God is so Good..

"As for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more My mouth will tell of your righteous deeds, of your saving acts all day long—" Psalms 71:14-15

You know, I have been in much prayer and meditation these past few days. I am just so in awe of how powerful and mighty my God is.

Doris

Okay. Now I am going to take a few minutes and talk about the lady that I invited to go with me to retreat.

Her name is Doris, and she is the lady who rented my house to me, and my husband and I have been working with them.

I called and invited her to retreat, and she surprised me, by saying yes right away. Thursday came along, and I was going to call and make sure that she was still coming, and she called me first, making sure that we were still going. She was so excited! I told her to be here at 8:30. She got to my house at 8. She said she was so excited, that she couldn't sleep. We arrived to the camp, and she saw how all the ladies were wearing skirts, had long hair, and no jewelry. She said, Marie, for some reason she calls me by my middle name, I am the only one wearing pants, has short hair, and earrings on. I said, don't worry, no one will tell you anything. She says, I feel like an ugly duckling. We were walking down to the sanctuary, when she says, "You know, Marie, one time a pastor said, close your eyes, and imagine what you want to look like. When I closed my eyes, I wanted to look just like the ladies that are walking in front of us..with a skirt and long hair.." She was really surprising me with her comments...and how she was feeling convictions so quickly..

After Friday finished, she said, Marie, I have cried so much. She was with Sis. Yonda, Sis. Tammy and I as we went to Wendy's after the last service. She started asking so many questions, and as I was answering all 3 of them were crying. I told her it wasn't coincidence that God had placed us in each other's life, and that God was going to do a great work in her family.

On Saturday, when I asked the ladies that did not have the Holy Ghost to come to the front, Doris came to the altar. Now, she has no clue what the Holy Ghost is, so I explained to everyone at the altar what it was, and how one could receive the HG. As I began to pray for everyone, I asked Sis. Norma to pray with her, and I heard some commotion coming from the area where Doris was at, so I turned and went back. The Holy Ghost had hit her so hard, she fell to the floor, and was a little scared, since she had never felt nothing like it before. She said to me, Marie, I thought people were just faking when I saw them do this..I sat and talked with her, explaining how we have a very close, intimate relationship with God, and he manifests Himself in different ways.

On our ride home, she says, Marie, I have been completely changed. Besides Bible Studies, we are going to be the first members of your church. Myself, my husband, my mother and I. She said, when you asked me to stand up and introduced me as your friend, so many ladies came and told me that I was so privileged to work with you. I agree, and feel that it is an honor to be from your church.

I am very excited. She said, tell Don Antonio what happened to me this weekend! She was bouncing off the walls happy.

Just wanted to share this extra testimony with you..

Costa Rica National Ladies Retreat 2008

The Ladies Retreat was a success! On Thursday night, as Bro. David, Sis. Yonda, Antonio, and I were unloading the sound at the camp, rain was pouring. It had been raining nonstop for a week, and all of Costa Rica had been affected. Sis. Yonda had already received calls from the southern region, saying that they were not going to make it. She also got a call from Region 4, saying that the bus driver had refused to drive them, and they were not coming. That is except for the ladies from Buenos Aires, Costa Rica. Those 6 dear souls, hopped on a regular bus, and braved coming through the mountain, to get to the ladies retreat. Sis. Nena Arias, Marvey's wife, came and said to me, after the service had finished, Sis. Jessica, we sold tamales, we sold everything imaginable, and there was NO WAY we were going to miss this congreso. I was so proud of them! With all that, we had, I think, around 170 ladies come in. Great for a first retreat in a campground setting..

The first service started, with Sis. Yonda giving a great teaching about character. How we needed to have good character in order to be able to live an upright life. Then the next service was taught by Sis. Tammy Parrish from Odessa, Tx. Sis. Tammy has an outstanding ministry of servitude to pastor's wives. She is also Bro. Terry Pugh's secretary, and holds a number of other capacities. I was able to translate for her, and we had a wonderful service. She spoke on Living for God in Babylon. The ladies responded very well. Her second teaching was about worship. It was a very tremendous service. Sis. Mileyna, one of our pastor's wives that has Fibromalagia, jumped up at the end of the preaching, ready to receive her healing. I went to pray for her, and I felt the healing hand of God. We will give more updates on that later. Mileyna said she felt God touch her. Sis. Tammy had the ladies march around the place 7 times, and finish with worship.

In the night service, Tanya asked her mother if she could translate, and so she did. This gave me a chance to rest my voice, for the next day. It was a good message, about healing the hurts. After this message, Sis. Yonda did a great job with bringing in candles, and candle holders. Sis. Yonda lit my candle, and I turned off the lights, and we lit everyone's candles, as Tanya sang a song. It was very beautiful. The ladies were touched. Sis. Yonda was showing the ladies how we can all, together, be a light in this dark world.

On Saturday we started off at 6 a.m. with Oracion Enfocada. All of the ladies showed up! Sis. Yonda had many of the wives participate, and the hour flew by. After this, and some presentations, I spoke. There was such a dynamic move of God! 12 ladies received the Holy Ghost for the first time! It was extraordinary. I went to the keyboard after praying for the ladies, and the women were so excited, they were running round and round the building, dancing and shouting! This went on for quite some time.

After all of that died down, Sis. Tammy came to minister again. I translated. The sisters were still so pumped from the previous service, that I had to admonish and say that we had to be sensitive to the spirit of God, and LEARN how to listen to his voice, and to the different moves of the Holy Ghost that there are. A hush filled the place, and all I remember is weeping so hard, that I fell on my face in the presence of the Lord. When I got up, there were ladies thrown all over the altar weeping and crying. No one had to call them. They felt the spirit of God, and responded in like manner.

It was an extraordinary retreat...

So, you ask, what is "rumination"? Well, let me tell you what Webster's Dictionary says: to go over in the mind repeatedly and often casually or slowly; to engage in contemplation, to reflect. So, I will be reflecting, and since I do tend to go over everything in my mind quite a bit, this word seemed to be ideal. Raving, 'cause yes, at times, as a woman one does rave on and on and on..Radical, 'cause I could go with the definition and say that I'm just cool, but we'll go with that I am Radical about everything that I say and do. Radical about God. Radical about my family. Radical about my calling. Radical about my ministry..So that's me..a Radical Woman with Raving Ruminations..