|
Mickey's
Testimony
First, I give God praise and thanksgiving. He so
wonderfully orchestrated our revival and graciously blessed it. As I
indicated in my letter (located on our Revival Ministers webpage) the goal
for our revival was to make this an unforgettable, classy, value-packed
event. The core of our focus and energy was on our revival attendees being
edified, refreshed and encouraged in the Lord and their ministries. I
thank God He helped us fulfill our goal. I present this Revival Report to help convey
some of what happened in our revival and how God blessed us. Plus, I share, with you, some of the highlights I personally experienced.
It was precious, I felt God’s presence the entire time we were at our revival. I literally felt full and overflowing, and felt it several days afterwards. I can still sense it, like a captivating aroma lingering in the air.
I am humbled and grateful for the sweet anointing the Lord placed upon us. He enabled us for service and I felt love and appreciation for everyone. At times the love and anointing were so overwhelming I could
barely restrain my emotions and tears. Also,
thank God for our staff. I'll share a little about them... .
. . Our Staff
Our revival staff served wonderfully.
Greg and Dusty It
was fun to minister along side of Greg Day and Dusty Wells. They were
wonderful components to our revival, a blessing God sent our way. You'll
see pictures of them on our photos page but feel free to visit our Revival
Ministers page to learn more about them and their ministries.
Rainie Mixon
My wife, Rainie, worked diligently before, during and after our revival. The list of her contributions and service would be too long to read. I’ll share a few in the section below regarding being inspired. Suffice is to say, we wouldn’t have had a Gospel Songwriters Revival without Rainie.
Phil Kelly
Phil was indispensable. He provided the sound system and all the instruments and machines we needed for sound and music.
Phil’s wife, Jamee, and his daughter, Allison, are simply angels; they assisted anyway they could. Allison’s friend, Andrew Hope, was handy and contributive as well.
We fell in love with the Kelly family; we became friends, like family.
Tammie Herring
It was great to have my friend Tammie Herring on staff as well.
Tammie is a talented, busy lady and a delight to fellowship with. She surprised Rainie and me with a beautiful Amazing Grace
plaque, you can see it via the photos we share.
. . .
Dee Gaskin
I was delighted to have another one of my friends in attendance, Dee Gaskin. Dee
is such a sweetheart. What a well of talent and knowledge. I tell you, her attendance added a jolt of energy to our revival. It didn’t matter that she is a multi-award-winning songwriter with several
chart-toppers to her credit; she joined in and made everybody feel special, accepted and appreciated. The amateur writers loved her and some thrilled to have their picture taken with her. Dusty
commented that he was a little nervous ministering in front of
Dee but as far as she was concerned, she was just part of the family and was glad to be there. .
. . Inspiration
I was inspired by all of our attendees but particularly by Allison Kelly, Shawn Sisco, Debby Harrah, Linda Barton, and
Rainie.
Allison Kelly
Allison was the sweetheart of our revival. Her bubbly personality, friendly and kind demeanor was obvious and contagious. She’s one of those kind of young people you
can hangout with for hours without a dull moment the whole time. Allison
adopted Rainie and me as her new aunt and uncle. “Aunt Rainie and Uncle Mickey
love you too, sweetie”.
Shawn Sisco
Shawn came to our revival, solo, via Greyhound bus, 23 hours there and 23 hours back home. 23 Hours? Wow! Now, that’s somebody who wants revival. You can see why I was inspired by this precious Sister.
Debby Harrah
There are several things about Debby that inspired me, I’ll share two.
First, she was supposed to sing her winning contest song for us that Saturday night but contracted laryngitis.
Second, she had difficulty with dental work, a crown broke off.
However, despite her hoarse throat and broken tooth she played piano for us Saturday night and sang for us Sunday night. I was concerned for Debby yet she inspired me. What a blessing this Sister truly
is.
Linda Barton
And then there was the amazing Linda Barton.
I highly recommend you read Linda’s book “I’ll Serve Him Anyway”. I not only read her book I actually witnessed it come alive before my very eyes during our revival.
I was inspired because despite her physical challenges she attended our revival. That Sunday, she came forward, via her wheelchair, played the keyboard and sang for us; she also sang that Sunday evening. But it was that Saturday
night when she really touched my heart.
I was instructed, of the Lord, to anoint and pray for our Revivalists. So, after communion, I invited everyone to come forward and I would anoint and pray for them, almost everyone came forward, it was sweet and powerful. Linda was one of the last to come forward. She rolled-up in her wheelchair, I anointed her and most everyone came forward to pray for her, asking Jesus to heal her body. Although I was inspired by her actions, as she struggled to get out of the wheelchair and stand, in faith, reaching out and pleading for her healing, it was what she said after she realized she wasn’t going to be healed (this time) that truly inspired
me. With a thunderous voice she said to the people, “Don’t stop having faith in God because He didn’t heal me”. Linda
spoke a few more encouraging words but it was the “Don’t stop having faith in God because He didn’t heal me” that rang loud in my ears and heart. It was electrifying and captivating. I
literally felt like I was in a cloud of God’s glory. At times it seemed like a dream, yet I was standing in the middle of reality, God’s people around
me, engulfed in His presence. It was an amazing experience.
Rainie Mixon
Rainie inspired me as well. We had challenges before we left Florida and she handled them well. She took care of a lot of revival clerical work, made sure my needs were met, and spent herself for our revival.
During our revival she got up early to get things ready for the day, and stayed up late attending to details. Each day, she setup the computer in the conference room, and then in our hotel room. The list of her duties is too lengthy to add here but there were two things
in particular she did that touched my heart.
First, just prior to our communion service I happen to look behind me, and there was Rainie, on her knees, beside the stage, pouring grape juice into the glasses. While she was pouring each glass she was praying, with tears in her eyes, for each Revivalist.
Second, I wanted to show a clip from a video of a movie about Jesus being crucified. We couldn’t get our laptop computer to project
through the projector and onto the projector screen; before I knew it, Rainie stood up, and for a little over eleven minutes, held that heavy laptop so people could see the
video clip via our laptop's monitor screen. I stood next to her, holding a microphone close to the laptop’s speaker so people could hear the
movie clip, I was close to Rainie and knew she was struggling to hold that
heavy laptop computer. What inspired me about this is (1) Rainie wasn’t going to give up, she wanted them to see this video clip, and (2) she has issues with her
right arm, and often deals with much pain. Holding the computer caused her great pain yet she endured it and held the computer still for over eleven minutes.
There were other things that inspired me about my wife but her concern and prayer for
our Revivalists and holding that heavy laptop for them really touched my heart.
Rainie is the love of my life; I couldn’t make it without her and Jesus. .
. . Mickey Arrested
As you view our revival report you might notice some of our Revivalists referring to our “skit”. It was so shocking no one thought to take a picture but I’ll briefly describe it here.
God gives everyone talents for service and one of mine is acting, so I hired Detective/Sergeant Toney Turner from the Nashville police department to be part of our “surprise” skit to help me segue into our Sunday morning sermon.
Toney came into our conference room, wearing his badge, gun and handcuffs. Before he arrested me and put the cuffs on me I explained (with a nervous voice and tears in my eyes) to our attendees that during our revival...
1) The attorney general's office received several complaints and accusations against me
and I was to be arrested 2)
I had been accused of preaching hate crimes against other religions
3) I had been accused of inciting our attendees to commit hate crimes against other religions
4) I had been accused of brandishing a firearm in the conference room
5) The police searched my hotel guestroom and my car for weapons and found
a gun in my car, the police were searching their hotel rooms as well, etc, etc.
You should have seen the looks on their faces, especially when Toney cuffed me and escorted me out the door. Some were scared, some were angry, some were praying, some were trying to figure out how to pay my bail, some were trying to figure out who falsely accused me.
After a few moments allowing the shock to set in, Toney and I reentered the room and revealed it was a skit. And after a sigh of relief and realizing we “got them” they instructed
Toney to go ahead and arrest me for doing that to them. I told him he probably should arrest me for protective
custody.
To my surprise, Toney proceeded to take the microphone, revealed he is a Christian, and exhorted our attendees about serving God despite the challenges and attacks on our freedoms. It was inspiring and became more than I originally planned.
The skit helped set the tone for our sermon, entitled “Set Back” at which time I confessed to how the devil had set me back in my ministry by using several challenges and false accusations. I won’t re-preach it here but it was a sobering message, one every Gospel songwriter should hear. .
. . Thank
You
My testimony is going to be too lengthy so I’ll stop here and let you scroll back to the top of this page so you can read the other testimonies, look at the pictures and watch the
video.
Also, I provide an audio
commentary at the bottom of each photo page so be sure to listen to my commentaries.
But before you move on to the rest of the report please know I am grateful for everyone who attended our revival and helped make it
happen; thank you most sincerely. God bless you.
I hope you enjoy the remainder of our revival report, and I hope to see you
at our Gospel Songwriters Convention next year.
Thank You Jesus!!! |