What Dreams Are Made Of

Family vacation has become a tradition of sorts with the Ward family.  It started with my parents before I, the oldest of three children, was even thought of.  Each of the three years preceding my birth my parents visited countries in Central and South America.  They tried to continue their yearly trips once I was born, but my grandmother would not allow them. 

 

My grandmother quite often told me the story of how when I was six months old  my parents went to "that far place" and left their brand new baby girl at home with her for two whole weeks and did not call one time to check on me.  My grandmother told me that story so many times I do not think that I will ever forget it.  My grandmother lived in a very small (I think the new politically correct word may be cozy) house, and she shared with me how my parents brought all of my stuff, including my crib that nearly took up her entire bedroom, to her house as if they had no intention of returning for me.  I think that was her fear, that they had left me there with her and moved to "that far place", which happened to be Guetemala.  Suffice to say there were no more trips for my parents there after.

I vaguely remember going on a trip with my parents when I was a toddler to one of the family islands in my home, the Bahamas, but it was not until I was six years old that the real Ward Family Vacation tradition began.  It was that year that we first visited Disney World.  Disney World was a place that I was very familiar with and had secretly  longed to visit for as long as I knew it exited.  I never supposed in my wildest imagination that there was a way that we could leave my little island home and go to this far place.  I had been on a plane once that had taken my mother, cousins and I to Miaim, but that did not seem very far to me because the plane ride had not been that long. But a magical place like Disney World had to be at a least a million miles away from my little isalnd.  You could imagine my unadutlerated excitement when my parents announced a trip to Disney World. 

 

My sister, Denise, was two years old at the time.  She was just as excited as I was.  We were going to Disney World!  I was right too.  It was a very long journey to get there.  First, we flew on the plane to Miami where we stayed over night in a nice hotel, the Omni Hotel on Biscayne Boulevard, which is now the Hilton.  The next day very early in the morning, earlier than I had ever had to get up, we boarded a bus.  It was still dark outside and the bus was what I imagined was beyond freezing point.  From there the bus driver drove us to a place called Orlando where we checked into another hotel.  By this time I was very anxious and thought that we may never get to Disney World.  We had to then get back on the bus and to my delight within a short time arrived at Dinsey World. 

 

It was really all too much for my little brain to take in.  It was like everything inside the television shows I watched and books I read had come to life.  In the back of my mind I suspected that Mickey, Donald and the gang were not really real, but I had enough imagination to believe that they coud be real.  There was Dumbo from Dumbo's Big Top.  I loved to watch that show on the Disney Channel.  There was Pooh Bear, Piglet, Tigger and E'or from Winnie the Pooh.  There was Snow White and the Seven Dwafts along with Sleeping Beauty.  Then right before my eyes was Cinderella's castle!  My parents let us have candy, ballons, mouse ears and almost anything we asked for. 

 

And that is how it all began.  We went back to visit Disney every year there after.  Soon my brother, Quincy, was born and joined in making magical memories with us.  Since we are all adults now, we have went on other family trips to more grown up destinations.  We have been to various parts of the United States and travelled through out the Caribbean.  My sister currently lives in Africa and has travelled to parts of Europe and Asia.  Still  no matter where we go Disney is still our favorite. This year we return as a family to where the tradition began and we are having a magical time.

 

A friend of mine jokingly said to me that I am too old for Disney World.  Disney does not hold the same meaning as an adult that it did when I was six years old.  Today I see the magic a little differently.  The reason that I love Disney so much has very little to do with the theme parks and more to do with with the man himself, Walter Elias Disney.  I find something very alluring, magical if you will, about a man who instead of just thinking about a thing, dared to do that thing.  Making Disney Land a reality was no easy feat and many nay sayers of Disney's day said that it would be a failure. 

 

Mr. Disney started off in animation. His first famous character was not Mickey Mouse, but rather a rabbit named Oswald.  He lost all the rights to Oswald through a loop hole in his contract to a large distribution company that also has theme parks in Orlando.  Mr. Disney left New York very disappointment and discouraged to learn about Oswald, but it was on the train ride from New York back to his home in California that he first sketched Mickey Mouse.  We all know how successful Mickey went on to be.  The money he made from Mickey allowed him to build an animation studio, which allowed him to make alot of the classics we know and love today.  Snow White and Seven Dwarfs was the first full length animated movie ever, and a box office hit. 

 

The idea for Disney Land came to Mr. Disney when he could find no place where both he and his daugthers could have an enjoyable time when he took them on their weekly "daddy/daughter day" . He started to think up the idea of Disney Land, a place that both parents and children would enjoy.  Mr. Disney loved Disney Land but wanted a more private location for his theme park.  That is when he learned of some swamp land in Orlando that was selling pretty cheapily.  He bought a great deal of the land under various aliases because he knew that if the sellers found out that it was him buying the land the price would go up dramatically.  They did find out it was him purchasing the land. The price increased, but it was after he had already purchased most of the land. 

 

He incorporated that land as two seperate cities, Lake Buena Vista and Bay Lake.  This land is approximately half the size of the island I grew up on on!  He started to build Disney World.  Even though, at the time, he had only just began to build Magic Kingdom, Mr. Disney had the whole Disney World as we know it today sketched out.  He never lived to see any of that or even the opening of Magic Kingdom. 

 

I believe that anything good orginates in the mind of God.  Every good idea is a God given idea.  Just like God gave Moses instructions on how to build the Ark of the Covenant, Noah instructions to build the Ark and David instructions on how to build the Temple, I believe God gave Mr. Disney the blue print of Disney World.  It is an example that if you can conceive it, you can achieve it.  A lot of times we are too afraid of our imagination becasue that thing we dream seems too grand, too unrealistic.  My goodness how realistic was the idea of Disney Land when there was nothing like it in existence? 

 

I love Disney becasue it represents for me the notion that no dream is impossible.  If God gives me an idea, it is not for me to day dream about, it is for me to act on.  Now not all of us are going to build multi billion dollar corporations, but some of us can.  Only a few of us will. 

 

I think what would have happened if Noah had not built the Ark.  What would have happened if he spent all those years thinking about building the Ark.  Even though Disney is a "magical" place magic, wishful thinking, hoping has absolutely nothing to do with how it came about.  It came about because of action.  The Bible says that faith without works is dead and the same is with a dream.  A dream without work is also dead.   Dream big and then do big.

The Power of Prayer is the Ability to Listen

In 2001 I attended a local church where Juanita Bynum was preaching.  Even after 11 years, I still distinctly remember what her sermon was about because it was a catalyst for change in my life.  Her sermon was titled "A New Heart".  Somehow, someway during the sermon I began to look back over my life from the point I had acceptde Jesus Christ as my savior at eight years old to where I was then as a twenty-two year old woman.  I felt struck by the notion that God had a purpose for me, and through those fourteen years I remained in Christian infancy with my purpose not only unfulfilled, but the fact was that I was not even aware that God had a purpose for my life.  As I sat in that church service, I knew that God indeed had a purpose for me, and I had not been walking in it.  I realized that I had wasted a lot of God's time, fourteen years to be exact, not doing what I was supposed to be doing.  

When the alter call was made I was up and out of my seat without much prompting.  That night I rededicated my life to Christ, and to being "about my Father's business".  Once I left church my desire to start walking in God's purpose for my life did not wean.  I knew that I  had to get to know Him because, even though I had been a Christian for a long time, I did not have a relationship with God.  

I had always attended church and read my Bible because I grew up in a Christian home and went to a Christian school, but not because I wanted to or even knew that I needed to have a relationship with God.  When I was in college I did not attend church regularly, I never read my Bible and I seldom prayed.  These were the three areas that I began to develop once I rededicated myself to God.  Of the three, the area that I really started to work out was prayer.  I began reading any and every book I could find on prayer.  My goal was to have a disciplined prayer life and to live what Paul wrote, "pray without ceasing" (I Thessalonians 5:17).  For me that meant not to always be praying 24/7, but, like the Word, to have prayer hidden in my heart.  Having prayer hidden in my heart means to always have conversations with God.

From the time I spent with God and studying prayer, I learnt that prayer is not like what the religious leaders in Jesus' time did.  They uttered vain repetitions.  They said practiced words that had no meaning so people could hear and see them, thinking of them as "holy".  That is not prayer.  Prayer is talking to God.  In the Garden of Eden Adam talked with with God in the cool of the day (Genesis 3:8).  Enoch walked with God (Genesis 5:24).  The Bible says that God spoke with Moses face to face as a man speaks with his friend (Exodus 33:11).  David's "prayer" before going to battle at Ziglag was much like a conversation.  "and David inquired of the Lord, 'Shall I pursue this raiding party?  Will I overtake them?'  'Pursue them, ' He answered. 'You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue'."  (I Samuel 30:8)

I often hear from people, "You pray so powerfully".  What I have learnt is that what makes any prayer powerful is not saying a lot, but not saying anything at all and listening to what God has to say.  Jesus Himself said in John 8:28 that He only speaks what the Father has taught Him.  If you are praying and not listening to God's heart to speak what He says, your prayers are like the religious leaders.  They are in vain.  It does not matter what type of prayer you are praying,  whether it is a prayer of  praise and thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6), repentance (Acts 8:22), intercession (Colossians 1:9-14), supplication (Ephesians 6:18), faith (James 5:15), or agreement (Matthew 18:19), if you are not hearing and praying God's hearts, your prayer is just a bunch of noise.

There is a book called "Conversations with God".  We all need to have constant conversations with God.  Remember a conversation is a two-way exchange.  We can not do all the talking in prayer and expect prayer to work.  Some times we will not need to talk at all because God will do all the talking.  The power in prayer is the ability to be able to listen to what God is saying and then be obedient enough to speak His words and do what He says to do.

Kendy

Daddy

Baby me and Daddy

     When I was a little girl my dad and I hung out a lot.  My mom worked a morning shift and he worked a night shift.  Daddy was the one that got me ready for school in the morning and made my breakfast. At the breakfast table, he sat at the head of the table and I sat to his immediate right.  Breakfast always consisted of eggs, some sort of meat like bacon or sausage, toast, juice and hot chocolate.  He would read the newspaper and I would chatter non-stop.  Then he would rest down his newspaper, look at me and say,

     "Kendy, do you want to play a game?"  I was three years old.  I always wanted to play a game.  I would nod my head eagerly.  "Ok,  let's see how long you can be quiet.  I'll give you five cents for every minute you can be quiet.  Then you can buy candy when you go to your grandmother's house."  I didn't know what a minute was, but I knew what candy was.  I wanted to play this game.  

     Daddy pointed at the clock on the kitchen wall and explained to me that every time the little red hand moves that's a second and when it gets to the 12 that's a minute. I nodded my head and excitedly waited for the game to start.  

    "Ready! Set! Go!"  The game started.  Daddy picked his newspaper back up, and I stared at the clock with my finger on my lip (that was usually the position the teacher had me in at school because I was always talking in class and there was supposed to be absolutely no talking in class).  Well, I got confused about the red hand, the little hand, the big hand and I didn't know how the number twelve looked.  We'd only gotten to the number ten in school.  After about thirty seconds I said,

   "Daddy, you know what happened in school yesterday?"  My dad patiently put down his newspaper again, let out an exasperated sigh and said,

    "No, what happened in school yesterday?"  

    My dad took me to all my doctors appointments.  He would lift me over those grates in the sidewalk because I was afraid to walk on them.  He taught me to tie my shoelaces.  He taught me how to fish, make my bed and ride my bicycle. 

     Then there were the things I learnt from him by watching him.  Like loyalty.  My dad has been at the same company for over forty years.  Then there's responsibility.   He always took care of us.  There has never been a time when I've asked Daddy for something and he's not given it to me.  Then there's the one that's had the most influence on my life and that's leadership.  

My sister, Daddy, me and my brother.

     One time my sister, brother, Daddy and I were walking into a video rental store.  A man started to have a seizure on the sidewalk.  A crowd stood and watched, but no one did anything.  My dad asked if anyone had anything to put in the man's mouth so he wouldn't bite off his tongue.  No one had anything.  He ran back to the car and came back with something.  He went over to the man and placed it in his mouth.  I'm not sure what he did after that, but after a while the man stopped convulsing.  Then Daddy drove the car up to the side walk.  He lifted the man off the ground and laid him on the backseat of the car.  He asked the people in the store to watch us while he took the man to the hospital.  He told us we could rent whatever movies we wanted.  Then off to the hospital he went.  

    At the time, I didn't realize how major that incident was, but it is one that has had a big influence on my character today.  It cemented in my subconscious he notion that I can never be a bystander.  I can never be a person who stands by and watches when leadership and direction is needed.  I have become that person, even in my family, that takes charge. 

Daddy and grown up me

     I can go on and on about Daddy.  How he was raised in one of the poorest areas in Nassau, and that he worked his way through life.  He put all four of us through college.  He took us on family vacation every year, and it's a family tradition that we look forward to even as adults.  

     On this father's day I want to share with the world how happy I am to have been reared by Kenneth Ward, a man of integrity, patience, loyalty, love, kindness, faith and leadership.  Happy Father's Day, Daddy!  

Dry Bones

In Ezekiel 37 the Holy Spirit took the prophet Ezekiel to a valley filled with dry bones, and God asked Ezekiel, "Human, can these bones live?"  He commanded Ezekiel to prophesy life to the dry bones.  On the journey of life God leads us to the mountain top and He also leads us to the valley.  The valley is symbolic of the low points in our lives. 

Ezekiel 37:11 says, "Then he said to me, Human, these bones are like all the people of Israel.  They say, 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope has gone.  We are destroyed."  The valley is a place of hopelessness and destruction, and because of our position in the valley our vision is obstructed.  We cannot see that God is sovereign and that His plan is perfect.  If He brings us to it, He will bring us through it.  

And He always brings us through it, but a lot times when He brings us out of that valley we leave some of dry bones behind.  These can be dreams, aspirations, ideas, inventions or relationships.  We leave them in the valley because we got discouraged because we were tired of carrying them, wondering when they would become manifest.  

Just as God asked Ezekiel, I pose the question, "Can these dry bones live?"  Of course, they can.  God will take you back to that valley to prophesy to them and bring them back to life.  Speak to those dry, dead dreams, aspirations, ideas, inventions and relationships, and command God's breath of life into them.  You don't have to wait for a "prophet" to show up. You can prophesy over yourself what the Lord has already promised you.  

Be encouraged.  Do what the word says, "So, prophesy and say to them, 'This is what the Lord God says: My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves.  Then I will bring you into the land of Israel.  My people, you will know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and cause you to come up from them. And I will put my Spirit inside you, and you will come to life.  Then I will put you in your own land. And you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and done it, says the Lord.'" (Ezekiel 37:11-14) And watch your dry bones come to life.

Like A Good Neighbor

The senseless murder of seventeen year old Trayvon Martin has made national headlines, and caused protests that are reminiscent of the Civil Rights Movement. Travyon Martin was walking from a convenience store to the home of his father's girlfriend in a gated community in Sandford, Florida, when neighborhood watchman, George Zimmerman, shot and killed the unarmed teen. Yesterday police released the 911 tape from the night of the shooting.

This morning I listened to all eight of the 911 calls twice. The thing that is most startling to me about the 911 tape is not when Zimmerman said, "These $#!% always get away." I'm not interested in debating the "Stand Your Ground" law or anyone's right to bare arms. The thing that struck me, that strikes me, and makes me shake my head in disbelief is that all eight callers said the same thing. They all said that they heard someone yelling for help. Well, my question is simple. Why didn't anybody help him?

I understand that we put our own safety first, and maybe everyone did do the right thing by calling 911. Maybe if I was there I would've not been willing to put myself in harm's way to help someone, but what if someone, just one of those people who had heard this child screaming for his life, had helped. Maybe he would be alive.

It reminds me of Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan. The Bible says in Luke 10:25-37 that a man was on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was robbed, beaten and left to die. Both a priest and a Levite passed the man lying, dying in the road, and did not stop to help him. Then along came a Samaritan, who stopped and helped the man by cleaning his wounds, taking him to an inn, and leaving him there with money for him to be taken care of.

When we think of this story we often think of doing a kind deed for someone like giving the homeless man on the corner some change out of our car, but the Samaritan did so much more than this for the dying man. Jesus told this story in response to a question from an expert in Jewish law. His question was "how do I get eternal life?" Jesus response was that he was the expert. What did the law say. The law expert quoted the the law - love your neighbor as yourself. Then he asked who was his neighbor. Jesus response was the story of the Good Samaritan.

Who was Trayvon's neighbor? Who demonstrated love like the Good Samaritan? Maybe they all did by calling 911, and maybe none of them did by not responding to his cry for help. I would like to think that if I were in the situation I would be like the Good Samaritan, and I would also like to think that if I was in a life or death situation and yelled for help that someone like the Good Samaritan would help me.

A Celebration of Life

Tears of sorrow do not stain these coffee colored cheeks. Nor does my heart ache with the burden of regret. There are no wishes from me of extended mortality. Nor the anguish of wondering about your soul's eternity.

You see, today I celebrate my birth, but today I also celebrate your death. For your death forces me to analyze your living, your life. A life that as I flip back through the pages of my memories of you, I read you. I read your life and it was a good book. I stop some where near the beginning of our book of memories, and I read about that time you asked me to help clean the church. Clean the church? Your voice was so soft, so gentle, so entreating. There was no way I could say no. So we came on Saturdays to God's house to clean. There were so many other ways in which you, elegant, sophisticated you, could have served, but that is what you chose to do in His house. That is how you chose to serve Him because His house should look like Him. We cleaned the toilets and the pews, the doors and floors. We, you, kept His house clean and in order. Clean, pure, without the stains of life that was you.

The tears that stain these coffee colored cheeks are not tears of sorrow. My heart does not ache with the burden of regret. I did not wish for your extended mortality and I do not anguish over your soul's eternity. Today, I celebrate my birth but today I also celebrate your death because your death forces me to meditate on my life and my living. Your book had a couple more chapters in it than mine. Today I start chapter thirty-three and I hope, I really, really hope and pray and ask God to please help me live my life like you lived your life. Totally and completely unashamedly for Him. I hope and I pray that my life will touch as many lives as yours. I hope and I pray that I can be a lady because you always were a lady and a fashionista. Before I took the title you embodied the title of royalty, of a queen. Just the way you walked and carried yourself spoke of that royalty. Today I pay homage to you my queen.

Though the tears that stain my coffee colored face blur my vision right now, I am not crying tears of grief, sorrow, regret or anguish. I do not have any questions for God because He let us have you for an appointed time. Before Christmas you came to our Bible study group to say good bye and I had the privilege of taking you home. It was the first time we had been anywhere alone together. You being you, would not let me help you inside your place. I think I knew then what we who are left here are living through now. Yet even then I could not find it in me to question God and throw that temper tantrum that I wanted to throw, asking why. Even now I find myself waiting for that anger or that grief but it doesn't come.

I do not want to run the risk of sounding cliche, but I am just happy that I knew you. That I know you. The essence of a Godly woman and you, your character, your faith, your memory is immortalized in my heart. Yesterday, I wanted to call you to tell you that I loved you, but I felt those three words would not have been enough so I didn't call. I didn't text. I didn't email. I know now that it was the moment of that thought that you were meeting Jesus. Death can not steal the joy I had from knowing you, touching you, loving you because you are one of those few people who left an imprint on my life. I will miss you and I will continue to love you from this distance, knowing that one day we will meet again. I wondered what I would write about today, my birthday. I'm glad I am writing about you.

Today I celebrate my birth but today I also celebrate your death because your death forces me to make sure I live a life worth celebrating. I know you did, my sister, my friend.

Kendy Ward

2011 Women of Compassion Conference

Today I am in Pompano Beach, attending the 2011 Women of Compassion Conference hosted by New Life World Outreach Ministries. Women of Compassion's mission is to teach women how to walk in God's word and model themselves after God's character. It's goal is to establish mentoring groups, bible studies, retreats, seminars and other fellowship events.

The conference will be today, Friday, October 7th through Saturday, October 8th, at the Wyndham Sea Gardens Resort and Spa. The program features Pastor Cassandra Patterson of New Life, Pastor Joanne Smith and Pastor Sheena Pinder of Bahamas Faith Ministries. I am sure it will be an awesome time in the Lord. If you can come out and join us. I will be in the vendor area, promoting my latest literary effort, No Glory Without a Story: Every One Has A Story to Tell!

Have a blessed day!

Kendy

Kingdom Abassador