In the studio

Nick was given a unique opportunity today by his Aunt Jennifer. Jen works at a local TV station selling advertising, and arranged for some 3rd and 4th grade students to come in and film a spot for the weather (a weather promo). My neice Laura told Jen, "Nick would be PERFECT for this!" It's true... he is all about drama. So, in we went this morning. First, they went into the audio studio to record the "weather rap". Then into the filming studio where they filmed all the sections of video that would go along with the rap. It was hilarious to watch! As the producer, Dave, would explain about the shot, the kids would be all into it and super dramatic, but as soon as they were in front of the camera, all the drama went out the window, and they were timid and SOOOO funny!!! I can't wait to see how it comes out! We'll know in about 2 weeks when the DVD arrives in the mail. Here are a few pictures from the shoot.....

The gang, with Adam the weatherman

Nick and a couple of the kids filming the umbrella scene.

Nick and two others pretending to "rock out" in the headphones to the weather rap. (Actually, not filming yet in this picture).

The crew. They did so great! Congratulations, TV stars!

NOT MORE SNOW!!!!! ACK!!!

Ya know... I am just totally sick of winter. Check this out... (grrr.....)

A *WINTER STORM WARNING* is in effect for the Champlain Valley and Vermont from 7 AM Sunday until 7 AM Monday. Snow will begin around daybreak Sunday, and become heavy at times Sunday afternoon and Sunday night, as a storm system quickly strengthens off the coast. It will become windy Sunday night, causing blowing and drifting snow. The snow will taper to snow showers Monday afternoon.Total accumulation will be 6 to 12 inches for the warning area, with 12 to 18 inches possible for the Green Mountains.

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

I found this awesome cartoon on another blog, and find it so appropriate that I must share....

At our school last week, we did a musical called "Follow the North Star Home". It was really great! And the opening song has become my theme song! The words say...

I'm so tired of snow, I wish that it would go
I never thought I would see the day
When I'd wish the snow would go away.
It would be such fun, just sitting in the sun
I'm tired of looking at all this snow
And I really truly wish that it would go!

Man... I wish I had the money to just take off and go to Florida or someplace where it is in the 70s for about 2 weeks. I am longing for the day when I can leave my house in just my clothes... no coat, no boots, no hats and mittens, no fleece pants under my skirts, JUST REGULAR CLOTHES! *sigh*.

breaktime

Hello all...

Well, I've been here, but I have not been posting. I have been busy, but the things I have been up to have been too personal to blog about. I am feeling a need to step back from NAM and just take a little break unless I feel led to post something important. Don't worry. I'm not getting "done". Just taking a little break. I am focusing on some things that are really important right now, and do not want to be distracted. You are all great! I will pop on every once in a while to say hi, I promise!!
And whatever you do, DON'T STOP PRAYING FOR HENRY!! He needs the miraculous hand of God to deliver him!! I love you Henry! And your family!

God bless you!
Michelle

When I Speak Your Name

Okay, this was probably my most favorite song we sang at Winterfire... it has penetrated my soul, and I just sing it over and over in my mind. What a blessing!

Winterfire, Day 3

Okay...it's a good thing this conference ended today, because if it didn't, I may have exploded, or gotten raptured, or something! It just got better, and better, and better, as the Spirit of God moved deeper, and the people of God worshiped more fervently, and the praise became literally explosive! New England is ripe for a massive outpouring of God's power!

1. Again, we walked into the sanctuary, and the presence of God at 8:55 am was so thick that I began to weep immediately. Now, normally, the Friday evening service is packed out and the Saturday morning service is noticeably less in attendance. Not so! The place was PACKED at 9am with people hungry for more and more of God. The worship was amazing. And then, Dr. Gerald Jeffers came to the pulpit and ushered the people into the presence of God with an amazing 15 minute message on restoration.

He discussed, as most of the previous speakers had done, about how 2008 was a year of unprecedented attack by the enemy on our relationships, our finances, our minds, and our bodies. It was widespread throughout the body of Christ. We won many great battles in 2008, but they left us wounded, weary, and, like Samson after killing 1000 Philistines with a donkey jawbone, dying of thirst. Ps. 23:3 says, "He restoreth my soul". But over in Ps. 29: 10-11, the Lord speaks of the floods that come against us, like the ones we have faced in 2008. It says, "The Lord sits upon the flood. The Lord will give strength unto His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace." The reason God wants to restore us is because He does not intend to stop the floods. Instead He will give us strength to rise above the flood and have peace in the midst of it. There was more to the message, but that was the main point. The altar again filled with souls hungry for the peace of God in the midst of their own flood.

2. THEN.... Bro. Steve Willoughby, a missionary to the nation of Singapore, got up and just blew us away!

This man is an apostolic hero. If you need someone to model your life after (other than Jesus, of course), look to this man right here. He is a spiritual giant in my eyes, and he showed me exactly what kind of a Christian I want to be. This man has stage 4 cancer, and so does his wife. They have 3 children (2 who are still at home), and I have NEVER NEVER seen anyone worship and praise God with such passion and fervor, and reckless abandon!! He preached about fear. His scripture was from 1 John 4:17-18 Perfect (mature) love gives us boldness before God. There is NO FEAR in love. Perfect (mature) love casts out fear. Fear hath TORMENT! In the Strongs... torment means dwarf, curtail, restrict, minimize, diminish. Fear minimizes your impact and effectiveness in the kingdom. He gave his testimony and the people just BURST into incredible praise and worship that couldn't be stopped! I am so excited that we bought the DVD set of all these messages! I will share them with EVERYONE!!! And I will watch them over and over as well... gleaning all I can from these great men of God and what the Spirit speaks through them.

Finally, Bro. Morgan from San Francisco gave the closing message, entitled "The Tale of Two Trees", referring to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the tree of life. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents the wisdom of man... the fruit of that tree is is contentious and selfish. The tree of life represents the wisdom of God, and the fruit of that tree is peaceful, full of purity, and easily intreated. Those who are not born again eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Those who ARE born again eat from the tree of life. BUT, there are those who eat from BOTH trees, and they are the CARNALLY minded. They eat from the tree of life on Sunday morning, but Mon-Sat they eat from the other tree. James says that a double minded man is unstable in ALL his ways. You can't lead double minded people into revival. And also, you can't have carnally minded people trying to LEAD the church into revival... because you never know which way they are going to go.

By the end of his message, I was so drained and so overwhelmed, that I just sat. It was too much to process. We heard NINE preachers in 3 days, and it will take some time to digest all that we heard and experienced. All I know is that we DEFINITELY intend to go next year, because it will be the 10th anniversary of the Winterfire Conference. We intend to be part of what God is doing in these last days!!

If you would like to see pictures of what the facility we worshiped in looks like inside and out, click here to see the facilities brochure.

Winterfire Update

Here we are at the end of day two of this incredible conference. We have worshiped God with depth and fervor, and we have truly heard from God, and seen mighty things come to pass. The worship here is on an intense level. The people of New England are so hungry for a move of God and so desperate for revival, that they worship without being told to do so... it's kind of funny... these preachers are from areas to the west and south, and are used to preaching for response. So they come here with the mindset that they need to "jumpstart" the saints. Well... really, they didn't need to. The response to the Word of God has been absolutely phenomenal. We have felt walls come down, we have done major battle with the spirits of darkness and torn up their kingdom, and the liberty has been something I have never experienced before. You can FEEL the difference! Here are some of the topics we have heard about today.

1. Bro. Sam Emory preached "consider the calling".... and talked about the difference between being called and being chosen. The difference is in the process. He encouraged the young ministers to stop before saying "I have a ministry"... and consider the call of God on their life. He used Paul as an example. Paul considered the cost of his calling, and God CHOSE him to impact the kingdom. I can't really do the message justice here.... I have heard 3 other messages since then, and don't remember all of how it went. But the altar was flooded, and the Spirit was in operation.

2. Bro. Steve Warman from Detroit spoke next. He preached on the topic of... AGAIN. It was pretty good, encouraging the saints not to quit, and to press on... not letting anything keep you from serving God. No matter what happens, get up AGAIN, never letting the enemy have a toehold on your life. Even Jesus gave us the "AGAIN" example when he prayed for the blind man once, and he said, "What do you see?" and the man answered, "I see men as trees walking." So Jesus prayed for him AGAIN a second time, and then the man saw clearly. If JESUS can go back and do something AGAIN, then who are we to think, if it doesn't go how I think it should go the first time, I'll just quit?

3. The final morning preacher was evangelist Greg Godwin. That man is a fireball of a preacher! His message was a confirmation of the previous message.... DON'T QUIT! BE APOSTOLIC! His message was kind of all over the board, in true evangelistic style, so I can't really give you a "main point", but it was very encouraging as well.

Worship from beginning of evening service

4. Tonight's message from Bro. Mangun, however, was the one that really hit home, at least for Jason and I.... Matt and Emily too. His message was on sacrifice, and how if the devil can get you to stop sacrificing, then he can destroy you and make you desolate. It was actually a warning to the church as well, stating that if your church stops giving and praying, it will become a desolate church. Jesus said "My house shall be called a house of prayer". Not a house of preaching, not a house of good singing by the choir, not a house of good works. A HOUSE OF PRAYER! I just told Matt and Emily today that I am not reading my BREAD this year. Because I have read it through 7 times already, and I'm not interested in doing it again to add another notch to my belt of "spirituality". I will definitely still be in the Word, but my focus this year is on my prayer life. Because the ONLY way we are going to make a difference in these endtimes is if we are CONNECTED to the power of God in prayer. And that was totally confirmed to me tonight in Bro. Mangun's message. We had such good conversation with Matt and Emily about it all, and we are just so encouraged about what God is getting ready to do!

Altar call... young men being prayed for, ages 15-30... God's army!

On a much less spiritual note, we went to IHOP for a late dinner after church tonight (10:30), and had a real life C*O*P*S* experience. Our poor waitress got all tied up with this obnoxious table of people refusing to pay their bill blah blah blah blah.... I won't get into it, except to say that the cop in Jason wanted to go buckle her up in cuffs for disorderly conduct and causing a public menace. The police showed up, yada yada yada... it took us a LONG time to get our bill... but we blessed our waitress with kindness, patience, understanding, smiles, and a BIG tip. Pray for her, her name is Linda.

Well, it is almost 1 am. Time to hit the sack. We have three more speakers tomorrow, and then we head on home to the kiddos! I sure miss them! God bless you all!

God is here

Hello all! This is a quick post to tell you that we are having an amazing time here at the Winterfire Conference in CT, and GOD IS HERE in a powerful way! Last night, on top of just seeing so many of the saints of God that we know and love, we heard two incredible messages from the Lord, one delivered by our General Superintendent Bishop Kenneth Haney, and the other delivered by the General Foreign Missions director, Bro. Bruce Howell.


Our superintendent, Bishop Kenneth Haney

Bro. Haney's message was about having passion and zeal for the Lord and for reaching souls. His point about "entitlement" was a powerful eye opener, and his encouragement to find your passion was so uplifting!

Bro. Bruce Howell's message was equally powerful, and it was simply called "UNTIL". Really, I don't have time to explain that message this morning, it was so incredible.... maybe if we have some down time this afternoon, I'll be able to explain it out to you. But MAN it was powerful!!!!!! I believe cancers were healed in Jesus' name, and ministries were birthed or renewed as well.

One of the coolest moments last night was reconnecting with an old old acquaintance of ours, Bro. Owens. He came to our church as an evangelist 14 years ago (Jason and I had been married less than a year), and he stayed in our apartment with us. We have never forgotten him, and talk about him every so often with others. I never imagined we'd see him again, and BOOM! there he was last night... we got caught up on family life and such, and then during service he came over and prayed with us. God is so cool how he orchestrates our every step.

I'd love to write more, but it is almost 8am, and church starts at 9.... I'm not even close to ready to go! This morning, we are slated to hear from Bro. Sam Emory, Bro. Steve Warman, and Bro. Greg Godwin. I will let you know what God does in these meetings! I am expecting God to show up and do something great in me! Praise God!