About Us

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Living in Milton,FL. Shane works at Family Promise and Valerie is a Independent Beauty Consultant for Mary Kay. Shane and Valerie have been married for 17 years with two wonderful children, Austen 13 yrs old and Gabrielle 10yrs old.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

God brought us together

There really is no place to begin except the beginning. Shane and I met when we were 12 and 13 yrs old. His grandparents went to our church. Arlington Alliance Church in ...Arlington, TX. Shane would attend occasionally with his grandparents. When summer came, my mom sent me to church camp at Pine Crest Bible Camp near Pine Crest, Arkansas. There I met Shane and his best friend Curt Ford. Two years in a row and in between times we wrote and saw each other at church when he could visit. My family moved back to Pensacola, Fla starting my 9th grade year. Shane and I stopped communicating and we lost track of each other. Shane and his family moved to Georgia. In 1994, Shane contacted his grandparents to find a current address and phone number for me. The only phone number they could find was my grandfather's. Shane calls, he get my mom's number and has to leave a message. I was living in Mobile, AL at the time working in the airport. My mother tells me of the message, but I do not return the call because I was dating someone at the time. One year later, Shane calls again, but this time I had moved back in with my mother and was on a business trip. My relationship with my significant other was not going well, so when I got home from my trip I called Shane back. This phone call lasted 3 hours. We talked once that week, three times the next week, and then every day after that. I broke up with the other guy(that was another drama that I wish to forget). We wrote letters, sent audio tapes, and exchanged pictures. This was in February. By the time April came, we decided that it was time to meet up because we had not seen each other yet. I was a travel agent and could get cheap airline tickets, so I flew up to Atlanta, GA for Easter weekend. I met his immediate family and stayed with them. We had talked about just about every thing I thought. I was in la la land, floating on cloud 15, I had won the heart of a cowboy, my dream guy. I would live in the country, and life was going to have that fairy tale life all little girls dream about. On that weekend, we had our first serious talk. Shane shared that he was falling in love with me. I told him that I had fallen in love with him too and we would face the future together. He then asked me to marry him and well.....here we are 13 years later!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

The Trials

Satan seems to attack in the most personal ways. Our time in Lubbock seemed to be filled with going to the doctor. Austen got braces, was allergy tested, and started shots weekly. He seemed to have other health problem that Shane and I could not understand or get control of. I won't get into details to protect Austen's self esteem (which is also another issue). It seems that he was on so much medicine and not much of it was helping. Austen also had anger issues that we didn't know how to deal with either. We really felt like the Lord was telling us that it was all a spiritual attack. We had our small group praying with us for wisdom and then we had several body of believers pray over Austen, several times. We then stopped all of the medications and put our trust in God to show the way. Austen's health started to improve and since we have moved, there has been some situations, but over all we feel that the Lord delivered Austen.

Shane came to me one evening said he wasn't feeling very good, by eleven o'clock he could not stand up and was almost having black outs. I finally convinced him that I could not carry him to the car and that I needed him (with my help) walk to the car so I could take to the ER. My mom stayed with the kids. His heart was racing. We stayed in the ER for hours, but they would release him because he could not stand up with blacking out. His heart was in an erratic rhythm, so they tried medication to try to stabilize him, but that didn't work. They finally admitted him into the hospital and I went home to sleep. The next day, they decide that Shane would need to have the defibrillators used to get his heart back into normal rhythm, but they would schedule it for the following day. Again, I went to our prayer partners all over the U.S, and asked God to Heal Shane. During this time, I had also asked God to show me a true miracle, you know the kind you hear about but never witness. I wanted to see God do a miracle. But really what I wanted was for God to Heal me... That night, I had a dream 2am and awoke gasping for air and shot straight up like someone had wakened me suddenly, I sensed a presence but immediately thought of Shane. Not knowing what was going on at the hospital, I settled down and fell back asleep. The next day I needed to be at the hospital at 8am for the procedure, so I was hurrying getting the kids where they needed to go and talk to Brent Cox( our small group leader). Shane's Dad calls me and asked if I had talked to Shane yet, very confused because he sounded like he knew something I didn't, I thought something was wrong. He just said that I needed to talk to him. I called Shane and he said he was ready to leave the hospital, that he didn't need the procedure. I was mad at first, I guess the emotional part of getting ready for a serious medical procedure, then all of the sudden he just gets to go home. I hung up on him. When I got to the hospital, he told me that around 2am he felt different, then at 6am when the doctor came to do a EKG before the procedure, his heart was in normal rhythm, and the doctor couldn't explain it but that he was fine. So we left, went to lunch and Shane's heart has been fine since. So God DOES still do miracles! And even though I wanted him to heal me, I am so glad I could witness my husband's healing. I also learned how precious Shane is to me... you see Satan was also attacking our marriage. That is a story for next time....

Monday, October 20, 2008

Other things we did in Lubbock

As well as managing a small apartment complex, we also experienced "A Walk To Emmaus". An awesome way to know Christ's love. Each month we met and had communion, worship, and prayed for others as they also had the experience. I really can't tell you much but if you want to know more, I will give a link.
We also, got a scholarship to attend a study on "The Perspective on World Missions". Amazing study that will take you on a ride through the Bible, the history of Christianity, and where you belong in missions. I believe our purpose on earth is to spread the gospel. The truth, according to the scriptures, so that everyone has the opportunity to the precious gift, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Christ's return is contingent on this very thing-this mission. What are we doing to be part of that mission? Right now, I am teaching my children and other children in AWANAS, being a testimony at my work and praying. What are you doing? Would you like to know more about "Perspectives"?
Another thing I loved doing, was be part of a mission that was started by a wonderful friend, Judy Cooper. Mission Lubbock has served hundreds of families by having a food pantry, clothing, and various household items for the less fortunate. Judy and I worked together to reach families in need and provide resources in many different areas. Judy was also involved in a house church. We would invite and provide transportation to the meetings each week. A month before we left Lubbock, we joined services so that Heaven Bound Church members would have a new place to worship.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Learning by Trial

As the months went by, we learned that the people could not hear if their stomachs were growling. So, we asked our "mother" church to help with expenses and we provided a meal before each meeting. Within one year we had grown in attendance to averaging 40 people. Half of them were children of the ages infant to 12 years. We also saw the need for help in the children area. I was doing it all by myself and there wasn't much order because of the age differences and so many of them. We went back to our "mother" church Indiana Avenue Baptist Church and asked the singles group if they would be interested in volunteering. The next week four people showed up. We divided the children up into two groups, preschool and school age. We would take the kids outside so they could have the space run and do games. This also allowed the adults to be separated from the kids while they learned. Thanks to the volunteers, they did a terrific job and stayed for a year to help. Shane taught the adults very basic teaching, how to use the Bible through reading and understanding. He answered questions, made it interactive, and challenged them each week with some kind of action required and then respond the next week. For instance, one week they were to go to Walmart and make effort to say "Hello" to the greeter. Then come back the next week and tell how they felt about it and how the greeter responded. Another week, they had to show an act of kindness to a person they did not know... Another...Read a whole chapter in the bible(particularly what they were studying). Each week we would see changes in their faces, their walk, and their talk. Eventually they started participating in preparing the food for dinner, set-up and break down, tithing, ending the meeting with prayer, and singing the worship songs. Every summer we would do a back yard VBS in the courtyard of the apartment complex. We would invited everyone in the neighborhood to come. Activities included simple games, crafts, music, story telling, and of course food. We would do it for three days, and on the average have 50-80 people coming not including all the volunteers from the church helping.
We saw though that like most people, their lives weren't changing outside of church. It made them feel good, someone was paying attention to them and we loved them in spite of what was going on outside of our weekly meetings. Living on the property caused us to be more involved in their lives than just on Tuesdays when we met for Bible study. I really felt like I was already on the mission field (my childlike vision of what it was supposed to be like on the mission field). Submerged in a culture that was not normal to me(mostly Hispanic). Lived, breathed, and ate with the people. None of them went to church before we came. Our friends outside the complex, we hardly ever saw. I felt alone and discouraged because I didn't see dramatic change in the people, I was tired because we were working full-time managing the apartment complex as well as ministering to the people 24-7. But, every time Satan would beat me down, God would lift me up. God would use His people, our prayer warriors and Christian comrades, to send us on several weekend trips away, brought gifts to us for Christmas and birthdays, and prayer walk the community. Every time we had a personal need, God ALWAYS has been there to meet it.

Monday, September 1, 2008

When God

History of Heaven Bound.....
Heaven Bound started in Lubbock, Texas. Shane and I saw that in the apartment complex we managed were poor, broken spirits, with no hope of a future. As we got to know the people we started to understand that even in the US there were people who didn't know who Jesus was and most of them felt forgotten. Our love for the people grew as we started to meet the personal needs of the community. We picked up at least one full bag of trash every day, we planted plants and flowers. I started pulling my resources from churches, friends from our Sunday School Class to gather furniture, bedding, and food to give out as needed. Then we called the police station and started a Neighborhood Watch program. The residents immediately responded and as we kicked out the drug dealers and prostitues from our apartment complex, we saw others helping in keeping the commintuy clean and picked up. Their attitudes changed and we became very close to many of the residents. After six months, it was christmas and we started planning achristmas party. Through word of mouth, many of the residents were adopted by the body of Christ and gave gifts to the residents. One particular morning, a young lady came running into our office and asked us to protect her from her boyfriend. The man came in, very angry the girl ran around to a corner behind our desk and I went with her to keep her seperated from the man. By the powers of God the man never saw me, he kept trying to hit over me to reach the girl but never once tried to strike at me. I was yelling at the man and pushing on his chest, but he never looked at me or touched me. Shane then came around to where we were and touched the man as he told him to leave. Shane had already called the police. The man turned around and started assualting shane, punching him in the face and on his chest and Got shane right in the temple and as shane fell to his knees, the man continued to punch his chest. The whole time he was hitting shane, I was hitting the man and yelling at him to leave and to stop. He abruptly stopped and walked out. The girl ran through our apartment and escaped. I chased her down telling her we could not protect her if she left. But she didn't stop running. The man came back and I was able to lock the front door with the deadbolt and he broke the door but he didn't get in. The man ran off. Shane went to the ER in an abulance while I stayed in the office. I called some church friends that found someone who could come and replace the door. ( this was a business and we couldn't leave it with a broken door). The kids were at school that day so they didn't see anything happen. I finally picked up Shane from the hospital with a concussion and bruising. He asked me if I wanted to leave, i said "NO WAY! Satan will have to fight harder than that to get rid of us!" The Battle was on! The next day the girl came to the office to say sorry that she got us involved. She had let the guy back in her apartment and I was Livid! As I was telling her off and giving her a peice of my mind, God soften my heart and instantly my words changed to love. She asked me why I cared, so I shared the love of Christ with her and prayed for her right there in my office. We cried together and she said she just didn't understand. She said she was sorry again and walked out. I just sat there, really didn't know what just had happened. I knew that God had used me, Spoke through me, loved her through me. It was AWESOME!
There were many attacks in the next four years. Many were personal to our family and I'll share them later. God is Good!