Revivals and Shoots

We've spent the first two days of this week going to revival at Bright Light Baptist, with Pastor Wayne Reese. Pastor Goodman has been preaching the services and they've been really good. Of course we were at our home church last night. Brother Johnny did a fantastic job tonight on prayer from Acts chapter 12. Alters were full. There is truly power in prayer.

Tomorrow I get to have a photo shoot with a seven month old. I am so excited about this shoot. I'll explain why when I have some pictures to post. I can't wait to see her and hold her and love on her. It's gonna be so much fun.

Tomorrow night I'll be going to revival services at Bright Light again. Lord willing, that is. And then Friday our youth choir will be singing there. If you're in the area, come out and hear our Pastor and our youth choir. It'll be a blessing, I'm sure.

Right now, I'm going to get my gear ready for tomorrow's shoot and then hit the sack. I'm a sleepy head tonight! :)

Lots and Lots of Pictures!

Today is Mother's Day. I hope all of you wonderful mothers had a good day with your children. I know I did. We had a cookout yesterday with our moms and honored them. And then today we went out to eat with my mom after church. Two souls were saved in church this morning and we're baptizing some tonight. I'm looking forward to that!!

Just wanted to share some pictures of the last couple of weeks. There's a good many of them.
The next couple of weeks I'll be busy taking pictures of two seniors, planning Hannah's Sweet Sixteen party, which is this coming Saturday, and several others things on my agenda. Everything is pretty well set for Hannah's party, I just need to get busy on the food end of things. Speaking of food...the pictures begin with my devil's food chocolate cupcakes and malted eggs. I love malted candies. These looked "sweet" nested a-top the cupcakes too.

My mother-in-law enjoyed one.

This was Easter weekend. We had dinner at mom's house. It was fantastic!!

My sister-in-law Jenny and my beautiful niece, Jessica. I love them.

Jessica graduates from the police academy this week. My brother, John and Bruce, were playing with her fake gun.

This was the combined choir at the Zion Hill youth revival. They sounded spectacular!

Daughters of Faith sang that night. I love to hear them sing, There is a Remedy. Beautiful words to that song, if you've never heard it.

Some shoutin'!

The Simpson family....I loooooOOOOOooooove them!

Brother and Sister Spears. They sang a song I have never heard before and I would really love to hear it again and find out where it came from. They were such a sweet couple.

Preacher #1 that night was a young man that started in fourth gear and finished in fourth gear. He was something! His sister got saved after LeAnna gave a testimony about her salvation. You never know when someone is going through the same thing you struggled with that led up to your salvation.

The second preacher up was Brother Spears. He was fantastic! Would love to hear more from him. I hope we see him often in some different meetings.

Here are some pics from the Crossroad's Rescue Mission Jubilee. When all else fails...when you've been let down...JESUS IS ENOUGH! And He sure was the week of Jubilee!

Gotta have KFC buckets for the offering under an old fashioned tent!

Some silly people I saw at the meeting....

Lots of fellowshipping and playing with babies.

And let's not forget the Sun Drop. MMmmm!

Precious times....

A shoutin' time!!

A humble time....

A testimony time.

We heard some great singing that week from the Rochester Family....

The Crossroad's Rescue Mission men choir...

Vintage Faith Bulegrass....

Faith Baptist Youth Choir...

Daughter's of Faith....

Missy and Amanda...

Brother Compton....

And others, but I can't remember their names. LOL

The singing was really good. But the best part of the meeting was the preaching. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God! Several precious souls were saved during the week of jubilee. I thank God for that!

My favorite preacher of the week was my very own Pastor.

Brother Williamson lets. it. fly, boy! I'm tellin' ya!! He's really good.

My niece took this pic of our family Easter Sunday. Harrison dislocated his knee the week before, hence his leg being bent.

My mom loves her hats and doesn't she look precious in this one? If you'll look at the pictures above her, that's my daddy on the top right. This was his first Easter in Heaven. We missed him, but praise God we know we'll see him again.

It's Jubilee Time!

We had the first night of the Crossroad's Rescue Mission Jubilee Monday night. Our choir sang, the Rochester family was there, and we heard some great preaching.

The rescue mission has been hit with some hurt recently. Hurt that has been based on man's opinion instead of the Word of God. I believe tonight was an encouragement to Brother Rocky. He needed it.

The message was "It Ain't Over Until God Says It's Over." His text was from Rev 21:1-6. And the best part of the night was a young man in the youth group accepted Christ. He's coming to church with his uncle. And then there were others saved after the service. Not sure how many so I can't really give an accurate count. I know there was definitely one lady. And then two others raised their hands, but I'm not sure if they went forward. I would hope they didn't deny the Holy Spirit. How sad for them if they did!

I'm already looking forward to tomorrow night. Vintage will be there singing and then the preacher coming is a young fireball. It'll be good!!

Best quote from tonight:
"When you fall in love with Jesus, you'll stop your criticizing the work of the Lord."

Of Revivals and French Press On Nails

We took the teen choir to Brother Boone's church Tuesday night. Man, was it good! First of all, the kids did a fantastic job singing. It was like 200 kids were in the choir. I was so proud of all of them. The visiting evangelist was Brother Sam Delaney. He's preaches in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, but he's originally from Ireland. Loved his accent! He preached on the three little pigs of Christianity. The Phifer Pig, the Fiddler Pig, and the Practical Pig. It was something else. I'd love to have that on DVD or CD. I got some pictures of the kids singing and I might post those when I have more time. After the service, Pastor had us drive the kids to Dairy Queen for some ice cream and fellowship. It was fun. Brother Mark had us rolling with some of his jokes and "Su Wong" was requested. So I did "Su" for some of the employees at DQ who got a crack up out of her. I have never gone to have my nails done. Can you believe that? I think I'm probably the only woman I know that hasn't. LOL But Mander bought some press on French nails and I thought they looked great so I decided to get me some too. I put them on last night and I have to say I don't like how they feel. It's so unnatural. They're pretty. They just don't feel right. I guess it'll take some getting use to because they're not popping off anytime soon, I'm afraid. I did exactly what the directions said to do and these things are GLUED ON! So like 'em or not, they're there. 'Bout the time I get use to them they'll start cracking and popping off. lol It's about 6:30am right now. The birds are just-a-singing outside. So sweet. Can you imagine how God would feel if we all woke up like that each morning? Psalm 98:1 "O sing unto the LORD, a new song, for he hath done marvellous things: His right hand and His holy arm hath gotten Him the victory." I'm excited about this weekend. I'll fill you in more on that later. But yay, yay, yay!! It's gonna be a great weekend!!!

Inquiring Minds, Prayer Requests, and Vintage

Anonymous, I did answer your question, but the special prayer request pushed it down. So you can read what I believe about salvation here. :)

Here's an update from Becca's dad: "Not much of an update, but Becca really needs prayer today. Doctors and nurses are really working hard but she needs a miracle."

She definitely needs prayer. Please pray.

The other night we went to hear our Associate Pastor preach and hear our bluegrass group, Vintage play and sing at a local church that was having special services for a missionary couple we know.

We didn't have much time so we stopped at Burker King for supper. Bruce was very hungry, and obviously very thankful. haha And no, he did NOT eat two whoppers and two fries. One of those whoppers and fries were Justin's. :) He's so crazy. Gotta love him!


Me and my little son. Yeah, right!!


Vintage was getting set up. Justin has recently started playing the banjo for the group and he's donig a great job. He never ceases to amaze me. And Hannah too. She is something else on the piano. She's getting better and better but still won't play in public. I suppose if she enjoys it for herself that's good enough for now. I know I sure enjoy it!




The meeting was actually for Brother Leroy and Mrs. Joyce. They're going to be missionaries and the pastor of this church wanted to have a special service for them with all the offering going to them for their missions. They were thankful for that.


And then Brother Johnny preached. I get so tickled at him sometimes. He is so animated with his eyes and voice inflections. I get cracked up at him but his messages are always great.

We had a good time and enjoyed the service. I just found out last night that Tony Hutson was at a nearby church. I would have loved to have gone. Tonight we'll be at our own church and tomorrow night our church is having the Inspirations. So we'll be there. Lord willing we'll be able to hear Brother Hutson Friday night if he's going to be there. If not, that's ok. We're excited about going to his teen camp meeting in April. It's always good.

Blessings Upon Blessings

Sunday morning our church was so packed we were over flowing into other areas for seating. It was such a blessing. We've had several saved recently, baptisms, and people that use to come to Faith, came back "home" and joined Sunday night. I was very glad!

I met a friend on fb through a mutual friend of ours. Her mother-in-law and father-in-law were on vacation and came this way to see their good friends, the O'Malleys. Brother Groves played the guitar and sang for us. It was another added blessing to our day.

I didn't know they would be there and when I walked in before Sunday School they were standing in the foyer. Mrs. O'Malley introduced me to Sister Groves and she immediately handed me a little bag of those caramel and cream cow's tails. The minis. There was also a card inside from their daughter-in-law, whom I've never met but have a kindred spirit with on facebook. She is a sweet friend and it made my day that she thought of me. Yes, Sunday was overflowing with blessings.

Brother Tony Hutson is preaching revival in a church near by so me and my two younger ones met up with Mander and her two babes and headed out to hear him. We met Dana and a lot more of our people there. He preached on the calling of the Saint. It put some things about soul winning...Heaven and Hell...into perspective.

Great sermon! So glad we were able to go.

Last Night of Revival

We had another wonderful night with Brother Hutson and thus concluded our revival meetings this week. Sure do appreciate his old fashioned preaching!!

Last night we had some special singing. All the singing at our church is special to me, but the Philbecks were there and they are just wonderful to listen to. Brother Philbeck is the pastor of Love Valley Baptist Church, a neighboring church in our area. His wife and children were there and did a fantastic job singing. I do have a video of them below. The song in the video has become my new favorite song. LOL I've been humming it in my head all day.

Today is my beautiful mother in law's birthday. I went out this morning with Justin to run some errands and while we were out I got her gift and we'll be taking her out to supper tonight. She went out to eat with her sisters today so I'm sure she's having a good birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARIE!!! You've been the best mother in law I've ever had. The only mother in law, but the best, nonetheless.
:)

Enjoy the Philbeck family singing I Just Wanted You To Know....

Last Night of Revival....BUT NOT REALLY!

Wednesday night was scheduled to be the last night of revival with Brother Hutson. But we're extending it one more night. We've had such a wonderful time with him this week. I am really looking forward to tonight. I've become friends with one of his church members and she's afraid we're kidnapping him. LOL :P

Last night he preached from Titus 2:10 "Not purloining, but showing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things."

I have read Titus 2 many times but never pulled the points out Brother Hutson pulled out. When I read Titus 2 my mind's eye immediately will focus on verses 3-5. But in verse ten he speaks of adorning the doctrine of God.

Brother Hutson gave a great illustration about his mother's banana pudding vs his sister's banana pudding. He said he loves his mama's banana pudding. When she made it, she would serve it warm before it had time to set. He said it was so good it would just run all over the plate and they'd drink it up with a straw. But when his sister Sherry makes it she won't tell anybody because she wants to hide it in the fridge until it sets firm. Then she cuts it in little squares, peppers a little powdered sugar on the plate with a slice of banana and serves it. He said, "Now if you had never had either pudding, you would choose Sherry's because it had been adorned and made attractive." Another illustration he gave was he and his wife took one of his preachers and his fiance out to eat at an expensive restaurant that delivers your meals in courses. He was meeting this young girl for the first time. And he noticed that she was the only one not eating the $8 salad he had just bought. This salad had everything on it...dark green and light green lettuce, croutons, bacon bits, onions, peppers, shredded cheese, ranch, etc.. and it was really buggin' him that she wasn't eating it so he asked her "...how's your salad?" She never said anything but she turned her bowl a few times and then he saw it. A roach about three inches long sitting there in her bowl. Needless to say, not only was HER appetite ruined for that meal, but so was his and everyone else at the table.

The question is, do we adorn the doctrine of God and make it attractive for others? Or are we like a big roach on the plate that is going to turn the appetite for others?

I've seen some Christian roaches and they can really turn people off to the doctrine of God. Not only do they hinder the unsaved and ruin it for the next Christian that tries to witness to them, but they turn off other Christians around them too.

Those that walk around with a super spiritual attitude and try to associate their beliefs with their Pastor's family and other preachers they like will turn off those around them because they're Pharisees. They say they're disliked by the world and other Christians because of what they stand for. That's not true. If it were, those that they associate themselves with would be disliked by the same people that dislike them. Truth is, they're a cockroach on the plate of the doctrine of God.

I don't want to be a roach to the doctrine of God. I want to be that powdered sugar that makes people want what I have.

GREAT sermon last night!!

Here's a few of his points:
*Consistency ~ We adorn the doctrine of God when we stay the same.
*Compassionate Witness ~ Be a wise witness and a warm witness.
*Compelling Worship ~ Sinners should be uncomfortable in church. We adorn the doctrine by Scriptural worship.

A couple of his quotes last night:
*If it was wrong at one time, it's still wrong. The Bible doesn't change!*
*You will never be right with God until you are right with your Pastor.*
*No weeping = No reaping.*
*Worship is an act of will*

REVIVAL TIME

Brother Tony Hutson will be with us this week. We are very excited and happy that he is coming. I've been looking forward to this ever since Pastor announced he was coming.

He's also going to be at another local church next month!! Lord willing we'll be making it to that, at least one of those nights.

Below is part of tonight's sermon outline, taken from Luke 19:29-31....

In Order For God To Be On Me, There Has To Be:

*Life

*Loosing

*Leading

*Listening

*Lowliness

"God won't use a donkey that won't listen!" ~Brother Tony Hutson

It was so great seeing preachers and pastors from all over this area gather at the alter and fellowship with one another. They came from Faith, Bethel, Love Valley, First Love, Landmark (Gastonia) and other neighboring churches. Preachers from the Crossroad's Rescue Mission and the Master's House. They were lined up all along the alter and it was a blessing to see those TRUE men of God praying together and having a time of fellowship with one another.

We're looking forward to tomorrow night.

Some Random This and That

I had a great day. An awesome visit with my parents for a little while, until Justin showed up on his lunch break and we all went out to eat. Daddy wanted some wings from his favorite pizza joint while the rest of us enjoyed the pizza and salad bar. As usual with any time spent with mom and dad, we shared a lot of laughs and giggles. We had fun!!

On the way home I stopped at my Mother-in-law's to drop off some pans of hers and was pleasantly surprised that Bruce's Aunt Janette was there. We had a very nice visit together and again shared some laughs and giggles.

The other day when I was at her house she gave me this beautiful pie plate. I adore pie plates and fell in love with this, the moment I saw it. It was so sweet of her to give it to me. And now here it is with fall upon us and you better believe some nice fall desserts will be made in this plate.

Justin bought a truck a few weeks ago. Since then he has put on new tires, changed the motor in his windshield wipers, and yesterday he changed the alternator out. I was proud of him because, although he's done body work on vehicles, he's never done anything in mechanics, so it was a big deal that he had it changed it out and ready to go without any help from anyone. He's such a smartie. Not to mention it made his dad very proud!

We always start school after Labor Day and this year will be no different. I'm looking forward to getting on with this new school year. I think it's going to be a good one!

Before school starts, it looks like we'll be going on a family vacation. We didn't go on vacation last year because Bruce used his vacation days for SIGMA things. He had done the same thing this year and his days were gone. BUT! It's been worth every vacation day. No complaints. at. all! However, it worked out for him to earn some vacation days back. And so we don't have to use the credit card, he's been working a LOT of overtime. So we can rest and relax and enjoy our children and not worry about paying for it later. LOL

I have to say that the beginning of this year and through Justin's graduation was an emotional time for me. And as I expected, things changed once he graduated. He's eighteen now, he's working full time, he has EMT classes a couple nights a week along with other things at the fire station and he has financial obligations now too. So I must confess that I am more excited about this family vacation than any other we have been on. The Lord is working it out, it seems right now, that we'll be able to take a family vacation this year and it very well may be the last where all five of us will get to go together. So I am very excited and hopeful that it will happen and plan on soaking in every single minute with all of my children and my hubby, making some memories that will last a long time.

Before vacation, though, we'll be enjoying some wonderful services. One this Saturday at a local church for their ladies meeting. Our church ladies are very excited about it. And we'll also be in revival with Brother Tony Hutson. He'll be here next week and I am so ready for him to be with us. I think we're all looking forward to him coming.

No Apologies and Some Videos

Obviously someone took offense to my last blog post. Which is fine. Sometimes the truth rubs people the wrong way. Bruce and I were accused of being fundies. If standing on the fundamentals of Scripture makes us a fundy, we stand guilty as charged. Thank you, Anonymous for pointing out a good characteristic you see in us.

And to clear things up, I was not preaching to men or women for that matter. Just simply stating my opinion which was made obvious to me by the preaching of a real man of God, whom I admire greatly. In all honesty, I was preaching to myself if anyone. There was a young man that left our church to join the army and I had written him a letter of encouragement while he is in basic training. I received a reply to that letter, which Bruce and I read together, the same day Brother Johnny preached his message and hit on that. I determined that I would not send anymore letters to this young man unless they were sent by both Bruce and me. So, you see, I can find the fault in myself and am not so full of myself that I cannot correct that fault in the name of Jesus, that His name be not blasphemed. And while I'm at it, clearly it is stated here that this blog is set up in mind for ladies. Men are welcome to read, but it's addressed to women in general.

That being said, I have no apologies to make to ANY man, seeing I am under the authority of my OWN husband. Who, by the way, approved of the last post. SO! If anyone owes anyone an apology, it would have to be the one making false accusations. Which I seriously doubt will ever happen. And that's ok. My conscience is clear.

Now! Last week we were in revival with Pastor Goodman at Bright Light Baptist Church. It was a GREAT week. I was so proud of my Pastor and the meaty messages he preached. I was also proud of our young people. They have come such a long way as a whole in the last year. And even more so this summer. I've seen changes in some of them I thought I would never see. And God is blessing!!

When the youth choir came Thursday night to sing for Bright Light, Spencer, Gary, and Justin had something to say. Each video is just a couple of minutes. Enjoy these young men...

Missions Revival

Pastor Goodman has been in Missions Revival with Brother Wayne Reese this week. Monday and Tuesday's services were wonderful!! Can't wait for tonight.
(Brother Reese)

This lady sang Jesus Is Precious To Me. I love to hear her sing it. I wish I could sing it like that!! But I do love my precious Jesus. :D

Brother Reese had some missionaries stand and give a quick testimony and word of their work.

I don't believe this lady is a member of Bright Light, but she did come by and sing.

And then Vintage Faith sang several songs. They did a great job. Love that Gospelgrass! That's my daddy's little head there. LOL

(Brother Mike)

(Pastor Goodman)

Tuesday night there were a few other missionaries that stood up. It was good to see Brother Ellis again.

(Brother Ellis)

And Tradition sang. They did a great job too!

Pastor Goodman preached a great message Tuesday night on I Ain't Never Seen Anything Like That.

Celine and Carissa sat with us Tuesday night. They were awake....

for a while. :D

Our youth choir will be singing tonight. Celine has been chomping at the bits for a few years now to get in the youth choir. This will be her first night and she is very excited!

Here's a video of Tradition singing He Locked the Gates. Enjoy!