It's About That Time

     It's hard to believe that it was March when I made my last entry.  Boy does time fly.  I am making it through school pretty well thus far.  We are now at the half way mark in my Masters of Theology curriculum.  If we stay on point we should expect to graduate in April 2016.  We are moving through these cohorts with lightening speed.  I am learning so much, but with the accelerated speed at which we are going through the material I feel that I will need to go back and review for my own personal satisfaction. I am learning so much about Christian theology, the beginning of the church, the foundation of the canon, the major turning points in Christianity, the early church fathers, and the various movements like the Protestant Reformation, Methodism, and every thing that has shaped the church into what it is today.

     

     This weekend was action packed for me as well.  I flew to New Jersey on Thursday to do the Thomas Family Reunion.  They loved the show!  It was great.  They held the reunion at the Embassy Suites in Piscataway, N.J.  I was in rare form as the spirit was with me the whole time.  I brought Woody, and Uncle Rufus to life with comedy and music that filled the hearts of all in attendance.  I was actually doing the show for my cousin Beverly's husband, Willam's family. I stayed up that night after the show until 3 AM doing research for my paper on John Wesley's Doctrine of Sin.  I woke up at 5:30 AM to prepare to leave for the airport.  I had to catch a plane at 8 AM back to Atlanta.  When I arrived in Atlanta I hurried home to McDonough, repacked, paid some bills, and my wife and I drove six hours to Fort Walton Beach, FL to do another family reunion show. It looks like I'm becoming the King of the family reunions!  That's alright because I love it.  There is something special about performing for families.  There is something special about the people who see the importance of having such a gathering as a family reunion. A lot of work goes into planning a family reunion, and I take my hat off to the people who do so.  I'm also grateful that many families are seeking to have comedy and entertainment.  They see the benefit of it and do not mind paying a couple of thousand dollars plus hotel and lodging to make it happen.  I say "God bless you."  That's what the money is for.  If you can afford it do it.  Those memories will live long after the money is gone.

     My wife Sherry and I finally made it to Fort Walton Beach and it was an outside show.  Typically comedians do not like outside performances, but I was already paid in full to do this, and that's what I do.  It was like 100 degrees outside on Saturday, but I tried to get under the tent that they had as much as possible.  The only problem was that I was under the tent with the family performing and the speakers were like forty five feet behind me.  So every time I spoke you would hear my voice after I had already said the words.  It was doing a number on my timing.  I had to tell the jokes and then listen for them to be finished before I could go on to the next one.  And you know being a ventriloquist is hard enough.  Anyway I pushed through it with God's help.  Uncle Rufus started off the show and then it was on to Woody for the close.  It ended up being a really nice event although the people were waiting to eat, and I had to go on before the food was served, because the man with the grill broke down on the highway. So I had a hundred something hungry, hot souls sitting in front of me outside under a tent waiting for me to make them laugh.  To God be the glory....lol.

     Immediately after the show Sherry and I packed our truck and headed back home for another six hour drive.  We ended up stopping in Lagrange, GA for some brick oven baked pizza and calamari.  It was good.  We then proceeded to make the 80 mile trip home, which seemed longer than the whole six hour trip.  Luckily for me Sherry drove the last leg.  I was knocked out sleep.  I kept waking up thinking our we there yet?  Nope not yet.

     We made it home and I hopped right in the bed.  I did not pass Go or collect $200. I woke up Sunday morning and turned on the television to watch Word of Faith with Bishop Dale C. Bronner.  After the broadcast I called my upline in Karatbars, Michael Dalcoe to find out about the money that we are making from this fantastic gold savings business.  If you don't know about Karatbars International you need to do yourself a favor and check it out.  It's unlike any other network referral business that you have ever seen.  All network referral businesses want to help you do one thing and this it to make $$ money $$.  I don't care if it's Noni juice, Coffee, tea, travel, Pre-paid Legal, Amway, Avon, Zinga, or what it is, they all want you to make money by selling their product or services.  Well Karatbars is different because they only want you to save your money which is a depreciating asset into gold which is an appreciating asset, and you make money by telling others.  It's simple as that.  It's free to join.  You don't have to pay a monthly website fee, or a monthly product fee, or meet sales quotas, or have a certain number of people to qualify.  The motto at Karatbars is to pay yourself first. Do you know that in 1932 if you had $100,000 today it would be worth $2,000 by our current standards and inflation.  However, if you had $100,000 worth of gold it would be worth $4.5 million dollars.  Did you hear what I just said?  So now we acquire currency grade gold in 1 gram, 2.5 grams, or 5 gram increments as often as possible. I have been saving a gram or two per week over the last six weeks.  A gram cost 54 Euro which is about $60 U.S.  If you just save 2 grams of gold per month, how much do you think you'll have in five years, ten years, 20 years?  That will be your whole retirement savings plan itself.  It's worth it. Not to mention that the dollar may collapse and then what are you going to use to transact business?  You better get some of this currency grade gold.  You saw what happen in Greece a couple of weeks ago.  Don't think that it can't happen in America.  We are already in a financial crisis state where the houses aren't even worth what you paid for them.  But for the grace of God where would we  be?  So check out www.therealmoney.info and contact me if you have any questions about the gold, and how you can make money with the program.  It's awesome!  I'm using it to help fund my retirement.

So back to the story.  I got up this morning and made it to church at Tabernacle of Praise International in McDonough, GA. My wife was exhausted so I went to stand in the gap for my family.  That's what us men are suppose to do.  We are the spiritual leaders of our families you know.  You do know that right?  Okay cool.  So I made it to church and the children led the service this week under the tutelage of Minister Sipho Mhlanga.  This guy is a firecracker for God.  I don't know if anyone has more energy than him.  Well, maybe Pastor T.J. McBride, but Sipho is our youth pastor and he is great!  This morning he had a few of our teenagers speak about a recent mission trip that they took to Jamaica.  The kids spoke so eloquently and made me very proud.  They talked about how they saw the move of God on some of the poor people that they encountered.  They mentioned how even though the people did not have money or the things that we have in America they still had the joy of Christ in them.  It was moving to hear them speak.  Afterwards Pastor T. J. McBride introduced Dr. Patricia Bailey a missionary who has traveled all over the world bringing the gospel to people, and helping them with their needs.  She told the church about a horrible atrocity which is taking place in the Congo of Africa and other African nations regarding the raping of young females.  Would you believe that there are African soldiers who are raping young African girls all the way down the age of five?  Yes.  They are doing this in accordance to some pagan belief that they are made stronger and gain more power by raping women and young girls. How absurd is that?  There was one story of how someone raped an eleven month old baby girl.  You've got to be kidding me!  So her message really stirred us up today and she charged TOP (Tabernacle of Praise International) and all African American churches to get more involved with international missions work.  Our pastor agreed and we are committed to doing so.  That's why I love TOP because we are actually doing work in the community and the world.  We can see where our money goes.  We ended up taking up an offering for Dr. Patrica Bailey's ministry as she was leaving today to head straight for the Congo of Africa.  She has been involved in numerous missions and has worked with Pastor Bill Winston, and Dr. Fred Price of Crenshaw Christian Center in Los Angeles.  For more information or to make a donation to her ministry go to www.patriciabaileyministries.com.  

She talked about how much we spend here in America to maintain our habits, creature comforts, and luxuries.  We put so much emphasis on having the newest I-Phone, Samsung Galaxy, Ipad,or the new Jordans, or having the finest car, or home, but on a whole we do not support people in need as much as we can.  In fact, we don't even know what is going on in these foreign countries unless the news media tells us.  Unfortunately they are not telling us every thing.  Therefore, we have to do our own research, and find out where we can help others.  We have so much here in America.  Sometimes too much.  It seems the more we get, the more we want.  We are never satisfied. We have so many things and then we have to work so hard to keep it all.  In the end it's like the things end up having us.  I'm making a concerted effort to cut back, downsize, save, and have more money to contribute to world missions and even domestic missions.  Our goal is to take the gospel to the uttermost parts of the world.  If we don't do it who will?

Need a church home in Atlanta, GA or surrounding communities?  Visit Tabernacle of Praise International
www.topci.org

Also give to overseas missions.  Support Dr. Patricia Bailey in Africa

Give to www.patriciabaileyministries.com

Need comedy for your family reunion or event go to www.cleancomedyclinic.com or call (310) 663-9228

And for more information on how you can start a free gold savings plan or generate income by 

sharing with others contact me about Karatbars International at (310) 663-9228

Visit www.therealmoney.info for an overview.