Saturday, July 25, 2009

News and Note-worthy Comments by New Direction

What a blessing it has been the past three months, and really this year, to have been in such great services with such wonderful folks. The Lord has opened doors and allowed us to meet such Godly, brothers and sisters in the Lord. It humbles us each time we end a service or close out a revival. We are so blessed of the Lord to be a part of your services. Of all the people God has to choose from, with all the talent he has blessed his people with, and yet Christ uses us to somehow, some way, be a blessing back to those who are such a great blessing to us. I look back in my calendar and I no longer see a name, date and time of a church, but I see the faces and the I feel the heart of each of you with whom we have prayed with, and swapped testimony with, and shared burdens with. I know that each of you are praying for NEW DIRECTION when we cross your mind, just like we are lifting you all up in prayer as well."When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be!" And I'm not sure about there being no tears in heaven, because when the spirit moves on me, I can't help but let the tears flow. Tears of joy, tears of basking in the Lord's presence and tears of being in awe of the grace and mercy which he bestows on us daily. What an awesome God we serve!

In May we were blessed to be in revival with Sister Pam and the United Methodist Church in Goodrich, Texas. It was a wonderful time of refreshment and reconnecting with the Lord. The spirit moved throughout the congregation each service and a young lady gave her life to Christ. Recommitments to the Lord were made and prayers for each other were lifted as we closed out the short revival. We know that what NEW DIRECTION brought to the service and anything we said or did will soon be forgotten but the presence of the Holy Spirit and the changes in our lives the Lord made will be remembered forever.

The priviledge we had of being in service with the congregation of Alana Lane Baptist Church and Bro. Rod Averitt was truly a blessing. We have never been treated more like family by a church in the Houston area than we have with this wonderful group of people. Bro. Rod did not let us down when he said we would be well received by this church family. We look forward to scheduling a revival and having a great time of fellowship with all of you.

Our time with Grace Baptist Church in White Oak, Texas is always entirely too short. There was a great crowd and we certainly enjoyed ourselves singing the glory down as the people opened up and showed their appreciation of New Direction. (Of course, I think Bro. Darren and Bro. Jim think the fellowship afterwards is the best part of the service!)
We want to thank Bro. Donny Pointe of Diana Church of God for allowing New Direction to join with them in the morning services. Teresa was ill that morning, so we quickly became a trio. That entailed us having to dip into the old memory bank for songs we sang prior to Teresa becoming a part of the group in 1998! However, the spirit of the Lord moved throughout the service. It was a pleasure being able to worship with this great group of East Texas folks.

The evening service of the day brought New Direction to Bro. Eitson's church in Tyler at Park Heights Assembly of God. There was a wonderful crowd and their church was celebrating missions. What better night for New Direction to be a part of celebrating?! It was a great privilege to be a part of this service lifting up the name of the Lord. Encouraging one another with scripture and in song. The Holy Spirit was moving on his people and we were all certainly blessed. We also had a time of fellowship with Bro. Harold and wife, Becky along with Bro. Harold's sister and other friends of Park Heights Assembly of God. Testimony shared at that time blessed our hearts to hear how God continues to hear his hurting children and answer their cry for help. Thank you Lord!

June took us back to be with Bro. Glenn and Ms. Joann Cooksey of Oakhurst Full Gospel in Oakhurst, Texas for their annual Homecoming celebration. It was a exciting to be back with our friends and family here at Oakhurst. Since leading this church in revival services last February, Bro. Glenn shared that the church had seen 19 salvations and added several families to their church. They have certainly remained in revival and the homecoming service was full of excitement. Music was shared by many of the current and former members as well as New Direction. The afternoon service ended with everyone looking forward to what the Lord will do next through this wonderful church fellowship.

Our next stop was with our good friends Bro. Ernie and Ms. Ernestine Breaux and New Journey Church of Baytown, Texas. The crowd was small, but we had a wonderful time of fellowship and praise with all of our friends and family that came to support us as New Direction shared songs from our latest project "OUR JOURNEY HOME". The Lord gave us the opportunity to share with friends what he is doing with and through New Direction. His spirit has been strong and has flowed through each of us as we share testimony and songs from our hearts. It is only Christ and not us. We give him all the praise for using us as open, willing vessels to reach out to those who need to hear the message that we all need to 'cross that line' that we ourselves set up. To step over into God's love, mercy and forgiveness, to trust and believe in God's love for us, one more time.

We were excited to be in concert at Central Baptist Church in Crockett, Texas with Bro. Herb Blackmon. We were so excited to see such a great crowd and be so very well received. We appreciate Bro. Blackmon for the invitation to be with this wonderful church congregation. We made new friends and inspite of it being 100 plus degrees, we had a great time. Praise God for air conditioning!

Our next destination was Yellville, Arkansas for a four day revival at First Assembly with Bro. Jackson and the wonderful folks there. We were well taken care of by Bro. Maurice and Ms. Kay Jordan. We can't say enough good things about this wonderful fellowship. The services were blessed and the spirit of the Lord among this fellowship was so very sweet. Prayer for each other was shared among this close group of people. Everyone emerged from this time of refreshment with a new joy and zeal to serve the Lord and share his message with their community. We look forward to hearing good reports from each of these churches in what the Lord is doing and how he is working in their people.

New Direction's last visit was at the Branson Gospel Music Convention in Branson, Missouri. We had a great time being able to catch up with old friends and meeting new ones. We were blessed to meet some of Southern Gospel's pioneers as well as some great up and coming artists. This was the first year of this convention and it proved to have a great potential for the future. The location was very central for many of the groups coming from surrounding states. The city of Branson was a great draw and had a lot to offer to families and the fans of the groups in attendance. New Direction was blessed to have several families that came in support of us. We were so excited and surprised!

We sang Tuesday afternoon at the convention and we were very well received by the audience. Thank you everyone for your great reception! An unexpected opportunity presented itself to New Direction through an invitation to sing at the Branson Mall Theatre with Bro. Denny Yeary and his family of the "Sweethearts of Branson Show". New Direction sang as special guest on their gospel segment and then helped close out the afternoon show singing with all of the staff, the closing song written by Lee Greenwood "I'm proud to be An American". It was a true blessing to meet and make friends with the Yeary family and Bro. Tucker, the bigger twin!

Another privilege we had was being interviewed by Ms. Mary Fay Jackson of Texas Country Gospel and our good friend, Ms. Lou Wills Hildreth, both of Gospel Music Television. We will let everyone know when that interview can be seen or the web address where that can be found when we get the information. It was an honor to have Ms. Lou tell Ms. Mary Fay that we were 'their kids'. She explained that Bro. Howard and Ms. Lou, herself taught us Sunday School (the young adult/couples class) at First Baptist Church in Cleveland, Texas more than...ok, a very long time ago! But they taught us a lot. One thing specifically was that no matter who you are or your status in life, you are to be an encouragement to others. We are called to lift one another up in love and to help develop their spirit gifts and callings. I can guarantee you that you will not find one person in my past (including family) that thought I would be singing in front of people, especially in a full time ministry.

God has always placed 'spiritual parents' in our path to help give us direction in our walk with the Lord. Bro. Howard and Ms. Lou are two of those very special people. Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for your love, friendship and support. To each of you who also are friends, family and supporters of New Direction, please know how very special you are to us. Our Lord and you are the reasons we sing, preach, testify and continue in this calling Christ has place on our lives. He has given us a love for his children and those he wants to be his children. We have come too far to turn back now because Canaanland is just in sight!

Until next time, hugs to all.
Donna Smith, NEW DIRECTION MINISTRIES
Http://www.NewDirectionministriesoftexas.com
FOR BOOKING INFORMATION CONTACT:
HIS SERVICE MINISTRIES & PROMOTIONS
761 Goosecreek Rd., Alexandria, TN 37012
615/788-4221 or 281/432-0816

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