Hello!! It's been a while since I shared a blog. Just wanted to share my first experience at last night's KingdomWriters Intersection, an event I've been trying to attend since early 2017 when KingdomWriters' Instagram followed me one day. Anyways, the premise of Intersection is to combine the experience of creativity, writing, and worship, hence the name intersection. The musical guest was a gentleman by the name of Damien Ellison. He performed a few of his songs and shared a bit of his testimony.
Damien Ellison performing
Next, we had our live writing session which I admit was a little nerve-wracking. I hadn't written on the spot in awhile. The good thing was the session included inspiration from the founder, Caleb Deas, as he played the piano. We were supplied with paper, pens, and a clipboard. I was already prepared with my 'What I Wrote Today' journal from Pop Journals (shameless plug, lol).
My finished writings; check out my Pop Journal on the right, lol
So the writing began and I surprisingly composed two pieces. I shared the following over the mic:
Grace Unparalleled by Lequvia Ousley
In this beautiful space,
I thank You Lord for your amazing grace
A grace that has carried me through 33 years.
A grace that has wiped away bitter, angry tears and numerous fears.
Grace, a healthy balm from your endless love,
So infinite, so pure, a whispering wind from above.
I trust in Your sovereignty and peace.
I know you will sustain me with such patience and ease.
A faith that has been tested and tried.
With humility, I understand Lord why Your Son died.
He died and took my place.
Nothing can compare to Your amazing grace.
The second poem I wrote I just flowed with how I was feeling. It is called,
'I Feel, I Must Pray' by Lequvia Ousley
I feel anxious and scattered like leaves falling to the ground.
Heart beating fast, thoughts racing, all I'm looking for is a peaceful sound.
A sound of hope, a sound of joy, a sound of OK.
Every time I settle down, I find it's harder to pray.
Pray, a mandate from my soul.
A mandate that never gets old.
God's word, staring me in the face.
My own self-doubt is what I choose to embrace.
False hope and promises seem to be everywhere: media, government, opinions, and everything in between.
My head hurts from what I see daily; it makes me want to scream.
A scream so loud that I can't speak.
A scream so loud that only God can free.
Jesus, I need thee
Oh, how I need thee
There's got to be another way.
Oh yeah, I forgot, I must pray. After our writing session, we all proceeded to share and we had another performance from Damien which led us into an impromptu worship session. I loved the flow of the music and just the boldness of the individuals who expressed their hearts through song. So beautiful. The event was everything I imagined. Next month, Kingdom Writers is hosting their Afflatus (means, "a divine creative impulse or inspiration event"), a creative worship experience that is a little bit more upbeat. I'm looking forward to that event to close out the year. As I close I wanted to share another poem I wrote from a #WritersWednesday post Kingdom Writers does on every Wednesday. Basically, they share a random photo and the followers of the page write a poem or thoughts on the picture or whatever they are inspired by. Here's the mini-poem I wrote on June 20th which was inspired by a picture of a toy almost being stepped on by a shoe:
In my shaken anxiety, You are with me.
Casting my cares freely, You are leading me.
My joy, my peace in your sovereignty, so true,
I know that I can depend on You.
Jesus.
I'm so thankful I attended this event and that I allowed my creativity to flow. I know if I keep attending, I may have a book of poems, lol
Happy Saturday, I just wanted to share my amazing experience at the first High Heels and High Standards 'I Am Heeled' Retreat 2018 in Atlanta led by founder Brittany Jay and her sis Curtisha.
Exactly one week ago, I had the most wonderful time spending a weekend away with my sisters in Christ at a beautiful lake house. It wasn't just the amazing view of the water, the sound of ducks, or the coziness of the house, but it was the instant connection, presence of God, and hunger to know more of God's Word that amazed me. As soon as I arrived on Friday, I instantly connected with Jakala who resides in SC. She and I helped set up a few hours before the ladies started arriving. As they arrived, the ladies were presented with candy-filled jars that included some HHHS souvenirs and a mini notebook we would later use for the sessions.
Some of the ladies I knew from previous bible studies and interactions while the others came from Missouri, Texas, South Carolina, and other parts of Atlanta. Our mutual friend Courtney also came but only for the Friday session. As we started to greet each other, we checked in our rooms, went outside to enjoy the view near the lake before the rain came, and then later we had an introductions/girl talk in the enclosed porch. That was our first girl talk, lol. As more ladies came, we had another session outside until dinner. After dinner, we proceeded with prayer, worship, and our first sessions with the ladies. There will be many scripture references and points so as you read please take note. Brittany and Curtisha tag teamed with the sessions "Desperate for God" and "What is the Gospel." They referenced the following verses which lays the foundation of pursuing God: James 4:8 (“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double minded” (NKJV), Matthew 22:37, Revelation 2:17 (also read Revelation 2:2-17) I learned from that session that we can't say we're desperate for God, if our hearts are not yielded to do the following:
1. Repent
2. Pursue the Lord with everything in you. (2 Timothy 2:2)
3. Make Time for God
4. Read/Meditate on God's Word
5. Quiet Time
6. Fasting/Killing The Flesh Daily
Additional points were cutting off hindrances (Matt. 5: 29-30) and living by the spirit (Galatians 5:16-25). The enemy wants to kill our desire and fire for God. That's why godly relationships/friendships and having accountability is important (1 Cor. 15:33). We must guard our fire for God with the fiber of our every being. (John 10:10)
For the 'What is the Gospel' session, we read the following verses in regards to being women anchored in the Gospel:
Ephesians 2:3
Romans 1:16
John 3:3
Hebrews 4: 14-16
1 John 2:1
Romans 8
When something is anchored, it has a foundation. When we as women are anchored in the Gospel, we Hope in the Gospel, Look to the Gospel, Preach the Gospel, Live out the Gospel, Rest in the Gospel, and we Believe the Gospel. The Gospel is our Rock of Offense that brings forth power and transformation (Romans 5:8) Amen. After our sessions, we ended with more girl talk and prayer. Brittany and Curtisha challenged all of us to write a short version of our testimony in the form of a rap, song, or poem and we would present it the following day as a fun game. Initially I was thinking, "how am I going to condense my long testimony into a poem?" Lol. As I prepared for bed, the idea came to me. I love acronyms so I decided to take the first letters of my name and write a short poem. I instantly wrote it. I admit I slept, but I kept waking up in the middle of the night, mainly due to the excitement of the retreat and the sound of the ducks, lol.
On Saturday, we started our morning with prayer/worship on the lake; even though the weather was slightly gloomy, it didn't take away from our experience in God's presence. Even the ducks joined us, lol. So we just reverenced in prayer and read scriptures that we were led to read. I read one of my favorite psalms, Psalm 27, a scripture that I would often reference as a teenager whenever I felt alone and hopeless. It was a beautiful moment outside. Afterwards, we gathered inside for breakfast and later had another introduction/icebreaker session. We played this fun game called "Who Am I" where 5 of us had a sticky with a biblical character on our forehead and we would ask the other 5 ladies questions to see if we could guess who we were. For instance, a question would be, "Did I save my people?" "Am I in the Old Testament and the other person would say, "yes". The answers will give clues to our guesses. In that case, the person's name was "Esther". We also did one on pop culture and ourselves. I was able to guess for both games. It was so much fun. It's a game that can be played with any subject/theme such as math, history, English, etc. After our mini energizer, we jumped into our sessions and the Word. Brittany led the first session on 'Being healed from brokenness' starting with the scripture Mark 2:17 (Jesus being the great Physician). We also read John 4:1 (Woman at the Well), John4:6-21, John 8, and Psalm 27:10. For those who were single, we all agreed that it is difficult living for God and you get questions from others about not having a husband or children and just the pressure to be married. We read through 1 Corinthians 7, specifically starting at verse 5 where Paul talks to the singles and widows. The following points were taken from that passage:
1. Be honest in how you feel about singleness; it's not sinful to desire marriage. It is sinful when the desire of man/marriage is greater than your desire of God. This leads to us awakening love before it's time, referenced by the Song of Solomon.
2. God does not owe us a husband. Marriage is not a reward for serving God.
3. Leverage singleness to the glory of God.(Travel, disciple others, serve in your community, etc.)
4. Guard your thoughts
5. Believe God's promises; we are whole in Christ.
That led to our mini breakout sessions (Single/Marriage/Parenting) with each other before our Health/Wellness session with Curtisha. Danielle, Ebony, and I were grouped together and we were just vulnerable and transparent about where we were in our walk. The prayers for each other was so encouraging and edifying. It was more than just our opinions about our discussion. We pointed each other back to the Word of God.
After our mini sessions, we all came back together and we briefly shared from our sessions and Curtisha jumped right into her sessions on "Spiritual, Emotional, & Physical Well-Being" and "Breaking the Cycles of Deadly Lifestyle Habits" starting with scriptures, 1 Cor. 6:19 and Hosea 4:8. Curtisha cut us no slack as she challenged us to have a sense of urgency to wake up to the current health crisis. She went in depth as we answered the questions of 'why don't people eat healthy?' and why don't people exercise?' She informed us that many of the diseases we suffer from is due to increased intake of sugar (too much is equivalent to cocaine), high-processed foods, vaccines, pesticides, etc. She referenced the scripture Phil. 3:19 which talks about gluttony (being a slave to our bellies). The infamous saying, "you are what you eat" is so true because whatever you feed your flesh overtime will become a part of you and kill you; the same goes for your spirit; when you feed your spirit the wrong things, it becomes a part of you and over time will kill you spiritually. That's why it is so important to fast physically and spiritually. Fasting breaks food addictions and other spiritual addictions. Another point she brought up is how we as people make excuses for not eating healthy and exercising. The top three are 1. No Time, 2. It's boring, and 3. Microwave syndrome (fast and in a hurry). In the instance where the statement of "it's so expensive to eat healthy" is often said, Curtisha's rebuttal was, "either you pay now or pay later" which was so convicting, both spiritually and physically. If we can invest in our outer appearance, we can surely invest in our spiritual and physical well-being. We are no use to the Kingdom if we are not taking care of our temples. That's real. The benefits of exercise are as follows:
1. Rids toxins in the body
2. Tones body
3. Strengthens Immune System
4. Strong Heart and Lungs
5. Improves Sleep.
Some solutions to rid the excuse of not exercising:
1. Educate yourself (Romans 12:1),
2. Exercise to music you love
3. Walk
4. Have accountability partners.
Recap of session:
1. Choose healthy foods
2.Drink Water
3. Exercise
4. Manage Stress
5. Sleep
Because of the time and the way the Holy Spirit flowed in our sessions, we weren't able to do our freestyle poetry contest as planned (poem will be shared later in blog), so we all had a mini break and our Zumba session with Curtisha, who is a certified Zumba instructor with her own health/wellness company. I hadn't done Zumba in a long time and it was so much fun. The funniest part was everyone thinking the warm-up was the workout. Hilarious. The amazing thing about Zumba is you get a full body workout without doing strenuous exercises and it's fun. Afterwards we had a late lunch and just rested for awhile until our outing in downtown Atlanta.While some of the ladies were asleep, I went into the living room and listened as Ms. Beverly, Brittany and Curtisha's mom shared with us her testimony of how God restored and healed her after divorce. Such a blessing to hear. Hours later, we all got dressed and beautiful, took pictures and headed out into the city. It was rainy and cold, but it didn't stop the fun especially for the ones who were visiting. We wanted everyone to have a wonderful time and that we did at a fun karaoke spot in downtown Atlanta. I'm glad we were able to have that balance of fun and fellowship throughout the retreat. As we ended our night, we said goodbye to one of our sisters who had an early flight in the morning and prepared ourselves for our last session on Sunday. As usual we were still up resonating about the moments of the day, but we all went to sleep and woke up the next day for our final session/departure. We began the day with breakfast and prayer. Curtisha led the last session entitled, "Being Ready for the Master's Use." She referenced 2 Timothy 2:19, a topic she touched on during our Tampa fellowship a few weeks ago. She stressed to us that the Lord is looking for those who are dependable and honorable, people that he can use for the advancement of the Kingdom. The Lord can't use us if we're constantly distracted, engaging in sin with no repentance and no willingness to live upright. Our foundation must be in God and Him alone through:
1. Staying Prepared
2. Being Imitators of God (Ephesians 5:1-2)
3. Living a pleasing and obedient life for God (Acts 5: 25-29 and Daniel 1:8)
4. Needing Holy Spirit power to be effective. (Acts 1:6-8, Acts 2:17, Acts 4:8-13, Acts 6:8-10)
5. Reminding ourselves that God cannot be put in a box. (2 Chronicles 4-19)
After our session, we all shared our thoughts on the retreat and how it blessed us. Some of the sisters traveled back home and the remainder of us headed downtown for another outing at the Atlanta Fair (first fair and funnel cake in years, lol)
I think we all agreed that the retreat was a different atmosphere we needed compared to what we had experienced in the past with other conferences and retreats. Not only did I leave with more sisters and accountability, I left with more information to help me out daily. We were all given folders that included recommended resources, preachers, and books as well as important biblical terms, the breakdown of the Gospel, and the spiritual test, a list of questions that challenges us to examine our hearts daily (2 Cor. 13:5).
Overall, I'm so thankful that I was able to share in those moments with the ladies. An answered prayer from many years ago. As I close, here is the testimony poem I wrote:
LEQUVIA, From Reject to Redeemed
Lost in rejection and other's opinions
Expecting love from other people, nothing genuine
Questioning God's existence and looking for peace
Until one day, He answered
Victory through Christ Jesus
Ignited and set me free
Ashes of my former self released, I've been redeemed.
Thank you God. Because you love me, a new creature in Christ is all I can be.
Check out the retreat recap video below and be sure to check out http://highheelsandhighstandards.com/ for more resources and updates. I'm looking forward to the next retreat.
I encourage you all who read this to continue to pray and seek God in everything and to never give up, no matter how hard it gets. The Holy Spirit is here to help and guide us. May we all be transformed by the power of Jesus Christ's redemptive love. Amen.
It is Thursday and I've finally sat down to write about my mini Spring break trip this past weekend. This post is actually my first blog for 2018 and my recent trip was the first trip to Florida in 6 years. Yes I said it......6 years. My last trip to Florida was in Orlando in 2012. I spent a whole week with a college friend and her family and I also visited with my uncle and grandfather (he passed in June of 2014). That trip back then was my first real vacation and so was this one. I didn't realize I worked so much, but this year I am intentionally getting back to taking care of myself and smelling the roses or should I say placing my feet in sand. I got a chance to visit a city I had only visited about 15 years ago when I was a senior in high school. It was our senior trip and outside of the usual theme parks in Orlando, we traveled to Tampa for Busch gardens. This time I got to see downtown Tampa and Spring Hill, city an hour away from Tampa. This trip was not only a mini vacation for me, it was a weekend of fellowship with some sisters from High Heels and High Standards, a women's ministry centered on encouraging women to grow in sound doctrine, discipleship, and exalting the Gospel of Jesus Christ, founded by my sis in Christ and fellow Albany State alum, Brittany Jay. Brittany Jay and I connected online in 2014 after I read her testimony of how Christ saved her in 2012. A year later we connected in person at one of her many bible studies. It was a breath of fresh air to hear the Gospel preached in its proper context and to be among women who were seeking truth and desiring to live for God. Later on I connected with Brittany's older sister, Curtisha who is just as on fire for God as Brittany. Curtisha is an advocate for health and wellness, amazing mother and wife, and teacher of the Word. I was blessed to meet her and her husband Rob during their brief stay in Atlanta last year. This weekend they showed me hospitality as I came down for the High Heels and High Standards Tampa meet up hosted by Curtisha. Although I didn't have to come down due to the upcoming women's retreat in April, my spirit needed to get away for awhile even if it was for a day and half. So I pressed my way to Florida on Thursday night, arriving Friday morning. As I was greeted by Curtisha, we spent the day catching up and later on in the evening she invited me to Pine Island Park, a beautiful beach near her home. It was my first time going to a Florida beach. The only beach I ever visited was Hilton Head Island in 2010 and a smaller beach in Pine Lake, GA near an area I previously lived in. Pine Island Park is very secluded and tucked away from the typical tourism you would expect in other parts of Florida. The drive there was so beautiful, a pathway of greenery as you get closer to the beach. Upon my arrival, I was intrigued by the colorful sunset and musical sound of birds. I finally had a moment to put my feet in sand and water, while being present in the moment. I ended the evening with great conversation with the fam. Saturday was the day for the High Heels and High Standards fellowship. Before we left for the fellowship, Curtisha gave me a Christian fiction novel to read called "Redeeming Love" by Francis Rivers. She knows I'm a reader and have been introduced to Christian fiction through a novel I purchased many years ago and through a mutual friend of ours MiMi Atkins who wrote '3627' (check out my review here). I've started to read it and am looking forward to seeing the power of redemption throughout the story lines. As we made our way outside, Curtisha and I took some amazing photos courtesy of her husband Rob who is very talented at photography.
Very unexpected, but I loved the idea of an impromptu photo shoot during my visit. From there, Curtisha and I headed to Jackson's Bistro Bar and Sushi in downtown Tampa. It was also St. Patrick's Day so we saw many people visiting for the parade. The view from the restaurant was very nice and the weather was just perfect, not too hot with a cool breeze. My meal for the day was the shrimp and chicken linguine which was so delicious.
Outside of the meal and the scenery, I met one of our sisters, Bev who also lives in Tampa. We also had an encouraging Word from Curtisha through the scripture, 2 Tim. 2:20-21, "But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work." This was timely as I was thinking of my focus for this year and beyond through the scripture, 2 Timothy 2:15 which says, "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." In order for me to be used by God, I have to know God's Word, live God's Word and allow myself to be cleansed and purified by His Word and prayer. The scripture shared by Curtisha reminded me to strive to be like fine china, refined, sturdy, and durable and not a paper plate that is disposable, easily tattered, and worn down. Only God's Word can cleanse us and make us new with the desire to be used by Him in the earth. Lord help us not to be paper plates. As we ended our luncheon, we all took a few pictures outside and parted ways. I thoroughly enjoyed my time and will definitely be back to visit again. Next up, the Atlanta High Heels and High Standards retreat in April. A London retreat will be coming soon in June as well.
If you are a woman in need of prayer, encouragement, accountability, and desire sound doctrine, I encourage you to check out the following links for High Heels and High Standards:
