peace

We had our jackets on and heaters going the first part of the week, today, is shorts and air conditioning! Ol'man summer just won't give up, but he is getting weaker! Hope your week was a good one, full of fun and adventures.

We had a great Saturday last week. We filled up our trucks with supplies and made our visits. Our first stop was to check on Turner. Turner continues to amaze us with his peculiar requests. He looks through our supplies, gets some stuff and says, do you have any hand sanitizer? Mr Scott looks but could not find any, will have to get him some this week. A man living in cardboard boxes, sitting on a dirt floor, under an over pass, wanting hand sanitizer!

Being the first of the month Richard was gone, so we made our way to see Dale. We all made the comment, we have not seen Dale's camp look so nice and clean, even Dale seemed to doing really well and looked good. His camp mates were not there, so Dale was enjoying his solitude. We visited with Smokey on our way home. Some of us went by and saw Curtis and Mr Matt and Tim, went to an old/new camp behind the macaroni plant. Tim had heard there were some folks there, boy were they right! Tim and Matt found 8 folks in need of everything. Tim had brought some bags we had been given and they were all appreciative of the items.

Something special about Matt taking Tim to a camp. A man we found under a bridge, having nothing but the clothes on his back, is now employed, going to church and Bible study and wanting to help others. That is pretty special and one of the best examples I can think of when I think about God's lvoe!

While we were having fun and visiting, Karl was back at the Bright House II working hard tearing down more sheet rock. Don't tell Hat he was there, but Karl is doing a great job. Most Saturdays you will find him there, come by and lend him a hand!

Pretty quiet with our afternoon activities this week. Monday was a holiday, Tuesday, the kids came in mass and to be very nice, they were a hand full. Krysten and Joey decided to end the afternoon early. Wednesday, they made us suffer and did not come! Ms Dawn and Ms Lisa, got other things done on Wednesday! We will see what next week brings!

Tuesday, Mr Matt gathered the men together and read from 1st Thessalonians, chapter 4. Talking about living a life pleasing to God. Do all you can to live a peaceful life. Wow, isn't that cool. Wouldn't the world be a better place if we all practiced that! One thing that happened Tuesday evening, an example of how this group of men is becoming an important part to each others lives. It was 7:25, just about time to end the evening, in walks one of our neighborhood guys. He works in construction, working long hours, but he said, they got off early today and he felt he needed to come and be with us even though for only a short time, awesome!

Wednesday, Ms Lisa meet with the Food Bank people for our annual inspection. We passed with flying colors! We are in the process of getting a health inspection for our kitchen so we can begin to purchase items for the kitchen to cook for our evening meals.

Thursday was a fun day of activities. Chapel was led by Willie and Wes, sounds like a country group! Something about those two when they get together, Wes starts playing the piano and Willie starts singing, and God is praised like no other. Willie says I will sing it this way and Wes, says, I'll follow you, something special about that. Then Willie talks about the tongue, from Proverbs and James. Willie starts off, by saying, God made us with two ears, two eyes, one nose with two openings, but only one tongue. The tongue is a powerful force and one we need to learn to control. Something we can use to build up not tear down each other. I had asked Willie to keep it to 30 minutes in chapel if possible! Those of you who know Willie, that's not possible, but by 45 minutes we were leaving. To be honest, I was not ready to go!

Our meal was prepared by Krysten, making spaghetti, salad and cookies, yummy. Ms Abbie handed out the bags and everything seem to go pretty well for the evening. We can always use your help serving, cleaning or handing out, so come when you can.

After we finished our clean up, we met in the chapel and read from John 11. Talking about the death of Lazarus, the resurrection, and the plan to kill Jesus. We talked about, how the Jews, saw Jesus crying, then he brought back to life Lazarus and then they go to the authorities to plot to kill Jesus. How many times has Jesus brought us back to life, given us grace and we turn our backs on him? Ouch, He deserves better than that.

Prayer concerns, continue for the Bollingers. Carrie and Nick, but now Pete has developed some sort of hand or arm problems. Safe travels for Hat and Karl as they go up to New Hampshire to visit with family. Momma T's mom and dad are doing better but still need our prayers. Charley continues to heal and gain strength from his surgery. Homeless camps around town and how they are being treated.

This Saturday will be a full day of activities. We have two groups coming to help out. A group from BPCC and a group from Broookwood. Mr Scott will be leading our visits. Momma T and her crew will be hosting U2 Saturday in the garden, starting at 10. Then after all of that, at noon Joey will be hosting a lunch for Lomax and his return to us. No excuse not to come and be a part of something, if you can't help and meet our new friends, then come and eat!

Been thinking about what we read Tuesday evening, do all you can to live a peaceful life. In verse 12, it says, If you do, then people who are not believers will respect you. When those we see every day, do our lives represent peace or confusion? Do we build up or tear down? If we want others to share in the lvoe of Christ, do our actions encourage others to want to get to know Jesus? The ol'saying, easy to be a Christian on Sundays, but hard to tell a Christian the rest of the week, is that us?

The other part of the discussions on Tuesday was, in verse 10, they were loving their brothers and sisters, but now we encourage you to love them even more. God's work is never done. We can sit back as humans and say, look what I have done, look at what a nice building we have built, look at all the good things we are doing, man we sure look good. For me, meeting new people, visiting with new groups, you hear this all the time. I have to be careful my ego, my pride does not get in the way. This is not about mr brian, but about God. God is about lvoe, not about stuff. God is about changed hearts not about pride and egos.

God continues to bless our community because we continue to reach out to others. We must never get complacent in our actions and feelings. God continues to challenges us. We must meet those challenges with God's directions in our lives.

Thank you all for living lives of peace and passion. For showing God's lvoe to others by the way you respond to challenges. As Momma T said, as she served the spaghetti Thursday night, she saw people with smiles and people with frowns. With God's help, may we change those frowns to smiles next week.

Have a great weekend and a better week! See you Saturday. Amen.

no entry

Just finished our first week of fall! How was it for you? The mornings have been nice but the afternoons get pretty warm. Hope your week was a good one. Ours was busy as usual.

Saturday was full of activities and adventures. Mr Scott led our visits to our friends. While they were at Richard's gas station, 4 train folks showed up and we helped them out. Then Richard took our group to a place where he knew a couple of folks needed some help. We then made our way over to check on Dale. Mr Matt and his group finished the morning by checking on Smokey. You just never know what God has in store for us on Saturdays, that is one of the coolest parts.

Momma T and Joey played host to our bikers. Showing them around the center and garden area. Momma T and Ms Patty worked all morning long in the garden.

We have been overwhelmed with children in the afternoons this week. We have had over 20 children each day with only Krysten and Joey trying to make do. Ms Abbie helped out Tuesday by pitching the ball as they all played kick ball. Ms Lisa was there helping out also.  Ms Dawn came Wednesday afternoon and joined in on the fun. Krysten and Joey could really use your help, just your presence will help, so come by Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 4:30 - 5:30.

We had a special treat Monday evening, as we had BCM students from LSUS come by to hang out with the kids. Krysten fixed pizza for the children's supper. Everybody had a great time playing all sorts of games. Joey  is working on the students coming once a month to hang out, very exciting.

Tuesday evening, we had a packed house at our mens Bible fellowship. Mr Matt brought Richard by for his first time. Richard said as we were leaving, this is pretty cool, I want to come back. Matt read from 1 Corinthians 12 talking about the Body of Christ. How all parts of the Body need to work together for the glory of God. Some of us talked about how we thought we wanted to be the head when in reality God wanted us to be a foot. How things just never seemed to work out, or we got frustrated with others, only to realize after a period of time, we were trying to be something we were not designed to be. We all have spiritual gifts, those gifts whatever they may be are important and if you do not exercise them and use them, then the Body will not be who God intended it to be.

One of our highlights of the week, was the return of Lomy on Wednesday! It was great to give him a big hug and see his smiling face. When the kids saw him, they all gave him big hugs. Can't wait to hear about his adventures. He said, he is headed to Center to spend a week with his grandmother and then come back home and settle in. Want it be nice to have our boy back with us again! Momma T would say, we will have all our peeps back with us in the Bright House once again!

Thursday afternoon was great, as Joey commented after the evening was over, this has been a good day. Pastor Eddie's wife Ms Jean got Ms Abbie to play the piano and we got off to a great start in chapel. Pastor Eddie took over and read from Mark 4 about the blind man sitting on the side of the road, asking Jesus for help. Pastor asked us, when was the last time we asked Jesus for help? Why do we try everybody else, read every self help book there is, and as a last resort we turn to Jesus? Awesome time in chapel.

Following chapel, we enjoyed a meal served by Matt and Ms Vicki and their helpers from Airline Baptist. They fixed the same meal as last month with left overs, this month they ran out! A huge crowd this afternoon. I think I heard Ms Abbie say they handed out over 70 bags of groceries.

While chapel, feeding and giving out of the groceries, St Luke's Medical van pulled up and began seeing folks from the neighborhood. Hopefully more and more folks will come as they become more familiar with the volunteers from St Luke's. They may start coming every other month.

To conclude the evening, we gathered in the chapel for our Bible study reading John 10, talking about Jesus knowing his sheep and the Pharisees fussing at Jesus for saying such blasphemy things. Know matter what we do or how much we do, if Jesus does not recognize us, it is all for nothing. It is not about us but about Jesus.

Prayer concerns were mentioned for Momma T's dad. He had a stroke Monday and is recovering from that. Continue to lift the Sauls up as they deal with the passing of John's dad. Keep the Bollingers in your prayers, for their son Nick's back procedure and Cari's treatments. Got a nice note from Pete. Pete said, "I miss everyone at Common Ground. Cari's in her second 3-week round of chemo, very time consuming. Tell everyone at CG that I miss them and send my love." Tim brought up prayers for the homeless who are being pushed around downtown, that tempers don't flare up and retaliations do not take place.

In my line of work, I drive to all parts of the city and out in the country each month. The last several years I have noticed a strange phenomenon, gates across the driveways of churches. Most of the gated churches, I have noticed are in the country where they have a gate across the one driveway going into the parking lot.

Many years ago in the beginning of my spiritual journey, when I saw these gates across the church driveways, I thought to myself, they are just trying to protect their property. But now, after realizing everything we have, everything we accumulate, is not ours but God's, how does God like the gates of our churches? If one of God's directives to us is to go out and make disciples, how does  lock gates of His churches accomplish this?

As we talk about in our mens discussions, life has challenges for us everyday, if not every hour. The church must think outside the box and become open to everybody every day, not just on Sundays. For whatever reason the chapel has a calming effect on me when I walk in. Most sanctuaries has the same effect for most people, so the church needs to recognize this and open the doors. Hopefully our churches are not more concerned about the buildings than the people who occupy them.

I have been asking the question to myself, Are we at Common Ground, opening our doors or is our entrance closed? Are we opening our hearts to all? Are we more concerned for the souls we meet or for the stuff we accumulate? Do we make sacrifices for others? Do we think of others first? Are we flexible enough to go with the flow or do we stick to our schedules?

What do you think? When someone asks you about Common Ground, what do you say? Who is Common Ground? Our mission statement says, we are committed to building community through compassionate outreach, genuine care and acceptance of all people. Are we doing that?

Driving up to the center Wednesday afternoon, I see all these signs along Southern Avenue in front of the center. I walk out to the signs and there is one for a free legal clinic, there is another one for chapel service, one for a free meal, one for medical van conducting free medical tests, wow. Then a few minutes later the green area is full of children from the neighborhood playing kick ball. And another group sitting in front of the chapel doing homework. I can think of no better examples of what Common Ground is all about than what we saw on Wednesday and Thursday. And that is just two days out of the week!

When I think of Common Ground I think of each one of you doing everything you do for others. Opening your doors to those who do not have a home to go to. Visiting those who do not have homes. Providing a place where the Word of God can be heard and discussed. Sharing a meal with those who might not have food at home. Giving groceries away weekly, no questions asked. Providing a safe place for our neighborhood children to come to. Building a home for those who do not have a home. The list goes on and on. Each one of you are living out your spiritual gifts as the Body of Christ should do. In so doing, the Kingdom of God is growing.

You guys are awesome and inspiring and a blessing to this community.

Have a great weekend and a great week. Amen.

Wisdom?

Another week has flown by. Hope yours was filled with blessings and surprises. We finally got some much needed rain and cooler temperatures in this part of country. Is the weather good in your town?

We started off last Saturday by preparing breakfast in our new kitchen. It was awesome. Joey grilled the bacon on our new stove, John W cooked the pancakes, James cut up the oranges. It may be just me, but I thought everything tasted a little better coming from our new kitchen! We were preparing breakfast  for a Sunday school group from Grace. Lots of folks showed up and worked hard all morning long. The group divided into two and some cleaned all the pots and pans and appliances in the kitchen. The other group worked across the street and continued the demolition of the Bright House II. By noon, they had filled up the second dumpster! Amazing group of people. Thanks to John Williams for making it all happen.

Mr Scott drove us around to make our visits. We first drove over to the JJ house and found Dave and his crew working, so we stopped and visited. We then made our way to Turner. He is doing fine. Richard is back and had a story for us as usual. Dale has moved back into the woods. Mr Matt helped Dale secure the tarps to keep out some of the rain. We gave him a few items to keep him going. We drove by Smokey's old camp and there was no one there. We finished our visits by checking in on Smokey at his new apartment.

Monday had been a day of rain. Joey showed up in the afternoon preparing for the arrival of the kids. I said to Joey, they won't come. Guess who showed up! No one had a rain coat or umbrella, they were wet, but they came! They came Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. Wednesday was a beautiful day, so games were played outside. Ms Abbie helped out by turning the jump rope for the kids. Come by and join in on the fun. Don't forget BCM folks will be at the center Monday evening, come by and meet them all.

Tuesday afternoon, Joey and I went by to see one of our long time friends, Curtis. Curtis has been around for many years, going with us on our Saturday visits, helping us cook breakfasts, coming by on Thursdays. Unfortunately, Curtis has cancer, and we found out, the hospital has released him and told him to go home because there is nothing more they can do for him. Tuesday was Curtis' birthday, so Joey and I took Curtis to the grocery store to get his favorite flavor of ice cream, strawberry and bought him some fried fish they had just cooked up. It is sad, to see this bright eyed young man, always had a smile, coming to the end of his life, keep him in your prayers.

Tuesday evening, we had to put more chairs in our circle for our mens Bible fellowship. What a blessing to have such a diverse group of men, coming together to talk about God and what He means in their lives. Mr Matt read from 1 Corinthians, chapter 1 starting in verse 18, talking about wisdom. We talked about there are two kinds of wisdom, wisdom of the world and spiritual wisdom. A question was asked, would you rather have youth or wisdom?

Thursday started off with a challenge, but as always God provides. About an hour before chapel, our piano man called and said something came up and he was not going to be able to play. I began to freak out because the piano man was to play a couple of hymns for Brother Bob. About 30 minutes later, as I was wondering what we were going to do, guess who walks in? Gus! He drove all the way from Longview, to play and sing if needed! I said thank you God! I told Brother Bob, Gus would sing a couple of songs and then he would have to lead us in the singing of his hymns because Gus did not know the songs. Well I was wrong as usual and God was right all the time! The second song Gus sang was one of the songs Brother Bob wanted to sing. So we all got to sing the song and have Gus play for us, isn't it amazing how God works!

What a treat we had in hearing the Word from one of God's mightiest players. Beth's dad, 94 years old, preaching for over 60 years, has not lost a beat. What passion Brother Bob has for the Lord as he talked about the Holy Spirit, forgiveness and his Father. Beth, please tell your dad how much we appreciated his time with us and if he ever wants to come back to let us know. Next week, Pastor Eddie and his wife from New Star Baptist church will be leading worship, come and hear what God is up to.

Ms Judy prepared a feast for our evening meal, serving over 125 folks. Ms Lisa and Momma T, helped out Ms Abbie in the food pantry to learn about our challenges there. New friends of Noel joined us and helped serve and clean up.

Be sure to stop in the hallway of the center as you make your way into the fellowship hall. Ms Lisa has gone above and beyond in putting together all our pictures from years past. You forget or at least I do, where we have come from, our humble beginnings, our friends, our children who have grown up. Wow, unbelievable, humbling to see these smiles displayed in such a unique way. Thank you so much Ms Lisa for all your hard work.

Got a phone call from one of the pastors at Grace, Warren Clifton. He is organizing a motorcycle ride for a group of folks this Saturday. They will be starting at Grace and their first stop is Common Ground. Joey and Momma T will be around to show them what God is doing in our part of the world. Please keep an eye out for Ms Abbie, she may jump on the back of one of the Harley's and we may never see her again!

As you all saw, the JJ house is coming along nicely. With the rain we had, the build was stopped for awhile, but now they have jumped up the pace and we now have a roof on the house. Very exciting to seeing it all come together. Great job Dr Phil.

Prayer concerns, Momma T's dad. Running tests to determine what is going on with him. God's direction for our challenges on Thursday evenings. Continue to lift up William and his challenges. All our outdoor friends.

Been thinking about the word wisdom and our discussions on Tuesday evening. Worldly wisdom and spiritual wisdom. One leads to death, one leads to life. Wisdom is something you have to work at, especially spiritual wisdom. We think if we show up on Sunday for an hour after 45 years of doing the same thing we will be wise in our spiritual walk. But we talked about, you have to work at obtaining spiritual wisdom. You need to pray, you need to read the Word, you need to listen, every day, every hour to develop a relationship with Jesus allowing us to become wise in God's Kingdom. Don't you find yourself, as you do this over the years, a peace within you, a joy not thought possible, a longing for a closeness with God, wanting to share this new found life with others. As Brother Bob said so eloquently in chapel, we serve others not because we are suppose to but because we want to. We serve, because of God's lvoe for us is so unimaginable, we can't help ourselves but to lvoe others.

Hope this week, you grow in your spiritual wisdom. Hope you find time to read the Word, to meditate on it, to listen to the quiet voice telling you, I lvoe you and there's not a thing you can do about it! To seek out those who do not yet know this lvoe and show them there is another way, a better way, a way that will bring life, eternal life.

Have a great weekend and a great week. Amen.

Our stuff

Can we say good bye summer! This week has been 105 heat index and unbearable. This weekend the temperatures are suppose to drop twenty degrees! Can we say Amen! Hope in your part of the world, the fall weather has gotten there, as we prepare for a new season.

With the van still in the shop, we made our way around to the camps in trucks and cars. Turner was waiting for us as we arrived. Ms Dawn and Mr Scott heard Turner say, as he was finishing shopping in the back of the truck, thanks, I really appreciate this! A first for Turner. Being the first of the month, Richard was not at his gas station. Hopefully he has stayed out of jail and the hospital? We went to Smokey's old camp and there was no one, so drove on! That was a first. We spotted John behind Labor Ready, so we stopped and visited him. Dave walked up not too long after that. Our final stop was to check on Smokey. He is doing fine, adjusting to his new surroundings. The apartment is very nice, clean and cool. We visited with the caretaker in the office and thanked him for watching over Smokey.

While we were playing with our friends, Karl was back at the center working hard in the Bright House II. We have a new empty dumpster, just waiting to be filled up with more debris, so Karl got the ball rolling. Starting to look better inside, not nearly as scary as it use to fill. Lots to do, so you never have to worry about something to do, just come by and take out your frustrations by tearing out some walls!

Some of us had the opportunity to visit Pastor Eddie's church Sunday. Bright Star Baptist Church, is over 100 years old and going strong. The numbers are small, but their hearts are willing. They made us fell welcomed and opened their arms to us. The Spirit was flowing through song and word.

Tuesday, we had our first afternoon back with the children. It was good to have the laughter, smiles and energy from our children. Krysten, Joey and Ms Lisa kept them busy with games and activities in the Friendship room. Come by any afternoon at 4:30 and join in on the fun.

Tuesday, we got our final inspection and it's official, we now have a working kitchen, all approved and ready to cook! John Sauls has done an outstanding job in coordinating everything to make a place where we can proud of for many years to come. Ms Lisa has left some before pictures on one of the counters.. Amazing to see the transformation. Come by and take a look and be sure to tell John when you see him around, what an outstanding job he has done.

Tuesday evening we had another lively discussion about life, as Mr Matt led us in reading from 1 John 3, 11- 24, we must love each other. Verse 18, said, we should love people not only with words and talk, but by our actions and true caring. We talk about getting past, looking at the color of our skins and seeing the color of our hearts. That starts by getting to know each other through Bible fellowship, working together, living together. And we can do that because the Spirit of God is in us and sees no color.

Chapel service started off our Thursday afternoon of activities. Heather and Derrick sang and their dad Richard shared the Word. We had a big crowd for our first Thursday in September, wow! Over a hundred, as we ran out of Kool-aid and food at the end. Ms Sarah and Mr Scott brought their Haiti friend, Diri JonJon, by for a visit. Mr Tom fixed a feast and everybody seemed to enjoy it all. Pastor Jackson will preach next week. TJ and the Brookwood folks will be providing the meal.

After our meal, Momma T and I met with Michele Sauls about organizing our kitchen tasks differently and seeing if we can get more help from our community and others. With our new kitchen up and running, we thought it might a good time to get more people involved. More to come.

Don't forget, Brookwood's 5K run is this Saturday, September 8th. The fun run starts at 8, with the 5K starting at 8:30. Still time to sign up or if you can't, just come on out and support those who are supporting us.

Has everybody seen the pictures Dr Phil has been sending out on the JJ house? We now have walls and siding on the house. One good thing about all this heat and no rain, construction has been going on everyday. Dave's craftsmanship in the building of the house has gotten the approval of our construction company. Everything is looking good, keep praying.

Looking at Amanda's birthday list, we had two birthdays this week! Sorry guys for missing them, David McCormick, our newest Board member. Long time friend of ours, married to the best pharmacist in Shreveport, Elizabeth. David's most important job, being a new dad. Great to see them at supper Thursday. You should have seen Ms Abbie's smile carrying around their new baby! Our other birthday was our own Zig Zag, Allison. Allison is in Atlanta beginning her studies to becoming a clergy in the Methodist church. One of her favorite things to do at school, is working with the children of homeless families, remarkable young lady! We have another birthday this Saturday, Ms Abbie. When you see her next time, don't forget to wish a happy day!

Continue to keep Pete and Cari in your prayers. Pray for Karl as he travels to California. Pray for the families in Haiti, trying to survive. Keep our families in your prayers, relationships that need mending with the power of God's lvoe. Pray for Charley and the team for Kiros as they go into the Wade Correctional Institution starting Thursday.

Next Saturday, September 15th a Sunday school class from Grace will be joining us for a work day. To get them started off the right way, Joey and mr brian will provide breakfast. We just couldn't wait to try out the new kitchen! Not sure what is on the menu, but everybody is welcome to join us at 8:30.

When we showed up Sunday at Pastor Eddie's church, there was preaching going on as we walked in, the Spirit was flowing already. As the Pastor was finishing up his talk, he asked another gentleman sitting next to him, to get up and say a few words. This elderly man told a story about seeing a light outside his front door. His wife called the man to the door and told him go see what the light was. There was a terrible storm going on, raining, wind blowing, trees down, electricity out, but they could still this light. The man got his rain gear on, walked out his door, checking out to see if there were wires or something connected to this light to make it glow but there was not. The man started wondering, what kind of stuff was inside this light to make it glow?

The elderly preacher looked at us and said, isn't that what God is concerned about for us? The stuff we have inside of us, do we let God in or do we keep it to ourselves? The stuff we hold on to, does it carry us down or make us better? Is our stuff more important than anybody else's stuff, occupying all our time? Heard two of our pastors talk about our attitudes over the weekend. How does our stuff affect our attitudes? If we hold onto our stuff, our lights are not as bright as they can be.

We all have stuff, but how we handle our stuff, makes us different. For most of us, we are learning, God is in the stuff dealing business. No matter how small or how large our stuff gets, we can turn to God for help. We are learning, God yearns to deal with our stuff, if we just let him. So, let go of your stuff, and let God in. The more we let go of our stuff, the more room there is for the light of God to shine through.

We talked about Tuesday evening, there are folks who don't want God in their lives and they don't want others to have God in their lives, so they do whatever they can to make everybody's life miserable. We have a choice in the way we live our lives, we can go along with them and fill our stuff up with their stuff. Or we can fill our lives with the power of Jesus and go about our way, full of the light of God. We read Tuesday night, the people who obey God's commands live in God, and God lives in them. Isn't that a better way to live? Each one of us has the remarkable ability to defeat the stuff of the world because God lives in us. Isn't that a better way to live?

Hope your week is filled with the glow of Jesus growing stronger inside of you. Hope your light shines bright with everybody you meet. What an amazing God we have, allowing us to deal with our stuff, so that He may grow stronger inside of us, so that His light will shine bright in our world. Lvoe to all. Amen.

God's Lvoe

How's your week been going? Lots of wind, rain and a few storms in our state. Sione is still without electricity in Metairie, but other than that, most of the community has done ok. In the Shreveport area, we got a little rain and some wind. They just opened up a shelter here in town for folks coming from the Baton Rouge area. It seems, flooding has been the biggest problem.

Mr Scott and Dr Phil made their way around to the camps last Saturday. We continue to talk about our visits on Saturdays and what it will look like in the coming weeks. We continue to visit Turner and Richard, we will always continue those relationships, but with Smokey moving out, Shawn and Juan not there this past Saturday, we are wondering if it is time to move our focus to our neighborhood. We know we have homeless folks in our community, maybe it's time to meet them?

Airline Baptist, showed up at 8am and began the task of renovating the house next to the Bright House. We are calling the house, Bright House II in anticipation of Ms Sarah and Mr Scott's youth painting weekend in the months ahead. A huge dumpster was filled to capacity by noon, with lumber, limbs and all sorts of nasty stuff. Masks are a must when you go inside and work. A Bible was found by Mr Matt inside one of the walls. Other than the outside being charred, it looks great. Mike, from Airline, agreed to park another dumpster in the back of the house for us. So if you run out of something to do in the coming weeks, you are welcome to remove the rubble from the house!

Momma T and Ms Abbie spent most of the morning, moving kitchen stuff from the store room into the new kitchen. The new kitchen is starting to look like a kitchen. Pictures are coming.

Forgot to tell everybody last week, Ms Lisa told me, Ms Abbie's granddaughter Kierra, was accepted back into nursing school for the fall semester. Kierra, had trouble with one of her classes preventing her from continuing her education, but through some divine intervention, the school has allowed Kierra to retake the class and continue with her studies. Please Kierra in your prayers as she starts this semester. She is one of the few young people in our neighborhood trying to change the cycle of poverty.

On Monday, Mr Matt and Mr Charley took Dale to the Salvation Army. As of Thursday Dale is still there. Matt said, Dale is talking about looking into his disability situation again.

Tuesday evening, Mr Matt led us in reading in Matthew about the greatest commandment, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and spirit, love your neighbor as your self. We talked about, if we don't love ourselves, can we love others? What does this kind of love look like? More to come on this.

Also on Tuesday, we met with a young man who has grown up at Grace Methodist, about working with us in our kitchen. He has been a chef for the past 10 years and has always wanted to be a part of something just starting out. Amazing how God puts folks together to make things happen.

Wednesday evening, Ms Lisa hosted our annual Board of Directors meeting. These meetings are not some of our favorite things to do, but it is a good way for us all to hear from each other. If you have questions on the finances of Common Ground, please email Ms Lisa. For the most part we are doing ok. All our activities and remodeling has been taken care of through our grant monies. Our biggest costs are the paying of our utilities in the center and Bright House.

Most of the evening was our discussions of what Common Ground does and who we are. Amazing to get a full page listing of all the activities we are involved in. Summer Day Camp. The garden and greenhouse. Ms Patty reported an Eagle scout project is about to start to completely redo the entire greenhouse, replacing all the glass with Plexiglas. Outdoor friends visits were talked about. Sharing we only have two camps left, and whether it might be time to move into the neighborhood on Saturday mornings. Dr Phil and Matt, both said, we would continue to go by and see Turner and Richard as long as they are around. Ms Beth, talked about our sewing classes, telling us the first classes have come to an end. With most completing their projects. New classes will begin soon. U2 Saturdays was talked about by Momma T and the possibility of changing times or maybe having them just 4 times a year. Kitchen update was given by Mr John. We have gotten the final approval from the city inspectors. Our last inspection will be from the state fire Marshall. We elected two new members to the board. Matt Whitehead and David McCormick. Welcome guys. Building Common Ground, Dr Phil shared what is happening. Or you can walk across Southern and see what is happening! One of our outdoor friends, Dave is working hard to build our JJ house. Pretty cool, Dr Phil is allowing a guy who is living in the woods, to build God's dream of new housing in our neighborhood.

The thing that struck me as I sat and listened to everybody, it is not about us but about our neighbors. Everything we do, we build, we learn, is for our community, not to have a pretty place to sit and visit. You are all amazing people.

Thursday was again full of fun and activities. With the last of Issac still providing some misty rain and wind, we did not know if we would have folks show up. As always they came, walking under umbrellas, getting rides, using plastic bags to stay as dry as possible. We got the afternoon started off by Spencer and Pastor Roger leading our chapel time. Spencer had picked out a few songs to sing and have the words put on the screen, but due to some technical difficulties, we could not get the words to display, so Spencer changes what he was going to sing to some hymns we all knew and sang his heart out! Awesome.

Then Pastor Roger started his talk, by having children's time! Our first children's time, something we have talked about for months. It was great, the kids were reluctant at first, but gradually they made their way to the front of the chapel. Roger talked about love and how the children can share love with everybody. One of those priceless moments I witnessed, he asked the children, as they went back to their seats to give someone a hug. I was sitting behind a young lady, who got one of those hugs and you could see the joy on her face!

Roger concluded his talk about the sower sowing seeds. We just read the same passage on Tuesday evening the week before. He shared, how reckless the sower was. For those of us who have done some gardening in our lives, you take your time, make a hole, put two or three seeds in the hole, cover up the hole with dirt and move on. This sower, God, just throws out the seed, The Word, knowing that some with take, and some won't. But that is ok, because the Word has been shared with everybody. Thanks Roger for your heart and your smile, looking forward to many more opportunities to hear what God is putting on your heart.

We had a packed house, for Airline Baptist to share their feast of red beans and rice. There was just enough left over for Joey to have supper tomorrow night. Ms Sarah and Mr Scott went and bought groceries for us and stayed around the whole evening. They helped Ms Abbie make grocery bags, worked in the clothing room, and helped out in the fellowship hall, great to have them back with us.

We met for our Bible study to conclude the evening, reading from John 9. We talked about how Jesus healed a blind man from birth and how the Pharisees did not focus on the miracle but how Jesus did it on a Sabbath. Jesus says to them, I  came so that the blind can see . . What do we focus on, our faith or our sight?

Continue to lift up Pete and Cari. They are still going through tests to determine treatment options for her bone cancer. Prayers for Hat's daughter as they determine what is the cause of her illness. Pray for our churches who support us. There are many demands put on a church, their leaders and staff. The financial support, the volunteers, the prayers from these churches make everything we do possible. Continue to lift up William. He is in between treatment options at the moment and the first of the month is here, with the temptation of spending his money on things he should not do. Lift a friend of ours Patrick. He is suffering with bipolar symptoms and the medication he is taking to control this problem.

Don't forget, we are meeting this Sunday, September 2nd, at Pastor Eddie's church on Southern for worship. They begin at 11am.

The Brookwood B5K run is fast approaching, Saturday September 8th, 8am. Please sign up if you haven't and tell everybody you know to sign up too.

Love is in the air lately. Not love but "lvoe". In Matthew 23:37, Jesus says to the Pharisees, the most important command, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. And the second command, Love your neighbor as you love yourself. In 1 Corinthians 13:13, so these three things continue forever: faith, hope, and love. and the greatest of these is love. As Mr Matt asked Tuesday evening, what does that lvoe look like? Lvoe is patient and kind. Love is not jealous, does not brag, not proud. Lvoe is not selfish and does not get upset with others. Lvoe does not count up wrong things, lvoe is happy with truth. Lvoe patiently accepts all things. Lvoe always trusts, hopes and always remains strong, from 1 Corinthians 13 :4-7.

Roger said on Thursday, don't you just enjoy meeting someone that is full of lvoe, full of the Spirit. He said he met Noel in the parking lot and got that feeling. When someone meets you, do they get that feeling, of wow, I want what you have! Lvoe is hard, I would say impossible, if we do not fully accept the first commandment, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind. Because it is not our love that is being shown, it is God's lvoe, isn't it? I do not think it is in our nature to be patient and kind, not bragging or jealous. Only through our relationship with Jesus can we over come ourselves and become the kind of disciples God is wanting us to be.

When Roger says, the sower, God throws out the seed into all parts of the world, I was reminded of you guys. When Matt asked what does lvoe look like, I think of all the things you all make sacrifices for. It is our job to go out, spread the seeds and let God do the rest. For the last several years, you have gone out to camps where there were no seeds and have scattered lvoe everywhere. You make a place of refrug where the seeds of lvoe have been choked out by the weeds and now the seeds of lvoe are being allowed to grow again in fertile soil. You pick up our friends and take them to your house. You take them to the store. You take them to the doctors. You visit them in jail. You sing in chapel. You preach the Word. You pray. You prepare a meal. You serve a meal. You buy groceries. You build a house. You visit our neighbors. You hand out groceries. You hang up clothes.

All of this done with patience, with kindness, in truth. There is no jealousy, you do not brag. Lvoe is not about us, Lvoe does not come from us. Lvoe is all about God and allowing His lvoe to flow through us. Thank you all for allowing this amazing transformation to happen. What a special group of followers you are.

Have a great weekend. Lvoe to all. Amen and Amen

Services

Dare I say, in this part of the world, we had a hint of fall weather this week. Only got to 92 a couple of days! Hopefully more to come.

With our van in the shop for repairs, we took our own cars to visit our friends. It was kind of nice driving around down town in "undercover" cars! The first response we got when we stopped, didn't recognize ya'll without the white van! Turner is doing fine. Richard was being Richard and we sat on the tailgate of one of our trucks and listened to him give a recap of Genesis, priceless! Shawn's camp was filled with some of our old friends. Dave has moved away from Big D's and is now in the vicinity of the bridge. Juan was there, just getting out of jail, seemed to be doing ok. For those of you who do not know, Tim has been arrested and is in jail until September 17th. The sad thing about all of this, he will loose his job, his income and both he and Dale will again be out on the streets. We need to continue to be there for them and show God's lvoe.

Tuesday evening, we had a good group of men, coming together for our Bible fellowship. Matt read from Mark 7, talking about worshiping traditions instead of God. Why does man put so much emphasizes on traditions rather than worshiping God? Jesus said, you show honor with words but your hearts are far from me. The things they teach are human rules, their worship of me is worthless. We need to remember, this is all about God not us. If we do not put God first in everything we do, then it is worthless.

Wednesday, Ms Lisa, Krysten and Joey mapped out a plan for our after school activities. They want to continue the type of building of relationships they had during the summer, so they want to make arts available to the children. They talked about having Monday as music day, Tuesday working on the computers, Wednesday being art day, Thursday reading day or something along those lines. We talked about having special guests join us, maybe have Momma T show them how to bake cookies, have Ms Patty show them how to plant seeds. Do you have special gift or skill you would like to share with the children? Email Krysten and let her know, she is in the process of making the schedule. We plan to start our activities the first week of September. We need a name, Arts in the afternoon?

Thursday morning, we had our first slab poured of the JJ houses. Pictures are up on our face book page. Want you all to know, how much this is a God thing happening. Time after time we came across road blocks, for those of us who have worked with God, we come to know this is not expected. But for those who have not done work for the Lord, it is exhausting and frustrating. As you try to comfort those who are wit's end, you draw upon your faith and obedience, knowing God will working it all out. And then, on Thursday morning, you get to experience the awesomeness and joy of God when it all comes together. One other aspect of all of this, is this construction company, in the business to make a profit, decided to donate all their time, materials and labor to the pouring of the slab, a huge cost savings to the building of the house. God is soooo good!!

Chapel was especially good Thursday afternoon. Gus drove over from Longview and we were treated by his singing and playing of the piano. Then Pastor Eddie's wife, Jean and a friend sang a couple of songs about the love of Jesus. Flying high already, Pastor Eddie talks about the lady who had a bleeding problem for 12 years and one day pushed through the crowd and touched Jesus' robe and was healed. Pastor titled his talk, we all have issues, what do we do with them? He had an alter call and a young man came forward. Sitting in chapel, I was reminded of our discussions Tuesday night about worshiping traditions. Looking around our chapel, we had folks of different colors, we had children, we had a dog sitting with his friend, we had folks in shorts, we had singing of different types of hymns. As Pastor Eddie said, God wants us just the way we are, not worshiping traditions but worshiping Jesus Christ. Awesome!

Next week we will have Pastor Roger from Grace join us, along with Spencer playing his guitar.

We talked to Pastor Eddie, he will be out of town this Sunday. We will be joining Pastor Eddie and his wife at Bright Star Baptist at 11am September 2nd. The church is located on Southern, a block south of 70 street. Come and join us if you can, he would love to have us all.

Ms Abbie and her crew fixed grilled cheese, salad and oranges for supper. That was after she had put together 60 bags of groceries. Ms Abbie works tirelessly for our community and is a huge blessing to us all.

Dawn, Dr Phil and I stopped for a moment and focused on God's word later Thursday evening and read John 8. Our lives are hurry, hurry, run, run, God's word has a way of making sense to it all. I needed that time, thank you guys for being there.

Prayers were lifted up for Pete's wife Carie. They have a long, strenuously battle ahead of them in her fight against her bone cancer. They will need all the support and prayers we can give them. Prayers for Ms Sarah and Mr Scott as they travel back from their beach vacation, hoping their time together was good for their souls and spirits. Prayers for the Doctor who mistakenly left their baby in the back seat of his car at LSUMC. Such a tragedy. Prayers for our children as they grow into adults and start their own families. That they are able to make good choices and have the willingness to ask for help from mom and dad if needed.

Has everybody signed up for the Brookwood 5k run? Have you contacted your friends, family, your church, your coworkers? mr brian has signed up, like Joey, may try the fun walk. It is an honor to be selected as this year's recipient, let's support them as best we can.

This Saturday at 8 am Airline Baptist will bring a crew over and begin the renovations of Bright House II. Ms Sarah, put us on your list of a youth painting project! The man in charge is the partner of the construction company who is helping us build the house. What a blessing this company is, please come out and say thank you to Mike and everybody.

I got a phone call last Friday from a person needing some assistance. It was hard to hear them, but the thing that stuck with me was, the question they asked, what services do you offer? I have been thinking about that all week, what services do you offer? What a strange question, but one I guess you ask an organization who is in the helping business. Not sure I have been asked that before? I started to think, would you go to your mom and dad and say, Mom what services are you going to offer me today? Or go to your Uncle and say, Uncle Jeff, are your services available on Saturday?

Ms Lisa, in her writing of grants and trying to put in words what we are about, asked, why is common ground different than the other 96 non profits in the city? I guess now, my first response, is we do not offer any services, we offer lvoe. We offer a meal to our friends, we share with our community the clothes we have, we provide a bag of groceries to our neighbors, not out of obligation but out of lvoe. We have no clients only family. Chapel time is a feeling of family. Yes, like all families we have issues, but we all can come together and worship.

Common Ground is about family, not about services. If your family is hurting you help through prayer, your presence or your shoulder to cry on. Common Ground is not about Common Ground it is about God. As long as we put God first, blessing will flow. It is not about traditions, or attitudes, or agendas, we must get past all of this, it is about the lvoe of Jesus. We talked about Thursday evening, man messes up so much when it comes to loving God. We put so many rules and regulations in the way, we loose sight of what we are about. God is about lvoe, plan and simple. Lvoe your God with your heart, mind and soul and then your neighbor. That's it.

It is an honor to be a part of a community where God is the leader. Where God comes first. Where there is no one greater than He. May we stay focused on God and His will for our lives and our community. We have such prayer warriors in our mist, His will be done. Amen!

Have a great weekend, come and join us in the fun!

Weakest link

How was your week? Lomax, we want some of your California breezes! Or maybe we could all take a road trip and stay at one of your community houses!? Do they have 25 couches? Hot, hot, hot!!! around these parts, hopefully it is not as bad wherever you are.

Last Saturday morning, we were treated to a breakfast fit for a king. Gus and Joey cooked, scrambled eggs, biscuits, and gravy. Yummy! Thanks guys, very nice.

Mr Scott took us around on our visits with everybody doing alright for the most part. Richard said he was going to start saving his money and try and get him a place, we'll see if he is at his gas station this week? We then went by Dale and Tim's camp, to find no one. Through the help of Matt's wife Ms Vicki, Tim now has a steady job and doing great. He has gotten him a room, so he is not living outside right now. For those of you who have not heard, the police raided Dale's camp and put him in jail. Dale is out now and staying with Tim. We have not heard where Rebar is? When we pulled up to Smokey's camp, we were greeted with a crowd of folks. Obviously the word is out on the streets, the white van hands out underwear and batteries. It is becoming another Labor Ready stop. We need to talk about how to get back to visiting Smokey's camp.

John and Karl continued to work in the kitchen all morning long. Told John Wednesday evening, this place is beautiful. The stove is standing and thanks to our plumber hooked up with gas and ready to cook! The ceiling tiles are in. The gas is hooked up to the water and we now have hot water! Cabinet doors are in, or most of them, with their hardware provided by Momma T. We are close to our final inspection! Amen!

Monday afternoon, was headed into the center to do some painting and a couple came up behind me. They introduced themselves to me and the lady wanted me to look at her wedding photo album. They had come by a little earlier in the afternoon and was given a tour of the center by Allison. Come to find out, they were married in the sanctuary and grew up in the church. She had pictures of how the sanctuary looked 38 years ago. She had pictures of the church parlor and the fellowship hall. They want to come by and video the center and share it with their church in Houston so maybe their youth can come and help out. They want to buy one or two of our new pews when we have our auction. Pretty cool.

Tuesday evening, we moved our men's Bible fellowship from the chapel to the friendship room, too hot in the chapel. Mr Matt was on a much deserved vacation, so we muddled through our discussions. We read from 1st Timothy about what the characteristics of a deacon or elder of a church should look like. We talked about how we should practiced those attributes in our lives. What do people say about us? Do they see God in us or something else?

Summer camp has come to a close! Wow, that was fast. It seems like yesterday we were talking about our new interns arriving and now they will be leaving us. It has become a tradition the last couple of years, to close out camp by taking the children to Splash Kingdom. I know the children had a great time because they were worn out Thursday afternoon for our chapel and meal time. Thank you all so much for sharing your hearts, your passion, your lvoe with our children. You have made a difference in their young lives, something they will always remember.

Thursday, we were treated to Pastor Jackson singing and sharing the Word with us in chapel. It is amazing to me, Ms Abbie walks in, starts playing the piano, Pastor starts singing and praising begins! Haleuia. Thank you so much Ms Abbie for sharing your gift of music with us. Pastor and his wife stayed after chapel and prayed with some of the community.

Ms Judy prepared our meal and was enjoyed by all. We had  special guests attending, Ms Amanda called our local fire station and invited the fighters and they all came, trucks and all. I kind of wanted to climb into the trucks and turn on the siren and lights, but they wouldn't let me! Maybe next time! We hope they will come back as often as they can, it was very nice to have them. Thanks Amanda. Ms Abbie and her ladies handed out the grocery bags with lots of stuff in them.

We had a new visitor join us Thursday. Tim Barnes from St Luke's Methodist church. He is the youth pastor. He has been looking for ways to plug into folks who are reaching out and said he may have found a place. We will see how all of this develops.

After our meal and clean up, we gathered for our Bible study reading from John 5. We talked about Jesus asking the 38 year old paralytic, do you want to be healed? My first response, was, well duhh. But then we talked about, do we really want to be healed? What does that mean, what does that look like? If we are healed, changes need to take place, are we sure we want to do that? As Momma T said, living a life for Christ is much harder than dying for Christ. When you die for Christ, you make one decision to die. When you start living a life for Christ, decisions are made constantly. Are we sure we want to do that? It is hard, but what blessings come out of it.

Prayer concerns: continue to lift William up in his attempt to be healed! Joe Barfield continues to be in the hospital. Went by Tuesday evening to visit with him and Joe seemed to be doing ok, hoping to come home Wednesday. They determined Joe had pneumonia and he needed to stay in longer to get it under control. Lift up Carrie Bollinger, Pete's wife. They have a long battle in front of them and will need all the prayers and comfort God can provide. Icee Joe said, Little Joey is doing better, treating his condition with medication. Prayers for Big Joey. Joey has been accepted into seminary and will start classes in the fall. Pray Saturday morning our van continues to limp us through our visits. Mr Scott had challenges last week and Icee Joe will have those same challenges this week! Prayers for relationships with our children, that they become one that glorifies God not Satan.

Pastor Jackson talked about in chapel this week about the Body of Christ. Talking about no part is more important than the other. The head is not more important than the feet. Or the arms are not more important than the eyes. Have heard the story many times, but Pastor also talked about the weakest link. We are not complete if we do not help our weakest link. In our weakest moments that is where we find God working.  It says in 1st Corinthians 12: 26, If one part of the body suffers, all the other parts suffer with it. If one of us are going through trials, we all need to be there for each other. Being a part of community, when you suffer we all suffer. It is a blessing to me, knowing when I struggle, you guys are there for me. Thank you all for being the Body of Christ.

Hope you all have a great weekend and a great week. Amen!