We had a long time friend take over the duties of driving last Saturday. Icee Joe returned and boy were the guys glad to see him! Joe's heart is with our friends and it was time for him to return. Joe will be driving once a month for awhile, glad to have you back Joe. Next is Joe's report on their visits: The visits went good no drama. Turner or should I say Bernard, was good and very appreciative. Joey and Julianna picked some wild flowers and put them in a bouquet. He was the recipient and accepted them. Then we went to see Richard and he wasn't there. Then we went and saw Robert, Travis and Dave. They seemed to be doing good except for the pesky mama raccoon and her 3 little babies terrorizing the camp. Lol. Robert ended our time with prayer. Then we went and saw brad. First time I met him. Nice guy and having phone issues. Waiting on them to send him a new one because labor ready now fills jobs through text messaging. Doesn't sound real efficient and accessible for some. Very nice and very appreciative.
While Joe was out having fun, Ms Lisa and Ms Abbey were holding a planning retreat for Common Ground. It was great to hear from everybody their thoughts and dreams of what God is putting on their hearts. Some dreams put on the table: kindergarten school, organic garden, crisis pregnancy center, adapt a block, treatment center, council on ageing, chapel time during the day, rock climbing wall and cafe, daycare center, cafe and bakery, grocery store, clothing store run by the community, computer lab, ride share, tool rental, community involvement. All great dreams. We then broke into groups and started putting our dreams on paper, to see how God wants them to work out. More as they begin to take shape.
Monday and Wednesdays continue to be special as our Centenary students get to know our neighborhood children. Lots of learning and relationships being formed.
Tuesday afternoon, with the help of Ms Amanda, we hosted our first National Night Out event. There are pictures up on our web site of the afternoon. There was good hot dogs, good times, and good conversations. Not as many of our neighbors came as I would have liked. That is our task for the coming year, to get to know them, so when we host next year's event, they will come.
Following our party, the men gathered for Bible fellowship. Mr Matt read from Ephesians 6, about the armor of God. How many times have we read that passage and still it is fresh and new. As Matt was reading, I thought to myself, wow that is a lot. God has given us a blue print of what it will take to have God at our side as we meet our challenges of the day. It is up to us to put that blue print into action and actually form that armor. Are we doing that? You can't go to a store and purchase it. God has challenged each one of us to make our own breast plate, belt, helmet.
Joey and Ricky hosted our family gathering at the Bright House Wednesday evening. As soon as you walked into the house, a fragrance of clean came over us! A smell not smelled in awhile! Ricky had been busy! Then you walked into the dining room and smelled the yummy aroma of Joey's meal. Following our meal, we talked about relationships. Relationships between husbands and wives, friends, relatives, each one being different and unique. We came to the conclusion, as long as the relationships had God as the center, then they would likely survive.
Being the first of the month, our crowds are not as large. Not sure why, but we served almost 140 folks Thursday! The chapel crowd continues to grow. Heather and Derrick, who are now worship leaders at First Methodist church, led us in song and their dad Richard shared the Word. Heather sang about needing God every hour. Richard talked about keeping our focus on Jesus. As the world around us seems to be in chaos, we can be assured God is in control.
Carmen, one of our cooks from this summer, prepared our meal. We had a group of nursing students from Northwestern help out. Grocery bags were handed out, young ladies Bible study was going on, children's church went on, a good night of food and fellowship.
We will begin a new ministry this Saturday. Many of us have a desire to go out into the neighborhoods and meet our friends. They don't know us, only what they assume we are like, so we need to show them we are about Christ and lvoing everybody. We have no plans of what we will be doing, our neighbors, our God will show us. We will have two ministries going on each Saturday. One will still be going to the camps and one to the neighborhoods. Both will leave at 9:30. Please come and join us. We need you, we need your hearts.
Prayers for those who are hurting both spiritually and physically. Prayers for our new ministry. Prayers for our country, that their egos can be put aside and that compassion for the country can reign. Prayers for the violence happening all over the world can subside and lvoe can rule the land.
God is good! All the time! Not just some of the time. When Heather was singing her song, it talked about needing God every hour. How often do we go about our daily lives, not thinking or turning to God until something bad happens? Richard said his wife, who works at a Federal Government office, has peace in her life, because she is focused on Jesus.
As Richard shared in the Word, Peter walked on the water as long as his focus was on Jesus. Then when the waves and wind around Peter became contrary, Peter took his focus off Jesus and he began to sink. How often each day do we face distractions, irate phone calls, bad tempers, people having a bad day, all causing us to take our focus off Jesus and we begin to sink?
Then Richard goes on to say, the remarkable thing about Jesus, when He sees Peter begin to sink, He stretches out his hand to save him! Isn't that amazing, we have a God so lvoing that He will do anything He can to save us! When we face our challenges of the day, or our demons of the past begin to rise up again, go to Jesus, focus on Him, His hand is waiting for us to grab on to. What a friend we have in Jesus! Amen!
Have a great weekend and blessed week. Join us Saturday morning. God is good!
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