Mercy Ministries
Mercy Ministries:
Hey everyone, it’s Eve again—the resident Mercy Ministries roaming reporter here on the scene with a really special guest. Charlotte Gambill, we’re just so honored to have you. Charlotte came all the way from across the pond. You and your husband help pastor at Abundant Life Church in Radford, England. Charlotte and her entire family were instrumental in starting our Mercy Ministries home in the UK.
Charlotte Gambill:
Yeah. We love Mercy Ministries. We have a great home in the UK. It’s based about a half hour from where our church is. Amazing girls. They are in our services every weekend. Extension programs just being completed, so it’s exciting.
Mercy Ministries:
It’s so amazing. The Mercy Ministries girls are so happy that you are investing in them. You are also investing in your staff. You talked earlier, Charlotte, about how Mercy Ministries to these girls is like an open door—that it is like a new beginning. Tell me a little bit about that.
Charlotte Gambill:
Well, it says in Corinthians that there is a wide, open, spacious life that God longs for us to live in. I know that many of the girls that come first through the doors of Mercy Ministries have not experienced a wide, open, spacious life. They have experienced a controlling life, a small life, a prison-type life from abuses and issues. I want to the girls to know that the door entrance place to Mercy Ministries was literally like them stepping into a new place that was wide and that was open and that was expansive—so they could dream all over again.
Mercy Ministries:
I love that, Charlotte. I also love how you were really specific, just looking the Mercy Ministries girls in their eyes to say that they have a seed of influence. I really think they were able to resonate in that.
Charlotte Gambill:
Well you know, for me ministry is all about people. It’s not about preaching a message or speaking at a conference. It’s about the connection with the people. God loves them so much. He wants them to know that your life is planned and that there is an amazing gift that you have to give inside of you. I think the Mercy Ministries girls don’t even believe that about themselves. So it’s important to eyeball some of them and say, “I mean you,” because that’s what God does. He gets right in your face and He says, “No, it’s not for someone else; it’s for you.” In this room is huge potential. Who knows what will happen with these Mercy Ministries girls when they graduate and leave the Mercy Ministries program? I am thrilled that I get to add a small bit in speaking to them today.
Mercy Ministries:
You know firsthand that these Mercy Ministries girls all over the country, all over the world, in the UK, here in the US, are dealing with a lot of pain, a lot of hurt—that vicious cycle you talk about. You really hit home that a grudge, holding that grudge is not something that we need to do regardless of the hurt in the past—that that is just too heavy and that we need to let it go even though it doesn’t say that the hurt was okay. But yet we have to look to the future and let go of that grudge. That’s hard for all of us.
Charlotte Gambill:
I was teaching the Mercy Ministries girls about living with an offense and living with something that the Enemy would love for you to raise—almost like a child—but you feed it and you nurture this offense, this hurt. It becomes a huge, living thing in your life. The more you feed it the bigger it grows and the more that becomes a part of who you are. I want the girls to know that you have to starve that; you have to stop feeding that. You can’t feed both.
You can’t keep feeding a dream and a future and at the same time have a conversation, as it were, with your grudge, your offense, your hurt. So it’s not saying you weren’t hurt. It’s not denying things haven’t happened. But we can’t live in that moment. We’ve got to get the Mercy Ministries girls to stop feeding it, stop making it come alive. I was saying to them, “Don’t go to counseling and in that moment of counseling try and say oh yeah, I won’t do it anymore but then go back to your room and feed the grudge again. You have to realize that, no, you have to be thorough. So I just want the Mercy Ministries girls to know that you have an opportunity to hold and to carry either your dream or your offense: which one do you want to carry?
Mercy Ministries:
I love it. Thanks for that great word. Charlotte, you have blessed me personally. And you can tell it’s quite evident that you have blessed everyone in this room. You are so anointed and you are such a special friend to Nancy and Mercy Ministries.
Charlotte Gambill:
I love Nancy. She is my friend and Jude is kind of my friend. (That’s her dog.) We have a kind of a love/hate deal going with the dog. My dog is way more spiritually gifted than hers. But that’s okay. I love Nancy. She is awesome.
Mercy Ministries:
I’m not even going to go down that whole dog road because I love Jude very, very, very much. Thanks for such a blessing to Mercy Ministries. Thanks for investing time. We are going to send you across the pond with a big hug. Thank you so much. I hope that you were as well blessed by her word today. Thanks for joining us. See you later.
For more information about Mercy Ministries, visit them online at www.mercyministries.com
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