Worship Soundtracks from RMIRiverSong on Vimeo.

Sunday was a key example of what can happen when the body of Christ unites. I was so amazed at what took place. I have only been coming to the river for 3 months. I have never seen a church body come together with one focus, like I did Sunday. I was so impressed when I saw Christians being sold out and ‘’being the church instead of doing church’’. What happened is what should be happening in every church, every Sunday around the world. People taking the gospel into the world, being a witness not just doing witnessing. Being in the world and not of it, not being of the world but not in it. I was in the main service, so I got to see the hundreds of people taking a stand and accepting Jesus. The moms the dads, uncles, aunts, grandmas, grandpas, husbands, wife’s taking a stand for their families. After service seeing the joy on the all the kids faces. Sing and talking about this man JESUS. Then I looked up and saw the buses and the food and toy give away. The workers joking and talking with parents, the children playing and riding new bikes. If we just change are focus and put it on Jesus, everything will change. If we just let the love of God flow through us, Gods goodness will draw in the lost like a vacuum or a really big bug zapper. I am so thankful to be a part of what God is doing here at The River at Tampa Bay. Not only being a student at RBI, but getting to see the impact of a church that is being the church. And I love God’s church when we are the church. I’m excited to see what God is going to do next.

Worship Soundtracks from RMIRiverSong on Vimeo.

Last Sunday was great at the River Church at Tampa Bay! The children’s ministry had about 70 children who were 3 to 4 years old. All of them received Jesus as their Savior and were delighted to receive Him as Lord. After the children had accepted Jesus their countenance changed and their behavior changed. There were so many happy faces all over the room. I could feel the positive energy and excitement exuding from the children. Peacefulness was in the room as well. Some of the children, who missed their moms when they first came into the room, stopped crying, and enjoyed the activities along with the rest of their newly found friends.

It really gave me joy to see the children enjoying themselves. They eagerly learned many lessons about Jesus. There were several games and activities for them to participate in. They seemed to enjoy the games and lessons, which involved singing and dancing the most. The joy of the Lord was evident in the laughter displayed as the children’s teachers talked about the Lord and various stories in the bible.

I loved to see the children worship Jesus. They did not hold anything back from the Lord when they praised Him. I could see that the children genuinely felt the love of Jesus the entire time they were in the room. When you see the love of God on children’s faces, you know Jesus is someone worth knowing.

There are many things that I could say about what happened last Sunday, but the most important was that the children received Jesus and grew in their relationship with the Lord. The presence of the Holy Spirit was felt when the children worshipped the Lord. There are no words to express how much the love of Jesus touched their hearts.

Worship Soundtracks from RMIRiverSong on Vimeo.

I am grateful to God for joining me to the River Church Ministry. In the deepest part of my soul I have yearned for God to use me to be a witness for Him. My desire has always been to go deeper in the things of God. My life’s goal was to be used by God in the fullest and to touch the lives of people with the love of God. I longed to be used as a mouthpiece to do and to say the things He wanted me to say and to be bold while doing it. I had been looking for a church like the River since I was 21 and now that I am here I truly believe that God has fulfilled one of the deepest desires of my heart. Everything I wanted in a church home the River provided. Since being here I am in awe at how God answered my prayer in detail. Since coming to the River I have been eternally changed from the inside out and I have been used mightily to touch the lives of many people. I am grateful to God for allowing me to be apart of such a Holy Spirit filled church. I believe the vision of Pastor Rodney and Adonica to see souls saved is evident in our church and the vision has passed down to the congregation and has now become the heartbeat of my life. Because of this ministry I now feel revived, alive and energized to fulfill the call of God on my life. As a result, of Pastor Rodney & Adonica and the River church family I now have a passion for lost and a greater hunger for the things of God. I know that since coming here my hunger and thirst for God has heightened and my craving for souls and the things of God will last a lifetime.

Worship Soundtracks from RMIRiverSong on Vimeo.

Winter Campmeeting 2010 impacted my life in a great way. In fact, it is still impacting my life. Pastor Rodney spoke an encouraging word about being hungry and thirsty and pressing in to the things of God. Since then I have been growing up spiritually. I am learning to mature in the things of God. I have been pressing in more in getting into the Word and in prayer. I have also been making time to pray with my husband and we have also been praying together with our roommate. We have all been encouraging each other to stay motivated and to keep pressing in. We have even been media fasting which started during the campmeeting. In doing this we have made much more time for God. I don’t want what I got from campmeeting to just fade away in my memory. I want to keep that fire burning! And that is what praying and feeding my spirit with the Word have done for me. They add fuel to my spiritual fire. They cause me to get hungrier and thirstier for the things of God. Also during campmeeting I was touched by God in a special way. It was different than when I have felt God’s presence in the past when I would cry. This time the joy came with it! I have been longing for the joy. I was just never able to receive it because I was constantly trying to work it out with my head, but during campmeeting it just bubbled out of my belly. Now I know what Pastor Rodney is talking about when he says to just let it bubble up. The amazing thing is that it has been bubbling up ever since then as I build myself up in the word and prayer and as I pour out to others. It is so awesome how God can touch you in so many different ways! He is so good!

I just want to say that I am so blessed to be a part of Revival Ministries. This ministry has eternally impacted my life! I have learned the Word as I never heard it before and if it were not for Pastors Rodney and Adonica and their faithfulness I may have never known or experienced God the way I do now.

Worship Soundtracks from RMIRiverSong on Vimeo.

I unfortunately missed every single camp meeting worship time due to work. I didn’t arrive until after 8:00 pm which may have hindered me to receive more. I did attend when a man tried to come to the front when man of God was speaking about healing. I guess he was against it. I saw the ushers redirect him for some time and take him outside and didn’t understand. It was the first time I’ve seen something like that in a church setting. I love how in these meetings there’s no pressure to hurry or get done at a certain time and people (most people) are willing to stay to late hours of the night. I helped out in food ministry and it was good to greet and serve those ones that I did. I enjoyed hearing the testimonies of provision this week from people around the world. I also noticed that people under this ministry that was here seemed to really genuinely love people. That’s great.

Every night I came, we were encouraged to press into the things of God and receive all that heaven has. I love that because that’s what I desire just all God has for me and so thankful that He will never withhold a good thing from me. I was reminded how we need to be on the offensive and pursue God with deep hunger. Deep calls unto deep. I know God loves all of us the same but its like something happens when people get desperate and spiritual violence and zeal for His house. I must test myself and see how desperate I am continually. I was praying that God would take me to an even deeper place even if I was the only one there. I just must go higher. These were the ponderings of my heart during the conference. I was also thinking man what did these ministers have to do to get to where they are. I also knew that every gift God gives is a gift and it’s not in striving but receiving because so many times I can get back into a striving mentality rather than out of devotion for God. Other than that, it was so strong on my heart to start a prayer list in my personal time because sometimes I know some scriptures and just know if I have a list it would help to pursue God in a focused way. These are some of the ponderings of the heart during the meeting.