Worship: For Heaven’s Sake Paula Irby of Springfield, Illinois, grew up in East St. Louis as a PK: a preacher’s kid. Everyone expected her to always be so perfect. One day she surprised them all. (Read more below.)
Wellness: For Health’s Sake To Paula Irby, stress was the No. 1 key to all of her health problems. (Read more below.)
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Words of Encouragement
Romans 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Romans 2:4 Or despiseth thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
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For Heaven’s Sake…
“It was not all that easy growing up as a preacher’s kid,” says Paula. She and her little brothers, including our Pastor Flemons, went to church every Sunday. She did confess playing sick a couple of Sundays that didn’t go too well. She says she never played that game again.
They grew up with good principles. She did what she was told and thought that she was converted, because she did the “right things.” It was only later that she realized that she really wasn’t. It was only as an adult, after God had flooded her with such love for Him that she realized her lack all the previous years. “I had no clue that I hadn’t given my heart to God,” she admits.
She told of earlier experiences that would stay with her, maybe as landmarks on her spiritual journey. One Saturday as she was riding with her father, they passed a Seventh-day Adventist church and saw people coming out. Initially thinking it was a wedding, her father corrected her. “These are people attending church on Saturday.” She was shocked. “Saturday?!” She quickly decided, “I’m really going to pray for those people.” But what really stood out in her mind was the dead silence that came from her father in that moment. Although she couldn’t explain it, she knew that it was really strange.
Later in college as a music major, Paula was paid to sing in a Presbyterian church. Providentially, so was the now renown Duane Hamilton, an SDA bass soloist who became a member of the Heritage Singers and is currently a member of the Breath of Life Quartet. Duane and Paula studied the Bible together during which she was introduced to the Bible Sabbath. Even so, she had put up a wall against what she was learning, because she couldn’t accept that her father could be that wrong, she says.
It wasn’t until her guard was down during an Easter program service that she could no longer refute the truth. Bible passages, one after the other, kept confirming that the true Bible Sabbath was the seventh day and not the first day of the week. All she could think was “Wow. Jesus, even in His death, rested on the seventh day.” She became a Seventh-day Adventist and remains so forty-one years later.
Her brother, Pastor Flemons simply added, “God takes us from where we are to where we need to be.”
For Health’s Sake…
Rushing, always running late, missing buses, running all the way to work, eating out a lot, eating fast foods, and taking calls throughout the night eventually took a toll on her. She ended up on a lot of medications and got to the point where she could barely walk one block without a struggle. That embarrassed her. It was because she knew better and because her brother runs a wellness ministry, which she has regularly supported since its inception.
However, it was not until she retired just this past September that she and her husband, also retired, decided to make her health the priority. They decided to attend the current wellness retreat. Now in the final week of the retreat, Paula has gone from being on meds and being always completely tired to no meds, walking for miles at a time and feeling energetic enough to walk some more. “Full of energy,” she walks at least 2 miles per day.
Surprised, she was never hungry during the 10-day juice feast that TOR provides from Day 1. Satisfied and expectant for a healthier future, she also testifies, “I am spiritually blessed being here.”