Scott and Dr Phil visited our outdoor friends Saturday. All seem to doing fine. No drama, which is a good thing. Matt is busy with the basketball activity. More and more young people from the neighborhood are coming.
Momma T and Tim were busy Saturday leading their work crews at Weekend of the Cross.
Matt led Tuesday men's Bible fellowship, reading from Mark 4, versus 21 - 34. Good discussions about who in your life is a lamp? It was good to see William join us, Sinotra was also there. Matt spends all his time running around picking up everybody! What a treat to have so many of our guys there.
Summer camp has come to a close. Can't believe we have made another summer of fun, challenges and blessings. Hopefully you all got to see the pictures Princess posts on our face book page. Wednesday, they had awards day for the children. Each child received award for something, the best at dodge ball, the sneakiest, the loudest, the smallest, on and on. Great smiles on all the children's faces. I bet, this is the first time most of our children have received an award or certificate of any kind.
What has become a tradition for the close of camp, the children were taken to Splash Kingdom, our local water park. It couldn't have been a better day, with over cast skies and cooler temperatures, everybody had a great time. This year, we had the help of the youth from Cypress Baptist to help transport and chaperone. Seeing the children come back Thursday afternoon, laughing, hugging, smiling was a joy to see.
Lauren and Lisa did a great job organizing the camp and making sure all our leaders were working together to provide the safest, the most enriching atmosphere possible. Talking with some of the youth leaders, I am wondering who had the most fun this summer!
Thursday's activities was met with some rain showers, but cooler temperatures. With the cooler temperatures, we opened up the chapel. Led by our friends from Cypress Baptist and our guitar man, everybody had a great time. Our food, was served by the Cypress youth, they helped clean up and pass out our grocery bags. It was great to see so many young people there enjoying the evening.
Thursday afternoon, I had the privilege to meet with the lady in charge of the Christian Leadership Center at Centenary. Maegan wanted to hear our story and how she can incorporate it into her class this year. She has seen so many of the students' lives being transformed by what is going on at Common Ground. She wants more and more students to be a part of our community. This fall we will be asked to speak to the students and share our story with them encouraging them to live a servant's life.
Be thinking how you can be a part of our new tutoring program starting the end of the month. Let Lisa know, if you can help out. There will be a training session in the next few weeks.
Please keep us all lifted up in your daily prayers.
In Mark we read about Jesus talking to the folks about a lamp being put on a stand, not covered up. A lamp back in those days was important. It was the only source of light, it needed to be on a stand to have the greatest effect. Our faith in Jesus does no good, if we stay at home by ourselves, never venturing out into the darkness. The light inside of us, needs to be spread through out our community, to drown out the darkness of death. If we don't go out, who will? The Good News needs to be spread all across our community, by our words and our deeds.
In verse 26, Jesus talks about the growing of seeds, especially a mustard seed, the tiniest of all seeds. The seed is planted and it grows. Not by what the farmer does but by the grace of God. As I was talking to Maegan Thursday afternoon, glancing down at my watch, it was 5:30. Chapel was going on, the food was prepared and being served, grocery bags were being handed out, the clothing room was open for business and mr brian was no where to be found.
God continues to bless our community with people with servant hearts, wanting to serve others, not themselves. One of our jobs as part of this community is to allow new faces to use their gifts of servant hood. Our community will be blessed by us allowing the seeds of faith to grow and bloom into branches and trees of life. If we let go and let God do His thing, amazing results will happen. Amen.
Our center will need some tender loving care in the coming weeks, recovering from camp and getting ready for the school year. If you can come by and help, mop, wipe, scrub, wax, please let us know.
Have a great week. Let the light of Christ shine bright!
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