God Is Alive And Well In Oklahoma

Greetings to all of my friends and family reading my blog.

My wife and I, and the boys just returned from an evangelistic trip to Oklahoma. We were there for about nine days I believe. God did some wonderful things while we were there.

First of all, let me say this. Its my blog, its not like you could stop me if you tried. I want to thank my good friends and mentors Pastor and Sis. Vickers in Antlers for making the trip possible. Secondly, I want to say what wonderful people, friends, and Christians they are. Having said that, we made a whole bunch of new friends while we were there as well. They took the church in Antlers (the deer capital of the world, apparently, though I saw no deer there) about two years ago. In two years, they have gone from running 8 to start, and now they have a solid church of 30 people and growing, in just over two years. God is using them to grow an awesome church.

They were kind enough to have us over to their home and ranch for dinner far more than once...and stocked our fridge full of groceries at the hotel - that's first class Christianity, folks. Their property is like walking into a scenic calender. Pastor Vickers home (gorgeously decorated by the lady of the house...) sits on 160 acres with a small lake and a creek with several horses and some cattle. The tree line this time of year is a mix of evergreens, bares, and red leaved trees...if was scenicly breathtaking.

We had great church while we were there, and in just over an hour of door knocking in Antlers we made 8 brand new prayer contacts, and 1 van ministry recipient. God blessed.

Wednesday was a bit of an eye opening experience for me. It was ALMOST a disaster because I drove for 15 minutes in the wrong direction looking for Bro. Tyson's church in a town called Atoka. I barely got there before service started. If you have ever preached out to a place you've never been, it can be a nerve-rattling situation. For me, I get rattled because I don't know what to expect. I didn't know anyone there, didn't know how big the church was, or how small, I had no way to really mentally visually prepare myself in advance for the service.

When I got there I realized very quickly that I was the only one wearing a purple shirt. Bro. Tyson and his assistant pastor were in suits and white shirts; I left my coat in the van! I felt like an orange in a bucket full of potatoes. I hate, hate to be late. And I hate to be under-dressed in a first impression situation. Pastor Tyson greeted me and quickly put me at ease, welcomed me, and shared a laugh at my lack of navigational skills. I did, however, buy a new white shirt before we got to Broken Bow...

An older lady began to play the piano on the platform. A somewhat younger lady began to play the drums, which were situated on the floor by the altar due to space limitations. The well-dressed service leader called out a number as we all stood. Hymnals. I had not sung from a hymnal in many years. It felt very, very different from what I am now used to (though truthfully I came in under a hymnal using church). I felt so out of place.

But then, the most AMAZING thing began to happen. The forty or so saints there in that sanctuary began to sing, and they began to clap their hands to those older songs, and they began to praise God, and they lifted there hands in worship, and I am going to tell you as an eyewitness, the Holy Ghost fell into that place. If we are not careful, we will miss it in this generation. I am all for new songs, I'm all for having talented people on the platform, but if we are not careful, we will place the focus and the emphasis on those things, and if the song is not just right, or the praise team is a little off, we could fall into the trap of worshipping based on mood, and emotion, and reaction, versus worshipping God out of the depths of our hearts. I had myself a wake up call. God is still God no matter the style, no matter the age, no matter the language, God still dwells in the praises of His people...so dance, shout, sing, praise, clap, worship...no matter the song, no matter the people on or not on the platform...your praise and worship should flow from your love for God, nothing more, nothing less. Music, no matter what kind is only an avenue by which we can worship him.

When those saints began to worship and praise, I felt at HOME! I felt God just the same as I do everywhere else. The Lord ministered to those precious saints of God and their wonderful pastor during the preaching and altar call. The word of knowledge was flowing freely, always a good sign of being in God's perfect will.

Afterwards, Bro and Sis Tyson were gracious enough to take us out to dinner. They are an older couple, but they were very nice people and we talked as if we had known each other for years. Bro Tyson is an awesome man of God, and he LITERALLY built his own church, the building and the saints. I made sure to get his permission to call him as a friend and mentor when I needed someone to bounce ideas off of. Great people. So glad we met them.

And then it was on to a place a bit closer to Arkansas called Broken Bow. Up to this point, the weather in Oklahoma had been phenomenal. When I was out door knocking on Friday, one of the people I met matter of factly informed me that it was supposed to snow. On Sunday. The first day of spring. I'm from Florida. I don't do snow. I thought to myself 'great, Stoneking brought the rains to Fiji, and I'll get credited for bringing a spring snowstorm to Oklahoma.' My legacy is almost cemented.

We found a great park for the boys just down the road from the hotel we were staying at. We took them there three times in two days to keep them entertained. All things considered, Isaiah and Jeremiah did really well on the trip. Its not easy on kids being couped up in a van or a hotel all day, so we did our best to let them get there 'jollies' out as much as possible.

If you are reading this, and you believe in prayer, please pray for a young lady named Lisa Seriva. She is suffering from two forms of cancer and the doctors are pretty much out of options. We met Lisa out door knocking in Broken Bow, and she allowed us to pray for her right there on her front porch. We are believing that God is going to heal her of cancer completely. Overall, we signed up 14 families on our prayer contact list in Broken Bow. We are very excited about what is going to happen with them...

Saturday night our great weather turned ugly and fast. It didn't stop Pastor and Sister Cheek taking us out to eat though. I heart food. LOL.

When I awoke Sunday morning I poked my head through the curtains to find the ground completely blanketed in snow. Not frost. Not ice. Not a cold rain. Not white paint. SNOW. In late March. And it was still coming down. It came down ALL day. The van was covered in it. I was amazed. It was all I could talk about all day. The snow this, the snow that. It would be like seeing the Cubs win the World Series. You just don't ever expect to see it. If it ever does, its all people will talk about. So all I'm talking about to all the nice people I'm meeting is 'wow, the snow,' and 'the snow is so amazing,' and 'I'm from Florida, I've never seen snow.'

I had met Pastor Cheek briefly before. He came and preached in Floresville about six years ago. He is not a man of many words, but there is a kindness in his eyes well reflective of the Lord's that he serves. He has pastored in Broken Bow now for thirty four years. He also serves as the Presbyter for his section. Folks, that is true committment in the good times and bad, and something to be respected. I have notice that it seems to me that pastors that put down roots and stay in the same church for a long time tend to have very solid churches. You look at guys like Jeff Arnold, Anthony Mangun, James Varnum (Belleview, FL), they have all been pastoring for 30+ years in the same place, and they all have solid, powerful, and growing churches.

Sunday I found that the same was true for Bro Cheek's church. In a town of only about 4,500 people, where most young people move away after high school, we were introduced to a church of at least 70 or so saints (not counting those out of town or snowed in) that were not just coming to church, but you could tell that they were solid, SOLID saints. Its because the pastor has been pouring into them and investing for more than thirty years, and it shows. Larry Booker taught something that stuck with me. He said there are three things that go into building saints. The Word of God, the Spirit of God, and the man of God. The Word and The Spirit are unchanging in any Apostolic church...its the MAN that makes the difference in the saints. When you've seen the core of a solid church, you've seen that pastors guts exposed in the maturity of those saints.

Well, Sunday morning came and went, and we had a really good service. I preached a message entitled "If He Paid For It, He Will Perform It." I trust God answered many prayers in that service, as his Word challenged our faith to come up a level.

But Sunday night. Wow. Sunday night was incredible. We give God ALL the glory and credit. After I preached "Anointed to See," the saints responded to the calling of the Spirit, and we prayed, and we wept, and we spoke with tongues...and not out of routine or obligation, we got lost, LOST in the presence of God. And I mean ALL of us, me, my wife, and the whole church. It was such a beautiful thing. The men were praying together on one side, and the women folk were praying together on the opposite side of the altar. When the church began to lay hands on each other, and especially I noticed when the women gathered around Sister Cheek and began to lay hands on and pray for her SOMETHING BROKE in the spirit realm...I don't know what it was, but that church broke something right then and there, and when they did there was this RUSH of God's presence, like a wave, or a gust of wind or something like that, and EVERYONE began to call out to Him at once, seemingly at the top our lungs...I can't really explain it too much, you would have to have been there, or been in a similar situation...Gifts of the Spirit were very much in operation...my wife was so helpful during all of this praying for people, and one young lady in particular. She helped her pray through for the first time in a while. It was such a wonderful, wonderful sight. I was so proud of my wife. My wife spoke out in the Holy Ghost to all of us. The Spirit said that He is jealous for US! He wanted our attention, and to lay aside our distractions in life to spend more time with him...I wish you could have been there.

I'll end on that note. We went and had lunch with the Vickers on our way back to Texas. We will definately have to do this again soon. I am so glad my wife and I got to spend time with good friends that we have missed, and I am really thankful he allowed us to meet NEW friends as well. He's still God in Texas, and he still God in Oklahoma!