It has been a week or two since I came back from vacation on
the "East Coast". It was 6 days of family fun time, reconnecting with peers and
loved ones, a wedding ceremony, and a revival at the Victory Land International
Ministries of South Philadelphia. Lastly, a stop in jersey to see my sister/cousin concluded my trip. It
was a vacation spread out in individual and unique beautiful moments. Amidst
all of this fun and resting from my daily routines of life in Minnesota, I was
still reminded of the power of God through the eyes of 3 individuals, my 2
nieces 10 and 13 and our famous Liberian Ambassador of music, Marron Cassel.
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| Sister Nao's bride maids... |
I left on the 6th for a wedding of a dear friend
that I call my sister. We have known each other since the 11th
grade. My cousin Rue picked me up at the Philadelphia airport later that day. She
was the wedding coordinator. I would for the next few days watch as she
effectively performed her role.
The wedding was a grand success; sister Nao was as beautiful as princess
Diane. Her hair was done in an up do and the makeup artist did a fabulous job
of coating her face with dramatic hues of purples, grays, and pink that matched the deco of her wedding as
well as the brides maid’s beautifully clothed purple dresses. The decoration was stunning and
elegant, fresh flowers that grace the atmosphere with the fresh smell of spring
and roses in bloom served as centerpieces and bouquets. It was well attended! The
level of detail, thought, careful spending and planning all worked together for
the wedding’s success . If I may add it was an occasion fit to have had president Obama attend!
After visiting with my sister Nao and my cousin Rue, I would
spend Monday the 9th with my aunts in Northeast Philadelphia; it had
been such a long time since I visited. It was certainly a pleasure to see all
of the nieces and nephews all grown and groomed. My aunts looked great and in
good health too. I was happy to reconnect with them and have a moment of
ministration with one of my nieces the 13year old.
Teaching # 1
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| My niece Tappy |
Her mom, she and I had slept in the same room. Her mom must
have gotten up while I slept to go to work early Tuesday morning. I woke up and
it was at least 8 something. My niece was entering the room as I woke. At least
an hour later, I was curling my hair when she sat across from me on the bed and
watched. We was having a
conversation in which she was telling me that she is being given advanced
courses in school because she is so smart. “ I can’t help that I am smart”,
“They just keep giving you all this work and expect you to know it” “ It gets
hard sometimes”. As I listened to her comments, the only thing that came to me
was a prayer for strength! I asked her if she knew who God was and how he is
the source of our strength? Did she know that God is someone whom we can talk
to when we have difficulty and hard time understanding anything in life? In her
own innocent way she knew who God was thankfully and was able to say, “ Yeah I
know Him, He created the universe.” “ He made Adam, Eve and me.” Well, that was
certainly a start for a 13year old. The next moments we would talk about God,
peer pressure at school, dress code, and bullying… I assured her we could depend on God to help us with
all of these things and more. I would take out my little pocket book of prayers
and we read day 333. I will only quote a fragment of this prayer.
“…Lord please help me realize that
you promise to give me inner strength through the power of your own Holy Spirit
when I depend on you and trust you to do what is best for me. Finally May I
remember that your power works best through my weaknesses. Where I am weak and
limited, you promise to supply the strength to help me overcome great
obstacles… The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen
those whose heart are fully committed to Him. 2Chronicles 16:9” [Page286, 365 Pocket Prayers]
By the time we
where done with our shared time in the Lord, she was crying and dedicating a personal prayer to the Lord! I
encouraged her to read the Bible and use it as a tool and a source of teachings
thru out her life. I told her that
through the Holy Spirit as she grows,
she will learn to understand the contents of the Bible and how it works
as a tool for all believers in Christ. Most importantly, I told her to never cease praying.
The same day my sister/cousin from Jersey picked me up to spend the remainder of the
days, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of my vacation with her and her
family. We go back a long ways. My
uncle, her dad reared me as a kid and that’s what makes her and I sisters. On
that same day Tuesday, I asked her to accompany me to the revival at the
Victory Land International Ministries of South Philadelphia. Fortunately, the
church was at the least 15min to 20 min drive from where she lived in Jersey. She seemed a bit reluctant about going.
She kept asking when would we come
home etc. But she and I both
agreed that it was worth the trip after we went. Here it is why.
Teaching # 2
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| Liberia's Ambassador of Music, Marron Dweh Cassel http://www.macami.org/ |
Okay you may or not agree with me but sometimes ministers of
the gospel, preachers, praise and worshipers may be talented, gifted, anointed
and blessed… These are some adjective that may describe these great artist or
children of God that God is using in these end times. But, no matter how they
minister, there comes a moment when we have our own personal connections with
them, the ministration, and the song they are singing. To each his own day and
time… all this to say, I connected with the Liberian Ambassador of music, Marron
Cassel on Tuesday night 7/10/12. I only have a professional relationship with
her in that I have made a couple of flyers for her and designed her new and
upcoming CD titled “ I’m Still Here”. That said, we’d come into the church and she was seated in a chair by
the host pastor and guest pastors.
She was beautifully robed in organza green mixed matched African cloth attire
that made her to stand out amongst her peers. She looked beautiful! She was
announced as the praise and worship leader for the day, all singers, guest
ministers and more where asked to accompany her on stage. I was fortunate to be amongst those called. She would
start with the familiar hymn, “How Great Though Are”, and continue to songs
like “You Deserve The Glory” and more. She ended with African praise songs. For 30- 45mins she would sing, dance and exalt in the presence of God. The atmosphere
was charged as she ministered.
People where slain in the spirit and the move of God was strong in the
house. She said before all this, “ If you came here to be a spectator or to watch
Ambassador Marron perform because you heard she was in town, than you will miss
God”. She lead praise and worship until as one of the backers I was dripped in
sweat from the force of the ministration, the tempo, the music etc. The
positive energy was certainly energizing, inspirational, moving and more. After
the praise and worship, she would sit for a few other items on the program before she came to deliver the message
for the day.
When called upon to administer to word of God, she mounted
the pulpit and raised a worship
song. As she sang, a mother came to the alter with her child who’s means of
walking is with a walker. As the mother of this child wrapped her arms around her child in am intense
hug, knelt before alter and cried presenting
her child before God, the Ambassador for Music and the other members of the of
pastoral group seated including the host pastor would surround the child and
start praying simultaneously together. The congregation would also join in
stretching their hands forth in prayer. The child will be rubbed with “Holy Oil”
oil usually olive oil, that as been sanctified with prayer as believed by many
Christian doctrines…as the “Holy Oil “was
rubbed on this child, Ambassador Marron Cassel held the child’s shoulder
and also prayed in the microphone for the child’s deliverance and healing. All
the pastors joined in one accord
to this prayer.
The mother of the child was asked to let go of the child,
however she stubbornly held on! Okay with faith you come to Christ for healing
and than somewhere in there you are still doubting holding on and not allowing
God to be God. I am not judging this mother but it was an analogy the Holy
Spirit give me to teach me what I will learn in the moments to follow. As the
crying and reluctant mother was hauled away form the child, she fell to the
floor as if fainting or perhaps slain in the spirit. The ushers aiding her from
hurting herself covering her with garment used in churches that use this as a
tool in their services as folks get slain in the spirit, mostly to cover them
if they are wearing short clothes.
One of the pastors took over and started walking with the
child in the audience. As they took these steps and everyone continued praying,
some crying, some standing in bewilderment, the pastor let the child’s hand go
and she took steps on her own with out the help of a cane, a walker, a pastor,
Amen!. She took steps as the power of God began to manifest itself! The light
suddenly went off in my head… the defining moment of this experience was plain,
the moment the mother of the Child let go and allowed the power of prayer and God to work hand in hand. The
moment she let God take charge. The moment her eyes where off her own strength…
the powerful King of kings and Lord of lords our redeemer and friend Jesus,
began to manifest HIS POWER of healing!
Letting go and letting God take charge is certainly
something that we are not willing to do. I think you and I can well relate. We
come with all of our petitions to God and yet we are hanging on to our own
possible solutions. Letting go! Amazing is an ABC word to describe that moment.
But as simple of a word it is the best I can describe the power of God working
first hand.
I don’t know the Ambassador on a personal level but one
thing I know through her testimonies is that She has
endured a whole lot to come to this point in her ministration. Situations that I am not authorized to
speak of in this blog. Situations where I can conclude such… in order to
process her God had to create situations that caused her to rethink and regain
focus if not lost, rekindle her relationship with Christ who has created her
for this purpose. Great things do not happen through women and men of God until
they have a personal challenge or encounter with God that they and the world
knows if it was not for the Lord they wouldn’t be existing today! I was
certainly moved and I have continued to pray since for that little girl where
ever she may be in this life. So this was my second to the last teaching.
Teaching # 3
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| My niece Carmen holding the green balloon |
The last teaching was on 7/10/12 after we’d come from the
meeting or revival my 10year old niece who’d come with us was saying, “Aunty
Catherine, I really had a great time”. “ I was crying when the little girl came
up” “ I pray too for God to help mommy too”… See her mom had battled post
partum depression for the past 2 years. My niece has watched the up and down
slopes of her mom’s health and believed innocently that God could heal her mom
too. “The faith of this my 10year old niece" can only prompt me to conclude thus. I hope and my prayer is that the same
principal of faith used by the blind man in Mark 10: 52 that made Jesus to say
“Go” “your faith has healed you” will be the same faith that God will see in
this 10 year old and heal her mom completely! At that moment I found myself
thanking God silently in my heart. I was like father thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to
learn from and teach the little
nieces on this trip. She would
continue to say as we chatted further. “You know I wanted to be a musician but
I think I am going to be an author now… You want me to read you my first book that I wrote?” I responded
sure! What I would hear and read
along with her left me speechless. It was not a story about ponies, dolls or
you name it… it was a sermon written by a 10 year old. A five-page sermon! This is a separate
blog coming soon because I am not changing anything that she wrote. I want to
figure out how to post it unedited. Matter of fact I instructed her to type it
as is without any edits and e-mail it to me. Yes a 10 year old. She wrote about
the creation, why we need to be obedient as believers, and how we should help
others, and animals etc. My favorite of this moment as she continued was “ it was a rainy day aunty CB
and I started reading the Bible
and I was inspired to write this” Wow. Here I thought only preachers I believe
say such… but a 10 year old! If this is not inspiring enough than you are not
sitting in the right pew of the church or opening your eyes and heart to understand
spiritual things, switch places so that the power of God can start to teach you
some things through the eyes of
the preachers and ministers and
people you least expect teachings from about God. Yes I said that! She was
inspired after she read the bible. I can’t stop shaking my head in amazement even as I
write. You see sometimes it takes
the wisdom of a child to teach us some things about Christ. She reminded me that it doesn’t matter who you are. God can use anyone regardless of your
age or geographical location.
I am reminded as I write of the story of the young king in the bible that
God appointed as king over Judah. I was telling her parents not to underestimate
their little one’s gift. I hope that you will be blessed as I was when I shall
have posted her sermon in my next blog.
To end, I had a
great vacation bonding with family, learning more from God about, strength
through the eyes of my 13year old niece, faith and the power of healing through
the ministration of Ambassador Marron Cassel and finding inspiration from a 10year old niece. What can I say… I am really
humbled by the teachings of the Holy Spirit. As I am gaining inspiration from
others and their stories I hope that I will continue to cultivate the boldness
to tell my own story about my journey to Christ that will inspire someone someday.
Perhaps you could agree with me that this was 3 different blogs in one. However, they are very intertwined in that God in one trip allowed me to experience 3
teachings. God the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit was working as His highest peak
to ensure I got this message of strength, healing and inspiration that I share with you today. It is my prayer to you that the little
moment of life will give you all the opportunity to acknowledge God for His
infinite wisdom as He molds us all. My pen is up for now but do come back and
read the blog about the sermon as written by my 10 year old niece.
Catherine K.
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