My Favorite Season has Arrived!
This summer was one of the busiest I can recall. The conferences, working in the garden, canning hundreds of jars of food, Tuesday nights at the Extreme, and planning the details of the new OCI facility kept us in non-stop motion all summer. I’m now back in the groove, home schooling, off the road until the main event, and preparing for my favorite time of the year—the fall months.
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Summer is busy with activity, but fall is different. The hot, often humid and stagnant air is replaced by cool breezes.
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Perry and I both feel the same way about September through November. There is something special about those three months. Winter makes you feel isolated and dark at times, while spring brings planning and preparing. Summer is busy with activity, but fall is different. The hot, often humid and stagnant air is replaced by cool breezes. The leaves are painted in bright oranges, yellows and reds. Then did I mention there is College Football! Not just any college football, but Alabama football.
Someone asked me why the people living in Alabama, or those living in other states who call Alabama home, are so intense in their enjoyment of college football. The simplest answer is that the state of Alabama has no professional football, basketball or baseball teams to root for throughout the year. Thus local high school sports and the University of Alabama Crimson Tide and Auburn Tigers are the main focus throughout the year. When you are born in Alabama, you have loyalty to one of these two teams stamped on you by your parents (unless there is a split opinion between mom and dad) and you wear either crimson red or blue and orange throughout your childhood, teens, and even adulthood. It is a tradition that is seldom broken and the entire year is built upon one game in November—Alabama versus Auburn.
Last year I had tickets to two games but was unable to attend. This year Perry has kept two weekends free for us to have a date weekend, and it just might be that we will end up in a stadium or two somewhere in Tennessee or Alabama.
I hope you enjoy the fall months as we do. We are having a major fall festival on the OCI ranch property in October. We hope to have a huge corn maze, tables with lots of food, special games and so forth. If you can join us please do so. I will post on the ministry Facebook page the information. May the Lord bless all of you and thank you for praying for us and supporting the VOE and OCI ministry outreaches.
Love and Prayers,
Along with this excitement comes the burden of paying for such a tremendous facility. As Perry has shared, we have been preparing for several years for this moment. Yet we are far short from having in place what is needed to complete and pay for this needed facility. This seems to be the way it has been for us from the outset of the ministry, anytime we’ve prepared to advance in any manner. We call it, “Walking by faith,” because that is certainly what it is!
The other day, one of my friends called to say she had a dream about me. She said I was in a huge house and she and I were talking while our two daughters were in another room playing. She said there were several people sitting around that seemed to be waiting for something. She said I went to my room to get ready and in a little bit she heard me call, “Ok, come and get it breakfast is ready!” At that moment she experienced an aerial view and saw so many young people getting in line for me to serve them breakfast. She was amazed how polite and orderly everyone was. When she looked at the food I was serving, it was a few eggs in a bowl and a few other things, but not nearly enough to feed all the youth in line. But no one was worried that they weren’t going to get food on their plates and there were still eggs in the bowl. In the dream she said it was as though God was going to multiply the loaves and the fishes again! She said no one was being served large amounts of food – but just enough for everyone to eat.
She asked if this meant anything to me. I told her that I believe it did. I believe through the dream the Lord was telling Perry and me that there is going to be enough to meet the needs. We would love to have the bowl filled up and overflowing as we step out, but faith is when you have half a bowl – and need a full bowl – and God has to provide the missing half! If the little lad had not “invested” his 5 loaves and 2 fishes into the hands of Jesus to break and bless them, he would have never seen a miracle. 5,000 people would have remained hungry and he would never have enjoyed the increase of 12 baskets left over! I believe God is going to take what we have and help to multiply it for His end time work. Every time I have to dip into the bowl to pay a contractor, I believe it will be enough until this Gathering Place is completed.
It has been amazing to see the changes in the lives of so many people and young people, at the Extreme on Tuesday nights and to witness their prayer lives on Thursday prayer night. Perry has commented to me, “Who ever dreamed we would have a call to a young generation after we turned 50?” Many of these youth need a spiritual Mamma and Pappa, so we came along just at the right time. We are enjoying every minute of our new vision!
Please get on board with us through your prayers and generous support and help make this miracle a reality! I want to thank those of you that have already responded and will continue to do so, and those to whom the Lord is going to direct at this time!
Love and Prayers,
