Busy Saturday morning as usual around the center. We made our visits to the camps. Always a joy to see our friends living outside, but also a reminder of how life is hard. A new friend of ours, Shawn, has started going with us on our visits. The past two weeks as Turner finishes his shopping, Shawn whips out his Bible, reads a couple of verses and prays with Turner. We don't hold hands yet, but this is a start with Turner. Turners stands there, listens and then walks off to his home. Wonder what he is thinking?! Our next camp finds our new group waiting for us, sitting on the railroad tracks in the sun, trying to stay warm. Their camp dog, Bo, comes up to mr brian and gets his usual dog treats. I ask Bo where his daddy is? The group says over there on the tracks. We look over and there is Donny, passed out on the tracks. 10:30 in the morning passed out! Sad, sad. Shawn and Dawn walk over to be sure he is breathing, wake him up and he stumbles over to the truck. We have prayed this week, for the taste of alcohol in Donny to not be tolerated. No way to live. Lunch was being prepared for the basketball team as we returned from our visits.
Monday and Wednesdays we continued meeting with our children in the afternoons, having fun playing games, learning and lvoing on them. You can be sure it goes both ways!
Tuesday evening the men of the community gathered for their Bible fellowship. Brother George shared the Word reading from Hebrews 6: 1-12. Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity , . . is how the first verse starts. Are we moving or standing still?
Wednesday morning, the garden was busy with activity! Bryce had a tiller going or I should say Ms Abbie had a tiller going, tilling up the old garden making way for the planting of potatoes. The new beds look great!
Thursday, our chapel time got started off with our new community choir praising God with their hearts and voices, while Ms Abbie played the piano. A new pastor joined us in chapel, asking us, what type of bags we are carrying? Bags filled with garbage of the past, bags filled with today's struggles or bags filled with God's Word?! It was Mexican night in the dining hall. Z and Ms Abbie created all the fixins you would find at a mexican restaurant. The clothing room was busy as well as the Market. A fun night!
The Cedar Grove Chargers have a basketball game this Saturday, February 4th at noon at Bill Cockrell Park. No games next week. Come if you can.
Prayer keeps coming to me this week. I will ask Joey for something or an idea I might have and the first thing out of Joey's mouth, let's pray about it. I don't want to hear that, I want to do it! Many years ago, I had an idea of feeding the community at Faith church. I was so excited about "my" idea, couldn't wait to get to Pastor Jackson's office to tell him. The first thing out of his mouth, he said, brian we need to pray about it. My frustration level got higher. I like to do things now, not pray about it! Well after several months of painstakingly prayer, for me! God shared a story in the Upper Room with me early one Tuesday morning, telling about a church who provides a meal to their community. God even gave us a name, Kitchen Angels! And we are still doing it!
When the church moved out of the church building which is now our center, sitting there vacant for months, I told everybody we need to move into it now! There was no budget, no money, no idea of how to get it renovated, no help, our small group prayed about it. Several months later, as we worked across the street at the Bright House, wishing we were in the building, Lisa shows up to tutor. We find out she is a lawyer with a passion for our community, likes to get things done and well we see what has happened!
One of my favorite prayer stories is our lack of rain! As we became homeless, the church asked us to leave the building, we started serving our meals at the Bright House. We first tried to eat inside but it was too crowded, so we moved to the driveway area. For two years, our small group prayer was each week was, for it not to rain on Wednesday evenings for our meal. Well, in spite of two hurricanes, multiple thunderstorms, we were never ever forced to not have our meals outside. Some Wednesdays, we had to eat in a hurry, but we ate! God will provide.
In chapel last week, really every chapel begins with asking the community if they have prayer requests. You can see and hear the community getting more comfortable speaking out, with their prayer requests. One couple spoke up last week, needing prayers to find a home or a place to stay. When Brother George asked for prayer requests this week, the lady spoke up and said, they found a place to stay! Everybody clapped!
Several weeks ago, Brother George shared his heart of wanting the young men, who come for the meal on Tuesday night, to also stay for the men's Bible fellowship. You can tell they are hunger, maybe getting the only good meal for the day at the chapel, but he also wanted them to be filled with the Holy Spirit. So we prayed for them as we opened up our fellowship. This past Tuesday the young men were there and guess what, they stayed the entire night!
We all have prayer stories. Things God has done for us. The one common theme I am reminded of when it comes to prayer, if God thinks it needs to happen, it will in His time, not mr brian's time. There is a method to His madness. It is all about Him and His Kingdom building. Over the years, I have learned patience when it comes to prayer. He has taught me obedience when we go to God in prayer. And my faithfulness has increased because I know if the prayers are of God's will, then God will provide. He provides in ways that I had no idea or expectations of it happening the way it did. God has a plan for the building of His Kingdom. We don't know the plan, that is not our job to know the plan. Our jobs are to pray, to be obedient, to be patient, and to have faith God will provide. He will because He is God, because He is Good! Amen!
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