peace

We had our jackets on and heaters going the first part of the week, today, is shorts and air conditioning! Ol'man summer just won't give up, but he is getting weaker! Hope your week was a good one, full of fun and adventures.

We had a great Saturday last week. We filled up our trucks with supplies and made our visits. Our first stop was to check on Turner. Turner continues to amaze us with his peculiar requests. He looks through our supplies, gets some stuff and says, do you have any hand sanitizer? Mr Scott looks but could not find any, will have to get him some this week. A man living in cardboard boxes, sitting on a dirt floor, under an over pass, wanting hand sanitizer!

Being the first of the month Richard was gone, so we made our way to see Dale. We all made the comment, we have not seen Dale's camp look so nice and clean, even Dale seemed to doing really well and looked good. His camp mates were not there, so Dale was enjoying his solitude. We visited with Smokey on our way home. Some of us went by and saw Curtis and Mr Matt and Tim, went to an old/new camp behind the macaroni plant. Tim had heard there were some folks there, boy were they right! Tim and Matt found 8 folks in need of everything. Tim had brought some bags we had been given and they were all appreciative of the items.

Something special about Matt taking Tim to a camp. A man we found under a bridge, having nothing but the clothes on his back, is now employed, going to church and Bible study and wanting to help others. That is pretty special and one of the best examples I can think of when I think about God's lvoe!

While we were having fun and visiting, Karl was back at the Bright House II working hard tearing down more sheet rock. Don't tell Hat he was there, but Karl is doing a great job. Most Saturdays you will find him there, come by and lend him a hand!

Pretty quiet with our afternoon activities this week. Monday was a holiday, Tuesday, the kids came in mass and to be very nice, they were a hand full. Krysten and Joey decided to end the afternoon early. Wednesday, they made us suffer and did not come! Ms Dawn and Ms Lisa, got other things done on Wednesday! We will see what next week brings!

Tuesday, Mr Matt gathered the men together and read from 1st Thessalonians, chapter 4. Talking about living a life pleasing to God. Do all you can to live a peaceful life. Wow, isn't that cool. Wouldn't the world be a better place if we all practiced that! One thing that happened Tuesday evening, an example of how this group of men is becoming an important part to each others lives. It was 7:25, just about time to end the evening, in walks one of our neighborhood guys. He works in construction, working long hours, but he said, they got off early today and he felt he needed to come and be with us even though for only a short time, awesome!

Wednesday, Ms Lisa meet with the Food Bank people for our annual inspection. We passed with flying colors! We are in the process of getting a health inspection for our kitchen so we can begin to purchase items for the kitchen to cook for our evening meals.

Thursday was a fun day of activities. Chapel was led by Willie and Wes, sounds like a country group! Something about those two when they get together, Wes starts playing the piano and Willie starts singing, and God is praised like no other. Willie says I will sing it this way and Wes, says, I'll follow you, something special about that. Then Willie talks about the tongue, from Proverbs and James. Willie starts off, by saying, God made us with two ears, two eyes, one nose with two openings, but only one tongue. The tongue is a powerful force and one we need to learn to control. Something we can use to build up not tear down each other. I had asked Willie to keep it to 30 minutes in chapel if possible! Those of you who know Willie, that's not possible, but by 45 minutes we were leaving. To be honest, I was not ready to go!

Our meal was prepared by Krysten, making spaghetti, salad and cookies, yummy. Ms Abbie handed out the bags and everything seem to go pretty well for the evening. We can always use your help serving, cleaning or handing out, so come when you can.

After we finished our clean up, we met in the chapel and read from John 11. Talking about the death of Lazarus, the resurrection, and the plan to kill Jesus. We talked about, how the Jews, saw Jesus crying, then he brought back to life Lazarus and then they go to the authorities to plot to kill Jesus. How many times has Jesus brought us back to life, given us grace and we turn our backs on him? Ouch, He deserves better than that.

Prayer concerns, continue for the Bollingers. Carrie and Nick, but now Pete has developed some sort of hand or arm problems. Safe travels for Hat and Karl as they go up to New Hampshire to visit with family. Momma T's mom and dad are doing better but still need our prayers. Charley continues to heal and gain strength from his surgery. Homeless camps around town and how they are being treated.

This Saturday will be a full day of activities. We have two groups coming to help out. A group from BPCC and a group from Broookwood. Mr Scott will be leading our visits. Momma T and her crew will be hosting U2 Saturday in the garden, starting at 10. Then after all of that, at noon Joey will be hosting a lunch for Lomax and his return to us. No excuse not to come and be a part of something, if you can't help and meet our new friends, then come and eat!

Been thinking about what we read Tuesday evening, do all you can to live a peaceful life. In verse 12, it says, If you do, then people who are not believers will respect you. When those we see every day, do our lives represent peace or confusion? Do we build up or tear down? If we want others to share in the lvoe of Christ, do our actions encourage others to want to get to know Jesus? The ol'saying, easy to be a Christian on Sundays, but hard to tell a Christian the rest of the week, is that us?

The other part of the discussions on Tuesday was, in verse 10, they were loving their brothers and sisters, but now we encourage you to love them even more. God's work is never done. We can sit back as humans and say, look what I have done, look at what a nice building we have built, look at all the good things we are doing, man we sure look good. For me, meeting new people, visiting with new groups, you hear this all the time. I have to be careful my ego, my pride does not get in the way. This is not about mr brian, but about God. God is about lvoe, not about stuff. God is about changed hearts not about pride and egos.

God continues to bless our community because we continue to reach out to others. We must never get complacent in our actions and feelings. God continues to challenges us. We must meet those challenges with God's directions in our lives.

Thank you all for living lives of peace and passion. For showing God's lvoe to others by the way you respond to challenges. As Momma T said, as she served the spaghetti Thursday night, she saw people with smiles and people with frowns. With God's help, may we change those frowns to smiles next week.

Have a great weekend and a better week! See you Saturday. Amen.