Don't forget

What an amazing week we had. God's riches abound with lvoe and joy. Hope your week was just as joyful and inspiring!

We made our visits to our outdoor friends and everybody was doing ok. Turner smiled during our visit, doesn't do that much! Made our morning. Richard is always lively. Dale, William and Robert were waiting on us. William has a new tent and was doing good. Joey stayed with William the rest of the morning. Wish there was something we more could do more for Dale. He is in need of a shower, clean clothes, but resist our offers. We got to sit down and visit with Smokey for a few minutes, very nice. Smokey gave us a list of names he has been talking to for the past year to see if he can get some financial help. So far he has gotten the run around. Ms Lisa has taken on Smokey's list of names with the hope she can get some action. Sad, our friends have to go through this, but it is the norm for most of them.

Karl was busy in "his" house as usual Saturday morning, making it ready for new construction.

Robert was washing his clothes Saturday. We asked him to plant our new pansies. If you see him, tell him what a nice job he did.

Ms Patty was busy in "her" garden while the Boy Scouts continue their work on the greenhouse.

Sunday evening was dinner at the Ackermans. Lots of good food and good conversations. Thank you Ackermans for opening up your house to the community each month.

Monday afternoon was kind of drizzly, so we had no children. There is a small riff between two families, so some of our children are staying away. Hate to hear this, but this feud has been going on for generations.

Early, very early, Tuesday morning, Lomax, TJ and mr brian left on their road trip. We had to get to New Orleans by 11 am to meet with the folks of a non profit food establishment called Liberty's Kitchen. We met with the executive director for an hour or so and she explained why she started the kitchen, what she is learning and where they are going. We then met with her program director Dennis and he continued our tour of the various sites around the city. They are focused on helping at risk young people, ages 16-24. Offering a way out of poverty, learning life skills, how to work together, how to deal with authority figures, working with the public a whole new way of life. They are having great successes changes these young lives. The thing that comes to mind, thinking back on what they said, it is about relationships, about helping each other, learning from each other, and growing together.

After our meeting with the kitchen, we did do some sight seeing around Jackson Square. Will have pictures up shortly. Lomax had never been to New Orleans, so we made our way to Cafe Demonde and we forced down some beignets and coffee. Walked around for awhile and got to see some of the life of New Orleans.

We ended the day at Sione's Beth church in Kenner. They host groups working in the area from the hurricanes, so they have rooms and a shower trailer on the side of the church to offer to the groups. Hate to say, John S. I took pictures of the shower trailer, to give to you to plant a seed of construction for us! We had the whole place to ourselves. We met Beth for supper at a seafood restaurant and had a great evening of conversations and dreams.

Wednesday morning, we made our to Baton Rouge to meet Pastor Eddie and see their operation at First Methodist church in Baker. Their kitchen is similar to ours and they do a ton of business. It all started after Katrina as they began to feed meals out of their kitchen. They have since expanded their kitchen, now serving meals to several private schools in the area and offer a catering business. They also are a teaching kitchen for youth from a drug program. Every Wednesday, they have a worship service, followed by a meal for the community, similar to what we do on Thursdays. Again, what I remember thinking back on our visit with pastor Eddie, he said, it is all about relationships. The ones you develop with community and each other.

Lomax, got us together with Stephannie on our way out of town. It was great to see her again and visit for a few moments.

The next few paragraphs are from Mr Matt from our Tuesday mens fellowship. 

Had a good group Tuesday. Rickey, Charlie, Tim, John, Patrick, Don, Noel, Karl, Richard, William and myself.

 

Read from Ephesians Ch 4 and talked about unity in the Body of Christ and using all that God has given each of us to build one another up for a common ministry.

 

The Spirit led quote of the week came from Tim. Concerning Common Ground's ministry to the people of Cedar Grove. "I hear a lot of people talking about the folks in Cedar Grove and what they want to do for them and the things they want to do to help them. Maybe we should just see what God wants to teach us through them. What we can learn from the people in Cedar Grove."

 

To me, that was profound, because I came to Common Ground with the same misconception, but concerning the homeless. What I found out was that God wanted to use the homeless to teach me - to allow me to see the world through his eyes - to learn about myself and my place in his kingdom and to draw close to him. And yet, I continually find myself creating the same misconception as I ponder the road ahead into Cedar Grove.

Thanks to God leading Tim, I know I have much to pray about.

Ms Lisa and her crew have been busy creating a fundraiser idea to help with the costs of repairing our roof. She is in the process of mailing out this hard copy to various people and companies. If you have anyone you think might like to contribute to our roof repair, please send the names and addresses to Ms Lisa yesterday! We need to get them out to the folks before the end of the year.

Thursday evening was great. Chapel service was exceptional, very moving to me. Not sure why Christmas hymns get to me so much, but singing and hearing folks clapping and praising God behind me, just started the tears flowing. Having our friends, Derrick, Heather and Richard share their love of the Lord with us is such a blessing. They read Bible verses about the birth of Jesus in between each song, Richard talked about the Joy of the season and the joy of having Christ in your heart and then we sing Joy to the World, awesome!

TJ spent all afternoon, cooking up a storm of food and dessert and we all got to taste his love of cooking. Tim and Ardis ended up cleaning the dishes for the evening. We need to continue to ask our community to help out and maybe one day, we will get to sit down while the duties of cooking and cleaning is done by the community.

We had a nice surprise at chapel and supper, a missing family member joined us, Mr Kevin came by to give out hugs and smiles. It was great to see him, he belongs with us. The kids ran up to him and gave him lots of hugs, great to see.

Dr Phil met with Dan Poole Thursday evening about the beginning of the build of the second JJ house. What a blessing to have such companies willing to sacrifice their profits to help us out in the building of these houses. Dan and his partners are on board for the second house and looking forward to many more projects together. There have been some bumps in the road in our first project, but that is expected. We are learning from them, making plans to do better and moving on to exciting builds. Dan is impressed with the work Dave has done so far. It is not often you can find a person who can do all of this work with such a quality outcome. There is talk about the end of the year or first part of next year as a completion date for the first house. Dan is preparing for the slab and driveway to be poured shortly, so the second build can start. The building of the house could have happened faster if that was what we wanted but this is about offering a job to some of our friends and allowing them to grow in their self esteem and confidence.

Prayer concerns for Momma T and her dad. They have moved him to a rehab facility. As our parents age, we become the care givers and our time and energy goes with that. Prayers for Momma T for strength during this time. Prayers for our friends out side. Downtown is getting to be a place where they are not wanted and the authorities are making it uninviting for them. And for them to stay warm this week if the cold air comes. Prayers for God's direction in our lives, in the life of our community and the direction He is leading us. Prayers for Joe. Ms Abbie shared with us Joe does not have cancer from the xrays taken last week, so they are scheduled to have his surgery as soon as the surgeon can work him in.

God is good. Is the first thing that comes to mind this morning. During this time of year, going to company parties, attending church functions, spending time with family, shopping for gifts, dealing with love ones who are sick, working full time we are pulled 95 different ways and some times we might loose our focus on life, worse yet on God. I fine myself sometimes trying to do for others and not taking time for myself. It is always a comfort, when I do stop for a moment, when I do get quiet, God is always there. My safety net. He does not leave me, I leave Him. He is always there wanting me to give my burdens to Him, wanting me to let go of my pride, wanting me to listen, God is always there. God is always good - all the time! Amen!

Don't forget God this coming week. Let's help each other to quiet ourselves, to listen, to pray, to talk to our God who lvoes us no matter how much we forget Him. Lvoe to all. Have a blessed week.