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Transcription
Diane and the speaker discuss their experiences in Mexico and among Native Americans, including starting a food ministry and working with young people. They also talk about the importance of revelation knowledge and practical skills in their ministry. The speaker emphasizes the need for a teachable spirit and willingness to serve. They reflect on the training and experiences at Summer Haven, where they learned to integrate the natural and spiritual aspects of their lives. Overall, they highlight the transformative power of God's work in their lives and the importance of living out their faith. July the 20th, second session. Alright Diane, do you have a feeling where you'd like to start? I think we left off where Jamie and I had married and then we went back to Mexico and then how the Lord had given us, woke Jamie up and said, you're pregnant and it's a boy and then I found out that week that I was pregnant and then I said, then it came out of me, out of my mouth with us, it was the Spirit of the Lord, when you are moved in prophetic, it said Isaac out of my mouth and I was stunned myself because it didn't come from within me, it came from the Holy Spirit. So then I was sharing, then I had, after that I had four more children and then, gosh. So God began to use you in Mexico. He began to use me in Mexico and then He also used me among the Native Americans. I lived on the Cachan Indian Reservation and then I lived on the Cocopah Reservation and then some other ones too that I don't even remember. So are there any stories from Cachan? The Cachan Reservation, we lived there with Gabriel and Laura. We worked as a team there and that's when we began a food ministry there. And I heard that it was called the Dying Nation. Yes, the Cocopah Reservation was called the Dying Reservation and there the youth were dying and when I was living there, it was before I was married on the Cocopah Reservation and we would just, I remember the Lord gave me the scripture about doing good works that they may see the Father and glorify Him. So actually I would go into a lot of the Native American, Native homes and I would clean their houses and that was a way of showing them the love of the Father because a lot of them didn't have habit patterns. A lot of them needed help. So in that reservation, Sonny came to know the Lord. He came through a revival. He came and accepted the Lord and then I worked with Joe and Melinda there with Joe, little Joe. And I helped him in the food ministry there. You know Diana, they're still doing the same thing that you did. Oh yes, they still are. They still go into Mexico. They still, you know, Joe and the little Joe and his wife Melanie, they're still doing music and worship and all of that. But big Joe, he's still going into Mexico just to be clothed there. Yes, and also little Joe, should we call it little Sonny, he really had a transformation in his life and he really made a commitment to the Lord. It was very beautiful to watch God change his life. And then he married Melanie and then they went as missionaries to the Philippines as well. And then at the same time when he was on the reservation, God gave him like favor in working in the council, working, you know, so you could see the fruit of his life. And really you didn't see that in many because so many of them died before they were even 16. Yeah, I know we had a few of them that came to Summer Haven and they were there for training. And I remember some didn't make the right choices and ended up in prison and then ended up dead. So in ministry you always see those that are willing and will yield their lives, you know, and allow the Holy Spirit to work in their lives. We had a young boy that was off the game, you know, that we had taken in, we had about 12 of them at one time and we had to start a school because they were all under 18. And plus we had our own five children and then we had missionary families that were there as well. And I remember having to go to ACE for the training and because we had to be certified to be able to start the school that was started. Was that started in Little Rock? No, this one was started at the King's Ranch. At King's Ranch. Yeah, when we got there and we had all the young boys. And then the Lord brought in a principal for us that was a teacher and she was retired and so she came and myself and her and some others went for the training in ACE. When we went there we were taking the test and literally, Gordon, I, because of my disabilities, like as a child I was always in special ed classes. I didn't have a capacity to comprehend a lot. Right. But I remember going through that training and running to the bathroom and crying and saying, God, I can't do this. And I remember Jesus came into my body. He just came in and he said, I'm going to do the test. Don't worry. And after you're done with it, I'm going to give you the revelation of what you just took. So I remember he took my hand and he did the test and I passed. Of course, because he did it. And then I remember going to put the school in operation and then the Lord giving it to me by revelation. Yeah. So you just would know the right answers. You would know the right directions. It just came like revelation knowledge. Revelation knowledge. Wow. And so most of my life has been that way that I have to really depend on that revelation. It's what leads me. That would be like the mind of Christ, wouldn't it? Yeah. Do you think that's something that the Lord would like to do with every believer? Yeah, because a lot of times our own understanding and our own mind gets in the way. As educated or as intelligent as we might be, we can never have the knowledge of God on a human level. So he's always so much more. We had a board member, he shared his testimony that he was a Methodist pastor and he said that he knew the Bible, he went to school and he didn't know God. But one day God visited him and he truly got born again and his whole ministry changed. So you can have so much head knowledge, you can know the Bible, you can preach, you can teach, you can have a church and still not know God. Exactly. Yeah. Because it's not about head knowledge. It's about knowing him and him revealing himself to you. But I always said to the Lord, I said, God, I don't want to just know scripture, I want to know you. And I want to live that. Because there's the difference between knowing and living. And walking in it. Yeah. That's so amazing that God did that for you while you were studying to be a teacher. And so you were teaching twelve young people plus your own children. Yeah. So how did you teach like in a more advanced manner? Well, what I had to learn, I had to learn how to operate the program to illustrate it, to demonstrate it, to make it a reality of the school. Right? Yeah. And that's what I did. And I worked with the small children too. But when I was at Summer Haven, I worked with the preschoolers there. And Jerry had taught me the Montessori. So you were Montessori, you were teaching the young ones. Yeah, I would teach the young ones. Amazing. So this revelation knowledge affected, of course, the school. But what other areas of your life did that, did this make such a difference? Well, when I came to Summer Haven, I didn't really have a lot of knowledge of much. But I remember learning how to cook. I was never taught how to cook. So you learned how to cook. Yeah, I learned how to cook with a lot of burnt fingers, with a lot of cut fingers. It was a determination that I was going to learn. And, you know, it's not an easy task to feed a hundred people. Not at all. But I was taught that, you know. And then it has benefited me in so many ways. Because we host groups, you know, where I have to feed a lot of people. Well, I remember one day, Teresa actually is the one that taught me. I was in charge of the food ministry. And she was seeing that I was really struggling how to just count. You know, you're counting one by one, you know. I didn't really know a time table. But Teresa worked with me in a revelation. I remember it's like a light turned on that was never there. Yeah, and she was reminding me of that. So you could count by three or by five. Like three times, you know, three times seven. She was teaching me because I didn't have that ability. So the training was by the Holy Spirit. And yet it was in very natural and practical things. Which is so important. Because many, we may go to Bible school. We may get head knowledge. But we need to be able to work it into our lives in a natural way. And that's what was so beautiful at Summer Haven. Because the natural and the spiritual flows together. Because you can see a lot of people that don't go up there to the pulpit, but they have no characteristic. They have no, you don't see in the natural that they have that ability. And it's kind of sad. Because through working in the natural it also works something in you characteristics that would never be there if you didn't press through in the natural to get it, to bring it forth in the soul. So a lot of spiritual breakthroughs come by pressing in the natural. Yes. And like Agnes would say, do a job that you don't like to do. Do it. And it will change your life. And it's true. It's really true. So I teach, I work with a lot of young people and I instill those things into them that they had never been instilled in their lives. And it's beautiful because they wouldn't get it in just the Bible school. I've seen those that have and those that have submitted in the natural and there's a big difference. Because it really brings a characteristic of Christ in you. So Christ is so interested, not so much our head knowledge, but what is the Lord really wanting to do in training? A willingness in the teachable spirit. Because sometimes head knowledge can bring pride and pride brings a fall. And through the many years of ministry I've seen a lot of people go so far in Christ. But at one area which being unteachable or prideful can be a downfall too. Because it's not like how we start the race. It's the finishing of the race. So at Summer Haven there were a lot of young people who were all together living there and in training. What is that training? We talked some about it. What did it look like on a day to day? Maybe you have some examples of that training. Well, yielding. Submitting. Submitting to what you were taught. And being faithful. There would be times where the food would come in at 1 or 2 in the morning and you'd have to be up to get it to do the work. Even the dishes. If we didn't get the dishes done then you were doing them after. And you could choose to be the one to go to bed or you could be the one to be there and be faithful to finish the job. And it wasn't to say that when you needed to rest you would rest. But there were times where you had to go the extra mile. And how would that going the extra mile change your life? All I know that I experienced out of my own life that Jesus was there at the sink and His presence was there. And it was as if I wanted to be the first one to be there because I wanted to be with the Father. It wasn't just in a devotional in the morning. It was just in a submitting to be willing to be the servant. Because it says the greatest is the servant of God, the servant of all. In some people in the mentality of this world we see it in such a different light. It's like someone lower. Especially in third world countries. In India too it's like to be a servant is to be something lower. But that's what Jesus was. He was the servant of all. He worked on the wood that He created. He washed His disciples feet. Which was a form of humility. And I think a key thing to success in the Kingdom of God is humility. If that key is not working then it's the key to His heart. Yes it is. It is near to those who are humble and contrite. Yeah. So after you had your family how did this story go? How did you came from living and ministering at Summer Haven to moving to Kings Ranch? OK We were living in Mexico at the time. We were living in Baja, Vicente Guerrero. We had met Nati, remember Nati? We went to San Quintin. Agnes sent us to Venezuela. So we had some people staying there at the ministry center while Jamie and I went too. So in San Quintin you started a ministry center? Actually we were living in Mexico County. And God had given us a big property there that we could use. And we had a mortar home, like a bus that was converted into a mortar home that was given to Jamie and I. And also we had a building where we were located in Mexico County. In Mexico County we started working with people that make bricks with their feet. And we would go and we would give classes there. That is when I'm trying to think the one that came from Mexico County. I just said her name. And she came and joined us. And so she would help me. We would take a chalkboard and we would teach the children there. Did you know Lily there as well? Who? Lily? Lily. She was Nati's friend as well. Possibly. I thought we thought of Bernardo and the boys. Because there was so much. We had about 70 children every Saturday where we would feed them. At the brick yards? No, this is another area. We were doing the brick area and then we were doing where we lived. Where we lived every Saturday we would invite all the children of the community and I would cook food for them. And then we would have vacation Bible school. And we would minister to the children. Many of the children gave their lives to the Lord. And then the mothers saw me cooking for their children and they said we want to come and help. And they got saved. And they became my helpers. We could focus more because we would do the vacation Bible school. My kids would help. We had a lot of helpers there and we would do that. We did that for over a year. There was a woman there that she lived in the streets. She had a lot of children and she was out of her mind. And she would just come and just sit where our ministry was and God began to change her life. She began to brush her hair. She began to take care of her children. And her husband, which was an alcoholic, got saved as well. And it was just beautiful. There was a beautiful presence of God moving among the children, among the families. And then we ended up moving to San Quintin. How far is that? It's pretty far. Maybe 8 hours. I'm not sure. Is that in Baja? Baja. Because there was a gentleman. I don't even know how it happened. Jamie would be able to detail. But they had a church there. And they were looking for someone to come. And so that was among all the O'Hawkins and the Treakeys. And there was only two buildings there in the mountain. And the rest of them were all cardboard shacks. And it was O'Hawkins, Treakey Indians that lived there. And so I did the same thing and Nati came to help me there. And we did the children. Again, every Saturday. We'd have all the children and we'd get to teach them, minister to them. And we would feed them a meal. From there, Agnes wanted us to go to Venezuela. So we had to have someone take the place there. I'm sure Nati was there too. And then we went to Venezuela and then we came back. And then we were in San Quentin. And Jamie said, I feel like I need to go to the main center, which was Summer Haven. And he arrived there. And there was a group of people that were going to King's Ranch. And they asked Jamie to go along. And Jamie said, okay. And he went and he heard the voice of the Lord say, I'm going to put you here. I was not in for it at all. But I'll get to that part. So I go to the laundromat because we have no phones. Where we're living, there's no electricity. There's no running water in the village that we're living in.
