We have all heard about the proverbially phone call that turns our world upside down! Well, yesterday, I received that call! It is of a personal manner with my extended family that I don't feel to share at this time! Not all of my extended family is in the church, hell reaks havoc anyway he can! However, I do want to show you how God works!
I was on the praise team at church last night and I had to stay very focused to sing, I just wanted to hang my head and weep! I had to ask my husband to pray for me that I would sleep and have peace last night! God did that, in fact I slept late today! I'm at home alone with Cherish and am keeping busy, for an idle mind is the devil's play ground! I came to the computer, turned it on and felt that I was to read my dear friend Sis. Tracie Smith's post for today, link Tracie Smith ! I knew immediately that I had felt the right thing! She spoke of another friend of ours, Sis. Veta McLaughlin's post for today! http://mclaughlinmelodies.blogspot.com/ Both were about praising Him through our disappointments, trials and dark times! Sis. Smith reminded me of the song that we sing so often at our own church, Praise is what I do!
It is monday morning and we are rejoicing in another awesome weekend! We again, had several new visitors! The manager of Sweet Tomato restaurant come yesterday, loved our service and was really moved in the altar! He received the Holy Ghost, we just aren't sure what his background is, it may be a refilling!! Whatever, we are so thrilled that God is moving so greatly!
Last night, we had 2 more baptized! It is becoming a habit around here! I can't remember the last Sunday that we didn't have someone baptized! Thank you, Jesus!! It has become so common that Cherish said last night before church, "Gonna have somebody batize, Mommy?" Lord, please don't ever stop this wonderful common occurrence and help us to teach, maintain, and disciple all of these new people!
I was praise singing last night and was overwhelmed looking around at the "miracles!" There are so many people that the Lord is working on in various stages! Thank You, Lord, for each miracle both great and small!!
To all of you from Pentecostal Tabernacle, we love each of you so much!! We are so excited about what God has in store! He is "God of this city!"
I've mentioned recently about the way that God has seen fit to send revival to Kerman! We are so thrilled! It is interesting every service to see how many new visitors will be there! Yesterday, several of us were sick! I stayed home from the morning service but made myself go in the evening! My head felt every pounding beat of the drum, thank you very much Adam!! That's my son-in-law who does an awesome job on them! We still had a house full of people!
Stephen is making sure the baptistery is full each service now!!! At the end of service he said that he would be remiss in his duties if he didn't ask if anyone wanted to be baptized. Well, we didn't see anyone and we shortly ended an awesome service. Well, about 3 minutes later, he was grabbing the microphone! One of the young boys that is 11 years old that is from one of the new families had been praying in the altar. Well, none of us saw him raise his hand. Upon questioning him, he had received the Holy Ghost, too! Thank you, Jesus! It has become so common that a service with no one receiving the Holy Ghost and/or being baptized seems to be odd!
It is so cute, it has become so common now, that Cherish, who is princess Sleeping Beauty today, said that her pretend friend, Gavey, got baptized last night in, "Jesus Name, Amen!" and she lays down on the floor and shows us! It is so cute.
Now, before you think she is getting too spiritual, she also says that Santa Claus preaches at her church. When I tell her that I don't think that will ever happen, she tells me that it is a different church and it is pink! So, there you have it! She goes to a pink church where Santa preaches and baptizes imaginary friends!! At least it is in Jesus Name, Amen!!
Cherish and Grandma Keyes sharing a milkshake!!
Todd Johnson and Stephen being serious! Seriousness did not last long with Todd around!
Me, Cherish, and Sis. Sharon Keyes
When I asked Sis. Hurst if I should bring Cherish or not, she told me, "Absolutely, she'll be the star of the show!" Cherish sure did her part in attempting that title, even if I was a nervous wreck that she would bother someone! She loved the Elmo singing balloon sent by Bro. Randy Keyes!!
This was taken this morning at The Black Bear Diner! We enjoyed a delicious breakfast with the Keyes before we came home!
I have to give God the praise today! We have been in Kerman for 8 1/2 years, and we love this city and the people here! It has been a long road of challenges! We have followed God with His truth and had many days that were more than disappointing! I do not come today to be sad or woe-be-gone! I do come, however, to bring a praise and victory report!
Several months ago, an obvious turn came!! It was like a breath of fresh air and we are basking in it! We have had every kind of outreach that you can think of here and would have an occasional visitor, now with no obvious reason, there is absolutely NO service with less that about 10 visitors! We are baptizing almost every service! People receiving the Holy Ghost in their pews! Unbelievable. About a month ago we had over 40 visitors in one service. 18 on a Wednesday night.
Last night, there was a young man named Robby! We started service, I was praise singing, so I had a great view of the happenings, and we were part way into our 2nd song and realized that he was just sobbing on the 3rd row! You guessed it, God took over and we had church! On a Wednesday!! We typically have bible study, which is always fantastic, my husband is a very interesting teacher, but last night, God did the teaching! Now, as a praise singer, I was exhausted! LOL We sang non-stop for an hour and a half, didn't even stop a song, we would transition straight over just to keep from distracting! I am not an accomplished singer! LOL But it sure was a lot of fun!!! Well, we had filled the baptistry about 1/3 full before service just in case, well it was an in case service! Robby wanted to be baptized! (James was baptized Sunday after he received the Holy Ghost in the Youth Class!) So, we started the water again, Robby got in one of our jumpsuits, and my husband had to put one on too because the baptistry was not full enough to baptize him standing up! They both got in, Robby sat down and there he was baptized in Jesus name! It was fabulous! (We will have the baptistry FULL from now on!)
We all were laughing, though, we only had one towel at the church, so of course Robby got that, there was a sheet used for drama props, my hubby used that and couldn't get his feet to dry, Robby needed the room to dress, so out comes my well put together husband, onto the platform, with bare feet! He had tried to put his socks on and they would not go over his wet feet! LOL Misti, who was praise singing, too, had her camera from the baptism, she got an up close picture of her Dad with bare feet at the pulpit! (We are going to buy several towels for the church today!)
What at awesome time we had! We give God all of the glory! A precious young lady that we love dearly sent me a text and told me to listen to the song by Bluetree called God of this City!
It was yet another confirmation that we are on the right track and this is the promised revival! It says that God is the God of this City and that He isn't finished with it yet! You should listen to it and receive a new vision for where God had placed you!
Oh, by the way, after church, Robby said, "This is awesome, I will definitely be back and bring my kids with me!!!" Thank you, Jesus! We give you all of the praise!!!
I realized that I never showed our pictures of our Christmas! I had both girl's birthdays in the middle and skipped right over it!
We always have our immediate family Christmas separate from anyone else so that Cherish will enjoy our gifts to her and we can concentrate just on her! It was a lot of fun and we just spent quality time! Then on Christmas day the kids and my mom and sister spent the whole day here! After a fabulous meal that we all pitched in and prepared together, we all found rooms and took napes, arose and ate some more!
I told you that my Dad visited earlier in December. He bought Cherish an Escalade!! It is too big to fit through the doors into my house! It will hold to children and up to 135 pounds! It goes 5 mph!! It is too cute! We have taken a few days here and there and let her drive it to the park down the street from our house! All of the other children stop and stare! We have even had a few cars stop to watch and the drivers just smile and wave! Needless to say, she is much too young! All she does is pushes the throttle full blast and looks around! We have to steer or it would be a disaster! I have included a few of those pictures!
Speaking of pictures, Cherish broke my camera yesterday! It is a Canon Powershot S80 which is the step below a professional camera! Her daddy bought for me for her birth. It was extremely pricey!! Well, it has now been shipped to Canon! She dropped it with the lens out! It will not retract and the shutter won't close! She will not be playing with it again!! So if you notice a lack of pictures over the next while.....................that's why!!!
Lord, Let my heart be pure!I have rested up a little now and am settling back into my world! After the travel on Wednesday, then meeting for Misti's birthday, as usual, I had a migraine yesterday! I was thrilled this morning when I woke up and feel fine!
We had a great time in Houston, but I have to say that it is so nice to be home! There really is "No place like home!" I had to make a grocery store run, yesterday! My cupboards were bare!
If anyone is wondering, we did not bring Misti her crawfish!! She agreed with us that it might not be good when we got it home. We didn't want to freeze it because then it would not be fresh anymore and were just afraid that the fried crawfish would be way to soggy, the crawfish etoufee probably would have been fine. With the 45 minute drive to pick it up (one way) we decided against it! Sorry!
Believe me, she is still spoiled rotten! We took her out for lunch on her birthday and I am cooking dinner for her tonight! I typically cook a nice dinner for our families birthdays, so she chose tonight to do just that!
I took a few pictures while in Texas. I told you before that we got to see Bro. & Sis. Clark, which were our pastors that we assisted for 7 years when we first married starting 24 years ago. I am so glad that they are getting to know Cherish. We also got to see Stephen's brother, Kevin and his family. He works out of state and we don't see him but about once every two or three years. It was so good to see them and spend a little time! Of course we spent quality time with Stephen's mother, his sister, Michele, and his Grannie. They all had minor damage from the hurricane but everything is back to normal! Grannie basically had her house remodeled from her more substantial damage! It is beautiful! I'm so happy for her!
And there is "Baby Bryson" as Cherish calls him! Our dear neice, Rebecca, and her husband, Brandon, had their bouncing baby boy, Bryson, just before Thanksgiving. He is a little doll! Aunt Susan hogged him the whole entire time. Well, that's when he wasn't getting changed or needing his mommy! He is a gorgeous or rather handsome little man. No mistaking him for a girl! We are so happy for you, Becca! You obviously love your son!
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Above: Bridesmaids
Above Picture: Today at LunchI know, everyone is wondering where I have been!! My mother-in-law got to missing us last week and wanted us to fly to Houston to see her! With much deliberation and contact with the airlines, that was made possible in no time!! So here we are!
When we left Fresno, it was 43 degrees in the afternoon! It was 2 am when we got here and it was 65 degrees! I brought all sweaters, turtlenecks, and boots for both of us girls!! Well, the next day was 79 degrees and the next 83!! I was burning up! I had Cherish in boots with bare legs because I had no regular shoes for her!! At last, it turned cold yesterday! 49 degrees, today is 53 and raining! So I am finally comfortable!!
I know, there are blogger friends here in this area that are saying, "What? Why didn't you call me?" Well, it is so difficult when we come so seldom to schedule time away from family! So, please forgive me!
We fly home tomorrow morning because my beautiful daughter will be 21 and I don't want to miss her birthday! I'll try to post about her tomorrow evening!!
Yes, I have eaten catfish, crawfish, Pappasitos, and black-eyed peas! I have loved every minute of it!!! Cherish, too! She said, "Catfish is my vewy favowit!"
We ate lunch with our pastor, Bro. and Sis. Clark, yesterday! They took Cherish too Toys R Us and bought her a huge bag of toys! She was so excited!!! Thanks so much Poppy & Nanni for spoiling my new little girl!! She said that Poppy is her fwiend, fwiend, fwiend! We left them and she started saying, "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy! I needa call Poppy and say thank you vewy much for all my babies!" So we did just that!
Well, I'm getting ready to head to DSW shoes and to Grannies in a little bit! I just wonder what everyone thinks, tomorrow being Misti's birthday, she is insisting that I drive way out to the Woodlands almost to Conroe to Pappadeaus, from Humble, to pick up a crawfish platter, and take it on the plane for her? What do I do? Hmmmmm, shall I?
I recieved this clip this morning! We enjoyed it and were laughing and discussing it, Cherish said, "Dat's funny, need to put it on de bwog!" I do believe that she was correct, you will enjoy it and it will bring a few smiles into your new year!
This is why old people break their bones!!
