Gratefulness

I am just amazed at the way God is moving in our new mission at Mama Nita's. He's sending such amazing people to us to build our Mama Nita's family and renovate our house...Bernadine, who just lost her grandson, Lee in a fire 3 weeks ago has been coming to volunteer to fix out house up. Lou Tucker, a local plumber said, "I will do your plumbing work under one condition: you don't pay me for my service. Lisa Reeves Foster cleaned up so many dusty dirty clothes and washed them and dropped them at Good Will and threw the rest out the window into our 30 yard dumpsters.

Luke Yanko and Ben Bowers plunged into the grotesque basement with gas masks and cleaned the whole thing out to fill up another dumpster. Brave men they are! And Walter Malorie from the local Pentecostal church has come faithfully to look out for me and serve to clean out the house out of the goodness of his heart. Mary O'Connor, my dear friend in all this, has done so much also along with hauling away the tree branches we cut off from the jungle outside. And we can't forget Mike Givens and Mark Richardson who are both doing windows and electric at cost. Wow, thanks Guys! Jonathan and Johanna Mears who donated the electrical supplies and did most of the work also. Thanks Ray for chainsawing the trees down, drilling the ground rod holes and shootin' the breeze with us-- and thanks Gary Bebee for serving in so many ways too!

Then we were blessed by 20 Franciscan students who came this week to clean, paint and dig up roots from the bushes outside. It now looks like a home! You guys are amazing. They teamed up with the Big Red High school kids and both cheered each other on and got to know one another. I felt like a proud mother watching them interact. Chris Sparks, Anna and so many other Franciscan students have been coming down regularly to brighten our house and bring so much joy and life to us!
Romans 1:21 – Even though men “knew” God they didn’t “give thanks” and their foolish heart was darkened. The list goes on and on.

I am touched this week about the importance of Gratefulness... I am so grateful. I think Gratefulness is going to be a charism of our house because that grace needs to be revitalized in our city. It is the foundation of all virtues it seems to me. Romans 1:21 says that even though men “knew” God they didn’t “give thanks” and their foolish heart was darkened. Darkness pervades our downtown area. Join us in becoming Eucharistic people-- actively grateful is the meaning of that word, Eucharist.

Pray for me and for all of us please to allow this grace of Gratefulness to permeate our lives and overflow into the streets around us!