the Glory of God

Another week has come and gone, wow. Is time flying for all of you? What blessings did God fill your life with this week?

Will start our week off with last Friday. Someone called from the Bright House, asking if I could open the door for them, since they locked their keys in the house! Arriving at the house, I see Karl working hard at the Bright House II. I asked Karl, this is not Saturday is it?! He said, no it's not. He got an invitation to go sailing Saturday morning. He felt bad he could not be around Saturday, so he came by on Friday, wow, how awesome is that.

Our visits on Saturday went well. Turner is doing fine. He asked when the time change was happening? Wonder why? We made our way over to Richard and found him in bed. He was not well at all. Ms Dawn encouraged him to get up and go sit in the sun. He did make it up and into his chair. Richard's new friend, Joe arrived about that time and brought him some food. We hated to leave Richard in his state, but Joe said he would hang around for awhile to watch over him. Isn't that cool. We found Dale doing ok. He has a bad cold and congestion. He won't go to a doctor, so he sits there and coughs. Robert was there with him, checking on him. We had a good visit with Smokey and returned back to the center. Mr Matt and Tim made their way over to the new camp downtown.

Several of us, attended the funeral, later Saturday morning of our friend Curtis. They called it the Homegoing Celebration. The funeral home was packed with all of Curtis' friends and family. Just as we walked in, they announced, would someone from Common Ground please come forward and share a few words about Curtis. We all selected Joey as our spokes person, doing a great job of sharing our thoughts about Curtis. We got a program from the funeral and saw they recognized Common Ground and St Catherines. Standing in the back, we met all the family members and each one of them shook our hands and said how much they appreciated our friendship with Curtis. Each member said Curtis talked about us all the time. Just want to remind each one of you, you have no idea what kind of impact you are having on our community. Usually we do not get to hear about it, but just know you are changing lives for Jesus. There is a program of the funeral hanging up on our bulletin board in the fellowship hall.

Small number of children this week at our afternoon activities. Not sure why? But with the small numbers we are able to talk with each child and find out what is going on in their little lives. It is not about the numbers but about the hearts.

We had another packed house at our mens Bible fellowship. I was cooking some cakes for dessert a lady brought for us and by the time I got to the chapel all the pizza was gone! Mr Matt went by and picked up Richard and he was doing much better. We had a new man from the community come. Matt continues to reach out to the guys on Thursday encouraging them to come on Tuesday evenings. God is beginning to lay a foundation of something special for the community on Tuesdays. Matt read from Romans 1, talking how we often take things on our selves, leaving God out of it until we have completely fallen on our faces, forcing us to get on our knees and ask for forgiveness. Why do wait so long before we go to God?

Thursday was full of people, excitement and praise. Our chapel time was started off by our friends from New Star Baptist. Ms Jean and her grand children, sang their hearts out to God. Then Pastor Eddie shared the Word reading from Galatians. Talking about, never give up, never stop doing good, giving all praises and honor to God. Eddie cut to my heart when he said, Common Ground keep on keeping on. When people don't act the way you want them to act. When children run from you or do things they shouldn't do. When you get no thank you, keep on keeping on because God is right there with you. A member of our community, sitting behind me, hugged my shoulders as the Pastor was preaching his sermon, saying mr brian we love you, thank you. Very powerful.

Mr Matt and Ms Vickie and their friends from Airline Baptist provided our meal of red beans and rice, salad and cake. Not sure how the red beans and rice were, it was gone by the time I got into the fellowship hall! Being the end of the month, we served over 130 people, with 30 new people wanting bags of groceries. Ms Abbie had prepared 70 bags, ran out and had to make a few more. Wow! It is nice having a crew of people helping out during our meals and helping clean up afterwards, makes things go a lot smoother.

As I walked into the hallway after church, I glanced up and we had a special treat, Sione with his big smile was walking down the hallway. He was in town for a preachers meeting and wanted to come by and see the new kitchen. Great to see him.

The JJ house continues to come together. The siding is complete and has it's first coat of paint on some of it. Insulation of the attic is done, with more insulation ready to be put on the walls. Sheet rock has been delivered and ready to by hung. Our challenge of plumbing has been worked out and now everything is all hooked up and ready to go. God continues to bless this dream in becoming a reality. Plans are being drawn up for our second house! Isn't that amazing!

We have a group of youngsters coming to the garden area today to help Ms Patty. Who would have ever predicted, our garden our community becoming a place where children can take a field trip from school and help out. Truly a blessing!

The one theme I have heard this week from mens Bible study, to chapel, it is not about mr brian it is about God. It is not about how much we can do, but who gets the glory. If we are in this journey for ourselves, then we are traveling along the wrong road. Do we want thank yous, do we want praises, do we want the children to act right, yes, we are human. But that should not be what we are striving for. What if we don't get the thank you's, the praises, the right behavior, we will be become discouraged, we will burn out and quit. That is not what God wants from us. God's Kingdom will not grow if we quit, we will not receive the blessings of Him, we will not develop that personal relationship with Jesus we long for.

As Pastor Eddie shared, the road we have choosen will be hard, it will frustrating at times, but it also will be glorious. As long as we remember, it is not about us but for the glory of God. As long as we put our faith not in man but in God, we will be blessed beyond our imgination. Thank you all for being a part of this community, where we can help each other along the way. We need each other, we need our God, we need our Jesus. Amen.

Have a great week. Praises and blessings to you all. lvoe and lvoe!