FROM JAIL TO JESUS By Vince Rizzo

Growing up in a non-Christian home in Sturtevant, Wisconsin, I was the first born son to
my parents, my mother being a homemaker and my father being trained as a chef. I had three
other brothers, one of, which died when he was two years old and as long as I can remember the
word “dysfunctional” applied to our family. I grew up working in many of the restaurants that
my father ran and was always either at school or working in a hot kitchen. Periodically my
father would take us to church and it seemed that he looked for God in all of the wrong places.
First, it was the Jehovah’s Witnesses (JW’s) when I was young which I later returned to in my
own search for God and then my father delved into the occult as the years went on. Unfortunately,
he saw more power there than in the churches he looked into. Previous to this, our family
reached back into three known generations of witchcraft and the occult, my own greatgrandmother
having been a “strega” or witch in Sicily as well as my grandfather and aunt’s
involvement in the occult.
While I was in my teens, I have memories of my father’s occult bookstore where he
practiced satanism. I remember the satanic altar and other “tools” he used in his rituals and I
witnessed many supernatural, unexplainable happenings that my family experienced. Thankfully
I was never really involved myself but in our family weird was the norm. We definitely were not
your “Ozzie and Harriet” family. We were more of an “Ozzy Osbourne” family!!**
At about 12 years of age we visited a Lutheran Church and I was led to Christ by the
Youth Pastor after a service. Even then I felt a calling into the ministry and began to pursue it,
experiencing a great zeal for God and carrying my Bible everywhere I went. However, the
scriptures say that satan comes immediately to steal the seed of the word planted in a person’s
heart and due to a lack of encouragement at home and peer pressure at school, I forsook it all
and decidedly became very rebellious.
I spent the next several years on a search of my own to find myself, some purpose for life
and to find God. My parents were never attentive or affectionate, never gave guidance or
instruction and never got involved in my brothers’ lives or mine. We were the free labor that my
father used at his restaurants. As a result of the lack of everything at home, I began to do
anything to blend in with the popular crowd by growing my hair very long, smoking pot and
drinking. I tried everything to fit in with the party crowd seeking acceptance anywhere I could
find it. Occasionally something terrible would happen to me and I would straighten up my act
for a period of time but then quickly fall back into the old rebellious, abusive lifestyle when
everything seemed back to normal.
After one particularly bad experience, as stated before, I did go back to the JW’s because
my father had said this was the closest that he had found to the truth but he found that he was
too weak to live it out in his life. There I too found some of the truth and they had a form of
godliness but no power in their lives and I noticed they only helped and ministered to one
another. The Bible said that we would know the true disciples by the love they had but their
love was only for other JW’s. They had no love or compassion for anyone else.
At this point I was becoming very disillusioned and began sinking deeper and deeper as
my life began spiraling downwards. The only thing I looked forward to was the next party and
if any of that involved sex, drugs or alcohol, I was an avid participant.
Little did I realize that the next series of events would bring me to my knees and then
bring me to the feet of my Savior.
At about age 19, I was living in a downtown rooming house. I was practicing being a
very good sinner living an ungodly lifestyle. I had totally given up my search for God and was
serving myself thinking I was having a great time when I was completely miserable.
One evening I was bored and was walking around downtown around 1:00 a.m. looking
for drugs, a party or whatever. A guy walking down the same street approached me and wanted
a light for his cigarette. I obliged him and left the immediate area to see a friend who lived
nearby. We visited for a while and then I left but on my way home in that same area I recognized
another guy I knew from the streets. We talked for a while and then we noticed the police arrive
at the area where I gave the guy a light for his cigarette. Right after that the ambulance
arrived. I
asked him if he knew what was happening and he stated that he didn’t, so I decided to go on
home.
The next day the guy I last spoke to the day before came to my room at the rooming
house and said that the police wanted to talk to me. I went down to the police station and they
began questioning me about a guy on the street. At the time I really didn’t recognize his picture
but this was the guy I had given the light for the cigarette. We had such a brief encounter that
I really didn’t recognize who the guy was. Apparently someone had shot him in the face, point
blank and robbed him and left him there to die and I was the last person seen talking with him.
Worse yet, the guy who told me to go to the police station said he saw me shoot the guy and
steal his wallet so they had an eyewitness!! They released me that day but the next day I
received a phone call from the police station. Shortly after that a S.W.A.T. Team surrounded the
rooming house, kicked my door down, threw me against the wall, frisked me, hand-cuffed me,
read me my rights and charged me with aggravated battery and armed robbery. Then they
dragged me off to jail wearing only a pair of boxer shorts. My bond was set at $25,000 but I was
very optimistic that I would be released any day because I was innocent.
The victim was in and out of a coma most of the time, however, after three months the
guy died in the hospital. At that point they took me out of my cell to change my charges from
aggravated battery and armed robbery to first degree murder and took away the bond all together.
The jail I was in had been condemned. There was no heat, no air conditioning, the food
was terrible and it was a truly disgusting place. And there I sat for nine long months - through
my birthday, through spring and summer and then through fall, into Thanksgiving and Christmas.
My parents would occasionally visit me but I had a lot of time on my hands to think about my life
and where I might be headed. As in most American jails and prisons, many church groups and
ministers visited the facility and I began to hear the gospel preached powerfully like never
before. I soon came to the realization that I needed a Savior and that I had to be saved from
myself, my sin and my shame.
One night in the jail cell, I bowed my head and rededicated my life to Christ. From that
night on, I was filled with an awesome peace even when faced with desperate and dangerous
situations while incarcerated. Other prisoners with much lesser charges were practically having
nervous breakdowns over what the results would be from their crimes, however God had given
me overwhelming peace which passed all understanding. My commitment to God began to be
so solid that I answered the calling God had placed upon my life by holding Bible studies with
other inmates. I would read the Bible to those who were illiterate and pray with many prisoners.
Meanwhile the investigation of my case involved my clothing being sent to the FBI lab in
Washington, D.C. to check for traces of blood and a search of my room was conducted to find a
weapon and the wallet. My clothes came back clean and they couldn’t find any evidence of the
crime. They also used infrared cameras taking pictures of the crime scene. The distance that
the “eyewitness” said he saw me commit the crime was scientifically proven false because he
was too far away to be able to identify anyone from that distance. When they tried to locate
him, they found that he had left town so it took time to find him to bring him back for the trial.
I was also faced with another prisoner turning State’s evidence against me to get a lighter
sentence for himself.
The trial itself took three days with a full jury, with television and newspaper coverage.
Once all the evidence was presented and the jury convened for the verdict, they took me into a
small holding cell adjacent to the courtroom. While in that cell I hit my knees and found myself
desperately crying out to God telling Him that I deserved those nine months in jail for the petty
crimes I had committed such as shoplifting and dealing drugs. I then reminded God that He
knew that I didn’t kill this man and then I made a promise to God that if He would give me a
second chance and release me free of all charges, I would serve Him in the ministry He had
called me to many years earlier.
After about 20 minutes (an actual eternity to me but a real miracle for a murder trial!),
they came and got me. They had reached a unanimous decision of “Not Guilty”. I openly wept
in the courtroom as my parents came to hug me. They found me innocent of all charges and
they never found who did this crime. They could have easily pinned this on me but God rescued
me
from a horrible future and true to my word, I have tried with all my heart to serve God faithfully
since that day. What satan had meant for evil, God turned around to good.
However, life after jail is not easy. I felt like my life was over as my reputation was
ruined, I had no possessions of any kind and my family never let me forget this ordeal. But then
God opened the door for me to get a job making bank runs with a courier service. That HAD to
be God after just getting out of jail!!!
Then came the day I had the opportunity to face the guy that turned me in to the police.
I was in the Edison Mall at the time when I noticed him there. I took a deep breath and walked
straight up to him and said, “Hi, John, I’m Vince Rizzo.” He immediately cursed and looked as
if he were going to melt from fear on the spot. Then I asked him why he did that to me. He then
told me that the police had suspected him and he told them that he saw me do it so that they
would leave him alone. I then told him how through it all I had turned my life over to God. God
had forgiven me and had given me a wonderful wife, a fabulous ministry, peace of mind and an
incredible future in Him. I told him that he would never lose a thing if he turned his life over to
Christ. Then I said, “John, you will never have to look over your shoulder wondering if I’m ever
going to be there in the darkness of night to get you back for what you have done to me. Joe,
I forgive you.” And with that I turned and walked away, so joyous that God had transformed my
heart to this degree. This showed me how deeply God’s love had truly taken hold of my life,
transformed it and now it was spilling out onto the life of the one man who should have been my
archenemy for the rest of my life.
This was over 30 years ago and now God is beginning to open international doors of
ministry in many countries through our 4 international online ministries . Going to jail was worth it all just to find the greatest treasure in all of life - to find Christ. He is the greatest discovery of all time whose greatness is so very great that, the Bible terms it as “unsearchable”. Psalm 145:3

The Supernatural History of Ames International School of Ministry

The Supernatural History of Ames International School of Ministry
By Pastors Vince and Laura Rizzo

A Brief Personal and Ministry History:
My wife, Laura, and I met in 1983 where she was singing at a local Christian coffeehouse. During that year we lost touch with each other but our paths again crossed in 1985. We discovered that we were both in active ministry and our friendship turned into a courtship and then in God’s timing, we fell in love and were married.

For many years, the Lord trained us and developed our Christian character by opening doors of opportunity to serve in various ministries. We served in almost every position of the church either in a paid position or as a volunteer and worked with many churches doing feeding programs and working with the homeless as well as Christian discipleship programs. This served to be the testing grounds of our lives as we experienced many trials and tribulations, rejection and poverty, but the joy in our hearts never faded because we had fallen completely in love with God and were willing to do whatever it took to do our best for Him.

Jump forward twelve years and in 1997 we received two requests to return home to Fort Myers as my father was intending to retire from the homeless mission that we had helped him establish in 1985 and my mother-in-law was showing signs of Alzheimer’s disease and wanted us to come home to care for her.

This just happened to be perfect timing as the door had just closed in Ocala, Florida where we served as senior pastors of a church with a men’s and women’s rehab program whose headquarters was in Tampa. The parent organization had closed because of corrupt practices which left us horrified, disappointed, hurt, and frustrated and out of our jobs.

Fort Myers being the only open door before us, here we were for the third time and doing what we’ve done for years - working with the homeless in a homeless mission. After about a year and a half, the Lord spoke to me to begin looking for a property to begin a men’s discipleship program at a local facility as about 95% of our clientele at the mission were men fighting addictions. This was not in my heart at all but I had learned to listen to the Lord intently when He spoke. As I began to go look at properties, I asked for some wise counsel from a local realtor who I had met while volunteering at the Kairos Retreat Weekends at the Charlotte County Correctional Facility which is a retreat for prisoners.

During one of these retreats he approached me to tell me that every morning when he woke up the first thing he would think of was Vince Rizzo Ministries and that he sensed from the Lord that he was supposed to help me.

In the past, when situations like this would arise, we would just relax, trust God and watch to see what He would do. So many people make promises they never make good on that we learned not to anticipate, become anxious or worry about any financial matters, which is what trust is and this leaves the matter in God’s hands.

Our Ministry Super-Sized!!
As a result of what the Lord put on the heart of this realtor, in June of 1999 we found ourselves with the key and a map to a $2,000,000 property with a 14-unit motel and a 45 seat restaurant on eight acres in North Fort Myers, Florida, situated on the main highway into town. This realtor had purchased it and was paying $7,000 per month with the end result of donating the property to us for this men’s program that God had spoken to me about.

Be Careful When Someone Gives You Something Free:
Excited beyond belief is an understatement of our rejoicing when this happened, however we soon found out that this 40 year old motel was what we called “the money pit”. Upgrading the property to code was a financial feat. Besides taking on this challenge, our overhead rose from $2,000 to $5,000 per month which was a complete impossibility with regard to our financial situation and we found ourselves in the middle of a zoning battle between Lee County and the surrounding upscale residential housing developments who were almost violently opposed to having our type of ministry in their “backyard” so to speak.

The public zoning issue was actually God ordained as it provided incredible free advertising and generated funding as we were constantly being interviewed on several local television stations and written about in many newspapers and magazines. This also enabled us to help many people in our area as they learned about us and also informed the public when it came to networking with other area agencies.

We also had to face the fact that sometimes when God blesses a ministry, it causes people and other organizations to be offended. We fought spiritual battles we never thought we would and people rose up against us publically that hurt us deeply but we were mature enough to realize that it was all a test. For that reason we prayed for our enemies, we showed love to those who hated us without a cause (even family members) and we forgave those who publically defamed our name.

Then came the day when we won the zoning battle after 27 long months. We then hosted an open house and a grand opening celebration for 250 people. For one year we operated the facility watching as God performed miracle after miracle in upgrading it and providing all our operational needs while men entered our program through the court system, from the streets and from the local jail.

During this time I began attending a local bible school at a church that sponsored me for five days a week for six months. Once I graduated, they invited me to be an alumni instructor teaching international pastors on the subject of living by faith which has been the foundation and cornerstone of our ministry. Between attending school, operating two locations (the Center for the Men’s Discipleship Program and operating the homeless mission simultaneously), we worked seven days a week for almost three years.

At The Top It Began to Fall
By this time, we were becoming a household name. We had been in the news on a constant basis, were invited to and attended hundreds of local events, were members of at least 20 local organizations, hundreds came for tours of our facility including a bus tour, we were listed in the journals and manuals of most local charitable agencies, we worked in conjunction with various local agencies on various projects, 60 volunteers from area churches worked with us and 50 area churches either hosted events with us, sent us more volunteers or took us on to support as their yearly charitable organization.

The sky was the limit until 9/11 occurred. Within six months all the support we received to operate the men’s center on the eight acres completely dried up as it was being sent to the victims of 9/11. Several other local ministries who had no government funding went out of business as their funding too went to the victims of 9/11.

As a result, we lost the eight acre property and resigned ourselves to just running the homeless mission as we still had our volunteers working with us from various local churches who supported us. To some degree this was a relief as our workload was cut in half and we finally had some time off.

The Domino Effect
Then the unthinkable occurred when the owner sold the building housing our mission and the new landlord refused to renew our lease. Apparently that was the turning point to our remaining supporters as now we found ourselves out of a building with no funding and we were forced to go back to work as we could not find another building within our budget.

We were devastated, bewildered, heartbroken and grief-stricken. After six long, hard years of serving our community, feeding just under 12,000 people per year out of a 700 square foot storefront unit with no kitchen and housing men in a free, one year program on a $2,000,000 property, we were out of our jobs, out of our minds with grief and out of answers. Christmas 2002 we held our last homeless church service and served the last meal at our mission. And beyond that our credit died with it as finances failed to pay the last two months we operated the mission. We thought of many alternatives but if God did not come to our rescue there was no reason to continue with it.

When it was all over Laura came face to face with herself. She is eight years older than I am and she realized that she had fallen in love with ministry more than with God. This realization caused her even greater grief because it is very hard for ministers to separate the love of ministry from the love of God. They seem like one in the same but they are not. Also is the dilemma of losing one’s identity in one’s occupation. Being in ministry for 19 years when we lost our ministry, she realized that she defined her life by her occupation. To Laura it was beyond death as she never had children and to serve those in need had become a fervent passion.

A deep part of both of us died.

At that point we just believed God to deliver us as He had done for countless previous months and years. He had ALWAYS brought the money in but we were learning to go with God when God moved to something new. The Israelites had to move when the cloud by day and pillar of fire by night moved in the wilderness and even as Elijah (First Kings 17) was sent in the wilderness to wait for the ravens to feed him and to drink from the Brook Cherith, this too dried up in time and he was to move on from there.

It Had Fallen to the Lowest Point
Our problem was that we kept waiting too long. We kept waiting on God to the point that we both found ourselves at the end of everything. We had not only lost our ministry, but in six months we had no money for anything. We lost phone service, my driver’s license, auto tag and car insurance expired and we could not afford to renew them, we could not afford propane gas for our heat or cooking in our little mobile home during the winter (and Florida winters do get into the 30’s and 40’s during January to March), we were six months behind in our lot rent, we were falling behind in our bills and we had no money for food.

We had reached rock bottom and were actually down to our last meal. As we prayed the Lord gave Laura the verse in John 12:24, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it produces much grain.” Weeping and sorrow had become a way of life so a verse regarding death and dying didn’t mean much at the time. We were already both dying a slow, agonizing death. Death to ourselves, our desires, our wants and all we had been trained for through the years – everything that we were was being dissolved.

Then God sent us a dear friend who bought us groceries, took us out to dinner, paid a few of our bills and gave us some gas money. That was a miracle in itself because when you run a homeless mission and a men’s rehab-type program, you don’t tell anyone where you live and we only lived less than a mile from our mission. This was the only lady who knew where we lived and we hadn’t seen her in months!!

Then we had to face the future of going back to take whatever jobs we could to survive. Because of the many enemies who had surfaced during the past, we did not feel at liberty to work in the social services industry any longer. The fall of everything had so shocked us that anything in ministry seemed out of the question too as the despair had broken and suffocated our spirits. This was a very dark season.

Laura went back to working as a secretary and I went back to working pest control and I went back to a place called the Money Corner many times as they have a process that “stretches” your paycheck as I was not making enough to pay the current bills and what was left from the past even though I was working 50 to 70 hours per week.

Months later I was going to work out at the gym as I had signed a contract I had to fulfill. While I was in the shower, (God always seems to speak to me in the shower), I felt that the Lord said that He was going to make up the loss of our ministry to me.

God’s Preparation for the Future:
One night I decided to try to further my biblical education and was online looking for a free or low cost online bible college. I did a search in Google for FREE BIBLE COLLEGE and found a school called The Online Bible College (OBC) out of New Castle, Australia. I started taking courses with them and loved it.

Then one night I began chatting with the Online Chat Support Staff and the President of OBC, Dr. David Collins, just happened to be online answering questions. We seemed to hit it off right from the start. As it turned out, this was a real divine appointment and within a few weeks I was running their Helpdesk for over 20,000 students worldwide and was asked to be on their Operations Ministry Team. I had many conversations with Dr. Collins as he was a real innovator when it comes to online education and I had the privilege of being mentored by him personally for about a year.

I then took a job working for BellSouth Internet as a Tech Support Agent learning many ways of dealing with customers online and was a top agent for three months over 300 employees. I ended up being the Supervisor of the Click to Chat Department and it seemed that the Lord was preparing me for the future so I worked at Bellsouth by day and for OBC by night.

I thoroughly enjoyed working for OBC however they began to experience some transitional issues and I lost all contact with Dr. Collins. At that point I decided to leave OBC when I received a call from a supporter of our past ministry who said that she knew a man in a nearby city that was running an online university called Ames Christian University. She thought that we had a lot in common and that we should meet.

The Birth of Ames Bible College:
We finally met the President of ACU after about six months and decided to partner together to start a new online school to operate under the covering of the university. The plan was to create a biblically based online school to enable students to study in a self-paced environment in a low cost program. This challenge allowed my creative abilities and entrepreneurial tendencies, coupled with my past experience to kick into high gear as I developed and founded the college under the university.

Day by day we fine tuned the Ames Bible College website. It was a whole new experience for us running an online school and it was exciting to use the new skills that I had acquired over the last few years. Also Laura’s profession as an administrative assistant and her accounting skills were very valuable to upstart a new business venture.

During this time Laura and I both were taking the ABC courses and both graduated to Ames Christian University and then received our Bachelor of Biblical Studies degrees.

Within the first year of ABC we had around 3,000 students which not only thrilled us but surprised the President. This success was partly due to implementing key ingredients such as the $20.00 administrative fees, the domain name – “free bible college.com”, a variety of discounts and registering various subscription payments which are automatically withdrawn from students’ accounts on a regular basis.

At this point in time, we were again contacted by Dr. David Collins and he had requested that we again work with him. We were thrilled to hear from him however we truly felt that we were doing the will of God in working under ACU and declined his invitation.

Ames Christian University Changes Hands:
One day the President of ACU, Todd Wieland, and I went to lunch and we happened to meet up with the Dean of a college where I was a former instructor. We chatted briefly and when the Dean left, President Wieland voiced that he was searching for a group with a physical school to take over ACU. I was rather shocked as this was our parent organization and if another group assumed leadership I did not know where that would leave us. That night I talked it over with Laura and after praying about it, we decided to approach him about considering us to be trained to take over the leadership of ACU.

Upon hearing our proposal, he pondered the idea and said he would pray about it over the weekend. On Monday he called us and agreed to train us over the next six months and after that he would totally turn the university over to us in January 2005.

One year later we were contact by the Online Bible College when Dr. David Collins passed away in 2006. Our sorrow regarding this was almost overwhelming and we have kept in touch with his parents who are now running the ministry and they asked me to be on their Ministry Team of which I was honored to accept.

The Lord is the Rewarder of those who Diligently Seek Him:
When we first started with Ames Bible College, we were living in a 1969 mobile home. It was like brand new inside but it was more like living outside – we froze in the winter and fried in the summer and every time it rained during the yearly rainy season, we never knew if it would be blown off the planet during one of the various hurricanes that hit Florida frequently. God protected us and grew us until we could afford to move into a small, one bedroom apartment and then He grew us a little more and we moved into a small, two bedroom apartment.

When we took over ACU in 2005, this was when God impressed upon us to step out in faith and to leave our jobs and trust Him to meet our needs. Looking at it logically that would not have been a good move as realistically we could not survive off of the amount that we made from ABC but that is how God trains us and what faith is. Gradually we grew and grew and the Lord was faithful in His promise to make up the loss of our ministry to me. In fact we grew so much that we decided to change Ames Bible College (ABC) to Ames International School of Ministry (AISOM) as we had really gone international.

In the three years that we have had ACU and the five years that we have had AISOM we have never had to go to Money Corner again to pay our bills and the schools have grown to over 24,000 students worldwide as of this writing in December of 2008.

Then by divine appointment I received my Masters and Doctorate Degree through Therapon University.

And then the Lord opened the door for us to lease a beautiful brand new home. For over 23 years of marriage my wife had always wanted a nice home yet she sacrificed it for the ministry. In various ministry positions, we lived in everything from a very old school bus and had to bathe in a mountain stream for three months, to living in a leaky camper, to being caretakers in a palm tree swamp and suffered many such hardships along the way but through it all God developed the fruits of the Spirit in us as we were faithful to God because we loved Him so deeply. Yet, the desire for a real home never went away.

As for me, I love the Internet and have always loved working on computers and God has truly given us both the desires of our hearts.

I have always heard that the Lord closes one door to open another but I didn’t know if He would put us back into ministry ever again. After all that we have gone through what’s so amazing to us is that we are reaching so many more people with the gospel of Christ and preparing them for ministry instead of reaching a few at our homeless mission and men’s discipleship center.

Remember the verse the Lord gave Laura?? ----John 12:24, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it produces much grain.” Laura has asked the Lord for a hundredfold return when it comes to bringing people to Christ and I believe the Lord gave us AISOM and ACU for just such a purpose.

He tells us not to despise small beginnings because it is one of the many ways that He brings us to the place of completely relying on Him and He is able to show Himself strong. As our faith grows by trusting Him, He grows us by gradually expanding our borders and developing our Christian character.

It has been an incredible journey that has bloomed into a ministry that is reaching 150 to 200 new students per week, is reaching into over 150 nations and is reaching into thousands of hearts to change them for the Glory of God!!

Spiders, Snakes and Faith

SPIDERS, SNAKES AND FAITH                                                                                              Page 1 of 8

By Rev. Laura Rizzo

(Revised 6/10/13)

This story happened five years after my story entitled “Tennessee or Bust” so I suggest that if you haven’t read that “test” first that you do so as you will see some incredible similarities. If you have already read that, please keep the details in mind.

ONE MORE TIME AROUND THE MOUNTAIN

As I begin this, I never, EVER, EVER in all my life figured that ANYTHING could be WORSE than what we went through in Tennessee. But, you know before you read this, that that is exactly what happened and it happened right in the swamps of Fort Myers, Florida in June of 1991. We spent all five years in Tennessee praying to move back to Florida and God answered that prayer as we obtained a small camper and a friend loaned us a 1985 Chevy Blazer to tow it for the journey.

Arriving in Fort Myers, we soon settled into a less than desirable mobile home park in North Fort Myers which is a place that Jed Clampett would delight in calling home before he struck oil. Living by nothing other than what I call the “fumes of faith” for a few months, this time an opportunity came our way to be the caretakers of a 30,000 palm tree farm located in a secluded area off of Six Mile Cypress Parkway in south Fort Myers. (Ya think we would have learned from the first time!!)

We had met the owner through a friend of a friend of a friend and the first “friend” gave us the specifics of what the owner of the property was wanting in a caretaker. A few days later we stopped by the property and chatted with the owner and the repairman he had hired. When the owner offered us the position, we then agreed to the arrangement as the property appeared to be in good repair and seemed suitable enough to occupy.

It was around late May when we decided to accept this opportunity which is just around the corner from the rainy season.  The final agreement amounted to acting as the owner’s “insurance” policy as we were to live on this farm rent free and watch over the property while he went north for the summer. To us this all-expenses-paid deal was like door number #3 on “Let’s Make A Deal” and we won the grand prize!! We were ecstatically excited at how blessed we were and how good God had been to us.

The next week we brought our little camper right up to the front door of this makeshift-apartment-equipment-shed-combination building and began unloading all our belongings into this place while we were day dreaming of how great it would be living there. By now the owner had left for Michigan and the repairman was still puttering around making his finishing touches.

NO TURNING BACK

At this point in our lives we had come to the place where God was the driving force and passion in our lives. We had fallen in love with Him so deeply that we desired Him like a drowning man wants air. We had come through six years of incredible hardships but nothing we went through could shake our commitment and dedication to the all powerful, all loving God we served. The more stuff we seemed to go through, somehow, the more loyal we became because nothing mattered accept knowing Christ and serving Him. In fact, all we had been through we just considered as the last “chapter” and now we were embarking on another new adventure. We went and did whatever, whenever with whoever and wherever God planted us until He would open the next door for us.  This meant that quitting was never an option no matter how bad things got because we wanted to please Him as He was our heart’s delight.

However, I think this would be a good place for a disclaimer – We clearly see now that anything free is not always good and all would do well to remember that!!! This is really a no-brainer but it takes a few times around the mountain before all the insanities of life start making sense!!

THE NIGHTMARE BEGINS

Two weeks after we moved in and the owner was long gone, it began to rain. We soon discovered that the roof leaked in three different places, every sink leaked and the worst of it was that the toilet would not flush when it rained and it rained like Noah’s flood every day much like monsoon season.  Thus, our daily routine without a workable toilet meant we had to use a five gallon paint bucket with a garbage bag and had to dump it every day.

As the rainy season progressed, we also noticed that the whole apartment-equipment-shed just kind of sat in the middle of a big pool and there was mud 500 feet in every direction. The whole place was like one big swamp. Even worse was the fact that the summers in Florida are unbearable with 90+ degree heat and intense humidity higher many times than the temperatures every day.  This was especially worse for us since this apartment had no air conditioning and our Chevy van we’d acquired by then had no air conditioning.  Another annoying factor was that a large neighborhood dog kept consistent leaving piles of droppings all around the property. All this produced incredible stress and discomfort and made us rather irritable especially when the repairman the owner had chosen was more of a “Tim, the tool man” kind of guy who couldn’t even repair a leaky faucet!

For employment, we had been working some temporary jobs and unexpectedly one day a friend of ours left his whole handyman business to us before he left town. We thought this was just great too until we learned after he had left that the jobs were everything from mowing lawns to tarring driveways to house painting and barely paid enough to keep the equipment going. We decided to apply elsewhere to find something more financially secure when we finally got hired as cleaning technicians for the local United Telephone Company.

LIVING IN THE PITS

What that amounted to was that each night from 5:00 p.m. till 1:00 a.m. we cleaned one whole floor the size of K-Mart. That was exhausting enough but then we had to face coming home each night. It was an actual feat just getting from the van to the apartment.

The moment we stepped out of the van you could clearly hear the sounds of deepest Africa…the mating call of the alligator (and I do know what that sounds like!!), the choruses of tree frogs, an occasional cry of a heron and masses of crickets and swarms of mosquitoes.

However, I was ready… I was armed with a jacket, eyeglasses, an umbrella, an old pair of shoes, the keys, my purse, our lunch buckets, a hat, and a can of bug spray. I carried everything just in case some monster or Big Foot jumped out at me in which case Vince would be free of any encumbrances and easily be able to rescue me. He carried the flashlight.

Five nights a week we had to make this trek to the apartment 500 feet away from where we parked our van, trudging through the mud, swatting at the mosquitoes, locating the dog piles, scanning the ground with the flashlight while looking for alligators and snakes and praying to escape all these. Upon reaching the door, I would put on the hat and eyeglasses while skillfully balancing all my gear and proceed to hose down the front door with bug spray to deter them from swarming into our kitchen. Once inside, we’d run for the lights and plop down exhausted and then discover what had decided to visit our apartment while we were away. Regularly we would find spiders, snakes, crickets and large ants and about anything else that would do anything to get away from all that mud and water.

The weekends too were also miserable as we would do anything to get out of the stifling heat and intense humidity. It’s pretty bad when you want to go anywhere but home.

I WAS BEGINNING TO REACH MY LIMIT – SPIDER INVASION

One night we had just gotten home and sat down to do some reading before going to bed. I was sitting on the couch and happened to put my book down and put my head on the back of the couch when looked up and saw a spider the size of Chicago in the reflection of the light on the ceiling!! These creatures are called banana spiders down here. Most of them are 3 inches across, which includes the body and leg span – which are horrifying creatures that are as fast as the wind and impossible to catch, let alone kill.

My breath froze as I stared in disbelief as I never remember them being that large. Moving VERY slowly, not daring to take my eyes off that creature, I rose from the couch while telling Vince that he had to kill that thing that night or I would not be able to sleep the entire night. He knows the truth of that statement so he went to get a broom from the shed and then began the battle between him and the spider. I went to putter in the kitchen all the while hearing the swats and bangs and doors opening and slamming shut as he proceeded from the living room to the bathroom and then to the office. Result? Spider -1, Vince – 0.

Ohhhh noooo, I thought.  This is going to be a very L – O – N – G night as I would be spending it in the kitchen which was the farthest point from the office where the culprit was last seen. Resolving to the fact that I would be awake the rest of the night, we both went back to the living room to read and after a while I again put my book down and laid my head back on the couch and there — there, was that same spider in the exact same spot!! Could it be, I asked myself, blinking in unbelief??? Yes, there it was and I again arose from the couch talking in hushed tones to Vince telling him he had another chance. This time Vince won!

MY SHAVING CREAM BODY SUIT

Another night I was minding my own business in our upright stall shower taking a nice, long hot shower at 2:00 a.m. after we’d gotten home from our jobs when there was an incredible, deafening explosion as if a sawed-off shotgun had gone off right next to my ear. I shrieked a blood curdling scream in horror and opened my eyes to find thick, white foam everywhere. It was all over me, all over the walls, the shower curtain, the ceiling and floor. At that moment Vince burst into the bathroom, flung open the shower curtain and after seeing I was unharmed, burst into uncontrollable laughter.

Needless to say, I was violently shaking and stunned at first. But then I began to look around to see what in the world had almost given me a heart attack and covered me with foam. It was then I had discovered that the seam on his shaving cream can had rusted through and this caused all the pressure in the can to be released in one huge explosion rendering everything in the shower with white foam!! At that realization I too “exploded” into laughter so hard I could hardly breathe. Then, gasping for air, it dawned on me that this metal can could have easily severed an arm or a leg and yet here I was just dripping wet and white!! I know that God amazingly protected me from certain harm by sending some angel from somewhere at the exact moment of that explosion. How excellent is God’s care of us!!

ALL SOAPED UP AND NO PLACE TO GO

And just to keep you up to speed about how much worse things could have gotten, another night I was in this same shower at 2:00 a.m. and was all soaped up when the water just shut off (“Why is it always me, Lord?”). I yelled in a very accusing tone wondering what Vince had done now and of course he was innocently reading a book and answered that he was going outside to investigate. I heard him go out the front door of the apartment and then heard him scream, “Oh my gosh!” as he came running back into the apartment shouting that there was a twenty-foot geyser in the front yard and that he was going to look for the shut off valve.

He finally located it but was unable to repair the pipe and then realized that the entire palm tree farm irrigation system was linked to the plumbing in our apartment. That was another no-brainer and needless to say, a very soapy sponge bath ensued. The next day we also discovered that the water heater burned out during the night which meant even the luxury of hot water was nonexistent for about a week and I sure wasn’t going to have the owner’s repairman fix it!!

MUD PUPPY?? – WAS THIS ON THE ARK?!?!

Another day Vince had an errand to run and it was pouring down rain when he left. As the water around the place was about six inches deep and getting deeper, I just decided to sit by the window and watch it get worse and worse when I noticed a mud puppy struggling in the mud.  He finally managed to find deeper water and I watched him swim by each window as he traveled around the whole circumference of the apartment. And for those of you that don’t know what that is, it’s kind of a fish with fins that are more like arms. As I am watching this, I am thinking to myself, what in the world am I doing here????

A LITTLE WHINE & CHEESE

Now, between all the roof leaks, the broken toilet and water heater, the swamp, the daily extreme heat and humidity, the creatures in and around our apartment, the dog piles, the mud and flooding, the unexpected “fun-filled” events, the incompetent repairman who wanted to drop by at any time unannounced to use our shower, the torrents of rain, and fighting all this, I was really an emotional wreck. After four months of this nonsense, I was really reaching my limit and I must admit that my attitude was less than joyous.

Through all these trials I had been giving myself to misery.  For years through all the struggles, heartbreaks and hardships I had made the choice to wallow in self pity, depression, frustration, rage, with a dash of discouragement, confusion, complaining, periodic crying and just a general habit of throwing a tantrum!!!  My actions were completely out of control and my emotions and feelings were ruling me and I wasn’t too shy about talking about it all either.  The enemy was controlling, manipulating and tormenting me by causing these problems and circumstances and I was acting JUST LIKE HIM!!  The trials and temptations are really a set up from the enemy and I was playing right into his hand by giving him all the responses he was looking for.

It never dawned on me that through Christ I could live detached from all this torment and that I could live in complete peace and joy from communing with God every day IN SPITE of what was going on around me.  I normally had a quiet time with God every day and prayed and read my Bible almost every day but it hadn’t really made any difference in my life when it came to how to handle applying it to these daily torments..

GOD OPENED MY UNDERSTANDING

Then one evening as my nerves were frayed from the overwhelming frustrations of the day and the complete disgust and contempt I had living in this swamp, that I found myself reading Romans 5:1-5: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, and not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience and patience worketh experience and experience worketh hope and hope maketh not ashamed…”

…And I noticed the cross-reference of this verse was James 1:3, “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.” The “knowing this” in this verse is revealed in verse 2, which is: “My brethren, count it all J-O-Y when ye fall into diverse temptations.” Well, that triggered a real anger within me and I cried out to God in exasperated frustration and I said out loud, “Just how do you expect me to rejoice in all this?”

I didn’t get an answer right away so I opened another book I had been reading by Rev. Jamie Buckingham entitled, “Where Eagles Soar”, and I stumbled on a Bible verse that IGNITED my soul and spirit!!

Here was my answer!! It was Hebrews 12:26 to 29: “Whose voice then shook the earth, but now He hath promised, saying, yet once more I shake not the earth only but also heaven. And this word, “yet once more” signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.  Wherefore we, receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear; For our God is a consuming fire."

The moment I read those words it was as if I was on F I R E!!! I then heard the voice of the Lord in my spirit and He said, “I’m shaking you to see that what remains is pleasing to me.”

And then the most unexpected thing happened.  Waves and billows of the love of God began to wash over me which seemed like a waterfall.  It truly was so real it almost pushed me over and I felt like the weight of the entire world had just been taken off of my shoulders. Tears of sheer joy began pouring down my face as God’s all consuming and overpowering inner peace overwhelmed me. I just sat there sobbing and weeping and allowing Him to saturate my life and inner being as I abandoned myself to Him. Then, through the tears I said, “God, now I can go through anything just for you!!” This was a deep, impassioned promise that came forth from the very depths of my soul in response to His passionate love for me.

A PURPOSE AMIDST THE INSANITY

These few verses had released all my torment and had given me an overwhelming inner peace that forever changed the course of my life.  All these trials had brought me to a defining moment.  I had needed to draw a line in the sand and stand my ground in God for a long time instead of acting like a spoiled child. Once I did that, everything from that point on began to make sense.  This breakthrough had opened my eyes to see the real battle raging within me revealing that, although these circumstances were driving me insane, this was meant for my ultimate good.

Biblical truths teach us that to overcome the enemy we must quit giving ourselves over to him.  I was doing that by throwing my tantrums and allowing my circumstances to control me and make me miserable.  My soulish, fleshly nature was at the heart of my problem as I was acting out of anger, disappointment and frustration.  We’d been going through this for years.  I came to the realization that God desired for me to rise to a level above the torments of the enemy and to fix my attention on Him.  Although outside circumstances were greatly affecting me, the heart of the problem was that my inner happiness depended on them instead of God.  I realized I needed a new nature, the nature Christ agonizingly died for me to have and it was high time I made the effort to receive what He had already provided.

The best way to answer any problem in this life is to look in the pages of the Bible and I truly found some wonderful scriptures that helped me do this:

Galatians 5:19-21 – This completely explains the old nature and everyone can find themselves somewhere in these verses.

Galatians 5:23-25 – This is how the new nature looks which is the Godly nature He births in us after salvation.  This is what a mature Christian looks like who has learned to rise above situations and overcome what the enemy throws at us. 

Ephesians 6:10-18 – These are the weapons God has given us to succeed and what defines the characteristics of a real Christian.

When we had no money for food or bills, or when the car needed to be repaired and we didn’t have the gas to get the car to the repair shop, much less afford the repairs, or when our vehicle caught on fire, or when we lost a $2,000,000 property and two locations of our business that we built for six years, year in and year out we learned to rejoice and worship God regardless of all outside circumstances.  We made the quality decision to delight ourselves in Him.

In ALL the hard times, the painful times, the difficult times, the panic-filled times, rejoicing and worshiping began to be a way of life and just in that principle alone, we discovered so many treasures, so many miracles, so much peace, so many rewards.  In those times our rejoicing brought God on the scene and He takes notice because you are honoring Him above all your trials.  THAT is the level we are to rise to above the torments of the enemy and one of the very best ways to defeat the enemy.  Worship IS warfare.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Learning that my real happiness was not in my surroundings, or in any given situation or circumstance but in the depths of Christ himself, had brought me to a higher level in Him.  No longer could outside influences steal my peace and joy, for God had become my joy and strength and source for everything.  He had given me a firm foundation and stability in Him that was sure, steadfast and immovable!!  Through the years the Lord amazingly "sharpened" this attitude of worship in Him so that it became our second nature. 

AS PAUL HARVEY USED TO SAY,  NOW, FOR THE REST OF THE STORY…

After I had received this impartation from God, rejoicing had begun to be effortless for me. The enemy didn’t have his hook in me any longer so I began making real progress. I was incredibly peaceful and just began waiting on God with a whole new attitude. Amazingly nothing at all had changed yet all the things that bothered me before had no bearing on me at all.  I just didn’t seem to notice them anymore.  I had a fresh, new beginning and a real joy and peace within that was really indescribable.

In less than two weeks a door opened for us to rent a cozy, two-bedroom, upstairs apartment with a balcony overlooking a small pool in a lovely setting in a small apartment complex.  This was in a very convenient location for our jobs and in a nice neighborhood and all at once all the finances came together for it at the same time.  God truly has perfect timing.  This was also the end of the rainy season and at the same time when the owner returned.

As we had almost no furniture, we had to sleep on the floor of the apartment for two weeks before we got our next pay checks to buy a bed but we finally had delightful air conditioning, dependable plumbing and no more mud puppies!!!  I came away from the swamp with a rock solid, unshakable spiritual foundation in my life that had stood the test of resisting the onslaught of the enemy and my reward was truly a comfort I had never expected.  It was a reality and feeling like no other.  It had been permanently implanted in my soul.  I had finally reached Christian adolescence having walked away, through the power of Christ, from the emotional tantrums of Christian infancy.  I had become an active warrior and had received a spiritual and material promotion.

And…I found that our lives can be joyous no matter what the enemy throws at us or whose swamp we’re living in!!!!!!

AFTER THOUGHTS AND LESSONS LEARNED

The presence of God was so strong in my life after that. I had learned something that no one could take away from me and it had great eternal value and a refreshing contentment. I had come through this with a greater love and understanding of God and a greater passion to serve Him.

Every tear and every trial we suffered was worth it all because we learned how to defeat the enemy God’s way.  As a result, He has delivered us on the other side of that chastening where we now live a peaceable life, better than I ever thought possible.

We are now seeing God’s multiplied goodness to us every day because:

1.  We didn’t run from our trials. In fact, we decided to make the most of them

2.  We learned to face them and go through them with a deliberate good attitude

3.  We deliberately rejoiced and glorified God in the worst of times

4.  We learned to control our words and our thoughts by choosing joy every day

5.  We refused to give up and learned to forgive

6.  We totally believed that God had good things in store for us.

7.  We discovered that tests, trials and tough times are God’s way of training us for        greatness.This is just like a parent will train his child, so God trains believers

8.  We learned that this process changes our sinful nature into His nature

9.  We learned we couldn’t do it without His help, His word, His comfort or guidance

10. We learned that there are seasons in God and that nothing lasts forever and to be content with where we are today.

Each battle we successfully win gives us godly wisdom and strength to help coach others along the way who are fainting under the onslaught of the enemy.  Many times the purpose for what you are going through right now is so that you can help so many others as they are suffering unthinkable, horrible pressures and stresses because they haven’t got a clue as to how to deal with what life throws at them.  When you learn to live a disciplined, Spirit-controlled life, and you have gone through what they are currently going through, you have an incredible window of opportunity to encourage them and speak into their lives the powerful truths you have learned while on your journey in God.

Those who choose to defy the enemy by persistently fighting him through love and faith in God, will be the leaders of tomorrow because this is what qualifies them for greatness.  When we aggressively pursue God by loving Him passionately, we will have spent our time wisely and not wasted our lives.

Communing with God on a daily basis brings a life directed and guided by the Holy Spirit which brings real peace and joy and eternal results.  While most of humanity is being destroyed for lack of knowledge, we will have applied ourselves to a higher call and taken on the challenge to empower those who will train up the next generation of overcomers.

MAY YOU SEEK TO KNOW THE DEPTHS OF GOD, BECAUSE IN THE SEEKING IS THE AMAZING DISCOVERY OF ATTAINING THINGS WORTH MORE THAN GOLD AND BECOMING SOMETHING FAR GREATER THAN YOU EVER EXPECTED.

May His Peace and Presence Invade Your Lives,

Rev. Laura Rizzo, Co-Founder & Dean of Admissions  ><>

Ames Christian University

Ames International School of Ministry

admissions@ameschristian.org

TENNESEE OR BUST

TENNESEE OR BUST

By Pastors Vince and Laura Rizzo

One of the worst and yet rather humorous times of our Christian training began in 1986 in Florida and took us on a journey to Greeneville, Tennessee. Amazingly we saw the mighty, miraculous and sovereign hand of God intervene in our lives repeatedly and learned some incredible lessons along the way…

We married in 1985 and at the end of our first year an offer came our way to live rent free, work at and be the Chaplains of a campground in Naples, Florida. To us this would be a very easy way to save money and I was always open for a change in scenery. Thinking we had nothing to lose, we had an interview with the park managers which proved to be very pleasant as the meeting was held in their lovely double-wide mobile home. They seemed so nice and reasonable and discussing our future positions seemed like such an effortless, natural choice and something we were meant to do all along.

Upon returning home we decided to vacate our lovely brand new apartment in Fort Myers to pursue this opportunity and were excited about embarking on this new adventure.

Our first day there was like a slap in the face. First off, we didn’t pay much attention to the camper that the managers had planned for us to reside in which was a gross oversight on our part. The interview was so “deceiving” that we just expected their camper to be as nice as their home. Wrong!! Upon exploring this tiny, filthy, horrifying mess, I immediately burst into tears at the sight and smell of it. By now it was too late to do anything about it as we had already given up our apartment, put all our furniture in storage and had made the commitment to take these positions. Was this a hint of things to come? You be the judge.

The day after that we started our jobs. My position at the campground was an office check-in clerk for the campers and Vince’s job was grounds maintenance and getting the campers settled onto their sites. Our next problem was that we naively believed the managers would uphold the terms for the positions we agreed to. As it turned out, completely contrary to our agreement, we worked every weekend, every Sunday and every holiday so in comparison to that, the filthy, small camper was soon insignificant. As time went on we just became more miserable and were certain that we’d made a grave mistake in our choice to go there. We then began fervently praying that God would do something—quick!!!

Customarily God rarely, if EVER, moves quickly and even if He does, its usually never within our time frame so while we were waiting for God to answer our prayers Vince happened to notice a 45 foot, 1961 International school bus that was for sale in the back of the campground.

Upon seeing it he sensed that God wanted us to have it so he actually just went and laid hands on it and asked the Lord for it. Within a few days he saw the man who owned it, spoke with him and we got a tour of it. The owner had been converting it to a camper and it had bunk beds for their kids, a customized kitchen table booth, a mid-sized refrigerator, a small kitchen sink, a small porta potty, (funny I never noticed it didn’t have a shower!!) and at this point I was open to WHATEVER would take us away from this cursed campground.

As we began to discuss the deal, we offered the man my car for an even-trade deal as it was a rather nice car, but he really wanted the Volkswagen camper we had. It was only three years old and a dear lady in our church, by direction of the Lord, had packed the thing to the full with everything anyone would ever need to go camping and then had given it to us free and clear. When he suggested that, a thrill came into my soul at the thought of blessing this man as he had a wife and kids and only had a moped (a tiny motor bike) to go to work, do errands, go grocery shopping and he owned nothing he could use to take his whole family anywhere.

Apparently God had intended all along for this man to have that camper van and everything in it as once we completed the deal, he radiated with joy and was praising God for this wonderful transaction. We too, were exceedingly happy and joyful especially since we could move out of the manager’s stinky camper!!

As it was now June of 1987, we spent several weeks working on the bus to complete the conversion and it took much longer than we expected because the heat and humidity were over 95 sweltering degrees each day. Between the heat and sweating profusely we both were exhausted by noon each day. Our upgrade included installing a window air conditioner unit in the back door window and we half killed ourselves getting a king sized bed in the back door of the bus and I wouldn’t suggest that maneuver to anyone!!! Just envision the three stooges taking on that task and it was us!!

Finally finishing the conversion, it was now time to take her out and see what she could do!! Upon our first jaunt with the bus one Sunday afternoon we were traveling towards the Everglades on a two-lane road, and had only gone a few miles when smoke began pouring out from under the hood. I pulled over onto an almost non-existent shoulder that almost dumped us into a canal and Vince leaped out, opened the hood and as he did the engine burst into flames!!!
In panic, he ran back into the bus and grabbed the fire extinguisher which he had just installed the day before, but he couldn’t get it to work!! Yikes!! Then I panicked, ran out and grabbed the extinguisher and began frantically reading the directions to operate it. At that point, Vince’s stress level went into overload and he promptly began losing his lunch on the side of the road as I finally managed to put out the fire!!

Thinking back, it must have been quite a quandary for the passers-by as they were probably quite confused as to which to respond to – the fire or Vince’s performance so no one stopped at all to help us!!!

Anyway, completely exhausted but relieved we crawled back into the bus and just sat there getting our breath when a kind, Florida Highway Patrolman traveling in the opposite direction did and u-turn and stopped to help us. He used his radio to call headquarters to get in touch with the seller who paid for the miraculous, minimal damage and we were on our way in no time!! (The miracles were starting already!)

At least now we knew the bus was roadworthy but we still needed to hear from God what to do about leaving the campground. About a week or two later one Sunday after one of our church services, a little lady told us about a place called Horse Creek in upper East Tennessee that was run by the U. S. Department of Forestry and she said we could possibly be campground hosts there and have a similar living situation there.

Well, that was music to my ears as we couldn’t wait to leave this campground and the annoying managers who had lied to us about everything. We immediately began praying about this and on Monday we called the Dept. of Forestry. They said they would love to have us come right away and informed us that their campground was in the Appalachian Mountains and that they had three huge swimming pools!!!—imagine that!! Not having been to Tennessee before, I immediately had visions of the kind of scenery of Oregon and of the Florida style of three lovely concrete swimming pools – how elegant and dreamy!!!

Finally, we were ready to make the trip and we had both quit our jobs and had purchased walkie-talkies to communicate to each other on the trip. Vince drove my car and I drove the bus as I had had extensive experience driving trucks and had my Chauffeur’s license for five years as I had worked outside construction related jobs before I met him.

Once we left Fort Myers I was as happy as a lark. The trek to Horse Creek was fairly uneventful until we were about six hours south of Atlanta when I heard a big bang from the engine. I radioed Vince and we both pulled over to check it out. As he walked up to the bus, he noticed that there was oil all down the outside of it. He opened the hood, looked around the engine, and not being a mechanic, he closed it, wiped the oil off of it, placed his hands on it and prayed that God would heal it – and God did just that!! (Acts 28:8). We never had a bit of trouble with it from that time on and we arrived at our destination safe and sound six hours later.

However, by the time we reached our destination MY stress level had gone into overload. Each time I called the Dept. of Forestry they could not give me exact directions to the campground!!! Each time I hung up the pay phone I was scratching my head in unbelief asking myself why couldn’t they just tell me where their campground was?? – after all they lived in Tennessee and they should know where their own campground was!!!

Unbeknownst to us many of the roads in Tennessee seem to have been designed and constructed by persons under the influence of alcoholic substances or if you prefer, moonshine!! The roads continue endlessly curling and winding for miles and miles. It turned out that Horse Creek was at the furthest end of one of these roads and was a place less than your average “Mayberry” with the nearest town being 18 miles away!!!

The campground itself was at the base of a huge mountain with ten tent campsites and we soon learned there were NO showers, one OUTHOUSE and NO lights within 500 feet anywhere. And as for the “three swimming pools”? These were nothing but holes in the ground about 8 to 10 feet deep with freezing ice cold, mountain stream water running through them and…where we would have to bathe for the next three months!!!!!!!!! We realized we were totally unprepared for camping up north and my dreamy visions of Oregon and elegant swimming pools turned into nightmares of “WHAT’S NEXT?”

After coming all this way, this was our future. I really remember quoting that line that has the fire and the frying pan in it and the phrase, “What were we thinking?” Here we were again faced with inconceivable, uncontrollable living conditions which we had to accept. I could handle the darkness outside as we did have power to our site and we were still in contact with the civilized world because the rangers installed a phone for us but I didn’t handle the outhouse issue well and as for bathing in water day in and day out that wasn’t frozen just because it was running downhill?? That was another issue altogether!!!!

Needless to say, we didn’t bathe TOO much and fortunately there weren’t too many campers down wind of us. And using the small porta potty we had meant Vince had to dump it in the outhouse every few days – that was another nightmare I totally chose to ignore. When we did have to bathe, our normal bath time schedule in 30 degree weather was:
1. Put our bathing suits on under our clothes and jackets.2. Wait till it was so dark you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face.3. Take a large towel and bar of soap and your flip flops or sandals.4. Use a large flashlight to run to the creek.5. Strip down and jump in while screaming at the top of your lungs to dull the shock.6. Jump out to lather up.7. Jump in again while screaming even louder to rinse off.8. Jump back out and hold the flashlight so the other person could do the same thing.9. Run like crazy back to the bus without falling and freezing!!10. Pile tons of blankets on us to keep from hypothermia!!

The upside was that bathing outside at night, makes one very glad that there are no lights within 500 feet!!!

We spent our days praying and worshiping God and studying and job hunting. We found that the norm for Tennessee is to hire and lay off all the same people year after year at all the factories because most of these folks are very clannish. That means if you weren’t born there they didn’t give outsiders a second thought. So here we were in another impossible situation where we had to pray and wait on God –again!!

One thing we really learned was how to trust God and trust that He could take care of us regardless of the situation. We still had some bills from Florida but being caretakers of this campground meant we had no overhead except for food and gas but we were learning that if God could take care of the birds of the air like He said in Matthew 6:25-34, that He could take care of us. And God was there to meet us many, many times.

To most people no jobs mean no money for food, gas or bills, but to us, this is God’s perfect recipe for a miracle. To us this is a time of sheer excitement as we wait to see God open His miraculous hand and make a way where there seems to be no way.

However, it may sound like that was an easy formula to receiving from God but it was incredible training for us which I called the “fumes of faith” because there were times that I thought WE WOULD PERISH!! And, when it comes to perishing I always think of Queen Esther in the Bible when she was positioned to intercede for the lives of the entire Jewish nation. The risk she took to go to the king with her petition to repeal a law to annihilate her people was a life and death decision she had to make whether she died doing it or not. She trusted God to see her through this and so did we.

Sometimes when we thought all was lost and that we would perish, we would come home from job hunting and find another miracle had taken place such as the day we came home and the whole one side of our entire bus was lined with huge grocery bags full of fresh vegetables of all kinds that came from the park rangers. There were about 20 bags in all. We were totally in awe of what God was doing as we told no one but God of our needs. We had been at the end again with no money for food at all. We later learned that all the park rangers owned and ran farms and worked at several different parks part time. In our greatest hour of need God had orchestrated these people to bless us during our times of despair.

As Day Light Savings Time was ended, it was getting darker sooner so we mentioned to the Dept. of Forestry just how dark the park was and they placed a large light fixture behind our bus which was just outside our bedroom air conditioner. This was rather comforting to us as the woods at the base of this huge mountain in the park rendered everything pitch black once the sun set.

However, we really hadn’t thought far enough ahead on this because being that this light was THE ONLY LIGHT IN THE PARK, we were awakened in the middle of the night to find whole families of crickets leaping through the air conditioner vent onto our king size bed!!
Half asleep, half laughing, swatting and beating the sheets we attempted to rid ourselves of over 50 of the noisy creatures who were having a grand time invading our nocturnal bliss!! I finally yelled for Vince to go outside and shut off the light to keep the rest of the cricket population from coming in. Getting back to sleep many hours later I recall even laughing in my sleep after this crazy episode. We saw this as God bringing us moments of laughter from the smallest things to keep us from discouragement and from giving up.

One day in November we discovered a local tent revival. The 30 degree weather rendered very small crowds and we noticed they were getting very small offerings as well. The small crowds made it easy for us to get acquainted with the lady preacher and we found that she too was living by faith. She then invited Vince to preach the last night of the revival.

That evening at the revival Vince sensed that the Lord wanted him to pledge to give her and her team $50.00. We didn’t have $5.00 let alone $50.00, but we knew that we served a faithful God and that He would provide. When the last night of the revival came, we still didn’t have the pledge but Vince went and preached till they were cheering and receiving from God. In fact, the lady preacher was so kind that she had all the attendees come forward and give us an offering as they left and not having ever experienced that type of offering before we just stuffed the money into our pockets.

Later when it was all over, Vince pulled $50.00 out of his pockets for her and we discovered that between the two of us we still had $290.00 left over which to us was a gold mine!! This was just enough for us to pay our few bills, get food and gas, go out to dinner and wait on God again for the next provision. Our hearts were overflowing with joy and excitement that God had met our needs, again!!

Our job hunting finally proved successful when I was hired as a secretary at a local church. The pastor could only pay me $4.00 per hour and I could only afford to work part time three days a week because each trip was 36 miles so it was rather costly. For three months we lived on about $40.00 per week!!!!

On some of those pay days, I remember walking up and down the grocery aisles tears streaming down my face wondering how we could conceivably survive and trying to reason how we would ever have enough money for gas and food, the bills and incidentals. The impossibility of it all was overwhelming and each week I would VERY carefully choose what we could afford and we always tithed $4.00 per week at the church as well. Trust me when I say that it is terribly hard on your flesh to tithe $4.00 per week when you are only making $40.00 per week but we found joy in giving to God as we saw Him lovingly provide for us time and time again.
But, don’t you know that if Jesus could feed 5,000 from one loaf of bread and two little fish that he could care for us just fine on $40.00 per week!!! He multiplied our loaves and fishes each and every week!!!! God would even put us before people who were making much more money per week than us but would be in terrible financial situations. They were living in fear as they did not have enough money to feed their kids and this one family of five we knew were living on was ice milk as the father worked at a dairy.

We would then be able to witness to them and testify how powerfully and faithfully God had provided for us and taken care of us when we put Him first in our lives. These same people would then financially bless us out of their extreme need and the next time we would see them, they had a testimony to tell of the goodness of God in His care and provision for them as well!!! In fact the next week the husband got a promotion and a raise!! When we honor God in all we do, He will honor us in due time.

Now as it turned out, Vince could not find a job so he had the privilege of staying home and praying and seeking the Lord and God would just manifest himself to him and be so real to Vince that he was incredibly encouraged and would then encourage me through the rough times.
Periodically we would get invitations to preach at local churches, which was the result of Vince’s time spent in prayer. The opportunities helped us form local friendships and provided some funding as the churches responded with some support.

By now winter was fast approaching and the situation was getting steadily MORE uncomfortable and annoying. The November-December temperatures were so cold that the mountain stream we bathed in felt like needles piercing your skin. By the time we would run back to the bus, we were so frozen that we had to stack layers of blankets on both of us to be able to stand it. The water actually felt so cold that one time Vince had a terrible headache and he dove in and practically flew out of the water and then realized his headache was completely gone!! (Either that or he was so cold he couldn’t feel it any longer!!)

Anyway, the next problem was that the campground we were in was now closing and we had to relocate to another park. In fact, it was so late in the season that when we moved to this new park we were the ONLY ones there and it was scheduled to close within two weeks. The hand of the Lord also gave us favor there as the park managers allowed us to stay free of charge!
We set up camp as usual but at least this place had hot showers – what a wonderful luxury!!!! But then the trials and challenges began again. This time we faced black spiders with fuzzy white hair on their backs that seemed to be everywhere. One day while doing the dishes I was rinsing a dish when I looked up and here was one of these spiders dangling from the shelving unit above the sink right in front of my nose!! I gasped in sheer horror and it was just enough to get him to drop down in the dishwater right where I wanted him. I thank my God that I didn’t inhale any harder or that thing would have gone right down my throat, hair and all!!

As the days passed it even got colder and we had to run two space heaters all night long because school buses have no insulation. If it was 20 degrees outside it was just about that cold inside and you could see your breath if you sat up in bed.

One night it was just too much for our generator and we woke up to the sounds of explosions and flashing lights on the left side of the bus. Afraid to look but praying it just may be something else besides our bus exploding, we dared to peek outside the curtains to realize that the power box under the bus was self-destructing right before our very eyes at 3:00 in the morning!!
Yes, it was July in Christmas – the 4th of July!! Streams of objects were shooting into the night air with great beams of light that were projecting into the pitch blackness at accelerating speeds. Booms of bangs were piercing the silence of the night as we watched our only source of heat go up in a blaze of glory. I remember just rolling my eyes back, looking over at Vince and pulling the covers over my head and saying, “We’ll just deal with it in the morning!” It was just easier to forget it all and sleep in denial for the rest of the night.

In the morning after investigating everything, we discovered that besides the power box dying that all the water pipes had frozen and burst. At this point we were at our wits end. We again were at the place of no money at all. We managed to temporarily fix things but our attitudes were really beginning to lean towards the disgusted side.

Then at around 11:00 p.m. the very last night the campground was open, we got a knock on our door and were very surprised to see a couple from the tent revival who came to see us and they wanted prayer. (We didn’t remember mentioning it, but we must have told the lady preacher where we were going to move to so she must have told them where we were.)

We were really not in the mood to pray for anyone but we did all the while I was trying to be sensitive to God to see what He would have me bless them with because they were the poorest people at the revival – they put coins into our hands when the lady preacher told everyone to give us an offering as they left the revival!!)

Anyway, God did not tell me to give them anything and spent some time with them, offered them some refreshments and then we said our goodbyes. Once they left Vince went back to being disgusted. Two minutes later I heard another knock at the door and it was the wife of the couple and she shoved something in my hand and I just said “Thank you” to her as I thought it was probably a one dollar bill. We again said goodbye, I shut the door and Vince came out to see who it was just as I opened my hand to see a $100.00 bill!!! We both were just completely stunned. I think I muttered “The wife just gave me this.” I think we just stood there about five minutes just starring at it not believing that poor little lady had given us that much money!!! Then we both did the dance of joy!!! We were just beside ourselves and thanked God and rejoiced all over the place and we slept very well that night as I recall!!

The next day all of a sudden Vince wondered whether the couple had mistakenly given us their rent money in the dark!! We had no idea where they lived or worked and looked for them for a while. Not finding them we went ahead and purchased food and gas and ran into a couple of women who were in the praise and worship team from the church we had been attending and I had been working at. They inquired how we were doing and they just happened to be the managers of an apartment complex just outside of town and by that night we had put a deposit on an apartment and had moved into it and had traded the bus for a nice car at a used car lot in town.

Interestingly enough, the next time we saw the couple that had given us the $100.00, Vince immediately asked them if they had mistakenly given us their rent money. The husband spoke up and said that when they walked outside of our camper and were getting ready to leave, they were in their car figuring out how much money to give us when they looked out toward the woods and saw a pure, white dove fly out of the woods and land on the top of our bus. As soon as they saw that, the wife ran to give us the $100.00!!

In a tiny moment of time, through the most unexpected servants of God, He had provided all we needed. I couldn’t have been more surprised. When you are determined to submit yourself to God, He will shock you with His love at times. More and more He was showing us His absolute faithfulness and loving hand of provision. More and more we were learning to behave during the hard times by maintaining a good attitude and learning to control our emotions and feelings. When we were upset or angry with God and He would answer our prayers, we would feel so ashamed that we didn’t believe and have the faith that He would take care of us.

We were learning not to get upset but to worship and love Him with a joyful spirit continually regardless of what we were going through because we knew that if we didn’t have a good attitude that we weren’t being faithful to Him. If we praise Him before He answers, it proves that we really trust Him and have faith that He is able to deliver us and keep us because He is our portion, our strength, our deliverer, our provider, the rock of our salvation in whom we can trust completely!!!

It is a wondrous thing to fall in love with the one I call Daddy God. Growing up, my brother and I never had a father image in our family – my mom brought us up all alone and Vince also had a very difficult youth as well. Father is a name neither of us could relate to but God cared for us so deeply that He revealed Himself in ways of love we never expected. Getting to know God as a real father is an incredible privilege and honor. We found the heart of God in the midst of desperation and looking back I know it was worth every moment of that desperation because soon, it wasn’t about the money, it wasn’t about jobs or preaching engagements, it was about falling in love with a God who not only gave His own Son but continued to give and give and give.
This whole journey was meant to pull us much deeper than survival or supply, it all was meant to create deep within us an unrelenting passion and devotion to the One and Only God who is alive forevermore and who loves us beyond all intellect, all knowledge, all circumstance, all there is.