Can All Your Stuff Fit in This Room?

I went down to Grace Centers of Hope tonight with a small advance team to gather a bit more info for the mission trip. We wanted to do some more measuring, and talk to the men that live in the house. Our objective is to encourage the guys that live there, and that won't happen if we change their living spaces so much that they don't like them. It is a big challenge. Jerry lives in this room. It is 8'x8'.

Try to imagine it. You sleep in a room that is 8'x8'. Everything that you own is in that space. Everything. You share this room with another adult. Right outside your 8' space is another person and all you want is a little privacy.

Maybe you will join with me in thanking God tonight for all that you have. Think about all of the things you own. Could you fit them all in an 8'x8' space with your bed? And if you are like me, you have a list of other things that you want. And you will get them. And you will have space for them.

One of the things that strikes me when I am at GCH is how hugely God has blessed me. No matter what kind of stuff is going on in my life that I think is hard, He has blessed me with way more than I need.

So, if you join me in thanking God today, would you please pray for Jerry too? Thank you...

Normal Girl

Hanging with the Girls

I went with a group of women from church to Grace Centers of Hope tonight. Sometimes we go on a Friday night and spend a couple hours with the women residents. They are on lockdown on Friday nights. That is a night that invites trouble for people with addiction issues. So, tonight, we took bead soup. The girls there are like all girls. They love digging through the bead soup and making bracelets

Could you resist homemade chocolate cake? I had a crumb. It was fabulous. Every morsel was gone when we were finished.

While some of us were playing with bead soup and making bracelets, the rest were playing Apples to Apples.

This is Nevaeh (the little one). Spell her name backwards. When we first started going to GCH, she was a newborn. Now she is walking like a pro. She had an ear infection tonight, but showed off her walking skills for us anyway.

Some of the Moms wanted to make bracelets but were having a hard time wrangling kids at the same time. Story time with Miss Kathy kept them occupied.

That is one way to keep a curious baby contained......

We have started to develop relationships with some of the women at GCH. It is great to watch their progression as they get themselves together and come closer to graduation. What do you say to a woman who had her two kids living in a car because she had to leave her husband due to abuse, and was herself drinking and doing drugs....who now is clean, healthy and happy and working to pay for the house they live in???? Praise God!

Normal Girl