I am going to try to summarize all that God has done for me. I was laid off on Dec 31 after 5 years with the company due to budget cuts. I had no severance pay or anything else but vacation left to be paid.

At the moment of my announcement, I felt the peace of God and His words come out, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you (Hebrews 13:5).” I knew then that it was meant to be. God literally bombarded me with His promises that I will overcome, that I am His daughter and He will bless me in the hills and in the city and that He will open the storehouses of Heaven to pour out a blessing I can’t contain.

Everywhere I looked or listened, there He was reminding me that He is my Provider.

Two weeks later, after much praying, believing and trusting Him, fasting, tithing, reaching out to the prayer warriors, applying for jobs, rebuking the devourer, I started working. A sub consultant from my old job heard of my dismay and looked me up in the phone book and called to offer an interview and maybe a part time job.

I had departed from a job that I drove more than an hour one way in traffic. Busy and with no help, I requested cell phone service for business, but never received it, and then had to expense part of the purchases.

God replaced that with the following:

• Cell phone
• $1,001.34 signing bonus
• 15 minutes away from home (against traffic)
• 40 hrs and hourly (was salary before)
• Business credit card
• No micromanagement
• Free reign of the office

The people are great and I already have earned respect! I also see how I can bless this office with my learned skills. What is really unbelievable to me is that My Father never waivered or let me fall into depression or lack. I never lacked, instead, I never had so much money in my bank. In addition, He has placed me in a place I can witness.

I give Him, and only Him, all of my praise and worship and I will forever tell of His goodness and unfailing love for me. If He did it for me, so He will for you!

I love You Dad!!!!

I believe that we go through situations sometimes just so God can show how He can move and orchestrate our lives. I’ve gone through several of these situations.

I bought my first home a year ago, and I felt a total peace about it. Everything really came into play pretty smoothly. I was able to get a good, fixed rate with just a good credit score and nothing down. I broke my apartment complex and miraculously after a month and half of waiting and calling, they found someone to move in that January 2nd where I didn’t owe an extra penny.

I couldn’t believe it.

I closed Dec. 20th of 2006. Three weeks later I was laid off from my job with the home builder I worked for. I think I cried on the way home and then just resolved to look for a new job starting that day. I pretty much thought that God brought me to buy my new home with so much coming into place that this just had to work out.

Let me also point out that I never did stop tithing. I remember tithing on my severance check with almost a laugh of humor verses despair. I continued to tithe on my small, part-time job checks as well. On a side note , I made a resolution to fully tithe during one of my stints of being without a job several years ago while listening to Pastor Stovall at UNF.

In a nutshell, I was out of a full time job for almost three months; I spent a lot of that time praying and reading the Word, just believing for God to work it out. Philippians 3 and 4 on perseverance and contentment. Hebrews 11 and 12 on faith. Isaiah 56 and Jeremiah 29 on His plan for us.

Through it all, I used any checks to just pay bills and every bill, including my new mortgage, was paid on time. I didn’t have anything in savings beforehand either, but different things came into play including a bigger tax check than expected. (Apparently, I paid points on my mortgage which got me a higher return than otherwise would. I didn’t remember the mortgage consultant telling me about paying points at all, but in the end I was thankful for them.)

I now have a job that has a $9,000 higher base salary than my previous one, plus commissions.

With the past year in the market, looking back I am thankful for the lay off when it was. Also with the way my taxes have gone up $300 since closing, there is no way I would have been able to afford the home with my previous job.

Sometimes when my job stresses me too much, I have to remember to be thankful for the job and paycheck that He gave me.

One last note, a few months ago after my roommate told me she was moving out, I was thinking how much harder it is being single supporting myself. Then God spoke to me stating that I am not alone; that He is there supporting me as my provider more than any husband could do. I suddenly had tears feeling His comfort and peace.

God brings us through times to encourage others and show His glory as well as encourage ourselves in the future.

This is my first time experiencing fasting and I am simply blown away by what happened to me the evening of January 13th.

Let me back up a minute. I am in the process of opening my own business. I originally moved to Jacksonville from Cocoa Beach to run and eventually buy the BBQ business formerly known as Willard’s BBQ on Beach Blvd.

As fate would have it, I was not able to buy it when it was time for my brother-in-law to sell it. So he sold it to another guy he knew from church. I trained the new owner and stuck with him for several years.

Due to a series of events a couple of years back, the guy ended up having to close the doors on the smokehouse.

I changed careers and had pretty much written off the idea of having the little restaurant as my business. I found making a living in real estate has become nearly impossible and that I was being drawn back to that little shop for some reason.

Well, a new guy came in and totally renovated the place and turned it into a coffee shop that never seemed to get off the ground.

So again the building became vacant.

This time I was at the right place at the right time and was able to secure the lease. I incorporated and have since been in the process of reopening it again as a BBQ spot once more.

Unfortunately, I hit a financial wall. I had an investor that had been assisting me with funding, but he has apparently gone MIA. I have not been able to reach him for nearly two weeks. So I had asked God Sunday morning for a blessing.

I told him I needed a miracle. I asked him to bring me $15,000 so that I could get open.

Well, within 6 hours of leaving church Sunday I got a phone call from a former employee that used to work with me several years ago when I had originally ran the BBQ shop when it was Willard’s. She asked me to meet with her and her husband.

I agreed and we met at 7:00 that night. They said they could help me with all the repairs I had left to complete so that I could pass the health inspection and get up and running.

Then they said we want to help you out financially also! We have $30,000 and want to invest in you. We feel passionate about this little place and can’t imagine anyone better than you to do this with.

My mouth was slightly agape. I was shocked for about half a minute and then all I could think of was God is great.

He not only answered my prayer, he answered it with double what I had asked for.

I have told anyone who’d listen about how amazing my journey has been so far and how great the Lord has blessed me. God has opened every door along the way as I have entered into this journey with him as my partner.

Now he has sent me two people to work with me and help me grow in a way that was beyond anything I could have ever imagined. I give God all the credit for this amazing turn of events and just pray that I continue to walk with him through this journey.

I have been blessed.

Thank you God!

My husband and I have two rental properties that are vacant and costing over $4,000/month.

We have been VERY worried about them. They are causing us GREAT stress both emotionally and financially. I’ve even considered going back to work from part time to full time in order to try and help out more financially. I haven’t done it yet b/c it would mean that 3 of our children would be home in the afternoons by themselves after school.

Friday night at the prayer service I went to the altar and prayed fervently for God to release the stress of this situation off of my shoulders. I prayed that I will give my stubborn will of trying to control it to Him. In the past, I have always prayed about something but never truly demonstrated my FAITH and allowed Him to take over.

I remembered Pastor James saying one time that “you come to the altar and pray for Him to work it out, but as soon as you get back up to walk to your seat . . . you take it back with you.” Praise GOD . . . today within a 2 hour and 5 minute window, I had SEVEN PHONE CALLS inquiring about one of the properties. We have multiple showings in the next couple of days scheduled!

I was actually laughing while driving in my car b/c every time the phone would ring and it was a number I didn’t recognize, I knew it was another inquiry about the property.

Anyone can ask, but not everyone has FAITH. Thank you for being a church that gives me the opportunity to meet and be with God in such an indescribably REAL way.

I can’t wait until the next prayer service!

Friday night I experienced Him in a way I’ve never felt Him before.

Sometimes it only takes a day . . .

Testimony via Connection Card

Praise report! The day after the 2007 fast began, I got an unexpected bonus of $4000! I can’t pay my bills every month, but I am tithing anyways; now on my gross income and on every increase.

Last week, I tithed on my birthday money, decided to fast all 21 days and put my upcoming 2008 bonus towards my $2500 credit card debt. I expected a bonus between $1000 and $2000 because the company is in financial trouble. Today, on the 1st day of fast, I got a $4828 bonus!!! Enough to tithe 10% and pay of all my credit card debt!!

Praise God.

New job/finances are on my list for the fast.

Testimony via Website

I decided to commit to 21 days of fasting (fruits and veggies) to get closer to God, learn true self discipline and obedience (never a great trait of mine) and to experience the true meaning of prayer.

My husband and I have been beat up financially in the past two years because of a layoff that cut our income in half and myself having to stop working to deal with some medical issues. Before this occurred, after years of struggling financially, we had finally made the income to support the lifestyle we were living and bought our first home which to us was our dream home.

For at least six months, I have spent hours and hours on the phone doing anything I could to keep our house from going into foreclosure. Every time everything seemed like it was completed and we were out of the red, we hit another obstacle.

We were down to the wire and our home was in foreclosure with one possible hope left to save our home.

Yesterday, I spent three hours on the phone with the mortgage company only to find out the only way to save the house was to pay them $1200 by Friday. At this point, there was no way we could come up with money.

I hung up the phone and tried not to break down, but with tears falling off my face, I lay on my bed and wept and prayed for God to take this burden from me and keep me strong and in his Word.

I had no more energy left to fight anymore.

I was planning on coming to service and at first thought there was no way I could go with my red, puffy eyes and feeling like a time bomb waiting to explode into a break down.

As soon as that thought came to mind I released it and told myself that there was no way the devil was going to keep me from service tonight. I fixed up my face, picked my son up from the skate park and experienced preaching like no other (maybe even better than my buddy Joyce Meyer) and felt the presence of the Holy Spirit within me.

When I returned home there was a message from the mortgage company to call them; they had good news. Today, we found out we do not owe any extra funds and our home is coming out of foreclosure!

Praise God!!!!

This is from only one day of fasting and prayer. I believe God will move mountains in the days to come!!!!