The PF Women Team at our Annual Team Retreat ~ 2018 Today on Seth Godin's blog, he said: It's tempting to decide to make a profit first, then invest in training, people, facilities, promotion, customer service and most of all, doing important work. In general, though, it goes the other way. Yes, it does. If you are waiting to make a profit before you do these things, in my experience you're not going to make a profit. So many organizations, ministries and churches are struggling with financial issues. I know your pain. As anyone who follows our story knows, our ministry was in a ton of debt four years ago when I came on as director. Since that time, we've gotten out of debt and turned a profit every year. God has done amazing things through out team, for which we give Him the glory! I find that what Seth is saying here is absolutely true, with one disclaimer. For Christian leaders, spiritual disciplines must always be first. Before we started i...
That's what this morning was! The Holy Spirit absolutely took us into overtime. Seriously.
What a service!!! Worship was amazing. We did Freedom Reigns with a bridge that I found online that another church did (haven't heard it anywhere else) but it says, "We shout to every wall come down! We shout to every wall come down! We shout to every wall! We shout to every wall there is freedom!" It was time to declare it today...any remaining wall was coming down!
Great worship and special music time. I did a song right before Larry preached and the majority of the church jumped to their feet and were singing and dancing to it and the place just erupted. I couldn't help it -- started preaching a few minutes as the people were shouting and the song ended...just went into a powerful exhortation but it was time for Larry to take the pulpit so then when I came off the platform, Debbie handed me a paper she had written on and it said, 'WE ARE IN A BREAKTHROUGH!!!!!!!!!!" Yep. Yep. Yep. Tis so!
We had an auction for Speed the Light right after service and it was fun!! Then we had choir luncheon and rehearsal. All around it was an extremely blessed day. Somewhere in there Lourdes took photos of our family for me to take to Africa. The people constantly ask about my family and want me to bring them, or at least see their photo. Well it's like this -- where I go in Africa there is no screen, no powerpoint, no none of that. Just putting a picture up there and saying, "here's my family" is impossible. So I'm doing a bookmark for each woman at the conference (yep, that's a ton of bookmarks!) with my family's picture and in Swahili it will say, "Ladies of Kenya, we are praying for you and we love you! The Shrodes Family and Northside Assembly of God, Tampa, FL." Trust me this will be a big deal to these ladies and they are going to love it. We also have lots of other stuff we are 
taking to Africa -- scarves, jewelry, perfume, and other things. I thought I'd post the photos here for you to see. I used the one for the bookmark that I put at the top.
They announced today what they are doing for Pastor Appreciation. I'm so excited! I'm going to tell you tomorrow here on the blog so.......stay tuned!!!
In the meantime if you are reading my blog today and you are a Northsider...if you thought today was off the chain, look out! You haven't seen anything yet. We are getting ready to skip a few levels. Were there a lot of people today in the house or what? Was the presence of God just hanging over the place or what?
Let it Rain!
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BTW, I got your facebook IM late and you were already offline. I was giving Savanna and pedicure and came back to the computer and saw it. Sorry! Thanks for all your support for Africa. I have your name on my list of prayer warriors. It means so much.
Love you
What a beautiful family - love the family photo's you posted. Have a glorious Monday. -Blessings, Laurie