Rosewood | Blog Autobiography Ch. 7

ROSEWOOD: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Chapter 7: Childhood

There were several significant events that needed to occur before I would be ready to start my life in DeLand.

The first was that I had a temporary home in Oviedo while the DeLand house was being built. God directed my parents to a church there and provided an office where I could function nearby. Though there were some opportunities for me to minister in that church, it was again very clear that I was not to be aligned with any particular Christian denomination.

Also, another very important event happened in that time. My parents were part of a mission team from that church to Guatemala. Besides God using them in their giftings during that trip, my father received a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit there that set in motion everything that would follow.

As our home in DeLand was being completed, we began visiting there and seeking God for a personal church home and a property for me. God led us to small chapel which was part of the Charismatic Episcopal Church where we were warmly welcomed by a godly pastoral couple. They had a mandate to establish a retreat center and had acquired several buildings on the chapel grounds for that eventual purpose. Since they were not ready to start that ministry, they offered us the use of one of these buildings as a place for me to begin to minister.

I spent the latter part of my childhood there. Besides training members of the church community who would eventually work in the retreat ministry, God established me in the region.

When it was time for the chapel retreat ministry to begin, God led us to another property that would become my home during my turbulent adolescent years. I will tell you about that in my next sharing.