God's Light

Where did the days go? So much going on in and around our community, God is busy. Hope your week was filled with joy and blessings.

This past Friday,we got a call from a friend of ours. Mr Scott went and picked up two big bags of bread and 25 frozen turkeys. The bread was put in our grocery bags this week. Momma T wants to cook some of the turkeys for one of our meals and we will give the others away, what a blessing.

We visited with our friends on Saturday. Didn't mention last week, but we got to talking about Turner, whether or not that is his first or last name. Ms Dawn asked him and come to find out, Turner is his last name! His first name is Bernard, pretty cool to know one more thing about Bernard! Lvoe listening to our morning prayers given by Richard and Robert. Always praying for those who are less fortunate! Isn't that amazing! Homeless guys praying for those who don't have good friends to come by and visit with them each week.

Following our visits, Mr Matt and our new friend Elbert visited with a couple of families in our community. Beginning to build relationships with our neighbors. Ms Dawn goes out every week, meeting new friends and neighbors. What a blessing these servants are, opening doors to new relationships, building common bonds and learning we are more alike than we are different.

The Ackermans were busy over the weekend selling their wares and posing for pictures at a downtown market! For those of you out of town, you can go to the Shreveport Times web page and find the link.

Monday afternoon, an unexpected meeting happened with a new friend of ours Ms Jean from Catholic Services. She is located at St. Catharines. Jean has developed a compassion of caring for our community. She wants to see if we can partner together with other groups and churches in the community to better serve our community.

Tuesday afternoon, Lomax, Joey and their group took the children to the duck pond for this week's field trip. Always a favorite trip for the children to play on the swing sets and feed the ducks.

Tuesday evening, the men of the community gathered for their Bible fellowship. Good food, good conversations and lots of thought provoking ideas. Matt read from Luke 11, talking about being the light of Christ. We talked about how the light of Christ is in each one of us and we should take that light to others. Gatherings on Thursday or Saturday nights or Sundays, should be a places where that light is rekindled, made stronger, then it is our tasks to share it with the world. Don't let the light die or fade out, the world needs it!

Wednesday at noon, some of us had the privilege to attend a function sponsored by the Shreveport Bar Association. Common Ground was the recipient of the highest award  given by the lawyers, The Liberty Award. The award is to recognize community service among other attributes. Normally it is given to an individual, but we were selected this year. Ms Lisa, accepted the award on our behave and did an outstanding job in her acceptance speech. Reading the back of the program, listing all the recipients since 1965, the recipients are a who's who of Shreveport. What an honor to be included with such distinguished people.

Wednesday evening, we gathered at Ardis' house for our family time. We enjoyed all the great food and especially the great discussions of Dr Phil's book. We discussed chapter 5, the bipolarity of creation. Learning that every emotion we have has an opposite emotion. The book says, we must hate what God hates and love what God loves. God hates sin, but loves the sinner. We  will discuss chapters 6 and 7 next time we gather.

Thursday morning, Ms Lisa and Ms Abbey attended a meeting of non profits to meet and greet and see if the different organizations can work together. Ms Abbey made some good contacts for us. Hopefully we can begin new relationships and begin to talk about ways we can better serve our community.

Thursday afternoon, the rain came, the wind got stronger and the temperatures began to drop as we gathered for chapel time. Heather and Derrick were singing their hearts out, so we opened up the doors to the chapel and folks began to come inside. Richard shared the Word, of never giving up, because the reward is so great. Another great chapel time.

We had a new friend, Cliff bring pizzas and brownies for our supper. A big hit with our community! Ms Abbie and others, filled our grocery bags to over flowing, with the bread and snacks bought by Mr Scott, another great evening. What a treat to see new people come and experience what God is doing in our community.

Continue to lift up Cari Bollinger as she is going through her three week ordeal of receiving stem cells in her treatment of cancer. So far everything is going as planned. Prayers for our friends who live outside. Life is hard in the best of circumstances, you add the rain, the cold weather, it takes a lot to keep going.

Got two emails a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to share with you all. This first email is from our new friends from Baton Rouge who visited with us back in April. Melissa, the youth director had sent me an email about a story she read from the newspaper about a homeless person. She was concerned it was one of the guys her youth group had met. I wrote her back to tell it wasn't and asked how things were going. This is her response: "Thank you! We are doing well! The kids were so on fire about the trip that  we will be doing weekly mission work with Open Air ministries- the BR homeless ministry, during the summer. Thanks again for the life changing experience!!"

The next email is from our friends from Crowley. This is part of the email from Julie, the youth director, "We are ready to move into the direction of starting a homeless walk ministry.  I finally have some interest from others in getting this started. "  I sent her some words of encouragement and she responded by saying, "WOW!!  I'm over-whelmed with...well, not sure - fear, excitement, etc.Thank you for your time & concern.  Tell everyone we said hello!!" LVOE, Julie.

You never know, what impact you are having on people, whether it be good or bad! What a blessing to hear from others about the positive impact you all are having on those who visit with us. God is creating some special in our community through all of you. More and more people are beginning to hear about what God is doing here. Organizations are wanting to be a part of our community. Churches are coming to see what it feels like to be a light into the world.

It is all because, you all are allowing the Holy Spirit to work through you and letting God's Light shine! You are letting go of your pride, your jealousy, your envy and allowing God to shine through. A common theme, God keeps reminding me, it is not about mr brian but about God. You are showing that in your daily walks. As long as we move out of the way, and let God's shine forward, the Kingdom God is creating will grow. How exciting to be a part of this magnificent creation! 

May you have a glorious weekend and a better week. May God's light shine through you this week like no other time in your life! Amen and amen!