Gayla's Magazine

Letter to my Father

My week is going to be a good week. I have decided that this week will see completion in some important ministry issues that I take care of.  I love my job but to have a successful week requires a few things to get started. Here is what I do when I have a full plate to start my week with.  First and foremost is prayer. Period. Nothing will be completed without the help of the Lord in my life.

My Dear Lord
I am writing because I need a supernatural week.  And I don't have  much time to complete the needs at hand.  Please come and work beside me each day this week.  I need each day to count as if they were 3 days. Send your angels to provide the extra hands I need.  Fill me with the Holy Spirit so I stay full of You and away from stress. I need uncommon favor Jesus in these areas.

Help me to complete the Moms Against Hunger Zimbabwe Crisis Shipment this week.   Send me financial aid to do this. Open the hearts of people and put compassion upon them to want to help me with this shipment. Give me ideas who to contact about helping with this.

Bless the Role Models of America store this week and help me to complete the Christmas stock area upstairs and get everything put into place so that our staff can manage it for the next 5 months smoothly.  This big 2 week job needs to turn into 1 day Lord. Send me strong  CS help to complete this job with me.

Help me with our Community Bible Chapel details and the mail that is pouring in.  Bless every student that we have and send your blessing to our technical teams to work out the details now so we can start using the system we envision to do THIS WEEK.  I want to see real progression now in our systems that are being built. Help us to complete our formatting this week for the last 3 books of the currant curriculum.

Direct my thoughts for the Fall RMA events.  I need to encourage our women to grow spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. Give me clear understanding of the plan Lord for my coming meeting with all of them.

Thank you for the joy of 3 puppies and the homes each of them will have.  Please help them to completely wean THIS WEEK.  Help me to  get this done.

Bless our staff with communication and coordination skills this week.  Help me to be an encouragement to each one of them. And to be a strong support for the many projects around the world that my husband the Bishop is doing.

I need a week of uncommon favor Lord. 

Thank you for it Jesus
I love you with my life

signed

your predestined daughter

Alert - please help!!!!

Good morning,

Recently we received a personal visit from long-time old childhood friends from Zimbabwe Africa.  They came to tell us what is happening in Zimbabwe right now. I need to tell you this information – it is very urgent information.  Our friends arrived from various people that bartered  together to get a airline tickets for them in Zimbabwe. They felt like this was their only chance to get the outside world to please please help.

Their money system has collapsed completely – they have no currency in the country.  Only American money or South African Rand can be used as legal tender now.  How are people surviving?  They are bartering.  If someone has anything of worth in their home – it is now being used as money to survive on.  The conditions of society at large is perilously close to complete ruin.   People are now going without normal products and food.  Our friends are using their small yard garden to survive right now, as well as trying to feed the children around them.

Cholera is now in the nation, from the lack of clean water in their water purification systems.  No money to buy the purifying chemicals for cities to have clean water.  This is horrifying.   

The government has declared all humanitarian food shipments to be duty free.  It’s the one humane thing that has happened.  

 

Here is why I am emailing you - I have RIGHT NOW in my possession, a complete shipment of food that is ready to go, but I lack the money to ship it.  It costs about 10,000 US dollars to ship a container from us to Zimbabwe. 

 

Please would you help me – please forward my email to everyone in your address book.  I know we ‘grass root’ people could ship a container –  a small 20 foot one would hold 150,000 meals – a big one 40 foot would hold 250,000 meals .  If everyone just did something – we could help this poor nation who are at the mercy of circumstances beyond their control.   

 

Here is my website that can be seen what these meals consist of.  They are specially designed for starvation populations in the world.  There is a donate button to use on the top left side.  

 

www.momsagainsthunger.org  

 

Thank you and please help me. 

Dr Gayla Holley

 

PS If you are unsure how to send to all on your address book – scroll to the bottom and right click and scroll up – It will highlight everyone – then press send. 

 

Benzene - a carcinogen!

 

In this extreme heatwave we in Texas are experiencing - here's some valuable information I think you ought to read. It's one area that the general public should be told about because of the  the massive  cancer issues in America! It's just another one of the side effects in our modern world.
 
 Please do NOT turn on A/C as soon as you enter the car.  Open the  windows after you enter your car and turn ON the air-conditioning
after a couple of minutes.
 
Here's why:
According to a research, the car dashboard, sofa, air freshener emit Benzene, a Cancer causing toxin (carcinogen - take time to observe the smell
of heated plastic in your car).  In addition to causing cancer, Benzene poisons your bones, causes anemia and reduces white blood cells.  Prolonged exposure will cause Leukemia, increasing the risk of cancer.  May also cause  miscarriage.  Acceptable Benzene level indoors is 50 mg per sq. ft.
 
A car parked indoors with windows closed will contain 400-800 mg of Benzene.

If parked outdoors under the sun at a temperature above 60 degrees F, the
Benzene level goes up to 2000-4000 mg, 40 times the acceptable level...
People who get into the car, keeping windows closed will inevitably inhale,
in quick succession excessive amounts of the toxin.  Benzene is a toxin that affects your kidney and liver.  What's worse, it is extremely difficult for your body to expel this toxic stuff.
 
 So friends, please open the windows and door of your car - give time for
interior to air out -dispel the deadly stuff - before you enter.
 
 Thought:
'When someone shares something of value with you and you benefit from it,
you have a moral obligation to share it with  others.'

The Best Gift for Pastor's Wives.

Pastor Susan and I have been able to have some good quality time together, while our husbands hammer out details to the coming construction job of rebuilding their church. 
All Pastor's wives have  the same type of challenges to face in life.  Our husbands and ourselves lead very public lives, our children must be reared in full view of others, and they must be the best examples for  the 'saints' kids - as if the 'saints' kids are really saints themselves.  Smile here if you are a P.W.
We share the same love and burden for the women of our churches, both the saved and the unsaved type.  And work to education them to be good women, wives and mothers.
Pastor's wives need to be creative and full of confidence (even when we are out of fuel ourselves) Keep smiling, keep pushing keep loving and keep praying. Grin here if you are a PW. You know I'm right girl!
Not to mention being good cooks, happy homemakers, tireless workers at every possible job needed at the church and various ministries.  The expectations of others constantly keep us on our toes, meeting their needs. Chuckle out loud if you are one! 

So it's a good thing for the two of us to get to spend some time together. 

What do Pastor's wives really enjoy getting to do?  Here's a hint the next time your Pastor's wife has a birthday or a special day and you would like to honor her.  It's super easy.
Get her a Gift Certificate. Laughter can be heard by fellow pastor's wives across the world!  Woo Hoo! Yes!!!!

No way.... you say... not that easy.  Yes way-I say -it's that easy.  Get her a gift certificate to a department store - a book store - a spa day - even a gas card (I have received once - and it was greatly appreciated)

So for a real treat we both were treated to a Day Spa - heaven on earth for us both!!!!

 

 

We sipped hot fruit tea, talked long about all kinds of subjects - just for us!

 

It was a place of beauty - restful peace and pampering - where others did all the work!

 

So we relaxed, laughed a lot - shared stuff and had a wonderful time! A great gift for  two PW's! If you are one sigh here - you know you privately would like this. 

Everyone else - I  have told you what to get your Pastor's wife on her next special day.  It's much  appreciated and needed for the stress filled lives that all ministry wives live.

Thank you to our husbands it was wonderful!!

The Dream Backyard

Susan took me to meet a friend of hers one morning, and I am so glad she did!

This lady has been inspiring to meet here in Los Banos California.  Sandy is such a joy to been with, and it seems like time just few by when we were at her home.  She has Proverbs 31 working in her life right now!  Wait till I show you what all she does.

She said that she quit the corporate world and she and her husband decided to raise their  children with a lasting legacy of a true mom and dad. So she is a stay at home mom, with an incredible talent unfolding. Not only is she home for their children, but she also has found ways to make their budget work wonders right in their own backyard. 

This is her backyard..... ok.... you say looks like a regular kind of a yard.  But what is happening here is a dream.  She is raising all kinds of fruit trees and  nut trees. Planted all around the sides carefully tended and properly with a real gardeners eye. How does she know what to do or plant? She reads books and asks other gardeners questions.  She started this in earnest to help feed their family and what has happened is wonderful and I knew you would want to see this! 

 

She has pomegranates, plums, oranges, lemons, limes to name a few.

Her apricot tree is loaded with fruit.

 

The pear tree is producing nicely too.

 

THIS IS AN OLIVE TREE!!!

 

She gave me a peach from her tree.  (We ate it later that day - was so full of flavor)

 

Just look at this fruit!

This is one of the two tiny greenhouses that is also in the backyard. She grows all her own veggies and herbs from seeds - then plants them in beds along the sides of the house. Check this out!

 

She has peppers, of all kinds, several kinds of beans.....onions, garlic and more I can't remember.

 

There are strawberries planted all along the fronts of the beds - see the strawberry?

 

Look at these grapes!  Her grapevines are full of fruit.  I am in awe of her skills.

 

Her herb gardens are full - she gives me hope to keep working on mine!

 

The tomato beds are full of plants - it's going to be a bumper crop this year she thinks. So think about this..... instead of all the grass that does nothing but grows, gets cut, grows and gets cut - her yard is producing food! She took all the empty areas - sides, corners, fences lines and turned them into blessings for her family.

What does she do with all this food from her own backyard?  She makes jellies, jams, cans and freezes them for her family to eat year long.

 

And she also has built a business from her hands now.  She has a thriving business selling her homemade treats at bake sales and now she is getting so well known that people are coming to her front door to buy! Sandy's Jam n Desserts is alive and well.

Then we get to taste test the fruits of her labors, and my oh my what a treat it was! She has a orange jelly like none else, also orange marmalade and strawberry jalapeno, hot jalapeno jelly and a blueberry banana that is fabulous!  We kept on and on because each one was more amazing than the last! 

She told us laughing that she is trying to get ready for a bake sale, but can't because people keep coming to the door to buy! Like us - there is no way we are leaving her home without some of her goodies.  So Susan and I both left with 3 jars each!

Sandy I am amazed and can't wait for others to see you and what you are doing in your own home.  I love you and I just met you - keep going you are a inspiration to thousands of others now!   

Here is a Flower for Your Day

Spring is here and flowers are blooming in many yards as I drive back and forth on my busy schedule.  I am reminded of this quote that I love!

Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night.

Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke
 

I love getting flowers personally.  For Mother's Day I received some surprises while we were away.  One was this pretty corsage that was fashioned on a ribbon so I could wear it on my wrist. From my RMA ladies back at home!!  I loved it!

And Dr Hicks gave me a corsage also that day. So thoughtful and kind of him.  So I felt covered in flowers, loved and very special that day.  And when we returned home, our daughter had flowers waiting on me in our house.  Another sweet surprise!

Pictures are wonderful because what is but a moment in time can be preserved to always enjoy later by viewing a picture.  Now I can  enjoy these flowers again and again.

Today I hand you a flower....... stop from your busy life and take just 5 minutes to set in a beautiful spot, someplace you enjoy maybe in your home, or outside in your yard.  And just be.... look around you..... take in the look of the place you are setting in.... enjoy breathing and being still.... give yourself a moment in time to treasure your existence in life.  It's just a little flower in the state of perfection at the moment, but soon to pass and fade.  It's like life's moments.... here today but for a fleeting moment.

Teach me, Father, how to go
Softly as the grasses grow;
Hush my soul to meet the shock
Of the wild world as a rock;
But my spirit, propt with power,
Make as simple as a flower.
Let the dry heart fill its cup,
Like a poppy looking up;
Let life lightly wear her crown,
Like a poppy looking down,
When its heart is filled with dew,
And its life begins anew.
Edwin Markham - A Prayer 

I hope you are a flower given today in the life of someone who needs encouragement.
I hope you are a drink of cool water today to someone who is dry and thirsty.
Because life is incredibly short and none may know when the moment is swiftly gone and the recapturing of loved ones impossible.  Dr Gayla Holley

Why I started the Tea

I began the Role Models of America annual Tea years ago, because I felt it was important for women and girls to understand etiquette and perfect lady manners.  Being feminine is almost a lost art these days!  It's a wonderful way to help females grow into ladies.  Make no mistake all ladies are women, but not all women are ladies.
So I began the Tea to encourage genteel behavior and educate the next generation on the arts of womanhood.  To be cultured and well mannered requires self discipline and focus.  And also in this fast paced world of me me me ...... someone needs to speak up and remind women and girls we have a higher place to dwell in.  Not in the dregs of society with the rude and uncaring, but rather to attain to a place of honor and respect.

So the Tea was born....  

Proverb 31 Talent Show

My Proverbs 31 Studies expanded to include a Pro31 Talent Show (we have another special event later in the year about Pro31 again.  But that secret will have to wait till then!)

I have always felt like one of the important building blocks in a woman's life, is to be shown the natural talents in another woman's life.  This expands and encourages her to try different things in her own life.  Proverbs 31 is the fully complete explanation in the Word of God for the  responsibilities, creative abilities and freedoms of a woman.  Praise God for His liberating freedom!

Here is  what happened.

 

Shelby was the Role Model in charge of this event and she did a wonderful job preparing every detail for this. All the behind the scenes details she took care of.  Well done!!

 

 Pastor Angela taught about 'How to save money'  by Coupons and special savings plans in department stores, drug stores and the grocery store.  Every woman can save money by her developed expertise in this area.

Together they planned their money spending and used their coupons wisely saving their family loads of money!

 

The Fashion Lady Jasmine provided bookmarks  for  each lady all about Proverbs 31.

 

And she  taught about fashion dos and don't for each lady to learn from. Learning how to make one's clothing work better is always a good thing for women.

 

She and her assistant Rhonda took 3 outfits and made 15 different looks from them.  Their models were dressed and redressed for us to see and learn from.  It was great!

 

Then Gladys taught about sewing and what a valuable talent it is to learn for every woman.

 

She taught us the skill of how to take up pants and also how to lengthen the stride.  She gave out such easy instructions I think we all learned from her capable wisdom.This craft is an invaluable learned skill that will save money life long!

 

Then she showed  how to make a round table cloth from lengths of fabric. Oh yes.... we all can use this information.

Connie taught about healthy eating and detoxing a woman's body from all the toxins and poisons in our world. Taking better care of ourselves, so we can take good care of our families.   Soooo important to learn.  

There were door prizes that were wonderful for the ladies and teens that won.

 

Ana taught about organizing our prayer closets and our prayer lives.  Her insights and words of wisdom were a blessing and  Very inspiring!

 

Walterene taught about P.O.P.  Plan, Organize and Prepare.  She trained everyone on how to make a week's worth of meals in one day.  This makes life so much easier in our hectic family schedules.  She served us samples of good food and how to make one dish turn into many!  Very very informative.

 

Then I spoke at the end and tied each of their sessions to the different Proverbs 31 verses.  My ladies are so responsive and I enjoy teaching them.  We all have a great love between us all! I truly feel I am raising some wonderful Role Models in the earth!!

 

 

 

 

 

Role Models of America is for the young teen girl as well as the  elderly and senor matrons. We are married, divorced, widowed, single, and include all ethnic groups.  We represent women who have been through breast cancer, all sorts of abuse, addictions  trials and tribulations and we have seen God do incredible incredible miracles for us all!  RMA enjoyed this Proverbs 31 Talent Show immensely and we WILL have another one of these events!!

 

RMA Proverbs 31 Talent Show

Role Models of America hosts a wonderful event called The Proverbs 31 Talent Show
This is something I felt was important for Christian woman to develop practical ways of serving the Lord through their expert care over their families. 

So this event is my way of encouraging growth in the ladies through being a Role Model.  It's going to happen this Sunday evening April 19th  at 6pm. If you are in Houston come!! 
Here is our agenda for the evening.....

                                          

 

6:00 WELCOME AND OPENING PRAYER- SHELBY (The RMA Team Leader)

ANGELA MOONEY-COUPONS - How to Save money in the home!

JASMINE POULLON-3 OUTFITS TO 15 - How to turn what you already own into something much more useful!

2  DOOR PRIZES - Blessings come to those who attend!

GLADYS OWENS- SEWING DEMONSTRATION - How to use a sewing machine and make simple things at home.

CONSTANCE GORDON - Detoxifying a woman's body and staying healthy

2  DOOR PRIZES - More goodies!

ANA PEREZ- ORGANIZING YOUR PRAYER CLOSET - How to get your personal prayer time and devotions in order.

WALTRENE JONES-P.O.P. FOOD DEMONSTRATION AND SAMPLING - How to serve wholesome food to your family  in this hectic paced world.

GUEST SPEAKER- PASTOR GAYLA  How God gave women directives on what and who she is through Proverbs 31. 

CLOSING PRAYER - Shelby the RMA Team Leader

 

Smile!

I woke up with such a joy in my heart, it was overflowing!  I felt like I was in a blanket of laughter and peace!  The joy in the Holy Spirit is a true place of blessing!  It makes you want to smile and give hugs and dance and laugh and enjoy living to the fullest! 

Are you having a grey day?  Is life not good for you?  Remember all those clouds above your head in the sky - have not taken the sun away at all!  It's still there shining as brightly as ever.  It's just the clouds are in the way - and clouds move and dissipate so easily - just the wind itself can move them out. Or the temperature change will formulate them into new patterns of cyclical behaviors.  Don't look long at your clouds - they are so very temporary and not worth your focus. The promises of God are still there, like the sun, simply hidden behind your set of 24 hour  circumstances.

I called someone to check on them and they were down and grumpy and negative about their life.  It's sad that we so often cause our own heartaches with our decisions and words.  So today I counsel you my friend........ here are three things to do to help your spirit.

1. Stop making impulsive choices without thinking first about how this could affect your life down the road.  Your past decisions are now creating the clouds?

2. Stop complaining...... your words are framing your own future - you are making the storms that keep coming your way!

3. Go to your prayer room and stay until the Holy Spirit baptizes you with a fresh anointing of peace, joy and righteousness!

Hope your day is joyous in Christ!!
For all things work together for those who love the Lord AND ARE CALLED ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE!