September 16, 2005 Update - Walking In Agreement Ministries

God bless and good morning to each of you! This is another lengthy one, but worth the read.

I spoke with my doctor's nurse on Thursday and she read from the report, "margins are clear and removed dissected nodes are all benign." Okay people of God, the praise dance has just been expanded to an outright, I don't care who's watching, jump up and down, shout to the top of your lungs, run around the room, and whatever else you can do to give HIM praise dance!!!! Glory! Glory! Glory! Our God is an awesome God and He does reign from heaven above and He does care about us and He is faithful to His Word and most importantly, He does love us unconditionally.

When you see me praising Him in one or all of those ways, you'll somewhat understand my praise. My praise comes from more than a "good" pathology report. It's much deeper than that. God said, "No weapon formed against me shall prosper" and that's exactly what He meant. The events that have happened in my life in the past couple of years have been enough to make one throw up their hands and cry out "uncle." I'm so glad, I didn't.

Brief synopsis of my life since July 2003.

July 2003. The night before my family and I were to leave for vacation to Chicago, we received a call that my 19 year old cousin was just in a fatal car wreck in AR. By the time we reached AR, we learned that the driver (a May 2003 hs graduate) also lost his life. How do you comfort an entire town that had been impacted by such devastation? I didn't know either. My main concern was for my aunt and the rest of the family. God gave us a peace that surpassed our finite understanding. He comforted us during that time as we prayed for and with our family members.

November 2003, my family and I were going home after church and as we exited the interstate all was well, at least for about 2-3 minutes before we were rear-ended by an 88 year old gentleman. I was driving our mini van at the time and the force of the hit catapulted us head on with a cement retaining wall. I remember my husband screaming "Jesus" and suddenly the van had swerved and we hit the wall on the driver's side. As I was trying to gain control of the vehicle and get back on the road, the gentleman hit us again on the passenger side this time before the vehicle came to a stop with the expulsion of both air bags. Let me tell you how God protected us from "the seen and unseen danger". Our sons were sitting on the second row behind us with the seat reclined as they were sleeping. You have got to picture this in your head; a mini van has three windows on each side and the front and back windows. The impact of the rear collision shatters the back window, but instead of the window collapsing inward (remember the boy's seat is reclined), it collapses outward!!!!! Hallelujah! That's not all. Every window on that van was broken except the two windows on each side where our sons were sitting. Remember, the whole driver's side slammed into the wall and when we were hit the second time, it was on the door where the boys were sitting. I sustained the most injuries and bless God we all came through a near fatal accident.

December 2003, a week before Christmas we get a call that my father in law had just died. Three days later, another call, my grandfather has died. I'm thinking now Lord, what is really going on? He assured me that He had this covered. My mother in law shared with us that when she walked in the room with my father in law, he was looking heavenward and his last six words were: "Yes Lord, Yes Lord, Yes Lord." Sounds like he was answering the call. The visitation and the funeral of both my father in law and my grandfather were planned for the exact same days at the exact same time, 50 miles apart from each other. I made a decision without hesitation to be with my husband. After all, he was my first obligation. Christmas 2003 was one that will never soon be forgotten.

January 2004, maybe two weeks after my grandfather's funeral, my aunt's husband collapses outside as he is washing the car and dies.

July 2004, our family reunion on my mother's side takes place in New Orleans. My family and I had been under so much stress, we decided to opt out of the reunion and go for a much needed vacation. Thanks to a very kind and generous colleague, we spent a week in the mountains in Virginia. God gave us rest and peace like we never experienced before. Right before the reunion ends, my sister in law (from GA) who was pregnant and due later in the fall was hospitalized in New Orleans. My sister in law almost died, the baby had to be delivered early and she was in critical condition. I'm not sure she weighed much more than 1 pound. God prepped us in the mountains to begin to pray for my sis in law and my niece. Can I tell you that today my niece has dumbfounded the doctors, she is a healthy, active and beautiful little lady (Gabriana is her name).

April 2005, my cousin at the age of 44 dies from breast cancer that was detected too late and had spread through her body (don't delay those appointments). Her funeral was Mother's Day weekend.

May 2005, Memorial Day weekend we pick up a message from the voicemail, "call home, something's wrong with Kennedy." I'm thinking, what's wrong with Kennedy, we just saw her in AR during Mother's Day weekend? By the time we made the call home, my precious and sweet little 2 yr old niece had passed away. My parents have 10 children (5 - 5) and we all traveled to McKinney, TX to be with my baby brother and his wife. You know, I'm always amazed at how few words people have when at the time, many are needed (those would be encouraging words). As we approached my brother's home, he called me on the cell to say, "Don't go in talking sad to my wife, she doesn't want that." I'm an easy going person, so I can respect that wish. So, I go in to their home and I begin talking with my sis in law, the first thing I tell her is this, "You can't tell me how to talk to you!" :>) After a few giggles, we were able to sit and have nice and not awkward conversation.

Sorry for the detour, back to my life story. As you can tell, I'm almost up to September 2005, but not quite yet.

July 31, 2005, My husband takes on the responsibility as Senior Pastor at Faith United Baptist Church here in Nashville.the enemy is not pleased. How can I distract him and the enemy begins his tactics.

August 7, 2005, My husband begins a preaching series on, "A Home of Prayer."

August 10, 2005, I discover a mass in the crease of my armpit. Initially, I thought, "I'm scheduled for a Mammogram in a month, I can wait." The Holy Spirit said "NO, you can't." The next day I go to my doctor, she sends me to have the Mammogram. The radiologist tells me I have a mass and need to have it biopsied. I return to my doctor's office and she tells me, "I've scheduled an appointment for you on Monday to go and see a breast surgeon. I need to tell you that the radiologist believes the mass is cancerous and I don't want you to be taken by surprise when you see the doctor on Monday." Fast forward to Monday, the doctor does an exam and wants me to come back for a biopsy. Wednesday the biopsy is done and Friday, I get the call with results.

August 24, 2005, I send out my first prayer request. God bless each of you who stood in agreement with me in prayer.

September 7, 2005, On Sunday, my husband preached his 5^th message on Prayer and on this day I enter the hospital with no anxieties at all. I knew God was about to manifest His miracle He had already promised. The doctor was thoroughly pleased with what he saw during the operation.

September 15, 2005, I speak with the doctor's nurse regarding the pathology report and she reads, "margins are clear and removed dissected nodes are all benign." The doctor will call you today or tomorrow to discuss what's next.

NO WEAPONS FORMED AGAINST ME SHALL PROSPER!!!

I'm not perfect (I know that's hard to believe) :>) and I slip up daily. My husband made the statement that God wants us to "repent" not "repeat". I have a responsibility and accountability to God for my actions, thoughts and words. To those of you receiving this email, if I have ever done, thought or said something negative about you, I truly apologize. It's not all of you, but I'm sure somewhere down the line, it has been some of you. Please forgive me and accept my apology.

God said in His Word, ".it is appointed unto man once to die ." No one knows the day or time he/she will leave this world, but daily we are dying. What plans have you made for eternity? What plans have you made period? We're all alive because our time isn't up yet. But, who knows which of us will still be alive next week this time? No one but God.

I'm done now. If you would like more info on that preaching series of prayer ( a person of prayer, the purpose of prayer, the procedure of prayer, etc.) let me know.

Thanks for reading.

Blessings,

Benita