Our Saturday mornings are going great. Some getting to visit our neighbors, others visiting our outdoor friends. Relationships beginning to be formed, which will lead to a transformation of God's Kingdom. Scott and Tim lead the way to our friends living outside, with all seeming to be ok. William has joined us again living with Robert. Daniel is back on his own living elsewhere. Brad has a new tent provide by some church friends. Matt and Elbert along with Rickie had great talks with our neighbors. Learning more and more about our neighborhood.
Our afternoon homework sessions continue to do well. Great to see the children's rooms being used for studying and learning. After the children complete their work, some move into our library and find a book. They begin to read it with help from their friends, learning all sorts of new stuff, just great.
Tuesday evening, Matt led a discussion from the reading in Matthew 22, talking about who we invite to our meals, who gets our money, and teaching about the most important commandment. Jesus talking in parables, talked about the king inviting folks to his banquet and nobody came. Then he sent more servants out and got street people, much to the displeasure of the king when they didn't have on the right clothes for a banquet. In God's Kingdom there is no difference in us. Young or old, rich or poor, white or black, educated or not, we are all the same. Lvoe, lvoe, lvoe is God's most important commandment. Lvoe the Lord with all your heart, mind and soul and then lvoe your neighbor. When you let Christ in your heart, you are transformed, almost making it impossible not to lvoe everybody!
Wednesday mornings, our Stephanie and Ms Abbie continue to work in the clothing room, sorting and cleaning. With Ms Dorothy still out, it is great to see these ladies continue the work. It is much needed and time consuming. If you have a few minutes on Wednesday mornings, I know they would appreciate some help.
Wednesday we gathered at Ardis's house for our family time. Great food and even better conversations happened. Any questions about our new friend Ricky, you can ask Ardis, Hat and Momma T. We had the privilege of getting to know Ricky a little better and learn about his unique travels as he began to discover the Bible for himself.
Ricky has begun working in the garden and doing great work. Driving up to the center each day, you see him pulling weeds, preparing the beds for our fall planting, nice to have him with us.
Thursday brought another day of fun and unexpected blessings. We were unable to make connections for a pastor to show up for chapel, so Tim was asked to share his heart with us. Ms Abbie got us started off with This Little Light of Mine, with hands clapping and community singing. With the nice weather, the doors of the chapel were opened and folks started coming in as we continued to sing. A big round of applause went out to Ms Abbie for using her gifts of song, praising God. Then Tim got up and shared some of his story, talking about John 3:16 and Matthew 22, lvoe. By the time he finished his talk, everybody was standing and Amening! Some pictures and a short video will be on our Face book page this weekend. Great job Tim, for allowing to Holy Spirit to flow through you and blessing us all.
Thanks to Ms Sarah and her crew as they continue to share their lvoe of our children in hosting our children's church. We also have a new young lady who helps us with tutoring and wants to help with the little ones during our meals. Gabrielle had them making marshmallows people Thursday evening! Not sure how many marshmallows made it on the sticks, more went into their mouths! Great fun for the children and an answer to our prayers. God is good!
Mr Tom used his talents and supplied us with a meal for the evening. He said, he bought 180 cookies and ran out, so our crowd was huge. Standing room only in the fellowship hall as folks sat down for the meal. We had another group of nursing students join us to help serve and clean up. Another great evening of food and fellowship. We missed AbbeyII as she was home with her sick children.
Prayer concerns for the week. Continue to lift up Ms Dorothy as she continues her treatments. The Bollingers, Cari has come down with a fever and her mom is sick. Momma T's parents. Safe travel for Dr Phil, Joey and Lomax. Prayers for Ricky's sister, Miranda.
Don't forget this Saturday is our monthly breakfast. Pancakes, sausage and hot coffee on tap for the morning. No better way to start the weekend, then to join us. Cooking starts at 7:30, pancakes will be ready by 8:30!
I heard it again Thursday evening. We had a visitor from a church down the street. She had heard about us, all the good things going on and she wanted to see for herself. After chapel, she walked up to me. I introduced myself to her and she asked me, are you the pastor?! I said, no, thanks for the question, but we are all pastors in this community. Don't know if you heard me, but you all are the pastors in our community!
We have grown up in church settings expecting pastors to take the lead in church activities. If the pastor doesn't get to it, then it doesn't get done. Often times we run our pastors into an early grave because they are trying to do it all. It is our fault for not doing our part in the building of God's Kingdom. The end of Matthew, Jesus tells us to go out into the world and make disciples. It does not say, go get your pastor and follow him.
We often think, I can't preach, I can't teach, I can't pray good enough to go out. Who said, preach and if you must, say it with words, or something like that! It is not your words that will bring folks to Christ it is your actions. Tim talked about John 3:16, God gave his son for us. If God can do that for us, why can't we go out and lvoe others. That's the least we can do.
Your serving a meal, bagging a bag of groceries, singing, playing the piano, handing out drinks, playing with the children, gathering for Bible fellowship, walking the neighborhood, visiting, cleaning the tables, giving a hug, smiling, washing dishes, teaching, tending the garden, mowing the grass, buying supplies are all forms of preaching or pastoring. A pastor is one person, it takes all of us to let others see the glory of God and how God blesses our lives. Don't wait on your pastor to lead, you step out in faith and God will guide you, blessings will flow, guarantee! Amen!
Have a great weekend pastors! Don't forget to "preach" often this week, remembering only use words when you have to!! See you around the neighborhood!
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