BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

“I'm wearing makeup,” Saundra confessed to her two friends. “I never wear makeup, but this time I wanted to do something different.” “She’s so beautiful!” Renée exclaimed. Aside from the excitement over Saundra’s new look, the scene that day inside the headquarters building of Kenneth Copeland Ministries was only slightly different from what normally happens when Saundra, Renée and Dorothy get together. A similar scene has been playing out now for the past 33 years, ever since Saundra and Renée first met at a West Coast Believers’ Convention in Anaheim, Calif. The following year, in 1986, they met Dorothy at another West Coast meeting. Ever since then, the three have made a point of coming together at least once a year—first for the West Coast meeting and now the Southwest Believers’ Convention in Fort Worth. “We don’t travel to visit during the year, so we really don’t get to see each other. But we do talk on the phone. The meeting is our draw. It’s our connection. We come for the Word, and we come for the fellowship—to be with each other.” Not a Chance Meeting Ask how it all began, and some of the details can get a bit sketchy. But the three all agree that Saundra, who was volunteering at the annual Believers’ Convention back then, was the catalyst. “I had become born again back in 1976 and was looking for a church when a friend told me about Crenshaw Christian Center,” Saundra recalled. “As a new Christian, I was hungry for God’s Word. One day I was in the church bookstore looking for something to read when the Lord led me to a book by Kenneth Copeland called "The Laws of Prosperity." I had never heard of Kenneth Copeland before, but as I read the book there was just something different about the way he taught the Word.” Two years later, in 1978, Brother Copeland came to Long Beach, Calif., to hold a three-day meeting called the Long Beach Victory Seminar. Saundra made a point of attending. “The meeting was held in a ballroom,” Saundra remembered. “There was not a huge crowd, but then he was not very well-known at the time, either.” The next year the meeting, now called the Anaheim Victory Seminar, was moved to the Anaheim Convention Center. Eventually, the meeting would become known as the West Coast Believers’ Convention. In 1984, after attending for several years, Saundra started volunteering at the meetings to help with registration. The following year she became an usher. “That’s when I met Renée, who just happened to be sitting in the section I was assigned to.” Renée stood out from the crowd. “She was a baby Christian, and she would get so excited during the preaching that she would start talking out loud and responding to the preaching, not realizing she was disturbing those around her. People would politely complain to me and ask if I could do something to calm Renée down.” Though a bit hesitant at first, Saundra politely approached the woman and requested she tone it down a little. Not long after that, Saundra learned the reason for Renée’s excitement. Much Reason to Praise “I got born again in 1982 and went to my very first KCM convention that same year,” says Renée, who is originally from Berlin and still speaks with a heavy German accent. “The Lord took all my American heathen friends away from me, and gave me Christian German friends and, like Saundra, I just wanted to get somewhere where the Word was being spoken. I had never heard of Kenneth Copeland either, but I went to that meeting and as he was teaching, I remember thinking, I’ve never heard this before. “During one of the evening services, he called for people to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, so I asked a friend, ‘Is this what I need?’ She said yes, so I responded to the call. At the end of the service, Brother Copeland was praying for people with different illnesses. I had been bothered with an ulcer for a long time. When he prayed, I received my healing from that ulcer. It went away, and never came back!” “I talked with Renée, and we just became the best of friends,” says Saundra. “She lived in the valley in Lancaster, north of Los Angeles, and I was staying in the city. When I learned that she came to the meetings every year, I started saving her a seat in my section. I would bring my nephew to the conventions, so he could attend Superkids, and Renée brought her grandson.” * * * * * article continues on p. 19 * * * * * ********** ADVERTISEMENT *********** SWBC Teaching your children how to use their faith... Commander Kellie: SUPERCHARGE YOUR SUPERKIDS Superkid Academy | Ages 6-12 * * * * * * * * * * * * * REIGNITE YOUR TEENS' FAITH 14forty Youth Meetings | Ages 13-18 ********************************************* 18 : BVOV

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