BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

“He designed the logo as a circle representing the earth. Inside was the chemistry symbol for reaction. When I saw it, I thought of Newton’s third law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. We were believing that the children would have a powerful reaction to the gospel. That they would take the message home and their families would have a powerful reaction to it as well—a chain reaction. “In 2012, while I was still in college and pursuing a business degree, we did our first Reaction Tour to Uganda. Pastor Dongo was thrilled for us to come, but I knew they didn’t have the resources to provide what we needed. We provided everything, from sports equipment to food and drinks. Morning and evening we taught and led worship. During the day, we offered electives like worship classes, leadership classes and beauty classes. “In beauty class, the girls painted their nails while we discussed how God sees beauty, and the importance of inner beauty. We accepted 400 kids that first year because that’s how many we could handle. Hundreds more wanted to come but had to be turned away. “One of the children who stood out to me was a young boy named Conquest. He didn’t have a father, but his mother took care of him and two younger children. He loved the experience and his big smile and sparkling eyes let us know he would be back the following year. The impact on their lives was more than I had imagined.” The Power of Obedience As much as Courtney had enjoyed the experience, she had some decisions to make. She still wanted to work in business outside the world of ministry. What she could no longer ignore, though, was the fact that business wasn’t God’s plan for her life. How could she set aside every natural desire and step into a life she hadn’t planned? By faith. One step of obedience at a time. Saying yes to God’s plan was a huge step. When she took it, she dropped out of college, shutting the door behind her. She told her parents that she wanted to go into ministry leading Reaction Tours. “If you’re going into ministry,” John Copeland told his daughter, “you’ll do it my way.” He gave her a job at Kenneth Copeland Ministries, assigning her to work in the mailroom. Sorting mail. Stacks of mail. Mountains of mail. Tedious, mind-numbing mail. Her second day in the mailroom felt twice as long as the first—until she heard some of the mailroom staff talking about the mail and what was inside each envelope. Suddenly, it seemed as if a veil parted and Courtney saw what she’d been missing. Every envelope represented someone like Pastor Dongo, whose life had been transformed by the teachings of KCM. These weren’t just pieces of paper. Each one represented a person. They were stories of lives changed. Broken families reunited. Marriages healed. People who’d grasped the message of faith and climbed out of deathbeds to live. Infertile couples who had given birth. Debts wiped out. Homes brought back from the brink of foreclosure. People saved, and their names written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Courtney looked at thousands of pieces of mail. But now they weren’t just pieces of mail. They represented lives. At that moment, she understood her resistance to ministry. Somehow, sometime, probably as a child, she’d resented the ministry because of how much time it required of her father. It had been buried so deep, it hadn’t been a conscious thought. Looking at that mountain of mail—those mountains of changed lives—she felt overwhelmed with joy that her father, her family, had had a part in it. She felt honored and humbled to be a part of it. That was why her grandparents still flew around the world preaching the gospel. That was why her father gave so much of his life to the work of the ministry. It was why people chose to work in the mailroom, in publications, in television, in customer service—in housekeeping. ****** article continues on p. 14 ****** ********** ADVERTISEMENT ********** bvovn BELIEVER’S VOICE OF VICTORY NETWORK REAL. LIFE. FAITH. Hear the uncompromised Word 24/7 from ministers you can trust! watch on: dish® CHANNEL 265 apple tv® 4th generation Roku® bvovn.com YouTube® amazon fire TV facebook iOS android ***************************************** BVOV : 13

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