Episode #9 - The Apostolic Woman

All. Right.

So we've got a very special edition of the Live Gate podcast

today. We've got me.

I'm definitely not John. I am Brooke, John's wife and we

have a special ladies podcast for you guys today.

Just a very sweet time and I've got 2 sweet guests with me

today. We've got sister Nikki Brown and

then our pastor's wife, sister Michelle Penton.

How are y'all doing today? Doing fantastic, doing great,

good well. This is a little bit out of my

comfort zone to be able to lead something like this.

I know I'm very well versed in social media and doing stories

and reels and all kinds of stuff, but to actually guide us

into a conversation for something back and forth.

Hopefully we can make this go pretty well, but we've got a

couple of discussion topics here that I think that if you know,

we tap into, we can kind of give our perspective as ladies how,

you know, we go the day-to-day being in the role of a godly

wife, godly mother, women in ministry, you know, just

different disciplines in our lives that is a little bit

different from, you know, the male aspect.

So without further ado, we're just going to go ahead and get

started in some of this. So I guess really how I want to

lead is give a little bit of your personal testimony to, you

know, your upbringing, kind of make it real short and sweet,

but let us know, you know, how you knew the Lord.

Well, we are. Both very blessed to have been

raised into a home where our mother was a very godly woman.

And so my first day at church, my mother got checked out of the

hospital, apparently, and brought me directly to church.

And I know that's also Nikki's story.

That's just the way my mom believed.

And so I was, I don't know how many days old, but just a few

days, less than a week old. The first time that I went to

the hospital, I mean went to the church and my mom believed that

every time the doors were opened, you were to be there.

So if we had prayer meeting, we were there.

If there was back then, it was called Ladies Auxiliary.

I was there. We, we were always at the

church. If she was cleaning the church,

we were there. If she was decorating her

classroom, we were there. We just, I grew up and, and I

mean, Nikki did too, but just, we were always at the church.

It was always important to us serving the Kingdom.

We had some very influential women in our lives, my mom, my

grandmother, my Aunt Annie, the three most influential.

Then our obviously our pastors wives that we've had throughout

the years, but in my life, particularly in from up until I

was about 17 years old, there were just certain women in my

life that made such an impact. And I wanted to be like them.

I wanted to dress like them. I wanted to worship like them.

I learned to worship. I learned to, to pray long, you

know, before I received the Holy Ghost.

Of course, you know, it wasn't too much too long because I

received the Holy Ghost just I turned 5 on December the 22nd,

19 and 74 and received the Holy Ghost on December the 31st.

And I'm so thankful. And I was five years old.

A lot of people will say children, maybe they don't

really understand. Well, a lot of adults do not

understand either. We, we can't comprehend what

it's really. But I can tell you that I could

take you back to the place where I received the Holy Ghost today

because I will never, ever forget.

And now I'm 55 and have had the Holy Ghost for 50 years and I

just love it. It gets, as my grandmother used

to say, you get sweeter everyday.

Nikki, what about your perspective?

Well, similar story, except I kind of got a double blessing

because my sister, older sister was the music minister and she

taught piano lessons and shoot me everywhere with her.

So I would go to church because my mom had me there and then she

had me there. We just dwelled in the House of

the Lord forever, you know, like the Bible said, you know, But

anyway, I do feel like we had a lot of great influences when it

came to women, you know, And I, I hope that I have done a good

job with my children 'cause I, they feel the same way.

And it's like they just live at the church.

But that's OK. I mean, I just feel like that is

just, that is just OK, you know? Well, I'll give a quick little

rundown of mine. So I was raised in church, took

a little break and I'll kind of dive into that later on, but met

my boyfriend at the time and he brought me here to life, Kate,

at the fresh age of 16. And I've been here for the past

decade, You know, just seeing not only the love that my

husband had here is one of the first, you know, families here

at Lifegate, but kind of almost as a grandfathered in, if he

will, of like that secondary, you know, a person to come

through and just been loved ever since, you know, being here.

So I do want to move on to kind of the role of women in ministry

just because there are so many opportunities for involvement in

the church, not just what we see a lot of women are, which is

Sunday school teachers and teaching, but in prayer and

hospitality and music, mentoring, you name it that, you

know, there is no cap on what women can do in a church.

So Sister P, I'll let you speak a little bit on ministry since

that's kind of your, your focus and your goal at here at

Lifegate. But give us your perspective on,

you know, that topic. Well, the term women in

ministry, I feel it's just a new cliche term.

The fact of the matter is women all the way back to the Old

Testament have always been involved in ministry.

Maybe they have been licensed as far as we are concerned, or not.

But I was raised by women, not just my grandmother and my

mother and my aunt that I referred to, but in a church

full of women who were deep into the work of God.

And that's what we caught it back then, that you were working

for the Kingdom. And that's what ministry is.

It's working for the Kingdom. Colossians says whatever your

hands find to do it, do it heartily as unto the Lord.

And that is something that we were raised to do that whatever

we could do for to feather the Kingdom of God, we did it.

And I witnessed my mother being involved in everything from

teaching Sunday school, teaching Bible studies, discipleship,

cleaning the church, greeting people, leading service.

I didn't really remember this, but after she passed away,

someone found a video of Mom opening service, opening

worship, and I'd, I guess that was so common in the church that

we grew up in that I didn't even realize that Mom had done it.

I just never thought about it, you know, because women and men

were used equally. I think the main thing for women

being involved in ministry is that involvement.

That's the key, just finding a place or multiple places to

serve because just like in our homes, we don't do just one

thing. You know, maybe we're just we're

great at one thing and that's our primary, but really we wear

all different kinds of hats as women.

We do and we can do that in the Kingdom as well.

We don't have to just be well, I'm a Bible study teacher.

Well, I'm a Sunday school teacher and never discount the

power of a Sunday school teacher.

The influences that a Sunday school teacher has on a on

children is I always tell our our Sunday school teachers you

need to really pray and fast just like you expect pastor to

over your Sunday school lessons. Because the Sunday school

teachers actually have more influence over a child's life

and their spiritual destiny from at those early ages than the

pastor does. And so Sunday school teachers, a

power, I like to call it discipleship because that's what

it is, teaching Sunday school, teaching Bible studies, but also

just the power of being a godly lady in a very ungodly world,

just doing the things that we always do, that reading our

Bible and, and, and servanthood and, and worship.

And just that. I don't even want to discount

the role of just being, just serving God, just being who we

are as Apostolic. Women, I was thinking the exact

same thing that there's some things that we are gifted in,

Like I know that I have a gift in music and it'll be easy for

me to say, well, that's all I'm going to do because that's what

I feel like God gifted me in. But the way we were, I'll just

say the way we were raised is that my mother was a wonderful

singer, but I don't feel like her gifting with the music, but

she still served there. Her gifting I feel like was in

Sunday school. My mother was the most

phenomenal Sunday school teacher I've ever I have ever seen in my

whole entire life. She was just amazing.

I mean, the things that she did. So I guess I could say, well, I

can't do it like her, so I can't serve there.

And I feel like that is a lot of the mindset with people that

they feel like they're not gifted, that they can't serve

there. And I feel like we were just

taught that if there's a need, you feel it and God will give

you what you need. Does that make sense?

You know, and I, I, there's so many, so many things to do in

the church and this, you know, I don't ever feel like that we

should be begged to be, to be used in church.

And it is a balance. And some people say why can't do

this because I have a family and I've got a job and it is a

balance. And I don't discredit any of

that. This is true.

It just, it just takes it's a balance.

But I feel like whenever your heart's in the right place, that

God will will help you balance it all out.

It's good, I agree. One thing that my mom just

always tell me is Michelle Balloon where you're planted.

And I know that when we came here to plant the church, there

was a lot of things that were I was not gifted at, but I had to

do. You know, teaching little

children Sunday school is not my gifting.

I did it even when it was just my children, you know, until God

sent Cheryl, thank the Lord to take over.

But I think the key is, you know, I guess the key to

everything really is submission. Because when we humble ourselves

before the Lord and we really start thinking about all the

good things that God has done for us and, and just the miracle

of salvation in itself, then how can I not just do whatever my

hands find to do? And as my grandma used to always

say, I just want, when I die, I just want to be used up for

Jesus. I don't want to have withheld

anything from him because I know we're going to stand before him.

And really there's just two things that we're going to hear

him say and it's either well done, my good and faithful

servant, or depart from me. I never knew you.

I want to hear well done, my good and faithful servant.

I want to do well. I want to serve well and I want

to be faithful in everything and in whatever that means, whatever

that looks like here, whether it's cleaning up after children

on a Sunday afternoon, if it's whatever, whatever that looks

like. I just want to be a part of of

the big picture. I want to be a part of God's

work. Really sweet little snippet.

My personal story of coming to Lifegate, the very first service

that I walked into. Oh goodness, it was packed at

all. Railroad bed.

There was a period there where we got pretty, pretty packed.

So I'm searching around, trying to find me somewhere to sit.

And I haven't even met John's parents before.

So I'm like, I don't even know what they look like.

I'm just going to sit over here. Well, sweet Rachel Brister walks

over and, you know, as most members should, whenever

visitors come through with greeting, you know, But she

said, I think I know you. You know, where do I know you

from? And in that moment, I knew

exactly who she was. And I had told her, well, you

were one of my very first Sunday School teachers, so to go back

on the power of the Sunday school teacher.

And I don't know how old I would have been, maybe 7-6, who knows?

But and that was probably the last remembrance I had is at

that age, but maybe, and I think I was 16 at the time coming

here, knowing immediately who she was.

You never forget that. So yeah, just to hype up our,

our Sunday school ladies of what you do, even if you feel like

it's very small, small portion in the just the Sunday school

realm of oh man, I've got to get a lesson together, I've got to

get a snack. All the snack.

It's got to meet all the kids criteria.

Can't be goldfish every Sunday. But just know that you know you

make such an impact. Let's go ahead and go on to some

of the spiritual disciplines in a woman's life.

Sister Pi, know that you are so faithful about having a prayer

call just about every morning for some of our ladies.

I know you do some personal ones too with the ladies of our

district as well, but meeting on the need of prayer, fasting and

personal devotion to us as ladies and how important it is

not just to us individually, but you know, to our families.

So I guess really where I want to go is where was the first I

guess portion of your life or age where you realize I need to

set something and establish it daily so.

Well we probably have the same story here.

Every night before we went to bed our mother knelt us down.

Now remember our dads wasn't in church.

In fact you all witnessed my dad received the Holy Ghost just

right few years before he passed away.

Something we've been praying for all of our lives.

But every night as long as I could remember, I do not ever

remember this not happening. We knelt beside my parents bed

and my mother prayed with us. And she would make him pray to

my dad, she'd he would lay right there beside us and and he

probably wasn't praying because he wasn't in church, but she

would just thought it was important that he even joined us

even though he was not living like she was at the time.

Yes, as a whole family, we just Dad would actually be, as she

said, lying on the bed, but mom would have all of us lined up.

Now you have to remember by the time Nikki came along, I was

already 10 years old. So we have 10 year old, 7 year

old and a baby. And that continued.

We never, I don't ever remember us not praying.

Now as I got to be a teenager and was driving, you know, my, I

got a curfew and all of that. And so I wasn't necessarily

there to pray at night with them, but I never went to bed

without praying. And then as I got older, of

course, we were, you know, taught that you need to read

your Bible, You, you need to pray.

Those were two things that were just constantly mother read a, a

chapter in the Bible to us every single night.

And then we prayed. I think for me, though, the

turning point in my life was in 1984.

I was probably in 9th grade, maybe going to 10th grade or 8th

grade going to 9th. I can't remember that Brother

Anthony Mangan preached a sermon at Mississippi Youth Camp that

forever changed my life, and it was called my obligation to my

generation. And at the end of that camp, he

gave all of us this little pamphlet that he had made, and

it was basically a tracker long before trackers became a thing.

And he challenged us to pray every day, to read our Bible

every day, to fast one day a week every week, and then one

week out of the month to fast three days a week.

That I took that challenge and it changed my life.

And I believe that that because it took discipline and it took a

long time to establish that discipline in my life, you know,

and you get to raising children and that fasting just goes off

kilter and health issues and all of that kind of thing.

But that summer, that sermon changed me.

And it was probably when you add that to the habits that had

already been formed in in my life by my mother, because we

didn't want to, we would complain not long because she

didn't allow it be. Sometimes there'd be like, oh, I

was about to go to bed. Those habits.

It's really discipline. That's a word that we use

erroneously, I think sometimes raising our children, because

discipline is not punishment for crimes committed.

Discipline is a way of life and I really believe that it it's

just instilling discipline and modeling discipline before our

children. But for me personally, I already

thank the Lord already had that established in my life, those

habits already established in my life.

But that summer of 1984 is when it became real to me.

I think, well, I know when my relationship became my

relationship and I'll just be transparent if that's OK.

When I was a young teenager, I was a wild heathen.

My mother had done the best she could and it took really well

with my sister. But I was just a little wild

heathen, you know, and I was just going to do what I wanted

to do and just, you know, and so.

When I was about 15, we moved back down to South Mississippi

and I had started to feel a need to become a better person and a

better Christian and, and not be, but I haven't really give

any. I mean, I was still going to

church and I still looked the part and I still did everything

I was supposed to do. But my heart wasn't right and I

was I was not on a good path and I'm very competitive.

So my sister decided that would be a great thing to use against

me. Well, use for me.

Now I know that she convinced me to be in Bible with in the

church, started Bible with in team.

OK, now I didn't like school, didn't like the idea of studying

period. But I was very competitive.

And so I'm like, well, you know, I, I can this is the breeze.

You know, I can just listen to something and I can make 100 on

a test. So surely I can show these

people up in Bible with him. And that's really the reason I

went and I started studying and reading the Bible every day.

And then God just became real to me through Bible quizzing.

So I, that's why I support Bible quizzing 100%.

But I, it changed my life. It did.

And that's when my relationship with God became real, when I

really got and started reading the Word, and it just became

alive to me. And so I do feel like I would've

been on a totally different path.

Even though I said we were right the same way, it still had to be

my decision. And so just things like that.

But that's discipline. I'm at streaming ADHDI talk a

million times. Yeah, 1,000,000 words a minute.

And Lord help. But you know, but God can help

even me to have discipline. And I feel like he did that

through Bible quizzing. That's awesome to hear.

On the same topic, what about your thoughts on guarding

holiness in lifestyle and conduct?

Because, and I'll speak from a personal level, it is very, very

difficult when you've got challenging things all around

you to maintain, you know, your, your convictions, especially

when you're raised in this and you start questioning, well, you

know, what's the world like? What is it like on on the other

side? So sister pay, I'll let you

speak on on that topic. You're definitely going to get

two sides of the coin here. Like she said, we were raised in

the same home and raised the same way pretty much, except

there was 10 years difference between us.

Her parents were at different spots in their lives raising us.

But I grew up obviously in public school, huge public

school. I don't know what it was about

me, but I really like being different.

It did not bother me to be different.

Mom always raised us. We, we grew up in a church that

affirmed us as young godly women, which is why TCG is so

important to me. I want to always affirm our

young ladies as Apostolic, as who they are beautiful, that God

made us beautiful. Because we can say, oh, that's

not important. It is important.

It's just the way God made us. We, we like to be affirmed in

who we are as, as ladies, no matter what the age, whether

we're 3 or 33 or 103, we want to be affirmed in who we are.

And we like to feel beautiful. And I'm very thankful that I

grew up in a church that affirmed us as Apple Stolic

ladies and our pastor really would would, you know, brag on

us. He took notice.

Our pastor's wife took notice of us, our, you know, Sunday school

teachers, everybody. So I, I feel like that was a, a

problem where, you know, I, I never really struggled with

outward holiness. I just, I never really did it

it. I love this Apostolic lifestyle.

I love that when I walk in a room, I am different from

everybody else. I love that and it's not a

prideful thing. I'm not, I'm not prideful, but I

am proud of who we are. I'm proud of what we stand for

being, not falling to the lives of Satan, that we're not good

enough. There's one thing that I have

noticed that no matter what culture and this and this really

came to me after studying and to teach World Lit, you start

looking at all the cultures of the world and the standard of

beauty for every single culture in the world is different.

I mean, there are some cultures that say you got to have black

teeth to be beautiful. That's what's beautiful.

And in some cultures, you got to be any bitty, bitty, skinny,

skinny to be beautiful, or you need to be fat and and and

overweight. In some cultures, that's what

that's the standard of beauty. Or you need little tiny feet or

you need big, you know, big whatever.

There's so many cultural things where the that the standard of

beauty. But the one thing I've noticed

is that the cultural standard, the standard of beauty is never

God standard of beauty. It's always something different,

changing our bodies, doing something to make us different

from what God made us, when in actuality, he makes all things

beautiful. Everything we look at the

scripture says, hey, look out there at those flowers and the

grass and, and any of us can appreciate the beauty of nature.

Well, how much more does he beautify us?

The ones that he actually gave his life for?

And I, I love that and I love, I just, I love the word of God.

I love the blood of God and then the the preciousness that he has

chosen to clothe us in. But it's not just outward beauty

because that inward beauty is the most important.

Now I believe that inward holiness is paramount.

I've been praying, Lord, let our church be so full of the fruit

of the Spirit. Let us operate in the fruit of

the Spirit. And I know that most people

pray. Let us operate in the gifts of

the Spirit. My prayer has been let us

operate in the fruit of the Spirit, in that inward holiness,

because really all of the outside is just a reflection of

Christ in us, the hope of glory. And I also just want to be

separated as a woman in this day and age.

I am proud of who I am as a lady.

It's hit me a little longer than it did her to get to that

realization, but I'm there now. I would not take anything for my

anything for my journey now. Got to make it to heaven somehow

anyway. But I will say, like we said

before, we're we're polar opposites.

We just really are. And that's not a bad thing.

You know, it takes it takes all kinds.

But I do like I can relate to a different personality of

teenager. I was a personality as a

teenager and a young teenager and a kid that not that I didn't

want to stand out because I wanted to stand out for my

intellect, you know, and I wanted to stand out if I wanted

to go sing and everybody tell me how beautiful I could sing, you

know, as a little kid and all this.

I mean, I loved all that she. Sang just like she does now as a

kid. Just want you to know.

And I ate it up. I really did.

I loved, I loved that, that kind of standing out.

But on the flip side of that, when I was at school, I'm also a

people pleaser. And I'm still kind of that way

in a good way now that I wanted everybody to like me.

You know, I wanted to be, I want to be popular.

I want to be in with a popular kid, but I want everybody to

like me, not just popular. I just wanted to be light.

And whatever I had to do to be light, I would whether that be,

you know, sitting in the crowd and listening to their jokes and

putting on their makeup and whatever, you know, that my mom

would have just killed me if she knew I did any of the stuff that

I did. She probably did and just gave

me a little bit more grace than I thought she did.

But I would, that's just, that's just my personality.

I wanted everybody to like me. And so I would say, I think it

was eighth grade, my mother and dad moved to Greenville, Ms. and

I was taken out of public school and put in a church school

because the church there, the Pentecostal church there had a

school. At first I was like, OK, what a

drag. You know, these people are not

going to be any fun at all. You know, where are my people?

But I get there and it was now. I was still here then for a

while. Don't get me wrong, I was still

still getting there, but I had some very life changing moments.

There were just just like little things, little seeds that were

planted in my life. Sister GAIL Eller taught us a

Christian charm course and taught me just how to be a lady,

you know, And I saw how to be a lady, you know, with my mom and

my aunts. And I appreciate all that.

But I wasn't trying to please them, you know?

And so, but just seeing Sister Ellard, she was like the epitome

of beauty and grace and like she was a hero to me.

And still is. Oh, she's amazing.

But she just to see her and like her perspective on things, you

know, I just kind of, I wouldn't say idolized that, almost

idolized her. And thank God, thank God I did,

because she taught me how to get in and out of a car and how just

wonderful it was to be ladylike. And then of course, she put in

things about the beauty of holiness and how to stand out

and that just that just changed my life.

And then, you know, and I would say another time where Brother

Ellard just came to me one day and it was I was struggling.

Somebody had hurt my feelings, you know, which is a big deal to

me, you know, at 14 that somebody hurts your feelings.

And he took the time to me and say, you know what?

You just, you know, you just need to, and he would tell me

what I need to do. He just took the time with me.

He they pulled me in the office and just took time with me.

And it's just little things like that that I thought I was just

life changing and I started realizing you.

I don't have to blend in with a crowd that I am special.

I would say they taught me that was special the way that I was.

And and I feel like I maybe I maybe by the time that I got we

moved back down to South Mississippi.

Maybe that's maybe my heart was just softened enough that when I

started Bible quizzing, you know, God just does everything

in his timing, you know, But I just will attribute all of that

to getting a love for the truth and a love for for holiness and

godliness. I think that's really what it

all boils down to is what's and go back to what I said

previously, humility. When we humble ourselves before

the Lord, I just can't help but love him.

And I think at this point in my life, if I read in the Bible,

you must wear a purple dress every single day, then I would

just go buy every purple dress I could find because it, it

doesn't matter to me. I just want to be like the Lord

and I want to make a good representation of him and his

Kingdom any way possible I can. And I, I love.

I think that's just all it boils down to is just loving God.

Of course, you know, as women, you know, we want to be

affirmed. And I, I am very thankful that

I've had men in my life. My dad always affirmed us as

ladies, even though he wasn't serving the Lord.

My dad always wanted us, you know, to have the, the best he

could afford. And sometimes that was nice and

sometimes it wasn't. Sometimes it was Walmart and

sometimes it was, you know, Dillard's.

But he always, if we had something, usually for our

birthdays, we'd get a new dress and he'd make a big deal or at

Easter if we got new, sometimes we got new Easter clothes.

Sometimes we didn't, you know, But if we did, we'd model our

clothes and he'd say, oh, you look so pretty.

And then, you know, now I have, you know, I went from a dad like

that to a husband like that who constantly affirms who I am as a

Holy Ghost filled woman and as a beautiful in his eyes, a

beautiful Holy Ghost skilled woman.

You know, And I think that's so important that when I see all of

our young girls at church, I want to offer, I don't care how

old they are, I want to tell them how beautiful they are.

I want to affirm them as as women, you know, as who they

are. They are beautiful.

They're beautiful to me. They're beautiful to God.

I agree with that, that my husband's the same way.

I feel very blessed in that that he has, no matter what stage of

life I was in, if I could come in with my hair from work and my

hair, just whatever, you know, he'll kiss me.

Hey, beautiful, I'm thinking, who is he looking at?

You know, because I look like this.

But it's very, very important man, if you're listening, man,

to let your wife know how beautiful they are, the way God

made them. Because everything you, you see

on any kind of videos or TV's, TikTok, whatever, it's telling

you what you need to do to make yourself better.

Now, I'm all for getting healthy.

I'm on a health journey right now and I'm feeling better and

I'm all about that health wise because I think you just take

care of your temple. Took me a while to get there

too, to take care of my sample, but I'm there.

I'm getting there. But it's just very important,

man. Tell your wives how pretty they

are and how they don't need what the world tell them they need to

be beautiful. Well.

You know that you went back to something like social media is

just such, so against every lady, not just Apostolic ladies,

every lady, because there are two lies.

I feel like that come out of social media right now.

One, you are just perfect and the other one is you're not

enough. And both of those are lies.

One, we're not perfect. We're constantly needing God to

work on us. We are constantly in that state

of, of what did Brother Woodward say that salvation is the most

fluid word because we're, you know, we're saved our initial

conversion and then we are being saved because we're being

perfected. And then one day we will be

saved when we hear him say, well done, you know?

But in this, we're not perfect just like we are.

We constantly need God to create in us the clean heart, to renew

in US the right spirit. We're constantly needing the

Lord to put us back on that Potter's will and to shape us

and to make us into what he would have us to be.

But the other lie is, is that we're not good enough, that

we're never enough. We can't, we can't dress well

enough. We can't do enough at home and

you know, and we're not pretty enough.

We're not skinny enough or we're not toned enough or we're not

smart enough or whatever. That's a lie as well because we

are. We're enough that God gave his

life for us. So we aren't enough.

And the gifts that God has given us, he just, that's for a

purpose. He has put the body.

Fitly joined togethers and we all have a role to play.

I really think that that's probably was my struggle, being

the people pleasure that I was. I never felt good enough.

I never, I mean, I I just, you know, well, if I get in with

this crowd, you know, everybody will like me and I'll be good

enough. I just did not feel good enough.

You know, and I think that you're right on.

You're right on with that. And it was we didn't have social

media like we do now, but it's always the spirit.

It's always in that. Spirit of the age, You know,

going back to my high school years, I think I've shared this

before with some of our young ladies, but there was a time

where I would walk down the hall and people go, you know, why do

you wear a skirt all the time? Or you know, there goes that

skirt girl. And I remember just being really

upset about it. And mom's like in a school of

5000, everybody knows who you are, you're popular.

I was like, oh, of course, yes, they all know.

And you know, my attitude totally changed.

And that year I got elected to the student council at my school

and I didn't even really run. It was like a write in vote.

And some of the girls or some of the people had written the girl

that wears skirts all the time. And in the 10th grade, there

were several of us from our church.

And I asked my teacher, Are you sure this was me?

And she said I knew who they were talking about.

And I just thought that did something to me as a 10th grader

or 11th grade. I was in 11th grade that did

something to me that made me want to really stand strong.

And, and I, and now, you know, recently I had the opportunity

to run into someone from high school that I had not seen well

since high school. And that was I graduated in 1987

and I left Batesville in 1986. And when I ran into her just a

chance meeting in a restaurant, she said, I knew you would never

change. And that just did something to

me. And I was so thankful for that

testimony and just so thankful as a teacher.

It doesn't. The pressure doesn't get any

easier the older you get as a teacher.

I felt the pressure, you know, when I first began teaching.

But, you know, I was also the music director at the church.

So, you know, you got to come to the line.

But then no, seriously, but about I guess what about five

years ago when I got contacted from Facebook and one of my

former students who had graduated me, it must have been,

it might have been longer than five years ago.

I've lost track of time, but one of my former students of all the

girls that I taught. Because you do tend to get

closer to some of the kids. I worked closer with some of the

girls in the Beta Club and different things like that.

This one, of all the girls that I would have thought was

watching me, this was the one I would have never really said was

watching me. But she contacted me on Facebook

and said, Miss Penton, I just needed to tell you.

I received the Holy Ghost and I was like, what?

That's so exciting. And later on we we got to have a

conversation and we still keep in touch.

But she said I always knew something was different about

you. And I just decided at this point

in my life, I want to figure out what it is.

And she said, and I figured I knew, I figured out what it was.

And I decided I want to be just like that.

What we don't know what are silent testimony?

You talk about being a woman in ministry, just living for God,

just being who we are as Apostolic.

Women is one of the most powerful ministries there is.

I will say on this, like on the flip side of this is that, you

know, I don't discount your testimony if you've made

mistakes because I I was the least likely to be still in

church among my youth group in Mississippi.

I was just tell you right now. I was the if they were to take a

poll who's not going to be living for God as an adult and

raising their kids in church, it would be it would have been me.

I'm not that's embarrassing. It really is.

But because I just that's just that's just who I was at the at

the point time anyway. I will say, though, that the

redeeming grace and love of the Lord that no matter what you've

done or where you're at in your life and you feel like you're

far gone, that God can redeem you.

And I was able to be a witness and in Greenville, Ms. God moved

us back there for a few years and I was able to be a witness

to some of the young people that I, I could cry talking about.

I'm sorry, young people that I, the ones that we thought was,

would still be in church have gotten so far out that they

didn't see a way up. And you know, I would just

randomly I've run into people, you know, and I felt like that

God was able to use me. Like, look, I was the least

likely, least likely ones that we thought that God would be

using in ministry as an adult and, and God forgave me and

found me a place. And I'm not saying that I was

just a horrible person. Don't think all that, but I

wasn't on a good path, you know, and, and my friends knew it, but

but I can say that there are so many people I have seen since

then that God has just restored their lives.

And I do feel like that God used me and that path.

And so like I said, if you're in a, if you're in a state where

you feel like that you've just gone too far, that is not that's

not true. This guy can still use.

You and that's what I love about the grace and mercy of God and

there's no big eyes, there's no little use.

He loves us all and his mercy is just everlasting.

Monday in school we were reading, you know, Genesis 19,

which is not a very beautiful story to read.

But at the end of Genesis 19, you learn that, you know, the

very terrible story of Lot and his daughters and and that one

daughter's offspring became the Moabites and the other one

became came the Amorites. And then you realize, wait a

minute, Ruth in the lineage of Jesus, Moabite woman, is that

not just a beautiful story and one of the few women even

mentioned in the lineage, lineage of Jesus?

Ruth, the great, great, great, great, great, great

granddaughter of a horrible sin who didn't even know Jehovah

except through marriage, and yet she became in the lineage of

Jesus and was mentioned. And that is just a beautiful

story of our lives. The enemy would like to burden

us down. On the one hand, if we've messed

up or we've done things or he'll, he'll make us.

Everything seems so much bigger than it than it is, but he'd

like to weigh us all down with guilt and with shame and just

oppress us. But that is not God's will for

our lives. God's will for our lives is that

we are overcomers. But we are overcomers by the

blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimonies.

And it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how many times

we've fallen, doesn't matter how many times, because some

people's failures are outward. Like Nikki is referenced when

she was a teenager in her struggles, they were outward.

Am I more inward? Bad attitudes, you know,

arrogance, pride, things that I struggled with.

But the mercy of God, the blood of Jesus clears us of all of

those stains and he picks us right back up.

No matter how many times we fall down, he's, he'll pick us right

back up. And I just love that about the

Lord. Since we're on the topic of

ministry, what is encouragement for young women that are wanting

to enter ministry and they're just not sure where to start,

where to go, what to do? I mean, yeah, you can pray the

word and and ask God to hate, tell me what my calling is.

But to actually engage in that and start that that journey as a

young lady, what would you say is is the best route for that?

Well, I think that we have this mysterious vision of this is my

calling, I believe got every one of us have a calling and I think

the very the way to get involved in that is just get involved.

Whatever you see that needs to be done, do it.

If you see that, oh the the restroom needs attention before

church, just do it. Because God is never unless he

changes the way he's done in the Bible for all these years.

And I don't see that happening. God doesn't just pluck you up.

Sometimes it may seem like that in the Bible, He just plucks

people up, but in reality, there's a history there, right?

He's not just going to go, oh, here today, now you're going to

be used in this way. It's a process.

I think if you feel God and, and every one of us should feel God

calling us and he is calling all of us, just get involved any way

you can. What can I do?

Hey there. There's so many things that

needs to be done, you know what I'm saying?

The little things like emails that need to be sent.

Oh, I'll cards written to our guest, you know, greeters,

people that will make sure that nobody sits alone when they come

to service. That is a big, big ministry.

You know, just looking around and being aware.

Oh, taking out the trash, getting involved in the Kingdom.

That's where I never I mean, that's just the way we were

raised right and just doing whatever there was to be done.

And then God just little by little, step by step, because in

all of that he teaches you. So in addition to, you know,

just praying and fasting and reading your Bible and and

studying, just get involved because one thing will lead to

the next thing, which will lead to the next thing to live next

thing. And at the time, you may feel

like your life is going all jig, you know, like zigzaggy and you

know, but one day you'll look back and go, no, in actuality,

everything that I learned along the way was leading me to this

time and this place. And that's how you ultimately

walk in. The calling of God is

faithfulness in all things, just being faithful, being here every

time the doors are open, worshipping, you know, being

involved in whatever way you can be involved.

Just just get involved and he will open the doors.

I agree with that. I view things like, I tell my

kids at home, don't ever tell me that that's somebody else's job.

Whatever your hand, my favorite Scripture, whatever your hand,

find it to do. Do it with your might.

Because I mean, it's Ecclesiastes, you know, what is

what's right for me to do what is right.

Well, it's never wrong to take out the trash.

You know, it's, I mean, I'm just saying anytime you find

something to do, just just do it.

And like she said, you'll, you'll see, you'll see the path

that God lays out for you. Maybe in hindsight one day

you'll see it. But just like I just exact same

thing that just the way I just got involved in ministry and

when we had been to a few different churches because we

had to move with my husband's job and stuff and in every place

we were used in ministry and I can see it was because we just

did it. We were there, you know, they

called a church work night and we showed up, you know, or they

needed somebody to help with the building program.

So, you know, yeah, they we volunteered and I just just say

that just whatever your hand find to do, do it.

That's good. We'll get on the last topic

here, which is leaving a godly legacy.

And this kind of, I'll be honest, broke me because once I

became a mom, things kind of shifted from, oh, it's all about

me. But you know, you're, I don't

know, it's just you change as as a lady to a mother because you

realize who all you're impacting.

And so how would you say that the lasting influence of a

mother and wife's faithfulness not only in church but in

ministry, but to your family as well, obviously the impact that

that can make. Here's where I might get

emotional. But as I've mentioned several

times, I was so blessed to have godly women in my life.

You see, my dad was not necessarily raised in this

truth. His parents got the Holy Ghost

after he was on up a little bit, right?

But when my grandma and my grandpa got into the truth, they

tried so hard to get their healing sons, you know, but they

just weren't receptive. So when these boys got married,

they made it their mission to make sure that those daughter in

law's knew the truth. And my mom and my aunt to the

godliest lemon that I know are products because my grandma and

my grandpa decided they were going to disciple them.

They were going to make a difference.

They would not give up. And both of those ladies just

live for the Lord so long almost their entire married lives

without a saved spouse. They raised their children in

the truth. Both of them though, well, my

mom did not see my dad receive the Holy Ghost, but my dad came

to the Lord because of the lifestyle of my mother and my my

uncle received the Holy Ghost three years before he died

because of the lifestyle of my aunt.

You cannot get away from the importance of a godly mom.

Godly and godly dads, that's a whole different topic.

I mean, but in in 100% we need godly priests of our homes, but

moms the heart of the home and if our heart stays submitted to

God, you just absolutely cannot put there's no price, there's no

worth. There's no way to measure that

impact of a godly mother and in leaving the legacy.

I am the product because of my grandma and my mom and my aunts,

you know, I I'm a product of all the women in our church, many of

which who have gone on just one of them as far as I can and far

as I know is still living for the is still alive and still

living for God. I recently just saw her.

You just cannot put in. There is just no way to measure

how important that is. And and we're going to mess up.

We do I again, I wish if I had a dollar for every time I had to

go back to my children and say, I'm sorry, I didn't handle that

well. I was wrong.

Please forgive me because I just, you know, we're we make

mistakes. We're not perfect mothers by any

stretch of the imagination. There is no such thing as the

perfect mother because we're all human.

But like David, the thing that made David so the man after

God's own heart was certainly not that he was perfect because

he was a flawed, messed up human being, but yet he was a man

after God's own heart. And I think it was because he

was so quick to repent. And I want to be that same way.

And if there's anything that I can leave my children, I want to

leave them a love for this truth.

And I want to leave them with a desire to serve the Lord with

all their might, but also with the understanding to know, hey,

you mess up. It's not the end.

As the song says, it's not over until God says it's over.

And God doesn't say it's over. He says, come to me, all you who

are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

He says rejoice not against me, O my enemy, when I fall, I shall

arise when I walk in the darkness, the Lord will be my

light. And that's just the thing that

if we could just get that and and just live that in front of

our children, it will change their lives.

My now I stand here and Sunday morning for the first time, I

little Kaden came up and was, I looked over there and he had my

husband's hands and they were just, you know, worshipping.

And I thought about all the generations from my grandpa and

grandma to my mom, to me, to my son, and now to my grandson, 5

generations because just five generations ago my family was

Alcoholics. The Lord brought my grandpa out

of alcoholism and I'm so thankful that now, 5 generations

later, my grandkids are doing exactly because I was the kid

that was holding my grandma's hand and worshipping or holding

my grandpa's hand and worshipping the sea and my

grandpa on the platform praising the Lord.

Nikki didn't get to see that much because he died.

She didn't get to see it at all. He died when she was six weeks

old. But I was that kid and now to

see my grandkids doing the same thing, that legacy.

There is no other legacy that's more important.

I'll never leave my kids. Lots of money, lots of land.

But if I can just leave them this truth, that is all that

matters. I definitely agree with that.

There were some generational curses that were broken in our

family that and I think about, you know, we were talking about

our differences and how just as quickly as my mother and my

grandfather brought generational curses in our families.

I could have put that back on my family just as easily.

And that scares me that I shudder to think that, you know,

that where my kids might would be had I not found a love for

the truth. And thank God for his redeeming

power. Thank God, Thank God for my

godly husband. Thank God for you know, and my

sweet mother-in-law, my mother-in-law is a godsend when

my when my mom died and she is she became a even bigger part of

my life just because and I told her, I said you have to live

forever because, you know, my mom's gone now, you know, and my

sister, I just I take teacher about being 10 years older than

me, but she really is, I mean a mother figure to me, you know,

you know, and and I appreciate that, but I hope to leave my

kids the same legacy that you hear me crying now.

Oh my goodness, talk about my girl.

I got a grandbaby and one more on the way.

So. Exciting.

But Everett, you know, just it doesn't for my heart when I,

when I get videos of him singing praise, you know, by Brandon,

like, you know, and I get him video that his favorite song is,

you know, get up, get up, get up, get up out of that grave.

You know, we were on FaceTime and he is bouncing on the bed

singing gospel songs and and singing about breakthroughs.

What does the 2 year old know about a breakthrough?

But you know, one day he will one day he'll need that

breakthrough. And I just hope that maybe in a

nurse, you know, that's just that's just from I'm sorry.

That is not my, not my. If my boss is listening, she

knows my heart and I'm sure she'd agree with me.

I love my job, don't get me wrong.

I love being a nurse, and that's the ministry in itself.

I do feel like I can be a minister at my job, but that is

not my calling in life. Is not that I'm a nurse.

If they forget the fact that I'm a nurse, wonderful.

Because that's not what that's not what defines me.

I want to be defined as a godly mother.

I want them to remember how that they were not too good to clean

a toilet when they were three and four years old.

We were cleaning, cleaning the church and vacuuming.

Want they, you know, their friends might be out playing.

You know, we had things to do and they had plenty of fun.

We had plenty of social interaction.

But I feel like I hope I have instilled in them the importance

#1 to be in faithful to God, like you said, being there every

time the doors are open, every time, you know, I mean, and like

that we're not too good. Everybody's a minister.

We're not too good to clean a toilet.

You know, I want them to just have those values.

And I want the next generation and whenever and my new

grandbaby and all the grandbabies I'm going to have if

I have any more, my kid threatened me.

That's all I'm going to get it. Just these two.

But you know, I just hope that they will just keep this going

and look back. And now I just have me crying

that I'm so thankful they're not going to look back.

Well, oh, my grandma, she was there.

You should have seen her on her Harley.

You know, she was a she was a mess.

You know, they, they hopefully they never see that part, that

they only see what God has done and what, what God has saved

them from. Does that make sense?

And I just, I just hope that they always just keep God first.

Just keep God first because these things on earth are

temporal. And like you said earlier,

there's only two ways it's going to go in heaven.

And I want to get to heaven and have all of my families

surrounded me, everybody anyway. I just hope that I can leave

them that legacy. And truly, the only thing we can

take to heaven with us are people.

We'll not take things, but we can take people with us.

And I like you. I want to see all of my family

there and all of our church. Family, I was saying this in one

of our small groups. We were talking about that very

thing about being thing, being temporal.

And you remember I had to come apart because something wacky

with my storage and I thought I had lost a bunch of very

important stuff when we first moved here.

I thought that they had. Anyway, my stuff was gone, I

thought, and I had a complete come apart.

I am balling and squalling and I'm beside myself.

There's so many things that my kids stuff in there.

There's, you know, there's some clothes from when they were

little and there's their distant bed and this little thing and

that little thing. I can't remember all the little

things that I had thought that I lost and probably aren't still

in storage right now. Because, you know, I'm just

saying because I'm 88 G, I'll tell you, I really, really am.

Have grace with me. But I will not forget what?

And now I'm not saying God spoke to me audibly, but he, this is

what God impressed. He stopped me in my tracks, one

of my come apart moments and was like, if you really thought that

I was coming as quick as you say that I'm coming back, why are

you so worried about things? Why are you so worried about

things? And I it just, it is really just

kind of broke my heart at that moment that I had spent all of

this time worried about something that is going to fade

away and pass with the world. I'm not saying don't keep good

care of things. Y'all know that's not what I'm

saying, you know, and I think I'm just so sentimental.

I would keep everything and your kids are going to throw it.

Away when you die anyway. I'm just, I know nobody's going

to want it. I promise nobody's going to want

it. It's going to be sitting back

there in the back of my storage room.

But I'm just saying I would keep everything.

But how much time do we spend on that kind of stuff?

You know, what could we be doing that with that time that's going

to actually matter? And that just was.

And so that's another thing in my legacy.

I've hoped that passed it on to my kids.

That doesn't matter. The the temporal thing just

don't matter. And what matters is, is the

eternal. Thank you ladies, so much for,

you know, being a part of this episode.

You have any final comments that you want our listeners to to

know? It could be women in ministry,

could be motherhood, being a godly wife, or it could be a

completely different topic. Well, I think as ladies, all of

the things that we've talked about really just kind of embody

all that we are, we are, we are a lot of different things just

wrapped up in one big package. And I think it's just an honor

and a privilege to be living in this time.

And this day and age is, I know it's crazy, but it seems it's

easy. Our world is so messed up that

it is easy to let our light shine.

So we really need to let our light shine and to be who God

has called us to be. And what an honor and privilege

that the Lord. I tell my students this all the

time. God could have put anybody in

this day and age in 2025. He could have waited and put

Ruth in 2025. He could have waited and put

Esther in 2025, or Deborah, or JL, or Dorcas, Priscilla and

Hannah, any of the there's a bunch.

I mean, we started making list of women in the Bible and it's

unbelievable how many women are in the Bible.

He could have put any of those beautiful ladies in 2025, but he

didn't. He put us and I don't want to

take that lightly. I want to be walking in what he

has called me to be and, and just love this word.

Eat as Jeremiah said, eat this word.

I want to to consume it. I want it to be part of who I am

just just just as much as anything we digest physically

becomes who we are. Unfortunately, in the particle.

I want this word to be part of me and be so deep in my

spiritual DNA. Well.

My mom told us. Mama told us that if you live

for God, easy and LAX, it's hard to live for God.

But if you live for God hard with your whole heart, it's

easy. It's not even a, it's not even a

choice I have to make anymore. You know, it's not a question.

If I'm going to, you know, pray today, it's not a question.

If I'm going to put on a dress today or whatever I'm going to

do, you know, whatever I've chosen to do that it's just not

even a choice anymore. You know, if I'm are we going,

it's Wednesday night. Are we going to church?

Are we, you know, that's not even a that's not even a

question because I choose to live for God with all my heart

and that doesn't make me better than anybody else.

Now that's just me personally. I just just, it's just not even

a, it's not even hard anymore. It's not a choice.

And so I think that's what that's just a good philosophy.

If you give yourself totally to it, then it's just your, it's

just your nature. And I feel like that's what we

are striving to be. It's become like the nature of

Christ, Christian, we want to be Christ like, you know, and so

that's just my philosophy, philosophy to live by.