Seeds Matter !

 Relay Media Group is committed to sharing important stories that have impacted our lives, whether it be personal stories or ones in or outside of the 4 walls of the church, or in the mainstream of our society.

 In celebration of Black History Month, the team at Relay Media Group is “passing this story on”.

This story tells of a power packed time in the World, America and  in Church history. A significant time when there were men and women who had a sense of  the grand design of what God wanted to do to change the face of the church, the world and America’s history...only IF they would dare to SEE as He saw ,and continue to MOVE as He was moving. It was a time of a sovereign visitation to change a nation, and move it outside of certain cultural, racial and religious divides, "IF" they were willing and bold enough to take that journey with Him.

 From the tender age of  3 years old, I began hearing stories about a time in history when hearts had been stirred to go in that direction with a man called Seymour and others, and how powerful that move was. I from that young age began to see and experience the results of this time, by many that I was surrounded by.

My father and mother were born between 1914 and 1917, not long after the Azusa street revival that started in 1906. My grandmother was born in the 1800's, so I got a  strong sense and download in what seemed like "surround sound". I was told many powerful stories at my parents and grandmother's knee about that time ,that impacts my life to this day.  

We lived in a very small town in the South ( the state of Florida to be exact). My home town was several hundred miles away from Tampa, Florida, but we traveled there often, sometimes almost nightly, for the sake of my grandmother, who was at that time practically bound to a wheelchair. It was a different world, both in and out of the 4 walls of the church and society period. 

You see  the miles we’d travel  were filled with excitement , anticipation and expectancy that my grandmother would at some point receive her healing , and be able to walk again….that was our families focus …nothing else! By faith, was unapologetically their way of life!

We were going to services held by a major “healing evangelist” at the time, and I as a little girl saw amazing miracles in front of my young eyes, that left an indelible imprint on my heart and soul.
 Clearly One thing was sure and that was, when we arrived at those tent meeting grounds with all of my parents excitement, for “some reason” we were always quietly ushered to stand at the edge of the tent, and literally the only thing that was allowed under that tent was the very front of my grandmother’s wheelchair, and her feet. We all had to stand as a family at the edge, but not under the covering, and there we stood for hours ,as I watched my parents pray and rejoice, even in the face of those circumstances.
Somehow it didn’t seem to matter, because their focus was on some ONE much larger than those circumstances, even though those circumstances loomed large, one thing was evident  and that was that there was a clear racial divide, that prevented us from being accepted to sit in the midst of all of the other worshippers… it simply wasn't allowed by the evangelist my parents were told ....hmmm sad.

 To my amazement with ALL of that division, miracles yet occurred, and I never once heard my parents complain, or let it distract or distort their focus or faith, as we drove those long miles there, and back home.

My parents later began to listen to someone else on the radio, and they would make sure our entire family were gathered around the radio every, I mean EVERY Sunday morning before going to church. At the end of this healing evangelist’s short message he would always pray for the sick. He would ask his listening audience to gather around their radios, and lay their hands on the radio, "as a point of contact". He would pray that “the healing power of God would touch each person, from the top of their head, to the sole of their feet” and when he said "touch" and "be healed" the significant and tangible presence of the healing Jesus that I grew to know and love would fill our home, and I would always cry.

 He would always end his prayer with "Amen and amen", even if you weren’t sick you just felt that all was well with the world, even though it really wasn’t. For some reason as a young girl I always felt different each time he prayed. His prayers seem to reach beyond sickness and straight to the soul.

Soon my dad and mom started sowing offerings into his ministry, and we began receiving his magazine publication , with all of these beautiful pictures, and what I notice was that he too had a large tent, he too was seemingly the same ethnicity as the other evangelist, but what I noticed most, was that the little girls and boys like my sisters and I, people like my dad and mom, all sitting side by side with different races of people perhaps scarcely, but ALL worshipping under this big tent as one. Seeing that alone amazed me and endeared me to him. Those images sat really comfortably on my little soul as a young child, and painted a picture that looked just like the God my parents taught me about. 

Our little family prospered in so many ways, as my dad and mom took of what they had after supporting our church and the pastors and their families. They always dared to move beyond religious and racial boundaries even if it was not the "thing to do". Favor was always abundant over our lives, and as a result with men and women, from ALL ethnicities and walks of life.
One significant day many many years later, I was honored to travel around the world . I stood on a platform with a small team of 6 singers in one of the many major sports arenas we were graced to sing in, singing in front of approximately 20 thousand plus people 1 or 2 times a month, which too was a direct result of the years of the many years of sowing of seed, by my parents in the season of my childhood, when to my utter shock as the team worshipped, that man walked into that arena with the leader I was called to serve at that time, who is also a powerful Healing Evangelist of our day,  who was hosting that gathering. My heart felt as if it both leaped and melted at the same time.
You see I wanted to shout or walk up to him  to say thank you sir, for giving me a small glimpse of the heart and full complexion of the Father. Thank you for being a light in a very challenging time of my parent’s lives and also my grandmother's life, as it related to race relations both in and outside of the 4 walls of church.My grandmother never really got to see things change as it relates to all of that., but I'm sure somehow she saw that moment and smiled ! 

I simply wanted to say thank you sir. I wanted to say thank you for being bold to teach and encourage my mom and dad regardless of their race, to take what they had and use it as seed, to see a harvest not only for them, but for their children and grandchildren.
Thank you sir for teaching and encouraging my parents how to further release the radical faith they already had, regardless of their ethnicity.  

 I wanted to say thank you for my dad and my mom , even my grandmother who had been sustained for many years before passing on, by listening to his broadcast. For someone born in the 1800’s he most certainly gave her a peek into what was possible, and that gave her HOPE for the future of the grandbabies she was leaving behind .
 
That man was not a “black man” but a "God man" who we discovered later was from the First nation group of people, none other than Dr. Oral Roberts, who I along with the team at Relay greatly salute ! 
I now get to celebrate you every Black History month  and throughout the year by sharing with my children and grandchildren of your contribution to those who didn't look like you, but yet you were willing to teach them about faith that knew NO color ! A faith that if exercised, would  get out from under any circumstance that threaten to hold them captive !  

 I will forever love you, for showing this little girl the Full complexion of the God my parents had taught me about, and trusted in. He was the same God who I really knew was a “Good God” and had endowed each human being with dignity ! 

May your legacy live loudly for many generations to come !

"Passing The Story On"

~Alva@RMG(C)