Coming Together Live 2023: Jesus and Wholistic Sexuality

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Coming Out Ministries

Testimonies

Jerry Armijo

Wayne Blakely

Judith Davis

Anthony Davis

Ron Kelly

Genoveve Smith

Daisy Snyman

Harrison Umaña

Ronald Woolsey

Testimonies Sabbath School Panel

And this morning gathered at these tables, some people I've only seen online and met through virtual meetings, are gonna be sharing live with you their journey and what's it meant.

And what has Jesus done for them and what can you expect when you're dealing with these issues, whether it's with a family member or whether it's your person.

And this journey is gonna be a very awesome journey.

So what I wanna do, and in a quick manner without rushing, is I think we're just gonna start down here with Wayne.

Wayne, you've been here along with Ron Wolsey and Mike Carducci probably more than anybody else.

So why don't you do some introducing, and then after you do a little introducing, we'll let the individuals you're introducing just say a brief word.

So I'm Wayne Blakely from Know His Love Ministries.

Spent 40 years in the LGBT world, and then Jesus came and got me.

I've been blessed to be acquainted with Judith and Tony Davis, who have a wonderful miracle story to share, and they are here from London.

And so I'll let them share more about their lives.

And so their testimony will be shared in full on Tuesday night, I think it is, Monday or Tuesday night.

Yeah, my name is Tony Davis, and my name is Tony Davis, and it's honestly, it's actually a blessing to be here because Knowing that the world, after listening to your message this morning, knowing that the world, we all live in the world, and these are the experiences of the world.

But because we are, as I said, Christians, it doesn't mean that we're immune from it, but at the same time, we have to learn how to deal with it.

And we're dealing with it, the best way to deal with it is in love.

Now, I've heard it already, and I'm looking forward to hearing it again, maybe with even more than you had time to share before.

We've flown Judith and Tony in from Great Britain, and we're so glad to hear it.

I'm a mother of 2 girls, Rihanna and Taya, and I feel so honored and blessed to be here.

I have learned so much about him during my time with a testimony, which we will be giving later.

I have met amazing people, God-fearing men and women through the ministry, Wayne and Ron, Michael has become a friend and Wayne.

God has been just awesome and I think for me what has resonated throughout the entire journey for us as parents is compassion and love.

We have loved our daughter throughout and I just want to share this quick verse of a song that came to me and it says, as I look back over my life, which is my journey, and I think things over, we can truly say that we've been blessed because we've got a Testimony.

Yeah, and before we go on to Ron, I want to say this you will not want to miss their testimony now We don't spend the kind of money it takes to bring somebody from Great Britain casually When I listen to their testimony and I'm hearing her talk about love I'm here to tell you if you want to witness what biblical love really is and how to be both tender and principled, some say tough, you're going to hear it in their testimony.

If there's any parent or grandparent that's dealing with a son or a daughter that's being drawn into this, listening to them, you'll want to take notes about what you can expect, how difficult it's going to be, how much you need each other, how much you question yourself.

But I will say this, just as 1 little vignette in your testimony.

It won't be a spoiler, but 1 of the things that I appreciated so much is that in your friendship with Michael Carducci, Even though your daughter was on a different kind of journey and she was not amenable To the messaging that comes from Noah's love ministry or coming out ministries You invited Mike to stay in your home she didn't like it But the parents decided on principle what love was with both the tender and the principled sides.

And when I listen to their journey, if you want to know how to love in the name of Jesus in a way that will extend a lifeline, don't miss their testimony.

Yes, I'm Ron Woolsey, and I've been here a number of times.

Hold that right up to your mouth as close as you can.

I was redeemed from the gay culture 32 years ago.

I've been in ministry for almost the same amount of time there in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, and with coming out ministries for the last 13 years.

And of course, I've known Judith from the prayer lines for quite some time, but I didn't get to meet them until we came up on the platform.

So I'm real excited to meet them and to hear more from them this week.

And the rest of our team, it's great to have us all together this week.

And you know, that's 1 of the joys of being, it's just being together.

You know, when I look at the 30 plus people that we're bringing in for this, some are in-house.

Mike Hess, who's gonna be doing an amazing presentation on the latest science, as well as what the Spirit of Prophets says about inherited and cultivated tendencies.

It's going to be an amazing presentation.

Rice also, who's a PhD in Crisis Communications from the University of Kentucky in Lexington.

He's going to be doing an amazing presentation on propaganda and what every parent needs to know about protecting their children.

But bringing all these people together, we're trying to show that the largest part of the body of Christ in Seventh-day Adventist remnant theology is still exceptionally solid on the word of God, and that there is liberty, freedom, and joy in this journey.

So it's been a pleasure to have Ron Wilsey and Wayne Blakely and Michael Carducci and some others multiple times here.

We are a partner and friend with this ministry and they are the tip of the spear for helping us sense what are the issues that are out there, how should they be dealt with.

And so in every evening, we're going to have a song.

And tonight, Ron, you're doing a marimba concert for us at 5.30.

But every evening, we're gonna have some introductory comments, a song or 2, then we're gonna go into testimony time where several of you here are gonna be interviewed, give your testimony, different things like that.

Then there'll be a very beautiful, Christ-centered biblical preaching, and we're gonna do that every night.

The Pastors, Teachers, Elders Conference, and I've invited the medical people if they want to join us, but you do have to call the church and be pre-registered that way.

You can leave a message on the answering machine if you get this message over the weekend.

On Monday morning we start feeding the group that's gathering here, pastors, elders, teachers, and perhaps some health professionals.

And by the time you join us on Monday night at 6.30, these folks will have been in meetings, listening to amazing presentations, some of which you will get to hear because some of them will be repeated in the evening program.

Some you won't, but we are gonna record it all and at some future point in time, as appropriate, we'll release it.

But when I saw that Our graphic designer, Brother Mario from the West Coast, had put together this brochure that had all these 30 people.

And we have a deep appreciation for Coming Out Ministries and Noah's Love Ministries.

Michael Carducci will join us tomorrow evening.

I don't know if he'll make it to the meeting in time.

And then the Coming Out Ministries Board will be joining us and then all of our other guests that are going to be coming in.

You're kind of at home, I hope, here, Ron.

Yes, I've been here a number of times and I've always been blessed.

We've become an international ministry and some of our international associates are here today and they'll introduce themselves.

But I just have to say we've done a lot of work through our interaction, through our prayer lines, and Zoom conferencing, and so forth.

But some of these I'm meeting for the first time in person here at Berrien Springs.

Even though we've been working together for several years, it's nice to finally get together in person.

Yeah, and I just want to add to that, you know, you got Harrison here, you got Daisy here.

Tyeesha Holt

Tyeesha Holt’s Testimony

I have about 19 minutes to get this out and I promise I'll do the best I can.

First of all I just wanted to say thank you so much for inviting me here.

Thank you for believing in my gift, trusting in my assignment.

I'll continue and so I'll go ahead and pray so we can get to the meat of my message.

First Lord, I just want to say thank you.

I trust you, but to know that you trust me is...

Lord in John chapter 15, you tell us that if we follow your commandments, you no longer call us servants, but you call us your friend.

Because a servant doesn't know of his father's business, but a friend you make known to them what what your father has made known to you.

So Lord, I just ask today that every single 1 of us seeks to be your friend, Lord.

Seeks to know the secrets that other people may not know about the kingdom, Lord God.

Our discerning is deepened and our eyes are open wider to see what you see and to think how you think and to feel how you feel.

So Lord God, I just ask today that as we're learning and as we're growing to be more like you, Lord, allow us to be obedient to your word, allow us to not compromise, and allow us to really look into the scriptures, Father God, and understand what you're asking us to do and what you're commanding us to do.

And also know when we do fall short that it is a constant reminder of why we do need you.

So Lord God, I pray that you make every ear sensitive to this story on today because it's not my story, it's your story.

Why you chose to give it to me, I don't know, but I will honor you in every step of the way until I meet you face to face, Lord.

So I pray that you open everyone's eyes and their ears and prepare their hearts to receive a true story that comes back directly from you, the miracle worker.

So Lord we love you and we thank you and all praises and honor go to you and Jesus.

I had a whole opening speech, but I'll save that.

So when I first got saved and got delivered from homosexuality, my first thought was, wow, I'm about to go into the gay clubs, the gay parks, the gay neighborhoods, and to all the gay club owners, everyone that I knew that was in a lifestyle, and go share with them what Jesus done for me.

When you go to these gay clubs and gay parks, and you go and communicate with everyone that you were once in relationship with, what happens when they listen to you, and they want more of me, and they go to church?

And the church is not prepared to show them the way out.

And I said, okay, Lord, that makes sense.

He said, I can't begin to prepare the hearts of the people that are battling in homosexuality.

And I send them to the safest place that they can go, which is the church.

And if the church doesn't know what to do, they'll leave them worse off than they came.

So he said, Taisha, I don't want you to go to the gay clubs and the gay parks.

I don't want you to go to the gay clubs and the gay parks.

I don't want you to go and just reach everyone that you were once in relationship with.

But in my mind, I thought the church was already prepared because I'm a new believer.

But I was going to be obedient and I listened.

And then the laws begin to change where more people that were involved in homosexuality could be married to the same sex in more states.

And so then I asked myself, God, why would you allow this to take place?

And you already know how hard it is for an individual to overcome an obstacle like homosexuality.

Now they have to overcome something but still go through the process of a divorce?

Why would you allow this to become an extra obstacle?

So I called a pastor I was really close with at the time and I asked him, why would God allow this to happen?

And he said something very profound, if God wanted to stop it, he would.

I went in my prayer closet and I sat in silence and I just asked God 1 question, can you tell me why?

And his clear words, If I didn't allow the LGBTQ community to be so loud, would the church still be silent?

Everything that people are seeing and everything that you're witnessing is a distraction, but it's a call for us to become educated and for us to know what to do and how to have the proper approach and the proper response when showing someone the way out.

Because what no longer works anymore is saying it's a sin.

God does not create anyone he doesn't speak to.

Everyone living in sin, they know that it's a sin.

Everyone living in sin, they know that it's a sin, it's an abomination, it's against the will of God.

But when they asked you as a pastor, as a leader in the church, well how can I get out?

And you say, I don't know, I've never dealt with that.

So if you think about everything that we're seeing right now, it is a clear reflection of how we once responded.

If you think about it, homosexuality has been around forever.

And a lot of times now while we're having to sit in settings like this with pastors and teachers and churches that people, majority of the people here are not struggling because we never took the time to understand what homosexuality really is until it was put in our faces and we were asked the question, do you believe it's a sin or not?

Or why are you not accepting this in your church?

And so we are here because if our hearts are prepared and if we know how to respond and react then God will bring his people.

So if you think about it, if you get a young man that walks into your church dressed like a woman, if you get a woman that walks into your church dressed like a man, 1 thing you have to remember, especially as a pastor and a leader, they don't know anything about you, but there was a member of your church that has so much confidence in your teaching and so much confidence in your character that they convinced this person that this was a good place for them to come and receive love and care and comfort and restoration.

So all of us here today, We may be pastors, leaders, teachers, evangelists, but we have to prepare the church to have a good foundation.

Because when a member walks through the doors of your church, the first person they interact with is not the leaders, is not the pastors, it's the congregation.

They are a reflection of the pastor, whether you want them to be or not.

If you have an ugly person that in your church talking down on you, the person that they're talking about the church is going to have that same perception of the church.

If you get a person speaking highly of your church and highly of your character, the person that has never visited your church, they're going to have that same perception of you when they walk through the doors.

And so as leaders and teachers, we know we're going to be judged more strictly.

But it's our job to equip the congregation.

So when that man or woman walks through the doors that are different.

You treat them like they're a person because you got to think about it from their perspective.

If A man dresses like a woman, walks in your church.

Whoever invited them to the church, mentally they started to think about it.

I'm gonna go to the church, but I wonder what they're gonna say about my lifestyle because it's visible.

I wonder what they're gonna say about the heels I wear.

I wonder what they're gonna say about the sin that I'm wearing.

The Price of Freedom

I want to say again to Coming Out Ministries and to Village Church a huge thank you for inviting me to be part of this event.

I will share a little bit here and there throughout this presentation about where I am today.

Some of you probably still may not realize like, oh, I thought he was with Coming out ministries, so why is he like separate from coming out ministries?

I will say this, that God never gives up on you regardless how many This is a monumental evening for me and I think sometimes when I get the opportunity to speak to people who come and listen, and I believe that they have a heart for Jesus, and I know how my heart was touched, I'm reminded of how Coming Out Ministries has seen me.

Michael has long said, you're Jeremiah the weeping prophet.

So once I get past that, it's not so bad.

But my heart, I know how my parents' heart must have broken for me, And my heart breaks for others who don't have that intimate, plugged-in relationship with Jesus.

And sometimes I think that the reason people come to these events in the middle of the week or the middle of the day is that they're seeking that intimacy with Jesus and hoping that somebody will break the seal on that and helping them give them a shot in the arm.

I hope that in some small way You'll get a shot in the arm tonight.

This is a very, very vulnerable position to be in.

It has come with multiple warnings along the way for the last year and a half.

And some of you have been at some of the other meetings, and therefore you may already know what I'm talking about.

All of us coming out ministries and myself somehow have the gift of gab.

I guess every pastor must have that as well.

And then not only that, as Mike has always said, if there's a technical problem, it follows Wayne wherever he goes.

So now it's not, even though I was here 2 years ago dealing with technology, they still have the same system.

So we have to have the program on their computer and on mine both because I still need my notes.

So Hopefully everything will catch up with itself.

In 2009, after having lived for 40 years in the LGBT community.

I had lost all my friends to AIDS, and so it was just me and Jesus.

No, I had 2 parents that had gone through multiple knee pads over the course of 40 years praying for me and probably wondering if God was hearing those prayers.

And not knowing what depths of sin that I was in when I first shared my testimony in front of my parents and we were driving home and my mother said, I have learned some things tonight about you that I didn't even know.

And I said, well, that's probably a good thing, Mom, because it would have broken your heart even more.

There were many times that I should have been dead.

I lived in 12 years of male prostitution, arrested twice, convicted once.

Not street prostitution, but it was an erotic massage business.

I allowed my feelings to dictate my life.

I don't know if any of you might be able to relate to that component, but the deeper you are into sin, when you come to Jesus, just because you got baptized doesn't mean that Satan's gonna leave you alone.

In fact, he might even pester you more now.

And I can tell you, and I think Taisha made reference to this when we were at the ARC Encounter, X-Gay Conference, how many people jump up and go into ministry right from being gay or having a life in the LGBT community.

I did because the church was still silent after the 40 years that I had been gone and I couldn't believe it.

And I said, there's no way they're gonna shut me up.

Because people, they deserve to know that Jesus offers them a way out.

Most all of you know somebody who identifies as LGBT and more than likely you love that person.

But if you don't seek for ways to help them in a redemptive walk you have to be careful that Satan may get that two-for-one special that he was looking for, and that you sympathize more with them and you adjust more to what they're telling you than the promise that's in the Word of God that helps to keep you on that narrow pathway.

There's so much I wanna talk to you about tonight, but I know that I have limited time.

When I see conferences take place, seminars take place on places like Washington Adventist University, where they had the entire weekend with pastors supporting the LGBT agenda, with faculty supporting that, with our tithes and offerings paying for that, and knowing that coming out ministries and Know His Love ministries have to fight to have a voice on any university campus today.

Why wouldn't somebody want to know our story about how Jesus led us back rather than how to just accept somebody the way they are and leave them the way they are?

And so after secretly attending church for 3 months, I called my parents and I said I'm being rebaptized.

And that was on their 67th wedding anniversary.

They lived to celebrate 75 years of marriage.

I was still dying my premature gray hair, so this was me on my baptism day.

And I received a new identity in Jesus Christ.

It would take me a few months to find out what that identity was.

I couldn't figure out who I was until I was at a conference in 2009 with Ron Woolsey, who let me know that I was a new creation in Christ.

And I said, oh I like that identity, I don't like this identity that you're still gay and being a gay Christian, That doesn't make any sense to me.

Baptism was my declaration to follow Jesus, but it didn't erase the years and the damage of sin that I had on my life.

I was just talking to Jay Cameron this morning in depth about this and I said, you know, I I told him about my my Exit from coming out ministries and I said, you know, I with some people it's interesting you know you you may know that person who had been smoking all their life and they prayed intently to God and said please remove this and they said oh even when a cigarette is lit I'm not tempted I'm you know it's totally gone poof you know overnight and yet that didn't happen to me with same-sex attraction I still fight same-sex attraction today and you know, the battle is not over but the battle belongs to God Jesus was tempted all the way to the cross, and he paid for your failures, and he's not going to give up on you, and he's not going to give up on me.

For anyone with a compromised past, the war has just been declared and Satan is going to try to win you back.

And that's the battle that we're in and that's why and that's prevalent in our churches that we really don't talk about the sin issue.

We often leave people in their sin instead of helping them out of their sin.

I jumped immediately into ministry as I shared with you here.

I found that there was no evangelistic approach to somebody who identified as LGBT.

I have often said in my presentations today about the evangelist that does the week-long series about redemption from homosexuality that Helps us understand that we're all level at the foot of the cross That we would come together and that we would support 1 another.

I just can't remember the guy's name Can somebody help remind me who that is Anybody You know, I mean we do all these prophecy seminars that go on for months, sometimes a couple of months, but this is just that 1 week program that he does that helps the LGBT community come and find Jesus, which is a prominent SDA pastor.

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