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?!?!

Healing...one way or the other, one end or the other

We went to Gracewood UMC for a mini-conference they had, featuring John Crowder. Now we have seen him before and liked him enough to buy the DVDs. So when we found out he was coming to the church up the street, we just had to go, and we took our small group with us. Now if he ever comes to your area and you really want to see a man that is totally in love with Jesus....this is your man. He was an awesome speaker and carries an awesome anointing of God on his life.

Now meanwhile, Franklin has one of his back adult teeth break off. So I took him to the dentist and she said he needed either a root canal and a crown, or have it pulled and put a bridge in there to keep the teeth from shifting as he continues to grow. The problem is, the root canal/crown option is not covered under his insurance and we can not afford to cover it out of pocket, and the extraction IS covered, but not the bridge, and she said the bridge would cost more than the crown/root canal, but is necessary if we pull it to keep the teeth from shifting. So we decided our only option is to make the appointment with the surgeon and have that tooth pulled, then use income tax refund money in the spring to buy that bridge.

Well Franklin says no, we aren't pulling the tooth, he wants God to heal him. OK, me too. So we start praying for him about that. He tells me that when we go see Crowder the following night, God is going to heal him there. Well, we have an appointment to see the surgeon that afternoon so while we are getting ready to go to that, he tells me he doesn't want to see the doctor. I tell him let's just go to the appointment and see what they say. He then tells me that if we go that is proving that I don't have enough faith that God will heal him. Um...ouch.

So I cancel the appointment and we go to the conference that evening. I'm telling you, if John Crowder ever comes to your area, ya gotta go see him. He's fabulous. So funny. Insanely in love with Jesus, doesn't even care what any one thinks about that, and really doesn't even live on this planet...he's off communing with Jesus on a continual basis. So obviously, the meeting was awesome, and the Presence of God was heavy in the room.

So Franklin is awaiting expectantly for God's healing power. We all stand up and Crowder begins to operate with words of knowledge. I'm waiting for him to say something about a tooth, but he never does. Instead he says that some one here has a stomach problem, it's been going on for a while, it's painful, and God wants to heal that condition tonight. I look at Franklin and ask him if he heard that. He didn't pay attention to what he said, he was just listening for a tooth related word.

So Frank tells him what Crowder said and asks Franklin if he wants to go up for healing about his stomach. So Franklin goes up and gets prayed for. Now what I need to explain is that we have taken Franklin to several doctors appointments since May....remember when he got sick at Six Flags? He has been sick ever since. Mostly stomach related that brings on dehydration. His stomach has been so painful and so irritable for all this time. We finally got the closest thing to a diagnosis when he saw his allergist last month. She suggested that he was having dairy issues. So we cut out all dairy for him, which is HARD if you have ever tried to do that because nearly everything contains dairy in some form, even most breads.

So as we are cutting out dairy and the poor child is starving to death unable to eat anything that tastes good, he starts to get a little better and only has a bad cramping and bad tummy episode every now and then, usually when something dairy sneaks in. And he is so unhappy. Every time someone wants ice cream or a glass of milk or cereal, Franklin gets really depressed. He just can not have any of it.

So anyway, he goes up, John prays for him, and then he comes back to me. He asks if he can go up and ask John to pray for his tooth. So he goes up, gets prayed for, comes straight back and there is no change in his tooth. So he gets really discouraged and begins to fight back tears. So I explain to him, and Frank explains to him, that sometimes healing is not instant. And we both gave him examples in the Bible where Jesus had people go wash in the river seven times or whatever, and just because he was not healed instantly tonight, doesn't mean he won't be healed at all. Then he says he wants to talk to John, so he does, and he explains the same things to him, tells him to keep believing and pressing in and not to get discouraged. Franklin felt a little better.

So we get in the van and I start to tell Franklin that whenever a minister who operates in the gifts of the Holy Spirit gets a word of knowledge about an illness, he is actually receiving supernatural revelations from God about a specific person and a specific illness, and the reason for it is because God wants to heal that person right there in that meeting, so that God can receive the Glory for it. He wants to heal us no matter what, but He sure does seem to like to do it publicly very often, so we and others around us can know that He is still the Great Physician.

I told Franklin that if the preacher called out his specific illness, then God was really wanting to heal him, and since he took that step of faith and went forward and received prayer for that illness, that he could go ahead and accept by faith that God HAS healed him, that it's a done deal. Then I said, "What do you want to do about it?" He said, "Well, I guess we should go get some ice cream then." So we head to McDs. Because it was a late hour and they shut down the machines early, we ended up getting him a double cheese burger instead. He takes the first couple bites and mentions that he is not experiencing ANY pain, no bloating, no nausea, nothing. So he eats the whole thing then the following morning eats a bowl of cereal WITH milk, and still....he is absolutely fine! He has been totally healed of this stomach ailment!

So Franklin is pretty excited about it and he has been like a dairy hog....I'm tellin' ya, we just need to buy a cow! So, you might be wondering about that tooth. Well, so am I. But who can know the mind of God? We will just keep believing and pressing in for that healing and I'll let ya know as soon as the tooth is healed...meanwhile, we are celebrating the healing on the stomach issue. That's good stuff! YAY GOD!!!

Sunday September 9th

It was another amazing day in the Son! We just worshiped and praised God and had a wonderful morning. Frank's preaching was anointed and we ministered to many, many people. We had at least one salvation, and many people coming up because they wanted MORE of God.

I want more of God too! God, give me more of YOU!!!! More of YOU!!!

At one point during the service, a neat thing happened, our musician, Jose, left his 'post' during the preaching and ventured across the street to the people who sit on side walk but won't come over. There he was over there praying for people. I LOVE that he was allowing himself to be used by God, and was totally following the Holy Spirit's leading. It was amazing freedom!

First Friday and a Happy Birthday

First Friday was AWESOME! So totally awesome! God is so AWESOME!

You have GOT to try to come down one First Friday and see what God does...it's amazing!

We had THREE souls birthed into the Kingdom! Whooooo-hooooo!!! How Great is Our God!!!

We got there and began with the usual, the band, the balloons, the signs, the praying, the cool t-shirts, and the atmosphere was super charged because of the Border Bash. That has something to do with football. Don't ask me...I'm a total girl. :)

Well, we got wind that "L's" birthday was this past week, so we had decided we were going to surprise him with a birthday cake on First Friday. But guess what he told us the previous Sunday? He said he was moving out of state! I about cried! I am not ready for L to move away! Waaaah!

Well, after talking to Sam, I found out he had told her something similar the Sunday before that...but a different state...in a totally different region. So BY FAITH, we bought him that Birthday cake anyway. I was so relieved, as well as pleasantly surprised when L showed up just a little after 7 p.m. I knew he was pulling our legs about moving. Well, at least I was sure hoping he was!

So I snag him and tell him to come over and look at this cake. He looks at it and says, "HEY! That cake has MY name on it!" hahaha

Well, he was overwhelmed. And we sung Happy Birthday to him. He got the first slice of cake, and I could tell that for the first time in years, he felt like he was part of a family.

And for the rest of the evening, every person that passed us by on the street that he knew, he told them about his birthday cake and that we sung Happy Birthday to him. It was an amazing thing to see God love on someone like that through a birthday cake. Later L told me that he has not had anyone get him a birthday cake or sing him happy birthday in THIRTY years! Thirty years! That's a long time. What a memory for L on this First Friday. And what an amazing breakthrough yet again, in the Spirit realm. God is good!

We also bring McDs hamburgers down-town with us to feed the many hungry homeless who are wandering around, as well as a cooler full of bottled water. Well, we had given L some food and water, but later in the evening he very politely and humbly asked for some more water. I told him he didn't have to ask....he could just go over to the cooler and get whatever he wanted out of it whenever he wanted. I said, "You're one of us." He smiled real big and said, "I know it." :) Super cool God!

Then about mid-way through the night, the worship band and the prayer team got together in a circle to pray. Since L had been with us the entire night, I invited him over to pray with us, he looked around trying to ignore us. So I said, "Don't act like you don't hear me...LOL!" Then he looked at me and said, "I think I'll just sit here and watch all this stuff so no one takes it while ya'll are praying." Well, that was just fine, the Holy Spirit is a gentleman, so I want to follow His leading and not be pushy. So we went to pray as a group and L did just as promised, he stood guard, and was happy to do it.

One of our other church members came by and hung out with us. He was so drunk. My heart was broken. I figured he had a drinking problem, it was just so sad for me to see him in that inebriated state, when I see him trying so hard on Sunday mornings to follow God. But we have to remember that the draw of alcohol is very strong, and we must never pass judgment against anyone for stumbling into sin. Instead, we just went over to him and loved on him all night long, continuing to give him food and drink and fellowship, and the love of God was released into him through our team. It's a God thing.

Frank prayed for him many times throughout the night. Then he did a curious thing. He asked for a balloon, like a child. A red one. I couldn't help but think that this is just how God wants us to come to Him, like a child. God cares for this man more than I do, His heart breaks more for this man than mine does, and I know God is working with him. I can't wait to see how it all turns out for him. It's going to be good!

Well, the rest of the night was just amazing. We had so many people stop by for prayer, and Jose had brought more people down with to increase the band. It was awesome. There were so many points in the night where you could just feel the presence of Holy Spirit so heavy. It was awesome. Right there on the streets of Augusta.

It's amazing what God will do through you when you make yourself available. How amazing is His love!

If you follow God...you get the goodies

Frank had me share this revelation with the church Sunday and I thought I'd share it here too.

The other day I had a bunch of errands to run. I got up and asked the boys if they wanted to go with me. At first they decided they would come along, since I promised them lunch at McDonald's. But then Franklin and Caleb decided to eat what was in the house and just stay home and play the video games all day. It would be easier and a whole lot more fun than following mom around from store to store to store. At least that's what they thought, anyway. But Daniel, on the other hand, decided to go with me.

Since I only had one child with with me, the pickin's were not so slim. He was able to get a Happy Meal instead of choosing something from the dollar menu.
:) Daniel wanted to know if we were going to get Frankie and Caleb anything and I told him no, they had food at the house, plus we were going to be gone a long time and we wouldn't be able to keep that food fresh.

After he got his chicken nugget Happy Meal and accompanying toy, we wandered off to run the errands. I had a lot of places to go and I needed to find some of those silicone baking dishes for Sunday's breakfasts, since they are unbreakable and easy to clean. First we went to Target where I had gotten a couple a few weeks ago, but they were out of them. Since we didn't have a time limit, I indulged Daniel in a little looksie in the toy department. Daniel made several comments about how Frankie and Caleb would have liked to have seen the new this or new that. We dawdled there for quite some time, ooohing and awwing over all the new toys. Then we wandered over to the other side of town to the other Target.

We got the things we needed, and Daniel and I spent several hours together with some one-on-one time, and at the end of the shopping trip, we decided to stop at the front of the store and get an ICEE. Remember those? YUM! So Daniel and I both got ICEEs and got Frank some ridiculously over-priced coffee drink from StarBucks. Daniel wanted to know if we were going to get Frankie and Caleb an ICEE, and since it was ten million degrees outside, there was no way they would have survived in the car in the next couple of hours of errands I had to run, so I explained to him that they wouldn't be getting a treat this time. Then we headed over to CompUSA to see Daddy....which meant that Daniel also got to go look at the X-Box 360 demo and play a few games. Then we headed to Walmart, and by then, it was time to eat again, so Daniel got another trip to McDonalds.

It was at the end of that long day that God showed me that He was revealing a picture of Himself and our relationship with Him. My older boys missed out on the goodies simply because they wanted to play video games rather than spend that time shopping....and while I certainly don't blame them, a striking parallel was made that when we choose to follow after the things of the world, even though we are God's children, we will often miss out on the goodies. Now my older boys' needs were still met...they had plenty of food and drinks at home, but Daniel went where mom went, so he got to have what mom was having. And when we go where God is going, we get to be a part of what He is doing, and we get the Happy Meals of life, and the ICEEs and the bonding that go along with it. When we abandon the things of this world and follow hot after God....we get the goodies!

get...get....get.....God's the One Who will end up gettin' you!

This Sunday my sister came down to A Church Without Walls with us. She was a big help with the food and greeting people, and she was used very mightily by God to reach the people. She loves to operate in her spiritual gifts and had an opportunity to do that this Sunday. It's kind of a funny story....

Usually at the end of the church service we get an onslaught of people who come by that are hungry and want to eat, so we feed them and give them water. These are people who will generally walk by and wait for the service to be over, then come and get what they can get from us. We are ok with that. The Bible teaches that the Word of God will not return void and that it will accomplish everything it is supposed to....and since Frank preaches outside, by faith we believe that God's Word is out there hitting the ears of people who need to hear it. So when they come by, even though they have sat across the street, or just walked up and down the street, we just love them anyway and give them food...they are hungry. Eventually, they will start to hunger hot after God.

Well this particular day, Jenny was serving food while the prayer team was praying with people. And as usual, we had the men and women that were coming by to get what they could get and then move on. And sometimes you might wonder if it's ok to feed a crowd of people who are so ungrateful for what they are given. I think the answer is YES. If there is one thing that I have learned about the lost, it's that they act lost. They aren't going to act like Jesus, because they don't know Him.....yet. :) And when you think about it, Jesus healed those lepers that didn't thank Him, and He knew they wouldn't thank Him, yet He still healed them...

My boys entered a fishing tournament last weekend, and the most important thing on their checklist to take was their tackle box.....the bait. It didn't matter if they used the Scooby Doo fishing pole, or the expensive rod and reel that the grown-ups use. The important thing was the bait. I believe when you fish for men, you need good bait!

Anyway, here comes this lady at the end, "B", while we are all up praying for people. She makes a bee-line straight to the food table and Jenny serves her some breakfast. Then she asks if there are any sodas left, Jenny tells her yes, and she asks how many? So Jenny says, "What would you like, a coke or sprite?" So this lady starts telling Jenny that she'll take the rest of the sodas in the cooler. Lotta nerve, huh? But we have to remember....the lost will act lost. So Jenny says, "You know, I'd love to give you more than one, but we still have so many other people down here who would probably like a drink too." So "B" says, "Oh, ok."

Then she asks if she can have just two more because her mom and dad that live in the apartment across the street might like one, and that they come to this church. So Jenny asks about how they are and she tells her a little about her mom and dad....mom in wheelchair, dad on oxygen, both elderly. Well, we have never had them come to church here, but Jenny goes ahead and gives her two more sodas anyway. Then she wants to take home a bunch of food....says it's for her parents. So she packs her a little bit of stuff to go, and then "B" see the Bibles in the box and asks if she can have one. So Jenny helps her pick one out, and then she says she wants three of them...one for her and one for each of her parents. So "B" takes 3 Bibles and a bunch of food and sodas with her, then comes back and wants 3 bottles of water. See how she manipulated the situation, saying it was for her elderly parents? Took total advantage of Jenny's good heart.

Well, what are ya gonna do......Sinners sin. Right?

Well, while she's at it, "B" starts to hit Jenny up for some money, tells her that all she needs is 3 dollars a day to survive on the streets. (BTW...I need to find out what the magic number about three dollars is...we get asked for three dollars all the time....not one dollar, two dollars, or four dollars, just three....) Jenny tells her that none of us carry cash on the streets. So "B" tells Jenny to tell us to come back down here at 5 p.m. so we can feed her supper, because she would like to eat a 5. I'm thinking this is comical, actually. I mean really. It is.

So here she is making her requests and begging off of Jenny and Jen says that "B" is just pretty whiny about being on the streets, not having money, and how we need to come down here during the week to feed her and blah, blah, blah. So Jenny asks her how she got to living on the streets....it's a interesting story.

She said she was an Evangelist. (OK...understand that a LOT of street people will say this to us thinking it will get them into our good graces....we are on the same team....their ministry needs finances, we should help them....we are all God's children, they are feeding the poor, getting people off drugs....just all sorts of things they think we want to hear) So here she is, "Evangelist B" and she says someone murders her oldest son and her second son is found dead on the streets. So she spends all the money she has to bury these two boys....they are adult age when they died....and now is homeless because of funeral expenses, and all she needs is 900 dollars for a headstone, so she is trying to raise money for a headstone.

While she's in "evangelist" mode, she starts reciting scripture to Jen. Well, obviously she does have the Word of God hidden within her. So she continues with the "I have nothing, my children are all dead, I need three dollars, I want to give my sons a headstone...." and on and on, and evidently she used scripture that sparked something with in Jen that told her to put an end to this mess and start warring with the Word.

So Jenny says to her something about her claiming she is an Evangelist, so she must know what God's Word says about her. And then Jen gets all these words of knowledge about this woman downloaded into her mind and just takes off with, "And since you know what GOD says about you, you know that you are a child of God and that God will supply all of your needs, but right now you are in bondage. You are in bondage to bitterness. You have let Satan come in and wrap a big rope around you right here," and she demonstrates a rope being wrapped around her waist, "and that rope has the words 'bitterness' and 'unforgiveness' written on it. And at the other end, Satan just pulls on that rope and you just willingly and helplessly follow where ever that rope is being pulled to. The devil just yanks you around where ever he wants you to go. And right now, he has pulled your rope and you have followed him into poverty because you have not used the Word of God that is within you to slice through that rope and be released from that bondage."

By this point, "B" is releasing a pretty heavy stream of tears from her eyes. Then she looks at Jenny and very tenderly says, "You're so right. I have allowed the devil to take and take and take from me, and I have not even tried to fight it off. I know better." So then Jenny begins to pray for her and prophesy good things that God has for her life, and then helps "B" break free from the bondage she is in.....

Then Jenny tells her that she needs to "sow seed" into her own life....that she has lack because she has been selfish, but God wants her to sow seed into other's lives, and since she says she is an "evangelist, " she needs to start walking in that. So "B" whole heartedly agrees with what Jenny says, and of course Jen made it a point to make sure that this lady was in fact saved, and she said that she was and shared her salvation experience with Jenny. As they are talking about sowing seed, and that the Bible says that there are those who sow sparingly that will reap sparingly and those who sow generously that will reap generously, "B" says she doesn't think she has anything to sow....Jenny says, "Sure you do." And "B" looks down at the bottles of water that she has in her arms and says, "I can give these waters away today, can't I?" So Jenny says, "Absolutely."

Well, by the time "B" left, there had been a transformation in her spirit. She went from being a greedy, selfish, gimme-gimme-gimme person, to a person who remembered that she was saved and had a Divine destiny for her life, and was freed up from that bondage and was now looking for a way to bless someone else that day. That's GOOD STUFF!




UPDATE: "B" popped in the following Sunday, but Jenny wasn't able to come. She came to look for her. "B" was clean, had on a nice dress, and was carrying around a container with some candles in it. She had found a way to make some money by selling candles instead of just sitting around waiting for the world to drop her a few crumbs here and there. She was brightened up in her face and stood taller. It was an amazing transformation!

Update on "Y"

She called me to tell me that she had gotten that job! YAY GOD !!!! So awesome!!!

She also was preparing to move into a place that the other church had arranged for her to get. Things are happening on the streets of Augusta.

I should also tell you that also every time someone comes up for prayer about a job.....they get it! Isn't GOD amazing! He is driving out the spirit of poverty on the streets! You totallly rock God! JESUS is King!

September 2nd

Another awesome Sunday.....it was a SON day indeed!
We had a great turn-out again, and the weather was just beautiful!

I am always amazed at the spiritual hunger we see, and yet I have no idea why it surprises me. God said that the harvest was plenty, and I'm tellin' ya what, the harvest certainly is! And we need to be gathering that harvest, and not let it sit on the ground and rot. I'm so blessed to be a part of what God is doing on our streets, and so humbled that He is allowing us to see His heart for the people. I can't express it enough how much I love Him! He is so awesome!

This week was just amazing. As usual, God was busy preparing hearts long before they got there. Frank preached on "Greater." Jesus said we would do "greater" things than these....wow, that's awesome to think about! That self-same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of us and has EMPOWERED us for great exploits! Whooo-hooo!

Anyway, when Frank had the alter call, he could barely get the words out when people just started coming up so fast for prayer. It was amazing! People were saying, "I want the greater things of God!" So we ministered and ministered and ministered! And Samantha ended up leading a man to the Lord, a man that's been coming for weeks....it was so awesome. She said she was standing there while a man was waiting in line to be prayed for, and I think she actually was part of praying with someone else and she just turned around and asked him if he knew Jesus...did he know if he died he would go to heaven, and he said he wasn't sure, so she showed him the Way and it was so totally cool! YAY God!!!!! It was so awesome for Samantha to be involved in someone's born again experience. WAY COOL!

Then one lady came up named "Y" who grabbed my hand and had this look of desperation in her eyes. She wanted something and she just was so choked up she couldn't speak it out. Finally she began to weep and told me she was all alone. He mother passed away last year, and within a few months her father passed away. And then only a few months later her husband had a sudden heart attack and passed away. And there she was, all alone. She said she was an addict, but was so ashamed that she had let herself get that way and that she had been clean for several weeks and wanted desperately to hold on to that, and she wanted "greater" for her life.

She told us that she had a degree and used to have a job in another state teaching high-school, but now she couldn't get a job here in Augusta. She said, "I'm very employable, I just can't get anyone to give me a chance." All she needed was a chance, ya know? So we prayed with her about a bunch of things, but specifically for that job. Paige and Sam and I sat with her for quite some time, listening to her and encouraging her.

As she was crying her nose began to bleed. She told us that she needed blood pressure medicine and couldn't get it, that she was applying for medicaid but because she was homeless, they wouldn't help her. So she found a family from another church that took her in so she was using their address to get the medicaid, meanwhile that church was trying to help her get an apartment and had agreed to pay her first months rent. But because she did not have a pay stub, none of the housing areas would give her a place to stay because she was considered a risk. So I guess she finally found a place that would rent to her, but she had to have a job lined up first, but they'd let her in with out the stubs. Of course this house is in the middle of a seriously drug infested area, so she confessed that she was fearful she would be tempted to go back into that life-style. My gosh, if you had seen her, met her, spoke to her, you would know that this one, this girl here, was one that really WANTED to do better, and if she had a chance, she would do better, and she'd be awesome!

She also told us she didn't have that family from that church to stay with last night because they had a house fire on Friday. So she stayed with one of the people from the apartment building across the street. Paige said she came over early Sunday morning to clean her kitchen for her. Then "Y" said that she just wanted to be around something clean. And she said she had taken the bottle of cleaner (Fabuloso) and dabbed it behind her ears just because she wanted so bad to smell clean. Like it was perfume.

As she was telling us about the house fire, she said that the EMT told her that her blood pressure was so high that she was at serious risk for a stroke. They wanted to take her to the hospital but she declined since she had no insurance. They made her promise that she would get her prescription filled. I asked her how much the medicine was and she said $34, so we told her we would take her to the pharmacy right now and get her the medicine. And you know what? She just began to cry.

So as we are talking with her, she tells us she applied at a restaurant as a server, and she had made it through the third interview in the process, but she said she thinks they won't hire her because she is homeless. So we prayed for God to open that door for her for employment and then decreed in the Name of Jesus that she would get that job, and told her it was a done deal. She is employed and that's that. After some more conversation, she told us she needed to get to a church on Gordon Highway, that the family that had the house fire goes to that church and she needed a ride there. So we greed to take her to that church and drop her off, then Frank and I would go to CVS and get her medicine for her. The church is called Faith Kingdom Outreach and they had already told her last week that they would help her with her first month's rent if she found a place.

So we are packing up and getting ready to go, and she is climbing into the van. Then this other fella, "T" - that had come a few weeks ago...Frank prayed for his feet and they were healed....remember? Well, he asked Frank as we were getting ready to leave if he could talk to him. Frank comes over and says that "T" has some stuff at a hotel that the hotel won't give him because he owes for the bill but doesn't have the money to pay...and all of his belongings are there and he needs $20 to get it out. So I'm like, "Frank...we don't have cash, there's nothing we can do about it." Then Frank says, "Well, actually someone gave me a twenty this morning....so do you mind if we just go and talk to the hotel manager? " So we tell "Y" that we need to do this, sorry that she will be late to her other church, and she is totally ok with it. We drive "T" down to this horribly nasty hotel where he has been living. Frank goes in to talk to the hotel manager. Meanwhile while I'm in the party bus with "Y", I'm moving stuff around and come across a brand new pair of shoes my mom had given me to give away. They were size 10s. So I move them then look at Y's feet and ask her what size she wears and she says 10. Isn't God so good?? WoW! So I said, "Do you need some shoes?" She got so excited and said these were the EXACT kind of shoes she would have to buy if she gets that job. I said, "YOU ARE SO GETTING THAT JOB!!" So she got excited and I got excited and then we looked out the window and Frank was coming by. He said, "T's story is true. He got his paycheck cashed and his girlfriend (I remember her) was supposed to pay the bill, but she took off with his money! And the hotel guy says he owes $40 but he would take $20 and give him his stuff back."

So I said, "Go in and ask him if he'll take $10 cause I need to have enough money to get Y's medicine." And do you know what "Y" said? She said, "No, get him his stuff, don't get my medicine." I was floored. So I said, "Absolutely not, we will work this out." So Frank goes back in, and Y and I take hands and start praying. Then Frank comes back and gets in the van and says, "He took ten." Whoo-hooo! So T gets his stuff and heads towards the bridge. He is now officially homeless. Frank prays for him before he leaves.

Then we go to the Faith Kingdom Outreach Church. Y asks us if we would please come in and meet the pastor. I didn't really want to because on the streets, we dress VERY casual, and this was a fancy dressin' kinda church....but we decided to go in anyway. It was 5 after 12 so we thought we would be in and out. Nope. We went in and there's all these black people dressed up, hats, colorful suits, the whole nine yards. And here comes these two white people wearing blue-jeans and t-shirts. I was so uncomfortable! And Y wanted to go sit with the family she was staying with...on the SECOND ROW....I felt like we had a huge neon sign over our heads! LOL! And to make it worse....the preaching was JUST getting started!

So I'm looking at the time and thinking I need to get down to CVS and get her medicine and get on home cause the kids are home waiting for me to bring them lunch. I'm thinking we should just get up and leave so we can get on with things, but of course we are sticking out like a sore thumb on the second row in a fancy black church....if we got up to leave as the preacher starts preaching....well that would just be extra rude! LOL! So we sit for the whole service. And it was really cool because while we are there with Y, this preacher starts to preach on EXACTLY the same thing Frank preached on. And Y was getting so excited as everything was just being confirmed for her. It was amazing. She just cried and cried.

Well, Y had told us that "You know how black churches are, you go in on Sunday and get out on Tuesday." She was not exaggerating! FINALLY we get out, shake every person in the building's hand, meet the people she was staying with, hear all about the house fire, and finally get on the road. So Frank told Y that we were going to go get gas, go drop off the prescription at CVS and then go to McDs to get her some lunch. She said she didn't want us to get her lunch, that we were doing enough for her. So we told her that of course we would get lunch...for heaven sake it was nearly dinner time. hahahah

So we get to CVS and while we are waiting, Y checks her blood pressure. It was 198 over 152. Now I'm not a doctor, but that's high. And then unfortunately, her prescription had expired, so CVS didn't fill it. And the following day was a holiday, so it would be Tuesday before she could get a new prescription. She was just crying. We just sat there in CVS praying for her. Bless her heart. Then we left to get lunch.

We ended up at a Checker's drive through since it was closest. And would you believe that this girl only wanted to choose something off the 99 cents menu? She was so humble and truly did not want to take advantage of us. So we encouraged her to get something substantial, but we told her she couldn't have any salty fries if her blood pressure was that high! LOL!

So we finally took her and dropped her off at the place she had stayed the previous night...since the people with the house-fire had obvious reasons for not being able to have her stay the last two nights. And she was so thankful, and so ready for change in her life. So ready for GREATER! And I believe she will have GREATER!