6/20/99 - Wow! Its been about 4 months since I have put any thoughts down in here. Since February, a lot of things have happened. A lot of things that I won't put here, but believe me, I have learned a lot! But, TODAY, at church, we had 2 teens that just got home from camp to stand up and testify about what God did for them at camp. They asked people to help sponsor kids in the church that might not be financially able to go. PRAISE GOD! We had people give enough money this morning to send 5 kids to camp! That totals close to $500. I'm telling you, after the clerk told me this, I wanted to run the aisles and shout. I am still on the verge of running, I believe. God is so good to us! Praise the Lord!!
2/8/99 - Hey guys! I have been reading a book called, " Fire From Heaven - The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the Twenty-first Century". Something I read today really disturbed me. The exact quote was, "Today, at least in America, many pentecostals have become terribly comfortable with "this world". They STARTED out in a faith that brought hope to society's losers and rejects." Folks we HAVE become to accustomed to this world and the way it works. No, we don't need to be so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good, but we do need to remain separate from the world. We had a District Impact Rally at my church last night and the speaker said that we are ALLOWING the world to come into our homes because it looks and sounds cute. This is the scheme that satan is going to us against us in these last days. "Oh be careful little ears what you hear." Last night I heard that the CHRISTIAN band, Burlap to Cashmere, has only one member that is a christian. This information comes from a reliable source that knows the band. The enemy is going to use things like this in these last days to lure kids into thinking that they are okay by listening to "christian" music, where they may be only doing themselves harm. "Oh be careful little eyes what you see." We as Christians have to be so careful about this because we think that we can "handle" watching trash on TV. Ever heard the saying, "Input - Output" ? Man, is this true or what? We have got to be careful, I can't stress it enough! There is some trash on TV. I was flipping through the channels the other day at someones house and saw 2 people doing things that I will not be doing until I am married. I'm going to just let your mind go with that one... What has happened to our society when we allow that to be on TV when we know that children flip through the channels and could come across something like that? " Oh be careful little mouth what you say." Okay, I know that some of you don't agree with the whole "speaking it" thing and I'm not too sure if I agree with every part of it, but the Word does say, "You are snared by the words of your mouth and life and death are in the power of the tongue." Now, I know from experience about this. The enemy uses alcohol, drugs, sex and other sin to bring down some ministers, but he also uses the mouth and our attitudes. That will separate you from the full anointing of God fast.
1/25/99 - Praise God! It's been a long time since I have written here, but things are going good. God is faithful and is doing wonderful things in my life and in my church.
12/19/98 -
11/25/98- Man, its been like 2 months since I have updated this page! A lot has happened since then. Lee is not everything I expected, it is not what everybody thinks it is, lets just leave it at that. I am coming home at the end of the semester in December. I am going to be the Children's Minister at my church and work with Turnaround and TRAC(Turning and Racing After Christ). I know that this is God's will for right now. I am trusting fully in Him. He has proved faithful so far and will prove faithful until the end!
9/19/98 - Well, I have lived in Cleveland, Tn for almost a month now. It is a change, but a good one. I have settled into my room and I get along great with my roommate. I however have not gotten used to living on the same floor with like 20 girls. I have realized that Im not exactly who I thought I was. Does that make sense? I have found a good church in Cleveland and I feel right at home there. I am singing with the worship team and hopefully soon I will be helping with the children's ministry. School is great, the food on the other hand is not. You would think if you were paying that much to be on the meal plan, the food would at least be edible. No, really.. its not that bad. Parking is the next issue. It is a precious commodity to have a good, close parking space, so that you dont have to walk two blocks to your class or your dorm (c: . Besides those complaints,it's great, as Mark Abbott, state youth director of Alabama would say.
8/14/98 - I have exactly 1 week before I go to college. This time next week, I will be in Cleveland, Tn in my dorm room at Lee University!!! I'm excited, but this scared feeling keeps creeping up inside of me. I know that God didn't give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind. Its the fear of the unknown. I have never lived away from home before. God is going to help me thru it though. Praise the Lord!!
8/1/98 - This is what I want my life to look like....God'sHollyWill, for those of you that are slow, that means I want to be in the center of God's Will. I think everyone does. Sometimes, I think I am because everything is going so good and falling in place for me. I am going to be able to get money for school, I mean, I have to pay it back, but thats okay (c:. Anyway, I only have 20, thats right, 20 days before I move to Cleveland, TN. I will be going to Lee University. I pray that I can find a cool church to plug into. I want to get involved, but not tied down, does that make sense? It does to me!! If you feel tied down, church just doesn't feel the same, its like its a job or something. Well, just remember......
7/6/98- Hello peoples!! God is great and greatly to be praised!! I am so into this worship thing, but I know the atmosphere has to be conducive to it, The Word says, where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty. I feel that liberty more in some places than others. Does anyone understand this? I've met some cool people on the Internet lately, Godly people, strange, huh? Enough for now......
6/15/98- We had an awesome service at church last night! God is just TOO good!! Someone that I am very close to in the church, felt led of the Holy Ghost to tell her son and myself that Jesus is coming soon. Well, we hear that all the time. She said she was sitting there during church and just felt so impressed to tell us that. The urgancy in her voice kinda scared me. I mean, I want to go to heaven, don't get me wrong! I just have so many plans for my life, I feel like they are God's plans, but what if they aren't? This is something that I am going to be praying about, alot!! Anyway, camp starts for me soon. I am excited about the chance of working with all those kids, all 3 weeks! I went last year and God really moved. We had church in my friend's cabin after service. They had to come get us for the baptism service at the pool. It was just too cool! Well, may God bless you and remember....
6/9/98- Tomorrow night, I am teaching/preaching on " What God Thinks About Sin.". It's all based out of Amos 3, 4 and 5. It is actually pretty good. Before I leave to go to school I am going to teach on the Holy Ghost. That ought to be interesting. I may let someone else teach on it. I haven't decided yet. PRAY FOR US!!
5/28/98- Last night was the smallest number of kids we have had in class in weeks! We only had 17 people in class. That is counting 2 teachers also. The enemy is really fighting people in our church. Marriages are falling apart, people are very sick, almost to the point of dying. These people have young children and families. It is so sad! I have to admit that I don't call their name out everyday in prayer. My prayer is that God will bring them to my remembrance when I pray.
5/22/98- We had 23 kids in class on Wednesday night!! Praise the Lord! We have tripled in number since Febuary. That is awesome. We are doing some different things in the class. The kids seem to like it. I pray that the class will stay the same size or grow bigger after I leave for school.
5/19/98- Been a long time, huh? Sunday at church we had Miracle Day. Its a miracle we are debt free!! PRAISE THE LORD!! We had awesome services, God really moved! I want to talk a little about family. Pray for them!! Satan is attacking families something fierce! I know of 3 families right now that are in the process of getting a divorce or are on the verge. That is awful. two of the families have small children (1 yr and younger). It's so sad. Please pray for reconciliation.God will use all this for His glory though!
5/9/98- Your work for the Lord is not in vain. I Cor.15:58. That is an awesome scripture. Sometimes we get so caught up in our "ministry" that we forget the ministry part. Does that make sense to anyone besides me? I admit I have been in that place before and I guess it kinda comes and goes. Having a call on your life to do minstry for God is an awesome responsibility. It takes a lot of time and effort to accomplish everything that God wants you to. Not that we do it in our power, but with His help, but He also can't do everything! We have to give a little, we can't expect Him to do everything for us and for us to do nothing! Well, that's enought preaching for today, LET GO AND LET GOD!!
5/5/98- Well, we got through moving yesterday! It is such a relief to be done. Of course there will be months of searching through boxes for things, but hey, thats OKAY!! Anyway, tonight is praise and worship team practice. We are learning a couple of new songs. Last month we started doing a time of devotion and prayer before we practice. It is awesome.The Minister of Music challenged each member of the team to read through the book of Psalms this year. Psalms is such an awesome book of encouragement!! It has been something that has helped each one of us. Revival starts on Sunday, I am believing for a mighty move of God during this revival. We MUST realize that true revival starts is us first, before it will spread to the area around us. It's like a fire, once it starts it will consume everything around it. Let's get excited about REVIVAL in the land!! Pray that the children's musical will go well on Sunday!!
4/29/98- It so neat to watch a kid grow up. My nephew, A.J. is now almost a year old. Next Wednesday is his birthday. He is learning to walk and I believe he is starting to get his personality. He is going to be a minister of music, I'm believing for that anyway. He will "sing" to all the praise and worship CD's I have. He's singing now to the Rhema Fusion CD right now. Anyway, tonight I think we are going to talk about the rapture. Most of the kids dont even know what it is. We are going to even do rapture practice! All you do is jump, jump, jump!! We are also practicing our Mother's Day musical, Heroes on the HomeFront. Thats all for today!!
4/26/98- Wow! We had a great service this morning. Our Minister of Music preached this morning. It was Pastor Appreciation Sunday, so she gave him the morning off. She spoke on the faithfulness of God. It was powerful. I just found some awesome spirit filled curriculum on the web!! Im so excited. Maybe I can talk the church into getting it. It sounds really good. It has chapters on the Spirit, like, the Baptism and worship and all that great stuff. Well, God is faithful and is always good!!
4/24/98- Well folks, it looks like I am going to Lee University. I had been looking to go, but in the back of my mind I was still saying, "Well God, I'll stay here if you want." Then, I got my acceptance letter in the mail and the kids were super bad at church Wednesday night. Then it was like okay God, I understand. I would love to work on staff as children's pastor at my church, but it just doesn't look like its going to happen, even in 2 years when I get out of school. I'm going to keep my ears open this summer at camp for any opportunities in the AL churches. I would like to stay in the AL Church of God, because I already know people and I would like to be able to see people at like Youth Camp and CampMeeting, you know, the fun stuff. I have been thinking about this alot as you can see. Anyway, Have great week in the LORD!!
4/16/98- The drama at Turnaround Tuesday night went okay. We had a lot of kids to respond to the altar call. Most of the kids come up every week though. I know that one day, its gonna "stick". The kids there still don't see the truth of the Gospel. Some of the kids laughed as Jesus carried the cross and was beaten by the Roman soldiers. I believe seeds were planted. Maybe they were laughing to keep from crying. I don't know. Last night, the kids class was awesome. I spoke on the "big paycheck", which is Heaven!! I had a huge paycheck and all. It really got the kids attention. We also started out Mothers Day musical, its called "Heroes on the Home Front". We are going to make a big deal about this so the kids will get excited and want to be involved. We have a lot of things planned for the childrens ministry. We are going to start doing some things like the youth group does. It will make the time more exciting for the kids and will make them feel like a "grown up".
4/14/98- Tonight, we are doing an Easter drama, The Word Became Flesh, at Turnaround. We are going to see a move of God tonight, I just know it!! There has been such an unity between everyone involved in the play. We first did this play at our old church. After the church split, we never imagined that we would all be together to do the play again.God is so good!! At Turnaround, we are all back together and we have a place to do the play. God is doing an awesome thing with the body of Christ. The denominational walls are falling down and God is getting the glory for it! YOU GO GOD!!
4/11/98- I had a great day today! Our church raised alot of much needed money today. We had a cookout. I sold like $80 worth in less than an hour! Anyway, our Easter drama is tomorrow and I know that God is going to touch people with this drama. The anointing is very strong on this drama. Even if we don't see anyone get saved, we have planted a seed in their hearts. Some of the scenes will never leave their mind. One in particuliar is the Abraham and Issac scene. It is very moving. God is faithful and will bless tomorrow!!
4/10/98- I never want my ministry to feel like a job! Does that make sense to anyone besides me? Sometimes we feel like we have to do this and we have to do that. I have to remember that its for the Kingdom of God that I am doing things and not for people or the church. On to other things, I hate it when people don't want to work! People are SO lazy!! They want someone else to support them. WHATEVER!! I can't say anymore about this without saying too much. Our church Easter drama, Midnight Cry, is this weekend. I know God is going to move in a powerful way. I was touched even during the rehearsal.
3/31/98- Well, God is going to do something awesome in the "church" as a whole. There is too much coming against the body of Christ. When good things are about to happen, Satan always has to step in and cause difficulties in our lives. We have to remember that Satan is UNDER OUR FEET!!! WooHoo!! That is good news people.Well, I guess Im done preaching for today. Have a great day in the LORD!!
3/23/98- Its been a while since I have even written in here. God is doing a new thing in my life and in different things I am involved with. We have been having from 240- 275 kids every Tuesday at Turnaround. God is doing something great. Something I have learned lately is, God is an ON TIME God! He will do things in His time and not OURS!! That is a hard lesson to learn sometimes!!
3/3/98- Winterfest98 was great! The spirit of God was really moving. A great speaker spoke on Saturday night. His name was Reggie Dabbs. He got his message across with humor that really got the kids attention. The praise and worship was wonderful!! Campus Choir did an excellent job as always. Crystal Lewis and Alvin Slaughter was there, too. They did an excellent job as well. I'm going to Lee University for the rest of the week. I will get to go to classes and to the chapel service to see how I like everything.
2/23/98- Wow! God is good all the time! Amen! I attended a church ministries conference at Sumiton Church of God this weekend. It was so awesome! The childrens ministry there is unbelievable. They are truly blessed! Its was like revival in every class, especially the music classes. It rocked! As we were learning new praise choruses, we were worshipping! Words can not describe the presence of God that was in that place. Over 1500 people were in attendance at the conference. In other things, I took a group of kids from my Wednesday night class to eat pizza after church Sunday morning. everything went great until we got all the way back home! Jack kicked Jill in the nose (not their real names) and busted it real good. I have never seen that much blood in my whole life!! It was so gross! Have no fear, everything turned out okay and her nose stopped bleeding. Im not sure if Jack and Jill are going to go on anymore trips together with me. Our church youth group is going to WINTERFEST '98 in Gatlinburg this Friday-Sunday. We are all excited about it and excited to see God move!
2/12/98- Well, Praise the Lord! Our church just ended revival services last night, not in our hearts though. We had many to receive the Baptism of the Holy Ghost and many to rededicate their lives. The youth experienced things they never had before. Their is a new fire burning in their hearts. Its so awesome to see the youth in the altars praying for each other. Our God is faithful! We have had many healed in our church lately. For some reason we don't think He can do it until we see it happen. We don't have enough faith!! In other matters, I was looking for some cool Christian banners for my page. Well, I went to one place. I looked at the rules and regulations. It had to be a Christian page. I met that requirement. well, thats where it stopped. If your page had any links to "faith preachers" or TBN or anything "radical", you couldn't join. TBN disqualified you because Paul Crouch once raised a man from the dead. Whats wrong with that? In the Word, it says that we have Christ living inside of us. Christ raised people from the dead. We can too, IF we have the faith. I was so shocked that people are so RELIGIOUS at a Christian banner exchange! Anyway, needless to say I didn't get any banners from there! Have a great day in the LORD!!
2/5/98- Happy February! Did I spell that right? That is like the most misspelled word in the English language. Anyway, I've been reading this book, "How Saved Are We?", by Michael Brown. I want to share these points with you that he makes. They should be very eye opening to us all.
As American "believers" we:1/31/98- God is awesome!! Its so awesome how He gives us insights on things. God has told me where my minstry is, but He has told me not to tell anyone because He will lay it on their hearts. He wants me to pray and seek Him while He works. On to other things, my friend, Jenn, got her eyebrow pierced. Whats up with that Jenn? Just kidding! Turnaround is going great. The kids just want someone to hug them and care about them.
1/22/98- Let's see whats happened since last time. I've substituted a few times at an elementary school. Kids in the third grade know so much! I had 2 kids get in a fight the other day. I think they had to call an ambulance for one of the little boys. They talk so bad and say things even I wouldn't say. Anyway, Its a job and it doesn't pay to bad either (c:. We are having a cool praise service at my church tomorrow night. I believe God is going to work in an awesome way!!
1/18/98- Well, there are people in your life that you will never forget and some you wish you could forget. People just don't make sense to me sometimes. People that are adults acting like children. Don't get me wrong, I'm including myself in that too. People are so petty about the stupidest things. They don't realize that when you hold something against someone that the blessings stop flowing from God until they forgive. It sounds like I'm talking about something thats going on in my life, huh? You guessed right then! I'm so sick of having to deal with it every week! Anyway, God is still good and He's in control.On a serious note folks, these are the last of the last days. On the news everyday you hear about rumors of wars, earthquakes, floods, etc. Will you be ready to go? Is your house in order? These are questions we need to be asking ourselves everyday. We are not promised another day. Please be ready when he comes.
1/16/98- Wow! Its been a long time since I wrote anything here. Lately, I've been pretty busy with church and stuff. I haven't really seen anything good on TV. Yes Jenn, I have been know to watch Jerry Springer. The people on there are just... I don't know how to describe them! I have been into an awesome book lately. It's called "The Divine Order of Faith". It is written by Creflo Dollar. I can't say anything but good things about this book. It has taught me a lot about faith. Let me talk about getting older for a second. There is such comfort in saying you are still a teenager. Next week, I will lose that security. Pretty scary, huh? Anyway, I will survive.You know you have to get your license renewed, too. The picture is not too bad.
1/3/98- Last night, I watched Politically Incorrect. Marylin Manson, Florence Henderson (Mrs.Brady from The Brady Bunch), Lakita Garth (abstinence supporter and Christian) and some radio guy (he didn't say much anyway)were the guests. Manson is the most educated idiot I have ever seen. What I mean by that is he is a very good speaker, but he doesn't KNOW anything about the important things in life. I believe he called himself the "Christ" last night and Ms. Garth disputed the fact that Marylin Manson is indeed the "Christ". Mrs. Brady tried to get all big and bad with her and said "how do you know that he is not the "Christ?". Mrs. Brady, you really disappointed me!! Marylin Manson also disputed the rumor that he is a "minister" with the church of satan. Anyway, I think that Mrs. Garth did an excellent job of representing Christians and did not back down from her beliefs.
