Take A Walk With Me

 It would seem that October is Pastor Appreciation Month. There are three Pastor's in my life that have had a huge impact. I want to honor the three of them today. During my youth days, I had the joy of having Bro. John Aoki as my youth pastor. He gave of himself to the youth. He took time to pour into us. It's funny all those years, I had no idea what he did for a living. I just knew him as the most amazing youth pastor in the world. I knew he loved us. He listened to us, and he always preached the truth to us. To be honest, I took him for granted. His wife Kim was a friend to the girls, and we loved on their kids. I have a deep love and respect for Bro. Aoki. I'm thankful for all the hours, prayers, tears and laughter that he poured into us. I truly believe it's because of him that I stayed in the church all these years. He was not just a youth pastor; he was a friend. The second Pastor who gave me deep roots is Dr. Daniel Butler. He gave me plenty of room to make mis...

 Today is RJ’s 15th birthday. He was so happy that Ross was here with him for the weekend. Family sent money so he could be a teenager and feast. He did exactly that today. For breakfast he decided to keep it light and have some Slovak waffle cookies left over from the picnic along with a banana. For lunch he chose Red Robin and enjoyed bottomless root beer floats along with a rather large hamburger with fries. For dinner he had Peruvian chicken, plantains and cilantro rice. RJ is not a big fan of cake, so we put a candle in a churro to celebrate. RJ is sweet, kind and smart. He truly loves the Lord. He loves to help others. Anytime there is something going on at the church, he is excited to help. He is respectful of others. He’s a good kid, who I believe has a bright future.  It’s a joy to be his mother. I’m thankful for RJ. May God grant the desires of his heart and may year 15 be one filled with joy, laughter, peace, hope and the presence of God in his life.  I love yo...

 I have often heard the phrase, “Born with a silver spoon in their mouth”. I knew what it meant, but growing up I never really met anyone who could fall into that category, until I lived in Long Island, NY. I came across many people whose lives had always been one of privilege and affluence.  I sometimes giggled to myself and would say that I had been born with a plastic spoon in my mouth. The majority of my childhood was a life of poverty. My birth mom had this gift of taking whatever was given from the food bank and making something delicious out of it. She could win a Chopped Kitchen contest with ease. I can recall walking past restaurants and seeing people eating food that I had never tasted and feeling my stomach rumbling from hunger. I know what it’s like to live in the car, to call drug motels home and to be thankful to move into an apartment that for once was quiet.  I know the inner pain from the sideways look people give you because your clothes are not as nice ...

 Every Sunday, the Praise and Worship team has been doing a dynamic job of paving the way for the presence of the Lord to flow. Bro. Walker preached a message to the church. Unfortunately, I did not take notes because I discovered my journal was full and there was no space to write. That being said, he had a visual for most of his sermon and I would have missed chunks of what was going on if I had been writing. You can listen/view it  here.  The title of his sermon was "Pour Out" and his text was from 2 Samuel 23:13-17. Bro. Walker had a table on the platform. On the table he had several water pitchers. There was also a cup with what looked like dirt and rocks in it. Two of the pitchers had water in them. At the beginning of his sermon, he had 6 young boys bring to him a glass of water.  He was giving a visual to when David lamented that he wanted a drink of water from a well in Bethlehem that was special to him. Some of his soldiers risked their lives and brought ba...

 The Kings from California are at Bethel this weekend for a marriage seminar. This couple has great insight to many things. Tonight, they spoke as a team to the entire church for Family Night. I did not take notes, thus I am not able to share with you everything they covered. They talked a lot about emotional intelligence. Several examples were given on various ways to handle a situation. They gave great insight on trying to contain your emptions when hearing what the other person has to say. Relationships are vital. Healthy ones are so important. When we are in a relationship, whether it is parental, sibling, friendship or romantic, there are two things we want to know. Do you love me? Am I safe with you? These two needs are vital and it's so important that we work to be this for the people in our lives. Boundaries, Validation and Empathy are necessary foundations for this to take place. We can all learn and strive to work on this. I appreciated their insight. Being a former Calif...

 Before I share the amazing sermon by Bro. Marvin Walker preached today at Bethel, I want to express my appreciation for the music ministry.  It's clear when those leading in worship are plugged in and moving in the spirit or when they are not.  Bethel has been blessed with an amazing worship/music team. I don't take it for granted. Today in particular was phenomenal.  Each and every song was in tune with what Bro. Walker was going to preach.  Their focused worship set an atmosphere for miracles to take place before the preaching even started. They paved the way for hearts to be good ground for the preached word to fall upon. Bro. Marvin Walker is special to RJ. He was the guest speaker the service that he received the infilling of the Spirit of God. As I most always suggest, watch the service for yourself. I pray it blesses you as you listen to the worship and The Word that was put forth. You can do so  here.   Bro. Walker preached on "The Biblical Te...

 This past Sunday, Bro. Tom Trimble preached a phenomenal sermon entitled, "The Devil's Day Off". I did take notes, but I can't find my notebook. I will do my best to give you a brief summary from my memory. I highly recommend that you watch/listen to the sermon. It was a powerful word. You can find it  here.   The main text read was 2 Samuel 18:6-8.  In this text we read that there was a battle going on.  What stands out is that more people died by the woods than they did by the sword. Even Absalom, his initial cause of death was not due to being in battle, it was due to his hair getting caught in a tree. More men died that day because of the woods. Many times, it's the cares of life that catch us and become our downfall. It's not so much what we are actually facing as it is all the other pitfalls that can come our way. It's so important to make sure that we don't allow the cares of this life to pull us down. The devil can be coming after you and you ...