What's important?

Another week in the books. Hope your week was filled with blessings and surprises!

Our week got started off last Friday morning with a bang! We had our first group of students from Centenary join us to organize, clean, paint, pull and laugh around the center. A great morning of relationships being formed. More trips will be coming.

Saturday was busy as usual. Visits, bread wrapping, gardening, practices, craft activities, lunch were all going on. Come and join us every Saturday morning for some fun.

Tuesday evening, Noel led the community men's Bible fellowship, reading from 1 Timothy chapter 4, talking about us following false prophets who look good, sound good, act good, but are not of God. Are we following the Holy Spirit or following our own desires? Timothy also wants us not to only be hearers of the Word, but doers of the Word. Verse 6 says, "if you point these things out to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus. . . " Verse 12 says, ". . . but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity." Our actions and words should lead others to Christ, do they?

Wednesday, we said goodbye to one of our community. Dawn had the opportunity to get a home of her own, the only problem, the home was in Florida. God's blessings to you Dawn, as you start a new chapter in your journey, you will be missed by us all.

Thursday was a day filled with laughter, joy and blessings. We had our old friends from First Methodist church, Derek and Heather and their pastor lead us in worship. Great to have them back and hopefully they will be joining us more often as time allows. The community was treated to a scrumptious meal prepared by Allison, Ms Abbie and Vickie. The clothing room was packed with community as well as the Market.

We are making preparations for our afternoon learning activities to begin. Allison and Lisa are busy putting the final touches on our schedules. There will be a training session Wednesday afternoon, September 9th.  The kids will start back Monday September 14th. There is a waiting list of children who want to come, so we can use all the help we can get. Please let Lisa know if you would like to become involved.

Prayers for our community who are beginning the school year. Prayers for all who seek violence to solve their problems and those families who suffer with those decisions. Prayers for Chris Broadwell and his family with the passing of his dad.

Last week we heard the media talk about it being 10 years since Katrina hit the New Orleans area. Saturday morning, Scott asked Turner about his experiences. Turner talked more than we have ever heard before. He was living in the 5th Ward area. The water started rising and they had to get out in a hurry. He said his area ended up with 20 feet of water. He made his way to the Superdome, spending several days there. Then when the authorities said it was time to get out of the Dome, he happen to get on a bus headed to Shreveport. He ended up at Hirsch Coliseum for a few days, then to the mission and then under the bridge where he is now.

Scott and I talked about his experiences, how sad  not knowing any one in Shreveport, fending for himself and trying to survive. We asked the question to ourselves, could we do it? Leading us to ask, if we had water coming into our houses and had a few minutes to get out, what would we take with us?  What is important to us? After the kids and our pets, what would come with us? The big screen TV, our car, our clothes, our jewelry, our golf clubs, our gun collections, what is important to us?

Several years ago, we had the opportunity to visit the memorial in Oklahoma of the office bombing. Very sad all those people loosing their lives. One room in the memorial is a room filled with individual glass cases of each person who died. These small cases were filled with items that were important to that person. God forbid, something happen to us, what would go in your glass case?

I remember a pastor saying, when he was asked to perform a funeral of someone he did not know, he would go to the house and go into the bedroom looking for the person's bedside table. The pastor would check out what was on the table. He said, usually what is important to that person would be there. What is on your bedside table?

What is important to you? Is it things or Christ? Does our lives reflect that? Do we lead others to Christ by what we do every day or turn them off? One of our men on Monday night said, as a child he went with his parents to visit one of the leaders of their church at work in the oil field. He was cussing, swearing, being a bully to others. He said, that made an impression on him, saying to himself why should I go to church if you end up talking and working with others like that? It took him a long time to get back into the Word.

The last verse in chapter 4 says, " watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers." It is easy to fall from grace. It is easy to follow someone who is saying what we want to hear. It is easy for us to follow our pride and egos. But Christ is asking us to persevere, stay strong in our faith, live pure lives, be uplifting in our speech, slow to anger and lvoe, love, lvoe. If we do, great rewards will follow! Amen.

In the coming week, let's show others we are children of God by our words and actions. Have a blessed and joyous week!