Deanna Doss Shrodes

Today we met with the chef and our sales rep at the Hilton to have our taste test of all the food for the conference. All I gotta say is mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Our ladies are in for a real treat. Dealing with Hilton has just been extraordinary. Right down to the fact that they had us come in and taste every starch, every vegetable, desserts, etc. and pick EXACTLY what we wanted for the banquet at the conference. We are so excited. It's going to be great. I've been cranking out work, messages for upcoming things, and trying to get everything squared away so we can have a few days off. We have been running here and there with everything from funerals to ACMC to you name it and I think my last day off was a few Fridays ago. At least two. I am looking forward to this week...really anticipating it. Our friends Randy and Dawn are coming in tonight. (Our friends of 20+ years...used to be Larry's youth pastors, then I worked for them at TC, then we both worked for them when they were our

Getting up was a glorious experience. I had eight whole hours of sleep last night!!! Anybody who knows me very well knows I keep late hours to get everything done. And actually my best hours for working are at night. It’s when I think best and can create. But yesterday, we were at the Hampton Inn for co-hort, and the beds and the shower are SO comfortable (I’m a real fan of both Hampton Inn, and Hyatt) that you can get such a great rest if you make a point to. And, I made a point to. So glad I did. Sunday night we had newcomers night. I was exhausted from a full day. We had a good service Sunday morning with eight people filled with the Holy Spirit! God is so good. Larry had a meeting all afternoon and Savanna and I had to go home and clean for newcomer’s night. With being away speaking on Fri/Sat I never got to it. So we had to go home right away after service. She said, “Momma, I know you’re tired. Go ahead and take a nap.” (Sometimes, she’s not only brilliant, but kind…) I went in

For dogs? Last night Larry and I were watching a news show and they were reporting on Michael Vick. Lawyers were debating what his sentence should be and the debate was getting heated. Somebody brought up the fact that supposedly this past week, Vick said he "found Jesus." The newscasters were asking if this should make any difference in his sentence or the public forgiving him for what happened with the dogs. One of the lawyers, being totally serious, said, "Michael Vick found Jesus this week. Unfortunately that was something these dogs did not get a chance to do..." We laughed so hard. Lawyers can sometimes really grasp at straws and this was really one such time. I began to feel kind of convicted. In ten years of having our dog Geena I don't think any of us have shared the plan of salvation with her. I mean, according to these lawyers, time has not run out yet for her to make that decision...

it's painful. What will this girl have going for her when she's older and starts to sag? Um, really nothing unless something really changes over the next few years, bless her heart.

Today I'm continuing, and finishing the highlights from my "Wonder Woman" teaching that I brought at the ACMC. Here we go: 6) Have a game plan I have a call of God on my life to pastor, to write, to preach. I also happen to be a wife of 20 years, and a mother of 3 children who are 10, 16, and 17 at this time. When my children were born, I had a strong desire to continue pastoring, writing and speaking. I heard everyone talk about how my life was going to completely change and although I desired to have children, I feared the change. What started the fear in the beginning of my pregnancy with Dustin (my 17 year old) were people in the church where my husband and I served as youth and music pastor, respectively. As my pregnancy progressed, people would come up to me and hug me, with a look of sadness and say, "It's been so nice having you, Pastor Deanna. It was nice working with you." After several people doing this, as if my ministry was in the past te

Continuing on the highlights of my "Wonder Woman" teaching from the ACMC on Fri/Sat, and yesterday's blog, let's start part II with the first five of ten keys I shared to 'becoming a Wonder Woman"... 1) Learn from Jesus In the book, Ordering Your Private World, Gordon MacDonald gives three reasons why Jesus took control of His time: 1) He understood His mission – not even Satan could convince Him to change His priorities. 2) He understood the source of His power. He realized that he would need the private time of 40 days in the wilderness, and the prayer and fasting to overcome the enemy in a time of weakness. He budgeted that time to prepare. 3) He made intentional choices about his time – invested prime time in the disciples, debriefed them when they returned from assignments, took time to rebuke them when they failed, affirm when the succeeded. It was amazing that at the end of three short years of ministry, Jesus was able to say, “I have finish

Did you know that today is National Women's Equality Day in America? In celebration of this historic day, Pastor Tara Sloan and I announce the launch of our new blog, " Equal Time ". We will both be the primary contributing writers on the blog however, it is also our goal to feature many articles by egalitarian writers. We are so excited about this new venture and hope it is a blessing to you. We are both blessed to be a part of the Assemblies of God fellowship, a group which celebrates women in leadership and officially holds an egalitarian view, meaning that we believe in the Biblical equality of women. In fact, our new superintendent-elect of the Assemblies of God, Rev. George O. Wood, has done some extensive Biblical research and much writing and speaking on this issue and is a passionate advocate for the equality of women. To read one of his sermons on this topic, go to Superintendent Elect Dr. George Wood . It is our prayer that you will find Equal Time to be encour

Today I spoke once again at the All Church Ministries Conference in Lakeland. They requested that I bring a teaching called, "God's Wonder Woman." Evidently I've gotten a reputation for being able to multi-task. :-) I'm going to break my teaching down over the next few days in a few posts for my blog readers. What follows is my introduction. Hope you enjoy! Stay tuned each day for more... I saw a book in the Christian bookstore recently and it was something to the effect of, “I’m not a wonder woman”…and I thought, “yes I am!” Daniel 11:32 says, “but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits”. The Bible says that signs and wonders will follow them that believe. John 14:11-13 says “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, beca

Today I did my two workshops at the Pen-Florida All Church Ministries Conference. They went really well! I'll be doing them both again tomorrow. First I did the mentoring one. I was amazed at how many people were at the classes -- the rooms were packed and I used as many handouts in one day as I thought would be used for two days. So I had to call back home to Tampa and say, "Make a whole other round of handouts for tomorrow's meetings!" We also almost ran totally out of Unstoppable cards. We made a lot of connections for that. Some of my friends, Jenn Lee in particular, were really helping to promote it. Wayne even promoted it in his classes! By the way, I went to lunch with Pastors Wayne & Jenn to "Harry's" a place that was just awesome (they know all the great food spots!) Had some wonderful crab cakes and even better conversation. Yesterday in my blog, I detailed some of what I was going to speak on in the mentoring class. I know I said I'd b

Proverbs 23:9 says, "Don't waste your breath on fools, for they will despise the wisest advice." Just winding things up for the night, getting ready to go to sleep, get up early in the morning and head to the All Church Ministries Conference to give two workshops tomorrow, and then again on Saturday. One of them is on mentoring. I am going to speak about how to mentor but I am also going to caution those who are mentors that they must be careful not to invest poorly. I believe strongly that people need to qualify for mentorship. What I mean by this is that one is not automatically mentored - they must qualify by the condition of their heart, their commitment, their actions. Here are some of my main points I'm going to give tomorrow about making sure one qualifies for mentorship: 1) Pray - ask God to prepare your heart to receive from them. 2) Develop a teachable spirit. Why would God give you a mentor if you are not really eager to learn? 3) Develop a habit of learnin

until Pastor Tara and I unveil our new project for the world to experience!

Brain is turning to mush again!!! I just finished some writing projects. Help me! I need something non-sensical that doesn't require too much thought!!! What were you doing 10 years ago? Co-pastoring a church, nursing a newborn, directing choir, leading worship, working way too many hours a week and pinching every penny. What were you going one year ago? One year ago was one of the absolute greatest times of my life. Last year was amazing. I look back on 2006 and can't do anything but smile! We had the best year in the church in 2006 and in our lives personally. So many good things, I can't even chronicle them all. We experienced some changes that were God-sent that made all things possible. One of the greatest things was the incredible sudden boom of our youth group - God did so many awesome things beginning in January of 2006, and it just kept right on going throughout the entire year. Last August/September things were just absolutely busting. Great memories, nothing but

I'm realizing, there are three things that are absolutely key to rising above and achieving one's destiny and they are - favor, favor, and favor. I've heard it said, "one day of favor is worth a thousand days of labor." I am finding that to be SO true. Today we had our meeting with our sales rep at the Hilton. She's working with us on our Unstoppable Conference. There are so many things I needed to make this work. Things so beyond my abilities, out of our contract, things most people would be told to go jump in a lake about. Well, I've been praying for months and several other people have too, Pastor Tara Sloan for one. Thank you, PT for standing with me in prayer even today while in the meeting. What happened? Basically favor was thrown at us right and left. There are so many things that just magically (Holy Spirit magically) worked out, and were immediately granted to us - things we DESPERATELY needed to make this conference work. Well, not only work,

Taking this idea off of Pastor Lisa's blog... 1) Two names you go by Deanna, Momma 2) Two things you're wearing right now Blue tie dyed t-shirt and black sweats 3) Two things you want in a relationship loyalty and ...mmmm... loyalty 4) Two of your favorite things to do read and write 5) Two things you want very badly at the moment a day off and something chocolate. 6) Two pets you have had or have now When I was growing up my dog was Kelly. Our dog now is Geena. 7) Two people who will fill this out first: would have been Pastor Lisa, but I got this off her blog, so...it will be Pastor Leanne if she's back from camp already, and Pastor Tara if she's got time amidst working on our new project. :-) 8) Two things you did last night Took a long bubble bath and totally enjoyed the fact that school is back in session and the kids were asleep early. :-) 9) Two people that live in your house My Superman - Larry and my Superson - Jordan 10) Two people you talked to last Pastor

Ten Things You Don't Like About Your Job Okay, I've been working non stop all day (lots of writing - didn't even stop for lunch) and the brain is starting to get fried. Time to take a short break and write something just for fun. Went to a Meme website, Ten on Tuesday , and this is the question for the day. I thought, "uuuughhh" THIS is the question? Oh well, I'm gonna do it. Here goes... 1) Watching people making decisions that sometimes ruin their lives and there is nothing you can do about it but pray and still sometimes see them go off the cliff you warned them was there. My husband just dealt with a situation like that today. Very painful for a spiritual mother and father to go through, because we love our people so much. 2) Having a zillion God-dreams but not always the immediate resources to fulfill them. 3) The politics that sometimes come with it. (Though I've sworn not to engage in it, sometimes - unavoidable.) 4) The fact that it has the potenti

Today was the first day of school for the kids. I'm so glad to be back to routine. Did I mention, sooooooooooo glad? I am a creature of routine and summers get me totally off kilter. Not to mention, this means Larry and I are back to fun Friday. :-) Dustin had his first follow up appt. today after his hospital release. He has another follow up with the surgeon tomorrow. Over the coming weeks he'll have all kinds of follow ups to get checked and re-checked several times to make sure no trace of MRSA is left. He'll have follow ups on his blood work, and more. Today Dr. Watson gave him the go ahead to go back to normal diet. He wants pizza tomorrow. (I had already made pot roast today for dinner because it was the first day of school and I know it's everybody's favorite.) I guess tomorrow night, it's Amici's take out for dinner! Savanna and Jordan had a good day at school. They like their teachers a lot. We've completed the first day mounds of paper work t

Be sure to read your September 16 Pentecostal Evangel. You'll find me there. :-)

Larry just got the word - he will not be going on the reality show - he doesn't qualify for it...he doesn't weigh enough. (And as you might have guessed...the show was..."The Biggest Loser.") Pastor T greatly overestimated how much Larry weighed, and Larry didn't want to waste the trip tomorrow to Ft. Lauderdale since it's 8 hours round trip, so he had him call the producer with his exact current weight and sure enough, he doesn't qualify. Larry can stand to lose a few pounds like most people, but he is really not that overweight, nor at the level of any of the previous winners of the competition in how much he would need to lose. The show would have required Larry to lose 70 pounds -- at least, to win, and in reality he can only healthily lose about 30-35 pounds, max. So, Pastor T is still going to the casting call and is going to probably take someone else with him who weighs a lot more and will hopefully qualify. I'm glad for him - I know he really