Here is the breakdown:
My life consists of 6 basic roles... Jesus, My Wonderful Husband, My Awesome Kids (the Zone), My Family, My Friends & My Church. Once you understand my passion for each of these, you will understand me.
First of all, Jesus. He is my everything. I don't know where I'd be without Him. He has made me and molded me into what I am today... and He's still got a lot of work to do! For those of you who are reading this and maybe you are in the middle of a trial in your life remember John 15:5 when Jesus said "I AM the vine and ye are the branches" When grapes are doing their best, its the best season, the best time of their "life." Then all of the sudden, one day the "Master" or keeper of the vineyard comes along and picks them out of their comfort zone. The fruit is then taken to the wine press, where the grapes are crushed, removed from their skin, their seeds are removed, and then he allows it to just sit... just to see how it reacts. When it u wake up one day and its seems your life has been turned up side down, just remember God's just working on you and he's trying to make you into fine wine. How you react to the process will determine the outcome. Don't give up!
Next, my wonderful Husband. Sometimes I just stop and wonder how am I so blessed? Gary is my soul-mate. Wanna know why? He loves Jesus more than me... and thats the way it should be. He makes me laugh when I don't want to... Sometimes I wanna be mad at him so bad but he'll start acting goofy and as much as I wanna be mad I'll just bust out laughing. He sings silly songs to me... making up the words as he goes. He tries his hardest to dance. He tells me how beautiful I am literally everyday. He always tells me I look cute (even when I KNOW he's lying out his butt)!! He knows me better than almost anyone.... it's kinda scary sometimes... I think he can read my mind. He encourages me. He tells me I can do anything I put my mind to do. He loves to hear me sing. He EVEN let's me think I'm the boss sometimes :)
My "kids"... everywhere I go people are always asking me, "So, do you have any children?" My answer is always, "Yes, about 125 of them." =p Each and every student that I work with in the zone, is my kid. I worry about them. Sometimes they keep me up all night. At times God lays one of them on my heart and I'm up all night worrying and crying and praying for them. Just like every "mom" out there... I believe I have the best kids in the whole world! I cherish each and every moment I get to spend with my kids and I hate seeing them grow up, cuz I don't want to loose them. I pray for each and every one of them every day. I don't know the feeling of love that you have for your own children, but I can't imagine loving them more than I love my kids now.
My family. My heritage. God has blessed me immensely with a great strong family tree and deep roots of heritage. First of all I have to give props to my parents. If I could have hand picked parents, there's no way I could have possible picked any better than the ones I got! Now that I'm "older" (not OLD, just oldER) and wiser (don't laugh), I realize how incredibly blessed I am and have been to have the kind of parents I do. Now that I am a youth pastor, I am simply thrown back at times at the things "my kids" get away with and the things they try to pull on their parents. When I think of having children of my own, literally the only prayer I pray is "God give me the wisdom and understanding to be the kind of parent my parents were." Cuz obviously they did an AMAZING job... lol :) ----- Here goes the "begats" like in the Bible... On my dad's side the farthest back that I know is my great-grandparents, J.C. & Mary Cole. They had three children, Billy, David & my grandma, Hilda. ----- My grandma married Irvin Ward and had 4 children, Irvin Jewell (aka Jack... yes Irvin is his real name lol), John Bill, Mary Ann, and Paulette Ruth. ----- My mom and dad, Elsy & Jack, only had me. I say its because God knew he couldn't have made another one as perfect as I but they say its cuz God knew they couldn't afford anymore 0:-) I don't know why they say that?!?! ----- John & Mary (not his sister... I know they're from WV but give us SOME credit... geez lol) had Sadie & Seth, who are so grown... I just can't believe it. I wish I got to see more of them. ----- Mary (whom I lovingly call Aunt Eddy) decided to add some excitement to all of our lives and married Randy Carlisle. He is... well, we'll just leave that one alone, you just have to meet him. :) They adopted, Marybeth, which is really weird to say, cuz we have never thought of her as being "adopted" a single day in our lives. She is an amazing person, God truly blessed our family by bringing her to us. Then here came Joel & Daniel all out of nowhere. If you had to guess, you'd probably think they were the adopted ones. Joel thinks he's the MAN and Daniel... well we're not so sure what he is yet lol jk Fanny-Foe ---- Paulette (aka Aunt Polly or Aunt Ruth) had Amanda Jewell who is now married to Eric Floyd and has Tristain & Ashtyn. I have to stop here and say Eric & Mandi are amazing people. They are not only amazing parents and great people, they are great friends of ours and I am so proud of what God is doing in and through them. They serve on The Zone Student Ministries Committee with us and have become a vital part of TZSM. Triss & Ash-Co... they are my favorite two kids in the whole world. I hope that Gary & I can have a couple just like them some day. ----- Paulette also has ALEXIS NOEL (aka Lexi, Sexy Lexi, Adesis Nowhere, Lex Lugar, Alexi, Tia Dalma - from Pirates of the Caribbean 2 lol... thats all I can think of for now)... I had to make a special section just for her. She is such a special young lady. She's my adopted daughter, Paulette & I are co-mothers :) She brings so much excitement, drama, laughter & happiness to my life. Occasionally, some worry & disaster, but mostly just the good stuff. I'll probably have to change this in a week or so, but for now she's "going steady" with Victor Neal ("boyfriend" as she calls him) and I couldn't possibly be happier. I'm already naming their children :) The first girl will be Elysa, of course. ----- My extended family... I have always been very close to my Uncle Billy & Aunt Shirley, as well as their daughter and son-in-law, Brenda & Ronnie; their children, Anthony & Shawna (Elana), Jonathan & Kelly (Sheran), and Brian & LaVonda (Isaiah). ----- David & Diane had Mary Jo & Davian. Davian is married to Nick and they have Benjamin, who, unfortunately I have only seen a couple times, but I hear so much about. ----- On my mom's side of the family the farthest back that I know of is my Mima's mom (I don't remember her hame other than her last name was Buitrago... i think) and all I know of her is that she was an amazing christian woman who loved God and helped pioneer the church in Colombia, South America (where my mom is from). I know my Mima had a brother, but he was killed and I don't know much else about him. My Pipa's mother is still alive and lives in California with several of her daughters (my Pipa's sisters). My Pipa passed away in Dec 02. My Mima lives is California as well. They had 5 children, Elsy (my mom), Zulema, Denise, Jared Ross, and Gigiola (Gigi). Zulema & George had Jennifer. Jenny and I were inseparable as children, but unfortunately don't get to see much of each other anymore. ----- Denise married Elias Limones and they had Elden & Kaila. Elias & Denise pastor The Pentecostals of the Bay Area an awesome bilingual church in Pittsburg, CA. ----- JR & Maria had Risa & Jared. JR & Maria pastor a church that my dad started in Newport News, VA. Risa is also a very special young lady, who I am so very proud of. She is away at IBC right now working on a degree in Music. I can't wait to see what God has in store for her life. Jared... gosh I can't believe how grown he is. He has turned into such an amazing young man, all handsome and cute and has an awesome voice... I know God has something amazing in store for him as well. ----- Gigi had Arianna Victoria, Stefany Jenell, and Jessica Isabel. I just simply can't believe these girls are all grown up. They make me feel so old. They started coming and spending the summers with us when Arianna was only 1 yr old.... and we've been stuck with them every since :p I miss them so much through out the year. I hate that they live so far away. Especially now that they are growing up so fast, I feel like I miss so much of their lives. I love these girls like little sisters. I hope I can have girls just as beautiful some day.
My friends. "Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." Proverbs 27:17... one of my favorite verses. That's the kind of friend I always wanna be. ----- Mary (La Anormale) Elizabeth Evans, I'm pretty sure God saw how much I needed a friend and brought Mary here to work at the church with me. We get in trouble almost every day.... and thats just for the stuff we get caught doing lol :) We have way too much fun together. She gives me lots of ammunition to use against her husband, Adam. Adam is my nemesis. ;) My goal in life is to embarrass him. Its way fun. Everyone should try it at least once. ----- Destiny Ruiz. God brought her into my life for a season when I really needed a loyal friend... and she was that. Then He took her away from me, cuz He needed to do some work on her lol. Hopefully, sometime soon He will give her back to me. I am so proud of her and what God has done in her life. It is truly amazing. ----- Beth Tucker.... we went to college together. She is crazy... in a life-of-the-party, fantastic way... not straight-jacket way lol. That's literally the only way to describe her. ----- Dana Gen, also went to college with her. We don't keep in touch like we should, but when we do get to talk, we just pick up where we left off. ----- Keisha Dawn. God also brought her into my life for a season when I really needed a friend. She moved to St. Louis for college while I was in High School and we hit it off from day 1. She instantly became one of my best friends, and still is. I'm still trying to convince her to move to Chesapeake :) ----- My oldest friend, Danielle Anelalani Wasson. We've been friends (off & on) since we were 12 yrs old. We go through seasons, but I have a feeling that in the end we'll still be friends. ----- God has blessed me many wonderful friends at Bible World Church as well, but my fear of missing someone out-weighs my desire to mention the ones closest to me! So I'll just say... If you attend BWC with me and you consider me a close friend of yours... here is a shout out to you! I love you all!
My Church. The years spent in St. Louis were hard... to say the least. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God saw all of the hardships, the tax on our family, the sacrifices and said one day, "I'm going to bless them for all they've done for me in St. Louis and send them to Chesapeake, VA." Bible World Church has been a reward and blessing to our family. They are the most wonderful people on earth. I thank God everyday for the opportunity to serve here at BWC.
