I was born into a depression era family, number four of five siblings. My parents believed in hard work. My mother’s favorite saying was, ‘An idle man’s mind is the devil’s workshop.’ My mother modeled this motto of hers 24-7 and thus kept us extremely busy teaching us how to wash and dry dishes, cook, sew, do laundry, (no auto washers or dryers then) iron, clean house, dust, etc. - all the things it took to maintain an orderly home. My daddy taught me how to use a hammer, screwdriver, garden tools, plant a garden, feed the chickens, gather the eggs, and even mow part of the lawn – much of this to my mother’s chagrin. A tomboy, no! But I was my daddy’s baby girl and he was wonderful about allowing me to be his shadow. Yes, I adored my father, he was the most wonderful man I knew.
My parents also believed in good manners, such as, yes sir, no mam, thank you and please may I. They also taught me to respect my elders, teachers and all civil authorities.
The five of us were all educated in parochial schools most of our lives for which I am sure my parents made a huge sacrifice. We also attended church every Sunday and if you were too sick for church you were too sick to do anything else that day, (I believe, to include even reading the funny papers). I was also taught about God, His Ten Commandments and a lot of what they called the Golden Rule, even though, many of those were man-made rules and regulations as I would later find out. But, they were all basically good. For all of this, I am very thankful because I don’t ever remember a day not knowing and believing in Almighty God.
And for all of the above, I am also very grateful to God for giving me these wonderful parents who did their very best "to train us up in the way we should go."
With all of this I grew up and made a lot of mistakes along the way, but my parents always loved me through my failures, in particular, divorce and remarriage. Due to the sin in my life I made many bad choices and put my children and self through a lot of unnecessary misery. In spite of all this, God had a wonderful plan for my life.
In June of 1982, I had a mighty encounter with Jesus. I was born again and received the baptism in the Holy Spirit all in one morning. I began to devour the Word of God because I had never read it for myself, and had been trained to believe that one needed to be a theologian to interpret it. I would even stay home from work (our own business) just to read the bible. I was at church every time the doors were open and attended numerous bible studies.
With all that Jesus did for me during that first year I was still taunted by my past failures and many of the man-made rules and regulations. My mentor at that time had given my husband and I a great number of books to read which included some about deliverance. So in 1983-84 we began a pursuit of the deliverance and inner healing ministries that were available in the early eighties. They were all beneficial and I received a measure of deliverance.
But in 1994-95 I was introduced to Vision Life Ministries. I came for a personal ministry session with Dr. Malone and attended VLM’s Kingdom Warfare seminars taught by Henry, Tina and their son, Bart. My life continued to be set free from many of the afflictions, ancestral curses, bondages, fears, etc. that had plagued a greater part of my life.
And then in 1998 I received a notice that Vision Life Ministries and Dr. Malone would begin to teach the School of Deliverance Ministry. My heart leaped inside when I read of this and I knew that I had to be a part of these classes. They were held monthly that year and I couldn’t wait to attend each class, I did not want to miss anything. I not only learned about the 2-5-14 principle to deliverance but about "authority".
I thought that I had been trained and taught about authority but what I knew was only the tip of the iceberg. Dr. Malone introduced me to an entirely new way of thinking that God intended for mankind and that was submission to authority. This information has truly revolutionized my life, I had not a clue how rebellious I really was.
I will forever be grateful to this ministry and what I have learned by being associated with it. For those of you who do not know me, I am privileged to work in the ministry full time as the Secretary/Receptionist and truly see the labor of love poured into people from every walk of life that are being touched by and through this ministry. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Dr. Malone and Tina for committing your lives to see others set free from the power of sin and every type of spiritual bondage. You also not only teach authority but you live it.
