Teena Myers is the president of Southern Christian Writers, author of Faith's Mystery, and co‑host of Voices of Inspiration, aired twice weekly on Christian Mix 106.

scwguild.com

teenamyers.com

facebook.com/scwguild/

Welcome to 12 Minute Converse with Jesus Believers.

God chose first to have a conversation with us, His creation. Our prayer is

that this listening space brings growth and transforms your life forever.

Praise God for you, Tina. What part of the world are you in today?

I am in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Were you always part of New Orleans or did you move there eventually?

I suppose you could call me a native now. My family moved down here in 1970.

Tell me about Southern Christian Writers and what goes on there, please.

Southern Christian Writers is a non-profit to help primarily Christian writers, though

anybody can join us as long as their writing is family friendly. And we did have a gentleman that

joined us who wasn't really into the Christian thing, but after he had been with us about a

year or so, he went back to church, which was great. That's amazing. Ministry right there.

And that's why I leave the door open. You don't have to be a Christian

to attend the meetings and all the meetings are free.

How long has Southern Christian Writers been in existence?

It started in 2018. I had been writing a blog for the local newspaper. It was a website,

nola.com, and that came to an end. And I didn't know what I was going to do next.

But it just kind of fell in my lap. I mean, things just, you know, I had a woman who

walks in the office of a prophet, and she told me that God had something for me,

and it would open soon. Well, soon was about one year to the date that she told me that,

that door just opened for me to start a writers group on the West Bank. So I did a test run,

because I didn't want to invest a lot of time in something if there was an interest.

Have you seen the constant appearance of you being the person who

brings other people together of different faiths?

I'm very easygoing. I don't judge the way people worship God. To me, I feel like that is

between them and God.

Before you were a teen, did you find yourself surrounded by various types of people?

No, not really.

And then as a teenager?

My experience of coming to God, the only thing my mother had ever brought us to

was the Catholic Church. And when we came back to America, she just stopped attending. In Germany,

the Mass was done in Latin, so it's kind of hard to learn anything sitting in a Latin service.

Is it the connection with Jesus that then opens you up to making this?

What do you think is responsible for that?

Well, what was responsible for that was a book. The only testimony I got about Jesus,

except from the Latin in the Catholic Church, was through a book called The Cross and the

Switchblade by David Wilkerson. And I read that book, and there was just something about that

book, and I didn't know what it was, but I just knew there was something different.

And what it was, was the Spirit of God in the story, the anointing on that story,

which I learned many years later. It was a book about a minister who ministered to drug addicts.

And when we moved to New Orleans, I got involved in the drug culture. But I didn't like it,

and I didn't want to be in it, and I really couldn't find a way out of it,

because the people I was hanging around with, if you didn't take drugs, they didn't want to have

anything to do with you. But it was getting serious. People were wanting me to shoot up

and things like that, and I didn't want to do that. So I went to a rock concert, and the band

was playing, Jesus is just all right with you. Jesus is just all right with me. And I prayed

and said, God, help me. I don't want to do this anymore. And he did.

So Jesus met you.

Yeah, because one of my friends had brought me to what she called a Jesus rally. And it was a

little place in old Algiers. And she enticed me by saying, Tina, there'll be a lot of good looking

guys there. And I'm thinking, Oh, good looking guys. I mean, Jesus, I wouldn't even know what's

Jesus, you know. And so I went and it turned out to be just me and her at this rally.

Wow.

And I'm looking around a little miffed, you know, about where's the good looking guys?

Well, a young man came and he preached from a music stand. It wasn't really in a church.

It looked more like a house that the living room furniture had been cleared out. And it was just

had some chairs and he had a music stand that he preached from. And then he invited people to pray

to receive Jesus after. So I did it just because my friend elbowed me and said, I did it. You

should do it too. So I said, Okay, let's do it. And then we can go home. While I'm praying, I'm

not expecting anything. I'm not looking for anything. While I prayed, I felt an explosion of

joy within me. And it kind of shocked me. I wasn't expecting anything to happen.

And I left that meeting. I didn't really understand what had happened to me. And I did not

associate the God that revealed himself to me with church. And it was like that for about six

months, where it was just me, and this presence. And every time I would cry at night, I would

feel that presence in my room, and I would start laughing and I would, and it was so intense,

I would say you got to stop, I can't contain it. But I used to pray, where can I find people like

me? Because I knew there had to be other people like me somewhere never thought walk into a

church. In fact, I prayed that walking in front of a church, where can I find people like me, Lord?

And then a friend said, Do you want to go to church Sunday? And I said, Sure, why not?

The moment I stepped in the door of that church, I knew these people knew God like I did.

Yeah, it's amazing how God works. He takes what you have, and then converts it into something

that multiplies and then helps others. It's just beautiful. If you're listening to this

conversation five years from today, Tina, what's the message you'd leave for future you?

I think the message I would leave is that whatever happens to you that you may not understand,

there is a purpose and a plan for it. I love that. Is there a scripture verse

that comes to mind when you said that? Yeah, blessed is she that believed for there

shall be a performance of those things that were told her from the Lord. I was reading the Bible

one day, that verse, it was like it just spoke to me. And then about 10 years later, I'm like,

well, ain't nothing happened that you told me. Okay. And I was talking to my husband. I said,

you know, I wish he would just do I would just wish he would do it. I just wish he would do it.

And I got in my car and I'm driving down the road. And this was before everybody had a cell phone

with a camera in it. I was passing a church and there was this sign out in front of that church

that I had passed many times with things like crawfish boil, you know, different things going

on in the church. But when I passed it that time, it said, woman, you have great faith,

what you wish will come to pass. Oh, my. Tina, this has been a great pleasure.

I appreciate you. Amazing audience if you're listening and you want to get to learn more

about Tina, of course, links in the show notes. Of course, I can cover everything in 12 minutes.

What an amazing story. I appreciate you tremendously. A pleasure. I treasure.

Thank you for being on what is inspired by 12 minute convos.