Church Fires

Nine churches have been burned over the last week in West-Central Alabama. One of them was in the county where I grew up. I grew up in a town called Gordo, which is in Pickens County. One of the fires was near Aliceville, which is also in Pickens County. What would possess someone to go around and burn churches? I just can't imagine the mindset. Why is this person mad at the church? Or maybe he or she isn't mad, just hurting inside. I hope the police find the person or persons who are doing this. I would hate for more churches to burn. But maybe this could be a reminder that the church is not a building. The church is people. We don't need a fancy building to worship.

When I was interning with evengelist Pat Schatzline a few years ago, I had the wonderful opportunity to go to several youth camps around the nation. And my favorite was in Oregon. The place was burning with the fire of God...but the cool thing was...they held the services in a tent. No building...no air conditioning...none of the comforts as we know them...and not only did the camp worship there, but church was held in that tent every Sunday. And at that camp, more stuff happened than anywhere else. The evidence of God was all around.

Allow me to talk about that summer a bit...
I have such good memories of that entire summer...God did so many awesome things in me that summer... I have to say it was one of the hardest summers I ever experienced, though. There were three interns that summer...I was the only girl. And it was non-stop...no sleep...and it was a constant spiritual struggle. When I say that, I mean, God was doing awesome things in me...but because of that I was experiencing spiritual warfare like you would never imagine...well, those of you who did master's commission could probably imagine. And when we went to these camps, God would always pair me with teenagers that needed Him more than ever. Teen girls just seemed to be drawn to me during that time, and the ones that were for the most part needed God to turn their lives around. I have to say God did use me mightily that summer. I would love to get back into ministry. That is when I am the most happy and I feel the most right. I know God has called me into ministry...I'm just waiting on Him.