Our camp visits were pretty quiet also on Saturday. Turner and Brad were the only ones in the camps. Tim and Matt visited their groups, with some missing also, taking relief from the heat in hotel rooms. Richard was in the hospital, but is now out. Still no word on Robert. We picked up Smokey at a bus stop after his visit to his doctor. For all of those thinking, these guys want to live outside, well they don't. Very unpleasant outside, with it not cooling down at night, you sweat all day and all night, no fun.
Monday morning, Ms Lisa and her boys met the folks from Christ Methodist as they again shared their blessing of groceries with us. Our pantry shelves have never looked so full, even after making all our bags for Thursday. What a blessing for the folks to share with us in this.
We had another Spirit led evening at our men's Bible fellowship Tuesday evening. We had several new men from the neighborhood join us for the first time, very exciting. Matt read from John 4 and 8 talking about Jesus' encounter with the lady at the well. Good discussions about how we all need to drink from the water where we will not be thirsty again.
Wednesday evening, Lomax hosted our family gathering at the Bright House. Ms Ardis shared it was a good evening of conversations and fellowship. Chapter 9 from Dr Phil's book was discussed and we are ready to move on to the next two chapters.
Thursday evening, was started off with song and music led by our Community Choir and the playing of the piano by Wes. Pastor Jackson shared his thoughts on, We have to be careful who we talk to! We all to often go to everybody else, read books on the subject, try to come up with our own ways, when we have a problem or obstacle in our way, when as we all know, our answers need to come from God.
We had Mexican night for supper, Spanish rice, tamale casserole, chips all supplied by our friends from Airline Baptist, yummy. Following our meal, through the generosity and the caring hearts of the congregation of Grace Ms Lisa and Ms Abbey gave out over 60 back packs with supplies to the children. Very, very nice.
Ms Lisa arranged for two suggestion boxes to be put in the chapel and the fellowship hall. We shared with both groups, we have organizations who want to help our neighborhood. We asked our neighbors to tell us know what is important to them. Ms Lisa collected some suggestions. We will leave the boxes out for a few more weeks. Ms Lisa is putting together a group of community folks to get us started in our discussions, very exciting.
Prayer concerns for Momma T's mom and dad. Continue to lift those up who are living outside. Prayers for God's direction in our community discussions. Prayers for our children as they return to school next week. Prayers for direction we need to take in our after school program. Prayers for Joey as he travels home today and for others who will be traveling this week.
This is the final week of our summer feeding program. All and all, it has been a good venture. We were able to give our community jobs. We were able to reach out to those in the neighborhood who did not know about us. There have been challenges, which we will talk about in the coming weeks to determine if we want to do this again next summer. From a building that sat vacant for several years, to a place where it has been used every day of the week for the community, pretty awesome, God is good!
Ms Abbey has met with the folks of Centenary and we are not a partner with them. This will allow students to get to know us and maybe be a part of our ministry. Very cool, great work Abbey.
We also have been contacted by Judy Christie to be the recipient of another one of her book signings in September. Awesome! Great way for us to meet folks in the community and for us to help restock our children's library.
Been thinking about our discussions of Tuesday night. In the conversation Jesus had with the woman at the well, telling her, the water I have, you will never be thirsty again. The woman saying, I want what you have! With this hot dry weather, you can try soft drinks, tea, power drinks, but like one of our men said, when you are so hot and thirsty, nothing will quench that thirst like a cold glass of water! We need to share this water with others, to quench their longing for trying other things, instead of the Word of God.
When Jesus met this lady, He did not condemn her, but in a loving way, said, what you are doing will lead you to destruction, I have a better way. He approached her in a way that did scare her off. He talked to her even though they were not of social equals. Great lessons for us all to learn.
We need to be able to share our stories of why we turned our lives over to Christ. We need to be real. We need to be honest. We need to be able to share our lvoe of Christ in a way that others will understand. We need to remember in the Kingdom of God, we are the same. We don't condemn, we lvoe. Jesus, in a few short moments, shared His story about living water in away that she wanted some. We need to be able to do the same. Our stories need to lead others to Christ, not turn them away.
Each one of you have such special stories. Each unique and your own. That is why this community is unique and special. You willingness to reach out, lvoing unconditional, bringing hope to those who do not have any, showing compassion to the lost, and thinking of others before you think of yourselves.
Amazing people you all are!
Hope your weekend is full of blessings and your week is full of surprises of lvoe! Amen.
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