Happy Birthday Saniyah

As usually I had a very busy weekend. After about 3 ½ hour of sleep, my day started with a 2 hour ride to a funeral service for the brother of one of the deacons in the church, they are a great family and have been tremendous supporters to the ministry. I was glad that Janice and I were able to be there for them. On my way back realized that I still had two more services to attend before the evening was over along with a very special birthday.

By the time we made it back it was time for our granddaughter Saniyah Raye’s first birthday [she is growing up fast and is beautiful]. Saniyah turned one on the 14th of April and with all my grandchildren [three in total] I always splurge for the party, that’s the least I can do. I’m blessed to see them everyday and they spend a great part of the day at the office with me. As I thought about how fast this year has gone by, a lot has happen…
· We purchased 25 acres of land to build a new church
· Zack [youngest son] is a senior in high school about to graduate
· Zack won state in basketball and choir
· Dee [youngest daughter] broke her collar bone in a basketball game
· Tiff [oldest daughter] moved out on her own
· Hornets [NBA basketball team on loan from New Orleans] have come and gone
· Bond program getting ready to hit the market for over two million dollars
· Celebrated the Home-going of two faithful women of God Erma Jean Hill & Delia Perry
· Saniyah crawled, walked and is now running, saying words and laughing

After the party I got a chance to spend some time with Saniyah [Sharonda brought her new pictures] before having to rush off to church. As the evening began to close as my custom is I began to turn my attention toward Sunday morning. As Ed Young Jr. says “it’s all about Sunday Morning, dummy!” The last thing I do on Saturday is to begin to visualize everything, and then I pray and ask God to have His way.

Sunday, we met for prayer as we do each Sunday praying for each other, our study, our service and soul. We’ve continued our study on ‘discovering our ministry’ in our small group experience. During our morning experience we began a new series called “Extreme, Home Makeover!” I felt real good about service after the Easter and Revival hang-over. At the end of the service a young man came to give his life to Christ, I took the opportunity to lead him to Christ personally.

Janice and I grabbed some lunch in the office and changed for another service, the close of the 63rd Simultaneous Revival at 3:00. By the end of this service we are completely exhausted. We had planned to spend the evening watching some new movies but the wrappers didn’t even get broke. We ended up just finding a comfortable place and just relaxed. Our grandchildren came by and as usual we found some energy to play and spoil them.

The plan is for us to work this week to wrap up Easter, the Revival and evaluate everything for next year’s planning. I’ll have to devote a lot of my week trying to get the CPA done, so that we can get our bond program off the ground and finalize our summer program. So I’m signing-off for now – to prepare to spend some time with the First-Lady!

It's Been Too Long!

I didn't know how long it has been. I had promised and promised myself that I was going to get back to my blog but like most things I just kept putting things off. Well, I was about to say tonight but I guess it is early morning. My mind is spinning with all the messages I've hear this week during the City-Wide revival. It has been one of the best Oklahoma City has had and I've had fun hanging with my friends and making some new ones as well.

Our revival was attended very well, we're growing and coming along in our spiritual growth as a church. I'm very pleased with how we handled really only our second revival under my watch. Pastor Bryan L. Carter was our guest for the second year and He was simply awesome and that's just not preacher talk. Pastor Carter allowed the Lord to use him mightily, through him God shared some strong messages. Pastor Carter and I have become great friends over the years and I'm blessed to have him as a personal as well as a ministry friend.

Apart from the messages, one of the highlight is our evening meal that has become a regular thing. About three or four years ago Janice and I felt lead to open our home to some of our friends who come and share with our City during the revival. Janice along with some of the wonderful cooks at our church would put together a menu and we would open our home for a meal between night service and late night service. Now that we are actively involved in the revival we simple host it at the church. We have a great time of fellowship [nothing is mover comical than preacher telling their stories]. The ladies at the church did an outstanding job with a spirit of excellence that would make any pastor proud.

While most churches run their revival week Monday-Friday, I've concentrated on just three nights Tuesday-Thursday for two reason, number one with our time of Prayer, Fasting and Meditation, then Holy Week, Easter prep and Easter Celebration to do five night would be pushing it. Number two one of my dearest friends Pastor H B Charles Jr. who is one of God's best preachers runs the meeting at my home church and it give an opportunity to hear him and spend some special time with him. He is a gift to the body of Christ as well as to my ministry. His dad will forever hold a special place in my heart and memory because God used him unbeknown to him to answer in this same revival some question and remove some hurdles that I had some 24 years ago. It's strange that in all the conversations HB and I've had I don't think I've ever shared that with him. Ironically, HB's brother Pastor Kevin Willis is the spitting image of their father, was giving the late night sermon and my mind ran back to 1983 and what God had done. Kevin runs the meeting for the Tabitha Church where my friend Pastor Jeffery Mitchell is the pastor.

I've been blessed, the church has been blessed and I'm looking forward to those things that God will do with all that He has said.

Peace!