Serving Until God Calls Me Home

I remember as a child watching my father pray on his knees, arms outstretched. It is my earliest memory of Christian virtue from my hero, Peter Photos. He was born in Greece and was a member of the Greek Orthodox Church. Coming to America at the age of 17, he married my mother Mabel, a Methodist. As a sort of compromise, I was christened in the Greek Orthodox Church but brought up Methodist.

I came down with the flu when I was five years old. My loving grandmother nursed me back to health, praying to God for my healing, and He answered her prayers. She passed away not long after that and I began having problems with my speech. I began to stutter badly and was made fun of in grade school. I became very shy and unsociable.

At the age of 16, I was coming home from visiting my father at the hospital. For 11 months he had been slowly dying of heart disease. As I went down the street, I noticed a revival going on. I went in and a man reached out to me and encouraged me. He told me about Jesus and how I needed to get into church and take Bible classes. I gave my heart to the Lord that night.

When I was 19, I was drafted into the service. I encouraged a number of young people to go into town with me on Saturday nights for the Salvation Army USO dances.

The Lord gave me the courage to overcome my shyness and I began going to a country church on Sundays and as an extra incentive, enjoying a home-cooked meal afterwards! After six months in the service, I was discharged, at the suggestion of my chaplain, to take speech classes. The chaplain made all the arrangements, and I moved to New York City to attend speech school.

I backslid a little, but God had his hand on me. I returned to Him through an old friend, the Salvation Army. I attended a retreat the organization was putting on, and after working with the Salvation Army for a number of years, I moved into the Rescue Mission. Once a month different church groups would conduct the evening services. When it was my turn to be host, it so happened a group from the Pentecostal church was there. I prayed with them before the service and witnessed the gift of tongues for the first time.

Soon after this, I went to Florida to learn more about rehabilitation work with alcoholics. It was there that I was baptized in the Holy Spirit and received the gift of tongues myself.

I started attending a charismatic prayer meeting at an Episcopal church. One day, the superintendent of the Rescue Mission called me into his office. He did not approve of the Charismatic Movement and demanded that I quit attending those “antichrist” meetings or resign immediately. I gave him my letter of resignation with a heavy heart. Over the weekend though, God softened his heart, and the superintendent tore up my resignation. He could see that God was up to something.

During this time, I heard a lot about communities: Word of God in Ann Arbor, Mich.; People of Praise in South Bend, Ind. and the Church of the Redeemer in Houston, Texas. I wrote to the Church of the Redeemer and was invited to come for a visit. After a week with them, I knew that was where God wanted me.

Then I had more health problems—a double heart bypass. I left the community and returned home to my sister in Syracuse, N.Y. I remained active in the Episcopal Church and the Charismatic Renewal.

In 1980, feeling called by God, I was received into the Catholic Church. The next year I felt good enough to move to the Community of God’s Love in Rutherford, N.J., where I served the Lord for the next 10 years. I had the opportunity to meet Mother Teresa when she opened a center for battered woman and children. I helped co-found a senior citizen center, which is still going strong today.

By the late 1980s, I began having more heart problems and turned over more of my ministries to others. It was then that I began looking for a family with whom I could be in household. Unfortunately, this was not readily available in the Community of God’s Love. The Lord had plans though.
I attended the National Conference on the Holy Spirit and Evangelization in Indianapolis, Ind., where I met Gary and Sara Molen. As members of the Alleluia Community in Augusta, Ga., Gary and Sarah were running the Community’s exhibit at the conference. They shared with me about Alleluia. I told them that I already was part of a community, but they encouraged me to visit Alleluia anyhow. God prompted my spirit, and in October I visited Alleluia. I felt right at home and knew this was an answer to prayer. Household living was thriving in Alleluia. I followed up with a longer visit to see how I would like household living. I loved it!

I lived with the Hornsby family, Chuck, Peg, and their three children, for most of the seven years I’ve been in Alleluia. At this writing, I’m living with the McAdams family with five wonderful children. In household, I am able to relate in a close family setting and be supported, encouraged and loved all in Jesus’ name. And I can return the same.

I’ve continued to have heart problems, but thanks to Jesus, through the prayer and support of the Christian community, I’ll be in Alleluia—living community life until God calls me home.