My life was headed on a seemingly predictable path—until I got an unexpected phone call from my doctor. I thought he was going to tell me my MRI revealed a disc injury in my back. Instead, he told me I had cancer.

Crushing fear gripped me immediately and would become my constant companion in the coming weeks and months. It followed me like a shadowy figure, an ever-present threat. It kept me up at night (my wife, too) and spoiled days that should have been enjoyable.

As a single mom living on a teacher’s salary, I had received a notice that my flower beds needed to be better maintained. One afternoon I was outside working on them — really just raking the dirt to make it look like it had been freshly mulched. While I was there, I remember asking God out loud, “Lord, if I only had $50 to buy a bag of mulch to spread on these beds, it would help me so much.”

I did the best I could with what I had. When I finally stood up, looked over the beds, and brushed myself off, I thought, hopefully this will be enough.

Prior to Wanda’s going Home to Heaven we traveled to 93 countries and all USA states, usually with pleasure and God glorifying purpose. Wanda’s heart was focused on people’s eternal destiny and one of the Vice Presidents of Campus Crusade for Christ (CRU) nicknamed her the “little evangelist”.

Wanda shared the Good News of Jesus Christ everywhere that we were. Usually on airplanes, she would sit in the middle seat with me on one side or someone that was getting ready to hear about Jesus on the other. Wanda was a gentle, kind, non-aggressive, and soft-spoken woman who offended no one in her evangelistic approach.

The Lord has allowed me to have many adventures in my walk with HIM.

One that is still so sharp in my mind was my going with Dr. Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, to Moscow Russia when the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Power in Eastern Europe collapsed and access to Russia opened up.

God is asking us to step out in faith and to include Him where it is certain that unless He joins us in our goal that it will certainly be a failure. Would we allow Him the opportunity to use us through His power to do exceedingly abundantly beyond anything that I could ask or imagine?

God wants to challenge us to allow Him to use us in supernatural ways. He wants us to get out of the boat and be stretched in our faith to do something supernatural with God. In our giving that may even mean ADDING A ZERO.  ''With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.'' ~ Matthew 19:26 With this “Add a Zero” faith challenge you have to involve God.

Recently I attended the Celebration of Life memorial service for Anet Jackson. She and her husband, Jerry Jackson, founded the worldwide ministry, Faith Comes By Hearing, for which my family has been involved for years. Anet has been used in travels around the world to record the dramatized Word of God in over 2400 languages. In fact, Anet was named Annette throughout her life until God put it on her heart to describe her ministry by changing her name to “A Net” (A fisherman catching fish for the Lord).

Prior to her going Home to Heaven she recorded a video which was shown at the service. It was a God Story that happened in their early years of marriage with 4 kids, prior to the founding of FCBH.

I was raised on a farm near Enid, Oklahoma with my parents and two younger brothers.  On the farm we primarily raised beef cattle, milk cows, poultry, and harvested hay and wheat.  This setting provided a very rich and fulfilling youth.  My mother is a strong religious person who attended a Christian denominational church and made us kids attend church on a regular basis.

During my junior year at Oklahoma State University, I had come to the conclusion that I did not see any purpose for living. I prayed to God that if He were real then I would like to know Him.

Looking back after many years but not realizing at the time, I see God's personal relationship with me as an adopted son (Romans 8:15 “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him, we cry, Abba, Father”). His loving Fatherly hands were all over my life (Jeremiah 29:11” For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”). I will highlight a few of the God Stories in my life.

The Church Age began in Acts 2 around 30-33 AD when the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost. Empowered by the Spirit, Peter preached the gospel and 3,000 people were saved that day (Acts 2:41). This marked the beginning of the Christian Church as a spiritual body distinct from Judaism. The early church experienced rapid growth as the apostles continued preaching, performing signs and wonders, and writing Scripture (Acts 2:47). The expansion of the church is fulfilling Jesus’ Great Commission that the gospel be spread to and beyond Jerusalem to Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8)

In John 14:16-17 Jesus tells his followers prior to his death “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”

The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Holy Trinity, alongside God the Father and Jesus Christ. He is God present in the lives of believers, and He works in various ways.