Welcome home soldier! Welcome home!

Today I was just sitting at my desk doing my job. We had been told that a staff members grandson was coming home from Iraq. She was hoping that he would stop by MTCC and see her. A while later our volunteer said "here he is." I thought she was talking about another volunteer who was bringing food from Costco, which we were anxiously awaiting too.

About that time a handsome young man walked through the doors of MTCC wearing his camo, followed by many other excited family members. We clapped as he came through, then I had the pleasure of walking him down to the child care room where I found his grandmother sitting in the window, hoping to catch a glimpse of him when he entered our parking lot.

I held the door while he and his entourage went in to greet her. I stood there a long time watching this sweet, long anticipated embrace. I was almost to the point of sobbing over the joy that this reunion brought.

I don't know this young man, but was so moved by the joy of him making it home safe and sound. I was reminded of the scripture that talks about all the rejoicing in heaven when a sinner finds their way home. Wow. I bet Jesus and that heavenly host show out like we wouldn't believe.

Today, I sit here waiting on some loved ones to come home from a war too. And I too will shout and say, welcome home soldier, welcome home.

Co-ink-e-dink?

That's South Carolina verbage (where I come from anyway) for coincidence!

I am of the persuasion as a Christ follower, there are no co-ink-e-dinks. These random things you encounter seem to have no connection ... then one day they connect and a puzzle is complete. Then you realize even more that all your puzzles are connected. OMG! You realize it is really only one giant puzzle and you have just connected another piece in one little section.

You get the drift. I want to share a most recent co-ink-e-dink!

For a month or so when I would start to type an email to my director Wanda Fowler instead of her last name popping up, Wanda Cromer would pop up. I wondered and still do, where Wanda C. came from. How did she end up in my Groupwise email? I had concluded it must have been from a popcorn order I placed with Cromer's in Columbia. That made sense.

Monday, at lunch for Spartanburg area women's ministry leaders, my friend Ruthi and I were getting things set up when a lady walked in. Ruthi said "Susan, do you know Wanda Cromer?" So, indeed, she did not pop up from a Cromer's popcorn order!

Finally! I know who Wanda Cromer is!

I shared the Groupwise story. Then she shared her story. Then I shared another story. There were hugs, there were tears...

...there was God.

Many of you may or may not remember the little tiny part of the Wellspring story... Wellspring (the Mother-ship[Atlanta]) began after the women who had joined together in 1999 for the planning of Just Give Me Jesus. As a result of the bond they formed in the time leading up to the conference, they continued to meet together. Out of that fellowship... well here we are.

Wanda Cromer is very involved in the outreach for Just Give Me Jesus that will be coming to the Bi-Lo Center, March 19-20, 2010.

So you decide for yourself.... CO-INK-E-DINK?
I think not.

CO-INK-E-DINK that I just happened to be at the Living Proof Live Conference (Beth Moore) in 2003 that was sponsored by Wellspring?
I think not!

CO-INK-E-DINK that I knew Wanda Cromer's name before I ever met her?
I think not!

CO-INK-E-DINK that you are reading this this very moment?
I think not!

CO-INK-E-DINK that God maybe just connected a few pieces of your never-ending puzzle?
I think not!

If you would be interested in joining the planning and prep going on right now, or would be able to share information at your workplace, church or where ever you have a circle of influence...please visit: http://www.annegrahamlotz.com/events/just-give-me-jesus/just-give-me-jesus-upstate-sc/

or get in touch with me by leaving a comment on this blog post. Leave your contact info there, it will not be published. I would be glad to get you materials to share!

BUT.... be prepared for a CO-INK-E-DINK that just might change your life... you will be forever glad that you did!

NYC 2009 Trip Recap from spreadtruth on Vimeo.

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NYC 2009 Trip Recap from spreadtruth on Vimeo.

The first of many...

It is really happening! Somebody pinch me please. No! Don't!

This Friday, June 12, Wellspring Living SC will be holding it's first ever fund raiser!

We will be hosting a purse sale. None of which would be possible without all the hard work put out by the Middle Tyger Community Center staff over that past few weeks (or longer). MTCC hosted the purse sale last weekend and graciously gave us all the ones they did not sell.

Gretchen and I were poised to clean out our storage building to make room for the nearly 400 of them when Cindy Sanders approached me and suggested that since Friday was a Wellspring day for me and she was not at MTCC either... we should join forces and have a little Wellspring sale.

That of course brings us to another milestone... our first volunteer at a non-conference event!
I guess I'll have to create a volunteer form and start tracking hours!
A few other notable things to mention...


We have received our Article of Incorporation and last but certainly not least...
our request for not-for-profit status is almost ready to be mailed!!!

So "Mother-may-I take one giant step?"

Oh... if you are in the area, the sale will be Main Street in Duncan across the street from the Byrnes High School Senior Parking lot. Friday 8-4 and Saturday 8-Noon.





And if you are in to God bringing a lot of things full circle... the Wellspring Living SC thing all started with a phone call from a friend in September 2003 saying "we have three extra tickets to see Beth Moore in Atlanta this weekend, do you know anyone who might need them?"


We will be selling the purses in her front yard. Thanks JoAnn, and we didn't even know then what would happen because of that phone call.

Love you all!

I’m sorry.

I did not want to go here, but I feel as though I must.

So, I think I’ll start with two words from Merriam-Webster.

Abomination (Abhorrence; disgust)
and
Haughty (Scornfully and condescendingly proud)

Now, let’s see if I can find these two words in the Holy Writ.

Oh… here’s one - If a man also lie with mankind, as he would lie with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. (Leviticus 20:13)


Is that where we get the notion that the sin of homosexuality is worse and more contemptible than some of the sins, I, myself am guilty of? If not, then someone please tell me where it is noted that this is the sin to end all sins. Because I can remember Orr, Minnesota way back in 1973, (I think). It was church camp and I can remember learning theses verses while I was there. Notice both words are in this section of scripture.


These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaks lies, and he that sows discord among brethren. (Proverbs 6:16-19)


As noted in my last post, that sin was pretty disgusting (and there are more). Me thinking I was above the Word of God. It has always been my understanding that sin is sin. They all stink, no matter how big or small. Each sin, in one way or another seperates us from God.


So if I think my sin is less offensive to God than say a sin of homosexuality… it seems as though I am condescendingly proud (haughty).


I would like to ask, have you ever had a friend or relative who was gay.

Did you love them less?

Did you avoid them?

Did you tell them they were going to hell?


Where is the love in that?

I met my first lesbian when I was in high school. She sat next to me in some class that I cannot remember. I do however remember that she would sit and stare at my feet. One day, she touched my foot. Then she started calling me on the phone. She shared that she had “feelings” for me. I told her I wasn’t interested. I didn’t hate her, she was my friend.

When I was a Senior in high school, I worked with a young woman that became a very good friend. We were having lunch together on day when she told me she had something she really needed to tell me. She was afraid that when she told me, I would hate her. I remember the question I asked… “are you an atheist?” I told her that was the worst possible thing she could tell me. And if that wasn’t what she needed to share, then we were ok. Yep, she was a lesbian too. I remained friends with my co-worker until she moved to Florida.

If I know my Mama, she probably just said to herself… “I knew there was something about _ _ _ & _ _ _!”


Then sometime in the eighties, I had a cousin who was my age that died of Aids. I remember being so impressed with how his circle of friends rallied around him and cared for him. I always wondered if the church where he grew up as a child ever reached out to him. When we were in high school, he played the lead role in Jesus Christ Superstar. I wrote him a letter right before he died and reminded him of the role he had played and the love of the true Jesus Christ.


I know more than one person who grew up in church with my kids that are now living this lifestyle.


I had a friend tell me once that people had told him he was going to hell because he was gay.

Here again, if God’s Word says that a person is going to hell for that lifestyle, please share the scripture with me. I was of the persuasion that you only went to hell if you have not accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.


A few weeks ago at MTCC, I was walking down the hall with a man from a gay & lesbian church in our area. As we walked down the hall, I was trying to figure out in my head how that works. Don’t they know what the Bible says? Then I realized, I guess that would be like a church full of alcoholics, prostitutes or people whom withhold their tithes from God; you know… a church with a kindred spirit. Then I wondered if they had tried church with the rest of the family of God and it just didn’t quite work out for them.


I guess I should close by saying… I am not in favor of gay rights. I am not a proponent of that lifestyle. I am a Christ follower. They are sinners such as me, no more, no less. Many of them are our brothers and sisters in Christ.

I think He wants us to love our neighbor as ourselves. Ok. I know He does.

Regardless of who or what they are, or where they come from. . .

They too, are created in His image.


By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:35)

Let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)

Come now, let us reason together...

hey are
Do you have something in your life that would just cause you to die if people, especially your peeps found out? Well, I have had one of those things in my life for sometime now. It's one of those things God and I work on, it seems like it will be OK, then before you know it... it's back like it always was.

Once I stopped by the church on my way to work to just worship and praise the Lord. Upon entering the sanctuary I started my music and was just having the best time. Then I felt drawn to the Bible on the pulpit. It belonged to my friend John Moore, left from the day before. I opened it up and when I saw where it opened to, my praise turned to tears of sadness and despair over what God had just shown me. That same old sin once again... argh!

So, I addressed it for a little while, then fell back into the same old me.

Same old, same old - time after time.

Then came November 2008. We were issued a challenge at church. Guaranteed to work... or your money back! Hub challenged us to (here it comes, the revelation of my secret) tithe for three months. At the end of the challenge if we didn't feel like we had been blessed by doing so, he would refund our money. Now, I hope you know I didn't take the challenge to get the refund.
Tell me why after all these years... I believe it took! There was something different. I don't know why, but I know there is.

So in the weeks that passed by I was blessed. Blessed in ways I never could have imagined.
One thing that blew me away was a friend that I had not seen in three years stopped by to sponsor me in an upcoming event. I kept telling her "no", but she insisted. I was about to say no one more time, when it seemed as though God said "take the money, it's from ME!"

Then I had decided I needed a set of twin beds for my grand babies as they grew older. A few days later, another friend called to see if Wellspring was ready to accept donations. I said yes. But when she told me what she had to donate, I asked if I could buy them and use them instead.
Twin beds! She gave them to me, mattresses and all. Perfect, just perfect.

Then about two weeks ago I knew God had given permission for me to go to Brooklyn with WBC on their summer mission trip. I'll be staying with three of my favorite young ladies from youth trip days. One of which happens to be my youngest daughter, Sarah. The icing on the cake is I'll will be at the Brooklyn Tabernacle Tuesday Night Prayer Service on my birthday! I cannot wait. If you remember my last birthday story on a mission trip.

And these are only the stories I will tell about. There are a few other things that have completely blown me away, like nothing ever has before. Those stories will come after God has written the end of them. - Stories you won't believe!!! But worth the wait - I guarantee it!

But here is the sweetest part of this particular story. I had a meeting with the Milestones staff and before I talked with them about Wellspring, I had to share about my blessing from tithing. I only shared about the lady coming to see me at work. Two days later, Hub called to see if I would mind sharing at church - both services. I said yes, because God is such a wonderful God, how can you not tell of His greatness?

Now it seemed kind of funny, here I was not wanting my closest friends and family to know my shameful secret, and now I was going public with it. That is so God!

After I said yes, I guess God figured it was time to discuss the Paul Harvey of this whole thing.

It was like He said, "Now Susan, can you explain to me one more time why you thought you didn't really have to tithe".

I had decided that I would give God all the time He needed, that I would go and do and give Him any of my talents that He could use and I could keep my money, after all, I did need it more than He did. Right?

That made sense to me. Until He asked the next question.

"Susan, do you realize what the bigger problem is here?"

Oh my gosh! I had no clue. I never knew that I had so much pride and arrogance in my heart.
It was like I had decided I was exempt from God's law. That's pretty bad.

Now tell me how that even made any sense? Looking back, it's like "what were you thinking?"

You know, I always thought God would deal really harshly with me for the sin in my life. That was the biggest lie I believed. Once we got started, He was ever so gentle with me. It was a very sweet, a very tender unfolding of my heart and the contents thereof. Almost like He was saying, "would you look at what I found in here!"

So, on Sunday April 26, 2009... I came clean. And it feels sooooooo good!

I knew I would have to write and share the story. The hard part was what to call it. Then on Tuesdays the 28th I flipped the old faithful Max Calender and there it was, Isaiah 1:18.

How fitting, "come let us reason together". It was especially sweet for me because it reminded me of the days when I was a little girl. My daddy would put the paddle in his pocket and we would walk out into the woods behind our house and sit on an old tree that had fallen. He never would take that paddle out. He just talked, and we reasoned together.

Ahhh God.... thanks for the talking to. I think I got it now, now that I understand the heart behind the action.

I love you, thanks for being patient all these years.






This is me standing next to a piece of the Berlin Wall.
For a long time now, I have wanted my picture made there.
The wall coming down... that was a day we never thought we would see, so it was with my sin.

Hallelujah! God is big enough to knock any wall down!

National Dance Day

Just in case you thought you had an excuse, not any more!
It is time to dance.... feel like it or not.

If you have never danced before the Lord or with the Lord... try it, you'll like it!


I would add the link, but am doing this post at lunch from my official work location ... so I don't have those at my disposal right now!

Here are a few favorites~
If you are in the mood for ballet,I recommend "It is Well" by Crystal Lewis.
That one is great to do indoors, or in the privacy of the moonlit night sky.

If you are in the mood to be swept away, I recommend "Revelation Song" by Kari Jobe, or "Praise Adoni" by Paul Baloche.

Last but not least... if you like a little hip-hop, I recommend "Lose my Soul" by Toby Mac and friends.

And, if you don't like any of these and have an ipod, just set it to shuffle and let Jesus be the Lord of your Dance today!