I’m very thankful to know the Lord as well as I do. I am glad for the distance he has brought me, though I still have much to learn and grow in the Lord. Thank God for the seed planted in my Heart and its growth.

The one desire I had in coming to RBI is to learn how to use the Soul Winning script. I down loaded some before coming to RBI and won my first soul in a few hundred feet from where I lived. That was good, but I really wanted to be under some one that had experience soul winning, WOW! Did I ever come to the right place! I was told simply to read it. Most people will listen. The harvest is truly ripe. By using the phrase “harvest is ripe” indicates a ripening time and in my own heart hope it indicates that those that have rejected you or the word of God, or the Soul Winning script will someday ripen to accept the very gift of life they need. The seed sown will produce many more Christians. I remember the sermons about how far reaching your Christian life can reach for generation to generation.  There are examples in the Bible of characters passing on the Gospel from generation to generation, parents to children and on and on. Praise God we have great privilege and responsibility to keep the faith. In verse 17 the Bible tells of how many prophets and righteous men, upright and in right standing with God yearned to see what we see and hear what we hear, but did not! I thank God for his love toward us for his plan of salvation and going through with it. Praise God! Hallelujah! I just found out Hallelujah means a thousand praises to God, so I say “Hallelujah” to the King of Kings!

–Eugene

Well these past few weeks, since I have been here at RSW, have been bitter sweet. God has really been speaking to me and changing how I think. He has done quite a bit of pruning and it is not very pleasant during the process. However, I have felt His presence so strongly, like I haven’t in a while. My dad is a pastor so I have been taught right and raised under the anointing and the power and presence of God. But before I came here I was at a place of familiarity and comfort. Well, at least I thought it was. But the whole time I was in that stage, I didn’t have peace.

I was not living a holy lifestyle. I was in a relationship that wasn’t of God. I knew unless God got a hold of him that it wouldn’t last from the beginning. But of course that didn’t stop me from entering into it. So, I knew that when Virginia told me about the scholarship I had to come. Otherwise I would probably stay in the rut I was in forever. Honestly, this has been a very difficult time for me, but I am trusting in God completely. I left, not only my fiance, but my well paying job and the life I had built in KY. But that is just it. It was the life I had built for myself, not the one that God has for me.

So I am already learning to surrender it ALL to God. I am having to learn to trust Him with everything and stop trying to do everything myself. I feel free and clean and at peace with being here and being led into the destiny God has for me. It is painful right now, but I know God’s healing comes after His pruning. I can’t wait to see where God has taken me at the end of this year…..

I came to The River church last year febuary,and stated RBI in August 2010. Before coming here I had been a believer for almost ten years  but had never experinced anything like what I saw in the River. The first was the soul winning script that made easy for me to lead people to the lord something I have struggled with for so long. the greatest day of my life was the RBI revival of 2010.I got touch and laugh like a mad woman , what you have to understand is that before I came here  I was a believer but bound Like lazarus when he came out of the grave.I was bound with fear self pity confussion rejection just to name a few.

But August 23rd 2010 something happened that turn my whole life around.Pastor Rodney called me out of the crowd and lay his hands on me and i started laughing, because I had hardly laughed before, my rips started kracking up I laugh for 24 hours.I got home at almost midnight and my land lady was still awake when I walked in she looked at me and screamed and i was wondering what had happened to her so I ask her and she said immediately I walked in she saw light on my fore head and she shouted I have joy and she started laughing  before I know she was speaking in tongues ,You have to Understand that my Landlady is a stuanch catholic and will even hardlly luagh I was amazed with what I was seeing but did not have the time to figure it out because I was over whelmmed with joy so we both laugh our heads off till 1 AM.

Then I managed to go to bed but even still  I was laughing ,my son immediately woke up and came to me and ask mum do you have joy? I said yes. He asked  do you know you have ben praying for this joy for so long ? I said yes. He got up took anionting oil pour it on my head and said Lord I pray this joy thay you have given my mum will never leave her again in Jesus name.I finally went to sleep laughing and the next day I felt like hocking everybody and telling them how much I love them and how Good the Lord is.

It is only when I got to bible school that I understood what happen. The anionting is transfarable. Remember i never touched my landlady she just looked at me and couhgt the joy. My whole life has never been the same since that day and it is what gave me the strenght to go through my first year of RBI.

The RBI Revival for this year was also touching to me because the lord dealt with me internally.He took out so many things in my life and expanded me in my inside which I cannot explain all. I am so Thankfull to Pastor Rodney and Adonica Haword Browne to have seen beyond the natrural eyes of man and granted me a scholarship that has not only added a meaning to my life but has change my whole destinty for eternity…..

How has my life changed in the past few weeks since coming to RBI, in 300 words? When I first heard the assignment I figured it would be easy. That turned out to be wrong. The problem with the question is that as I reflected on the past three weeks I didn’t feel anything extraordinary had taken place. Actually, after being here for the last three weeks I began to doubt whether or not I was right for RBI. I sat in the church watching people fall under the power of the Holy Ghost, yet I felt nothing. Despite prayer and hands from the Pastor, I lacked the “fire” that so many others seemed to automatically have.

My journey to RBI started on a hospital bed after a half month battle with a dangerous infection. I was awaken from a medicated sleep to find my TV on channel 2. Two things were unusual about my awakening. One, it was 1:30 A.M. when my monitor’s alarm woke me. However, there was no reason for my monitor to go off. Second and more importantly, I fell asleep praying, asking God to lead me to a place where I could grow.

Without going into my complete testimony, my whole journey to this point has been amazing but the past few weeks have been challenging. It hasn’t been very long but I feel like I’ve lost something again and when I see everyone at RBI so anointed I began to wonder if I had sinned and lost my way. It wasn’t till tonight that I remembered that faith is a beautiful thing. The hardest thing about faith is that when we want the answers the quickest it seems to be the time that God is expecting us to press in and believe. I realized that in the last few weeks that I have gone under construction. Sometimes when you’re building the foundation you don’t know how awesome the structure is going to look when it’s done; only that it’s going to be awesome.

If I had to summarize what I’ve experienced in the last few weeks then it would be, that during construction sometimes a moment of pause helps you realize that God is working all of the time….David R.

To God be all the glory. I am very grateful as well as thankful that I am in such a spirit filled Bible Institution. Since I have been at the River School of Worship I’m beginning to understand about the spiritual realm, and how it affects our daily lives. As Ephesians 6:12 states, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places”.

On August 22, 2011 Pastor Rodney gave us the five principles that we will need to accomplish are goals at RSW or RBI. I really respect him highly for letting us know what is important and how to reach as well as obtain these goals. The goals include:

Integrity – The state or quality of being ethically sound, morally well adjusted.

Humility – A Christian characteristic. It is a mental attitude of lowliness the opposite of pride.

Morality – Is a sense of behavioral conduct that differentiates intention, decisions and actions between those that are good or bad.

Prayer Life – Spending time with God. Developing a relationship with him.

Accountability – Mans responsibility to God.

Since I have been a part of RSW the Lord has touched my life. I have a desire to read Gods word and really get to know him. I want to be all that he wants me to be. I believe with all my heart that the Lord will heal me within my physical body and I am ready.  I should have been dead but he kept me, and I know that God is a healer. As Isaiah 53:5 states, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

I feel within my heart that all of the Pastors are knowledgeable and awesome; and I am so ever grateful that I was chosen to be a part of the River School of Worship. May God continue to send down his fire….Marlena B.

In April of this year I was watching the Great Awaking broadcast through my computer at home in Buffalo N.Y.  It was all about Bible school and people giving testimonies of bible school.  I felt a stirring and than from within came, “You need to go to bible school”.  I thought this is crazy there were so many obstacles.  My husband did not watch that evening, so I decided not to say anything.  Well the next day after working outside all day.  My husband comes in very serious and with urgency to tell me that he needs to talk to me.  Well I thought something happened and something did.  He told me how all day the Lord was speaking to him about going to Bible school.  Well I just started laughing.  He was looking at me shocked with wonder at why I was laughing so hard and then I told him what happened the night before.  The Lord has provided everything that we needed to make the transition to Florida.  He provided people for our ministry and businesses, even someone to rent our house and a place to live here in Florida that accepts all three of our dogs and a Christian School for our son.

So many things have happened since the first week of school revival.  I feel like I’ve been here longer than 3 weeks.  I came to Florida with a broken heart.  It first started with our baby going to be with the Lord.  Then came the blow that I know was meant to take me out since the first did not.

We believed that God will take care for our living in Tampa. And it happened. First place we lived God provided everything, including all payments on time! After 10 month God moved us to new place, where we don’t need to pay at all plus we have almost own swimming pool and beautiful view! And I have to add, that for our living in Tampa we have bought only can opener and something like that from Dollar tree. Everything we needed was prepared for us!

We are givers. But I am thankful to my Lord and the River Church for teaching me to live not from my income but from my giving. Through this time we have sown different kind of things and resources which God gave us. It is so awesome to see how He is taking care for our needs! We live from giving and it works!

Many Bible schools can teach people memorize Bible verses but here in RBI I have learned to live them! (Psalm 23:1)The Lord, King of Kings and Lord of Lords; my Creator, my Savior, my Teacher and best Friend is my shepherd; I shall not want! And as Pastor Eric says: Get it – live it – Give it!

Since I’ve been here at RBI, God has touched and changed my life in many different ways. I have learned how to trust the Word of God like never before. My faith has grown stronger and I continually see the Word being activated in me and through me. I have learned to see who I am in Christ and the authority He has given to me. I know that I am what the Word says I am, I have what the Word says I have. I am learning to take hold of the scripture and claim it.

During the last few weeks God has supernaturally provided for me on many occasions. I have learned to sow in faith and I have seen amazing harvests. People will bless me unexpectedly with many needed items and even some random blessings that I want but don’t need.

God has given me a strong passion for soul wining and a heart for the lost. All I want to do is lead people to the Lord and spread the gospel anywhere and everywhere. I used to be timid about sharing the gospel, but now I have no fear at all. God has given me boldness and a fire for soul winning.  I have seen people healed, transformed, and baptized in the Holy Spirit. I’m learning to simply yield to the Holy Spirit and let God work through me to touch other people.

The lord has been so good it’s been three weeks in the revival. God has been touching and revealing things to me. I had a stomach problem so bad that I had to go to the doctors. I had my mother, friends, and mentor praying for me. Because I could not keep my food in my stomach. So one day in service the lord put in my heart to take flaxseed. So when I did my stomach immediately cleared up. I tell you what you have to trust the Holy Spirit that lives within you. He will not let you down. God has been showing me about getting right in the area of my finances. He’s been taking me from glory to glory. The Holy Spirit is the best teacher you can ever have. He does not condemn, he is understanding, and gentle.

You can trust him with your life. He wants you to go from glory to glory. I’m a second year student and I tell you that these three weeks have been more powerful then the whole 1st year of RBI for me. God is really doing something big. In these times that were in it is crucial that you allow God to do the work in you. The more he can do in you, the more he can do through you. So God has been taking things out of my life that I did know needed to be taking out of my life. Let God do the work, he knows what he is doing the meetings have been great, you have to stay teachable and not have an offence. Because it is very easy to get offensive but you just have to allow the Holy Spirit to do the work in you. We need to be effective outside of the four walls of the church. Jesus is so soon to come back, so let God do the work. Amen……David R.

Working in the call center is such a blessing! I had so many calls the other night. I had a woman who is ninety-two call in and want the fire and the soul winning script to go win souls. Wow, that is awesome. Another woman called and wanted prayer for healing for her eyes because they are deteriorating and she can’t read the soul winning script to go out and win souls.

She was crying, she wants so desperately to do it. Now that is hungry for souls!  If only everyone thought like that then the whole world would hear the Gospel. I had one woman call with a praise report about her granddaughter was healed and got out of the hospital after she called the prayer line and someone prayed for her.

Praise God! A lot of people calling in for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues before they hang up and then there are some who got to get out of there heads and stop thinking so much because God filled them. It is so awesome to talk to people from all over the world and be used by God. When I was helping out in the room after the alter call this little boy was waiting there on the chair for his mama.

I was talking to him about the Holy Spirit and asked him if he wanted to be filled, he said yes so I prayed for him to be filled and he had tears running down his precious little cheeks. The Lord was touching Him. Praise God.

We are living in the state of shaking the nations.

This Tuesday night I had the privilege to lead praise and worship during the Great Awakening. It was an amazing time of praising the King of Kings.

It has been a week of a great hunger for the presence of God and for his fire. It’s easy to tell when the congregation that you lead before the throne of God, are hungry and thirsty for the presence of God to fall. All hearts are reaching out and pressing in deeper into his presence.

This night God’s presence was tangible in the sanctuary and it was preparing peoples hearts to receive something more powerful than ever before. It was a real praise party and people got healed and set free from bondages while worshiping God.

Right now we are living in the state of shaking the nations. For God to be able to shake all nations and this world he starts in small places were he can find people who are hungry for him and who will obey his commandments. He starts in a church just like at The River at Tampa Bay Church with shaking people’s lives so that they never will be the same again. People get touched and shaken to go out and be the messengers of the fire of God to shake the rest of this world. A week like this during the Great Awakening proves that God is about to do something greater than man has ever seen. In a time like this when the hunger for God is dominating people’s lives, God is starting an explosion of the fire of God to shake the nations of this world. -Sara B