A Church Without Walls

Check out this song...it's so good!

2008-06-17T11:44:00.000-07:00

We played this last Sunday, and I'm thinking this will be our theme song for a while.

There is so much greater good that is yet to come!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmC44K0xQLE

Quote

2008-04-16T09:39:00.000-07:00

Churches don't need new members half so much as they need the old bunch made over.

There wouldn't be so many non-church goers if there were not so many non-going churches.

Too many churches are little more than four walls and a roof.

- Billy Sunday

Monday Night, December 17th

2007-12-17T22:16:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-02T18:46:00.001-08:00

Photobucket Album

Thanks GIVING!

2007-12-02T18:34:00.001-08:00

Photobucket Album

November 25 Peterson Preaches

2007-12-01T17:33:00.001-08:00

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!

2007-12-01T17:32:00.004-08:00

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

2007-11-09T06:27:00.000-08:00

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

I LOVE THIS VIDEO!

2007-10-08T13:15:00.000-07:00

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

Check it out....awesome!~

Let's take Jesus to the mall!

2007-09-20T15:20:00.001-07:00

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

2007-09-19T09:56:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-09-18T07:25:00.001-07:00

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

2007-09-16T18:03:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-16T14:04:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-09-15T21:22:00.002-07:00

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

2007-09-15T21:22:00.001-07:00

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

2007-09-15T21:21:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-15T21:20:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-14T15:07:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-09-07T22:34:00.001-07:00

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"

2007-09-06T16:11:00.001-07:00

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

2007-09-06T16:10:00.001-07:00

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!

Finances for ACWW - It's SUPERnatural!

2007-09-06T16:09:00.000-07:00

We had an extremely generous donation given to our family for the street ministry a month or so ago. We feel so blessed! I just wanted to say a BIG "THANK YOU" to 'you know who' for that thoughtful gift. As you will see in the photos dispersed through out we were able to get some professional signs made, some snazzy t-shirts for the team, and put the rest of the money to good use in purchasing coolers, containers, supplies, some equipment, breakfast foods, as well as been able to do some really neat things like buy groceries and toiletries for needy families, put gas in a few cars as we were in "as ye go" mode, take care of some people less fortunate in providing material needs they had (school clothes and supplies, etc), and it was a great big thanks to 'you know who' for allowing God to work a huge financial miracle through you. Again, thank you. Be blessed!

Have you ever just been "undone" by the revelation that God really does love you?

2007-09-01T14:24:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I was reading a devotional by Patricia King, author of Light Belongs in the Darkness. As I was reading these words I just got so wacked by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) that I thought I would share it with you. Good stuff.....

The Lord is calling you to be filled to overflowing with the power of His love. If you will seek Him daily over the next twelve months for the release of His love in your life, you will be transformed. The power of His love in you will become so strong that everywhere you go, His favor and blessings will come upon you and overtake you. These blessings will be released through you to others. The more you receive of His love, the more you will give out and the more you give out, the more you will receive. As you pursue His love every day by making it your greatest aim, you will know its power. Its power will astound you! It will unlock healing, provision, miracles, supernatural experiences, wisdom, hidden mysteries, and multiplied grace. Every area of your life will come under blessing as you pursue love.

You will actually feel its tangible presence in your midst.
As you daily soak and meditate on His love, its tangible presence will be felt by you and those around you. Some will break down and cry as it will be so strong. Your enemies will want to be your friends. The more you exude love, the more you will find people asking you things like, “What is so different about you? Why do I feel so good around you? What makes you like this?” In many cases, you won’t even say anything, people will just feel it. You will find them looking at you in wonderment. They will be wondering, “What is this tangible power?”

This love will clothe you, deliver you, and bless you
This love will clothe you in humility. It will deliver you from self-consciousness, fear, and pride. This love will make you so soft in your dealings with others and yet it will cause you to be stronger in character than you have ever been before. This love will bring you into great peace and will fill you with compassion beyond anything you could imagine. This love will unlock a generosity in you that when it is released will cause blessing to come back upon you in unimaginable measures. You will even think at times, “I can’t take any more blessings. I am overcome! How could I possibly receive any more?”

This love will heal and strengthen marriages and families
The power of this love will heal and strengthen your marriages and families and make your home a haven of bliss. Your households will be like heaven on earth. The invasion of His love into your homes will result in the prodigals coming home and unsaved family members seeing the light. They will run to God’s love in you. They will feel accepted, forgiven, affirmed and celebrated by you. They will want to be close. If you commit to being filled with the love of God, past hurts will be healed and some broken relationships that looked like they were irrepairable shall be completely restored. The testimonies will then build faith in those who hear. They will say, “If God can do that, then there is hope for me too.”

This love will invade the church
This love will invade Church congregations like a whirlwind if you will pursue it. Relationships will be healed and the strife, division, and contention that once destroyed will now be demolished. The world will see the love of Jesus through the church and will be drawn to the safety they find within the house. A new move of the Holy Spirit will be unleashed if you will daily pursue His love over the next twelve months. It will be a move of great power, for those who are perfected in love can be trusted with power.

Love is a high voltage current
The Body of Christ will experience the power of His love breaking through like water being released through a dam if His love is the greatest aim. The current of it will be that of the highest voltage. Nothing will be able to stand in the way of its power. Compassion will escalate to such proportions that floods of finance and provision will be released to the poor of the world like never before.

Many will “go”
Individuals who are filled with this love will be literally willing to lay down everything in order to go to the remotest parts of the world to share this love with the poor, the suffering, and the broken. This love will so transform you that you will not desire anything for yourself, but you will live to serve and give to the needs of others. The power of selfishness will be broken. The power of fear will be broken. The first and second commandments will be fulfilled in your life. You will love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength and you will love your neighbor as yourself.

Love will be tested
Your love will be tested, but you will pass every test. When offense comes to tempt you, you will overcome. When bitterness attempts to fill your emotions, you will rise up above it. When judgment and criticism knocks at the door of your heart you will refuse to open it. You will choose patience in order to deal with individuals who might test you. You will choose kindness to deal with your enemies and those who oppose you. You will not listen to gossip and you will always believe the best of others. You will be perfected in love as you overcome all the obstacles because this is your greatest aim.

The Love Mentor
The Holy Spirit is your Mentor. He will teach you how to love. He will be at your side every day to show you how to love. He will inspire you with creative ways to minister God’s love. He will visit you with tangible visitations. Angels will be sent to minister love to you so that you will minister His love more effectively. All of heaven will cheer you on when you chose to make love your greatest aim.

Nothing can contain this love
This love is pure. This love will put relationships in right order. This love will not cross lines that would feed lustful passions. This love is holy. This love will heal the homosexual community. This love will visit prisons, brothels, drug houses, inner city streets, as well as government institutions, schools, hospitals, and the market place. Nothing can contain the flood of God’s love that is coming if the church believes for it.

You will see the miraculous
Wherever the presence of love is found, you will see the miraculous. The sick will be healed, the demonized will be set free, the poor will be cared for, and miracles, signs and wonders will be present. As you pursue this unconditional, all powerful force of love, you will experience open heavens. You will experience a revelation of the cross. You will know the fullness of the power of Christ, for He is love. If you make love your greatest aim, the gifts of the Spirit will increase in your life and the prophetic especially will mature in you.

Entire communities will be touched
If love becomes the greatest aim of the church, entire communities will be touched by it. It will be like an epidemic. You will read about this “love movement” in the newspapers, in magazines, and you will hear testimonies on the media. Once the fire of His love is lit, it will be unstoppable. It will spread like a wild fire that blazes through a forest.

Make it your aim
Make it your goal to know His love and to be the most loving person on the face of the earth. Make it your aim to be known above all things for your love. Make it your focus to manifest the presence of love everywhere you go. His love is the greatest power. He is love and you have been made in His image. This is what you were created for. You are a container for His love.

You will be just like your Father in heaven
If you pursue His love everyday over the next twelve months and if you make love your greatest aim passing the tests of opposition that come your way, you will see holy transformation in every area of your life. You will establish a beachhead for ongoing victories. You will establish a foundation of blessing and grace that cannot be shaken. You will set your life on a godly course that will produce eternal fruit. You will experience answers to prayer within the twelve months that you might have thought were impossible. Even unspoken desires will be given to you if you pursue love. The more you love others, the more you will be loved by others. The more you bless the more you will be blessed. Your life will be like heaven on earth. You will be just like your Father in heaven, if you pursue love and make it your greatest aim.

DEVOTIONAL TEACHING

The Bible is full of exhortation to love. God is love and as we grow in Him, we will grow in love. We will reflect His character and nature.

At the cross, Jesus demonstrated love in the face of everything that could challenge and test it. He had been betrayed, denied, abandoned, slandered, beaten, humiliated, and grossly mistreated. The crowds shouted their declarations of hatred and yet He never withdrew love. He was committed in the midst of the most intense testing to lavish us with perfect eternal love…a love that He would never withdraw.

This kind of love is our aim. 1 Corinthians 14:1 says in the Living Bible, “Let love be your greatest aim…” Can you imagine what the Body of Christ would look like in the world if each of us made love our greatest aim? Maybe that is what Jesus meant when He said in John 13:35, “By this shall all men know that you are My disciples if you have love…”

It is easy to say, “I love you” but in order for love to be establish it needs to be tested. Each of us, like Jesus, need to take up our cross daily (Matthew 16:24). The cross is the testing place of love. What is our response when we are mistreated like Jesus was? Will we forgive, love, and show mercy or will we withdraw love?

Let's press on to walk in perfect love. Let us love the Lord with all our hearts, minds and strength and love others as ourselves. May the perfect love of Jesus be our standard, our goal, our aim.

SCRIPTURE MEDITATION

Week One: 1 Corinthians 13

Week Two: John 13 - 15

Week Three: 1 John

Week Four: Romans 8:28-39; Romans 12:9,10; Galatians 5:6-14

We are already seeing the fruits of this great Love Revolution down-town. God's Word does not return void. His promises are real and are powerful and are happening everyday through His people. It's been a phenomenal ride for our ministry team. Go love somebody to LIFE today!

Rumor Control

2007-08-31T11:44:00.000-07:00

No. A Church Without Walls is NOT affiliated with ECBC.
No. Frank is NOT employed by ECBC nor has he ever received any compensation from them. He is employed at CompUSA.
No. A Church Without Walls is NOT one of the seven churches that was to become of the sale of the Evans property. We are completely autonomous.
No. The ruling authority of A Church Without Walls is not ECBC or anyone associated with them. The ruling authority of ACWW is Jesus. The servants under that marvelous Leader is Frank and Tammy Strausser, Frank and Pam Peterson, Steve and Samantha Jones, Jose' Sarono, Sharon Dyers, and Maxine McDowell (who is moving to Tennessee in September).
No. ACWW was not started under the direction of ECBC. It was started under the unction of the Holy Spirit and people who saw the Cloud by Day and Fire by Night and wanted to follow that movement of God! And we love every minute of everything we see God doing!

I hope this clears up any misunderstandings of who A Church Without Walls really is, and the people who come to worship and receive from God through our church. This is our church family. Frank Peterson recently wrote the following in order to better define A Church Without Walls. I think he did a fabulous job! This expresses the hearts of the people who serve in A Church Without Walls as well as the hearts of the people who come to receive ministry.

A Church Without Walls is a group of sinners saved by grace through the Blood of Jesus Christ. They love the Lord Jesus with all that they have and all they know how to, but have often had seasons in their lives where they have built walls which prevented them from loving the Lord like they should. These walls were built one brick at a time and are still being built. They built them with bricks called sin, bricks called hurts, bricks called broken relationships, addiction, fears, depression, low self worth, and so many other bricks that are unique to each wall. They are also called to ministry: A Church Without Walls.

Soul Winning, Healing, and Prophecy are not our main goals. That is God's job - to save the lost, heal the sick, and speak through us. Our job is to love the people and each other where they are at in their lives. By building relationships, we can start to help tear down the walls, brick by brick, that they, and we ourselves, have built. By doing that, we all become closer to our Lord Jesus Christ. By loving people enough, their walls can come down. Then, they can receive God's salvation, healing, and prophecy. Those are the fruits that are birthed out of a ministry of love. A by-product of seeing people through the eyes of Jesus. And as we are able to minister to people, they can be taught to do the same, not just by teaching them, but also through our actions.

It's a LOVE REVOLUTION baby!

This is cool....

2007-08-28T20:38:00.000-07:00

Tonight Frank and I went to Walmart for a few groceries and a man approached him in front of the cold cuts section and asked him if he was a preacher. Frank was like, "Yes I am," and was wondering how this guy thought that. Then he said, "Do you preach on the streets in down-town Augusta?" So they got to talking. This man is the water fountain man. He comes every few weeks to check the chemical levels in the big water fountain. Then he told Frank that he had been lookin' out for a spot for us to meet if it should ever rain. Pretty neat...considering we have never solicited for help! He said he looks around when he's down there working for areas that have a big enough awning to hold our church services and made several suggestions. Those places are all in areas that are too far for our people to walk, but still, how sweet of this man to be thinking ahead like that! Such a God thing! So he said he was going to continue to talk to people he knew at businesses down there. God is so awesome!

August 26, another SONny Sunday!

2007-08-28T16:47:00.000-07:00

Is this really happening? Is God really moving mightily on the streets of Augusta? YES He is! Wow! I'm still in awe of His faithfulness, even though I shouldn't be, it is after all, His character to draw people to His AMAZING GRACE!

We had a big crowd, just like last Sunday, with many of the same people, and a whole buncha new people. I have just so fallen in love with down-town Augusta. As Jose' (found out that's how you really spell our worship leaders name -Hosea is the incorrect spelling but it would take me a week to find all of his incorrectly spelled references, so from hence-forth, I will spell his name correctly....unless I forget) was playing the praise music, we had a soft breeze blow in. We were supposed to have scattered showers, and it seems like God scattered them somewhere else. :) We set up for breakfast and began our fellowshipping with the people who started to come to A Church Without Walls.

Remember "D" who got evicted and we prayed for him last Sunday night? Well, as you would expect, God totally came through for him and he's no longer evicted! Yay God!

And remember Danny, drunk out of his mind until God moved with power within him? Well he came today too! And he seemed coherent and even remembered me and Frank. How cool is that?

"Lucifer" came again. I'm going to start referring to him as "L" from now on because as we have gotten to know him, "Lucifer" just doesn't seem to fit him at all. We actually do know his real name, but I don't want to give it and be exploitive. :) So if you want to know his real name, you'll have to come down-town on Sundays at 9 a.m. and meet him!

Frank preached on "Are You Free?" It was a deliverance type message. He talked about how sometimes we have given Satan a place in our lives through our choices to fall into sin. He gave an illustration of how when we sin, Satan sees that as a landing strip all lit up and he comes in and lands in our territory, then he takes hold of us and before you know it, we have addictions, or eating disorders, or sickness, or fears, or bad thoughts, etc....

After his message he asked if anyone wanted prayer for things they struggle with, whether it's drugs, alcohol, sex, porn, a spirit of poverty, and a bunch more. Before we knew it, we had a fella come straight up to us and said he really wanted to be set free from drug addiction. I was blown away as he certainly did not look like a man who had a drug addiction. He was very clean and well dressed. He shared with us that he had been "clean" for 15 years, but he had recently allowed some friends to do drugs in front of him, and the smells that permeated his nose rekindled that desire for them again. Just hanging around friends that were doing the drugs was all that was needed to light up that landing strip and the devil just zoomed in like a Bowing 747 and landed right there, gaining a foothold that ultimately resulted in a strong hold.

He also revealed that he had known better, but the pull was just too strong, and he was really mad at himself for falling into that snare. So Frank Peterson, Samantha, and I were praying for him and boy I'll tell ya what....Peterson just went at the devil like a pro. I kept looking over at Pam (his wife), who was sitting across the way with their children and I was like, wow, Pam should totally come over and see her husband charge hell with a super soaker. Then, out of the blue, Peterson starts speaking life into "J" and before we knew it, Peterson was prophesying over him. He was telling him that God had a plan for him and that he sees God using him to minister to others on the street, others just like himself that had been trapped by drugs, and he sees God using "J" to lead people to Christ and get clean. Amazing.

Meanwhile, one of the little ladies came up to the microphone and wanted to testify. She is a sweet little black lady, and if you know anything about sweet little black ladies, they DRESS UP for church, even if it is on park benches. So here she is all decked out in a pretty yellow dress, a yellow hat, yellow shoes, pantyhose, the whole nine yards, and she tells our church that last week she came forward for prayer over her heart trouble. I think Samantha was part of praying for her, and probably Peterson. Maybe even Steve, but we were so overwhelmed with praying for people it's hard for me to remember. Anyway, she went to the doctors this week for her testing on her heart and they said her heart was absolutely fine, she had been totally healed of her heart problems! Isn't God AMAZING! He's still healing people! Whoooo-hooooo!

Then the young man that had come at the end last week had come for the service today. He also got up and testified that God had healed his feet and that he was still walking in that healing! He was able to work all week at his job completely pain free! Whoooo-hoooo!

Then a lady came up, a new lady, and she asked for prayer for healing and for reconciliation with her family. Her husband kicked her out and she was on the streets living under the bridge, but one of our "members" had taken her in for the weekend. (Actually, it was "D" who took her in) She was absolutely receptive and excited about what we prayed for her for, and she left there expecting God to do something!

And this was amazing too, at the end of the service I was talking to that lady about getting her a larger print Bible than the ones we have available, and my sister, Jenny, came up to me and said, "You need to come over here and talk to this lady." So I said, "Just a sec," then Jenny slides a 20 dollar bill into my hand and says, "When you get done come over here and see this lady, this is from her." So I finished up with "G" and went over and spoke to her. She said she drives by here every Sunday on her way to church and was encouraged to see God moving and developing a church service for that area of town, and that she wanted to bless us. I thanked her for that generous gift and then she said she had to go to her church. She was so beautiful though that I kinda wonder if she wasn't an angel! LOL!

So speaking of Bibles, we had a box of them sitting by the food table and we have some that are kind of paper backish, not very good quality, that we let people borrow for the church service if they want to follow along, and then return when they are done using them. And then we have some "good" Bibles available for anyone that wants to take one home. So the "good" Bibles with the nice covers were sitting in the box when some of the people started to come up and look at them. They were so hungry for the Word that there was a line! And you will never guess who was over there helping the people pick out Bibles.....yep......"L"!! He sure was! We had them all still in shrink wrap so he was showing them how to look on the back to find out how big (or small) the print was going to be on the inside.

You should have seen how excited these people were to be able to get a brand new Bible with a nice cover, like it was a very valuable thing to them. Samantha and I were just beside ourselves watching the whole thing. Then we talked to several of them who have "aged" eye sight (happens to the best of us) and can't read small print. So I went looking for larger print Bibles Monday. I can't wait to give them to the people who are expecting 'em. God is so cool! I'm so excited!!

We had an awesome service though, praying for people, ministering to their needs. It was exciting. We were also able to go to the store and buy some personal hygiene items, some undergarments, etc for someone who (desperately) needed them.

It was a good Lord's Day.

(Hopefully Sam has pictures to give me to post....my camera was out of batteries, and she's a camera pro, so her pics will be better! LOL)

OK, raise your hand if you want to see a miracle!

2007-08-24T23:59:00.001-07:00

Are you raising your hand?

Your AVAILABILITY will allow you to be used by God. It's true. Try this next Sunday in church:

Go up to someone, it can be a visitor or it can be a long time member. Strike up a conversation with them. Just general chit-chat. But this time, instead of saying, "I'm so glad you came, see ya next week".....say, "Is there anything I can pray with you about?"

Watch what happens. You will enable God to work a miracle through you! The Power of God will flow right through you as you take that person's hand and pray for them, whether it's for healing, finances, addictions, marriage struggles, or anything else. Try it. You'll see. Then send me an email and tell me what happens. I'm expecting a miracle to be worked through YOU!

Taking it to the Streets

2007-08-20T10:54:00.000-07:00

We had been invited to go with a church in North Augusta out to the streets for street ministry this past Sunday night. This church had a guest come from Greenwood, South Carolina named Shawn Patrick Williams. If you are interested in reading an outstanding guide on how to use the Word of God as the weapon it was designed to be used for, read his book "Warring With the Word." In this empowering book, he gives his incredible testimony that is filled with powerful teachings from the Word of God, and is a book that Frank and I reference quite a bit when we are looking for specific scriptures for specific situations. You'll totally love this book. http://www.warriornations.org/ His testimony alone is worth the time investment to read this 123 page book. But to have this topical reference at your fingertips is invaluable! Once we got down town, our group went into the area right in front of where A Church Without Walls meets. It's a totally different atmosphere at night.

Once we went into the alley-way of the apartment building that a good bit of our church "members" live, we encountered a man sitting on the bench. He was drunk. Actually, he was beyond drunk. I don't know, is there even a state beyond drunk, I mean this old man was plastered. Totally tanked. Bless his heart. And the absolute dirtiest man we have ever encountered. So we ended up ministering to him with prayer and gave him some food and water. I felt the Lord impress on my heart that we needed to move on, but that God would later give us another opportunity with this man. I figured we'd see him at some point, maybe even next Sunday morning.

Meanwhile, we had two other groups that went out in different directions. Kenny, the Associate Pastor of the church we were with, took a group down near 6th street, and Shawn took a group in a direction towards one of the few bars that were opened on Sunday. Later when we met up together with the group at the end of the night, Shawn told us that 3 people gave their hearts to Jesus! Isn't that just totally awesome! The amazing thing was that this night was ordained as a Divine Appointment by God and the date for street ministry was given to Shawn some time back by the Lord. He shared with us how God told him to come down to Augusta on THIS night, August 19th, and how he ended up meeting with a drunk chick and her boyfriend outside a bar. As he began to talk to her they both realized that she was from HIS hometown. I think Greenwood is about an hour and a half drive from Augusta.

So here she is, on this night, the same night a man of God from her hometown is here. As they continued their conversation, he discovers that her pastor, the same pastor she had been to church and sat under that same morning, was a pastor friend of Shawn's. In fact, he's a pastor that Shawn has ministered with in conferences and appears to be pretty close to. Anyway, he was able to really connect with her, set her to thinking of the straight and narrow path again, AND lead her boyfriend to Christ! Divine Appointments really happen.... Totally AWESOME!

Well, after we had left the drunk man on the bench, we went to talk with a group of people who were congregating in the alley-way. We invited them to Sunday morning services for next week and talked with them a bit. Our group had Frank and I, Melony (Kenny's wife), Miranda (Kenny's teenaged daughter), another youth from their church named John, and a man named Jim who has a heart for evangelism. So we kind of spread out amongst the group. I'm not sure what Melony talked about with the people she encountered...but I'm sure it's awesome, as she is an awesome woman of God. (I will post it if she emails me later....and BTW, Melony, I thought the picture of you was so fun, so I put it up, if you hate it, I'll take it off....hee hee).

Frank, Jim, and I ended up talking to a man for a few minutes and prayed with him about a job and some shelter for the night. He was already a born again believer. So Jim said to the man, Victor, that, "Since you are already a Christian, take this tract and give it away to some one else." I thought that was an excellent idea. I never thought to do that, so Frank and I both thought that that was a pretty cool technique...a way to encourage another believer to get out there and represent Christ.

Some "soul winners" have often expressed that they get discouraged when they only meet saved people, since their only focus for the night is reaching the lost. However, I firmly believe that God sends brothers and sisters in Christ across one another's paths for the purpose of encouragement and edification. So if you are out there in your personal ministry, don't be dismayed at not having a lost person come your way. Reach out to the believers too. We are called to support and encourage the body of Christ just as much as we are to reach the lost. This does not need to only happen at church pot-lucks. You just get out there and love them to life!

After we spoke with that man, one of our "members" came out of the building very down-trodden. He had just been evicted from his apartment. I believe that God had us there as a Divine Appointment for "D". We were able to minister to him in prayer and in love, and able to encourage him to continue to believe God for his needs to be met. "D" struggles with alcohol, and instead of having the opportunity to go down to the bar to drink his problems away, he was met by Spirit-filled believers who were able to minister to him and help him see passed his problem and go straight to the One Who could help him. "D" was a different man when we left, his countenance was changed, and his faith had increased for God to work this out for him. God is so good!

After that, we passed by the drunk man, Danny, again. The Lord told me to keep going, so we continued quite a few blocks til we found a man sitting on a park bench reading a newspaper. We engaged him in conversation and discovered he was homeless, though I have to admit I was a bit surprised. He was very clean and appeared to be very intelligent. Anyway, in the course of conversation with him he told us he was raised Catholic. And while he was impressed with the help he was given from the Baptist missions down-town, he had been told repeatedly that all Catholics go to hell. We told him that not all Baptists believe that, and apologized on behalf of the people who had wounded him in that way. I think it really helps that Melony's church across the river is Baptist, and that as everyone well knows, Frank and I have a strong Baptist background. I think this lended credibility to our apology to him for the hurt and confusion that a few people operating under a religious spirit rooted in the enemy had thrust upon him.

Then he said he was fed a constant spiritual diet of doctrines that he didn't agree with, so he began a search for the truth. Of course he doesn't realize that this is what he is doing, he said he was just interested in learning about different religions, Buddhist, Hindu, etc. He also told us that he now believed that there were many religions and all of them were right, including evolutionary theory. What a messed up mind this man had!

As we engaged in conversation, we were able to share the gospel with him, however, he had heard it time and time again, but it was not penetrating into his heart. He was completely shut off from believing truth because of a wounded spirit. Yet he was completely comfortable in our dialog. I discerned a spirit of confusion that came from the enemy and asked him if Melony and I could pray for him. He was absolutely open to that, so we bound and cast that defeated devil from him and then asked God to reveal Himself to this man this week as the ONE true creator, the living God Who created him.

When we finished praying for him, I felt a small breakthrough in the spirit...he was now speaking more about things in the Bible and less about things from other religions. Some clarity had come to his mind....I could just see it happening. This was super cool and he was now even looking forward to how the One True God was going to reveal Himself to him this week, even so much as expressing senerios that might happen through God's hand this week. And He will show Himself. He's a good God and He is after this man's heart. I told him that he had a seed of truth implanted inside of him from when he was a little boy in Catholic church, the truth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that He died for his sins and was the Truth he was seeking. That incorruptible seed that is deep inside his heart had taken root, and now God was going to allow it to spring up inside of him and reveal to Him Who He is. I can't wait to find out what Jesus does this week for him!

After that, we went back down to where A Church Without Walls meets and met up with the rest of the group and then rejoiced in the salvations that came through our mission on the streets. As everyone began to leave, guess who came staggering across the street? Yep, Danny, the beyond drunk guy.

He was so inebriated he couldn't even lift his foot up properly to step out of the street onto the curb. I ran over and reached out and grabbed his very nasty, dirty arm and helped him over to a bench. Then for the next 45 minutes I sat and listened to this man tell me everything that was on his heart. He told me he was a drunk, but he loved the Lord. He said he just can't help it that he is a drunk. But all the Christians come out and tell him that he's a drunk and he's not living for God and preacher's come out and they chastise him for being an alcoholic. He said he was always getting beaten down by churchy people. Well, this was going to be a different night for Danny.

So for the next 45 minutes, we listened to Danny talk about his hurts and his pain and his childhood and his family and all the things that happened in his life. He talked to me about good times and bad times, prosperous times and lean times. I asked him how he ended up here in Augusta since he grew up in another state. He said he came here about 8 years ago for a cancer operation at one of our fine hospitals, and that's how he ended up here. At this place. I hear this story a lot. People come here for medical treatment and then don't have the money to make it back home and end up at the Rescue Mission or on the streets.

During the course of our conversation, I asked Danny if I could pray with him. He told me I could pray with him any time I wanted. He just seemed so grandfatherly at that moment - very tender, totally receiving the love of God. I was honored to be a part of that. So I asked Danny if he wanted to not be "a drunk" anymore. He shared with me that he really did, but he was just what he was. So I asked him if I could pray for the spirit of addiction to be loosed from him. He agreed that he wanted that. So we came boldly before the Throne of Grace and prayed and then we went into warfare mode.

Ultimately I ended up commanding his body to sober up, and for the enemy to leave him alone. When we were finished praying, Danny was sobbing and sobbing. And snotting and snotting. OMG, why does ministry have to be so messy? EWE! I have serious issues with snot. Serious. So as he was sucking gobs of snot back into his head, and I was trying not to lose my dinner, he told me he had recently been stabbed. So I looked him over and found a wound on his arm. He had indeed been stabbed with something. It didn't require stitches and looked to be a day or two old. So we took a couple of cold bottles of water and he let me clean him up the best I could. My gosh he was so dirty.

By then, Frank was finished talking to the guy who had come over to speak with him, so Frank prayed for Danny too. After a bit, Danny got up and walked toward where ever it is he lays his head at night. But this time, he was NOT staggering. He was walking upright and straight! Whoooo-hoooo!~ That's the Power of God!

Then as we were leaving, a man asked Frank if he wanted to buy drugs. I'm glad he didn't ask me cause I would have been totally offended, I mean really, a princess does not buy drugs. The drug of choice for us princesses is chocolate. Puh-lease.

So Frank started ministering to him and found out he was heavy into witch craft at some point in time. He was also stoned beyond belief and wicked scary. He was sharing some of his "experiences" with witch craft, even claiming to have raised someone from the dead briefly enough for her to come out of the casket and claw him with her long fingernails, and also said he was "translated" just like Philip in the Bible. You know what, I don't doubt either account. That witchcraft and the power of Satan is all very real. But we have way more Power of God living inside of us and we have power over ALL the power of the enemy. So anyway, Frank ended up talking to him and he said he was trying to live for Jesus but he had so much guilt and shame over his previous involvement in the voodoo stuff, and seriously wrong doctrine now that he was saved. What in the world? Good grief! He did ask for a Bible so we went to the van and got him a nice one. And Frank prayed for him. Maybe we'll see him again.

So...that was our night out on the streets of Augusta. And we loved every minute of it!

What's going to happen when one person who lives there gets so changed and radical for God that they turn around and influence one more person that gets so changed and radical for God? Then you have two people challenging the strong-holds down there. And those two people will multiply and multiply and multiply until we have an entire army of Christian Soldiers doing the stuff! You go God! Whooo -hoooo!

Phew....is this post REALLY this long?
Good for you for reading all the way to the end. Give yourself a high-five!

God is MOVING on the streets!

2007-08-20T10:53:00.000-07:00

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Wow! Is this really happening? God is totally moving on the streets! People are just showing up and we don't even advertise! God is drawing people to us so they can know Him. How cool is that?!?

When we got there this morning, there was already a crowd of people waiting for us to set up! Can you even believe that? So we set up quickly, Hosea was playing, and then we started serving breakfast. We had a breakfast casserole, baked French toast, McDs sausage biscuits, and donuts. Yum. And we made sure we brought plenty of extra water and soda to fill up the cooler once it was empty. And it empties fast! Then we had our anointed praise and worship music, and it was so good to see those sweet people down there lifting up holy hands to the Lord in their worship.

And would you believe that God did it again for us with the temperatures? We even had a nice cool breeze flowing in from time to time. Isn't He SO good?!

Then we had our message. Frank preached on the Dunamis Power of God. It was very good. Then he started to give an invitation towards the end for prayer for healing and before he could even finish getting the words out, people just started to flood forward! It was overwhelming! Our prayer team handled it like pros though. I have to brag on them for just a minute, even though I know they don't want me to. Frank and Pam Peterson and Steve and Samantha Jones and Sharon Dyers are A Church Without Walls ministry team and they totally rock! I get goose bumps just thinking about how God has just catapulted them into ministry and intercessory. It's just been amazing and I am so very thankful to God for allowing us to serve with them. The Peterson's and Jones' also serve as our accountability team, they keep us grounded and sane! hahahah. We can't get away with nothing with them. LOL!

Well, as you can imagine, I have tons of stories. I don't know which one to start with. And I know I can't remember them all. We were totally amazed that we had over 40 people stay for the entire service, then ministered to a few others who passed by after the official service was over, so about 45 people in all. We even had to bring out extra chairs! We use the park benches, but they filled up and we had two metal chairs in the van (we need to get more) and the Peterson's brought out some of those folding umbrella chairs. It was so incredibly awesome to have THAT many people come to hear the Word!

One couple who came by at the end had a man that asked for prayer for his drinking. Frank prayed with him and talked with him a bit. He told Frank he didn't like to come to churches where all the people came just to get fed. He felt like they were just taking advantage of the church and that makes him not want to come. Does that even make sense to you? I guess in his mind it's better to not come at all rather than to come and sit beside people who are getting both their physical and spiritual needs met. Satan is so good at blinding God's people. So Frank told him that we needed to look at it from Jesus' perspective, that Jesus doesn't see people as greedy people coming to eat, He sees them as sheep without a Shepherd and He wants them to come and be a part of His flock, regardless of their needs, and that when people do come just for the food, we have the faith to believe that the words they hear in the preaching of God's Word will not return void. Then he asked him if he could pray for him and he said he would like Frank to pray for him about drinking. He revealed that he had a generational curse of drinking and Frank was able to bind that strongman and cast him out. Then he tackled a religious spirit that caused him to be judgmental. While he was praying for him, he asked Frank if he could sit down because his feet hurt. He said that the job he has requires him to work standing up and his feet are just very weary and in a lot of pain. So naturally, Frank asked him if he could pray for healing of his feet. As he did, God just supernaturally downloaded some prophetic words concerning this man's feet and gave him that "beautiful are the feet who carry the gospel" verse. Then this man said he couldn't believe it but his feet had instantly stopped hurting. Then he got up and started jumping around and commenting over and over again that his feet felt great! Is God not the most awesomest?? WOW! (Yeah, I'm fully aware awesomest is not an official word. But it totally fits here. )

There was another young man in his early twenties that Sharon asked Frank to talk to. He ministered with him for quite a long time and this young man shared with Frank that he was struggling with a drug addiction. Frank had a great time telling the devil and the spirit of addiction to get off this kid. Then Monday night this kid came to Sharon's Monday night Bible study and received further ministry. God is working in this guy. He's going to be totally set free of this stronghold - I just know it!

Oh, oh, and "Lucifer" came again! He sure did! And he stayed for the whole service and hung around for over an hour after church was over. And since we are looking at buildings, specifically to house our big plans for Thanksgiving, we walked over to peek into a few windows of some store fronts that are for rent and "Lucifer" rode up to us on his bicycle. Then Peterson asked him if he thought if we got a building if our people would come. "Lucy" said, "Oh, yeah, in fact there are 130 apartments in that building over there. " Like he is thinking INCREASE here....pretty cool for a self proclaimed "devout heathen!" LOL! Oh, AND, he let me shake his hand. That's HUGE! LOL!

Oh my stars, there were so many people we prayed for and ministered to. There was an elderly man that came with his father, that was cool. They were so sweet. I think just about everyone (except Lucy) came up for prayer. Oh, and remember that lady that came last week, the one we think might have gotten saved, she came, and she came all dressed up with make up and everything....and in modest attire. LOL! And she told me that she had been looking forward to coming to church here all week! How 'bout that?!! Awesome God!!

Hunger - not just physical hunger, but hungry for things of God.....hungry for a touch from Him.....hungry to discover His realness

The heartbeat of our ministry

Sharon and Tammy

Steve ministering to a man who is hurting and confused
Call for prayer....miracles in the making

This man in the black baseball cap is one of my favorite people. God is after this man's heart! :)

The other of Sam and Frank is a picture of Samantha giving a testimony of God bringing one of her employees children out of crisis. His 2 year old daughter had drowned and had no life signs, was revived and expexcted to die shortly afterwards or live with extreme brain damage. She had already done what the medical community calls "curling" in her hands, which is an indication of brain injury and impending death. Sam brought all of her people from the restaurant together to tell them what had happened to Phil's daughter, and she asked them if they were praying people, then please pray for them. One employee piped in that they should pray right now. Sam told everyone if they didn't want to pray, didn't believe in God or would be offended that they could leave. EVERYONE stayed, even the self professed athiests! And we can see a bigger picture here in that these people all stayed for the prayer, and were witness to a miracle! By the following day, that 2 year old baby was completely fine, off the ventilator, talking, playing, running around. It was a total miracle! God still raises the dead!

Sunday, August 12

2007-08-19T14:58:00.000-07:00

Wow! God is so awesome!

We had 25 people show up! Whoo hooo! We had some "regulars"
come....which is so cool that we have regulars....I mean this is such a God thing, and we had a buncha newbies. Our musician, Hosea, called in sick. When we realized he wasn't coming, we made a big deal to our new church family that we needed to pray for him. They all seemed genuinely concerned and missed him terribly (as did all of us). I was kinda worried the people wouldn't stay cause we didn't have music, but we played a little on a CD player, and it took awhile, but finally some of the people got into it. And "Lucifer" showed up today and stayed for the entire service....even the preaching! Pretty amazing for a self proclaimed "devout heathen." And we stayed more than an hour afterwards just fellowshipping with the people.

We had a new guy named Willie who came that collects aluminum cans for a living. I make it a point now to bring a bag full of cans each Sunday that we have collected from our soda addiction at the Strausser house, so Willie was the lucky recipient of the cans this week. After we fed him and gave him the cans, he sat down and got comfortable, pulled out his own Bible from his duffel bag and totally got into the teaching! Later Frank talked with him and Willie said he had a desire to preach at the Marina. So
Frank told him he should just go for it. He seemed surprised that someone
would believe in him and encourage him to just do it. Wouldn't that be so cool? A homeless man reaching out to other people on the Marina preaching the Word and minister to people? And earlier when Frank went to shake his hand, he said he didn't want to shake Frank's hand cause he had dirty hands. (Willie had dirty hands, not Frank) Frank said he didn't care about dirty hands, and then Willie shook his hand. You could tell he just felt accepted and loved....dirt and all. Yay God!!

We did have one probable salvation. She was a first timer and showed up about a third of the way in the service. She told me she didn't know we had this down here. She sat and listened and was really absorbed in the presentation of the Gospel. I wondered if she was a prostitute, another man had later made a comment that led me to believe she might have been. She was pretty messed up looking, but we loved on her anyway. Thank God for germX!! She seemed sort of shy around us, but I could tell God's love was piercing the darkness within her.

When Frank asked if you weren't saved to look up at him,
she looked up, but she didn't come forward. He did lead the group in a
prayer and she seemed like she might have repeated it to herself kinda under
her breath. If she comes next week we'll talk to her. I think she was embarrassed to come forward. That's ok. We can be pretty patient. We were bombarded with all the people wanting to come give us a hug or tell us about their weeks or pray for them for this and that so she left before we got a chance to to talk to her one on one.

God is so good!!

We are thinking about trying to rent a conference room or something for
Thanksgiving Day at one of the down town hotels. I'd love to have a
congregational Thanksgiving dinner with them all, just like a big ole family
dinner or something. You know, make it real special. Paige was asking what we were going to do when the weather gets cold because she still wants us to be her church, but she wants us to get a building for the cold months because she gets sick easily. So if you think of us, pray that God would lead us to the right area and that everything will fall into place for the winter months. It will be here before we know it. I know it will all work out, because He's just that kind of God and He's been putting this whole thing together all along...Wow!

Oh, oh, oh.....cool......as anyone from Augusta knows, we have been experiencing record heat this month....my face melts when I go outside. The temps have been above a hundred for about two weeks in a row. I was wondering how we were going to be able to handle 95 degrees at 9 a.m on Sunday and I was praying and asking God to just give us a cool day. Well the forecast
certainly wasn't calling for cool temps today, but would you believe that it was only 77 degrees this morning? Awesome! And we had a nice breeze for the time we were outside, the clouds were also covering the bright sun. And the gnats weren't as bad as usual. God gave us a special gift in that whole temp thing this morning. Thank You God for that relief in temps! You totally rock!

Chinese, anyone?

2007-08-19T14:25:00.000-07:00

Well, what started as a meeting of some old friends at a Starbucks on Wrightsboro Road, ended in four hungry chicks at a Chinese restaurant. The funny thing about God is that it's never really about going out to eat. It's always about a Divine Appointment.

I met up with an old friend that was visiting from Texas named Sherri, who had come for a three week visit with another old friend named Melony. As I sat with these two godly women, sipping on what amounts to a $5 chocolate milk with ice, I was listening to them relay stories of recent "God Encounters." This subject naturally has me enthralled, but the really cool thing is that another lady in the store sitting nearby had over heard Melony proclaiming the goodness of God, and the next thing we know, we have asked her to pull up a chair and join the conversation. Her name is Seleste...with an "S". What a sweet woman! And just to show you that God doesn't do anything by accident, it turns out that Seleste just so happens to have been strongly desiring to get involved in some sort of street ministry or a ministry of working with the poor. How fun! So the four of us sat there for the next 5 hours discussing the unbelievable power of God. Finally, we moved our power talk to a restaurant up the street.

Now I love Chinese food. And this was a buffet, so even better. As we sat eating our very late night dinner, we continued talking about our beautiful Saviour and the good things about Him. Probably about 11, Seleste had to go home to be with her children and the restaurant was getting ready to close. So Melony, Sherri, and I resumed our conversation in the parking lot, and eventually in Melony's van. And a night full of Kingdom conversation and good fellowship culminated in a healing/deliverance service right there in the parking lot! The three of us sat in the van praying, praising, singing, and fellowshipping with our sweet Jesus. As we all confessed strongholds to each other that the enemy had in our lives, we felt the cleansing power of His love just pour over us while we were praying and ministering to each other in the spirit of love.

Well as we are enjoying the Power of the Holy Spirit consuming us, Sherri mentions that she needs healing for a goiter that is very apparent on her neck. So we start praying for healing on that thyroid and as we are praying and commanding her body to line up with God's Word and be healed, right there before our very eyes, that lump on her neck began to shrink and shrink and shrink. Both Melony and I sat there with our mouths wide open! I don't know why I always get so amazed when God does something like that, but I do, it is us just amazing, nearly unbelievable! So we eventually had to tell Sherri we were going to stop praying because pretty soon she was going to have a pencil neck...LOL! What an awesome night! God's healing power reaches EVERYWHERE! Go lay hands on the sick...they shall recover!!!

By the way....Seleste ended up coming to A Church Without Walls the very next Sunday to be a part of God's work. Is that just not the coolest thing?

From the Archives of 2006 - A story of Faith and Healing, and ministry along the way

2007-08-10T14:16:00.000-07:00

I'll tell ya, I have countless stories I could share with you, and every now and then I find 5 minutes where I can sit down and go through my files and pull up an older story. This one is from last year starting in July 2006 and involves a time when I had some medical testing done, as well as some faith testing, and how God brought me through some fearful times, as well as lead me to continue the "as you go"ministry of reaching out to people I meet along the way. I'm going to just copy and paste the emails I had sent to my best friends (the Dolls) concerning this particular story. I hope it encourages you to see that God is STILL the Great Physician and is still a Mighty, Mighty healer. Sorry it's so long, but hey, it's me writing here....LOL!

July 18, 2006
Hey ya'll! I have a doctor's appointment that I'd like you to keep me in prayer over at 1pm. I have been having some leg and back pain for a week or so, and my right leg hurts a lot, kind of like when you have sciatic nerve pain in pregnancy. A few days ago I was moaning and groaning about my lower back and leg hurting and I went to kind of rub my back when I got out of bed and noticed a lump resting deep on the bone. It's about the size of a walnut. The lump itself doesn't hurt, but it does make me think that its location is the cause of the leg pain. So I'm going to get it checked out. It's probably a ganglion cyst, although I don't think they normally show up on pelvic joints.......but I'm not normal. So we shall see.

July 19, 2006

Hey ya'll! Man it is hot today.

I had to see a new doctor today because our doctor (of 13 years) has moved to another clinic and our insurance doesn't have her name on the card yet. So this gal is about my age, which makes me realize that I could be a doctor by now. Oh well.

The bottom line is.....she doesn't know what it is so I get to have an ultrasound on the 28th. And a mamogram. Yay.

Time to turn my cups into saucers.

After I moon her (the lump is near my bum) and she examines me, she asks me to bend this way and that to see if it hurts, and to bend and touch my toes, which I can't do. So she asks me what is it that is keeping me from touching my toes, is it painful, is it uncomfortable, and I tell her, "No, it's my belly." :)

She does use the word "tumor" while she's "guessing" what the problem is. She is a rough doctor, her exam has actually left a few bruises on my chest. I did not like her at all. Not exactly getting an A+ in bedside manner class. Anyway, as you can imagine, I'm feeling a little less than comforted at the possibilities of illnesses and diseases that have started running through my mind.

Meanwhile, the reason I need a mamogram is because I also have some very swollen lymph nodes on the same side as the lump in my back. The lymph nodes are mostly under my arm but do extend into the breast tissue just a bit, and they are quite painful. I didn't really think much of it, but decided to mention it to her while she was already battering my body. So as she was pushing on my nodes hard enough to feel my scapula, she said I definitely needed to be further checked out.

So after the appointment and gingerly dressing myself as to not further injure the hematomas caused by her abuse, I scooted off to the hospital gift shop where my old boss from 20ish years ago works. I usually stop in to see her, and another girl, Alice, who worked for me about 18 years ago. I love her. She's a lady that is about 10 years older than me, so she's uh, ahem, 39 , and she's a strong Christian to boot. Anyway, while I'm visiting with her there is a young lady, 18 years old, named Cierra, with a 6 month old baby in there talking with Alice. Alice tells me that Cierra's baby was born with heart trouble, only has function of one kidney, etc. And she was just released from the hospital this week from rota virus. But now she looks really, really good, and has come through all of that really well.

So then Cierra says she's really having a hard time right now and Alice says, "Don't say that, speak life into your day, girl!" So she tries to explain, "I'm having surgery next week on my breasts, they think I have cancer. I'm going up to my appointment right now to have a biopsy to see what kind of surgery they want to do, either a lumpectomy or a mastectomy....both breasts. My grandmother, aunt and mother all have had breast cancer and I have 3 hard knots on this side and one on this side."

I coulda just died. EIGHTEEN years old! How unfair. Frank and I have been doing this study recently and it challenges you to take a risk with people and pray for them. I'm not so very good at risk taking but I decided to die to my flesh (so hard to do.....I have a LOT of flesh, and proved it today on the scales) and I said, "C'mon Alice, Let's take care of this." So Alice said she couldn't right now cause she was on the clock and could get in trouble for praying right now. So she took the baby and I took Cierra toward the back part of the store and just prayed healing over her. When I opened my eyes, she was crying. Bless her heart. She was very receptive. Actually, I ended up praying for her one more time before she left.

What's really interesting to me is that I have been praying healing over this lump thing in my back and Frank has prayed over me, anointed me in oil, and my sister prayed over me, and nothing has changed, and last night I felt like there was a bigger plan here. I really feel like no matter what this lump in my back turns out to be, it is merely the enemy picking on me, and I do feel equipped to take authority over him and tell him to take a hike. So while I was there today I just knew that God was going to order my steps and all day I JUST KNEW I was supposed to pray for someone. So I'm hoping to hear a good report from Cierra. And I'd love it if you would pray for her as well.

July 26, 2006

My appt for the testing is the 28th.... starting at 1. They are letting me do the back thing before I have my mammies grammied, so I don't have to lay on 'em after I've been through the torture chamber.

I'll have to share this declaration I made yesterday, only because I need accountability, (and support). And I'll take another risk at trusting ya'll with my deepest darkest fears. When that doctor mentioned the word "tumor", naturally, because I'm Tammy, the first thing that went through my mind was Arnold Swartzen-however-you-spell-his-name in Kindergarten Cop saying, "It's not a tooo-ma". But I really got a little bit fearful, thinking that this thing is growing into my sciatic region and all that. It's amazing how our minds can really invoke so much fear. And like Annie, I went to nursing school, so I know too much -- well, enough to be scary. LOL!

So after I prayed with Cierra and left the hospital, I was thinking how I was believing for that girl - or on behalf of that girl, what *I* needed to have faith enough to believe for myself. And then I was thinkin' how scared that girl is, and how she is trying to grasp on to something to help her feel OK, and how young she was, and I thought, "Oh no, I should have prayed for her about her fear. I should have rebuked the spirit of fear from her. I'm so stupid." And God just spoke to me in my heart and said,"No, you prayed exactly what I wanted you to pray." Which is good He said that cause the devil was actually sitting in the passenger seat beating me up for being so inadequate. Don't ya just love univited guests?

And I kinda thought, yah, but she was so frightened that she coulda used a little extra prayer in the fear department. And God spoke to me again, and He said, "Nope. I am able to meet Ceirra where she is at.....even in the midst of her fear." So I stuck my toungue out at the devil. Then God said ever so clearly in my spirit, "But I will not put up with the spirit of fear from you." Grrrr. I know what He means though. That is one of my many, many weaknesses, and I realized that He was waiting for a purpose. And He has taught me very recently about that exact thing. So He must figure I know better. (pouting going on here)

None-the-less, yesterday was kind of a....I don't know, a really, weird day of weird thoughts and all that about it. My dad had Luekemia, and cancer runs on my moms side of the family so it's perfectly NATURAL to be concerned about it, except God has been asking me to believe in the SUPERNATURAL recently, in things of His world, and not of things of this world. Kinda sucks. So after a lot of wrestling going on in the space between my ears, I finally sat down and made a declaration, printed it out and am working on following through on it. And I wasn't going to bore you with my crazy insane stuff, but I really need you guys. And if you all have loved me this far, then I know I can trust you with really personal struggles. (crap, now I'm crying) So, here goes:

Lord, You said in Your Word that You would heal me. And I believe you, with every fiber of my being. I KNOW You can not lie, and I KNOW You WILL heal me, and I will claim this promise daily. The spirit of unbelief creeps in because my body is not lining up with Your Word, therefore, I decree that from today until the day of my sonogram, I WILL NOT touch my back in the area that the lump was found. Each time I touch it, the enemy tells me that You won't heal me, and I have to struggle with him for a few minutes. This is making me tired, so today I have decided to no longer come in agreement with what the enemy says. My body is lining up with what he says, and I will no longer listen to it! Today and until my test on the 28th, I will not touch that area, but instead will believe BY FAITH that You are working. I noticed that today I had no pain in my back and leg from this lump. I rejoice in that and claim victory in Christ Jesus who provided healing for me with His stripes. If I touch that spot and feel a lump, the devil will likely try to convince me that I do have pain, or that I just forgot about it, or that I will have pain, or that the pain doesn't matter, it only matters that the lump is still there. I will not have a conversation with the one who has come to steal, kill and destroy. I will not listen to him. I will not! I will not! I WILL NOT! I will only have communion with the One Who loves me and gave Himself for me, the One Who came so that I might have LIFE, and to have it more abundantly, the One Who knows the plans He has for me, to do good and not harm me. Praise Your Name! I accept Your healing in my body and I WILL NOT listen to what the enemy is telling me through my body!

PS....God, You know I am believing You for something bigger, so I don't appreciate the devil picking on me and sidetracking me, so I say to You today, that I believe for ALL things promised by You! In my weakness You give me strength.....You ARE my strength!

Do you know how HARD it is NOT to touch that lump? UGH! And to not whine about it? But I will tell ya, that after reading that a couple times yesterday, last night I slept better than I have in a few weeks. I didn't have hardly any leg discomfort and pain during the night. In fact, it was more just an ache from laying on that side than it was from pain. So that's a serious deal. Now, during the day has been a little different, but I did spend two hours at the grocery store, and just being overweight is what I am going to attribute this lower back ache to, but the good part is that my leg is not hurting at all! So I will keep reminding myself that God is healing me, and I'm going to believe God for this to go away! And I will not fear! I will not fear! I WILL NOT FEAR!

July 27, 2006
Hey Ya'll. I had a doc appt for one of the boys this morning so I popped in at the little gift shop and talked to Alice. Cierra was scheduled for surgery this week, they just needed to decided which kind to do, she said a lumpectomy or a mastectomy.... Anyway, Alice said Cierra came in Monday or Tuesday for an appt for her daughter and told her the doctors said they were not going to do the surgery because they didn't see the need for it!! They said the problem in her breasts was not as bad as they thought (no cancer!) and they would just let things be. Isn't that so amazing??!?!!? Yay God! He's still in the healing business! This girl totally experienced a miraculous healing from God!!!!!

July 29, 2006

Hey ya'll! Sorry I didn't to post yesterday. I really wanted to. It was a long and emotional day and by the time I get the kids home, bathed and in bed, Frank was working on a video edit for a church project on the computer and I fell asleep so I didn't get a chance to post. Then today was Angel Food and I just got home. I'm about to drop!

It was truly a disappointing day yesterday, but God was with me all through it. I was just SO sure that lump was going to be gone by the time I got there, and it wasn't. So while she was doing the sonogram on it, I kept praying for God to just make it disappear miraculously, ya know, right in front of the sonographer. Well, He didn't. Then she said she wanted the Radiologist to come in an look at the pictures and at the actual sonogram in real time and to palpate the lump for himself. He had very cold hands, btw. He said it was likely a lipoma, which is a fatty tumor, but he said he was going to recommend to my doctor to have an MRI just to be sure. He also said that these things are always benign and if this is a lipoma, that would be good news. He said it would be a candidate for surgery only if it was bothering me or causing pain, which as it sits on that sacro-illiac region, it does cause pain. BUT, since I didn't play with it all week, the pain was fairly non-existent. But after she was done prodding me, I was pretty uncomfortable and in a little pain down the leg. He said lipomas can have degrees, so it depended on what degree it was as to whether we would want to pursue surgery as an option as well. So all in all, not a great report, but not a bad report ether, since he's not certain 100%. So we keep praying. And believing.

I was truly bummed about it and and disappointed, but I had that mamogram to do so I headed downstairs for that exhilarating experience. Everyone down there was really nice and the actual Breast Health clinic looked like an upscale spa instead of a clinic in the midst of a medical college. Very impressive. Anyway, this is where it gets scarey. I wasn't even worried about this, since I was having breast pain on one side and it was just, in my mind, routine. But after the torture chamber, she told me she didn't want me to freak out but they will likely call me back to do it again because my lymph nodes were enlarged. I knew they were, or suspected, anyway, I just was so concentrated on the lump I didn't give it much thought. Lymph nodes can get swollen for many reason. She said my breasts looked good (well, aside from being deflated, droopy, and pathetic) but the lymph nodes were concerning. So as you can well imagine, since I'm not fighting an infection, as far as I can tell, it's pretty scarey. She said I could expect to get some blood drawn and all that as well. So that's that. And that's when the tears started to flow. But it's OK. I'm still walking in faith and believing God for a good report when I see the doctor on the 3rd. I don't have time for the devil to pick on me right now. Darn it. And I will not fear, I will not fear, I will not fear! (I'm going to keep confessing this until I believe it! LOL)

So today my mom told the ladies that help with Angel Food, and they all prayed for me/with me. I did explain to them that I needed them to just come into agreement with me in prayer about this, but I didn't believe, nor wanted to hear, that God is doing this to me to build character, or teach me a lesson, or prove He is God or whatever, and that I don't believe that scripture teaches this. I believe based on the Word that this is an outright attack from the adversary, as the Bible says he comes to kill, steal and destroy.

August 23, 2006
I have only a quick second before I have to run off to get Frank from work. We are down to one vehicle and it's not even ours! It's my mother in laws.....thank God she is still letting us borrow it....but runnin' here and there is SOOOOO exhausting! Who knew sitting and driving could be so draining??

Anyway I got to see my regular doctor at her new practice and it was a much, much nicer visit. She wants an MRI on the lump in the back, so I have to wait til they call me with the appointment for that. She has no diagnosis, just wants to wait on the tests... As far as the lymph nodes - she diagnosed me with something I can not even pretend to try to pronounce, and knew what it was right away and was able to palpate the nodes with a very gentle touch. Basically it needs (or needed in the first place) to be treated with a strong antibiotic. It is swollen and she said this usually can cause absesses in the lymph tissue, breast tissue including the ducts and etc, and the area close to the sternum (cleavageish area) and no wonder I have pain. Yes, I'm TRYING not to be bitter at the other doctor for letting me suffer this long. The infection is in the lymph nodes themselves and probably in the breast tissue at this point. Easy enough to fix with antibiotics and warm compresses. Meanwhile, she said this thing can come and go and usually comes when you are eating a diet high in fat. SOOOOOOOO, no more Atkins type stuff for me. I gotta go low fat - no flavor. Can't wait.

And that's that. And let me tell you, she was soooo gentle and wonderful. And sad that I saw Dr Psycho Pants.

Ok.....on the road again!!!

September 23

Hi Ya'll! Sorry I didn't get a chance to email yesterday. I got home after 8 and was pooped. And today was Angel Food. Phew!

I have nothing to report though. They wouldn't tell me anything. boo hoo. He was just the tech and said the radiologist wasn't available. Have you ever done that MRI before? It has made the top ten things I never want to experience again. I didn't know they were going to give me an injection of radioactive stuff, or whatever it was and they ended up stickin me three times! OWE!. Well, that's par for the course, I have tiny veins. That's pretty much the only tiny thing I have.

Anyway, that's that. I have my appointment with my doctor on Monday afternoon, so hopefully it will be all good news!

September 25, 2006
Good News!!

Whoo-Hoo!

Nothing to worry about!

Just a benign pain in the toushy. If I want to have it removed, I can, but if not, it's ok.

So yay God! It will stay put for now. Motrin works well enough on the pain as does lounging around on the couch wearing fuzzy slippers and eating bon bons.

I was in the office with my doctor for an hour. Found out my passing out episode is something to do with a vaso vegal nerve thing. My sister has that. It's treatable and not a big deal....unless you don't like laying on the bathroom floor.

Anyway, the past couple of months has been a sincere testing of my faith and I am just about spent! The enemy has exhausted me, but I will rest in the Lord and wait on Him and be renewed like the eagles! Whooo hooo~~~ But it does make me think that most of this trial, while it was certainly a time of growing for me, was more for Cierra.....that one Divine Appointment. I just found out that she and her husband are very newly pregnant with their second child. A new life....one that would not have been possible had God not supernaturally reached down and healed her like He did. Yay God! You are the Giver of all life!!!

After my doctor's appointment I ended up seeing an old friend and the whole time was spent with her talking to me about her spiritual life. It was so awesome how God worked today. I have known this lady for 14 years and we have never had a converstation about God. She's always been really funny about that subject with us, like she was trying not to bring up God ever or whatnot, to be politically correct and such. She just really opened up and cried a little and we talked about her relationship with God and she ended up giving me a HUG and thanking me for encouraging her! How cool is that? God works in cool ways.

Then I left and the devil just beat me up all the way to the book store about how stupid I sounded and how I didn't give her enough talk about Jesus and all that. You know how he can be. I kept wanting to ask her if I could pray with her but I just never got that open door. So of course the devil beat me up with the fact that I could have opened the door myself and all that. And I was all bummed and feeling low and stuff. Does anybody else ever go through this mind game? Spirit of condemnation? What a pain in the butt.

So I get to the bookstore and get them to look for the books I need and a girl comes out to help me and she's got like this big ole nose ring and this scratchy voice and is just all around frightening. HAHA. I mean like goth looking. So I follow her to the books and notice she is limping. She gets my books and I ask her why she is limping. She tells me she was in a car accident 9 months ago and had her knee crushed, was in a coma for 3 weeks, had her aorta severed and her vocal cords nearly destroyed. So I'm like, wow, you survived that? And she tells me the doctors said she was a medical miracle. And of course you know what I'm thinking. So I tell her that God has His hands on her and we get to talking and find out she used to be a singer at church a long time ago, but isn't in church now or has she been for a long time. So I ask her if I can pray for her (see how I got the devil back? LOL!) So she says yes, and I put my hand on her shoulder and pray for her and totally feel the Holy Spirit's presence (WOW!) and then when I open my eyes she grabs my hand and she's crying and tells me that it meant a lot to her and asks me my name and all that. It was a good time in the Lord. I know He was speaking to her.... too cool.

Which brings me back to my original thought.....all of this lump thing and scary lymph node stuff....how much of it was for my benefit? How much of it was for me to be in God's path all along to meet up with His Divine Appointments? How humbled I am that He chose to use me like that, to bring me through frightening possibilities and still put people in my path to show His love to. I love our Great Big Healing Wonderful Powerful GOD!!!

Sunny Sunday

2007-08-07T09:52:00.001-07:00

This is Sam and Paige. Paige is one of our regulars. She is always the first one to arrive to church each Sunday morning. She told me that she had been reading the pretty purple Bible we gave her. She is just the sweetest thing. I loved her pink hair bow and shiny shoes!
The man in the blue came two weeks ago, then was arrested and put in jail last week and spent 8 days in there. He was arrested for being homeless. Every now and then, the city will come through and arrest all the homeless people they can get their hands on. This clean-sweep usually proceeds a big event that brings tourists. I imagine this time it was the river races. Well, he came back this week and this time he brought a friend, the man in the purple. He really enjoyed Frank's preaching. When we told him we will only be down on SUNNY Sundays, he said if it rained, we need to put a sign up to tell him where we are meeting....in other words....he wants to keep coming no matter where we meet....and we should not let a little rain keep us from coming down. He was totally eating the Word today!

One of the men today said that when he stays at one of our local homeless shelters, he is forced to go to church. That's how it works there, they make 'em go to their church services. I think that's a good idea, and we have seen fruit from those efforts in the countless homeless men who are well versed in the scriptures. However, this man, he is no doubt lost. But he did say today that what he liked about coming to our church was that he wasn't forced to come, he could come if he wanted to. And he said, "I wanted to." Kinda a big deal here for a man who wouldn't ordinarily enter a church somewhere. Bless his heart, he even apologized for being dirty.

This morning we had about 20 people for church service. Even "Lucifer" showed up again. I think that's super cool. God is after this man's heart. We fed McDs sausage biscuits and donuts to lots of hungry folks and prayed for a lot of hurting people. I just love how God loves on people through his people. I'm so proud of our team and their ability to express the LOVE of God to the poor. This is God's heart.

August First Friday

2007-08-07T08:51:00.001-07:00

Is it August already? Wow! The summer is flying by! We had a great night and the temperature wasn't too miserable either. Frank had to work, can you even believe that? They wouldn't let him off to come down for his ministry night. So....Frank commissioned Frank Peterson to be in charge of the night, and Peterson did a great job! He really stepped out of his box (actually, he's been stepping out all along, this was just a really good time for him to see how much of a leader he truly is). It was another awesome night with lots of praying for healings and deliverances, and lots of love, a total Love Revolution! And guess who came again? "Lucifer!" But this time we found out his real name. LOL! And he actually was apologetic for not coming to church last Sunday! Can you even believe that? He told us he overslept, and let's face it, when you're homeless, you don't have an alarm clock.

Worship on the streets.... Our AWESOME and anointed Praise Band! Unashamed...
More of A Church Without Walls' ministry team....

Maxine and Sharon. What blesses me so much about Maxine is her lack of mobility does not hinder her dedication to street ministry. And although she is often-times fearful of being down-town in an area that is considered dangerous, she still makes an effort to come out and be a blessing to others. And Sharon is a fire-cracker evangelist and sent from God to help. She has a very out-going and bubbly personality who is on fire for God!
This is a sweet couple that came to one of our Sunday Services on the street, then came down for First Friday to hang out with us.
The reason we come.
Frank Peterson totally lit up the darkness with the power of prayer. He was the bomb!

Sunday Sunday

2007-07-29T22:06:00.000-07:00

WOW! It's just amazing what God does when you go for it. We had an awesome street service again today. The weather held out for us, even though we had scattered thunderstorms in the forecast. Since we know THE Forecaster, we had Divine Favor. Today was a good day. The message was great (he taught on Who You Are, and gave practical applications for how to combat the enemy when he comes along and reminds you of who you once were) and Frank and I were also told by a 54 year old "member" that she had adopted us as her mom and dad. :) Very sweet.

I was listening to a few messages by Todd Bentley a few weeks before we decided to "just do it" on the street church deal. He was talking about it costing you something when you follow hot after God's anointing for your ministry. I thought, in all honesty, that I was prepared for whatever the cost would be, and at this point I figured the worst part would be my time and money, and hugging people who don't smell nice. Actually, this HAS been a huge factor in the "cost".

But today I encountered a price-tag I was unprepared to pay. Our middle child, Caleb, was in a day camp all week at a church in Hephzibah, and today was the grand-finale and parent's program. This is a big deal and not something I wanted to miss, however, I was torn. Should I go down-town to minister and love on the addicts and ex-strippers who are trying so hard to follow Jesus --- and DESPERATELY need someone to gently prod them along in their journeys, or should I go to Caleb's show. Everything within me wanted to go see Caleb, but something else deep inside me was compelling me to go to the streets today.

And because God is a God Who honors obedience, I went down-town AND to Caleb's performance. He just worked it out for me! Isn't HE just so awesome! Initially, I was unsure if I was willing to pay the price, if I was willing to let this thing that God is putting together in front of our very eyes cost me THIS event, or any other event related to my boys. But when I decided to make that move toward obedience, God gave me both for the price of one! LOL! My dad was able to pick up the boys while we were down-town and get the kids to the church in Hephzibah on time, and we were able to finish up down-town and get to Hephzibah just a few minutes after the program started. And the way Caleb's face lit up when he saw us come in....a very heart warming moment indeed.

Yep, it will sometimes cost us something we don't want to give up to pursue after His calling, but when we offer our obedience to Him, He comes through for us. And I'm thankful that my dad was willing to make a sacrifice for us today, which ultimately became a sacrifice for A Church Without Walls.

Follow hard after the anointing over His calling on your life and see how He automatically pulls things together for you. Go after Him. Pursue Him. Then go after the things that are dear to Him......people. Be the Light in the darkness!

ACWWs ministers in down-town apartment building on Monday night

2007-07-25T08:15:00.001-07:00

Awesome stories to come....

Things are just happening so fast that I can't keep up the posts! Wow!! God is awesome!

I'll get them posted as soon as I can. I think you will be inspired to hear what God is doing among the poor of Augusta!

A Church Without Walls ~ EXPONENTIAL GROWTH!

2007-07-25T08:14:00.001-07:00

OK, so the first service we have a lot of people come by, check us out, eat breakfast with us, but really, only one lady stayed the whole time. That was Paige. Well, Paige brought a friend to church today. Her name is Michelle. So technically, in a week, we DOUBLED our attendance! LOL! How do you like that for growth? Who doubles their service in a week? Hee hee. Now, if we count the gnats that keep showing up....well, we have made it to mega-church status!

Again, though, we had a lot sitting in the alley ways, still afraid to come any closer. But they are being drawn in by the Love of God. And several people coming and sitting a few minutes to have breakfast with us. Still unsure of all this unconditional love going on. But a total Love Revolution is happening down-town! A city on the hill will not be hidden!

Now the most exciting thing happened AFTER church was over. We went into our "second service", all unintentional...at least by us. Holy Spirit wasn't calling it unintentional. I had gone up to Paige's apartment after church to visit with her a bit. She has a sweet little kitten named Oreo, so I played with him for a few minutes and she showed me her apartment and told me more about herself. On the way into her building I did get a chance to speak to several other people that were in the alleyway, and was pleasantly surprised to hear many of them tell me how much they like that we are down there (even though they haven't come yet! LOL)

After my visit with Paige...I went back down-stairs and through the alley way back to our church location to find Frank and Hosea still there set up with the music and an entire new crowd of people sitting in the benches! So we ministered through anointed worship music and prayer. There was a group of people sitting on the bench that actually begged us to just stay a little longer. And a little longer. Even longer. We ended up keeping it going for almost another two hours! We have met so many nice people down-town. Just all out nice people trying to make a life and survive the best way they can. And God is drawing them to us so we can love them and share Jesus with them. It's so totally cool. So now we have doubled our service AND gone to a second service....all in one day! Gotta love God's sense of humor! LOL!

oh,oh,oh! I have to tell you about a little man named Dave. He was so precious! He was worshiping with us during the second service and my goodness, he was in total abandonment in his absolute worship of His Saviour. He kept weeping with joy and with complete surrender to God as His Presence rolled in like a beautiful plush carpeting of love. I so enjoyed watching Dave love on Jesus today.

A Church Without Walls Street Service

2007-07-25T08:13:00.002-07:00

Frank has decided to write a book. He wants to call it "Just Do It." Too many times we know the calling God has for us, but we putter around, wondering how it's going to happen, if it's really what God is telling you to do, how it's going to happen, if you'll have enough help, how it's going to happen, if people will show up, where will you get the finances and the equipment, and........ did I mention how it's going to happen? Well, we just decided to JUST DO IT. So today we had our first Sunny Sunday Street Service. We met in the middle of the street, between 7th and 8th on Broad Street. There's a lovely shaded area with park benches and a water fountain complete with a confederate monument. Hosea came and did our music, my gosh he's super talented, and our friends Sam and Steve Jones and Pam and Frank Peterson (and their children) came down to help us launch our very first street service. The music was phenomenal! Hosea is the best male singer I have ever heard, and he can really play that guitar. Before we knew it, people were coming out of their apartment and coming to see what we were all about. We fed many, many people breakfast, and we had our very first visitor named Paige. She stayed for the entire service, start to finish. We had countless people stop by, but there seems to be a little trust issue among the poor down there, as well as the homeless, in regards to religious people. I have come to learn that many of these people have gone into area churches only to be rejected and unloved because they smell bad or aren't clean enough. These types of attitudes are wounding to people, and it's an area where the enemy can infiltrate their lives and bring them down continuously and before you know it, they associate a few snotty Christians with what God is really about. And He's really not that kind of God. So it's going to take some time to earn the trust of these people. But the really cool thing was that there were so many people who were sitting off on the other side of the street, still within listening distance, just trying to check us out. And then guess who showed up? "Lucifer!" And he had breakfast with us. He's really coming around. I can see God's love penetrating his heart. It's so cool to watch!

After about 20 minutes of the music playing, a police officer circled the area in his car like a shark. I was so nervous! When he got out of his patrol car and started walking towards us, Sam just started praying and praying Then he got closer and I thought, "Ok, I'll just let who ever is in charge of this talk to the officer." Then I realized....Frank was up there playing the sax with his eyes shut and totally oblivious to what was going on....which meant...it was all up to me! YIKES! So he came closer and as I went over to greet him, Sam was still praying, and I was about to pee my pants....then I greeted him and he said, "What church are ya'll with?" So I said, "Well, we aren't really with any church, we call ourselves A Church Without Walls, is it ok that we are here?" He said, "Well, we did get a complaint about loud music." So I said, "Ok, we can totally turn it down." Then he said, "No, don't." I was like Huh? He said,"These people down here NEED this." TOO COOL! YAY GOD!!!!! So we kept at it. Then Frank preached and his voice reached out to the depths of the alley ways and I know, I know, I know....that it was not in vain! God's Word does not return void! It WILL establish everything it sets out to accomplish. God totally rocks! And Jesus TOTALLY saves!

Bringing the Light into Darkness

2007-07-25T07:20:00.000-07:00

I have a pretty powerful story to share here that Peterson was a part of. As soon as he emails me the details I'll post it. It's just proof positive that when you bring Jesus to an area that is stricken with the darkness and ruler of this world....only good things can happen!
Stay tuned!

A Merry Heart is Good Medicine! (July F.F. continued)

2007-07-25T06:47:00.000-07:00

For months now, as we set up on the corner of the street with our signs on First Fridays, we have been "visited" by a man. This is no ordinary man. He is a grumpy old man. In fact he's a snarling growling discontent type of man. But each month as he passes us by on the streets, we smile and greet him and treat him like he is the most important person on the planet. He doesn't like it. However, if you've been down-town, you know that when you walk down the streets of Augusta, and you want to avoid certain people or maybe not pass by a particular store or band playing on the streets, you can cross the street and walk on the other side. But this grumpy, growly, snarly man always walks on our side of the street. This got me to wondering why.

The first thing he does when he passes by is say in a growly mumbled voice, "I don't need no prayer." Then he makes a mean face at us and keeps walking. He does this at least 4 times a night. But you know what I think? I think he is being DRAWN to our side of the street by the Holy Spirit. I think the Lord is wooing this fella and he can't help but cross our paths time after time. So I have to smile, knowing that at some point in the future, I'm going to get to see God do something super cool with this man.

Well July's First Friday was the night! He had walked by for the first time in the evening past one of our newest team members, Sharon. (She is mentioned in another post) Well, I had not thought to warn her about him but when he passed by, she offered her hand as a friendly gesture of a handshake and he yelled at her in his typical growly manner. She pulled her hand back and looked a little more than startled. When he had gone passed, I spoke with her and told her that he was probably carrying a little baggage (we call him the devil) and not to take it personally, but to watch because God was going to get him soon. Well she agreed that he had a demonic stronghold of some sort, as it was clearly evident, mostly by the look in his eyes.

So about an hour passes by and the band is playing and the Presence of God was with us and we were really enjoying our ministry with the passers-by. Then here comes the grumpy, growly, snarly fella again. This time he came with a determination that we were not going to be nice to him. He made eye-contact with me and decided to stare me down as he walked passed me. I kept my eyes fixed on his eyes, the whole time praying and rebuking the devil. Well, he didn't like me staring back at him and not getting scared of him one bit! So he stopped and stood right beside me, his eyes fixed on mine, with a heavy oppressive glare. And all I could think in my head was, "I'm not scared of you Satan!" Well, as we were staring at each other and he was doing his best to intimidate me and provoke fear, I kept smiling and said, "What's your name?" He growled at me and said, "I don't have a name!!!!!" So I kept smiling, didn't look afraid (cause I wasn't...hello....greater is He that is in me....) and I said, "Yes you do have a name!"

So he looked at me with that hard glare and he said, "My name is LUCIFER!!!"

OK, you don't know how bad I wanted to say, "I KNEW IT!!!" hahahaha But I didn't. I just looked at him and said, "Wow! That's a cool name!" And he said, "Yeah, and I have 666 tatooed on my back." Hmm....interesting. So I said, "Would you like a drink of water?" He snarled back at me, "No!" I said, "Are you sure, I've got some in a cooler and it's all nice and cold." He said, "You got some in a cooler?" "Yep." "Well, ok, I guess I'll have a drink of your water then." So I handed him a bottle of water and he stood there and started to drink it up.

Meanwhile, the band is still playing and he stands there for a few minutes and is listening to the band. Then Frank Peterson comes over in my direction. Now Frank Peterson, whom I will henceforth refer to as Peterson so as not to confuse him with Frank Strausser, had been shaking the city up all night long praying for folks. So when he comes over I said to him, "Hey, ask this man what his name is." So Peterson looks at grumpy, growly, snarly guy and says, "Hey man, what's your name?" And he replies, "Lucifer!!!" And without missing a beat, Peterson says, "Do they call you Lucy?" And all of a sudden, 'Lucifer' starts to laugh uncontrollably and just like that, the walls were broken down and a new relationship with him had formed. I'll tell you what...a sense of humor is a good thing to have! So 'Lucifer' ended up staying with us the rest of the night, laughing and having a good time. He even requested several Christian songs from the band. Every now and then he would elude to his past experience as a band member in a Christian organization, and that now he was a heathen. I think Lucifer is in his late 50s or early 60s, and he is a "street survivor." That's pc for homeless, I'm told.

So I'm waiting and watching to see what God does here with this man. It's going to be cool whatever it is.

UPDATE: This last Sunday on our morning street service, "Lucifer" came! He came around 11:30 when we were going into overtime (see other post). He had some donuts and water with us and enjoyed the music. And requested "Elshidai", which we fully intend to find the music for and play for him next Sunday. I did find out from some of the residents in the building across the street that he happens to be a highly respected street survivor, and he looks out for the newbies. I wonder what's up with him? My first thought is that he was hurt by "church people" and maybe that's why he was such a snot to us all these months. So we shall see what unfolds for this man. God has a plan and a purpose and I'm so excited to see what He does here!

July First Friday! SEVEN Souls Saved!!!

2007-07-23T19:56:00.003-07:00

WOW! What a night! We had a total blast tonight at our July First Friday! It was packed down-town, mostly due to the Independence Day celebrations that had been taking place all week. I have SO MUCH to tell you that I fear this will be the absolute longest blog post in the history of blogging! But it was just an incredible night and too much GOD to leave out any details....just an absolute wonderful night of ministering to people. YAY GOD!!

I'll post some here and then another cool story about a man we deal with every First Friday in another post....cause as usual....it's a long one!

This week we were blessed with several extras. First, we had a fire-cracker go getter named Sharon come and join us. She was a blessing! She operated in A Church Without Walls as our "greeter". She shook hands with everyone who passed her by. She has amazing energy and boldness. And we had SEVEN SOULS SAVED!!!! Whooooo--hooooo!

We did something a little bit different at this First Friday, and it went over well enough to repeat it next month. We had helium filled balloons and we tied a message on a business card to each one and handed them out to children. It was so much fun. We had scripture written out as decrees for the kids, such as "I am fearfully and wonderfully made," "No weapon formed against me shall prosper," "I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me," "I am strong in the Lord and in His mighty power." That sort of thing. The best part I think, was a man who came down with Sharon who lives down-town in poverty, who helped Frank pass out the balloons. I could tell he had such a sense of belonging and doing an important work for the Lord. That picture blessed me beyond measure.

Later I had a conversation with him and found out he was just a regular guy with a job and a home, then his wife suddenly passed away from cancer three years ago. I could tell he was hurting so much inside from her loss. He said that last year he had a heart attack and became very ill, spending a lot of time in a rehabilitation center to recover from the damage done to his body from the lack of blood flow. And when he was released, there he was, in extreme poverty with no one to look after him. This could happen to any of us. I was so blessed to watch him be involved and feel important and needed for the work of God. I could just sit here and cry when I think about it.

We also had another real treat for First Friday. For the first time we had a band! A wonderfully talented and anointed man named Hosea came and sang and played the guitar. He really ushered in the presence of God! Another lady named Karen, also an anointed and talented worship artist, played the bongos. This made the world of difference for our night. There is something so special and so profound when you bring together people for worship...the atmosphere totally changes!! It was such a GOD NIGHT!

As You Go....

2007-07-23T19:26:00.000-07:00

It's not necessary to have an evangelistic night or a specific set time to go out and release God's love. Matthew 10:7 implores us to do the things Jesus did "as you go". So as we go about doing our normal things, we can reach the lost with a simple hug, act of kindness, and an offer of prayer. It's amazing how offering to pray for someone can brighten the day of any one, lost or saved, and somehow this enables them to feel the love of Jesus being released to them from you. Give it a try...you'll see.

A few weeks ago, I went to the hospital to visit one of my dad's church members named Pauline who was suffering from a kidney infection. This dear sweet lady is in her early eighties and is as sharp as a tack. In fact, we went on a church retreat recently to a lake house, and Pauline was kind enough to teach my boys how to properly bait a hook. Frank was at work, so he wasn't there to assist in this delicate procedure...and speaking of delicate....that just pretty much describes me and my stomach for some such baiting matters. So I was genuinely grateful for Pauline's expertise in the fishing department. :) And moderately grossed out.

After we visited with her, my dad and I were on our way to the parking lot when we came across a man sitting on a bench outside the hospital. He looked sad and lonely, so we spoke with him a bit and then found out his father was in ICU. We had the privilege of praying for his father, and for this man's strength. And although he was already a believer and loved the Lord, he was deeply, DEEPLY moved by the touch from God, as well as strengthened in his faith for God to move in his life.

After a while we found ourselves at Walmart where there was a lady sitting in a wheel chair at the deli. The Lord prompted me to go over and speak to her. In the course of our conversation I found out she was a believer, in fact when I asked her if she knew Jesus, she said, "He and I are old friends." I think she was in her eighties. She appreciated the love and affection, and the attention, that God gave her through a regular person standing in line at the deli. That's all it takes.

At our Walmart, in recent weeks, we have had a group stand in front of the door soliciting for funds for the homeless. The ironic thing was that there was a man at the corner of the street who WAS homeless. He had a typical sign requesting money and stating he was homeless and hungry. I noticed him outside as I went in, and got him a meal at the deli where I was praying for that sweet little friend of Jesus. Anyway, I left the store and went to the man and gave him the food and a drink. He started to cry and when I asked him a few questions, I realized that he was mentally retarded. He had a bunch of ant bites on his leg, so I prayed with him about that, gave him a hug (held my breath cause boy did he smell!) and he thanked me over and over and continued to cry.

When I left, I got this image in my mind of a little boy born to an excited set of parents, only to discover their brand new bundle of joy was not quite right. I imagined them later taking him to physicians to determine a diagnosis. I could see them later enrolling him in school for the special classes. Then I caught a glimpse of him maybe 5 years ago, in his late 40s, at a funeral for his parents, and no one left to continue to care for him. He was all alone, no one to tell him what to do next. And there he was, surviving the best way that he could. You know, when these mentally retarded children grow up and their parents pass away, what happens to them if they don't have anyone to tell them what to do next?

I'm telling you these stories of a day filled with "as you go" examples in an effort to encourage you and inspire YOU to get out of the four walls and be Jesus to the world. This is supposed to be normal Christianity! Love them to life!

God Heals at Work!

2007-07-23T19:13:00.000-07:00

One of our bigger desires is to see other people begin to walk in God's power. Our home Bible study group is one area where we get to discuss Power Evangelism and offer encouragement to one another to see God move in our lives and personal ministries. And let's face it, every believer has a personal ministry, in one form or another.

Samantha is one of my favorite people. I have had the honor of watching her bloom in God's garden, and have enjoyed her company and friendship. She adds a special fragrance to our lives! Here is a story she shared recently with me about a God Encounter she had at the busy restaurant where she is the manager:

I just wanted to share an experience I had at work. It was a Sunday afternoon and I hadn't too long got to work, I was walking the floor, checking things out, making sure all is well for Sunday at the Mountain (restaurant). I stopped at the table of one of our frequent customers, I asked if they were ok but I could tell Elaine wasn't feeling well. I sat down next to her and across from her husband. We were kind of busy and in my line of work sitting down on the job just doesn't happen often.

She began sharing with me that she didn't attend church that morning because her leg was hurting her too much. Elaine had a stroke a while back and although every day is a little better than the day before she is healing slowly, and she is in constant pain. She says the doctors cannot fix the pain, all they can do is give her pills to try to control it , which wasn't working very well. I told her that we needed to talk to the greatest doctor of all.

I asked her if she believed that God could heal her? She said yes that when people at church pray for her it feels a little better for a little while. I asked her if I could pray for her. She said yes and we sat there at the table on a busy Sunday afternoon. I laid my hand on her knee and we prayed and asked God to heal her leg and remove her pain.

When we finished praying she asked me if I felt the heat on her knee. I didn't feel anything but I knew God would heal her. Her husband thanked me with tears in his eyes and she hugged me. I had to go and do that management stuff and got so busy that I couldn't get back to the table to check on her.

A few days later I was sitting down and having dinner with my co-workers and Steve, my wonderful husband , and Elaine and her husband came in. I spotted Carol (her husband) fixing his plate and I asked how Elaine's leg was feeling...

He said I had to come by the table when I get a chance. So I finished my meal, walked my husband to his car, kissed him bye, and went back inside the store. I went by the table and asked her how her leg was? She hugged my neck and said it didn't hurt anymore,(praise God!!) She said she didn't realize it for a little while and then all of a sudden she noticed that her leg didn't hurt anymore. She thanked me and I told her to thank God that it was his Power that healed her. Isn't God Great!!

Jesus Heals the Little Children....

2007-06-01T10:01:00.000-07:00

I know, this isn't necessarily street evangelism related, but I had to share anyway. In my home church, River of Life Renewal Fellowship, we had a first time visitor, a 12 year old boy I'll call Q, who comes from a severely dysfunctional home in the down town area that we minister in on First Fridays, and lives with rejection and crime all around him. It's appalling what children have to endure in a time of our century where this type of parenting is strongly discouraged.

Anyway, after children's church was over, we took the kids into the gym to play a couple games. My 9 year old Caleb ended up getting hurt on a basket ball, his fingers had bent backward real far and it hurt really bad. His two fingers were actually purple. So we immediately went to the Great Physician about it, but first I grabbed Q and asked him to come over and lay hands on Caleb for healing. So he came over and I asked him to pray. He didn't know what to say so I told him some things and he repeated them (with authority, I might add) and suddenly Caleb starts shouting that the pain was completely gone and when we examined his fingers there was absolutely no discoloration at all...not purple, not red, not even the slightest bit pink. Yay God!! Whooo - hoooo!

I think the coolest thing about this story was that Q got to see first hand how real the Power of God is! Yay God! You are so totally awesome!!! Whooo - hoooo!!

Take a look

2007-05-30T20:27:00.000-07:00

http://www.francischan.org/media_player.php?f=Think%20of%20Me%2Emov

I think this video is thought provoking.
Please give generously to missionaries. Find one you really like and support them with your finances, prayers, and letters of encouragement.
www.irismin.org is a worthwhile and trustworthy cause to give to.

Potty Mouths

2007-05-19T01:02:00.000-07:00

Well, the weather is nice, and with nice weather, the neighbors seem to expect that you will cut your grass and do all that yard work stuff. Sigh. Since clearly, I am a princess, I don't do yard work. Ever. Ok, well maybe sometimes, but not without a lot of complaining. And why let three perfectly good boys go to waste? So their job was to fill bags up with pine cones. Pine cones, those things that riding lawn mowers don't like a whole lot. And with that chore came cash. Yep. They got paid, which meant dinner at McDs. So off we go for a nice late spring treat.

Did you know God likes to hang out at restaurants? Me either, but He does. So we are sitting there enjoying our happy meals and all, when a group of 5 big fellas come in and sit at the table right next to us. One of 'em stands, being it's just a four seater. By this time we are enjoying hot fudge sundaes and trying to have a couple of dinner conversations with the kids.

And there's those loud fellas, using every foul combination of vowels and consonants possible. I mean, "I" was educated sitting there. The "f" word and the "g-d" word was thrown around as frequently as we might use the word "the" in a sentence. It was awful. And just as I was so tempted to tell these boys that they needed to tone down the naughty tongue wagging, that still small voice inside of me said not to. Was it fear? Not at all. As some of you well know, I don't back down from the devil. Well, I had already made eye contact with several of them, hoping that they would no doubt sense my disapproval and would on their own, out of the kindness of their hearts, or just plain good manners, stop with at least the worst of it, but instead, they gave me the "whatcha gonna do about it looks." Very annoying. Don't they know who I am? I mean I have a tiara and everything. Jeesh.

So as I'm sitting there listening to only about the first five minutes of these colorful metaphors being slung around my children, I start to get a little miffed. Ok, a lot miffed. And then God gently reminds me that these people are lost, and how can I expect them to act like anything other than lost people. He's right you know. If they don't know Him, they don't know how to act like Him. And if they don't know Him, it's up to us to tell them of Him.

So I wait for an open door, seeing that clearly these fellas are my target. But no doors open up. So I sit and pray and wait and nothing. And really, since my children are with us, I'm not so very brave. I look over at Frank and he's all mellow....so I'm like, what's up with you? And the whole time, he's over there getting wacked with the Holy Ghost, getting tanked on the new wine. So not fair. Well at this point I'm not feeling like we can do much with the crowd the way it is, the fiestyness of those fellas, the loudness of the room, and mostly the fact that my small children are there. Mama bear and all. So we decide to leave. I never said a word to Frank that these guys were the "ones", however, while we are walking to the van, Frank says, "Did you get a word yet?" I love it when we are on the same page like that. So we talk a minute and he says he doesn't have a word but he KNOWS he can't leave without talking to those guys. So I get the kids settled into the van and Frank goes back inside and has a little chat with those boys.

Now, can you guess what they THOUGHT Frank was coming in for? Yep. They thought that Mr. Preacher Man took his sweet little family out to the van and was coming in to give them "what-fors" for talking potty talk in front of them. Know what they got? Yep. The love of Jesus. Don't ya just love surprising people. I watched through the window what was going on. Apparently he walked up to their table and told them he had a message for them. Then he started speaking life into them and offered to pray for anyone. One guy DID want prayer for his life to get on track (WOW) and the other guys sat there very humbly and received, rather well, the words of life and hope that Frank was speaking to them. It was a God moment. And one those boys won't likely ever forget. Going to McDs, getting some chow, then talking dirty in front of some princess and her kids, then low and behold, not getting reamed for it, but instead getting the message of Jesus and being loved and accepted by some guy still dressed in his dress shirt from work. Now that's good stuff.

Pizza Hut in Atlanta

2007-05-19T00:17:00.001-07:00

Well, we took a trip to Atlanta for a home school day at Six Flags. It was quite HOT! Hot enough in fact that Franklin ended up with heat exhaustion. He was actually quite sick and we were not able to do much at the park except rest and hydrate. What a day. And what a better way to end the day than at a Pizza Hut near the hotel we stayed in, don't ya think?. Yum.

Being a Friday night, we expected the restaurant to be crowded, but sometimes God will do things unexpectantly to acheive His purposes. It begins to pour down rain just as we got in and were seated. There was one waitress. ONE. On a Friday night. But there was only one other family in the whole dining room though. Kinda strange.

So our waitress comes over and God says "this is the one tonight." Well, to be honest with you, I didn't really want to be "on the clock" because we had had such an awful day with a sick child and being out of town and exhausted, I mean I was tired and just wanted to feed my family and go back to the hotel and crash.... but when the Boss calls, you just go with Him and do the stuff. He gives you strength. He really does. So we start making conversation with the waitress and find out she has been there all night by herself and that the dining room had previously been packed out. She was very tired and very worn out and very discouraged. And very drawn. There was one point where I almost invited her to sit with us, since she was hanging out with us so much as it was. :) I loved it! It was God that was drawing her near. He's such a good, good God!

Well, the evening progresses, menus are colored, bellies are filled, drinks are surprisingly not spilled, and it's time to pay and go back to the hotel for the night. So Frank commissions me to be the "one" (as if I didn't know already!) and he takes the kiddos out to the car, while I go up to the register to pay.

There she is, our unsuspecting target, who has already shared her life story with us, which included a 3 month old baby that she was single parenting, a pending move from whomever it is she was currently living with to be on her own, and plans to attend college in the fall for bigger than life dreams. And I have nothing. No words of knowledge, no prophetic vision, no angelic visitation, no beams of light, nothing.

So I walked up to her, handed her the payment, and she looked deeply in my eyes with that look of desperation. That look I am starting to become very familiar with in people who recognize that you have something living within you that they want. That Hope. That Jesus. That mighty, mighty Jesus.

And then it came. The words of LIFE and HOPE. Out of my mouth, without rehearsal. As I stood there, the first thing that happened was that I reached over and gave her a hug, kept my hand on her shoulder as I pulled away and remained face to face with her and out came, “God is here for you. He wants you to know that He has a plan for you bigger than anything you can imagine, and He is going to take care of you and of your little girl.” She replied with an unworthily, “I hope so.” Then I said, “God is going to supernaturally enable you to learn all the things you will need to learn to succeed in college, you are going to be amazed that you will learn that medical terminology so quickly and so easily, and you will know that it is God that is enabling you. He has something big in store for you and wants to bring you out of where you are now.” And that was it. Not that profound, really, but to this young lady, it was diamonds. She was beaming. In fact she begged me to please come back. I explained to her that I was from out of town and she was genuinely disappointed. Why? Was it ME she really wanted? No. It was the Presence that was with me. His Presence. I am nothing with out Him.

What would happen, if the next time you go to a restaurant, you speak words of life into your wait staff? What would really happen? Revival. That’s what would happen. Go love someone to LIFE this week!

May First Friday - Cinco De Mayo

2007-05-18T23:47:00.000-07:00

It was sooooooo crowded down town this time! WOW! Where did all these people come from? And for it to be the first part of May...we froze our buns off! The wind was really whippin'! Yet still, it was sidewalk to sidewalk of people!

Well, you know what the means.....our "congregation" was "up" and we had a lot more "visitors"! LOL! So we maintained our roles as pastors of A Church Without Walls, and stood on the side walk greeting people as if they had just walked into our church building. What ended up happening was kind of weird and humbling all at the same time. Instead of just us offering ministry to the passers-by, WE were ministered to through a lot of encouragement from folks who just wanted to stop by and say they supported what we were doing and wanted us to know that. That was special. Truly it was.

With a bigger crowd, we had a bigger opportunity. Unfortunately, our usual team members were unable to attend, so we were flying solo....well, not really. Holy Spirit was all over the place! Wow I love Him! We got to pray for healing for several people, lots of arthritis and that sort of thing. But I think the thing that was the most memorable was a man who came up for prayer. He was desperate for a touch from God, and we were more than happy to share His love with him. He came up and introduced himself and we talked for a while about salvation. He said he had received Christ years ago and was really struggling with some things right now. So Frank began to pray for him, and had his hands somewhere on his shoulders, while I had one hand on his back. And then the Lord told me to place my hand over his heart. This is not the first time God has compelled me to do this. I wonder why. ?? Anyway, when it was my turn to pray for this man, I asked him how much he had had to drink. He just replied that he had been drinking, which was apparent because all the while we were talking with him, he was less than understandable. So as I took my turn approaching the Throne of Grace on this man's behalf, I began by commanding his body to sober up right now in the name of Jesus. Now I'd like to say that there was a big "Woah" moment, like we've seen before, but it wasn't as a pronounced manifestation of deliverance as we have experienced in other people. However, even without the dramatic sobering that I wanted to see, this man did very suddenly become much more coherent. You go God! This was cool!

After we prayed for his specific needs, chiefly a desire for alcohol to be removed, and his relationship with his wife restored, he began to really open up with Frank about his life, his needs, his struggles and his desperations. I love that about God. I love how He allows His love to flow through you in such a way that it touches someone, and they begin to share things with you in such a way that you can point them to the One Who can solve all their problems. He's such a good, good God! He ended up giving Frank his phone number (well the phone number of the friend he was staying with) so that Frank could call him so he could continue ministering to him. Frank spoke words of LIFE into him......Heidi Baker (IRIS Ministries http://www.irismin.org/) has this great saying that instead of loving them to death, you love them to LIFE! We loved on this man for quite some time, and he felt like he had a friend, and a better Friend, Who was ready to listen to him and help him in his time of need.

While you were out of town, dear....

2007-05-18T23:32:00.000-07:00

While I was in New Jersey at Tawdra's fabulous birthday party at a posh country club, I had a few minutes to call Frank to check in. He was higher than a kite. I knew he had to have had a good time with the Lord that day. And he did. Apparently, during the conference in Columbia, John Crowder spoke on the very subject that is right up our alley....getting out there. So after the speaking, he encouraged everyone to get out there and "do the stuff." Frank ends up going with this group of people, of which included a phenomenal worship artist, who paints beautiful paintings during the worship music. Unbelievable use of color and imagery. Anyway, I guess Frank and this team ended up moseyin' on down to the local college where they stopped and hung out there for quite some time. Frank was able to speak with a few people, giving words of destiny and prophesying over them, offering them encouragement and the love of Jesus. There was one young man who he encountered that he spoke to at length, and ultimately ended up leading him to the Lord. Whoo-hooo! Another one for the Kingdom! YAY God!!!

Applebees and Alcohol

2007-04-19T22:07:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago we were met with a challenging situation with a man who is very special to us, who has struggled with unbelief in God, as well as other demons. During a bold challenge to this man, Frank told him that God would reveal Himself as real to him within 24 hours. Well, you know God, when He's met with something birthed out of desperate faith, He's going to get the GLORY. Within 24 hours another believer had been compelled to reach out to this man, thus beginning a journey for him to start exploring the possiblity of there really being a God. It has been amazing watching God work in this man's life to bring him to realization that He is really a living and wonderful God!

Tonight we had our small group and since I pretty much feel like I was breathing under water from what seems like an asthma exacerbation from my exposure to some mustiness on the plane trip to New Jersey this past weekend, we decided to skip everyone coming over to my hurricane of a house and go to Applebees instead.

So while we are sitting there, this horribly smelly guy keeps coming in and out to smoke a cigarette and return to the bar. Since my lungs are on strike, I was especially sensitive to his odors. But God pointed him out to me and he was the "target" for the night. hee hee So we are sitting there, the 6 of us, having already finished eating, and we are talking about the ministries and etc that we are getting ourselves involved in, start talking about how the church has failed in so many areas in just reaching out to people, saved or unsaved. We also talked about a video by casting crowns for "Does Anybody Hear Her," which I will post the link too, you've GOT to see this. The song itself is gripping, but to see the video....tear drop city!

So while we are discussing it, I'm watching smelly dude off and on and God is saying, "Wait.......... wait......... wait.......... wait." Ever seen one of those well trained dogs that you can put a cookie on the top of his nose and say, "Wait....... wait........ wait........ wait......... NOW!" and the dog will sit there until you say "NOW" and then he will gulp down the cookie? It's always about cookies with me, isn't it?

So suddenly, I get the "NOW," and before I know it, I'm on my feet standing next to smelly dude, who has clearly had way too many trips to the bar, and I put my hand on his shoulder and look him in the eye. Naturally, he thought I was hitting on him since he was drunk, and didn't realize I was some old chick. So I'm asking him how many he's had and if he needs a ride home soon. He tells me just four beers and asks, "WHO ARE YOU?" I'm like, please, like you don't know WHO I am? Ok, well, he didn't.....having not heard of me in New Jersey where I am obviously famous, so I tell him I'm the angel that has come to keep him out of trouble tonight. He laughs. Jeesh. How rude.

So we chat a bit and I tell him that we want to drive him home when he's had all the drinks he's going to have. So he is like, "Who are you?"

Why am I only famous in my own eyes????

So we start to tell him that we are here because God wanted us to help him tonight. The dude is overwhelmed, I mean OVERWHELMED by the attention we are giving him....the love he is so definitely feeling, and says, "HOW? Who told you to come over here? How did you know to just come over here? I mean did you hear a voice, did you hear something? How does this happen?" I told him Jesus sent us, and that He loves him so much and when he's had all the beer he intends to drink, we are going to be takin' care of him. So he's like, "WHAT? How do you mean God told you to come over here?"

So I tell him, "Here's how it works. We sit, we eat, we wait on God, He highlights the person HE wants His loved expessed to the most, and YOU'RE the one He picked. So understand that we are here to help you get home because God loves you so very much." So then Frank starts to talk to him and I go back to my table and let Frank do his thing. This man was so overwhelmed by the love we showed him, that he could hardly believe it. We never condemned him for having too much to drink and even told him we would wait til he was done with his beer. So after a while Frank comes back to sit down and we talk with our friends some more and then this guy finishes his last beer.

Now our mistake here was probably in walking away from him while he guzzled down the rest of his drink, because then the little devils were encrouching upon him and he got nervous and intimidated out of nowhere and tried to sneak out. I caught him though. Aren't I mean?

So he said he had another ride and he'd be fine. No problem. So we go to leave, and I put my hand on his shoulder, shake his hand, look him deep in his eyes and tell him, "God loves you." He says, "Yeah, ok, thanks." So I say, "No, you're not gettin' it dude. You're pretty messed up right now so you can't comprehend what I'm saying, but that spirit-man that's deep inside of you (and I point to his heart) is gettin' this, and I am speaking to that man deep inside and telling you that God loves you and has sent us here to tell you that so you will know that forever in your heart and come to know Him."

hahahah JESUS GOT HIM! I could feel it. YAY God!!

So I'm convinced that something was happening inside there and God will germinate that seed that was planted, and He will get this dude. You know, that's all you need to do, just love on people, even drunk smelly ones, ESPECIALLY drunk smelly ones. And I am not going to accept that there will be no fruit from that. Frank delivered the Word to him, and God's Word will not return void and will accomplish everything It sets out to accomplish.

In a way, drunk people are easier to minister to. Certainly easier than "religious" people. Their flesh is so plastered that you are really able to get down to the spirit-man of the person, KWIM? The Word digs in deeper past all of the thoughts and fears, right to the heart. Their flesh is unable to reject the Word with a coherent thought, and later, God does His thing in them. I have read stories about people who have been stoned beyond reason or drunk out of their mind and get ministered to, and a year later you find them completely saved and changed and out on the streets doing the same thing you did with them, and this is without the follow up of the initial ministering person! That's good news to me! That's encouraging to me to know you're not just wasting your time with 'em. And truthfully, anytime you SPEAK the Word to anyone, it's never a waste of time. Ever. So speak it!

With this particular fella, he was totally receiving the Living Word that is inside of us, (no tract necessary here!!) and there was breakthrough happening. But we walked away from the bar and went back to our table to wait for him to be ready. Something I think was a mistake in this case, but that's ok, God has His way even when we mess it up a bit. I literally saw the demonic come over him like a cloud, surrounding him as a buffer to our efforts, and his personality changed. He was no longer receptive but instead was trying to get away, he even broke a 20 ounce glass on the bar trying to leave. Then he was embarrassed because all of his 'friends' were laughing at him. You know who wasn't laughing at him? The Jesus freaks. Then when we went to leave and he had gotten himself another ride (he wanted to go to Lime Light, which is another bar, and we wanted to take him home, not to another bar, so he found someone to take him to L.L.), he was being more influenced by the devil at that moment, that's why he was indifferent suddenly, but when I came over and laid my hand on him again, it's like turning a light on and the dark just goes away. It was pretty cool, and INSTANT. Seriously, you have more power in your pinky than the devil has in his entire fleet of fallen angels. The Holy Spirit that is within me inundated him with His Presence, and the devil must flee! And again, I had a breakthrough with him and got to his deep parts of his heart and he knew and understood that love of God that was reaching out to him. I can't really explain it good, but the battle between the good and evil, or the flesh, the devil, and big, big God, is a might good fun to watch. hee hee Because the Light belongs in the darkness!

And you never know, we might have been this man's "24 hours"....just like someone was for our dear friend. And I don't ever want to miss an opportunity to be the light in the darkness. Do you? Go somewhere and turn on the Light!

Here's that link to that Casting Crowns Song. Now every time I hit this link it says it has been removed, but I find it again, post it again, then it's been removed again. So if this one doesn't work, go to You Tube and type in Casting Crowns and look for Does Anybody Hear Her. It's the video BY Casting Crowns, with that group singing in it. It is gripping and relevant to what happens today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkynTSM1jFw

Take Him With You!

2007-04-17T10:22:00.000-07:00

Well I had a great weekend! I had the absolute pleasure of flying to New Jersey for one of my very best friend's 40th birthday party and it was a special treat indeed. We had so much fun wearing tiaras and being self proclaimed beauty queens. I was dubbed "Miss Understood." We also had Miss Leading, Miss Behaved, Miss Chievious, Miss Cellaneous, Miss Nomer, and Miss Guided. It was the most fun I think I have ever had outside of Chuck E Cheese. LOL!

What I did not want to be was Missed Opportunity, so I prayed for doors to open, especially on the flight, and for ministry to happen. And it did! You know why? Because I wanted it, and my Daddy gave it to me. He always gives us the Kingdom things we are hungry for. And while I may never know the full outcome of my efforts to be the light in the darkness, I believe by faith that God's Kingdom was released, most especially on the flight from Atlanta to Phili. God's Word tells us when we draw near to Him, He will draw all men near to us. And He does, ya know, He means what He says. We are the temple of the Holy Ghost, and where ever we go, we take Him with us, and it's our job to release His love into the multitudes. I like that job~it's FUN!

One encounter on the flight that was especially memorable to me was the man who was sitting across the isle from me. God had already high-lighted him and I knew he was "the one," my Divine Appointment. So as I waited on God to make it happen, I read a book on the flight. I was reading "Light Belongs in the Darkness," by Patricia King. I could tell this man wanted to speak to me, as this often happens, most especially when I've been in God's Presence, and the fragrant anointing oil of Him is still oozing about me, attracting people like a magnet. It's good stuff! I kept glancing over out of the corner of my eye and waiting for a God-portunity to happen, and sensing that this man was eager to get some of the stuff that was living inside of me. I can't explain how it happens, it just does, and it's a God thing. He really does draw all men near. Too cool.

Finally, he initiated a conversation and he began to share with me deep personal stuff about his life, and I knew that he was drawn to the Spirit of God and was not finding comfort in my words or my presence, but in His Presence. Wow. God is so awesome! He shared things about his marriage of nearly 30 years that was coming to an end, his emotional attachment to his wife, his hurts and his fears. I mean the dude was sharing some deep stuff here to a perfect stranger.....and let's face it, you can't get stranger than me. Then I was able to pray for him, I reached my arm across the isle and laid it on his shoulder, right there in front of the other passengers (do I care what other people think??) and prayed for him and his marriage and for God to release His love into this man. And He did. I could feel it releasin'! I could tell that he was deeply touched by God through that experience, and I know without a doubt that he will never be the same. God is moving. He is always moving. I just want to follow that Cloud, that Pillar of Light. It was a special time of ministry for that man and I was honored to be a part of it.

It doesn't matter where you go, you are carrying the Light. Don't keep it inside of you! Share it! Spread the Light. Take Him with you.....then release His power into the world! The Kingdom is truly at hand!

Jesus Saves - Even at McDonalds!

2007-04-12T21:44:00.000-07:00

Last night we went back up to that Mountain of Worship Conference, which was, as usual, totally awesome! So about 10 pm I'm 'bout to starve to death and am thinking, man we only have about $30 in my checking account, not sure if we'll need gas tomorrow or not, I better wait til we get home to eat, which was after 1 am. So I'm sitting there listening to this awesome speaker who is a missionary to Africa (Suprise Sithole) and part of Iris Ministries, the orphanage that our Children's Church has been focusing on, and my stomach is justa growlin. Can God make your stomach growl like that if He wants you to go to McDonalds? Yes, I think He might can. I had eaten a nice plate of speghetti before we left, and honestly, should not have been hungry. So I'm just growlin' here and thinking, "Man, I wish I could go to McDonalds." And God said, 'Yep, go to McDs." So I was like, well, we don't have very much money in the checking account. He said, "Eat something cheap. I want you at McDonalds."

Hmmmm, feels a little like a set up to me. So I start praying into it and and believing God is getting ready to bring us into a Divine Appointment. So finally about a quarter to 11 we get in the car to leave and I told Frank we HAD to go to McDs, but we needed to eat cheap, and that we had a Divine Appointment. So he's like, Cool.

We get there, go inside, and I'm looking around. There is only the crew and one other man there. Since it's really not always a good idea to mess with people while they are on the clock, I figured it was this dude that was there. So when he got his food, I went up to him and talked to him a bit. Nope. It wasn't him. Then one of the little crew girls comes out and she starts wiping the tables, and the manager goes over and locks the doors cause they are closing the dining room. He leaves one door unlocked for us to get out. So I'm looking at this girl thinking, she must be it. Just before I'm about to muster up the courage to go speak to her (cause I really have to dig deep for courage most of the time, being an introvert....am too!) a group of hoodlems come walking in. The manager says they are closed, they look at him, totally ignore him, and walk over to the area where the tables were. One particular guy was super scarey looking. He had a mannerism about him that just spoke of ill intent. So this manager doesn't even do anything! So they go over and sit and the one scarey one starts to harrass this young crew girl wiping tables. Another girl that was with them slipped off to the bathroom.

So I'm watching them and this guy is laying the flirting heavy on her, she is completely not interested, but I can tell that she probably knows him. So he's all up in her face saying, "Come on...." And she says, "You know I told you I don't have time for boys, now leave me alone." So she walks away to another table and this dude goes over to the door. So I go up to her and say, "Are you OK?" She says, "Yeah." So I say, "Is that guy botherin' you, cause I can totally take him." She laughs, says "No, he's a guy I know, he's just being a pest." So I said, "Are you positive, cause I know I don't look it, but I'm really strong, I could totally take the dude." So we talk a few minutes and then I realize she's not the one we are here for.

Bummer

The only ones left are the scarey looking dudes and the chic that's with 'em.

OK. So Frank finishes getting our food, which I think they were peeling potatos or something cause it took forever, and while he's getting the drink, these people are walking out the door leaving. And you know sometimes things happen that just happen and your body will move in a direction that it's not you, but probably an angel or something makin' you move, and the next thing I know I'm following these people out the door, go up to the scariest guy and without hesitation out comes, "Hey Dude. I told that girl inside that if you mess with her, I could totally take you." Then I smile at him and poke him in the belly. He gives me this look like he's going to chop me into 10 peices and mail me to all my friends. Then he suddenly busts out laughing.

Ok, first of all, how the heck did that come out of MY mouth? And Yay God for not letting this dude eat me.

So I boldly say, "We are ministers, is there anything I can pray for you about?" (Now the funny thing is, I never say to people we are ministers, EVER, so that was like weird, again)

So the girl says, "YES! PRAY FOR MY CAR!" Now, I have prayed for people, prayed for animals even, but never has anyone asked me to pray FOR their car. So I start to ask her what for and this other dude chimes in and says, "Can you pray for me about school?" So I'm thinking he's probably failing and needs prayer about that but he ends up telling me he's in college and just needs to stick with it. We talk for a few minutes and I pray for him. I'm still blown away that THAT dude was going to college. So we talk a little more and the girl interrupts. She wants HER prayer time.

Now here's something interesting. We are spiritual beings, we just are, so it's perfectly natural for people, even unbelievers, to desire something from the spiritual realm, even if they don't understand it. That's why unbelievers will often turn to New Age stuff, because that's spiritual, it's a false source, but the world is HUNGRY for things of the Spirit, and they get it through other sources. And that's how the god of this world, Satan, operates. But we can take him too.

So I ask this girl if she's a believer. She says, "Yes." Now we can never assume that means anyone is saved. So I just rolled with it a minute. I asked her what she needed prayer for specifically. She kept saying her car, so I asked her if it was finances to buy a car, she said, "No, I just need help. I just need help." So I'm like, "Help with what, sweetie?" And she doesn't know. So Frank starts prophesying over her and I'm holding her hand the whole time. She is not trying to release my grip or anything, and she still has her cool friends standing around watching. So he starts saying, "I sense that you are in a stage in your life where you are very confused about some things and God wants to bring order to your life...." and she is totally hanging on every word. Then he says he would like to pray for the spirit of confusion to be released from her, and on and on. So while he starts praying for her, I'm still holding her hand and her hand gets ice cold. So I hold it with both of my hands, just rubbing her hand to warm her up. I'm watching her face and she just starts to glow. She has her eyes closed the whole time, not even looking around to see if her friends are making fun of her (the scary dude is behind us and he is kinda makin' fun of us....) and when Frank is done praying she says, "I feel funny, ya'll." And she kinda staggers a bit.

HA. Well, I know that funny. So Frank says, "That's the Holy Spirit." She said, "It is?" So I asked her when it was she got saved. She said she never did do that. So I asked her a few questions, talked a little to make sure she understood and then led her to Christ! Whoo - hooo! So she prayed and invited Him into her heart, and she was radiant! It was so cool. It was like a Light was shining on her. She was just glowing, and she was still saying, "I just feel so.....so.....funny, ya'll. It's really weird." HAHA. SO cool... THAT was God!

So I'm giving her a hug and she's so sweet and full of God's love and it's like WOW, and I turn around and Frank is all over scarey dude. I see him just pouring it out on this guy and he asked him if he could pray for him. So I put one hand on his back, my other hand on his chest, where I can feel his heart beating really, really hard, and fast, and Frank does his thing and all of a sudden, scarey dude is not so scarey anymore. He's getting delivered of this and that, and his body gets all lose and free, and he's relaxed, actually swaying a little bit, and his entire coutenance changes and he has a little bit of tears workin' up in his eyes, gives Frank a BIG OLE hug, real tight and real sincere, (yes Frank's wallet was still in his pocket when we got home) and Frank starts speaking life into him telling him that God intends for him to be a leader, and He will raise him up to be a fisher of men, and thousands will come to Christ because of this dude's leadership and etc, and this guy is just beaming. You know why? Cause Somebody believes he will be something good! Something worth more than what he was ever told in his life! Then the first guy we prayed for was in his car, he got out before we left and gave us both hugs, and I asked him if he knew Jesus and he said he did when he was a little boy. So we just spoke life into him and loved on him and it was awesome!

So we get in the car, get ready to leave, and I'm like trying to act all cool about it, and when their car finally clears the parking lot, I start shouting and praising God and getting all excited and whoo-hooin' and stuff! I could barely drive the car home!

It was so cool.... God is a good, good God!!

Whose Street Is This Anyway??

2007-04-10T11:10:00.000-07:00

Well, this First Friday we didn't set up tables, we stood stationary in front of a building because the Art Council in Augusta has decided we now need a vendor's permit. We don't sell anything, but yet we need a vendor's permit. Smart.

So we did the same thing, just didn't bring the tables and chairs. But God is so cool and so big that He is able to circumvent anything the world tries to do to thrwart our efforts to share Jesus. So we stood a lot, and walked a lot. Ministered to several folks. Basically, we took the attitude that this was OUR street, we were the Pastor's of A Church Without Walls, so we went about meeting and greeting folks, as if we owned the whole down town area. Well, we don't own it, ya know, but Jesus does, and since we are joint heirs with Him, we took it in His Name!

One particular group of fellas were soldiers, so we went up and shook their hands, thanking them for serving our country. Then we talked with them about how much we appreciate that they were willing to die for us so that we could sleep at night safely and without thought. Then we shared about Someone Who died for them. We were able to pray with them, including a prayer of safety, naturally claiming Psalm 91 over their lives. It was a sweet time in the Lord. Both men were believers and it was a joy to love them like Jesus.

Whenever I meet a soldier in uniform, I always go up to them and shake their hands and thank them for serving the country. It is a noble thing, and a sacrifice, and they deserve our gratitude. We always mention something to them about their willingness to DIE for us, so that we can have freedom, so that we can sleep at night without fear, and that we can live our lives out without constant worry about attack. Soldiers are awesome! And you know what else? They are easy to talk to Jesus about, because just like them, Jesus was willing to die for us so that we could be free, and He did, and a soldier that is willing to die for me certainly needs to know about the One Who died for him. And this is usually how we bring it up with them, asking them if they don't make it home from battle, do they know where they will spend eternity? I most usually cannot get through that part without crying, you know why? Because while I can say that to any other person on the planet, and certainly mean it, the reality is, this little soldier sitting in front of me, can die sooner rather than later, and this, in my mind, makes it a matter of urgency even more so. So go out there and win a soldier to the Kingdom!

Another man was sitting alone near our corner and we spoke to him. Ya know, sometimes people just need a touch from God, and YOU can be that vessel to touch them! He was sitting there and we just went over and introduced ourselves, just as if he had been a first time visitor in a traditional church setting, as we are A Church Without Walls afterall...LOL! We asked him if he had anything we could pray for him about and he shared some things with us, then we prayed for him and he really broke down and cried. Bless his heart. Frank hugged him and Frank P. invited him to breakfast for the next morning. It's neat to see people touched by the love of God, and that's really what it is! An act of prayer IS an act of love!

So get out there and love somebody you don't know today!

From the Archives, Sept 2006 God Does a New Thing in our Street Ministry

2007-04-07T23:03:00.000-07:00

Let me see, where do I even begin to tell you about First Friday? It was just too awesome. I told Frank that he started a church Friday night! A Church Without Walls! Whooo-Hooo! Yay God!

We got there about 7 and it was already packed. We had previously claimed, in the Name of Jesus, the spot in front of the Board of Education as our spot and we set up tables with some signs that said, "Need Prayer?" and one that said, "Prayer, Healing, Deliverance." The enemy was lurking but God did something awesome and showed His power. We were there a few hours and found out that Mountain of Worship, the people who put on the conference that Lisa and I went to, had come to Augusta and set up only a half a block away from where we were with worship music and were having a great time in the Lord down there. So, the Church Without Walls had a praise and worship band! HAHAHA! It's so cool that God had this big ole plan. And on top of it, Frank and i have been praying for 18 months for HELP, and for other churches to get involved, and Whala! There were masses of Christians out there passing out gospel tracts and witnessing to people.

Well, this month, Frank felt led to do something completely different. Instead of doing gospel illusions and roaming the streets looking for people, he wanted a stationary spot set up for ministry. Honestly, I didn't know what was going to happen or if it was going to be effective. But I knew something awesome MUST have been in the works, because of all the opposition we were getting. And I was shocked..totally shocked, that people actually came up to the table and requested prayer. I mean, they really came.

Several of them said they wouldn't have done that in their own church, and thanked us for bringing "church" to them. Which was totally the point and SO good to hear confirmation that this was exactly what we were supposed to be doing. One particular incident that just blessed me to be a part of was while I was sitting at a table talking to this man who came by to give us a gospel track. OK, dude, move on, obviously we have a sign and everything...we got it...

Then Frank walks over to me with a woman about my age, maybe a little older...(like 30 wink) and she is looking at me with so much hope. So Frank transfers her hand from his hand into my hand and she grips onto my hand with desperation and looks so deeply into my eyes, like everything she hopes for and desires is dependent on what I'm going to do. It was a tremendous amount of pressure and for an instant, I was feeling completely inadequate and wanted to hand her over to someone else! Well, Frank had introduced her to me, I guess she walked up to the table and told him she needed prayer and wanted salvation. OK, no problem. Actually, it was a very big problem, because I have never lead anyone to the Lord all by myself. You know, with no one there to give me the "you're doin' it right" looks. So I was like, OK Lord, it's just You and me. So I sat her down, her name was Madeline , and I asked her what brought about this decision. I mean I was wondering if she was just walking around and suddenly became convicted of her sins and suddenly wanted Jesus, or if this was a process she was working up to over a span of time. So she says, "Well, I already asked Jesus to save me years ago, BUT..." So then I was like, OK, so not a salvation, something else. And I wish you could have seen the desperation in her eyes. She told me she was backslidden and out of church and she just knew that God didn't even know who she was and had forgotten about her. She went on to explain that she just got laid off and she doesn't know what she is going to do and she just needs someone to help her. And she kept saying she just needed help. At first I was thinking she might be wanting me to give her some money or something, but then I realized she meant spiritual help. She said her husband had recently come out of rehab for a crack addiction and she just wanted God to be real to her again so her husband could see God for himself. She said that she knew God was not available to her and she just needed help. And that He abandoned her and could I just please help her. Just help.

OK, so I started to pray with her and she held on to me like a little girl, holding on so tight I thought I wasn't going to be able to continue breathing. Then I finished praying for her and she confessed some more stuff and said she lived with doubt and fear. And we talked some more. Finally God told me that she needed deliverance from some spirits, specifically the spirit of doubt and of fear, and a few others, so I went to rebuking and binding and etc, then WOAH! She just went all free! I could tell she was totally delivered from some stuff. Her countenance completely changed and she LOOKED lighter. I mean it's so hard to explain, but she had been oppressed with so much junk from the enemy, that she just didn't have any victory or confidence in who SHE is IN Christ. So after a little more praying and crying and confessing, she was all excited and just started to worship God, right there on the streets! It was literally as if it was just her and I and God. That's all. No one else. No padded pews. No pretty alter. Just the three of us. AWESOME!! And then, and this was so humbling, she began to pray for ME! She quoted more scripture than I even know while she was praying for me! Totally blew my mind.

So finally we were done and we were talking about her getting back into church. She goes to a church up the road from my house, but she said she was too embarrassed to go back there because she was so backslidden and lived with so much doubt. I reminded her that she had just been delivered from all that. So she was saying maybe she'll go back to her church then. Then guess what happened? This man comes up and gets her attention and she immediately melts into a blubbering puddle all over again and starts to shout, "Thank You Jesus!" I had no idea what was going on until she told me that this man was the pastor of HER church! So, how cool is that? Obviously a serious sign from God! LOL! So I told her pastor what all had happened with her, and how God just delivered her from some stuff and that she was just contemplating on whether or not she could show her face in church when he showed up. He got so excited and said he was at home taking a nap at 6:30 that evening and suddenly woke up and had this strange inclination to come downtown to First Friday! It was amazing. So I handed the baton over to that guy and went on with "church" on the streets.

Frank prayed for so many people that his voice was hoarse by the end of the night. A grandma came up and got him to pray for her grandson who was separated from his mom who was on drugs, so he prayed for deliverance from drugs for that lady and the grandma was so touched and built up in her faith. We had a lot of people come by for prayer. I couldn't believe it. People are so hungry for a touch from God and The Church has failed so many people with all their programs and rules and cliques and social club mentality, that they avoid the church, but still desire a fresh touch from God. It was so amazing. SO AMAZING! And we actually had help from a couple in our small group who were newbies to street ministry and help from a couple from a different church who are into street ministry too. It was a really good night. And we were supernaturally protected all night! Later on the news they showed that right after we left, there were a lot of shootings and fights. In fact, the very building we were standing in front of had a bullet shot through the window on the side we were on!

So we ended up going to Denny's with a married couple that we had recently hooked up with. The night before, she and I and another lady went to this mexican place for a mom's night out. And we were talking about giving and tithing and that sort of thing and one of them said that when she and her husband get out of debt, they will be able to up their giving to beyond the tithe. So I was telling her how the economy of God is very different than the economy of the world and they should consider studying what the Word says about it. So my other friend was telling her some testimonies of things God brought her and her husband through financially with giving and etc. So when we were at Dennys, Frank got the check and it was $18.69 and Frank told me to make the debit card amount out for $25. So I was kinda whining about giving that lady such a large tip, considering she didn't even smile at us or refill anything. She practically ignored us. So he said, No, the Lord told me to do it, so let's do it. Okie Dokie. So then Frank goes into this teaching with our friends there about giving and stuff and tells them how God eliminated $15,000 in debt we had in two years by us giving our way out of it. They seemed impressed with what God's power could do, but were apprehensive to try it. So, because God is a God of signs and wonders.....LOL!!.....we leave the restaurant and walk out to the parking lot together and guess what was laying on the ground? A ten dollar bill. So Frank laughs, picks it up, and says, "See, God's economy is different. Give your way out of your debt. You'll see." Pretty cool, huh?

Anyway, a lot of other really neat stuff happened but I'm exhausted and I'm pretty sure I need some ice cream.

The Party Bus

2007-04-07T22:45:00.000-07:00

The party bus is our van. It was GIVEN to us in the summer of 2005. It's an AMAZING story.

Frank lost his job in October of 2004. He worked at ********** ******** as a store manager for over 14 years. He was top in ranking in sales the previous year and was actually high in ranking for most of the years he worked there. He even got a trophy the year before for being #1 in GMR sales (I don't really know what that is). So it came to a serious suprise when they fired him for sales performance issues. As it turned out, they fired a bunch of store managers who had been with the company for 8-20 years and then replaced them with younger managers at more than ten thousand a year less, so the company profited a lot in those few months of mass firing. Then they sold the company to ********. Obviously they needed to show a bigger profit to make the sale. It was devestating, not just because of the obvious financial blow to us, but because of the hurt of being fired unfairly by a company he was loyal to for so long.

So for 8 months he looked long and hard for a job and it was so hard but God used that time to show us so many, many things. And my best friends "the dolls" were totally holding my hand the whole time in prayer about that. I still can't even believe we have had such a drastic change in lifestyle....and survived it. God showed us so many things during the last year. One thing he showed us was that even though we were so poor, we still needed to be tithers and givers. We never stopped tithing, but giving was a little harder. Yet God would prompt us randomly to give to different people or ministries and then He would just so completely shock us with His promises of "give and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, shall men give unto your bossom." I could just go on and on with many many examples of how God would just do something so totally amazing and surprising. He just was so awesomely providing for us. I have always struggled with trust, and this was an area He really grew me in.

He lost his job in October, and my online homeschool support group that I had grown very, very close to, and affectionately call "the dolls" had planned to meet at Hershey Pennsylvania in the summerish time (where else do dieters meet for the first time? We did however at the last minute decide to go to one of the gal's house in Virgina though) and I was really bummed because I knew I wasn't going to be able to go. So I just really accepted that and didn't really think much else of it.

At the end of December, one of the dolls came through our neck of the woods to go to Florida for a family vacation and stopped by for lunch. We had a lovely 3 or 4 hours together. At that time she was having some serious female problems and hemoraging frequently. One of her prayer requests when she was traveling was to stop bleeding so she could enjoy the trip at Disney. From what I understand, it was really, really bad. Well after we ate, Frank said he wanted to pray for Chris. He had her sit in a chair and we gathered around her and annointed her in oil and prayed a prayer of healing for her. I could tell her family probably wasn't very familiar with that kind of thing so after they left I told Frank that those people will never speak to me again! LOL! I was like all worried about it and all.

The next morning she called me from Florida and was just sure she was going to say "You guys are really weird and you need to lose my email address." But she said that the time we had together really meant so much to them and that she had something exciting to tell me. She said that they had been driving and she realized that the bleeding had stopped. She had been passing really big clots and everything, but now she was really feeling good. So instantly she became aware of God's power to heal and to still perform miracles. She also said that when we took our trip to Hershey she wanted to share a room with me and she wanted to pay for my share of the room. I was floored. And very appreciative. And so excited that she had experienced God in a new and exciting way. You go God!

So a little time goes by and we have this neighbor next door with an unsaved husband and the wife had recently been diagnosed with MS. She was having trouble with her knees and was told that if she didn't get a car that was an automatic, she would have to have surgery. She had to stop working because of the disease and was fighting with the disability agency to get some help financially, so getting a car was not in the budget. But immediately after she told us this, the Lord spoke to Frank and I both and told us to give her our little white car, the one Frank drove. It was really so cool that He told us and we both knew it was what the Lord wanted us to do. So we did, and it totally blessed that family. In fact several months later, because of the trust that had developed with the husband after the car was given to them, he ended up getting saved at our house. It was so cool!

So anyway, whenever I was vaccuming out the car and getting it ready to give to them, I was kinda bummed thinking that this was the car I was planning on driving to Hershey and now I wasn't going to have transportation. So I was sitting on the floor of that little car vaccuming and praying and reminding God that He had provided my hotel fare to be paid, now I was doing this thing out of obedience, so I hoped He would remember He had to come up with a way to get me there! LOL!

Later that week I get a phone call out of the blue from that same doll that had offered to pay for my room. For some reason she is compelled to send me plane tickets to go to Hershey. I'm totally blown away. I can't even believe it. God just really surprised me on that! And He did it so fast!

So, a day or so later we get this really bad ice storm and all these trees come crashing down and everything and I guess one of the other dolls saw it on the news all the way in NH and she calls to see if we are all OK. In the course of our conversation she asks me if I am going to be able to go to Hershey with Frank not having a job and all. I tell her that amazingly, someone has offered to pay for my hotel AND pay to fly me up there. She is like totally amazed and all. So I mentioned to her that it was truly even more amazing because we just got rid of the car that I had been planning to drive up.

So about an hour later that amazingly generous other doll calls and wants to know why I didn't tell her we had to sell our car. Well, it's because we didn't sell our car, for one thing, and mostly it's because when you give someone something like that when the Lord tells you to, you just sit and wait on Him. So I just kinda said that it didn't seem important to tell her. So she was like, well it is important because her husband just came in here and out of the blue told me to do something so I'm going to drive down to Georgia and we are going to fly to Virginia together, then drive together to Hershey. So I was like, you don't need to escort me on the plane, I have flown before, I'm a big girl, I can do this....really I can. So she is like, No, you don't understand. I am driving my conversion van to Georgia and flying back with you because we are signing the van over to you and Frank and then we will go on our trip. I was like, WHAT? So she said that he had just come in and told her that he felt like God was telling him to do that.

It was overwhelming, as you can imagine. God totally replaced our vehicle we gave away with a BETTER one....one we can (and do) use for ministry traveling. How cool is that? Anyway, this doll had always called this van the Party Bus, probably because it has all these cool lights and a tv and all that, so it just kinda stuck and the kids call it the party bus too. I don't even think they know it's a van......it's just the Party Bus to them. God is so amazing, isn't He??

From March 2006, Drunk Guy Gets Saved on Streets

2007-04-07T22:29:00.000-07:00

Here's something from the archives...

Well, now I know why the enemy was attacking us in full force this week.
We had First Friday this weekend and God just did an awesome thing!!
And get a cup of coffee, and a donut, or a whole pie, cause as usual, this is a long story......

Given the week I had, I didn't want to go to First Friday, so Frank had talked a guy from church into going, but he called at the last minute and said he had to work. Bummer. Now I had to go. Our oldest son, Franklin, wanted to go really bad, so the three of us went. As soon as we got down town, it was like a spirit of fear just overwhelmed me and I didn't want to get out. It seemed especially crowded, probably because the weather had warmed up. It was about 9 pm and it just seemed darker than usual. We walked around a bit, and Franklin did his coin tricks and then we had a crowd of about 30 insane people crowd around us. They were snatchin' Frank's cards and acting ridiculous. I was really discouraged. I was also probably a lot more on guard because I was trying to watch Franklin and keep him from getting mugged and stuff.

Then the next corner we get this guy that was clearly unimpressed with the tricks, said he knew how they were all done and just basically wanted to spoil it all. Now this is really the first time we have ever had this kind of response. Tough crowd, ya know. I mean every now and then we get this, but not every stinkin' group. Then we got some pan-handlers come (which is normal) and tried to bum five bucks off of us. We never carry cash down there anymore (I always fall for people's sob stories), but Frank did pray with them. Then the rest of the people were just too drunk or too whatever for some reason. So about 10:30 I said, "Frank it's getting late. We got one more chance to get someone saved before it's time to go home."

So we started heading back to the van and stopped at a corner for a second where people were listening to music and Frank kinda turns and sees a guy standing there, and it was a dude he knew. So we stopped and talked to him for a minute and he asked us what we were doing and Frank told him and he was like, "Oh yeah, I knew you had a street ministry."

So Frank asked him what he was doing here and he said he was still in town because his computer he ordered hadn't come in yet. He also said that he gets wasted every Friday night, so that's why he was there. He also said he was looking for an ATM cause he wanted to get something to eat, and he and Frank talked a little bit longer and then it was getting later so we started to leave and Franklin wanted to do a coin trick first, so we let him and then we were going to try to find one more group so we could try to get the gospel out one last time before we left. Then Frank asked him if he had ever seen any of his tricks. He said no, but he wanted to see them. So Frank showed him a few and he was clearly impressed.......as he should have been and then Frank showed him the King of Hearts trick. He was totally blown away by the sleight of hand and then Frank said, "Ya know what man, I don't think I ever asked you this. If you died tonight, would you go to heaven or hell?" And then the dude just looked all serious and he said, "I have no doubt that I would go to hell." So Franklin and I walked down the sidewalk a ways and Frank led this guy to Jesus! Yes he did, and the guy was crying and everything. It was beautiful! So I came back and he told me and he said he just couldn't stop smiling. He said he had an emptiness all his life and now he felt full and he was so excited. He also said that he had had 4 pitchers of beer and he no longer felt impaired, he was like "I'm a NEW person inside, this is so cool, I can't even believe it!! I don't even feel the effects of the beer.....this is SO awesome.....!"

So we were like, WOW, ya know, a drunk guy that was sobered up just cause the Holy Spirit entered him! He also told me his dad was a pastor of a church and he had heard this stuff all his life, but he never really "got it" until tonight. Too cool.

So Frank invited him to come to church and he wanted directions and said he was staying with his parents while he was in town. Come to find out, he was staying in a neighborhood right behind our own neighborhood...so that was pretty cool. He actually drives past our street everyday! So of course we offered to drive him home, which we would have even if he lived somewhere else, but it was just such a cool thing that he was staying right behind us. So we start walking to the party bus (the van for those of you who don't know it's proper nick name) and he's all fine and everything, talking normally and not even acting drunk or anything. We get to the van and he says, I think I should tell you I'm diabetic and hypoglycemic. I should really eat something. I'm thinking the dude just had 4 pitchers of beer on an empty stomach, there is no doubt he needs to eat. So Franklin gave him his taco from earlier. He ate it and took his blood sugar.....it was really low! He said he had never had his sugar go this low except for when he was first diagnosed after he went into a coma. Well he started sweating and then he was going in and out of coherence and slurring in his speech. He was shaking and just having all those classic symptoms that we are so familiar with since our youngest son suffers from the same problem. So we stopped at a convenience store and got him a snickers bar. After he ate that, he started to get his wits about him. I told Frank that I was a little nervous (well, I was a lot nervous....I had been praying the whole time that this guy would not puke in my party bus) but I was truly concerned for his health and we needed to get his sugar up and balance him after he got up with some protein....what a night. It was intense!

So Frank is driving, and you know Frank, he just lays hands on him and starts praying for complete and totally healing of his pancreas and etc. The guy said he'd never met anyone like that that cared that much about him to just pray for him like that.....and he's a pastor's son! So we found an ATM and by the time we got there he was saying that his feet had stopped tingling and he started to apologize (??) for going in and out and all. He said he was really scared though, so we ended up at Burger King. Clearly, nothing calms your fears like a Whopper. So then he was OK and we drove him home.

This guy TOTALLY got what had happened to him. TOTALLY got it. Totally got how God had orchestrated a family who had a hypoglycemic child of their own to find him and to KNOW exactly what to do to help him. He said he KNOWS without a doubt that he would have passed out and because he was drunk, no one would have ever thought to check his sugar and he says he KNOWS he would have died and gone straight to hell. If he had driven home, he would have passed out....cause he was in and out as it was......and he would have probably been pulled over and thrown in jail, without a health exam, ya know. Or he would have just passed out and not even been found at all. He said if he had made it home (which he wouldn't have cause he hardly made it to the convenience store before he passed out) he said he would have just gone to bed and died. He totally got it how God not only loved him enough to send his Son to die for him, but that God loved HIM enough to send the right people his way to show him how to get saved and save his soul, AND actually saved his physical life in the process. Isn't that the coolest thing? And to think we almost didn't go because of the kids being sick and all, and that we almost gave up at the last minute while we were down there because there were so many obstacles all night long. God is so good.

Now, as we are driving him home, he gets a phone call from his wife and he tells her that he had a really low sugar and had gotten really bad, but that some awesome friends came by (don't know if I've ever been called awesome before....been called lots of other things....LOL!) and that these friends saved his life AND showed him THE light and that he had something truly amazing to tell her later. Then he got off the phone and said he had no idea how he was going to tell her that he just met Jesus because she's an atheist! Poor guy. So we have been praying for him and his wife. But I'm telling you, this guy was NOT the same person he was when I met him a few weeks ago at Frank's work......he was clearly a changed man. Instantly. And once his sugar got back up to about a hundred, he was back to acting normal, not even drunk at all. So amazing. And I'm SOOOOOO glad he didn't puke in my van!

Welcome to A Church Without Walls

2007-04-07T21:54:00.000-07:00

This is a blogsite journaling our adventures with street ministry. We hope our testimonies and experiences will inspire and motivate YOU to get out of the four walls of your own churches and begin to bring Jesus into your communities.