Saturday, we got our week started off by having our breakfast cooked by Momma T and her peeps! Lots of help from the Small family and Sonotra. Pancakes, sausage, coffee and laughter were on the menu. We had Pastor Jackson and his family helping out in the kitchen, a nice surprise. Good to see everybody.
After our breakfast, we did not have enough folks to break into two groups, so we all went with Icee Joe to visit our friends. Turner, I mean Bernard was fine. Mr Scott brought some snacks we had gotten from one of our friends. In the snacks were Slim Jim's. Not sure you know what that is, but they were the hit of the morning. We need to buy cases of Slim Jim's for the guys! Brad was fine, having moved into a huge tent. The tent even has a screened in porch, nice for getting away from the mosquitoes. Travis and Dave walked up just as we were leaving and showed us their new camp. On top of a hill not far from Brad's camp. Knowing Travis, won't be long before their camp will be the talk of the camps with all their improvements.
By the time we got to Robert's camp, some drama had gone on the night before. We were asked to take one of the guys to the ER. Another example of why addictions on top of trying to survive life outside creates hardships. So sad, these men can't break the chains of violence and surrender their lives to Christ. We then made our way over to the Macroni camps visiting with Joey, Tex, Tim and Jerry and finished our morning visits seeing Smokey. We timed our visit with Smokey just right to enjoy a bowl full of chili he had just finished making, yummy!
Our afternoon school activities continue with great results. Great to see it all coming together.
Tuesday evening, Mr Matt turned over the men's Bible fellowship to Pastor Elbert reading from Luke 8 40 - 56. Talking about the lady who had been bleeding for 12 years, touching Jesus's robe and a ruler going to Jesus to heal his dying daughter. Both stories, the folks had tried everything else to help, but nothing did, so they turned to Jesus. Both had faith, both believed and both were saved. Do we believe, really believe Jesus can save us? Easy to say we believe when everything is going good, but where do we turn when things go bad?
Thursday morning, we all have now heard William was shot. Thanks to all for your prayers and Hat for her heart, William will have family to go through this with. As both Smokey said to me Thursday evening and Hat said in her email, maybe this will the turning point in William's journey to let go and let God in his life.
Thursday afternoon was again full of activities. We had the medical van from St Luke's set up in the parking lot, seeing lots of our community. We had a spokesperson from Martin Luther King medical clinic give us a talk on the new health insurance law. Then Ms Abbie led us in songs preparing our hearts to receive the message given to us by Pastor Eddie. Pastor Eddie, reading from Daniel, talked about three Jewish boys, who refused to bow down to the king, being sent into a furnace of fire only to come through it because of their faith and belief in God.
Ms Sarah and Mr Scott led the young adults class rom Grace, as they prepared our meal of hamburger helper as requested from the kids of our community. A huge success, the plates were clean before we washed them! Ms Lisa came for a few minutes, still not feeling 100% but doing better. Ms Ardis helped with the handing out of the grocery bags in Ms Lisa' absence. Momma T was busy teaching her young ladies. Gabrielle had the little ones coloring. We have a new friend now, who visits with our community, handing out prayer concern sheets. Our community puts down what they need prayer for this week and the concerns are prayed for, very cool. A great evening of food and fellowship.
This Saturday from 2 - 3, we will be hosting one of the events for Making a Difference Day. Several different groups will be coming to the library and reading to our children. Everybody is welcomed to attend. Following this, Tim and Peaches, Ms Abbie's daughter, will be hosting their first Praise Dance class. Can't wait to have our children perform in chapel one day. Very exciting.
Don't forget supper at the Ackerman's this Sunday at 6pm.
Next Thursday, we will be hosting a Family Fall Fest. It will begin at 5, lasting for an hour or so. Joey has lined up the BCM folks to come and help run the games being supplied by Ms Vicki and Mr Matt. Please come and join in on the fun.
From our discussions on Tuesday evening, a thought came to me, what does our belief look like? We tell folks to believe and God will move a mountain. We tell folks to have faith and God will make a way out of no way. But what does our belief look like? What does our faith look like? Where does our belief come from?
As I travel in my day job, I am on the road all day everyday. I see signs on the roads, I see folks driving and wonder where are they going? I see speed limit signs, which most everybody ignores. I see road construction signs telling us to move to another lane and most ignore until the road runs out. I see stop signs, where very few of us come to a complete halt, ask my wife! I assume someone smarter than me puts these signs up for our safety, so we can arrive at our destination without drama. We can see the signs, we can look at them if we want, but they are real. What if all the road, construction signs were taken down, how would life be on the highways?
Then I thought about, what signs does God use to direct our paths? God's signs are not posted along the highways or at the intersections, so how do we know He is there? This lady we read about in our men's fellowship, made her way through the crowd of people, just to touch His robe and by her faith she was healed. The ruler of the land, humbled himself to allow the lvoe of Jesus to heal his daughter. Pastor Eddie talked about the three young men had faith enough in their God that they knew they would be protected from the fiery furnace. There were no signs telling the lady to go touch the robe. The ruler didn't see a sign somewhere and say go talk to Jesus. The three young men didn't see it posted, your God will protect you. So what does our faith, our belief look like and where does it come from?
Our road signs of God's Kingdom are written down, just not the way we are use to. We don't see God's commandments written on a street sign, lvoe your neighbor or lvoe the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul. I don't know maybe we should? We have God's Word to help us along our journeys. Everything we will ever need to know about life and how to live is in the Bible. So we must read, get to know, understand the passages to make them apart of our lives. Then we must take what we know into the world and live it! We don't need the road signs, because we have God at our side. We know where we are going, we don't need a sign to tell us.
As we talked about Tuesday evening, God's signs are with us everyday, we just need to recognize them. They are not posted on signs, but through people. We are made for community because we need each other to help us along our paths. Our paths are guided by those who God puts before us, not by the signs we find along the way.
May your path be bright and full of joy this week. May your road signs come from your heart and not what you see. What a blessing to be a part of a community where faith and belief are live out everyday. Amen!
See you Saturday and Thursday afternoons. God is good!!
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