Deanna Doss Shrodes

My Celebration Church ladies pray for me.  Fierce 2013 -- our Fall Breakaway for the AG women and teen girls  here in Florida kicks off today!  I'm the rep for the Tampa Bay area and even more than the privilege of serving on this great leadership team, I love being away with our church women and girls.  There is nothing like being a "church mama," and I am one. :)  Have been for 26 years. There is nothing that compares to investing in the lives of people and seeing changes in their hearts. There is nothing I want more than to see our ladies and girls walk in the fullness of God. I'm ready for all that God has for us the next few days. Those of us on the leadership team have been here since 4 pm yesterday, setting up. There's so much amazingness in store for almost 1800 women and girls, they have NO idea!!

Last night at our church we started a new series called, "Not a Fan" based on the book of the same title by Kyle Idleman. This question was asked all of us last night at church after the first video clip was shown: "If you suddenly died, and family and friends were asked for one thing about you, what do you believe they would say? How would you feel about that? When you do actually die, what would you like people to say then? What kind of life, what kind of changes or decisions, would it take in your life for people to actually make those kinds of comments about you at the time of your death?"   I have thought about legacy a lot the past few months. It has become very important to me, what I'm going to leave behind as a legacy to my children. It gripped my heart immediately in the first video segment when a husband/father/friend died and his family and friends were being asked by the pastor performing the funeral what they remembered him for. His da...

Happy Sunday!! Today is a great day for several reasons, two of which are... First, that I'm posting this morning at Lost Daughters, a place I love to be. It's the place where adoption blogging started for me. I am part of the amazing sisterhood there and blessed to be the spiritual columnist as well. To read today's post, go here. Second, it's an amazing day because it's our Celebration Church beach day, picnic and water baptism at sunset, at Ft. Desoto. It's a day where we gather under a huge pavilion and grill out, and everybody brings tons of picnic foods -- sides and desserts. We eat and swim all day. It's so fun! I take one of my noodles out in the water and float and talk to friends out there most of the day. (And wear plenty of sunscreen!) When sunset is about to happen, we gather together at the water's edge and baptize people. It's the best day ever. I'm saying a prayer for everyone who reads here today. Just so you know. ...

I am so grateful for the supernatural power of God and His protection. I am equally grateful for the wisdom He gives us. We live in a fallen world where evil abounds, but God has provided wisdom for us. We can pray for His protection, yes. We can also prepare ourselves utilizing knowledge and resources that He provides.  We hosted a Self Defense Demonstration for the women and teen girls of Celebration Church , last night. We are blessed to have Master Willie Cintron, as a member of our church. He is a certified 5th degree black belt in Korean tang soo do martial arts, and a 9th degree black belt in tang soo Jitsu. He is also certified by the American Federation of Martial Arts. Last night he taught us ladies and girls how to defend ourselves against crime. After teaching us a few things he had me demonstrate it for the ladies. I am organized, and creative and have a plethora of other gifts. Physical coordination hasn't been one of those gifts bestowed upon me so it...

This is what my life feels like this upcoming week and it's not even started yet.  Not complaining! Just sayin'. Thought I'd share and ask for your prayers. I can always use them, but I could REALLY use them in a super-duper way over the coming 11 days. Pray my strength! I just got home from Idaho , and caught my breath and now...

Happy Sunday!! Anyone enjoying the cinnamon banana oatmeal recipe I posted yesterday ? Yummo!   Today I'm blogging at a place dear to my heart ~ Lost Daughters , where I'm the Spiritual Columnist. The topic is: The Beauty of Coming Out of the Fog and Finally Being True to Ourselves. If you'd like to follow me there, c'mon over! Either way, have a FAB-ulous day! Mine will be super busy with church and a newcomers gathering at our home. I always enjoy these nights of welcoming people into our home and the church family.  This is day 28 of the church 40-day fast. God has been breaking through in some areas we've long prayed for. I can hardly wait to see what He's going to do today!  

Right now our church is on a corporate 40 day fast. To be clear, the entire church is not on the fast. Only 70 people have made a commitment to fast for 40 days, but still...I think that's pretty significant that this many people are committed to persevere for that long, together. I have been believing for huge things on this fast. The Bible says some things will only happen by prayer and fasting. I've been believing for specific things so much I have even asked one of my unbelieving friends to pray for me. (She actually did! Thanks Laura.) You know you're getting desperate when you're asking the unbelievers to pray. Ha ha! Many of my prayers are about reaching hurting people in our city and breakthroughs for  Celebration Church and I have also prayed about things I am longing for personally. One of those things I've never shared with anyone but a few people privately is for a retired pastor's wife to come to Celebration. Not one in transition. Not on...

"Let heaven roar, and fire fall, come shake the ground with the sound of revival!!!" ~Like a Lion I could not be prouder of the women and girls of Celebration Church . Last night many of them came out for W.O.W.W. night at the church (Women of Worship and Warfare) to cry out to God on behalf of our families, our church, our city, our nation and our world.  THEY. WENT. AFTER. IT. Nothing like Pentecostal girls who know how to chase God! Here are some photo highlights of the night -- all photos courtesy of Rachael Rice. What can stop us? What can stand against us? NOTHING. Kaitlyn has such a tender heart. So glad she shares it with us... Sunshine prays over North Tampa... Joining together as a unified force for CHANGE! Cindy knows how to reach God's heart. Love. This. Woman. Angela, sweet Angela...loves God and others, so much. Mary...one of God's gifts to me. So thankful for this lady. Joining together in unity, pre...

So I've been away most of this weekend, actually since Thursday. I was in Ocala, FL to speak at the Freedom Conference for my dear friend, Pastor Jan McIntyre - co-pastor at Marion Oaks Assembly of God. This is her, below. Doesn't she have the most fabulous hair? You can spot her in a crowd anywhere. Yes, that's her natural color.  I sneaked this photo while she was praying on Saturday. We had a great time together over the weekend. The conference was fantastic and we even went shopping together. She introduced me to her favorite store -- Kohls. Yes, imagine that. I'm a shopper and we have Kohl's in Tampa, I just never went.  My sister Shari is always telling me about Kohl's. It's her favorite place, too. Jan gets the most amazing deals and she found these shoes for me, which I wore to preach in Saturday as well as to church this morning.

I'm headed to Bradenton tonight to preach at a Christmas event at Harvest Chapel . The lead pastors of this church are Brian and Paula Royer. Wonderful people! Just love 'em! I've preached at this beautiful church once before, for a sectional women's event. It was a great time. Can't wait to be back there with them tonight.  If you're in the Bradenton area, why don't you come over and join us? ( 7 pm) Before I head to Bradenton, I've been attacking the stack of work that's on my agenda upon my return from our trip.   We're gearing up for a lot more at Celebration Church that's happening this season, particularly our Christmas Show which is this Sunday night. This year our team has written the Christmas Show -- we've all contributed, but it's me at the helm of this project and it's been quite the ride! It's going to be a powerful night. Can't wait to see what God does. The show is more than just beautiful ...

Last night, a bunch of them came to Celebration Church , and to me. It was awesome. We laughed. We cried. We hugged. We went there. We talked about stuff some people are never brave enough to speak of. We tackled the tough issues. We were strengthened. "Can we do this all the time, PD? Like everyday?" they said. "Ummmm....everyday? Can we gather in person with this group every single day at the church?" I said..."In person...realistically, probably no. But can we get together on a regular basis in person? YES. Absolutely. Yes!!!" (And we can get together every day, on Facebook in between times!) Last night I gave each of the young ladies a stack of small papers and a pen as they came in. We sat in a circle. A bucket was placed in the center. I told them at any time during the evening they could get up and put a question in the bucket that they didn't feel comfortable to ask out loud. A lot of questions were asked out loud, but p...

Do you ever wonder what it really means to surrender? Do you ever feel like you have totally surrendered to God, only to realize you have so much further to go? I understand. Maybe you’ve even been mad when you think of surrender. Because to you, surrender just hurts. You think of surrender as nothing but losing. Because surrender means you might not get your own way all the time. And who doesn't want their own way? Can I just say I’ve found it’s actually the sweetest place to be? Because it’s in the place of total surrender to God and not being hell-bent on our own way anymore where we make a difference in the world that truly counts. When you really get there, it’s the most contented place in the world. Not content as in lazy, but content as in abandoned to God and His way of doing things.  God showed me there is absolutely no failure in the surrendered life. What would it be like to never, ever experience failure again? Surre...

That's a HUGE rarity.  I've been known to tell people, "If I'm not at church, call 9-1-1!" I almost never miss. I can probably count on one hand the times I haven't been in church on a Sunday morning during the course of my life. My absences have been associated with having just delivered my children or recovering from an operation, or something equally serious. Missing church is just not a part of my life. So, you know my absence today involved something critical. Fortunately I'm not sick... I am still in California today and late tonight I will take the red eye flight back and arrive in the morning. (Thanks for your prayers.) I am fascinated by the church and love studying what makes her tick. I love taking pictures of churches, especially old ones. The photo above is one I took at Christ Church in the Bahamas. I shot the photo below at the Washington National Cathedral in Valley Forge, PA, where Larry and I have many fond memories. We met at...