Thursday, January 29, 2009

Oh Happy Day!

Today has been a strange day that I would really like to just start over. Getting out of bed was TERRIBLY difficult this morning. Must go to bed at 10pm. No more talking with roomie until 10:30... must be in bed at 10! I pressed through once again and walked though, I knew I needed to especially since I didn't yesterday due to the rain.

This morning at the office was rather hectic. I had my normal Thursday morning meeting with Dean and then I had an appointment scheduled for 11:30am. This appointment was with the founders of the ministry. See... I write the monthly donor receipt letters (among other things) and in January included a story that Bishop (our founder) told about the summer of 1972. It was an encouraging story about how when all seems lost and impossible God comes through and "makes good on His promises," so to speak. It received amazing responses from people who just loved reading about their personal experience and how God used that time to virtually launch the ministry that is today. Since that was so successful I wanted to capture some more personal stories from them to use in future letters, on the web and just to have around.

Bishop was on a conference call so I sat down with "Mom" (his wife Evelyn) and for over an hour she told me different stories about their life over the last 54 years of ministry. It was great hearing her stories and thinking about where they came from and where they are today. She talked about the first year of their marriage when they lived in a room off of the back of the church they were pastoring that didn't even have a bathroom. They would have to trek through to the front of the church in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, but they were happy and none of that mattered. She said people didn't care about having things then. If only life were that simple now.

Anyway, it was great collecting material to work with and I left the house with a plate of eggplant lasagna. (A tray had been brought to them last night, so they offered me some.) As I drove back across the street to the offices it hit me what a privilege I had just had. I sat in the home of internationally known ministers, who have pioneered and overcome many obstacles, that others would be beside themselves to get to talk to for even just a minute. To many he is "Dr. Bill Hamon, father of the prophetic movement," to me he is Bishop, he's "the big boss," he's my friend's grandfather, he's the man that teases me about being single. He is all of these things that I see and that others see, but he is ultimately a humble and powerful man of God.

At that moment I realized how we easily we can take them and our other leadership for granted because they are so approachable. Bishop, Mom and all of the leadership are down to earth. They don't put on facades or think more highly of themselves than they should. They are servants, they are down to earth. Bishop is just an Okie at heart, and we love him all the more for it.

So after that high point of my day I came back over to the office to microwave my eggplant lasagna. It was on a paper plate with a napkin over it. I left the napkin on, like a good girl, so as not to have red sauce splatter all over the microwave. I set the time for 2 minutes and went to tell Shirley something. When I walked out of her office towards the front desk and the kitchen the entire foyer was filled with smoke. Apparently my food caught fire in the microwave. Fortunately there was no explosion, but I did have a very charred lunch... and therefore no lunch.

It was an interesting day.... one that I would have definitely changed parts of if given the chance. Oh well.... Tonight we record more vocals for the upcoming CD and thankfully tomorrow is Friday. The next few days will be spent preparing for our Super Bowl Party at the house and praying that the Steelers whoop up on the Cardinals!

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