Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Our time together at the cabin was much needed and was really great. Our extended family, the Lymans, came out on Thanksgiving evening and we enjoyed spending time together over a few days. Friday we got to roll through Asheville - a very nice city with lots of artsy and craftsy kind of place. Folks there seemed be laid back and relaxed and UNC Asheville was a small campus which we got to explore. Saturday was more relaxed around the cabin and Sunday was church at Elevation Church which we had an entire row of peeps with us! I love when that happens and you can look down the row and I get this warm fuzzy feeling knowing that the people in my row that I am standing with, praying with, holding hands with, learning with and doing life with - I love these peeps with all I have. I would do anything for them and that I dont hide from. Sunday afternoon spent wrestling with the million leaves in the back yard. I put it off as long as I could and it had to happen.

As I came into work this morning, I asked God to help me be a favor finder for others. Help me to point others to the good things that they may be missing in their life, maybe something they are overseeing, maybe focusing on something tough and not so much in what that tough thing is doing IN their life, maybe its just a smile to say to someone - Hey... Its okay.
Today is my bosses birthday so I stopped at Bojangles on the way in for some country ham buscuits. I did not eat any of them in case you are wondering. I had a chance to talk with one of our students this morning and catch up a little with him. He is working hard in his personal ministry as he serves the homeless in our community. He spoke of a tent city that is not far from my house where people who are homeless stay together. I am amazed at where this is and I hope to catch him later in the week to organize going with him next time he goes to serve them. It really bothers me deeply that there are people right in my own back yard who are homeless. Who dont have money for food, have kids living in the cars and with the economy the way it is and people 1 paycheck away from losing their home or apartment or who are only 1 paycheck away from stepping back up to a place to live - it really hits home for me. The truth is as Carol and I were watching tv last night - A show came on and spoke about homeless children in america and 1 out of 4 live in poverty. This is just unaccetable to me as I think about Kyle, Kate, Morgan and Taylor and so many other kids I do life with - what would it look like for them if they didnt have a home? An address for their friends to come over after school? A place to be safe, warm, a bathroom and a hot shower.

As Thanksgiving becomes a past memory, the Black Friday crowds get their $48Billion credit card bills in the mail, and Christmas fast approaches - let us regain focus on serving others. Let us keep in sight the hurting around us and who could use a little help up. Let us serve together helping a needy family, offering a meal, a coat, a warm cup of coffee and a "Hey" that shares out of our hearts.
I recently was at one of Kyles band concerts a few weeks back and their is a mom who I see often and her daughter is friends with Kyle and its always good to see them. I came in after Carol cause I was talking with some folks, yeah I know imagine that, and I came over and said "Hey" as I entered their circle. She looked at me and said, "Are you always like this? I mean like, I never see you any other way except with that smile!" - It was a nice compliment and at times that smile is not on my face but most often it does. God placed things in my heart and focusing on those things keeps everything else in line. As I mentioned just this past weekend to one of my close kids - We have a very special relationship, being that, its one of a kind. God put us in each others life for a reason and He is behind all this. When we get distracted, too focused on friends, facebook, work or whatever and lose God in our friendship - it suffers. It was a tough conversation over some things but one that we both came out on the other side knowing we are testing and passing. Those things will happen in friendships. The ones that matter most, forgive, forget and love even deeper.

I want to close today with a little encouragement from Acts 4:8- Then Peter, filled wiht the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulders and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness being shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Jesus is, 'the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.' Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschoolded, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

God uses ordinary people, like me and you, to do unordinary things. God used Peter and John, ordinary people before they knew Jesus. After spending time with him, learning about WHO he is- God enabled them to do amazing things. Spending time with Christ loved ones, learning WHO he is and striving to be more like him in your daily life - he will use you to. People will notice something different about you. Your heart will burn and be more passionate about other things in life. Other things will break your heart and it will be all you can do to keep from not doing something about it. People hurting will have an affect on you. Children with tears will break you in half. Ordinary people doing unordinary things. Spend some time with Jesus, before the bills come due, the 5 pounds you gained this Thanksgiving, before the work or school week gets into week 3....

Blessing to you today and may this week you find Favor through Christ.
Lonnie~