Sometimes I get busy and don't get to share my little testimonies, but God is constantly at work in my life doing neat things. I would like to share a few with you.. just little things God does to let me know He is active in my life...

Fri, Sept 11, 1998: (Getting's God's persective on Ministry)

The phone at my work rang, right at 8:00 AM. It was a woman I had never heard of before, who had obtained my phone number from a friend. She was calling from about 400 miles away. She asked me a lot of questions about my ministry (primarily an internet ministry), asking for the address of my www page, etc. After spending about 15 minutes answering her questions, she says "Hum.. maybe one of these days I ought to get a computer."

Ouch.. I suddenly had the feeling I had just wasted about 15 minutes.. sigh. I was so busy at work... and I'd have to "make up" the time I was on the phone by staying late. Then went went on to talk about her views on intercession, going on for another 15 minutes.

"Lord," I prayed silently, "How can I politely get rid of this turkey? She is wasting my time!

"Teresa!" The Lord chided me. "She is not a turkey, but My daughter who I love dearly."

Ouch! Opps, Lord.. sorry... I repented. The Lord went on to tell me that He had sent her to me so that I could give her a word, and then He proceeded to show a lot about her to me. At the same time, He was filling me with His compassion for her... she had a lot of hurts and had been abused, yet she continued on bravely, refusing to hold bitterness or unforgiveness in her heart. Seeing her from God's perspective made me really being to like her.

After a few more minutes, I interrupted her monolog.. and told her that I could not talk much longer because I was at work. I told her the Lord had given me a word for her and asked if she wanted to hear it. Of course, she said yes. I expected the word to take about 5 minutes.. but the Lord had a lot to say to her and it took more like 15. There were a lot of specific details in it and also lots of love and compassion from the Father. The longer I gave this word, the more I could feel his anointing on me, until I was so blessed that I could hardly stand it. (She got blessed too!)

We ended our conversation, and I hung up the phone. His presense was all over me. I was so excited by God and what He had done that it took me a long time to be able to concentrate on work again. I was utterly amazed at how He had turned what seemed like an annoying situation into an blessing for both of us. God is good! I am so glad He lets me minister with Him -- I love doing what He is doing with Him!

Fri, Sept 11, 1998: (God's Love Melts Barriors)

I have a coworker friend who is very hostile towards christianity or the gospel. The root comes from being molested by a Catholic priest when he was a young boy. Oddly enough he really likes me.. we get along well and work together effectively... so he "ignores" the fact that I am an on-fire christian and likes me anyhow...

He came into my office today for a work related question.. and he was a bit frustrated about something else (a supervisor had unfairly snapped at him infront of others) so we chatted a bit to help him unwind. In the course of the disucssion, I told him that I was very excited about something neat God had done for my ministry.. I was in fact so excited that I was simply glowing. In fact, that was what started the conversation.. he asked me what I was so happy about.

Then he asked me if my denomination performed same sex marriages. I said "Of course not."

Then he replied, "In that case, I wouldn't want anything to do with your denomination."

"Oh.." I said.. "You never told me you were gay."

Then he asked me if I would not like him any more now that I knew since I was a minister. Just then the Lord came on me and gave me the following to say:

"You know, God is not at all happy about how some of His children have misrepresented him to the gay community as Someone who hates them and wants to destroy them. He does not feel that way at all.. He loves you guys and He wants to reveal Himself to you, to heal you and to bring you into a close and intimate relationship with Him. I am sorry that parts of the church have misrepresented God to you.. please forgive us. We blew it. God wants you to know that He loves you and is reaching out to you."

A bit later the issue of homosexuality as a sin came up. I replied that the Bible calles it a sin, but it also calls gossip, slander, cheating, etc as sins. I told him that in my opinion, homosexuality was no better or no worse than any of the other sins.. that absolutely NONE of us is righteous and that is why we needed Jesus to come and pay the penality for our sins. He was ok with that... with acknowledging that homosexulaity was no better nor no worse of a sin than other sins. In fact, he wanted to argue that gossipping was not a sin.. because everyone does that.. rather than arguing that homosexuality was not a sin.

God had me repeat the mesasge of His love.. of His healing .. of His grace. My coworker friend seemed to melt... he opened up and shared some deep issues of his heart. I just loved him and did not judge or condemn him in any way (but being careful not to condone anything either). He got really vonerable with me.. sharing some of who he really is .. masks off.. It was awesome. The Lord was present in this conversation. It was the first time he did not seem hostile towards christianity or towards God. He is going to think about God as a loving God and His offer to meet him and be tangible/reachable to him.

It was so neat!!! What an awesome divine appointment! I really like this fellow and I want to see him come to know Jesus and see the Lord's victory and power in his life. It was incredible to see the love of God disarm his prejudices and to see him begin to open up towards God.

The Love of God truely melts all barriors... our God is a loving and powerful God!

Sunday Sept 13, 1998: (Praying a blessing)

I was visiting a friend, Faye, who lives an hour drive away from me. We stopped at a Chinese Restraunt to get some dinner "to go." The Asian woman who took my order, Vickie, was obviously pregnet, so I asked her long long until she was due. Her answer surprised both myself and my friend: 11 days.

Wow! She sure did not look or act 9 monthes pregnent. She went to the kitchen to place an order.. and I noted that there was not any Buddha statues in this particular restraunt, which is unusual for a chinese-owned Chinese restraunt. When she got back I asked her if she was a christian. She said that she was Buddist. I mentioned that it was unusual that they did not have a buddha statue in the place and she said they had one at home instead. She asked me what religion I was and I said Christian.

I felt like the Lord wanted to so something for her, but I was not sure what. So I threw up a quick prayer for guidance. Vickie did not give me any time to listen quitely to God.. for some reason she was incredibly drawn to me. We ended up in a friendly conversation.. about her baby (will be a girl) her husband (they've been married 3 years), her in-laws (as is common with many Asian families, she lives in her husband's parents' house). She also wanted to know things about me... and it was a very pleasant conversation. My friend, Faye, has been a regular at this resturant for years and knows Vickie.. and has not seen her open up like that.

When the food arrived 20 minutes later, God told met that He wanted to bless Vickie and her baby. I told her that in my religion, we like to pray blessings over people and asked her if I could pray a blessing for her and her baby. She was very receptive. I asked if I could touch her while I prayed (laying on hands) and again she said yes. I kept my eyes opened while I prayed a short blessing prayer on mother and unborn child. Vickie kept her eyes open too... looking right into my eyes. It was a short prayer, but I could feel the Lord's presense in it.

As soon as I finished, the young woman's face lit up. She said, "My baby hardly ever moves around, but she started moving around just the instant you prayed.. she liked that! Thank you! Thank you VERY much!"

It was so neat.. the Holy Spirit touched the unborn child as I prayed and the mother could sense it. That was powerful!

Then we got back to Faye's house with our food. Her son and his wife came over to join us. Faye told them about me praying blessings for Vickie at the restrurant. It turns out that Vicki is a personal friend of my Faye's daughter-in-law. She had been looking for an "in" to share the gospel with Vickie for several monthes now. She seemed to feel that the baby feeling the blessing would open the door for her to talk to the mother about Christ. She could not wait to talk to Vickie. Wow! Isn't it neat how God orcherstrates things together like that?