Proverbs 20:24 The LORD directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way?

Proverbs 20:24

New Century Version (NCV)  ²⁴ The Lord decides what a person will do;   no one understands what his life is all about.

New Living Translation (NLT) ²⁴ The LORD directs our steps,   so why try to understand everything along the way?

I believe in the sovereignty of God without a doubt. Something happened the other day that was just a God thing, it is awesome when we get to see God at work because many times it is behind the scenes ( he is always working ) and we just don’t realize it. We may see it in hindsight or it may be when we get to Heaven but he is always at work .

After leaving Wilshire Baptist Church on Sunday I drove to work. Since I left the church at 11:00 I decided to take the  toll way because I needed to be in my office by 11:45 and the way I normally goes takes over an hour. The toll way was awesome and I was at  the intersection of El Dorado by 11:30 so I decided to run into Market Street and get some lunch then head to the office.

It was a CRAZY busy day !!! Jeff was in Paloma Creek so I was by myself, I don’t think I even got to  sit down until about 5:00 to start going over the leads that came through the model. It was such a relief to sit down and kick off my shoes for a moment, of course the only day I wear very high heeled shoes I stand for an hour sharing my testimony and then run around all day at work showing our inventory homes, but it was a blessing to be so busy and hopefully one of the leads will turn into a sale : )

As I was entering one of the leads into our system I heard the door open and I look at the screen where the camera is projected and saw a man walk into the model. I put on my shoes  and stood up to greet him and welcome him to Horizon Homes. He shook my hand and asked if Jeff was available . I told him Jeff was in Paloma and I wasn’t sure if he would make it here or not. There was something about this man that made me think he might work for Highland so I just asked him point blank. He said “no” but that he had been interviewing with them  and was just checking out the area, the drive, etc. One of his good friends knew Jeff so he wanted to stop in and say hello.

Relaxing somewhat I sat down and we just began to talk about this business, the different locations, major thoroughfares, nearby shopping etc. He made the comment that it was almost necessary to drive the toll ways and I told him that I normally didn’t because it was just too expensive but that I had taken the toll way that day because I had shared my testimony at a church and was strapped for time. As I said the word testimony the look on his face changed and he said  “ What is your testimony ?”

Startled somewhat by the bluntness of his question and not sure how deep I should go into my story I just skimmed the surface revealing that I had experienced some major loss and made some very poor decisions that I had to pay a very high price for.  But through all of that pain I found a relationship with Jesus Christ and He transformed my life. I am VERY open and transparent and I have shared my whole story at work many times but only when I have felt prompted by God and this happened so fast I couldn’t really hear God’s voice so I held back.  I felt somewhat convicted that I held back and I wasn’t sure what to do .

We continued to talk and he started to share a little bit about himself, some loss he had experienced ( his wife who was his high school sweetheart died of cancer ) and some other things he had gone through. As he was talking I felt the prompt from God to share everything about my life, when God prompts me strongly I feel it physically. It is so hard to describe but my heart rate increases and I feel a type of  strong pressure from within that I have to say what God wants me to say or I am going to burst. That is the only way I can describe it. So I looked at this man and said let me tell you a little more about my story and I told him everything then handed him the Wylie Newspaper Article that had been sitting on the desk between us.

As he picked it up he looked at my picture from when I was a cheerleader and told me his late wife was also  a cheerleader and graduated in 1979 from a big school in Oklahoma. He then said somewhat sadly that I reminded him of her in a way, he had graduated from that same school in 1978. Minutes later a couple entered the model so I got up to greet them and as I looked back at him he was reading the article about my life.

I think my story took him by surprise somewhat and he was very moved by God’s grace and mercy in my life. For some reason I felt led to tell him about how I had been able to share my faith in this office  and the office in Woodbridge. I shared with him the story of the probation officer who was looking to buy a home from us in Woodbridge and how I felt that strong prompt from God to share my life and when I did she began to cry because her brother( who was a college graduate and an executive at Dell computer ) was hooked on methamphetamine and he had lost everything and she as a PO had NEVER seen anyone successfully get off of meth, she told me through tears she believed God placed us together that day so she would have hope for her brother. ( I am still brought to tears when I think of that story ).

He then smiled and told me he had been praying to God for an answer about this job change. New Home Sales would be a completely new field for him and what he liked to do the most was meet people, learn their stories and  to hopefully speak encouragement into their lives. He had just prayed to God to answer him to see if this was a field he could do that in, then he walked into the office hoping to meet Jeff but met me instead : )))

God directed his steps that day and he directed mine encouraging me to take that toll way after sharing my testimony and speak of it to this stranger. Our interaction ended up being an answer to his prayer. Then he told me the Holy Spirit was telling him to tell me to write my book and finish it!! He had the gift of encouragement and he told me I was a light bearer and to keep shining my light and telling my story of God’s Grace, Hope, and Power because there are many in this world who need to hear it desperately. His words were so encouraging to me . I know it was by God’s divine intervention and appointment that we met and I think God answered both of our prayers that day. God is good, all the time !!!

An Invitation from Wilshire Baptist Church

Yesterday was a powerful day as I spoke at Kelly and Charles Secker‘s Sunday School Class at Wilshire Baptist Church. I can’t wait to see the video. Each time as I prepare to speak I pray for God’s words to speak through me and for my words to fall to the ground. My pastor always prays that before his sermons and I think it is a good prayer because I certainly want God to be heard and to be glorified : HE transformed, restored, and healed my life. Because of HIS grace and mercy I am clean, sober, and healthy today. 

Kelly did a beautiful job introducing me and as I watched her from my vantage point memories of us as school age friends started to ricochet through my mind:  Cheerleading, Water Skiing. I remember once we went to her lake house on Texoma and skied in February!!!  We both LOVED to ski so much we didn’t care about the freezing water. But when it was my turn I couldn’t take it and had her swing the boat around so I could ski straight onto the beach which was all rocks, I was less concerned about falling onto rocks then re-emerging in those  freezing waters.!! : )))) Endless hours of tumbling in her front yard as we took a break from watching the 1976 Olympics with aspirations to be the next Nadia J  Then the night we went out and  Kelly met her future husband Charles, they started dating after that evening. All the memories brought a smile to my face and then it was time for me to get up and share.

Many of you know my story by now so I won’t go into that but I hope you will watch the clips we put up.  I am never sure how I did but always so hopeful that the message of hope was relayed and that I connected with my audience.  From the reaction of the class after I was done I do believe God touched them in some way. Many people came up to me and gave me a hug thanking me for sharing. That always means so much to me. I forgot to really talk about my website and book but that is okay. Next time at the suggestion of both Melanie and Kurt I was advised to have cards made to hand out when I speak so others can reach me. Melanie made an excellent point that some people may want to talk to me but not in front of all their friends and that makes perfect sense. It is good to have two voices (Mel and Kurt) that have media backgrounds.  I feel so very blessed. I hope you enjoy this clip from Kelly. It meant so much to me : )

Light shines more brightly through broken vessels!

Today the article came out in the Wylie News.  Since I didn’t have a chance to read it before hand I was somewhat nervous. Anxiously I kept checking on line to see if it was there but it never appeared so this morning I e-mailed Judy Truesdell , the reporter, and she told me I could come by the office and pick up the paper about 11. She then said she hoped I would like it and I replied that I was sure I would.

A little after 11 I drove to the Wylie News office on Ballard and nervously went into the building and asked for the newspaper. The lady working asked me how many I wanted and I said 5. She smiled and said I must know someone in the paper as she walked back to get the copies. As she handed me the paper, I looked at the top of the front page which showed an adorable boy with a camel. Smiling at the cute photo, I flipped the paper to the bottom of the front page and there I was : as a cheerleader years ago and more recently in front of the Van Pelt home. The headline was titled “Light shines more brightly through broken vessels “ one of my favorite sayings . Excitedly I began to read the story I know so well.

Judy did a wonderful job capturing my story  and the message that I want to convey: That with God all things are possible and if you allow HIM into your life he will heal your pain. That  your wounds  can now  be a source of hope and healing to others. I was so very blessed and honored. After reading the article I asked if I could meet Judy in person and she was called to the front where we hugged each other as if we had known each other for years. I thanked her again for choosing to write about my life.  Everyone in that office was so very kind to me  and there was no judgment at all. It was such a beautiful day.

Satan did try to steal my joy: I broke a tooth in the front part of my mouth,  someone got really upset with me about the story, and a couple of other conflicts happened, but after a few tears I stopped and refused to succumb to those feelings that were enveloping me. I remembered who I was in Christ and I decided to stand firm in HIS TRUTH. HIS TRUTH is what  set me free in the first place.. This was an awesome day for me and God blessed me tremendously with this article as I try to move forward  to achieve my goals and dreams. No one is going to steal my joy!!

Click here to read the article. Thank you for all your support and encouragement. I appreciate every comment more than you could know. Blessings to all of you :))

It's all in a name

Matthew 10:26
New King James Version (NKJV)
26 Therefore do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.

I have been so extremely blessed recently as I have tried to embark on a career in speaking and writing my book. I still have so very far to go to make this a reality but a lot of awesome things have taken place since I rolled out my website that makes me believe my dreams can come true:) 

With that being said I want to share something that happened recently. Last week I was contacted by a reporter for the Wylie Newspaper, I was so honored that she was interested and wanted to write about my life , well GOD’S WORK IN MY LIFE, that is what it is truly about because I am still a mess with many issues and sin but through GOD’S grace and mercy I am clean from drugs and living in complete freedom, joyful most the time. I am so very thankful for that : )

As I began talking with the reporter she asked me about my name: Susan DeFace Washington. She had checked out my website and seen it spelt differently sometimes with a capital F and sometimes not. She said when she writes an article she usually mentions the whole name one time then refers to the person using their last name so she wanted to know if I wanted to include the name DeFace . At first I said “No”: I didn’t keep my maiden when got I married so I didn’t see the need . But within seconds I changed my mind. The name DeFace is so important to me and to my story, it is who I am.

This name DeFace has been the bane of my existence for as long as I can remember. In Jr. High the teasing was endless with barbs like “ Don’t Deface traffic signs “ etc. My father’s name was Richard but he went by Dick so his name was Dick DeFace, need I say more ? Now all the ribbing was done in fun but it was still the bane of my existence.

DeFace is also a very uncommon name. I have no blood relatives left other than my children and my sister’s children. There is no one: not a cousin, aunt, uncle, 2nd cousin , etc . To be honest there were never any aunts, uncles , cousins. It was always just us. I have never met anyone with the last name of DeFace other than me . 

With it being such a unique name it brought light to many situations in my life when I really didn’t want any light being shed on them. I remember once when I was in 9th grade my parents had gone to the lake and I was supposed to be staying with a friend but we decided to stay at my house alone. The next day I needed to get to my other friends house in Lakewood because my parents would be picking me up there. Van Pelt was not close to Lakewood so I decided to call a cab. I can’t remember how much money I had but my plan was to watch the meter and when it got to the amount I had have the driver stop and I would walk the rest of the way. ( I made to the spillway on Garland Road ) This was a great plan ( please note the dripping sarcasm in my tone :) , my criminal thinking was starting young believing I could pull off this act of deception and disrespect to my parents : ) 

Any way I called the cab company and gave my address and name to be picked up. The lady who worked for the cab company asked me my name again and I replied “ Susan DeFace” . She then asked me if I was Dick DeFace’s teenage daughter and I didn’t know what to say. I think I finally said yes because even then I knew there weren’t any other Susan DeFaces around. She dispatched the taxi and said she would be calling my father because she wasn’t too sure he would want me running around in cabs. I was busted !!!! If I had been Susan Johnson this wouldn’t have happened :)
Well as you know my life went on and after many tragic events and MANY POOR/DESTRUCTIVE CHOICES on my part I was indicted on drug charges, deservedly so. It was in May of 2001 that I got indicted, I had been married since 1986 and had not used the DeFace name since then but for some reason when the Dallas Morning News ran the article “Teacher indicted on drug charges: Meth Lab Found in Home “ they referred to me as Susan DeFace Washington. There was no hiding anymore , God was going to expose everything . At the time I was disgraced and humiliated but it made me face the truth. I had to. I knew that anyone who read that article that had ever known me would know it was me. They might not know I had married and my last name was Washington but the DeFace was distinctive to me, there aren’t any others. My life was exposed and I couldn’t hide any longer.

So I told the Wylie reporter I am Susan DeFace Washington so please refer to me as DeFace Washington. She asked if I wanted it hyphenated and I can’t remember what I said because the hyphen doesn’t matter. The name does. DeFace is my name and I am proud of it. At one time when you looked at my family the first thought that came to mind was the tragedies, addictions, suicides, felonies, prison, etc. but now I hope when the name DeFace is heard or read you will think of God’s Amazing Grace, Victory, and the Freedom from the chains that bind that come when you surrender your life to Jesus Christ. That is my hope. I am Susan DeFace Washington and there is no more shame. Praise the Lord for his Redemption and Restoration.

Getting ready for Overton

About to head out to the Northeast Texas Treatment Center in Overton , Tx to share with the residents. I am so excited to revisit this place. This is where I was sentenced after being placed on deferred adjudication for 10 years. Although I relapsed and eventually went to prison I learned a lot there. This is where seeds were planted for the healing to take root and begin.

I was 40 years old and coming out of my own wilderness. As I have said I feel so very blessed and thankful to God as I take this journey revisiting places of pain and defeat now standing in victory. PLEASE PRAY FOR ME AND FOR GOD'S WORDS TO SPEAK THROUGH ME . I will keep you updated and I hope I can take some pictures. It was such a beautiful place. One morning I remember we were on the porch and heard all this noise coming from the ropes course and we ran to see what it was . This pine trees were huge and unbelievably gorgeous. What we saw were wild horses running through the woods.

It was breathtaking. That picture has always stayed in my mind and I am sure it is symbolic to something. Maybe the freedom with which they ran, I am walking in that freedom now. I will think on that more. I will check in when I get there :))