Monday Night, December 17th

Tonight at Monday Night Bible Study at the Maxwell House, we had an appreciation service for Sharon. It was beautifully done. It last for ever though! At 10:00 we were finally getting cleaned up and ready to go home. We had fed a whole mass of people, and then a whole slew of them came at the end so we fed them too! Which meant that none of us got to eat, and I was starving. But God always has a plan. While we were cleaning up, there was a lady coming up and down with her grand daughter, who was just under a year old, and we were able to minister to her. Frank was so worn out because during the service, he had just poured out and poured out from preaching then serving then praying and prophesying over people. It was amazing, but he was wiped out.

So the lady we met, Theresa, was absolutely precious. She loved the Lord and was saved, but she was going through so much pain in her life. Her husband had passed away in February and she was hurting so much from that, and her son had gotten a tooth that was infected, and the infection entered his blood stream. He was in ICU for an entire month and nearly died! He was upstairs in her apartment resting. He was 22 I think. Her daughter had already moved in with her along with the little baby. I just held her while she shared with me her hurts, and let her cry and cry. Then we prayed for her.

Then we left with Sharon, Regina, Pastor Adrian, and Frank and I. We went looking for some place to eat. We were so hungry! We finally found a Krystals that was opened and went through the drive through and sat in the parking lot and ate and fellowshipped.

When we left from there and got back to the Maxwell House, I noticed two young men that were walking down the street. As we sat in the MH parking lot at midnight, these young men came over to the building and tried to get in. You have to have a pass key to enter the building, so they couldn't come in. They went over to the dumpster and pulled an old blanket out. You could see their breath in the cold air. It's supposed to get to 19 tonight. So we drove around and gave them the rest of the food we had, prayed with them, gave them some blankets that we had in the van, and also gave them each a duffel bag with a pair of socks and a hat and gloves. They were so very thankful for those! It was a Divine Appointment! By the end of the conversation, we had one salvation, as well as a backslider who was ready to jump back in and get in right relationship with Jesus! Isn't that awesome?

A Special "Thanks" to our Faithful Volunteers

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Thanks GIVING!

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November 25 Peterson Preaches

Bet you're surprised, aren't ya? But ya shouldn't be. That little dude's got a lot of "preach" in him. Peterson spoke on a very difficult subject to speak on: SIN. But he did it with love and was able to convey his message without any one coming away feeling condemned, judged, or worthless. By the end of the service, we had several people up at the 'altar' confessing sins and getting in right relationship with the Lord. It was quite beautiful.


We ended up meeting in the Summit Room again. It was a tad bit nippy outside, with a little bit of sprinkling. We still had a great turn out. Today's breakfast was a traditional after Thanksgiving meal....hot turkey sandwiches. Don't worry, it wasn't actually left overs. We made a whole new turkey the night before and served it shredded with gravy on really yummy rolls. It was a nice change for me instead of the same breakfast casserole and potato soup, however, we did have several people really MISS that breakfast casserole! LOL!


We had an older man come in and growl at me and get really nasty with me while I was serving him breakfast. I was like, "Puh-lease, you see "L" over there....if I can handle him and watch God transform that man, you're gonna be a piece of cake." hahahaha Well, one of the other people who know him well told him to knock it off with his gruffness, which he didn't seem to appreciate, but eventually, we loved that mean-ness right out of that fella. And Frank got the opportunity to pray for him (and get rid of some oppressive spirits). He really enjoyed the teaching and at the end of the service went home and came back and gave Frank a hundred dollars for the ministry. Isn't that something?


During Peterson's message, he talked about how we all have sin, and how we are in bondage to it, but don't need to be, and how we have the power to overcome that bondage to sin. I guess you'll just have to get the DVD, cause it was awesome. And at the end of his message when he had a call for salvation, he had anyone who wanted to repeat the sinners prayer to do it audibly, and quite a few people said it out-loud. Even the saved ones, which is ok, it helps others not feel so intimidated and on the spot. Well, when I was "peeking" (yeah, I was) I saw a reflection in the mirror of "L" who was sitting quite a ways in front of me. And he was repeating the prayer!

Now, Frank will sometimes do the same thing Peterson did, have everyone who wants to repeat the prayer, then tell ya if you said it and meant it, and did it for the first time, to come let one of the prayer team know. But "L" has NEVER repeated it on those days. Ever. So I am very hopeful that he DID mean it when he confessed it. I keep praying that God will please, PLEASE, let me KNOW that he has accepted Christ before he dies. I just don't know if I could stand not knowing for sure. When the time is right, one of us will ask him. He's a strange fella, ya know.

After church Sunday we headed to the hospital to see "S". She is in her early sixties and didn't get to come for Thanksgiving. She and "C" (her boyfriend and living companion), however, did invite a few people from the boarding house they live in to come, and they did come. We found out that "S" wasn't feeling well that day, had some dizziness - that sort of thing. We were so disappointed that they didn't get to come, but sent home a meal for them for later. Well, later she came out of the bathroom and she either lost her balance (from the dizziness) or tripped over some loose carpet in the hall, and literally fell through the wall. We have seen the hole in the wall, and it's alarming, to say the least. Well, she suffered a very serious head injury and was bleeding in the brain. She would have died had "C" not known what to do. He was an EMT at one time, and knew the symptoms of brain injury, and called an ambulance. She had immediate brain surgery and has been in SICU ever since, recovering.

When Frank and I got there to see her, we did not recognize her at all. She was swollen and her head was shaven all the way clean on one side. She had at least two large incisions and staples pulling them together. I couldn't believe it was her. We visited for a few minutes and prayed with her. She did recognize us, but was very, very disoriented and didn't make much sense. I found out on our next visit that she is also going through alcohol withdrawals, which accounts for a lot of her agitation and confusion.

Before we went in to see "S", as we approached the SICU entrance, there were a few people standing there waiting to get in to see a loved one. We still had on our t-shirts from church, so we were a walking advertisement for ministry. The mother said, "Yes, I do need prayer," in a desperate and despairing tone. So we spoke with that family a while, ministering to them in prayer and words of comfort, and the mom just laid her head on my shoulder and cried and cried. Bless her heart. Her son is 22 and was in a serious car accident and has extensive brain damage. His name is William, so ya'll pray for him while you pray for "S, if you would. There is a lot of "out of the walls" type of ministry out there, just waiting for our availability. Everywhere we go, people are hurting, hurting so bad. We need to be available and then God will do the rest.

When we left the hospital, we stopped at Arby's to finally eat something about 3:00. When we were done, we walked out of the restaurant and started for the van when we heard a crash. There was a car accident right there on Walton Way. So we walked over there to see if anyone was hurt. One lady was shaken up, and understandably frightened. In the other vehicle, the man was ok, shaken and banged, but the lady with him was hurt. She was 54 (although she looked MUCH older) and had possibly a broken arm and broken leg. She was crying and very scared. Her name was Betty and she told me it was her birthday. Nice birthday, huh?

I stayed at her side til the ambulance got there, and prayed with her and tried to keep her calm. Then while they were working on her, I went to the lady in the van. I didn't see what happened, but it was probably that lady's fault because of the way she was acting. She seemed to feel really, really bad. She did let me pray with her though. I'm glad no one else was injured. I think that Betty will be ok, and I pray that she really didn't have any broken bones. She had a lot of 'padding'. :)

Then we drove to pick up "C" and take him to see "S". She didn't even remember that we were there just 2 hours earlier. We visited a few more minutes then took "C" home. We got his car and had him follow us to the gas station to fill his car up. He is unemployed, and did not have any gas in his car to go back and forth to see "S." While we were with him, he asked us to pray with him cause he was struggling with some addictions. We prayed with him at the gas station, and he was a little teary eyed. Everything in his life was falling apart. He and "S" had just gotten off the streets and had been in a boarding house about a month when they started having trouble with their addictions again. It's so sad.

The enemy was just beating the mess out of "C". The guilt, condemnation, the whole nine yards. We just have to love him and not judge him. Sometimes that is very hard to do when you see someone continuously making the same bad judgment calls. But addictions are difficult to overcome. It can be done, but it takes a lot of patience and love on our parts while we wait on God to do His work. God is patient with us, and we need to be patient with them, don't we? So finally we made it home and collapsed. It was a looooong day. A day filled with ministry and seeing God move, but boy was I ready for bed early!

(I don't know what to tell ya about these pictures....they are not in order and I'm done fidgeting with the photo thingy~ LOL~

Thanks GIVING!

If ever I could say an event involving food, decorations, music, singing, gifts, volunteers, and hungry people went off perfectly, this would be the one. I am still amazed that everything happened Thanksgiving Day just exactly how I had envisioned it....down to every detail. It was definitely a God-honoring banquet.

First I'd like to say Thank You to those of you who made this happen. It seemed like we had an unlimited budget in this dinner, because every time I would buy something, more money would just come in and replace it! God was so good to us in planning this event. The love and support that YOU gave for these people, overwhelms me. Everything was perfect. Everything was beautiful. And YOU made these people feel like they belonged to a family and that they had value. I just start to cry when I think about the people, and their expressions and their gratitude. Some of the comments were "this was Top Shelf", and "this was better than eating at the Marriot," and "this felt like a family dinner."

Thank You for being used of Him to love them "like Jesus."

A few of us had gone in the night before to set up the tables and decorate. Nick Carnes had set us up in a nice building owned by the Presbyterian Church that he works at. We had a lot of fun getting things ready, and moving things around. Frank Peterson was our Facilitator, and he was doing a very good job at keeping each and every detail perfect. Steve Jones was also heavily involved, and did a remarkable job getting things set up for us. And keeping us laughing. That dude is hilarious.

The day before Thanksgiving, I was set to make quite a few side dishes, a ham, a turkey, and stuff the bags and get the place cards ready. By early in the afternoon, almost all of the cooking had been taken off my hands as some people that the Petersons know had called and wanted to do the cooking and serving. What a blessing! I still didn't go to bed til 2 a.m. but if I had to have done all that cooking....I would not have gone to bed at all! So THANK YOU!!!!

Then on Thanksgiving morning....it was show time! LOL! By the time Frank and I arrived, Steve and Peterson had the turkeys going in the fryer. Several volunteers were there and already working and getting things ready. Jose's wife, Kathy, came and she did an EXCELLENT job directing traffic in the kitchen and serving areas. She handled everything with such grace, she was not pushy or bossy, she was just perfect. And I can see now why she is employed as a Volunteer Coordinator. She is excellent at her job. She was a tremendous asset to us Thanksgiving Day!

All of the volunteers worked so well together, even though there was such a tiny kitchen, they all just moved like clock work and really seemed to enjoy the tasks they were involved in. I was so impressed with how God pulled all of it together.

Once our guests started to arrive, they were given a name tag and their names were written down for the drawings we had later. Then it was time to start the music and Jose really ushered in the Presence of God with his anointed music. We worshiped for a little while, then Frank read a few things from the Word. We prayed and then we were served our dinner. It was so yummy! The food was excellent. The presentation was beautiful. It was just all perfect! I was able to have my children there and really enjoyed taking them around to meet all of our church people. It was a good day.

Then it was time to give out the door prizes. We had 6 gift bags filled with goodies.....a blanket, a package of socks, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, lotion, and facial tissues. You would have thought these people won the lottery! LOL! They were quite excited about winning those gift bags!! I have an awesome story to share with you in another post about a guy named "A" who won one of the gift bags, and what happened to him...stay tuned! (Well, if you read backwards....you already know!)

Then Samantha pretended to call Frank Peterson's name out. The look on his face was really funny. We had Nicki Carnes embroider his name and A Church Without Walls on a black apron as a Thank You gift for doing such a good job facilitating the whole event. I think he was embarrassed. ;)

After that, we had these amazing duffel bags for the guests. We had ordered them the week before and they got here at 7:30 p.m. the night before Thanksgiving! They had "A Church Without Walls" imprinted on them, and we were able to put a pair of socks, a toothbrush, and a knitted hat with matching gloves into each bag. Everyone was so excited to receive those bags. They felt so loved and so special. Thank you to "you know who(s)" for those items!

Oh, we had some first time visitors too. We even had a man come that we got from the "highways and hedges".....literally. (That story will be told later....) There was also a group of 3 young people who came and as soon as the girl walked in, she said, "Ya'll are going to LOVE this!" We were right in the middle of playing some great music when they walked in, and I know they felt God there. I sure did!

After dinner, we were also able to give each person a to go box that was FULL of food, and no one went away empty handed. It was exactly how we wanted it to be. Then we packed up the rest of the to go boxes and Sharon took them to her building at the Maxwell House and fed probably 25-30 more people. It was like the loaves and fishes. So much food left over. Praise God!!! When I looked at the to go boxes that were left over, we used 78 of them and gave them all away! That's a lot of food! God is a God of ABUNDANCE!

Well, meanwhile, last Sunday we noticed that "L" had worn the soles out of his shoes. He probably walks no less than 10 miles a day. So Peterson went and got him another pair this week and we were going to give him the shoes on Thanksgiving. But guess what? He didn't come. I was so disappointed. When we were cleaning up, he showed up. Bless his heart, he had gone to ANOTHER Presbyterian Church quite some distance up the road and waited an hour and a half before he finally gave up and went to the soup kitchen to eat. I was so broken hearted! We gave him a to go box, and his duffel bag and told him to meet us at Sharon's to get his shoes. (We had to get him away from all the rest of the peeps....it would not have been nice to give shoes to only one person! LOL!)

When we got to Sharon's building, he had ridden "P's" bicycle up there. He took his shoes off and Sharon grabbed the Germ X to wash his feet off. He has so many sores and blisters, and that Germ X was not a good idea. Fortunately we had some hand soap, paper towels, and bottled water in the van, so we grabbed that and we scrubbed his little feet clean. We also gave him a nice foot massage and dried him off real good. I wonder when the last time he had clean feet was? He was so embarrassed though. He kept telling us to stop all that fuss. Then, Peterson says, "I know what "L's" thinking." We all stop and look up at him and said, "What?" Now you have to imagine all the fuss that was going on over "L"s feet here. The tender loving care we were taking, putting band-aids on the blisters, washing between his little toesies, drying them really well, the whole nine yards, and Peterson says, "He's thinking there is no way I'm letting these people buy me under ware."

I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe!

So, that was our very climatic ending to a very good day!

But do pray for Nick Carnes. Bless his heart. He ended up going that very night and having to have his appendix removed! So keep him in your prayers. I feel so bad for him because he was feeling lousy on Thanksgiving, but he stayed there with us and never complained.

Enjoy the pictures. Hopefully the PhotoBucket will play for you. I have pics of the ThanksGIVING Dinner, and some pics of the volunteers working very hard cleaning up.

Totally Behind

Sorry! I'll get it together soon.
Our school schedule has been kicking my behind this year.
Stay tuned!!

I LOVE THIS VIDEO!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpVsF4W8V2Y

Check it out....awesome!~

Let's take Jesus to the mall!

Frank and I both used to work at the mall early in our marriage, and I remember always saying, if I did not have to be here, I would never come to the mall. I am just not a mall rat any more. I mean when I was a teenager, it was a good place to go, lots of fun clothes to try on, really cute boys, a great place to hang out, the whole nine yards. But that ship has long sailed. When I had to go to the mall because my job was there....oh the drudgery! I do NOT like going to the mall!

So when Samantha called me the other day and said, "Hey, ya wanna wear our Do You NEED PRAYER t-shirts and go hang out at the mall and see what happens?" Guess what? I got excited about the MALL!!! hhahha So Sam, Pam, and I went to the mall today and ate lunch in the food court and sat there with our really cool shirts on, waiting for Divine Appointments. When we first got there, Pam was having to run an errand first, so Sam and I went into Yankee Candle to kill some time. Apparently we went in there for a different reason....as soon as we went in, a lady responded to the question on our t-shirts with an enthusiastic and expectation filled YES! She needed prayer for healing for a condition that she was dealing with and some testing she is going to have done later next week.

After we finished praying with her, we found out that her husband runs one of the outreach ministries down-town, and is literally just a few blocks up from where we meet. And he is big into discipleship, so we will go visit them later and see what kind of things they have to offer in Biblical studies so we can point people that way....let the NETWORKING begin! And she said she has seen us many times before when she drives by there on Sunday mornings. How cool is that?

We also prayed for lots of other people while we were there, different people having different needs. I loved that our shirts were so capable of drawing attention like that! Whooo-hooo!

We decided to start going into stores where most Christians wouldn't step foot, at least with out a disguise on anyway, and see what God did with us. We targeted the darkest stores, or the stores with the worst reputations for drawing in sinners. One particular encounter we had was kinda funny. Here we are wearing these Do you NEED PRAYER t-shirts and we walk right in to Fredericks of Hollywood. We struck up a conversation with the sales associate and got to talking about our church down-town and God and etc and finally asked her if we could pray for her. She said absolutely and told us she was seeking God's direction, that she wanted to KNOW what He wanted for her life and wanted to just know it the way we knew that we were supposed to be doing A Church Without Walls.

So we said let's pray now, and she was surprised! She didn't expect us to pray now! Hahahah....so we were like you must be thinking we can't pray in here....there are crotchless panties in this store! LOL! Well, we prayed anyway and it was great time in the Lord!

Well we actually had one specific store we wanted to go to.....we wanted to pierce the darkness! There's a shop called Hot Topic. I don't know if you have a store like that where you live, but it's a store that caters to the goth market. We went in there and looked around. Wow. Is the devil clever. Lot's of stuff in there, lots of death related things. But when we walked in there and brought the Presence of God with us, the devil started wettin' his pants. So much so that when we came back later when we passed by again, we knew we had intimidated him and his little defeated ones, because the first time we went in, the evil was right there right when you went in, it was scattered throughout the store too, but you could definitely sense the demonic when you first entered. We had quietly been praying through out the store, hoping God would give us a person to talk to, but instead he had us lay hands on the baby clothes in there and plead the blood of Christ over what ever baby would end up wearing those death-inspired baby outfits.

Well, when we went back the second time, I noticed that there wasn't that strong of a presence of the demonic in the beginning of the store....but it did seem concentrated toward the back. Way cool.....the lingering demons that we didn't get the first time all coward like little weenies in the back corner of the store! hahahah Our God is BIG! So we told them to scat too. We did strike up a conversation with one really scary lookin' employee, so essentially, we were building a repore' with him. Who knows what will happen the next time we walk in there? hahahahah The darkness has to flee....we are a city on a hill that can NOT be hidden!

Anyway, Pam had to leave early to go get her little one from school, and as she was leaving she called me on the cell to tell me that the UPS man that we had passed on the escalator earlier.....told her as she was passing by to pray for him. How cool is that? So she told him she had to hurry but that Sam and Tammy were down by the Bath and Body Works. (Actually we were IN the Bath and Body Works) We never did see him though, but we looked for him! We are going to pray for him anyway.

We got there at 11:30 a.m. and left at nearly 5! Whew! Long day! But as we were leaving we asked God to give us one more opportunity for ministry. We ended up with a table in the food court of high schoolers who wanted prayer. Mostly scholastic related prayers. We grabbed hands and prayed with them. When we were done, the girl holding Samantha's hands said, "Wow, I just feel so much peace right now." Whooo-hoooo! That powerful love-juice was flowing right outta Sam's hand right into that young girl! Yay God!!

All in all it was a great afternoon filled with lots of opportunity to bring the Kingdom into the mall. Yay God!!!

New Initials

I've been using A C W W as our initials, because that makes sense. However, we have collectively decided after a suggestion from someone outside the realm of A Church Without Walls, to change our initials to C W O W (which will be a Church With Out Walls) because we think the idea of having W O W in our initials is totally cool. Cause lets face it, we get WOWed every time we watch God do something supernatural. Does this matter? Not really, but from now on I'll be usin' those initials when I'm trying to abbreviate in later posts. Make sense?

Monday Night Preachin' and Good Stuff!

Frank went to the Monday night Bible study down-town at Maxwell House and got to preach a bit. There were THREE salvations!!!! And he was so excited and higher than a kite when he came home about how God was just showing up and people were getting ministered to, repenting, crying, rejoicing, etc.

Sometimes when I start to write stuff on the blog, I think about who might read it and how they might think about what I tell them that is happening, and I get a little worried that some of this stuff might freak 'em out a bit. But it is what it is. God is Who He is, He does what He does, and we don't have any control over it, well, I guess unless we inhibit Him by our box we want to put God in....(grieve not the Holy Spirit Eph 4:30).....but we don't want to serve a God that we tuck neatly inside a box and have Him do what we want Him to do on our time schedule, fitting into our printed programs....we want to yield completely to what He is doing, and if He's doing something extra-ordinary....well, who are we to get in His way and stop Him? We want all of God. Actually, we want MORE of God. All and More that He has for us.....and it's GOOD stuff!

Anyway, Frank said the Power of the Holy Spirit was so thick in the room that when he prayed for some of the people, they couldn't stand up. He said it was POWERFUL good in there! Have you ever felt His Presence so strongly that you can't move? It's awesome! He told us about a man who came up for prayer and he prayed over him and the man started to stumble backwards under the POWER of God...then looked at everyone and said, "That's good!" hahahah He also said he prayed for another lady and when he was laying hands on her, she just passed out (as if dead) and laid in her chair, with a blissful smile on her face! Good stuff....God is moving.....WOW WOW WOW!!! And there was one lady that came up for prayer but said she couldn't stand for very long because her knees were in bad shape, very painful and difficult to stand for a long period of time, hard to walk places. So Sharon anointed her knees in oil, and they prayed for her and then Frank said "Try to do something you couldn't do earlier." So she starts to walk around the room, and then she starts to walk faster and faster, and before long she is exclaiming that the pain is gone! Then Frank asks her to march in place...so she starts to march with her knees up high and says she has not been able to do that in a long time! Whoooo-hoooo! She was pretty excited about it, as you can well imagine!

Then they had the fellowship time where they all sit around and eat, but Frank said that the Lord was still working, and he ended up praying with people some more, praying especially for the people who had just gotten saved. He said there was one guy there that was so excited about what he saw God doing, a new babe in Christ, that he came up and grabbed the anointing oil and anointed Frank in oil and laid his hands on him to pray. This is WHAT Christians are SUPPOSED to be doing....no degree required.....no 101 course necessary. Just do it!

September 16 - Totally Cool Stuff AND...AND a DIVINE Appointment at Krystals

Oh my goodness! This was probably the BEST service ever! I can't even figure out where to begin.... OK, so just the highlights, as there are so many things to report....PHEW! It first started with a phone call that poor Jose' was sick, and would not be coming to play the worship music. So we prayed for Jose' on our way to church and also prayed for him later together as a church body.

When we got there, there were already so many people waiting! So a few of our regulars came over to the van to help us unload all the stuff and to set up the table and get ready to serve breakfast. Last week in our small group, the six of us talked about how after church service is over and we are in the process of cleaning up, we get an onslaught of about 10 -20 people who come by to finish off the rest of the breakfast food and drinks. We decided that we didn't want to miss an opportunity to minister to these folks. So our plan this week was to make sure that each one of us grabbed one person at the end and asked them what we could pray for them about. It's interesting now, looking back, at how we were blind sighted this week. It won't happen again, that's for sure, we are onto Satan's ploy....

As we were unloading the casserole dishes and getting ready, about 25 people came out of no where and got in line to eat. So we served them breakfast and they cleaned out one of the coolers! And it was so cool! But we fully expected these folks to stay for church and thought we had plenty of time to minster to them after the busy-ness settled, but they just really came through like a bunch of hungry caterpillars and munched their way through the park and left after throwing their trash away! LOL!

But that's ok...cause you know what? We loved on them and fed them real good....and next week when they come back....and they will.....we will get 'em.....reel 'em in like little fishies! Can't wait! So anyway, my gosh, we served like 65 people today! Then we turned on the CD player and started playing some music. The next thing ya know, we are up there singing "Shackles" (take the shackles off my feet so I can dance...I just want to praise Him, I just want to praise Him) and dancing and praising and doing the electric slide! Alright now, try to steady yourself if you have a 'religious spirit' cause it only gets better!

So we are all up there dancing and gettin' our praise on, and the people are totally gettin' into it, praising God and worshiping. It was awesome!! Like a big ol' JESUS block party! Whooo-hooo! Yeah, you can dance at A Church Without Walls. So Steve gets up and does the morning announcements...which he totally rocks at....and breaks out into a mini Bible lesson and just totally had everyone really into it. He started talking about how the devil has been attacking all of us so heavily this week, and how we need to do some warfare against him, and get in the Word, and a few other things that I can't remember, but it was really good.....he is after all....a rock star. ;)

Then he introduces his wife Samantha to come up and pray for us......and she totally charges hell with a super soaker! Whoa! I'm tellin' ya, that sistah's got some "preach" in her! She talked about how she lost her job and how she wasn't going to let Satan have the victory and she was....I'm tellin' ya....ON FIRE.....right then and there...you could just SEE God all over her! It was way cool! She was jumpin' up and down and gettin' excited and that was gettin' us all excited, and the atmosphere was just being ripped open with her prayers for God to come through and take over! Whooo- hoooo!!!

Then Frank started to preach....he preached on intimacy with God.... And he commented that he wasn't even sure what he was going to preach on until the last minute....because he had something else, but God changed his message and told him to preach something else, but didnt' give him the something else until right up til just about time to start.....and he obeyed the Holy Spirit.....but the cool thing was since we didn't have a sound system this morning, we had to all pull in closer so everyone could hear....so while he was preaching on being intimate with God.....God was also pulling our church congregation ('bout 35ish of us this morning) together in a more 'intimate' setting....WAY COOL!!

So he starts off saying that whenever we hear something about being "intimate," we might immediately start thinking a "booty call." So he says God doesn't want a booty call, He doesn't want a one night stand....He wants the long term relationship, the closeness and affection that comes from really getting to know us, and not from us just getting from God what we want when we want it, He desires a more deeper intimacy from us.

Well, as you can imagine, everyone was rolling on the floor laughing at how Frank was talkin' about it.....at their level of understanding. He did an outstanding job. He really brought in some of the characteristics of God and Who He is. Then he did a sinners prayer and I saw one man repeating it. He was sitting close enough to me that I could hear his words. How cool is that? One more for the Kingdom!!!

Oh and at one point in the sermon, he had everyone stand up and repeat something and stomp on the ground as if we were trampling the serpent under our feet...it was a powerful tool to activate their faith...and we all got excited over using our weapons of warfare (the Word). Way cool! And several people came up again this week to give testimonies of the life transforming POWER of God....what changes have been made in their lives since they have been seeking Him. Several people came up and testified that God had given them JOBS! How cool is that?!?! Even "L" got a good paying job this week painting trim! God's effecting change down there! Whooo-hooo!!!

Well, as we went up front and were praying for people who wanted a more closer walk with God, those who wanted to press in for deeper intimacy, when I was done praying with someone, Samantha, Pam, and I were standing up there with the CD player playing How Great Is Our God....and spontaneously I called for all the ladies in church to come up. We stood in a circle and held hands, all together singing that song...worshiping God. It was so sweet and tender and loving and all together awesome! I can't even describe it. Something happened today in the spiritual realm, something supernatural, that broke through a barrier and brought the women together in unity and in celebration for Who God is and Who our Saviour is....and for a good duration we stood there singing and praising and praying.

Then I prayed, then Sam prayed, then Pam prayed, then I prayed some more. When I looked up, Samantha was going around the circle laying hands on each lady, praying for each one individually. It was so amazingly awesome to see her so out there for ministry when she had gotten so beat up this week! Yay God!!!!

Then I was telling the ladies that when we hold a little baby, the baby will snuggle in close to us to express his love to us the only way he knows how. And when a puppy comes up and licks your face, she does it because that's how puppies show love, and it's expressed differently than a human shows love. And because God is a Spirit, we show our love for Him differently too.

The Bible tells us to lift up Holy Hands to Him in praise. So we lift them up as an expression of love and adoration for Him. And guess what? They all lifted up their hands and started to worship Him with hands held high! It was totally cool. And I talked a little bit about offering sacrifices of praise, even though we had a bad week, like when we had our bank account cleaned out by a thief, our circumstances do not need to affect how much we praise God.

And then I told them that if it does, if it's hard to worship, then we offer it in sacrifice. The ladies were really enjoying God's Presence, and I encouraged them to lift their voices and audibly praise Him...and they DID! Whooo Hooo! It's all for YOU Jesus!!! Oh my gosh, we stayed down there forever today, praising, dancing, praying, singing, praying, praying, praying! Then we got ready to go and were packing up, and we were still all high on the Holy Ghost!

Frank was telling me about one of the regulars who has been coming, one who wants A Church Without Walls t-shirt....which we totally need to get some more of......can not wait!.......and Frank prayed for him and then he hugged him, then they both about fell over because the power of the Presence of God was so heavy and strong right there when they were praying. It was awesome!!

This same man, C, is so pumped about our church that he went to a public place where you can use a computer and print out stuff, and made flyers that he has posted all over the city inviting them to church!

And then another fella, Willie, came up and spoke to Frank about his week. We bought Willie a really NICE duffel bag to keep his stuff in, and it got stolen. All of his clothes, his Bible which was heavily highlighted, and his notes. Frank had been giving him his sermon notes and encouraging Willie to go to the Marina and preach. So even though he was bummed that he had all of his possessions taken (we gave him another Bible, btw, but it's kind of a girly cover, but he needs a large print, so he said he was happy with it), he said that he had gone down to the Marina and was sitting there on a bench. I guess he was trying to muster up enough courage to get up and preach. Well, a girl came over and sat near him and he could see she was crying. Frank had given him some scripture verse last week and said, "Willie, this verse is for you" .....he can't remember what verse he gave him, but whatever it was, Willie said that God used that for him to minister to that girl.

She was upset and crying and had come down there to jump off the bridge, so Willie was able to minister to her about her suicidal thoughts and got her into the hospital! Whoo-hooo! Awesome!!

Remember "Y"? Well she came today, she was sick last week, and had a residual cold going on. She was pumped about starting her new job, and A Church Without Walls was able to get her a couple pairs of black pants so she could have her outfit for Red Lobster. Yay God!!!

And this was interesting....one of our members who we visited her dad last week for the heart transplant, came this morning crying that he wasn't doing well. She is friends with "L", and he hugged her and said, "Don't worry, He's got it." Ok....so how cool is that? "L" giving comforting words about HIM?! Yep...God is moving!

Later on we got in a prayer circle before we left with the few folks that were lingering, and guess what? Just guess? Yes! "L" got in the prayer circle with us! At first I didn't think he was going to, but the man next to him reached over to grab his hand, and "L" did NOT want to hold his hand - told him he didn't know where that man's hand had been so he did NOT want to touch him, so Pam ran over there and grabbed his hand and said, "Here, hold mine, Mine are clean." Then Sam runs over and grabs the other hand, and there he was, in the prayer circle...he even shut his eyes! LOL!

We spent a little more time hanging around and fellowshippin' with the street people until we finally decided to go. We were going to go to the hospital and see M's dad again. So we were making plans and getting things straightened out for what we were going to do the rest of the afternoon.

While we are packing up, Peterson tells me that we need to get "L" some shoes. I look at his feet and yes, he definitely needs new shoes. His one shoe looks like he had a "blow out." It was awful. So we decide to take him to Walmart and get him some new shoes. He is so humble about it, he says he doesn't want to put us out, and he thinks we have better things to do, blah, blah, blah...and finally we snatch him and take him to Walmart.

We decided to drive across the river and go to the one in North Augusta, but because it's Sunday, we can't buy anything til 1 p.m. because South Carolina has a blue law. It's about 11:30 at this point. So we go to the Deans Bridge Walmart. And the whole time I'm like thinking, Wow...are we really going somewhere with "L"? I mean that same dude who was so hard to get to know, and now we are totally in his social circle? Whoa!

So we get to Walmart and go to the shoe section, pick him up a package of socks, and Peterson is helping him with the shoes. We let him get whatever he wants, and all he wants is a plain black pair of sneakers. Peterson helps him pick out some nice ones, good quality nice shoes, and he's down there kneeling on the floor, untying "L"s laces on his old tattered shoes, and fitting him for new shoes....it was a TOTAL Christ-like moment. It really reminded me of Jesus, Who knelt down to wash the disciples feet.

The love Peterson had for "L", the servant-hood he had, wow, I'm just in tears thinking about it. So we get in line to pay and stand in the express lane for stinkin' ever. Finally we get out of the store and into the van. Peterson helps "L" get his new shoes on, again, another Christ-like picture. I was just in awe.

Then "L" starts bouncing around in the shoes, taking a few steps this way and that, and is marveling at how comfortable his shoes are. He is on cloud nine about those shoes! So we leave Walmart and look for a place to take "L" to lunch. There's a Pizza Hut right there, but they weren't serving the buffet and we didn't want to have to wait for an order so we decide to head to McDs. Then suddenly Frank says he wants to go get Krystals.

So we are driving across the street to Krystals and while we are waiting at the red-light, he asks Frank if he can ask him a question. Now let me back up to last weekend. We went to the lake with the Petersons and had a great time. But at one point when we were getting ready to leave, we all headed up from the water to the picnic area to pack up. Daniel and Adam (both 6 years old) and Caleb were all straggling behind us, but suddenly we hear the Peterson's older daughters screaming for Adam. Somehow, both littler boys ended up back down by the shore in an instant, and Adam went back into the lake and was swimming for the ocean... My goodness, he was way out there in the deep. Peterson took off down the hill and jumped in and got him safely to shore. It was a real "bay watch" drama. Praise YOU God that it wasn't a bad turn out.

So "L" says, "What do you believe about premonitions?" At this point Frank and I are both thinking, um, is he talking about New Age junk or the supernatural stuff God gives ya? So Frank probes a little bit before he answers and "L" shares with us that when we had told him about Adam at the lake, that several days before he had dreampt that that happened. So I told him that I often will have prophetic dreams like that too, and sometimes God gives us them as warnings or just for things to pray about, then he said, "oh yeah, that's what I meant, prophetic dreams, not premonitions, premonitions is New Age, I meant prophetic." Which totally got me excited because he is really exploring God more openly now...how cool is that?

So he and Frank had a meaty conversation about that sort of thing. So we pull into Krystals, get out and he is still bouncin' around and talking about how good his shoes feel. We walk in and immediately my eye is drawn to a girl sitting off in the corner. She is strung out on probably crack or meth. I have never seen anyone strung out and on a high like that before so it was pretty wild to see. And God told me He had set us up for Divine Appointment. As soon as He whispered that to me, Frank leans over to me from behind my ear and says, "Divine Appointment?" So God was up to something, wasn't He?

So we order and I'm watching this girl and I have NO idea what I'm supposed to do now. I have only had experiences with drunk people, and one or two stoned on pot, but this was big stuff. So I told God that this was way beyond my capability. He told me that was ok because it was right up His alley. :) As long as He's driving, I'll go along for the ride.

So we sit down to eat across the table from crack-girl and "L" is sitting with his back facing her. Because she is totally tripping out, she is doing some odd things. One of them is laughing hysterically and jerking uncontrollably. She twitches every now and then, and scratches herself here and there very often. And talks to herself in a low mumble, often staring into space, getting wide-eyed as if she was hallucinating, then laughing uncontrollably.

Then "L" keeps looking back at her because at first he is taking her laughter personally. Then she speaks to him and asks him how old he is. He says 74. (Still not sure if I believe that). So she says she is 28. He gets growly and grumpy and says real snotty like "Well thank you for sharing that bit of information with me, but I really don't care." Then he rolls his eyes and says she must be on something.

So we eat, and while I'm watching her and waiting for direction from Holy Spirit, "L" gets so mad he turns around and says, "What's so funny woman?" She says, something mumbly and says she is laughing at him in a good way. Well, "L" doesn't agree and he growls back that he doesn't appreciate her laughing behind his back like that.

So we talk a little about how she is on something and "L" has seen this type of thing before so he says probably meth or crack. And because "L" is being so growly and snarly I tell God that I don't think this is a good time to give us a Divine Appointment with a crack-addict while we have "L" here. And you know what else? I have been waiting to get me a drugged out prostitute for weeks....ya know...I want to see the Power of God move on someone in a desperate situation, but I'm seeing this as really bad timing.

Did you know that God knows more than we do? I mean, what we think is bad timing, He's got completely under control!

So "L" says he is going to go outside and smoke a cigarette....and no ye of religious spirit, we don't point out every verse to him about defiling the temple. We just love him where he's at. Just like Jesus loves me where I am at. And loves you where you are at. It's a total LOVE REVOLUTION!

As he's walkin' out, he turns to the strung out chick and says, "You need to get yourself cleaned up." Then walks out. Well, that was the best he could do, ya know.

So Frank and I go over and talk to her. I had already tried to strike up conversation with her when I refilled my drink, which went ok until I started to offer to help her. Then she said I was breathing on her food. What-E-ver. I told her that we would help her if she wanted and to just let us know. She did tell me her name was Tina before she got agitated with me.

Well, Frank starts to talk to her and she is just wasted. She is not even a personality in there...just a shell of a person with nothing inside to grab hold of. He makes a little head way with her, but when she looks over at me she gets upset again and says I'm breathing on her food (she had none at this point.) So I back off because I see that I am being a hindrance. Don't worry, my feelings were not hurt. :)

Well Frank offers to pray for her and she doesn't want it, and she is so hard to understand, and so incredibly plastered that we decide to go ahead and leave.

We get out to the van, and "L" is coming up behind us. We turn around and there she is, too, following us, staggering. She asks "L" for a cigarette. He gives her one and she lights up then stands around us and doesn't make an attempt to leave. So Frank talks to her some more, I try to keep a distance because each time I approach, the demons in her get her upset. No problem. She does agree to let us pray for her though.

Meanwhile, "L" leans over to me and says, "Do you find it odd that we were going to go eat somewhere else, and then we find ourselves here at this very moment talking to this girl like this, like it was meant to be?" I said, "That's called a Divine Appointment, God sent us here specifically for this girl."

Now what got me was that "L" GOT it that this was a Divine Appointment. He said, "It's like this whole thing was orchestrated."

Are you gettin' glory bumps yet? I mean this is BIG! And I was so worried that having "L" here would be an issue, and the whole time God did this FOR "L's" benefit! He showed him something today! I don't know why, but He did. And "L" was totally gettin' it and totally WOWed by the whole thing. And to top it off, Tina was really drawn to L. She talked to him and looked him in the eyes a lot. He was there for a purpose.

So Frank is ministering to her, and every now and then L speaks something to her, and I can see compassion start to over take him. He starts saying things to me about how sad it is that she let herself get this way and got involved in this kind of lifestyle...

Then she says she would like us to pray for her jaw to be healed. I then realized that it was pretty swollen on one side, and she clenched her teeth and it just crackled. She said it was broken, she broke it a few months ago, but she didn't say how. If she did, we didn't understand what the heck she was talking about.

So we get out the anointing oil and she totally FLIPS out. She starts running away from us and telling us not to touch her with that anointing oil, then says a whole bunch of other things that don't make sense...about the oil is bad luck and disciples can't have anointing oil and she doesn't want that near her.

So L says "What are you a disciple of?" She starts saying something about the apostles and Jesus Christ and that it's bad luck to have oil and something about ashes, and then there's this really long string of mixed up doctrine from just about every religion out there. So we wipe the oil off our hands, promise not to touch her, and she is just going nuts. And it's clear to me that the demons inside of her do not want us to touch her and pray for her, or especially anoint her with oil for healing. They are clearly the ones operating here.

So after a bit, she calms down and we start talking to her some more and she says we can't pray for her because "disciples" (I think she meant Christians) only stay in their churches and don't come out to pray with people like her and that we can't come near her to pray because "disciples" are supposed to leave the churches and go "into the world" and they don't and we can't touch her. Wow, what a demon!

Meanwhile both Frank and I are quietly rebuking the devil and telling him to get away from this girl and submit to our authority and be quiet...

So Frank explains to her that hello....we are not inside a church building, we DID come out here to get her, that God sent us to Krystals specifically to minister to HER because He wants to give her freedom from her drugs and other issues. Eventually she admits she's on crack, shows us her hands that are stained brown and says something about something being cheaper, but it stains her hands when she smokes it or whatever it is she said...hard to understand.

Then she says that she wants to be free. Starts twitching and scratchin' her belly and mentions something about her stomach. I look at her I think in all honesty that she might have been almost 4 months pregnant. The girl was skin and bones, very dirty, wearing nasty rags, but she did have what looked like a slight baby bump. But I can't really be sure. God please don't let it be so.

Now one really cool thing is that after she calmed down and was going to let us pray for her, L said to me, "You know that's demonic. She was running from you when you brought out that anointing oil because the demons inside of her don't want you to pray for her." Can you even see how cool this is....that this self professed devout heathen actually has within him a godly heritage from somewhere and is very aware of spiritual things? I think that this L had been a very devout follower of Christ at some point...out there doin' the stuff....and something happened that pulled him away, and God is wooing him back to Himself. And we get to watch it happen!

Well, Frank and I did pray for her, but she wanted us to keep our distance. So Frank prayed off a few spirits that we discerned and L said he was watching her face and her eyes were flitting here and there and she looked like she wasn't paying attention and he said that the demons were basically manifesting openly. After she cleared up a little in her thinking, Frank did talk to her about salvation. She said she accepted Jesus a long time ago as her Saviour. Well, who knows, ya know? Maybe she did, maybe that's why God was there trying to get her back on track with Him.

I'll tell ya what, this was a long battle with this girl. She was a little bit clearer after Frank prayed, but she was also starting to get really jittery. She had smoked a few cigarettes and L didn't have any more to give her and she really seemed to need another one. Frank and L talked to her for a bit longer and tried to find a way to help her get somewhere, but she said her "white daddy Randy" wouldn't come get her. L told me that was probably her pimp. Well, how else is she going to pay for that stuff, right?

Eventually we had to leave her after offering her a few other options for help, but she said she'd get a ride. She didn't even have any shoes on. Just socks. What a shame. What a waste of a life breathed into her by a wonderful God, and she was shackled to that addiction and not wanting to get more help. But you have to think, if God went through that much trouble to get the three of us there at that moment, that He does have His eyes on that girl, and He does intend to fully deliver her from that bondage.

Maybe she is saved, maybe she received Christ as a child, or a teen, or who knows, and Jesus is just trying to get her back into His fold to walk in fullness. Even if we don't ever see her again, I know, I KNOW, that God is going to do something in her life. I just KNOW it.

Well, when we took L back down town he told Frank that it was really neat that the whole day was orchestrated like that. Then he said, "First I came to church, then Peterson saw I needed shoes, then we were going to go to North Augusta, but couldn't, had to come all the way to Deans Bridge Road, then we were going to eat at the McDs in Walmart, but they didn't have seats, then Pizza Hut, then a different McDs and it just seems like we were supposed to be right there at that Krystals at that moment."

HOW COOL IS THAT?!??!

Then Frank was talking to him about the "as ye go" type stuff and more about God, and I'm tellin' ya, that man knows some serious stuff. I think God is about to explode in L's life at any moment! Isn't it just the coolest thing ever how God orchestrated this and how L saw it as such? I can't wait to see what God does with him next!

Ok, there's more that happened down-town after we dropped L off, but it's like 1:00 a.m. and I'm going to bed! It's been a LONG day!

Satan's Attacks

Will he get off our backs already? Jeesh! You know there are enough churches in down town Augusta that the devil ought to be afraid to step foot in our territory, but instead, we have him ruling and reigning, and the Christians are the ones afraid to go down there! What is up with that? It's time for a change in the Body's thinking! We have power over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt us!

Well, our team has just gone down there into the enemy's camp and started taking back what he has stolen from the Body....precious lives! And since we are not intimidated any longer by his little demon called Fear....he decided to get us another way - through our finances.

First, the company Peterson works for had a change in management and even a change in the nature of what they do. So they technically laid off everyone, then rehired them (most of them) for different positions and pay rates. So Peterson was rehired (Praise God), but they started him at a substantially lower pay rate. UPDATE: Peterson received his regular pay back almost right away. They didn't even have to struggle with a pay decrease, because God fixed it and all was back as it originally was! Praise GOD!!!

Then in just a few days after that, Sam, who was a manager at a restaurant, loses her job! And this is a significant deal in their finances. Sam is the one who buys all the biscuits on Sunday morning and the hamburgers on First Friday. See the strategy of the enemy here? Samantha did such an awesome job of coming out of the element of fear of down town, and she is making a huge difference in our church environment, and Wham! This happens. UPDATE: Same is now working in a new business part time, and enjoying to a full extent her position as Laborer for Christ!

Then Frank and I took the kids to Hilton Head to spend the day at the beach. While we were there we ate lunch at an Applebees. Two days after we got home, we found out that someone there had used our debit card number (you know how they take your card with them to pay at the register and then bring it back) and wrote down the number, expiration date, and that security code on the back....and wiped us clean! We were negative hundreds of dollars because of the bounced check fees! Big mess! UPDATE: This took a while, but the bank reimbursed us for all charges!

AND Frank finds out some impending bad news about his job and some commission they owe him (and others in the company) and they are not going to pay it....we are still waiting for God to work it out there.... So, see, the enemy attacks, but he is messing with the wrong people! He has intimidated us NO LONGER! We are children of the Most High King, and Satan is a loser, so we are victorious! So we just went ahead and had ourselves some good old fashion devil chasin' Holy Ghost parties! hahahahah!

And.......when ya read for Sunday's Church service and Monday night's....you'll see that we are still marching forward...winning battles daily, and kickin' some devil bah00key in the process! Whooo-hooo! Our armor is a little dented, but we are still swinging our Swords! And I just praise God that He is a serious cool God Who has this all under control! And we are going to keep piercing the darkness!

You need gas, but it's really a Divine Appointment!

OK, so we went to the same mini-conference on Saturday night that we did on Friday night......the one where John Crowder was preaching. Oh my stars...can you just say AWESOME! Samantha came Saturday night and she had a very special and life changing encounter with God. It was totally cool! God is so real and alive and involved with us, it's just amazing!

Anyway, we leave the conference at around 10:30, and Frank is driving separately and Franklin and I are in the party bus....which as usual...needs gas...so we pull into a gas station to put some fuel in the tank. And I already have enough spiritual fuel in my tank that I can't hardly stand up! hahah So here I am getting the nozzle into the tank and this guy pulls up on the other side, diagonal from us. I say a nice friendly "hello" and he "hello's" me back. Then I say, "How ya doin'?" Now if you are reading this and you aren't from the south, particularly, Georgia, you may not understand that this is just what we do here...we exchange hellos and then say "how ya doin'" or "how are you". And the typical answer is "Fine, thank you, how are you" in which you respond "Fine" and then you move along.

But this fella, instead of giving me the requisite "Fine, thank you, how are you," he says, "Well, I'm really tired. I have had such a long day" which is all I needed for an open door into conversation. So I'm done puttin' some gas in the tank and he's still standing there and we are kind of far apart making small talk about his job and how his shift at work has changed so he's not used to working these late nights, and how tired he is, and how he has to drive all the way to Waynesboro. I mention that's too bad that he probably won't make it to church Sunday with such a rough schedule.

So we chit chat about church a bit and as he is putting the cap back on his tank, I start to walk over there and ask him if he would like me to pray for him about anything. He says that he would sure appreciate prayers for strength and continued good health, then asks me what church I go to. And since I particularly LOVE to talk about my church, I told him all about it, then I could see excitement build up in him and then he sheepishly admitted that he would like me to pray that he gets back on track with God, that he is not where he should be with his relationship with Him, and he knows he needs to be doing better.

So I grab his hand and start to pray for him, and God leads me to put my hand on his heart...I still don't know why God does that some times, but who am I to argue? So as I'm praying, God just starts down-loading stuff into me and I start to speak it out about his life....TOO COOL, and then I mention something about him walking in his destiny and I have my eyes open and I'm watching this man start to sway back a little from the Power of God, and when I finish praying for him he gives me a big hug. When I pull away from him, *I* nearly fall to ground! That weighty heavy Presence of God was just so WOW and I couldn't even hardly stand in the midst of Him. So I said, "Whoah!" And the guy indicates that he felt it too, and I said, "You have a powerful anointing from God on you....God has something really amazing in store for you!" And his jaw just drops because apparently I just spoke into him what other people have told him prophetically before and he is just so amazed that he had a God encounter right there in a gas station and that God had not forgotten about him, even though he was not actively pursuing God. It was amazing.

I had prayed for God to give him a supernatural hunger for things of God and a dissatisfaction for the crumbs left on the table, that he would hunger after the fresh bread and that he would chase after it and be filled up with new oil...it was totally cool. This guy was on cloud nine, and I was too! YAY GOD! I love His Divine Appointments, don't you?!?!