We got our week started off on Friday night, with a pizza party hosted by Punkin and her group of ladies. Did not know what to expect, but Lisa and Tim reported over 100 neighborhood folks showed up. They had games and prizes to give away.
While that was going on, Sarah and her band of elves were busy transforming the fellowship hall into our first Christmas Market. They were busy, pricing, sorting, displaying all sorts of nice things donated by many different people. Grace Methodist led the way in supplying a lot of the items.
Saturday morning, was the wettest it has been all year long! That didn't discourage over 70 folks from coming to the Market, purchasing items for their families. It was a great morning, with servants acting as personal shoppers for the community, some helped wrapped the gifts, some took the money and others helped carry the gifts to the cars. What an experience and one we plan to do again next year.
While the Market was going on, we said our prayers for drier weather as we visited the camps. As God does, we pulled up to the camps the downpour subsided for a few minutes while we visited with the guys. Thank you Lord for taking care of us.
Saturday night, many of our interns from all over the country gathered at the Bright House for what has become a family tradition. It is great to hear about their gathering and catching up on everybody's lives. A special bond has been formed with this group of young people.
In the local Sunday paper was a nice article about our Christmas Market. For those out of town, the link to the article is:http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20131221/NEWS01/312210034/Common-Ground-holds-special-shopping-event-Cedar-Grove?nclick_check=1
The Tuesday night's Bible fellowship has become so important to most of the guys, we gathered on Christmas Eve to share our stories. Lots of new faces beginning to come to hear about what God is doing in the lives of these men. Brother Elbert led the evening, sharing from Ephesians 1: 15-21.
With the holiday week, many of our helpers were out of town, so we were short handed. But as usual God provides and we had a great evening. Our pastor for the week did not come, so we all gathered in the fellowship hall waiting on the food and groceries. Kings Highway Christian church provided the meal and helpers and we all had a great time.
I saw a program on TV this week, talking about the year in review. It is where they showed things that happened during the year, those who passed, and awards given out. I said, that would be cool to do that here. Let's see what happened this year. I started looking back at past notes and started writing down all the different things we experienced this year.
After looking at the January letters, I started to realize, wow, this will take forever to write down all the things that has happened to us this year! We have lost some of friends, we have made new friends, we have experienced new adventures, we have been challenged, we have been lvoed. In reading our letters each week, God has been busy in our community!
The exciting realization of it all, is we have yet to see what God is about to do this year! Amazing things are about to happen and God continues to be in control.
Hope your new year is full of treasures and surprises, full of God's richest blessings. Knowing that each one of you are special in the eyes of the Lord. Amen.
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