What a ride!

Sorry for the very late update. We  have come to the end of another week, wow, time is flying by. Our year is almost over with! What gorgeous weather we have had in this part of the country. Hopefully everybody was able to enjoy the full moon the last couple of nights. With the cool crisp clear nights this week, I was thinking I almost need my sunglasses to look at the moon! It was beautiful, God has done good this week!

Saturday, we made our rounds, visiting with everybody. Dale was not doing too well, just sat in his chair. He said his feet were hurting. William was at Dale's camp, moving out of James apartment. Smokey was feeling better after a couple of days of being under the weather. Noel and Tim picked up Andy and his lady friend and they took them to the center to wash clothes. We finished our visits with checking in on Dave and Willie at the JJ house.

When we got back from our visits, as usual, Karl was busy in "his" Bright House II. All the sheet rock is down, just pulling nails now in preparation of the new sheet rock going back up.

Monday and Tuesday we had two new friends helping out with our afternoon activities. It was nice to have the additional help.

Another exciting evening at our mens Bible fellowship. Matt read from Mark 4 talking about the farmer sowing seeds. How many times have we read that passage, how many times have we talked about the significance of the parable, but God's Word is living and you always seem to get something new out of it. Matt challenged the men to begin to pray about how we can use our seeds in the neighborhood. Matt talked about, how this building, once abandon, is now the nucleus of God's Spirit in the community. Is it coincidence we are here? What is God asking of us? All of us?

Wednesday, at noon, Ms Lisa and Momma T spoke with the Culinary school at Bossier Parish Community College. They had already supplied us with food for one of our meals, but they did not know anything about us. Now they do, and we will see how God uses these new relationships in the building of His Kingdom.

Wednesday evening, Momma T and Dr Phil's small group, gathered in the kitchen and prepared dessert for our Thursday meal. Lots of laughter and good conversations were going as well.

What a Thursday we had. God is so good. You just never know what will happen when God is involved. Our music folks had not shown up, so we asked Ms Abbie to play the piano and Ms Dorothy lead us in song, it was awesome. Nothing rehearsed, just played and sang from their hearts. Then we had the pleasure of hearing a few words from one of the members of New Star Baptist church, talking about turning your life over to Jesus. Pastor Eddie was not feeling well Thursday.

As we were preparing for chapel, a new friend of ours and a long time member of Grace showed up. Shane and his wife Kristie with their two children joined us. They were celebrating their first anniversary of Shane's terrible disease he was stricken with. He almost died from this disease which shut down his nervous system. He is in a wheel chair and doing some standing with assistance. Shane said they wanted to celebrate God's amazing grace through worship and they ended up with us. What an amazing testimony Shane has, he has every right to be bitter, but instead, he wanted to celebrate life and God's lvoe. One of the highlights of the evening, as we introduced Shane to the community and what he and his family had been through, the community erupted in applause filling the chapel with lvoe and joy. It was awesome. A lot of the community came over and shook Shane's hand. As we were leaving, Shane said, this is beautiful, this is real, this is what it is all about. God is so good.

Our meal, was supplied by our new friends from BPCC and served up by Momma T's and Dr Phil's small group. Lots of folks with everybody getting something to eat. We had St Luke's medical team joining us again as well as Ms Lisa doing her lawyer thing. Ms Abbie, Momma T and Ms Lisa handed out the grocery bags as. A full evening of fun and fellowship.

After our meal, Ms Lisa had a Board meeting. Our main topic was our leaking roof and where do we go from here. John Sauls told us about the repairs that needed to be done and the costs. It was voted to move forward with the repairs before any more damage to the interior of the building occurs. The cost of the roof will be huge, but something that needs to be done. Momma T stopped our discussions and led us in prayer as we went before God for wisdom, courage and faith that God will provide the necessary funding to cover our costs.

To help in those en devours, Ms Lisa and her office ladies are coming up with a mail out campaign. The initial design looked very cute. We will be sending the handouts to all the folks who have a connection with Common Ground. If you know of someone who may not be on Ms Lisa's list, please send her their email.

We also talked about the Harlem Ambassadors event. Ms Lisa is calling to see if our date for the end of January is still available, if it is, then we may proceed with the event if we can get some sponsors to cover our up front costs. More on this in the coming weeks.

We then talked about other exciting things happening in our community. Ms Patty talked about the progress of the greenhouse. It will have to be finished by the end of the year so the Eagle scout will get credit. What is amazing, once the greenhouse is complete, Ms Patty will have the ability to grow vegetables year round. She will be getting help from the LSU Extension office. This is very exciting.

TJ, Lomax and mr brian will be headed to New Orleans to visit with the folks of Liberty Kitchen and then to Baton Rouge to visit another group. Both places have as one of their ministries, a teaching facility. God maybe up to something!

Dr Phil, shared about the progress of the JJ house. The interior is quickly coming to an end. Maybe by the end of the year the house will be complete. There are plans drawn up for the second JJ house! Amazing God we have.

Krysten talked about afternoon activities and the difficulty in getting adult help. We need to talk more about what God is calling us to do in this area.

Continued prayers for Cari and Pete. They are exploring the possibility of a stem cell treatment as the next step in Cari's fight with cancer. This procedure will take a lot out of Cari. Prayers for Joe and Ms Abbie. The doctors have determined Joe has a heart valve that is leaking. They will try to stop the leakage without surgery first. Prayers for our friends who live outside. These cold, freezing nights make for harsh living conditions. James is home from the VA hospital after suffering with pneumonia.

Listening to the board members talk about what God is doing in their lives was amazing to hear. It got me to thinking about our daily walks with Jesus. It seems living a life without God as our center life becomes routine. We get up the same time every morning, drive the same way to work, see the same people at work, answer the phones, work on the computer, eat lunch, back to answering the phones, punch out the time clock, drive back home the same way. Eat supper, watch a little TV, maybe read a few pages in a book, go to bed at the same time and then wake up the next day and do it all over again.

But living a life for Jesus, seems to me to be anything routine. Jesus ask us to go out and visit friends living outside. He asks us to prepare a meal for our neighbors. Leads us to go out and visit with our community. Asks us to worship together as a community, not as individuals. Build a house where nothing exist now. To open our hearts to others, asking nothing in return. To go outside our comfort zones and put our faith in Jesus to help us through. To have enough faith to just lvoe without asking for answers.

One of the reasons, I am so drawn to the community center and all it represents, is we get to see and feel the lvoe of Jesus in so many ways. Life is never ordinary or routine. What exciting times are ahead of us. We get to see it and experience it all by just being who we are, followers of Jesus. May we all enjoy the ride. It will be a ride we will never experience any place else! Weeeee!

Have a great weekend. Have a great week.Amen!