"Respond by reaching out to each other and our community, in love and support"

"So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.  You need to perservere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. "  Herbrews 10:35-36

I am very excited about our gathering this week!  One of the "Re's" that our Re: group stands for is "Respond".  We respond to the needs of our community by doing something to help those in need.  There are many ways to do this indivudually, but there's something about coming together to serve others.  The beauty of Faith Kitchen is that it offers both an individual way to contribute (donating food) and a more social way (group cooking).  There's also the opportunity to Serve (Oct 10), offering a chance to physically get out into the community and share God's love in a real & pratical way.  We have been talking about spiritual gifts and it seems that no matter what your gift is, you can find a way to use it in the Faith Kitchen Ministry!  Please keep those who coordinate, contribute to, and benefit from this ministry in your prayers.

There have been a few e-mails regarding the cooking we will be doing on Friday, but if there are any more questions, please reach out to Tammy, Paula, or me.  If you don't have contact information, please leave a post and I will get in touch with you privately.

A reminder that we will start at our regular time, 9:15am, with a snack & beverages, but we will be meeting in the big kitchen!  We will be baking the meatloaves & then freezing them, so we need to start as close to on time as possible, so that we can finish within our time limit.

While we cook up a storm, we will continue to talk about how we can use our Spiritual Gifts.  Come with ideas, questions, and suggestions!  Amazing things happen when we share our thoughts in open, loving, and trusting ways!  To quote Mahatma Gandhi, "In a gentle way you can shake the world".  I look forward to the gentle ways in which we shake our world.    

I am also very excited about the next book we will be reading!  A Confident Heart by Renee Swope.  This book changed my life!  And I cannot wait to read it again, with you!  If you don't have it yet, pick it up this week!  We will be reading at a faster pace than we have in the past - 2 chapters a week.  Please have the first 2 chapters read by October 11.  There is so much we can talk about in each chapter, so our discussions will hit the highlights.  We all come to this book with different experiences, so it will be beneficial if we are all on the same page (literally & figuratively) for our weekly discussions.  

The blog is a great place to post queries & comments about what we're reading throughout the week!  A notebook and the willingness to write in your book is a good idea for this study, too.  The reflection & discussion questions at the end of the chapters are for your benefit, we will discuss only a few of them each week.  As we learned in "My One Word", journaling, slowing down long enough to really process our thoughts through writing them down, is extremely beneficial.  You owe it to yourself to spend quality time with your thoughts and God's Word.  And like most everything in life, you will get out of this study, what you put into it.  Unlike many things in life, you will actually get more out of it, because as we live in the Holy Spirit, he will bless us with the Fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)

I can't wait to respond to God's love by reaching out to our community and to reveal our confident hearts through Renee Swope's book!!!  The next few weeks are going to be Remarkable!

Thank you for being a part of this group!  New friends are always welcome!!

Your Partner in Ministry,

Shelly 

"Kind words are like honey, sweet to the soul and healthy for the body."  Proverbs 16:24

P.S. My youngest brought home her first school library book, Love is a Handful of Honey.  I hope your One Word continues to be an influence and blessing in your life every day.