I was no longer like a little bird, I was a colt, all legs, neck and arms.  And skinny?  Skinny does not quite cover it.  I wall all bones, white flesh, freckles and hair, a LOT of hair,  It seemed that my appendages grew as rapidly as my shining glory.  My mother had a difficult time fitting me with tights as they were never long enough and bagged ambarassingly around the ankles due to my thinness.  Most days you could find the crotch of my tights hovering somewhere around my knobby knees.  I would pull and pull on the waistband of those tights, but somehow, that crotch remained.  There was so much open air between the waistband and crotch that I could have transported an entire  Mariachi Band in that sucker.

Life was grand if it weren't for the fact that my cousin Kim had received the Holy Ghost before me.  Nine months older than me, we were more like sisters than cousins, and those few months always seemed to give her a leg up on me.  I would sway back and forth at the altar, eyes squeezed shut, imagining abused puppies just to get a tear to roll down my cheek.  And when I was actually really and truly under the power of the Holy Ghost, well, I capitalized on those stammering lips.
Boy I tell you I stammered the heck outta those puppies, but no matter how hard I tried, I could not speak with tongues.  Kim was so proud of herself that she had received the Holy Ghost and I was just sure that she looked down on me as some sort of heathen.  Of course, I made sure that I was baptized on the same night as her, no way was she gonna get ahead of me in that department.  As I came up out of the cold water, teeth chattering I prayed that somehow, someway, a few foreign words would escape my lips.

The thug life was my destiny I assumed.  I told myself that I would NEVER be able to "yield' to the Holy Ghost properly.  What did that mean anyway?  The sisters in the church, including my "fully saved" cousin Kim would gather around me, holding my arms up, alternately telling me to "hang on!  Let go"!  And of course, yield.  I was so confused, which one should I do???  I was a pitiful mess, sure that I would most certainly split the pit if the trumpet sounded before I could receive the Holy Ghost.  Then came camp at Camp Sylvester.

I could take you to the place where I was sitting when the camp evangelist gave the altar call asking for those who wished to receive the Holy Ghost to come forward.  I went forward once again, lacking faith.  I raised my hands as the tears begin to flow as my friends gathered around me.  After a long while they all dispersed and I stood there with stammering lips determined to speak with tongues.  Suddenly, I felt a presence beside me and heard the voice of Reverend James Prather speak into my ear, "the devil is a liar".  At that very moment it was as if something broke within me and I immediately began to speak with tongues and rejoice.  I was so elated and could not wait to tell my friends and my mother!! 

Unfortunately the lure of worldly music and dancing plagued me as well as my cousin Kim.  However, we found a scriptural way to enable us to dance to the Bee Gee's without guilt and conviction........................