy doing something we are not accomplishing anything. Rush, rush, rush, hurry, hurry, hurry, worry, worry, worry. Wow, I am exhausted just typing all of that. If we are so consumed with our own world, how can we help others?

Is this way of life, what God had in mind for us? If we add helping others to our growing list of "to dos", we are accomplishing nothing. At some point we will burn out and everybody will loose out. We must begin to break away from what the world says is a way of life, to a life where God comes first. If we take ourselves out of the picture and put God first, a long with that will come peace and order in our lives. Things we thought important will not be. Things we thought we needed will not be desired. Helping others will become a way a life not another item on your list. If God is driving your car, wouldn't he put on His blinker? He wants us all to know where He is going. He is concerned for us.

Our community is one place where we know where we are going. Our blinkers are on all the time. Let's us continue to live a life where God comes first and we follow His blinker. Have a great weekend and a great week. Amen and amen!