Please help Selena and me in this serious time.

This is one of the hardest things that we have had to do in our 37 years of marriage, and to be honest, very humbling. In our 36 years of full-time ministry, Selena and I have made an effort to follow what we have believed was a calling from the Lord. I have been involved in music ministry since I was 10 years old, and in our ministry, I have performed concerts in churches, fairs, festivals, etc. During these years, we have also been involved in the Gospel ministry as well. Selena and I are both ordained ministers and have held revivals and services in churches throughout our ministry. While our 3 daughters were children, we held Kid’s Crusades, where Selena portrayed "Red Ruby the Christian Country Cowgirl" and I was her sidekick "Cowboy Chuck" all across the Southeastern United States, seeing hundreds of children touched by the hand of the Lord. For the last 23 years, we have pastored a Home Church in the living room of our home every Thursday night. It is a small group of folks, but it has filled a need in our local community, and we have been honored to serve. Selena and I have also served on the Missions Field to 42 countries, some of them multiple times. All in all, we have seen great success in what we felt God called us to do.

When COVID hit our planet, things began to change. Of course, during the shutdown, we all were sequestered and could not go as we normally would have, but as time passed and the pandemic subsided, some things seemed to change, and not in a good way. In the beginning after the shutdown, churches were reluctant to have guests in because their finances were obviously down because of their churches not functioning in a normal manner. Several other factors came into play about that same time. Many, if not most, churches stopped having Sunday night services. This takes away the opportunity to minister and be given a love offering for our ministry. The days of having Friday and Saturday night Gospel Singings have passed, so Sunday mornings are really the only opportunities we have to go and minister in churches. Herein lies the problem: it has become nearly impossible to book services on Sunday morning because of several factors. Pastors have really only one service per week to deliver their message to their congregations. Most churches now have a praise and worship team and band, so it has caused it to be almost impossible to go and do what we do. Being full-time in the ministry, this is our only income aside from a part-time job Selena took on some time back with the Piedmont Rape Crisis Center as a Community Advocate. Just over a month ago, they cut her hours to only 10 hours a week because of loss of funding. We have never made a set price to go to a church to minister. We have tried to go for a love offering and a hotel room if possible. We only charge a set fee if the venue is selling tickets. All of this being said, we make our living on the road. Over the past 6 months, we have had a total of 6 services. Frankly, this has just kept the utilities on, gas in the car, and food on the table. The only debt we have is our house payment. Because we know we are in full-time ministry, we pay cash for everything we buy. We don't buy anything on credit; if we can’t pay cash for it, we don't buy it. This includes our vehicles as well.

We have come to a place now where we are in a very bad place! We have fallen behind on our mortgage payments. Although we have been in constant contact, they would not accept ANY partial payments, and just a couple of weeks ago, we received a letter from lawyers informing us that our mortgage was in foreclosure. I immediately contacted the mortgage company, and they have given me until April 18th to come up with just over $10,000.00 to bring it out of foreclosure and set us back in good status. Frankly, I have sold so many of my guitars and equipment that I am down to what I use to perform with, so there is not much left to sell to raise it. Our parents are in declining health, so they can’t be of help. We don’t owe very much on our home that we have lived in now for 24 years, but our equity is very large, and if we lose our home, we not only lose our house but several hundred thousand dollars of our investment will vanish. I am doing everything I can to gather funds, and I am reluctantly reaching out here as well to ask if you would pray and ask God for direction on helping us stay in our home. Our home is where we have raised our girls, but it is also our Church as well, hosting our Thursday night weekly services. Any gift will be appreciated, and Selena and I pray that God will bless you and bring the harvest of blessings into your life that you need the most! Please pray for us for peace, freedom from fear, and that provision will come. I also ask that you pray that God will give us wisdom in how to proceed in ministry and life going forward so we will avoid this situation ever again. Please remember, your gift is tax deductible. Thank you!