Ministry in Music - SPIRITWIND - News

Awesome Weekend!

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

What can I say about this past weekend? It was amazing or rather the Lord was amazing, we just showed up and stayed out of the way as much as we could.

First we drove up Saturday afternoon and had a great time staying over with our friends Richard and Ellie Smith in Yulee. ( I love the name of that town just saying it with a strong southern accent makes you smile!)

Anyway we started Sunday morning off in Callahan at the Lighthouse Christian Center with Pastor Dave and his congregation and about 40 something CMA'ers who showed up and we all got blessed as the Lord came and a new Soul was added to the Kingdom!

Then the church had the audacity to feed us! (What were they thinking?) One of their members barbequed a whole hog and we definitely ate high on the hog that day. (some of the best BBQ piggy I ever ate, especially with some of Ralph's sauce on it! WOW!)
We spent the afternoon back at Richard and Ellie's laying around and relaxing after such a fantastic lunch. (Lord forgive our gluttony!) Then we had to saddle up and get over to Black Rock Baptist Church in Yulee for their Sunday evening Service.

They welcomed us back with open arms and we were so blessed by their new Pastor Mike and Matt their worship leader.

I have to tell you they're a special bunch of folks and we just had a ball singing and playing for the Lord there!

We got blessed again by our CMA family as a great number of members from Jacksonville, Fernandina and points beyond showed up which doubly blessed our socks off!

I didn't know till after the service that during the alter call a young girl and older Lady came to the Lord! I was busy singing when the Pastor gave the invitation.

Awesome! Awesome! Awesome! Total of three souls added to the Shepherd's flock in two different churches in one day!

It was our second time back to both of these outstanding houses of worship and we all felt so honored to be allowed to flow so freely in the Spirit in each place. God is so wonderful to bless us with brothers and sisters who love Him and each other without reservation!

Can't wait for the next time it was like coming home from a long journey! It's fascinating to me how everywhere we go it's kinda like a homecoming! I guess that's how the Father intends for the church to be, so loving and hospitable everywhere. Hmmm!

I'm so thankful for the privilege to be able to travel and experience this firsthand! Thank you Jesus!

Before I forget, we have the first ever Spiritwind Newsletter available and would invite you to sign into the guestbook and request one. We can mail it to you or email a copy automatically when it is produced.

Thanks for your prayers and support, we cherish it more than you'll ever know.

God Bless and see you down the road!
Dale

The Words!

Sat, 07 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

God's been dealing with us about our words a great deal of late. What are we saying when we speak? Is it life giving or death enacting? I don't know about you, maybe you have it all figured out and under control. (By God's Grace I hope that in your case it is true.) As for myself I'm struggling like everybody else I reckon.

Yet, thank God for His precious Holy Spirit! The comforter of my soul, my mentor and teacher who constantly nudges me along, scolds me gently when I falter or fail, and helps me rise up again when I fall!

Jesus said in the word that "life and death" are held in the power of the tongue and that it is an unruly member.

The word that jumps out at me is unruly. I took a minute and looked it up in Webster's. Basically it means one who is hard to handle or manage, it also implies a lack of discipline, etc, etc, you get the idea.

Have you ever wished your tongue came equipped with a button snap on it so you could lash it down to your lower lip so you wouldn't speak inappropriately?. (yewddd zzowwnnd funnnee iphh yeww ddidduh)

Maybe we could find help in the word of God! Have you been in there drinking lately? (Sorry I'm meddling now, let us not digress)

The place in the Bible where Jesus said "that if we had faith the size of a mustard seed, then we could say to this mountain be cast into the sea and it shall be done" absolutely amazes me! I pray that the Lord God would give us all the faith and discipline to attain that ability! (Do I get an Amen on that one!)

Can you image the consequences if every blood bought believer in the world began speaking the faith language of the Kingdom of God. Healings would abound, revivals would break out in the least expected places. Those captured in darkness would be set free to walk in the light. Our own needs would be met and best of all we'd be so overwhelmingly blessed to be happy and free no matter what circumstance we found ourselves in that the whole world would want to know what was going on in our lives!

Bottom line is the words we utter are not just important for our sake, they are extremely important to God, to His Son, to His Holy Spirit, and to His Angels.

They are all waiting and fervently listening to you and I as we speak. Hoping to hear one tiny bit of faith being spoken so they can spring into action and get some things accomplished in our lives and in the lives of those we interact with on a daily basis!

If I may make a comparison? If you won 500 million dollars in the lottery today how would you be acting and speaking? Would it be like yesterday or last week or a month ago? You'd be freaking out with excitement and enthusiasm right? Guess what?

(You've got to already know where I'm going with this.)

God's awesome power through His Holy Word is a trillion trillion trillion gazillion times greater than 500 million bucks! I know that's true, and I pray that I could get the reality of it through my thick skull so that I could begin to act like a son of God and be fired up enough to speak truth and faith all the time!

How much more we could accomplish! How satisfyingly free we'd feel! How Pleased God the Father would be! He's waiting and watching and most of all listening!

For our own sakes we need to watch the words we speak! The word says to take every thought captive. Hmmm, if I'd do that more often I'd probably not let every little thing that came to mind come gushing out of my mouth and have life! Good and bad.

As for me, I want good things to happen, blessings and joyously profound events to take place in my life and ministry! How about you?

Finally I pray for God to help us all overcome everything we've said that is displeasing to Him and spawned unfruitful things to take place in our lives. I pray that His Holy Spirit would help us guard our tongues, our hearts, and our minds.

Lord Let us only speak positive Faith filled words in every situation and circumstance. Words which are uplifting and are gainful for stirring the power of God into action on our behalf for His glorious Kingdoms sake!

Amen ya'll
Dale

God's Awesome Favor!

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

I don't know where you are in your faith journey, but I do know that all of us are on one! What's amazing about the Father to me is how He manages to assist and prompt and goad and encourage each and every one of us even though the situation's and distinctions are vastly different. Yet many of our circumstances are not uniquely our own! We each have differing needs and desires, but most of us have very similar area's that require divine assistance.

Knowing that our Heavenly Father is vastly aware of them and that He has the ability to keep us in the hollow of His hand gives me great comfort! Some of us need constant propping up and encouragement, some are full of zeal and need some balance, some desperately need healing or peace of mind, solace from grief, relief from despair,calmness in a spiritual storm, help within their families, etc, etc.

My Brother Ron has a saying which I love, "Either God's got it or He doesn't"

I have found that to be true 100% of the time in everything we do as a ministry team and in our personal lives. I think it's nothing more than learning to completely surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, by laying down our own selfish desires whatever they may be and just simply and purely trust in the Lord by faith, which in turn allows us to find a place where we are continually walking in God's awesome favor!

That's the place I believe that Spiritwind Ministry is just now beginning to enter into! We have evidenced a uniquely different level of anointing as we minister.
We have found favor with such a diverse group of Ministries and Churches that can only come from the Father. He is knitting our hearts together with like minded brothers and sisters who have a desire to make a difference in their part of this world. This is truly exciting to witness and to be a participant! Most of all it is extremely humbling!

We pray that you'll find God's awesome favor flowing all around and through your life! As the word says "He is our Peace!" and when His favor comes you'll have more peace than you can imagine!

We're taking a few weeks off for rest and studio work so please keep us in your prayers, especially keep Sonnie lifted up as we're believing for a complete healing for her back.

Oh yeah I almost forgot! We are now producing a quarterly newsletter and would love for you to have one. Just email us and we'll make sure you get a copy emailed back to you.

God Bless you all!
Dale

A humble blessing!!!

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The event's of this past weekend were just that! A very humbling and unique blessing to all of us! We had a great trip to Quincy, Florida and spent a very restful evening at the home of our CMA friends Joan and Bob Wimmer, who graciously allowed us the use of their beautiful home. They were out of town on a road trip of their own and I'm thinking they had sunstroke when they offered us their residence while they were away. (trusting souls the Wimmers!) I must admit that we cleaned up our messes and we all behaved ourselves except Sonnie of course! (Who else!!)

On Sunday about noontime we arrived at the Gadsden Womens Correctional Facility and met our hosts Ferd and Beverly Sebastian who have a wonderful ministry of placing rescued Greyhounds and other Dogs in the care of inmates at a number of different prisons throughout the United States. The Lord truly does work in mysterious ways. To see the interaction between the girls and their dogs was amazing.

After going through the security check-in which took nearly an hour to get all of our instruments and stuff through, we had to hand carry everything across the compound about four hundred yards to the Recreation Hall. We looked like we were on safari, I think. (Did I mention that it was somewhere around 94 Degrees out!)

Along with our Guard escort was the the Prison chaplain, I'm sorry I've forgotten her name, but she was precious. She told me while we were slepping our equipment that we were originally scheduled to be in the Air Conditioned Chapel which only seated about 100 or so, but the Warden wanted all the inmates to have an opportunity to participate so they moved the service and little ole' us into the Gym!

(Did I mention that it had no A/C!) (Thanks Warden!)

It was about a hundred degrees inside that building,(i'm exaggerating here! They did have fans blowing some air around!) I've got to tell you we didn't care because the blessings that followed overruled the heat! I think each of us lost about ten pounds apiece from sweating though.

(well at least Jim and Ron and I did, I know Sonnie only glowed, as women do not perspire!)

By the time we got set up and did a quick sound check we had a mob of women setting up chairs. The Lord certainly showed up and we had church! The Spirit of the Lord descended upon us all and swept through that hall like a sweet and refreshing mighty rushing wind (Thanks again Warden, for the blessing was well worth it all!)

It was quite an experience and one we'd gladly repeat should the Lord open the door for us. I didn't think I'd be saying that, and I can't speak for the others but I must admit I had some trepidation about ministering in a prison, it is way out of my own comfort zone. But the Lord gave us favor and I think we were more blessed by these women than they were by us being there and playing for them.

Jim and I were talking afterward's of just how humbling it was to see these folks worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ so sincerely and freely in a place of extreme confinement. It makes you stop and ask yourself if you'd be able to worship God if it was you who was encircled by twelve foot high electric fences adorned with razor wire. (hhmmm?)

We had the chance to speak with many of them and pray for them before we left. It was exhilirating and exhausting all at the same time. Ferd called Ronnie as we were on the way home and told us that the Guard count at the service was 390 women! All I can say is WOW! Praise God for it was worth all the toteting and sweating' and everything else.

I couldn't help but think of the Lord speaking the verse about "I was in prison and ye visited me!" I'm thankful that we had this opportunity to serve in some small way and bring light into a dark place. Which in hindsight I'm not so sure there's as much darkness there as I thought! I could see the love of Jesus shining brightly in many many eyes! Praise the Lord. I'd encourage you to pray for those who are in prison's of every sort!

Till next time, God bless you!
Dale

Memorial Day Ahead!!!

Thu, 27 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

We've been on the Gospel trail quite a bit the last few weeks and the Lord has been so good to us. We've made a lot of new friends at some awesome churches and events! We're privileged and grateful to have such an opportunity at this time in our lives!

Coming up is a chance to share some time at the Sons of God MC National rally this weekend. We're looking forward to having some excellent fellowship time with these hard working servants for the Lord! I know it will be an exciting and blessed time!
Then we have been afforded an awesome opportunity to do something we've never done before and that is to share the love of Christ with inmates at the Gadsden state womens prison in Quincy, Florida on June 6th!

( I find it interesting and somewhat amusing that the Lord has assigned us the task of making a landing on a different kind of spiritual beachhead on this most Historic of days!)

Like those brave men who stormed the shores of Normandy to push back the forces of evil and darkness and pound them into oblivion some 60 odd years ago, I pray that we will be empowered mightily to storm the strongholds that the enemy of our Souls has established in the lives of the women at Gadsden and boldly shine light into a dark place and help set captive's free from bondage by the power of the Blood and the word of our testimony. We're praying for Salvation and Restoration and Healing to take place as we share the Love of Jesus Christ!

(please pray that God's will be done, His Anointing will flow over and through us, that bonds will be broken and blind eyes opened! That the Love and Glory of Christ will shine brightly and please pray for each of us in Spiritwind that we may go boldly holding high the banner of Christ!)

So I hope you take the time this Memorial weekend to look past the hotdogs and watermelon and take some time to thank our veterans who paid the price for our freedom! This is a time to remember and honor those brave men and women who sacrificed in past conflicts and those presently serving around this troubled world on our behalf!

Pray for our troops who are on the battlefield right now and all our service men and women and their families. As a veteran and the proud parent of an Airman First Class son, who is presently serving, I pray that God will bless and honor each of these individuals who serve so unselfishly!

We look forward to seeing you somewhere soon and pray the Lord continues to bless you in all your endeavors to further the Kingdom of God!

Remember to thank God and a veteran for the peace and freedom you enjoy!

Dale

God is so Goooooood!

Wed, 05 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

If you have known the Father and His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit for anytime now you know that this statement is absolutely true! (Gospel ad infinitum!!!!) I can't give you the mathematical n factor because it is to big a number. (Oh if you're the least bit mathematical to begin with you'll understand what I'm saying.)

We have gotten so much of a blessing out of doing what we do. (Which we consider a very humbling experience every time we get to go somewhere to play music and be with folks!)

Last weekend was so relaxing and exciting at the same time. Sitting in the shade outdoors at the Suwanee River campground with our CMA brothers and sisters and the staff. It was a real treat! It was exciting to hear that you precious servants here in the state of Florida raised over 100K dollars for Run for the Son!

Kudo's to you and your resourcefulness to help fund Kingdom work all over the world! (If that's you stand up and take a bow and accept a hearty slap on the back from all of us.)

The Father recently blessed us with some new equipment to make music with and record so we're excited to get to work on that process very soon. (pray for us it is arduous but fun!)

Speaking of fun, we have some ministry events coming up that we're looking forward to with maximum anticipation. Check out our calendar page and hopefully we'll be somewhere close to you and we'd love to see ya!

One event that I'm fairly sure we won't get to see you at is in prison! (egads! Nope! Sonnie has not bumped us all off yet though she's threatened to a few dozen times!)

We've been invited to bring our music ministry to the Gadsden Correctional facilitya Womens prison in Quincy, Florida the first part of June. That will be a very interesting day I'm sure. We really need your prayer covering for this one. We have a chance to minister to the entire prison population on that day and I pray that God's precious anointing will flow like Niagara Falls over those ladies and the guards and the warden and staff!

(Please pray they let us leave once it's over will ya? Hmm maybe they could keep Sonnie for a day or two or a month! Hee!) (Just kidding baby sister!)

The Father has been so good to us financially as well. We've never gone anywhere He hasn't provided for us and made a way where there didn't seem to be one. I believe He takes care of His own and pays for what He orders. He is just absolutely awesome in this regard! He uses individuals, groups and churches to help us along this journey and it is deeply appreciated by every one of us in Spiritwind.

Go do something for the Kingdom today and be blessed in all you do! We love you and pray that the Lord God Almighty reveals His gracious goodness toward you!

Till next time,

Dale

Run for The Son!!!!

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

I can't believe it's time for the annual Run for the Son get together again! I have to admit it's one of my favorite trips and places to be and play and worship together with some great CMA brothers and sisters!

I'm looking forward to seeing what the Father has in store for us in the beautiful woods along the Suwanee River as we venture to the North Florida gathering for the whole weekend!

Great food! Relaxing atmosphere! The folks who run the campground are awesome! Best part is Jesus always does something special there. We seem to always get a chance to impact somebodies life in a way that's totally unexpected and unforeseen!

Just sitting around and pickin and grinnin is special for us. We hope that all the chapters everywhere across the country and around the world are blessed to raise more money this year than at any other time and that the Lord will multiply it like He did with the loaves and fishes.

We're excited that the Father has blessed us with some new recording equipment so we can begin working on CD'S FOUR & FIVE!!! (bout time eh?) Pray for us. We'll be able to do a lot of the musical work and lay down tracks before going to Studio in the Oaks to do vocals and polish everything up with our great friend and musical mentor Dan McCraw.

I'm looking forward to finally getting some of the new songs done, mainly because ya'll have been asking for them and because there seems to be more new one's showing up! Thank you Jesus!

A quick update and report from last weekend at Leesburg. It was the most anointed service there that I can remember over the past few that I've been to anyway. God moved and a lot of folks got saved and many rededications took place! It was a wonderful experience and a real breakthrough for the Kingdom of God at this most secular event!

Please keep us in your prayers and we hope to see you along the way at one of our ministry opportunities. Check out the calendar page we may be showing up somewhere near you over the next several weeks.

Til then God Bless you richly!

Dale

WOW!!!!

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

I know it's been a while since we've posted any new news on the site and want to apologize for being somewhat distracted the past few weeks! Lot's of "just life" stuff going on! How about you?

We've been busy and the Lord is blessing and of course we're also very excited to see what He is about to do. We had an awesome Easter morning service with our local chapter of CMA. Jim preached a great and short message and lot's of bikes and folks got prayed for and that was special.

We made some new friends this past weekend in Green Cove Springs, where we played at the St.Paul Episcopal church's annual fish fry. An outdoor event that was awesome, great food! Great folks, we got to share the stage with two other southern gospel groups, and got to make some new friends and saw the start of some good relationships with them.

This weekend we're off to the Annual Leesburg Bike Festival and are excited to see what God has in store. Pray for souls to be saved and lives touched and healing waters to flow! I can't believe that this is my fifth or sixth time playing there since I joined Spiritwind back in 04! Whew! Where does the time go anyway?

Please keep us in your prayers as we need all the spiritual support we can get! Hope to see some of you soon. The Lord keeps opening new doors for us to go and share His music with new folks and that's wonderful, but we miss seeing a lot of our old friends. Give us a shout on the website every now and then it does encourage us believe you me!

Til next time,

God bless

Dale

Whew!!

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0800

The title pretty much says it all!
It has been a busy busy few weeks for us!

God is so good and He has helped us get through all the things that are going on!

Bike week has come and gone and it was absolutely awesome to see the Lord working in peoples lives.

We had a chance to visit with our great friends Mountain Man and Shirley, TJ and Jane, and all the borthers and sisters in CMA!

We're in a holding pattern this month. I believe the Lord is giving us some time to get our house in order and get a lot of new music worked out, before we hit the road again soon.

Please pray for us as we move forward on this incredible journey. Some of us need a healing touch from God! (Getting older has it's challenges!)

We pray the Lord blesses you and your ministry as you let His light shine through you.

God Bless!
Dale

Eleven to Go!!!

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Amazing isn't it that we've already whisked through a whole month in a new year!

While keeping in mind just how rapidly time is passing by for us, and focusing on the thought that we only have "eleven to go" for this year, it makes me take a moment and stop to think about what our plan is for the immediate future.

Do you have one?

I've tried to narrow mine down to asking the Father to show me how to be humble and more Christlike in my daily walk.

To be honest I've been under conviction about how I act and react to everything that happens to me whenever and wherever I find myself.

It's on my heart to do my utmost to show the attributes of my Lord in word and deed to the Father when I'm alone, and to the world when I'm out in public!

Not that I'm evenly remotely close to achieving this goal, but I've set my eye on it and am applying do diligence!

I just want to be a blessing in a world gone mad! How about you?

Please find a moment and pray about your God designed goals for the remainder of 2010!

Please pray for us as we endeavor to be obedient to the call of God on our collective lives in this ministry and the changes ahead of us and the paths we must walk.

We thank you in advance for your prayer support!

Finally, I'm convinced that there is nothing impossible for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost!

I'm convinced that we have a powerful message of Hope and Peace and Love that this beat up old world needs to hear!

I'm convinced that the word of God shall prevail against the onslaught of doubters and mockers and the insolent!

I'm convinced that with "eleven to go" we can make a difference in the lives of those around us if we're willing to pay the price and sacrifice for the cause of Christ!

I'm excited that we have a light to shine in this present darkness. A cup of cool water in this time of thirst. A loaf of bread in this time of intense hunger.

Because we serve a God who supply's our every need.

With "eleven to go" we can Arise and shine!

God Bless!
Dale