Jerry and I are hosts/facilitators for our CommUnity Group. We're a close group of friends, but more that, we have established an authentic relationship with each other through our common faith in Jesus Christ. We meet every-other Sunday in one of our member homes, do Bible study, a book study, or have in-depth discussion from the sermon notes from that morning. We've been doing this for about 3 years now, and I will tell you that there is nothing like having brothers-and sisters-in-Christ to spend time with, to study with, to pray with, and to share all the good and bad, happy and sad, easy and tough stuff in this life. We have such a level of trust within our group, each of us know we are "safe" with our friends. Later on today, 3 of our members will be leaving with a team of 7 others for a medical misson trip to Senegal, West Africa. They will be gone a total of 9 days, with 4 of those days being travel time. It's not an easy or quick place to get to! Last month, our church hosted a special Wednesday night dinner to raise money for the medicines, supplies, and additional costs due to "over the limit" luggage for this trip. Our group members served the meal, and fully participated in the silent auction of baked goods that followed. To say we have fun together would be a huge understatement. To say that we shy away from food, especially desserts, would just be untrue! These are pictures from that night. You can see that our table was not hurting for something sweet to eat! In all, the night brought in over $3500!!!! With 7 people going, and medicine and supplies for 5 days of medical treatment in the villages of west Africa, the money will be put to excellent use. We had such a good time, and now, as our friends are leaving today, we are prayerfully sending them on with anticipation and excitement for what the Holy Spirit will do because of their faithfulness to go.
