Confessions of a Church Brat

Full disclosure:  **Names  have been changed to protect the innocent! ** In all of our travels, we met up with a lot of people.  People from different backgrounds, both in the way they lived and in the churches they went to.  In all of the people I met, one of my favorites will always be Jimmy. Jimmy was hilarious.  He would laugh at things the way I do - at the wrong time and usually in the wrong place.  We were the best of friends.  We got in a lot of trouble together.   I wish everyone had a Jimmy to be friends with!  SO MY CHURCH (BRAT) STORY begins: In the church circuit, my parents were in, there was every kind of religion represented from Catholics to the Jesus-only snake handlers.   Now let me clarify - my parents NEVER handled snakes!   But, we had wonderful friends that were snake handlers that would come to the services (without the snakes). You could usually pick them out because their hairdos were tight buns on the back...

I need to start off by saying that I am not the person you need to be sitting with if it is somber, sad, people are being 'peopley' or boring.  I really do not know what gets in me, but one thing I know, laughing at a funeral isn't the place to be laughing so hard you shake. Sitting at a Thanksgiving table while someone is praying isn't the time either.  And for good measure, I will throw in that sitting in church while your mom is talking/preaching isn't a good time either. I just need to say that if you are easily offended at any of these things, you may want to skip my story! SO MY CHURCH (BRAT) STORY begins This story goes back at least 15+ years ago around Mother's Day, so I was well into adulthood lol.   My mom was speaking at a Mother's  Day service/dinner.  She told me and my sister, Debbi, that "all she wanted for Mother's Day was for us to go with her to the meeting."  So, I am thinking, we can skip the gifts, right, this is all you w...

My mom & dad were God-called evangelists that were gifted in so many ways.  Evangelism, prayer, faith, and healing to name a few.  They loved to preach, so we would be in revival night after night after night.  Sometimes in the same place and sometimes we just kept moving.   For a church brat, growing up in church just becomes part of your life, and sometimes....sometimes....you forget where you are.  This is one of those times! SO MY CHURCH (BRAT) STORY begins: You have to know that these were the revivals that started around 7:30-8:00pm (to let the room cool down some from the heat of the day) and if you were lucky ( sorry blessed ) you would be out by 1:00am.  As a teen, sometimes I got bored (everyone can relate to that, right ?). But, I knew better than to act like I was bored - my mom had eagle eyes that could see for miles! She could zone in across the room and I could feel her eyes on me.  So, for the most part, I tried to be attentive an...

  I grew up in the era of huge tent revivals! So, being the God-called evangelists my dad and mom were, we had a huge gospel tent.  It took days to put that thing up! It was not a good look for a young teenage girl to have sweat dripping off of every inch of her body, hair soaked with sweat, and the heat so bad you just wanted to melt, helping to put up a gospel tent in the middle of a field. Even with help, it was still hours of work, hundreds of chairs, putting up and wrapping the stage, setting up equipment in 1000 degree weather.   But the meetings were always exciting and hoppin', lol! SO MY CHURCH (BRAT) STORY begins: We were in Maryland in a tent revival.  It was so hot, but people came from miles around to experience the revival under the tent. T he services usually started around 8pm to allow the heat to calm down under the tent. But did it ever really  get any cooler?  I am going to say -- no! lol    My oldest sister, Debbi, played ...