I forgot!!!!

I don't know how I could of forgot this part!! I have been with my church and pastor for 7 years now. We started out at his home with a group of ten. Now we have outgrown the church and have to have Sunday Morning Services at the High School!! Over 250 attend! Let me back up a little....I left another church (not God) many years ago due to me feeling that my church turned on me. The Lord has allowed me to see it differently now! Anyway, I had been praying and asking God for guidance in finding a new church here, in my area because I was so confused by all the different names I didn't know where to start! Then it started with a phone call from my sister, who lives in a small town in Oregon...while talking she mentioned that her pastor had been called (by God) to Missouri, to preach but she didn't know where...she just said, it was some small town down south. I didn't think much about it, still having "the old thoughts of church in my head." No offense to anyone but back then my first thoughts of church were: probably some old crusty guy that couldn't cough up a hairball much less a hell, fire and brimestone sermon...you know, the kinds that make the house shake...lol A couple of years later I get a call from her saying again that her pastor and his family were coming to MO but still didn't where...it was like where ever he goes, I'm to move there...not happening! We are settled here and we will probably die here, was my thought. One year later, I get a call from my sister and she said "Hey, I finally found out where Pastor and his family moved" I said "Yea?" She said "Just how hard where you praying for a church?" I said "pretty hard, why?" They moved to Harrisonville...2 miles from my house and they want to meet me!! ...lol To make a long story short, we met, started the church...things started happening to me that I wasn't sure of....feeling bad for others, feeling that I needed to pray for others more often then the norm...I though anyway! I was waking in the middle of the night to pray...sometimes, praying for hours, crying until I thought my tear ducs dried up, cramps in my gut from crying so hard and long. I called my pastor (whom by the way, a nice looking, well groomed male in his late 30's and very happily married, ladies...lol) a sweetheart of a man and is so full of the spirit, that sometimes he weeps as he preaches.....you can see the spirit all over him! You can feel God's spirit throughout the church! He IS a true MAN of GOD! As he and I talked and I was telling him all the stuff that was going on...he called me an intercessor! I was like...what? I wasn't sure what that meant and at the time didn't know him well enough to get too deep.....so I called my sister and asked "what's an intercessor?" I thought he was calling me something that wasn't very nice...lol Boy, did my sister fill my ears (after she stopped lol) and then I read and read and read about intercessory work! Praise God!! At least I knew why I was in pain.....that pain I can handle! Anyway...didn't I say this was gonna be short?...lol Bare with me...all these years my pastor has asked me as well as others in the church what God is calling them to do. Left and right people were signing up.....even people that had been there less than me! I was almost upset but God and my pastor kept telling me to wait, don't rush into anything. I helped in the nursery, love the babies but my back wouldn't hold up. I tried the toddlers and children's church... NOPE, can't do that! Seems like since my hysterectomy I don't do kid's too well...at least too many or for too long anyway! Well, here we are 7 + years later and I believe I finally have my calling. Pastor Darren called me today and we were talking about many things and something came into my mind that has been in and out of it for some time now but I keep putting it on the back burner, thinking I have too many things wrong with me right now to be helping anyone other than in prayer. For several months and I can even remember several times over the last 7 years that this has come to mind! My calling "ministering to the women of abuse!" Pastor said we have many ladies suffering and I said, I know! I feel it when I walk into the church! All this time and it was right there in my face! I saw the opening on the board and felt that I was being called to it but never thought I could do it...not with my depression and all. I guess God has different plans than me. I had been counseling friends, family and friends of for decades.....why I didn't hear God calling, I may never know! This opening has been there for some time but never, ever did I think for one moment that God would want me to be the one holding their hands..imagine that! Love & Prayers, Deb

Debbie, I'll tell you about how God has worked in my life with ministries. I always was struck by the verse that said we are to visit widows, orphans and those in prison, but never thought I would be able to do it. My husband, who I married when I was 18, told me on our 27th anniversary that he wanted to move out of the house and have some time to get his head together. To make a long long story short he strung me along for 3 years and then I found out he had been living with a woman, younger, for the entire time. I was so devastated I thought I would die. I prayed for a husband, a widower so I wouldn't have to deal with an ex-wife. God led me to my DH John whose wife had died after a two year battle with lung cancer. We dated for two years and I worked two jobs to keep my life together. After we married it seemed as if I had so much time on my hands. John said what would I like to do and I said sing. He said there is a woman's chorus in our town and I said I'd really like to sing gospel music. Now remember the bible verse that had always spoken to me. The very next Sunday after we talked about me singing again there was a full page story in our local newspaper about a women's gospel chorus fifteen miles from where we lived. And as if that wasn't enough, their ministry was to women in the federal women's prison in Pleasanton/Dublin, California. Talk about answered prayer. I sang and ministered with that group for a couple of years and then we moved to Las Vegas. A woman at the prison had told me that the North Las Vegas Detention Center didn't have any women Christian volunteers so after we got settled I started contacting them about starting a bible study there. It was a long process but eventually I was able to go in and do weekly studies for over three years. AND the revelation that I had was that because I had been brought low by my husband leaving me for someone else and by having a divorce I didn't want or believe in I was able to relate to the women in jail who were also brought low by their cir****tances. I would not have been the person to minister to them if my life had not been torn apart and rebuilt by the love of God. Because I could say to them, you can, with God's help, rise above this situation and I know it's true because I am a witness. I had a wonderful time with them but then we moved again and I've not been able to get into that kind of teaching again, but I know God will put me where he wants me and right now I think He wants me at Missouri State being a loving caring person to the students I come in contact with every day. AND, I know when He wants me to do something different, He'll make it clear to me. Hugs and love and praise God Lana

We're helping to start a new church in Harrisonville too. We're Word ofLife Pentecostal Church. We bought the American Legion Hall on E. Pearl across from City Hall. What is your church name and are you still meeting in the High School? - Jen