93.7 WDJC

The day began like any other.  It was November 2012 and Kristi was excited because she was going shopping at "Christmas Village" with her sister Kelly.  "Christmas Village" is a huge event held in a large arena in Birmingham with over 500 vendors selling their unique products.  Kristi looks forward to going every year and was looking forward to spending time with her sister while she got some shopping done. 

Several "god-incidences" occurred that day, but the one that most surprised Kristi was that while shopping she noticed Roxanne and Chris, from the local christian radio program, sitting at a booth.  They had a very popular show that Kristi had listened to many times.  She also had had the pleasure of calling in during their "Wednesday Morning Prayer Time" and had even been allowed to pray on air during one of these calls.

One very special memory that Kristi had of WDJC and this prayer time involves a friend of hers that had cancer.  This friend, Adryne Davis, was very sick and she and her sweet family had been heavy on Kristi's heart. Adryne and Jeff, Kristi's husband who also had cancer, were the inspiration for a Relay for Life team that Kristi had been the team leader for earlier in the year. As Kristi was driving to work one day and listening to her Third Day CD, she heard the Lord say, "Turn on the radio to hear a prayer for Adryne."  Just like that. Kristi obeyed, and even though she often has similar experiences, it AMAZED her when JUST at that moment she heard Chris, the radio announcer talking about a friend of HIS----Adryne Davis!!! He proceeded to ask for prayer for her!

Well, when Kristi saw Roxanne and Chris, she quickly went over and introduced herself, thanking them for their Kingdom work and shared a little of the above story. They talked for a minute, finding out that Chris and Kristi both went to Huffman High School and had some other things in common. Then, out of nowhere, Roxanne proclaimed, "I know what you have to do, you have to come be one of our Prayer Warriors that pray for people on the air on 'Wednesday Morning Prayer Time'!" Well, as you can imagine, Kristi was blown away. She NEVER anticipated that an opportunity such as this might come her way that day! Inconceivable Love from our Father!

On Wednesday, December 19th, Kristi was allowed the privilege of lifting prayer requests up to our Heavenly Father on WDJC radio. The other Prayer Warrior of the day was a Messianic Jewish Rabbi, Eric Walker! But for the grace of God, Kristi would have been very intimidated by this, but the Lord gave her a peace beyond understanding.  There was also a singer in the studio, Kim Dunn who had an amazing voice and a band that did an excellent job! It was an EXTRAORDINARY EXPERIENCE!  It was also exciting to hear Roxanne introduce Kristi and proclaim the title of our ministry: 2 Ordinary Women: 1 Extraordinary God! Kristi was even allowed the time to share some of our vision. We were gifted that day with  endorsement that only our Sovereign God could arrange! What a precious gift...

Mr. Bobcat - Part of Our Morning Prayer Time!

The more we, just 2 ordinary women, cultivate our relationship with Christ together the more clearly and intimately we can hear Him speak and this morning was certainly no exception. Since early January Nena has been walking on Kiawah Island during our morning prayer time because God is leading our ministry to hold a beach evangelism event on this island. God has also been speaking to us to pray that the 2013 HGTV Dream House located on Kiawah Island be used for His mighty purposes. Nena is able to walk from the The Sanctuary Resort to the HGTV house every morning while we pray.

This morning God had a different path for Nena to take and used a interesting way of redirecting her. As she turned on the path outside the resort she came in very close contact with a bobcat and they were quickly in a staring contest. Now, bobcats are pretty common to see on Kiawah and Seabrook Islands but coming this close to one at daybreak was quite startling. Nena decided to stand still for a moment to see if Mr. Bobcat would scurry on his way but he would not budge. Nena then turned around and decided to walk the other way for a few minutes. When she returned Mr. Bobcat was still there and, when he saw Nena, decided to sit down right in the middle of the path. Nena knew to turn around and felt God saying, "Walk to the resort beach instead." So she headed to the beautiful beach even though it was a very chilly 32 degrees.

Right when Nena got to the beach her phone rang and it was Kristi, in route to her heart nurse duties at UAB and eager for their ministry prayer time together. We knew God got Nena exactly where He wanted her to be when Kristi called! God is pouring out His direction to 2 Ordinary Women: 1 EXTRAORDINARY GOD to put together a beach evangelism event called EXTRAORDINARY 2013 at the very spot Nena was standing. This is also the same location where Nena coordinates a beach Easter sunrise service with her church each year for 600-700 people.

A few minutes into our prayer time Nena noticed a nicely dressed woman descend from The Sanctuary Resort to the beach. She walked to the water and very reverently threw an object in the ocean. She paused for a minute and then returned to the resort. Nena could tell it was a very special moment in this woman's life and didn't need to know the specifics to enjoy the experience. Right after she left, the sun rose over the ocean and Nena became Kristi's eyes to describe the scene since she was many miles away. With overwhelming peace and awesome excitement at the same time, 2 Ordinary Women knew 1 EXTRAORDINARY God was revealing something that was more amazing than can be written with mere words.

When Nena returned home she realized that it was one year ago today that she had her first official meeting about bringing Moore Arts Movement to Charleston. This outstanding Christian Performing Arts group will be a key part of EXTRAORDINARY 2013! We can't wait to see what God says next. Stay tuned for more about EXTRAORDINARY 2013..

Blessings, Kristi & Nena...2 Ordinary Women: 1 EXTRAORDINARY God

Festival of Joy June 2012

In June 2012, Kristi and Nena were asked to speak at a Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The church was hosting an event called Festival of Joy. We were the last speakers before dinner on Sunday, the final day of the Festival.

We had been asked to show two videos. One was a video of our testimonies (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtC4IKvE3WU). The other was a video of the gospel which you can see at www.biblein11.com.

They were running very behind and the organizers asked us to shorten our presentation so we prayed right before speaking that God would do what he wanted to do with the time that we had.

When we finished talking there was not time to play our testimony video and the Biblein11 video so we were asked just to play the last 5 minutes of our video. When we finished the gentleman in charge of the Festival said he felt the Holy Spirit moving and that we needed to play the Bible in11 Video and the crowd agreed.

He checked with the festival host to find out what time we needed to be completely done for dinner. He replied, "6 o'clock".  Someone else asked, "Well, what time is it?" Brother Dallas looked at his watch and said with an astonished tone, "I promise you it is 11 til 6!"

We were astounded because the biblein11 gospel video takes exactly 11 minutes!! Someone else in the crowd said out loud, “Yes you are right. It is 11 minutes til 6″.  This confirmed with the crowd that the video needed to be played.

When Biblein11 finished, the crowd began clapping loudly and it was so beautiful.

We were dismissed right at that moment so Kristi and Nena were not able to have an altar call as we had originally planned.

Afterwards we had people lined up to find out how to direct people to both videos so they could share them with others.

Surely the presence of the Lord was in that place!

We did get to share how the Lord is leading us to give out the Biblein11 cards – especially in hospitals where people are usually acutely aware of their need for Someone bigger than themselves. We often leave them in the chapels and waiting rooms, and even have had the pleasure of giving them directly to people on occasions.

P.S Ideally, we should have had the follow up booklet HOW TO BE SURE OF GOING TO HEAVEN WHEN WE DIE to give out to everyone who saw the video.  In this way,  people could have read about what they’d just seen. Julian Batchelor has a website, www.esisite.com which is wonderful. He has all this information and a lot of other testimonies as to how God is moving to mobilize his people!

The birth of 2 Ordinary Women: 1 EXTRAORDINARY God

At the very beginning of our ministry journey, the Lord impressed upon us that it was very important to document what we were hearing from Him.  From January of 2012 when we were called into ministry together until Julian handed us the Biblein11.com card, we kept notes and documented the events in a video. The Lord had so much to say that the video ended up being 1 hr. and 51 minutes! We feel very strongly that this video not only documented what we were hearing, but also will be used in the future for something more, perhaps even the details of a book, play or movie.

Once the long video was done, we began hearing that we needed to follow through and actually produce an 11 minute video.  We did just that, and you can view the results for yourself at  http://youtu.be/TtC4IKvE3WU. The day after we posted our video on you tube, we were invited to speak at The Festival of Joy, a conference on all types of healing prayer at St. John's Chapel, the very church where we had been called into the Lord's service. How awesome is that!

We spoke at the Festival of Joy and GOD SHOWED UP! Check out our 'Festival of Joy' post for details of this story.

Soon afterwards, the Lord reemphasized the need to cover our ministry in prayer and we began praying every weekday morning from 6:25 a.m. to 7:00 a.m.CST as Kristi drives into work. We also received a name for our ministry from God, 2 Ordinary Women: 1 Extraordinary God. We stand in awe on a daily basis of the various ways that God uses such "cracked pots" as the two of us. He takes our ordinary lives and makes them EXTRAORDINARY!

Somewhere along the line, the Lord broadened our ministry focus from Law of Attraction Followers and 11 Seekers to a more general focus of Evangelism.  We have come to believe that while God wanted us to be willing to focus on these two groups of people, our WILLINGNESS to step outside our comfort zone and be obedient, was really what He required. Ultimately, when we asked Him about an 11 minute video, He handed us a concise tool for leading people to Christ, Biblein11.com. We now carry Biblein11.com cards with the question, "Looking for love in all the wrong places?" on the flip side of the card. To this day, we listen to the Lord's direction and often leave these cards where He tells us to.

2012 was an EXTRAORDINARY year! God spoke about all of the above and so much more! Writing these events down reminds us of how true the verse, "Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good and your soul will dine on the richest of fare" Isaiah 55:2-3, is. So stay tune to future blogs, because WE HAVE A STORY TO TELL!

Was This a Miracle?

Check out our 11 minute video after reading the blog:  9/11: Connections to Law of Attraction and the Number Eleven

 WAS THIS A MIRACLE? YOU DECIDE!

We are two Christian women, Kristi Smith and Nena Jackson.

 HOW GOD DREW US TOGETHER

We have been close friends since first grade but drifted a part over the years while raising our families and living in different states. Kristi currently resides in Birmingham, Alabama where she is a cardiac nurse at UAB Hospital, wife and mother of two teenage children. Nena currently resides in Charleston, SC with her husband and is Discipleship Coordinator at Church of Our Saviour on Johns Island. God reunited us in December 2010 to combine efforts in bringing people to Christ.

We are on a passionate pursuit to fulfill God’s mighty and specific ministry calling on our lives. This ministry calling involves leading people to Christ who are following two unique but surprisingly popular belief systems.

• BELIEF ONE: “The Law of Attraction” which is promoted by the book The Secret
• BELIEF TWO:  The number 11, which is seen by millions of New Age people around the world as hugely spiritually significant.

NENA’S MINISTRY:

Nena received her ministry calling in 2009 when she was a banking technology executive in Columbus, Ohio. She had strayed from God and was struggling through the economic crisis. She read the book, The Secret,  and sensed God strongly speaking to her that millions of people were following the teachings in this book and the Law of Attraction as a quick answer to life’s questions, instead of looking to Christ as their answer. She turned her life back over to Christ after this revelation and wrote a book, Toes in the Sand, that tells the story of what God taught her about having faith in Him instead of the Law of Attraction. God has called Nena into a ministry to reach Law of Attraction followers and point them to Christ, the true ANSWER. She has been astonished at how many people are living their lives believing that they have all the power to bring everything to themselves without God’s help. These people are putting all their desires (houses, cars, money, relationships, etc) out to the Universe and having faith that the Universe will simply bring their desires to them.

KRISTI’S MINISTRY:

Kristi received her ministry calling in 2010 while listening to Mac Powell singing, Salvation is Calling. This occurred moments after her grandfather passed away, concluding a three-year season of ‘end of life’ care giving to her father, grandmother and grandfather. During this season the Lord touched her life through, of all things, the number eleven.

• God’s first touch - Kristi and her husband helped a couple restore their shambled marriage that had decided to pray for their marriage at a randomly chosen time (11:11) each day. After much heartache & prayer, God showed 11:11 to all four at a desperate moment that saved the marriage
• Kristi’s agnostic father accepted Christ 11 days before he died from cancer. He died on 4/11/08
• Kristi and her husband received a large monetary gift (an amount that exactly covered all their debt) 11 days after bringing their full tithes into the storehouse
• Kristi randomly texted Nena on her time zone at 11:11 twice on 1/22/11 – the day that Nena first spoke publicly about her Law of Attraction ministry and also Kristi’s father’s birthday
• Kristi’s daughter, Brianna, saw 11:11 while pouring out her heart to God about a classmate who collapsed due to bleeding on the brain and was fighting for his life.
• God has directed Kristi at numerous key moments to sermons and devotions on Hebrews 11. This chapter is known as the ‘Faith Hall of Fame’ Chapter in the Bible and is a key part of Nena’s ministry.

She could not understand why this number was so prevalent in her walk with Christ and prayed diligently that God would reveal it’s purpose. In 2011, while researching Biblical references to the number eleven she amazingly discovered there were millions of people looking to the number eleven for guidance in life. Unlike the Law of Attraction followers these people had more questions than answers but had drawn bizarre conclusions to the significance of the number eleven. God has called Kristi into a ministry to reach the number eleven followers and point them to Christ, the true ANSWER.

Unbeknownst to Kristi, in November 2011 Nena heard God speaking that she was supposed to join in ministry with one of several Christian women in her life. A few weeks later Kristi had the most impactful experience with the number eleven to date that involved watching a documentary called I Am. This experience actually connected the number eleven to the Law of Attraction, thereby revealing to her that our ministries were joined. We also know you are connected to what God is calling us to do to reach these millions of people that are so lost and confused.

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD IS TRULY AMAZING!

We had been praying for God to show us how to deliver Jesus to these followers as the answer to all of life’s questions. A YouTube video that lasts eleven minutes was something we felt God  nudging us to produce. On the morning of February 2, 2012 we prayed together for God to show us if this eleven-minute video was truly what he wanted us to do. Later that day Nena went to a local meeting in Charleston, SC to meet Julian Batchelor, an evangelist from New Zealand and learn more about his ministry. During this meeting you handed everyone a small card that had the URL address for a YouTube video he had produced to share the Gospel. The URL address was www.Biblein11.com. Underneath the URL address it said, "The whole Bible summarized in 11 minutes". Nena almost fell off her chair.

Praise God! God had delivered His ‘left hook’ through Julian, an Evangelist from New Zealand, 8332 miles away from Charleston, SC and answered a question Kristi had been asking Him for five years!

“How does the number eleven tie to Christ in a way that cannot be debated?” God, who created this Universe, had answered in a dramatic fashion!! We are now carrying our own specially designed www.Biblein11.com cards so we can share the Gospel with whomever God puts in our path.  On the other side of the cards we have written "Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places?", because we believe that the followers of the number eleven and the Law of Attraction are basically trying to find love that can only be found at the foot of the cross.

God is up to something extraordinary...that we know! We are impressed that the ‘something’ involves Julian and Evangelism Strategies International.

So, was this meeting on February 2 2012 a miracle? You know the answer….

Where it all started...Huffman Elementary, 1971

Our friendship began in 1971 at Huffman Elementary School in Birmingham, Alabama when we were starting 1st grade and ready to conquer the world...or so we thought. We immediately became inseparable and became a challenge for our teachers. Nena thought Kristi was the coolest friend for a number of reasons, but one of the main reasons was that her mom and Nana worked in our lunchroom cafeteria.

It was so neat that Kristi got to see them every day at lunch plus got popsicles whenever she wanted (or so it seemed!).

By the end of 2nd grade our friendship became unbearable for our beautiful teacher, Mrs. King, and she preceded to inform our moms that she was officially requesting that we be put in separate classrooms in the 3rd grade. We were absolutely devastated by the news and thought the world was coming to an end.

Somehow we survived and our friendship only got stronger. Once we got old enough we were allowed to walk to each other's house  and talk on the phone for hours. We knew each other's parents like they were our own.

After 8th grade we were ready to test our friendship in high school where our small class would be thrown together with many other elementary schools. Would we remain friends as we began dating and driving or drift apart? We survived and helped each other through thick and thin plus added another friend, Joy, to our pact. We discussed every date in extreme detail and tried our best to figure out how boys were wired. With no cell phones, text messages, Facebook, or email,  how did we ever have boyfriends? The answer is that we used our cars to their fullest potential. As long as we had gas $ we could drive by boy's houses over and over and over again. Nena drove a burgundy Cutlas Supreme and Kristi drove a green Toyota Corolla, nicknamed 'the Snot Mobile. We put so many miles on those cars driving the same streets at all hours of the day and night. There were many times when we snuck Nena's car out late at night to drive to Taco Bell for burrito supremes and never gained an ounce. 

After high school we went our separate ways. We stayed in contact as best we could. Remember when long distance phone charges applied? Well, that was a huge factor in our inability to communicate because we had no other way to chat. Before long we were drifting further and further a part, both married and living in different cities and eventually different states.

Then...in December 2010 we reunited in a mighty way at a Christmas dinner with Joy. After catching up on each other's pasts, we realized that our lives were on the most amazing parallel paths. From that point on we have been joined together to write and speak. We are enjoying the most wonderful time exploring our true passion and it never feels like work.

A Story to Tell

A STORY TO TELL

Two ordinary women, once young girls-

one had straight brown hair, the other blond curls.

Different looks, but much the same,
both with personalities that were hard to tame.

Teachers would try - to no avail.
Only God could do that and do it well.

It took Him some time, as one might guess.
They put His love to a rigorous test.

Dinner one December night in 2010,
they were reunited and things would begin

to remind them of why, back in the day,
they had had SUCH a good time, they had SO MUCH to say.

They finally caught up and God took it from there,
handling the next two years with the Utmost of Care.

One EXTRAORDINARY God doing EXTRAORDINARY things,
Two Ordinary women, oh the FUN it did bring!

And finally, here we are with a STORY TO TELL.
A story written by God, so friends, listen well.

God is STILL speaking, so tell now we must.
Lend us your ear and GIVE HIM your trust.