Community Building

 

Community Building
Sunday, December 1, 2024 by Brave Knight Writers

 

We welcome our recent sign-ups and offers to guest blog. Watch for a future post from the owner of a company who helps set up businesses for those with a disability. Our family has experience in such matters, as one member became disabled—but went into business and even built a house.

The growth of our Brave Knight Writers community is exciting! Please remember to grab your free copy of the book we sent you. Make sure to check your emails, including your spam file, to find your free e-book.

We have a new book out this month. Check out             Instead, I cooked: you do the dishes

We love feedback, either by email or posted reviews on Amazon.

Guest blogs: we encourage authors to reach out to us, make our site about you and we will share your contact information if your submission meets our standards. Quality works can be shared free of charge on our friends’ page, it will direct interested parties to your purchase site.

If you aren’t an author but want to share your true story about courage or overcoming a challenge, please let us know, we may be able to help you express your thoughts. Our mission is to create a community where everyone shares, we don’t want it to be about us. Become a Brave Knight Writer.

Below are some specifications we adhere to.

We like our posts to be very pointed, every word counts.
Please submit a post between 1400 to 1600 word count.
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We hope everyone enjoyed a day of giving thanks, a grateful heart is large and filled with power.

One evening before Thanksgiving one of our granddaughters stopped by to visit. She’s about to graduate from college and plans to enter the medical field. With a love of travel and adventure, one of her options is to join the military. Since my wife is a nine-year veteran, our granddaughter hoped to gain some insights into military life. The visit lasted nearly eight hours so you can imagine we covered more topics than the military. One subject close to my heart involved the influx of people crossing our southern border.

While we welcome immigrants, a country needs to control who enters, and determine if they bring skills useful to our communities and useful in sustaining their own needs. In our discussion, I shared my experience drilling clean water wells in Central America, specifically Guatemala. The countries south of our border are gorgeous and rich in assets, there should be little need for anyone to migrate away from their established communities. The driving force is corruption and crime—both issues need to be addressed. Community building is the answer to the human condition, hearts offer the answer. People’s hearts need to be touched by the Holy Spirit. Our human spirit must overcome greed and a lust for power.

“Everything is meaningless’” (Ecclesiastes 1:2) Here we find a great point to ponder. Replace the word meaningless with vanity or futility. Solomon had it all, yet he found everything under the sun to be empty and void of meaning. Keep Solomon’s point of view in mind, it might appear to be depression, but it is not. In Ecclesiastics 1:14 “I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” The key is, under the sun, it references Solomon’s earth-bound perspective. A human life lived with no consideration of God, rests under the sun. From that godless perspective, everything is indeed “meaningless.” Ecclesiastes presents Solomon’s meaningless endeavors when viewed “under the sun”, or without God: human wisdom (2:14-16); labor (2:18-23); amassing material (2:16); life (3:18-22); competition (4:4); selfish works (4:7-8); power/authority (4:16); greed (5:10; wealth and accolades (6:1-2); and perfunctory religion (8:10-14). Keep in mind, Solomon does not say everything is of zero value. He posits that God adds meaning and purpose. So, what can we do about this?

As we drilled our well far out in the country, on a dirt road in an impoverished village, where the school well contained a dead cat and sewage overflowed from flooded latrines, I stood to watch a banana-harvesting machine pass. The machine towered over the rooftops of the village’s huts; the tires kicking dust. The machine likely cost more than the entirety of the village. The land surrounding the village was lush with banana plantations. If not for the village poverty, I thought I was in paradise. What would it take for the large corporations to gift sewage and clean water to this community? I am all for capitalism, but a healthy capitalist builds the community where he does business. The key to the human condition lies in strong healthy communities run by honest caring businesses.

A present-day example might be David Green, former owner of Hobby Lobby. He is quoted, “wealth is a curse” Green credited his faith and higher power as the "true source" of his success, noting that "God was the true owner of my business," He felt he had been nothing more than a steward. Green’s net worth was more than 14 billion dollars, nowhere near the wealth of Solomon, but nothing to sneeze at. Mr. Green gave it all away. Reference check, (ttps://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2022/10/27/hobby-lobby-founder-giving-away-company-wealth/10613377002/). My point isn’t to give away your source of wealth or income, but more to embrace the power and joy of a grateful heart. Let’s all work to build better, stronger families and communities. You don’t have to be a billionaire to help someone. Pass on the love to your children and grandchildren. Volunteer. You won’t need to look far for opportunities in your own community. Volunteer fire departments and churches are usually needing volunteers.

Traveling to impoverished villages in Africa and Central America, I witnessed the imbalance of basic needs and can understand the motivations to head toward what appears to be places of wealth. Desperation offers evil an opportunity to enter even good hearts. Corruption and crime fill desperate hearts with fear. Community building requires filling basic needs, not skyscrapers. It’s the stability of community which offers the true wealth of grateful hearts. Eliminate corruption and crime and allow the freed people to build dreams on their own soil, with the basics filled. The cost of drilling a well is out of reach to so many, it isn’t laziness. The average person doesn’t want to build an empire, they just want to be comfortable, free to pursue happiness, and support their family.

We welcome some companies we’ve noticed, new to our Brave Knight community.

Mhtlaw.com

Houstonmethodist.org

Mizunousa.com

Network Solutions

Twru.com

Praedicat.com

Ace-it.com

abilitator.biz