Saturday was unusually quiet around the center. A lot of folks were gone, so our activities were very limited. We enjoyed our visits to the camps. Gladly one of our camps found shelter in doors, so they were not there. Our other friends were enduring the heat and mosquitos, very hard. Scott and I talked about how we think this time of year is the worse. The heat is on, mosquitos are every where with no end in sight until September or October, tough, tough life.
Monday was the start of another week at camp, celebrating the wind. Great to see all the children learning about the wind and how it affects us in everything we do. Can't tell you how impressive it is to walk down the halls and see the masterpieces created by our children. They learned to paint like the wind, make sun catchers blowing in the wind, got to feel and see what the wind can do at Sci Port Discovery Center. Someone please take pictures of our hallway, so those who are not in town can see what is being created! God is good!
Tuesday evening, the men gathered for their Bible fellowship, reading from Luke 9: 1-17. The author of the study asked, are we participants or spectators in God's Kingdom?
Thursday evening, we gathered in the chapel to hear Brother Chester and Ms Abbie share their gifts of Word and Song. Allison and Ms Abbie worked all afternoon to prepare our meal, while some new friends from University Methodist church in Lake Charles joined us to serve and clean up. The youth helped in the clothing room and in our Market learning all sorts of interesting things to bring home and tell their church. A good evening, enjoying God's grace.
Also on Thursday, if I may boast for a second, Ginellen and I celebrated 43 years of marriage!
Basketball games this week:
12 year olds: 6 /27 Monday 8pm at Lakeside
6/30 Thursday 7pm Southern Hills
14 year olds: 6/30 Thursday 10pm Southern Hills
17 year olds: 6/28 Tuesday 9pm Bill Cockrell Park
6/30 Thursday 7pm Lakeshore
The boys, Matt, Vicki and Chuck will enjoying seeing you there!
The study on Tuesday evening caught my eye when he said are we spectators or participants. For the first 3 1/2 years of Jesus' ministry, the disciples were spectators. Then as Jesus was coming to the end of His ministry, he sent them out. Verse 1 says, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. Verse 6, so they set out and went from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere. We need to do the same!
As more and more people come to see what God is doing in our community, they will be spectators. We need to be able to share the good news of what God has done in our lives and then allow our new friends to experience that amazing grace through their actions of serving. God's Kingdom will grow when we move from spectators to participants.
I know it is hard to let go sometimes. We often think we can do it faster or better than someone else can do it. But that is not what God is concerned about. He is not interested in the getting the job done fast. He is interested in getting a new relationship going with Him. I have learned over the years, as we allow others to use their gifts, they are blessed and we are blessed by seeing them grow in their relationship with Jesus.
The second part of the reading was the feeding. What a miracle! The disciples wanted to turn the people away, thinking in human terms, we can not feed this many, but Jesus showed them, when you learn to depend on God, nothing is impossible! We need to understand that!
Our hearts ache to do more for our children of the community. We want to offer hope to those who are without hope. We want to feed, clothe and lvoe everybody we meet in our community. Where is the money going to come from? How can we it do it? We don't have enough help? We are too busy? We don't have time? All these questions are what the disciples were asking at the feeding, nothing has changed over 2000 years.
But Jesus calmly lifted the bread and the fish, looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them, having enough to feed everybody and had some left over! Nothing, nothing is impossible if we depend on God! Amen!
Hope you have a great week, depending on God for everything you do, remembering nothing is impossible as long as we depend on God! Hope to see you at camp this week or at a basketball game, come and enjoy all the fun and excitement.
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