Story of Community, "We do everything together"

84 days ago by Guest Author Post a Comment! » 1 people have responded

Written by Celia Gaynor

I cannot say enough about being in a community group, and my group is the best. Some of the ladies no longer attend: work, school and life happens (we went from 13 members to seven) but our enthusiasm has not diminished. We do everything together.

• We cry together, I’m the one with the big “C” disease that is supposed to chew you up and spit you out, but my teammates have formed a protective circle around me with prayer, fasting and more prayer and thanksgiving to the God who was, is and is to come.
• We pray together for each other, our church and the country in which we live. You should hear Polly pray sometimes. God hears all our prayers but I just might make Polly into a praying franchise. Sista girl can pray.
• We laugh together, now this I like because we are not talking those smiles we save for the public, I mean rock the house laughter, fall on the floor laughter especially when I tell them some of my crazy thoughts …like the night I was watching the CNN newscaster interview a guest in Louisiana about the oil spill. I was sitting with my brother watching the news and then there was this noise like a great horn, I was not sure if it was coming from the background noise on the TV but my ears perked up listening for that sound again and indeed there is was again. I couldn’t contain myself anymore I went to the window to look up because if those ladies think they were going to leave me here in this Rapture they made a very sad mistake. My Lord I was ready to fly. Don’t ask me why I even imagined they would be taking off from my back yard. Of course we all rolled with laughter.
• We study together, we don’t always agree on whatever book we are reading, but we all believe in the goodness of God’s love his grace and mercy. Our different points of view may vary but ultimately we will end in the same place, we just took a different route. Some use the GPS to get there, me, I like the scenic route, I want to see everything that is happening around me. Like the time we read “The Shack” and the first visual meeting between God and Mack. The door opens and it’s a large black woman. My first thought was “not here too” please don’t tell me God has a Mammy, I was ready to stop reading, in fact I did stop reading for a while, luckily for me I started to read on, because Mammy turns out to be “Papa” now isn’t life grand. You can imagine this called for another round of laughter from the team.
• We ate together. We dined at Micky D, that was great fun we didn’t want to leave at the planned time.
• We read the bible together; we have discovered things that we have read before over and over but with the sharing with someone else we can see more clearly. We love God; we worship him and give him all the praise.

Each of us brings certain strength or point of view.
1. Polly is our team leader
2. Patsy is our host
3. Sophia organizes, and offers other points of views
4. Maxine usually has someone in mind on her postal route to pray for and help.
5. Norma likes to think she is the Mom of the group but she is right there with the forward thinkers of 2010.
6. Mrs. Kennedy is much loved by all and is a great supporter of what we do.
7. And then there I am. Supporter, researcher, I’ve got to check things out. (I will always remember Pastor Guy saying “don’t just take my word for it, check it out, read your bible, it says it right there”) and I will always have another point of view for us to look at.

In all we are God fearing believers, we know that it is all about the cross, not the wooden beam but what Jesus did there. We are CHRISTIANS, Christians with hang-ups, everyday problems, childcare, daycare, sickness, and marriage issues.
Did I mentioned that we have a great group with all the problems of the world to go along with it, but as James 1:2, 4 says “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything “

Special thanks to Patsy, Paul and JR for hosting our group