What a responsibility!

I just got back from the Saturday night check of our building to make sure it is ready for the fantastic people of God. I spent some time in prayer and preparation. Just as tonight, I have often stood where this picture is taken (behind the pulpit) with no one there and considered the people who would face me in the next service. I feel a heavy responsibility to proclaim what is true. Not what I think is right, but what I know to be true from the Word of God. I feel such a thankfulness for those who God has brought to this church and I want to lead them right. I don't think I have ever had the thought, "Well, this is just a small place - a few souls, so it won't really matter what I preach." I consider what I share with them without a thought of the number in attendance. Why? Every soul is so important to God.

I am thankful for every minister of God who has impacted my life. I now realize the weight that they carried when they shared the Truth in each service. My prayer is that I can be instrumental in the salvation of those who have been entrusted to me. None of us are totally saved yet. We are still this side of Glory. I pray for the souls who will sit in these seats tomorrow - eternity is in the balance for each one. What a responsibility!

Crazy Animals!

Our dog actually thinks she is human. She crawled up into my desk chair and then proceeded to find a comfortable spot to look out the upstairs window! It didn't matter that her back legs were hanging in midair - she was at ease.

I also found this great picture...makes me laugh! Have a good laugh today! Looks like how I feel after a service!

The Story Isn't Over

My friend, Don Ryan from Ohio, wrote a transparent post recently about his place in life right now called "I go a fishing." I felt to contact him and let him know that the story is not over. He kindly contacted me back and thought I might want to post this to encourage others who may be in the same position right now. Some of the comments are to him personally, but much of it could be applied to all children of God. Our Lord continues to write our story with twists, tragedies, mysteries, and surprises.

We can all be encouraged that all of our stories will end in a beautiful eternal life if we continue to trust Him.

I am writing to let you know that the story is not over - and life is not a short story. I am a fan of short stories because I do not like to take a long time in reading. I want to get to the point and do it fast. I really feel that right now you are in the midst of what is called the "exposition" or the beginning of the story- where the author "sets the stage." I oftentimes want to skip or skim that beginning part to get to the meat of the plot...but when I do, I miss some of the key elements and then cannot understand what is happening when I get closer to the end.

I know the pain of disappointment and the bruising of the ego. I don't write today to be a know-it-all, but as a friend. I believe in you and from the first time I met you, I knew that you had what it takes to be a great man of God. After reading your writings, I have often wished to think as quickly and sharp as you do. You have an insight that is superb and a charisma that God can use mightily. You do have a servant's heart and that is what this road requires. Although you are being reassigned, I believe that God has something that is fit just for you. The story isn't over, for you or the church you left.

Keep your head up and your eyes on the lookout for the "new thing" God is wanting to do through you and your family...

Isaiah 43
1 But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.
2 When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
3 For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.
4 Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life.
5 Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west;
6 I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth;
7 Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.
8 Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears.
9 Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and shew us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth.
10 Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.
11 I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.
12 I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God.
13 Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?
14 Thus saith the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships.
15 I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King.
16 Thus saith the LORD, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters;
17 Which bringeth forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power; they shall lie down together, they shall not rise: they are extinct, they are quenched as tow.
18 Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.
19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

This is a long reading, but I felt it on my heart and I didn't want to put it all in your blog comments! Keep on fishing, but keep your eyes looking up. He is coming with a miracle in His hands...more than you can believe.

No matter what any of you are going through right now, the story isn't over! He, along with us, is still working to complete the book of our life. I am trying to do my part to keep the ending right.

One receives the Holy Ghost!

We are SO EXCITED to have a 12-year-old girl receive the Holy Ghost today! I could tell through church that God was dealing with her and when the call to come was given, Sis. McClain asked her if she would like to come and pray. She said yes and she began to weep when I put my hands on her head. Within in a couple minutes, she was speaking in tongues! She came with her aunt. This young lady's two younger brothers came also and were a part of our new Sunday School class!

We had 36 today! That is one more than our normal Sunday record (excluding Easter). We also are minus the family of 5 from Bro. Bernard's church who have gone back to the mother church now! So, there is progress.

Our ensemble sang "Goin' Up Yonder"(the old song) and did awesome! The Spirit was really moving in our midst today. I believe that the Friday night prayer intensified the response of the church.

Speaking of that, our Section came on Friday night for a Prayer Service and on Saturday morning for outreach.

Sis. Esther Hunt, our section's prayer coordinator.

Sis. Flo Shaw, the South Texas District prayer coordinator.

Binding together in prayer.

It was great to have Trevon Norman (seen on the left here) and Cosme Ojeda (not pictured) with us this weekend from Wichita Falls. They joined in with us for prayer and outreach.

Pastor Dwayne Shaw, New Life Temple - East Austin

Bro. Shaw finished out the night with his comments. He felt a prophetic word that this church would be a mighty revival center and felt so impressed that things greater than we can even imagine are on the horizon. We are believing...and it is happening!

On Saturday, we were able to distribute around 700 doorhangers to houses in the neighborhoods near our new location. We are planning to send postcards to these same houses in a couple weeks using a mailing service here that is Apostolic-owned and then going back to these houses a few weeks after that and knocking on their doors to invite them. Maybe it will help "soften" the ground a little or give us some name recognition when they open their doors. It was great to have our presbyter, Pastor Charles Stephens, to help us put these doorhangers out!

Following the outreach on Saturday, we took Trevon and Cosme downtown to see the bats fly at dusk. Our boys enjoyed so much having the guys here in town. They laughed a lot!

As we were waiting, boats started coming to watch the bat flight. One of them in particular caught our eye and ear...they were playing live country music on a raft of sorts! It was pretty neat.

There's more to tell, but I will keep it for another post.....

My Turn

Celebrity Look-alikes

I thought I would try this out and see who looks like me! Uhhh - I think not. Oh well, a little laugh never hurt anyone.

Ordination and back to Youth Ministry

This week was a very special and event filled week! We attended our first South Texas District Conference and really were surprised at how many people we know. Of course, they were a part of the Texas District for a lot of the years that we have been in ministry. We were blessed to be Ordained at this conference. Also, Pastor and Sis. Elms (as she has posted about on her blog) were there to be a part of it and she took these pictures. These are pictures that only people who attend a Spirit-filled church would understand. Those ugly, crying, worshipping, straining pictures! The Spirit was so strong. Our family has grown together so much since coming to Pflugerville. We understand that we are in this together, so it was so great to have the boys be a part of this special time.

Most of our years of ministry have been spent with our Pastor, Wendell Elms, so it was so special to have him pray with us. We are so thankful that they took the time to come be a part of it all - (even if it was in SOUTH TEXAS!)

Of course, having Pastor David Bernard pray with us was also special since we are working closely with him now. He spoke some prophetic words to us during his prayer. (He is the one on the far left getting ready to pray with Pastor Elms looking on.)

Bro. Danny Johnson, my high school principal at Life Christian Academy, is on the District Board and was the first to pray with us. He also was the one who interviewed me at the ordination seminar. He told the other guys on the interviewing committee that he has known me for 27 years! I couldn't believe it had been that long! All of us who were involved in the truck rollover accident in May, 1980 that took the life of my friend, Tim Hodgson (Karen Prince's brother), share a special bond with Danny and Barbara Johnson from the few short years that they were in Wichita Falls.

I like this picture with Dad praying with us. Also, if you will look in the very center of the picture, you will see a white haired gentleman. He is Missionary Richard Carver.

He came up to the boys after everyone had prayed for us, but before the service was completely over and told them that God had drawn his attention to them while he was on the platform. He told them that God had His hand on their life and if they would partner with their parents that God had great things in store for them. It was really a special moment for them. Come to find out, he and his wife had visited in the Layne's home for several days during deputation many years ago. Sis. Layne loved them so much that she cried as they had to leave. Bro. Carver didn't know who we were until after the service was over.

It was also special to have my Dad and Mom there for the occasion. They are such a blessing to all of my family. We look forward to their visits so much. To have them there praying with us made it all complete. The only thing that would have topped it all off would have been having Bro. and Sis. Layne there. They would be so happy for us. But they live on through all of our family's ministry.

P.S. After being ordained, I am now being referred to as "His Holleyness" by some at the Bernard's church....they think they are so cute!

HERE WE GO, AGAIN!

Back to youth ministry! Karla and I took our youth group to the Austin/Hill Country SFC Rally and Lock-in on Friday night out in the country near Georgetown. They had a lot of fun! Above is Chad being "bunny-eared" by Phillip. This is the same thing the young people have done since I began youth ministry in 1984!

Hannah, Lindsey and Bonnie.

Jasmine (Sis. E) acting so cool, Cameron, Jordan and Erika.
Jasmine calls us Bro. and Sis. H!

Phylicia, Kaylene, Cheyanne and Lorraine.

I will tell you that being over 40, I did not stay up all night. We drove home at around midnight and slept until 5am and then went back and picked them up. This is one of the blessings of being a daughterwork - the mother church had plenty of chaperones.... whew! Cameron won a karaoke machine with a camera built-in!

This week, our section will be coming to Pflugerville. Friday night will be a time of prayer with the South Texas Prayer Coordinator and Saturday they will put doorhangers out in the neighborhood around our new location.
•We will have a greeter meeting on Wednesday to get that ministry organized.
•Our youth class started today with Karla teaching.
•We are organizing a bus ministry (pray with us for a leader.) Someone has bought a bus and donated it to us! I haven't seen it yet or have many details other than it runs and looks nice. I will fill you in as we get this ministry started.
•We are organizing church cleaning teams and they will start in May.

Thanks for your continued prayers and words of encouragement! You don't know how much it means to us.

We're Still Here

Just thought I'd let everyone know we are still around. This week has been busy - we had South Texas District Conference at the beginning of the week, church Wednesday, Thursday was quiet, Friday was a youth rally and lock-in and today we have Element Student Ministry at our house.

Anyway, I'm sure Gene will blog more after the weekend. Meanwhile, I thought I'd leave you with a picture to occupy your time. WHO IS IT?

A Broken Place - A broken record!

We wondered last night as practice was taking place and sleet began to build up on the cars whether anyone would be in service today.....
but woke up this morning with better temperatures, no rain

AND 49 IN ATTENDANCE!
Our record was 35. We had three new people in the altar this morning with tears on their faces. I spoke about "The Broken Place." That is where God really comes to life. Some of those in attendance today are in the broken place, and God became very real to them.

Several new things happened today:
We had our first children's Sunday School class, but we have no pictures. :(

We had our first sign language song...
No Greater Love, given by Taqueria and Phylicia McClain as well as Lindsey and Kayleen Stephens. They did awesome! The presence of the Lord moved as they signed.

We had our first group song. Karla put together a ladies ensemble to sing, “Revelation song.” Wow! There were two new soloists in that song and Chad really showed out on the drums. There is a part of the song that says, “Flashes of lightning and rolls of thunder.” When they sang that, Chad did a deep roll that sounded like THUNDER! He shocked me! They practiced last night when I wasn't there, so it was so cool. The crowd was on their feet!


Excitement was in the air, the conviction of the Lord dealt with many hearts and we proclaimed the joy of the Easter story. It was a good day.

Hill Country Views

Thought you might enjoy looking at the Hill Country in Spring. We are enjoying taking in the sights as a family. We had a couple hours to look around. A "storm was a-brewin" as Chad explained it, but somehow we missed the rain all the way around!

These pictures are even better when you click on them to enlarge.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RONDA!!

49 years ago today Murray, Lila, Keith and Linda welcomed into the world Ronda Carlene!! (I came along 9 years later)

Today we celebrate HER! She is a wonderful sister and friend. Out of the three of us girls - she is the most like Mother to me - her looks, personality, actions, everything! Even though she is FAR away, distance can't take away the closeness we share as family.

I love you, Ronda, and hope you have a wonderful and special day!!

In Our New Location!!!

We met at our new location Wednesday night and you should have seen the people as they began coming in. They could not get the smiles off of their faces! They looked around and oohed and aahed. We sang a couple choruses and the presence of the Lord entered the Sanctuary in such a powerful way. We prayed for the chairs, doors, instruments, rooms, outside, inside, the pulpit, the altars.... the people were praying in the Spirit! We then gathered around the pew chairs in a circle, joined hands and prayed for each other. I had preached a message about Creative Faith recently - about the four friends who brought about a miracle in the crippled man's life by tearing the roof off. There was Hope, Work, Vision and Belief. So on that Wednesday, I explained that we had a Hope of growing and moving. We joined together to Work to see it come to pass. Now it was time to share a vision. I opened it up for them to share their Vision of what would happen in this new place. WOW! They began to share and cry and worship. It was so encouraging for everyone. We left that place with Belief that our miracle was coming to pass.

We have been going from sun-up to after midnight every day. You wouldn't think that there would be that much to do! Thank the Lord for the Ace Moving Company that I posted about earlier. They came in on Thursday and moved everything in about 45 minutes. They had all the equipment and I didn't have to carry one thing! God provided and I chuckled - He is so amazing! I actually sat outside and laughed at the incredible One that we are working for. I could not have imagined having a moving company move our church free of charge. But He can.

We still have some work to do. We need to do some painting and finishing our Sunday School area for Easter, but overall it looks great. We are so happy with it. Above is the foyer.

Here is the Sanctuary with our new WONDERFUL chairs. Thanks to many of you, we are now able to seat more people and in comfort! We also have a projector, screen and computer with songs and Scriptures. Today's service was so nice. It is nice to also have carpet. It is so much easier to kneel for prayer.

This is a hospitality area right outside the Sanctuary. The restroom opens off of this and we will have a small refrigerator, microwave and oven behind a moveable wall. When we want to have an event that includes food, we can move the wall and make it a kitchen area with a serving bar.

It really feels like a real church. We have several aisles to choose from and many more seats. We are expecting many great miracles to take place here.
Deliverance, Salvation, Healing...He does it all and why not here?

We tied our all-time record of 35!

Here's some of the girls this morning all excited!

Another snapshot— It looks like my mom is the center of attention!