My Call pt. 4 "The Final Frontier?"

I never once dreamed that my sharing about my call into ministry would have brought me this far, part four to be exact; but it has also allowed me to share with you some of the more detailed and intimate side of who I am.

Those of you who know me, may see me as being very outgoing and sociable; but it wasn't always that way. I am very shy by nature and chose, rather ran into my shell because of what others have said about me either to my face or behind my back.

Words are very powerful in the arena of life. They can make or break you. Bring life or destroy life. I have always wanted the sense of belonging to something or someone. I mean, wanting to feel like I'm a part of something.

I can remember kids my own age at Bible School and how they acted, I sorta wondered why they were even there. Was it mommy and daddy that sent them? Was it the Lord? I hate to judge and this rant sounds like I am, but the call of God is a serious thing and that call carries with it a heavy responsibility. God is love!! God lives in us!! Love(God) is in us!!.........Without love, we are nothing but a bunch of noise.

Anyways, I came back to Rhema for my second year a different person. I came determined that I was going to be a friend, an ally, someone that could be trusted. After seeing how people acted, I wanted God to shine in me. I wanted His love to radiate from me to others. Slowly, my shyness started to melt.

Really, it took the combined effort of many people to bring out the best in me. They took me out of my comfort zone and taught me how to be the man of God I am today. I am by no means perfect, just crowned with dignity and worth. Just blessed and highly favored.

Second year at Rhema was a blast. I entered into it knowing what I was to do which was to be an Evangelist. How bout that, a shy kid called to Evangelize? School was easy for me because I was determined to learn all I could and put it into practice.

I was in the Evangelist group and not long after registration, God began to stoke the fire. I was sold out on God and I was ready to begin the path He had for me. As I mentioned previously, I got to know many well-known ministers and something I would do would do is when I had the chance, I'd ask questions. Questions about their call, how they prepare to minister, things like that. I wanted to know what I was getting into.

Something that has stuck with me is what Rod Parsley shared. I asked him, "What do you do the day your to preach? How do you prepare?" His answer rang in me and has brought many victories in my life. He said, "I get alone and just fellowship with my Father." It's that personal fellowship with Father God that will calm any internal storm and release that burden-removing, yoke-destroying power that abides in you.

Something I did regularly was to go to Rhema's park at night just to pray. I'd walk around the entire campus praying either in English or Tongues just to quiet my mind and get revelation. What I'm doing now was prayed out during those walks and things I haven't even entered into was prayed there as well. I called this my Gethsemane experience because it was just me and the Lord, no-one else.

During Second year I made it a priority to get to know the some of the First year students, just to prepare them for what to expect and to help out if needed. One instance that comes to mind is when my neighbor was having problems with his roommate. They lived in a 1/1 (one bedroom/one bath) apartment. Those things offered no privacy and so there was bound to be some problems. I know because I faced that two times. My first roommate kicked me out because I wasn't into the party scene and just having fun I was there to learn, not party. Second roommate fought with me constantly. Come to find out from his friends that he was jealous of me for some reason and just wanted to put me down. This happened during First year so by the time I came back to Second year I had my own place.

Getting back to my neighbor, he came by and asked how to get a stain out of the carpet and so I offered to show him how. When I walked into his apartment, the place was a disaster zone. It was a pig sty and there was food crumbs all over the place, not to mention it looked like 2 pack rats lived there. I asked him about this and that's when he mentioned about having roommate issues.

I shared with him about some of my experiences and advised him to talk to the roommate and settle the matter peacefully. Well that didn't work out too well and after having a meeting with the head of student housing, he was told that he could evict his roommate. The roommate was allowed to stay until the end of the school year. There is more to this, but I'd rather keep you guessing.

Also, because of my love for sports, I made it a priority to attend every home basketball game and travel to some of the away games. B-ball was a lot of fun and I got to spend it with a great friend who I keep in touch with to this day. Really, there was a girl on the team that I liked, but didn't have a chance with. I probably did, but no worries. It's all in the past.

The games brought great stories for me to use when I preach. Some stories have never been told because of things that took place. Plus I don't want to embarrass anybody.

Second year went by fast and so I accomplished a lot in just those nine months. I came out of my shell, made friends, did great in school and accomplished many other things by the grace of God.

I graduated May 18, 2002 with a 3.95gpa which for me was great. I was a C- student in High School. I left Rhema the following morning and never looked back. I miss Rhema to this day and look forward to the day when I can travel to my Spiritual home.

What do I miss most about Rhema, you may ask?

1. That strong corporate anointing
2. The love that permiated the campus
3. Exaltation (Tuesday morn prayer service w/ Miss Lynette Hagin)
4. Hearing Pastor Hagin Preach
5. Mom and Dad Hagin who both went home to be with the Lord
6. Friendships I made.
7. Zio's and China Star Buffet

This list isn't half of what I miss nor is it in any particular order. Rhema molded me into a man with an unshakable confidence in God and it developed a confidence in me that I can do anything with the Lords help.

Well, that about wraps up the story of my calling. I didn't do it justice by sharing all the details or share about what is happening with me to day; but if you just sit tight, maybe I will share with you some of what is happening in my life today.


Love ya,

Josh- Mark 9:23

My Call pt. 3

In the previous 2 blogs I shared about how I was called into ministry and what events led up to me applying to and getting accepted to Rhema. Today I would like to share with you about my experience at Rhema. The trip to Rhema all the way to my departure.

After getting my acceptance letter from RBTC, I continued to work at Interforest and sow seed towards my Rhema adventure. Finally on August 13th, I and my folks made the 1,050 mile trek from Monaca, PA to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. This was my first time driving this far of a distance and so I was not used to sitting so long in a car(ouch!!) We made the trip a 2 day event to save us the pain, agony and tiredness. A straight shot would have been 18 hours, but that wasn't about to happen. We stopped just outside of St. Louis Missouri after driving about 12 hours, I was sore and stiff, but hey, my first cross-country trip!! We took two cars and after driving 12 hours, my dad and I felt that we needed to stop. We found a Ramada Inn just outside of St. Louis; come to find out that a Six Flags was next door, thus making the price for a room astronomical. So we got back in the cars and drive some more. We eventually found a place 5 miles down the road which was reasonable. To be honest with you, I slept so well that night.

On Sunday morning, we finally arrived in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. I expected to see desert and cacti, I was so wrong. It was actually green. I won't bore you with details, but let me say that I was able to get a place in the Student-housing complex across from Rhema, which was a total blessing.

Living at Student-housing was a blessing because I met so many interesting characters. Some, I wondered whether or not they were called because of how they acted. For instance, there was an egg fight in the parking lot and some of the cars were hit. I had a knock on my door and the maintenance guy, told me that I had to pay for the damages done to his car because one of the kids who threw eggs actually lived in my apartment the previous year and was friends with my room mate. I told the guy (Dale Hayashi) that I wasn't paying a dime because I didn't even know the kid or even the fact that eggs were thrown. Actually, I insulted the guy because he made me mad.......That's how I was baptized into the apartment life.

Making friends was real tough for me because of my introverted nature. I was shy and really struggled mightily, what turned all this around was just people taking me under their wing (The Hagins, Wiggins and may others) and helping me to really open up. I eventually by the time I graduated, became a social butterfly and was the go to guy at student housing. What I mean by that is that I helped people out with their roommate problems and other issues. I had roommate problems too because I didn't get a long with them. It was a combo of both of us. When you live in a one bedroom apartment, you're bound to have problems.

Anyways, I started school in September and was blown away by the amount of knowledge that the instructors had. I had classes on so many different subjects and a mountain of books to read. The key to the books is (1) Read the books for Doug Jones's class first....these were usually due by midterm (2) Read the larger books and the boring ones to get them out of the way (3) Read the smaller ones which won't take too long.

After the first week, I was thrilled about the adventure the Lord had for me. I was enjoying school and meeting many, many people. The classes were not difficult if you'd just pay attention and do what the instructor wanted.

I can remember in N.T. Literature that for midterm we were to do either the maps of Paul's missionary journeys or do a written report of his letters (Prison, Pastoral, General). The teacher stated that she was grading the maps harder because everyone does them. so being the Einstein that I am, I chose to do a report on the Prison Epistles. A few weeks later we got them back and I got an A. It wasn't a 100% A, just an A. On the paper it said, "This isn't the oder in which I taught." So what? was my response, but still it was an A. A lady did the map and she got an F because the teacher couldn't see the lines. This woman bawled and cried and wined....hehehe.
This woman said a few weeks previous that she was going to doll her paper up, I mentioned to her to be careful and just do as was instructed, she didn't listen and so she received a big, fat F. F as in failure. F as in foolish.

As she was crying, I rubbed it in and said, "I told you, you dingbat!!!" The other ladies didn't like that too much, but so what. She was eventually allowed to do it over and received a C because she was late. As I mentioned earlier, we had many, many colorful characters at Rhema; including yours truly.

We had a guy that laughed all the time and at everything. We had a guy with growths all over himself. I have an interesting story on him, but if you want to hear it, just email me....LOL

One of the memorable highlights of my first year was the Christmas Banquet. The weather that morning was around 60 degrees and nice, four hours later, the weather turned south and it was 20 degrees and snowing like crazy. I picked up my date and drove to the NRC for the banquet. I couldn't believe the weather changing that fast. Later that night after having an awesome time, we were heading to leave when we were informed, "During the Banquet, it snowed 3.5" and had freezing rain to top it off." What a lousy night, it took me almost 40 minutes to drive her to her apartment which was about 4 miles away. The drive was hairy, but I got her there safely.

During my first year, I met so many wonderful people. I made it a point to go to ORU every week to sit in the audience during "The Hour of Healing", hosted by Richard and Lindsay Roberts. I was there so much that they eventually learned my name and even asked if I wanted to help by running a camera or something. I refused only because I wanted to focus on my studies. During this time, I met the cream of the crop when it came to TV ministers. Everyone from Creflo Dollar to Jerry Savelle to Jesse Duplantis and many others. Talk about having favor!!! That's what happens to a Kings kid...

The year just flew by and before I knew it, I was finishing up my first year. I had so many interesting things happen to me and so many opportunities to prove that the Word works.

All in all, I believe that I was at Rhema at the right time. If I only knew what would happen down the road, I would have been in doubt because God had a plan and it was His timing that made the difference.

Well, this is long enough so I will stop here. Sorry to disappoint you by quitting so soon, but my creative juices are finished for now.

Be blessed,

Josh