This picture was taken 18 years ago today, on February 18, 2003 at the Awake Deborah Women's Conference at the Brownsville Assembly of God. The conference was loaded with amazing preachers including Patricia King, Stacy Campbell, Heidi Baker, and Brenda Kilpatrick.
This picture is of Heidi Baker laying her hands on me and praying.
Here's the back story...
Just a two months prior, on December 23rd of 2002, we buried our daughter, Raegan. I was drowning in deep mourning, sorrow and pain. Many nights I woke up with panic attacks, trying to get to my daughter, only to realize she wasn't there.
The night Heidi preached the altars were completely full. There was no place to sit, stand or kneel. I crawled up the steps near the pulpit, desperate for a touch from God. Unashamedly, I needed help.
Heidi walked all over the room praying for people. After she was done, she came and prayed for me. What you don't see in this picture is where she put down the microphone, laid down beside me with her arms wrapped around me, mourning, weeping and groaning with me for 30 minutes. She stopped for me, the one, in a room filled with 2,500 women.
Afterwards, my face was stuck to the carpet. I finally peeled myself from the floor, barely able to stand. I could feel it, my heart was beginning to heal. I knew then that I would survive the darkest moment of my life.
A year before this picture was taken, I stood on this same stage and submitted to and announced my call to preach the gospel (February of 2002). Little did I know that the following year I would be gasping for breath, lying on the same platform desperate for help.
Brownsville touched many people and I'm one of them. Heidi Baker was used to literally change my life that night. I believe I survived and am in ministry today because of those 30 minutes she was willing to mourn with someone who was mourning.
She'll probably never see this testimony and that's okay, but today I want to honor Heidi Baker, Brownsville AG, Pastors John and Brenda Kilpatrick, and all the other speakers who poured into me in 2002 and 2003.
Iverna Tompkins, Shirley Arnold, Lila Terhune, and Verle Rollins were there in 2002 and prayed for me also. What GENERALS!!! Clearly, I needed their prayers because of what I would face later in the year.
Honestly, I was scared of Iverna (true story), but today she is still one of my top five favorite preachers.
Today I'm remembering all of these wonderful, faithful friends of God. I'm thankful for their sacrifice to carry such authority and anointing, along with the same level of humility and compassion.
May the next generation of generals learn from and honor well those who have gone before them.