Letter from the Editor

can’t count the number of times I heard my grandmother say, “You can’t beat God’s giving, no matter how hard you try.” When I was a child, I didn’t understand her testament to God’s goodness, but as I’ve grown older, I understand it with poignant clarity. Can’t nobody do you like Jesus! Just when we think all hope is lost and nothing can be done, He steps in and delivers us in a way that only He can. It’s happened so many times in my life, that I’m at a point where I can’t do anything but trust Him. God is so good to us! The current times are teaching us just how good God has been. We’ve become complacent, we’re taking His patience for granted, and we’re not making shifts in our behaviors and attitudes as quickly as we should. We’re counting on God to continue to allow us the wiggle room of having one foot in and one foot out, dabbling in the things of the Kingdom only when it is convenient for us to do so. Culture has become our lifestyle and way of being instead of a genuine devotion and commitment to Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ. Things will never be as they were before. Time is winding down, and sadly, most people are like the foolish bridesmaids who were unprepared and didn’t have enough oil for their lamps when the groom returned. People are so full of apathy or arrogance that they either don’t believe in the rapture or don’t believe it is near. The truth is that whether our Savior’s return is near or far, timing isn’t the most important point. Regardless of the hour, the point is that Jesus Christ has commanded us to be ready. None of us know exactly what’s going to happen, but God is signaling that something will. This issue of the Sundie Morning Sistas Magazine, entitled “He’s Coming!” is about heeding our Heavenly Father’s instruction and getting spiritually ready for the return of our Lord. It’s about stretching beyond the comfort zones we’ve clung too for so long, and making the shifts in our doing, thinking, feeling, and speaking so that God’s agenda is our primary concern. We must be committed to gaining as much spiritual strength in Christ as we possibly can. We pray that “He’s Coming!” not only aids your quest for spiritual truth, but that it is a source of motivation to be spiritually prepared at your highest level for the return of our blessed and powerful Lord, Jesus Christ.

Lovingly In Christ,

Reverend Fran Mack, President and Founder, SMS

PS: Thank you for your continued prayers and support!

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"Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us."

Romans 8:37(NKJV)

hen Gwendolyn Speirs graduated from college, she was ready to take the world by storm. But now in her mid-thirties, life has shown her that it wouldn’t be nearly as easy as she had once thought. She majored in Art in college. Her dream was to start with her own boutique filled with beautiful hand-made objects, and then open up boutiques all over the state, then the country. She had inherited her father’s natural aptitude with math and finance. Coupled with her mother’s love of the arts, both had primed her for a very successful college career. She made the most of it, exceling at just everything she put her mind to. For her, failure was almost a foreign concept in those days.

16 years ago, after Gwendolyn finished grad-school, she began to pursue her dream, but things hit a snag very early on. She and her college roommate, Julia, quickly became best friends, and immediately after finishing their degrees, they both moved to New Haven, CT. They set out to make their partnership the most successful of any in the city, but things didn’t quite work out that way. Julia met Nabari and it was all over. He was finishing his PhD at Yale Divinity. When he landed his dream job in his hometown of North Carolina, he and Julia got engaged, and they moved there to start their new life as man and wife. This was Gwendolyn’s first really big lesson about how quickly our well-thought out plans can be delayed and sometimes derailed. It had already been 20 minutes past the last time Reverend Henderson’s assistant stepped out of his office and apologized. Because of a meeting with another one of his parishioners, the reverend was running way behind schedule. Two years had passed since Julia moved to North Carolina and put their partnership plans on pause, but determined, Gwendolyn was still trying to get her dream of entrepreneurship off the ground. She took a 9 to 5 but saw it as

only a temporary detour. Part of her plan had been a meeting scheduled with Reverend Henderson on her lunch break. He, along with many others in the church, were very impressed with her creativity and how she had used it to help others. She was waiting patiently but concerned about a longer lunch break from work than she had planned. Normally, the reverend had a firm attention to promptness. She figured it must have been something very important to keep him from their meeting. She really wanted to speak with him about a new collaboration she was working on, bringing local artists together to paint an inspirational mural on the building their church was thinking of purchasing. She thought it’d be a great way to engage the community and raise funds for the new venture. It would really get her name out there, and she hoped it would be the fuel to finally get her back on track with her boutique. When his assistant came out and apologized a third time, she told Gwendolyn they needed to reschedule; she was so disappointed. Gwendolyn’s job as Creative Director for a youth center was fulfilling and she loved the work, but resources to do the kinds of activities she wanted were always very limited. She had big and great ideas but getting folks to buy in was sometimes like pulling teeth, and she was beginning to wonder if all she’d ever be was a dreamer. Dreams were the start of all her biggest and best ideas. She’d have a dream at night and get up the next morning filled with excitement about how she was going to make it a reality. She saw the mural in a dream, and she also saw Reverend Henderson surrounded by people, staring in amazement at the mural. She knew it meant something very significant, but when the reverend’s office phoned that he needed to reschedule their meeting after his six-month sabbatical, Gwendolyn was flabbergasted. She didn’t understand what it all meant. Why were her dreams so vivid and beautiful, and why was her reality always so far from it?