S.H.A.P.E. Assessment Results

Thank you Kimberly Wimbush for taking the SHAPE Assessment. We encourage you to meet with a Church Leader that you respect, to go over your results, so that they can help you discover a place to serve in the church and/or community, and also to help you fine-tune your 5 Main Focuses/Priorities listed at the bottom of this email under the ‘Wrapping it up’ section. May God Bless You!

[S]piritual Gifts

Here is how your spiritual gifts scored:

96%

93%

93%

93%

90%

93%

87%

71%

100%

To see descriptions on the Spiritual Gifts and how you can use them to further Christ’s Kingdom on earth, visit this link.

This gift’s evident in my life in the following ways:
I have been an effective teacher in the church. Many students have come to me for more information and I am often consultation for biblical guidance in life matters. I believe the word can be explained from Genesis to Revelation to be application to life today. I also was raised in the Lord by a Word teacher and Preacher. The greatest lesson I learned from her as a teacher was how she lived by the Word without question. Though I am by no means perfect, I don’t want my living to be in vain. I am therefore always first a student of the Word.

This gift’s evident in my life in the following ways:
Administration in my opinion is not solely the office of administration and applicable functions. Administration is operating by the Word of God in application to all the functions of the church (body of Christ), and the church (organization). Jesus Christ is the head of the church yet in John 13:8 he made it clear that we are to serve even as administrators in the church. It takes humility to be an effective administrator in the “church.”

This gift’s evident in my life in the following ways:
I am gifted in that I can capture the attention of a group and get them to open their minds and heart to want to change towards living for Christ. I am gifted to help people change or want to change.

[H]eart

1. Singing Praises unto the Lord!
Singing unto the Lord is a ministry that first encourages me and gets me through my tough times. Singing unto the Lord allows me to enter into worship no matter where I am or how many people are around. I can find a place of worship singing silently. In worship and/or praise singing (praises, hymns and worship) is……….too hard to put in a few words.

2. Helping people. I have a heart to help youth. Whether teaching them how to live holy or how to live wholesome, I am gifted to help our youth become. I also am gifted to skills to help youth, families and seniors with needs. When I am working in this capacity, I like to do so in manner that the Lord used Philip with the Eunich: (in and out without a trace–to God be the glory, honor and praise) though it does not always work that way. Nonetheless, TO GOD BE THE GLORY!

3. I am a realtor. I am a realtor because I oppose gentrification, but more importantly, I like to help people who are eligible to purchase a home, but don’t know they are, become home owners. To this end, I do free credit repair and have presented in seminars on the subject.

Youth. My first calling to youth ministry was at the age of 15 when the CME Church had prepared me to become an ordained youth minister. I am a great youth counselor because I am a great listener. From my mother ( who I emulate in much of what I do for others) I learned that every young person has potential and capabilities and those skills should be developed. To this end I like working with all types of youth but love to work with the challenged youth a little more. In ministry, the Lord has purposed for me to work with youth transitioning from foster care to help equipped them to have finances, education and healthy living environments (not necessarily in that order).

Only two concerns I ever have in church are:
(1) If the preaching/teaching does not align with God’s Word.
(2) If the first priority of the church is NOT winning souls to Christ.

Homelessness
Poverty/hunger
At-risk children

[A]bilities

AAS in Accounting with 20 years experience. I am an IRS registered tax accountant (30 years)
Licensed realtor: Maryland & Virginia with 16 years experience
BS in Criminal Justice and working on an MSW
I have been an advisor and counselor for almost 30 years

Legal Administrative Assistant and Office manager for a law firm
Typesetter
Client service administrator for a Fortune 500 company 10 years
Taxicab driver cumulative 3 years.

I am proficient in use of most office software and learn quickly how to use most software.
I can read and write Spanish. Not fluent speaking because I lack real life conversation use and practice.
I am a senior advocate and help them secure benefits or other assistance.
I sing.
I am gifted with special needs kids.

I have been a Sunday School teacher of teens and adults.
I have taught seminars of the process for purchasing residential real estate.
I have prepared a seminar for helping families with wills/estates and planned burial processes.

I am willing to work where I am most needed most of the time.

[P]ersonality

50-50 Extrovert/Reserved

High Risk

50-50 Peace Maker/Challenger

People Driven

50-50 Follower/Leader

50-50 Routine/Variety

Your Primary was ‘The Retriever’, with your Secondary coming in as ‘The Beaver’, and here are the descriptions of your Personalities, and how they can be used for God

Golden Retriever- Good at making friends. Very loyal. Retriever personalities do not like big changes. They look for security. Can be very sensitive. Very caring. Has deep relationships, but usually only a couple of close friends. Wants to be loved by everyone. Looks for appreciation. Works best in a limited situation with a steady work pattern.

Strength: Accommodating, calm, affirming
Weakness: Indecisive, indifferent, unable to express emotional, too soft on other people
Limitation: Seeing the need to be more assertive, holding others accountable

Beaver- Organized. Beavers think that there is a right way to do everything and they want to do it exactly that way. Beaver personalities are very creative. They desire to solve everything. Desire to take their time and do it right. Beavers do not like sudden changes. They need reassurance.

Strength: High standards, order, respect
Weakness: Unrealistic expectations of self & others, too perfect.
Limitation: Seeing the optimistic side of things, expressing flexibility

[E]xperience

Walter Hawkins: Love Alive II. Song: “I love the Lord” I heard God calling me through this song which I would play over and again in tears and did not know why. I became a junior missionary at 13 in my home/family’s CME church. I was drawn to Holiness at age 13, started visiting an Holiness church at 14, attended an Holiness church at age 17 and received the gift of the Holy Spirit evidenced by speaking with tongues within 4 months. Was raised in the Lord by a Word Pastor.

Word of Faith, Riverdale, MD. (7 years, 2008-2015). Licensed Aspiring Minister, VP of the Women’s Department, Advising minister to the Youth Department. Member of the Praise and Worship Team. Member of the Church Choir. Adult and Youth Sunday School Teacher.

Repentance by Faith, Manassas, VA. (26 years, 1982-2008). President of the Missionary Dept. President of the Youth Department. Usher. Member of several Choirs. Youth Sunday School Teacher.

Triedstone FBH Church, Washington, DC (1981-1982) did not join but received the Holy Spirit at this church..

St. Matthews CME Church (1964-1981). Junior Missionary, Youth Choir member and declined to be an ordained youth minister offered at the Regional youth camp.

Pastor Jalorce M. Clark (deceased) pastor/overseer 26 years and Church Mother, Margaret Middleton (deceased – time with 10 years). When I was very young in the Lord, they invited me to live (rent) a room from a small boarding home the church owned. They said they were being led by God to do this. At first it was difficult because I felt I was being singled out for those two “out of date” women to keep me down. I was hand-picked by God to be raised in the Lord, through the Word of God, by two living epistles. At the end of Mother Middleton’s life (she died from cancer), I realized that I was chosen, not to be weighed-down by these two but to be raised up in the Lord. There is nothing about that experience that I would do differently because even in the beginning when I somewhat “kicked at the bit,” it was working for my good.

Missionary night service on a Wednesday night: the pastor’s daughter was scheduled to undergo major surgery for problems with her back. We formed a prayer circle to pray for her physical healing. At this time, I had been suffering, for 3 weeks, with a pulled muscle in my chest (feels like an elephant is sitting on your chest and any time I raised my arm above shoulder length was brutal). We held hands and at the end of the prayer, we praised and worshiped. There was hands clapping and arms being raised. It was a very spiritual moment and I was in the moment when I realized that my arms were raised and without pain. That day I learned of God’s healing power and my faith grew. When I am struggling with ailments that just won’t quit, I remember that my God is a healer.

I learned patience. For 30 months (2.5 years), I was under the care of a gastroenterologist. At the beginning of that care, it was discovered that I had a growth on my stomach. I had an endoscopy every 6 months to monitor the growth once it was determined that is was benign. In the meantime I would have a number of issues with my stomach inclusive of it bloating in a moments notice (as if I went from being 2 months to 6 months pregnant). On the after the 5th endoscopy (2.5 yr point), the growth turned puke green. It was still benign but had grown and posed a danger of eruption. I was struggling asking God why my prayers were not being answered. As stated above, I believed in His healing because I had experienced a miraculous one. But at this point in my life, every “need” I prayed for was always at the 23rd hour with minutes left on the clock before it was too late. I was resigning myself that I would have to have this surgery. But I still had a little mustard seed faith and asked for prayer. The next week, I had to have another endoscopy so the surgeon could “ink blot” the location of the mass on the exterior of my skin to be removed (I believe the next day). When I came from under the anesthesia (which for me was 2 times as long for most), the surgeon was waiting to see me (usually long gone) so I was very concerned. He had laid out all of the pictures from the 5 endoscopes showing the progression of the mass. Then he took the picture of the endoscopy from that day and showed it to me. I had a healthy stomach with no scars and no sign that I had ever had a growth. Like now when I right this, I recognized the hand of my God and was fighting back tears. I understood then that “He may not come when we want Him, but He is always on time.” The doctor on the other hand wanting answers because in his 20 years he had never seen anything like this. I asked if he was Jewish and he was. I told him that I served His God and that is where he would find is answer. He still tried to play the “I’m a man of science card but he acknowledge THE Source of my healing was possible. I learned then to wait on the Lord. For a person who always have a plan to resolve problems that meant putting aside my mental “fixit” kit, praying and waiting on God for the answer even when it looks like it is going to be late when God shows up. I should say, it was the beginning of my learning patience as I failed the patience test a few times along this journey since then.

I was granted a 95% scholarship to attend Cromwell Academy in Washington, DC (the elite private high school attended by children of US Presidents). My mother would not let me attend and told the principle that I did not deserve to go. She told me it was because I was the reason my brother had dropped out of high school because I made him look bad to his teachers. My brother complained that our mutual teachers always compared the two of us and that was true. However, in the first quarter of my 8th grade, his 9th, I asked them to stop because it was causing me problems at home and I never gave them cause of encouragement to do it in the first place. He was failing because he was cutting and not because he could not do the work. This was also when I was being drawn to the Lord and church was becoming my heart. I was suppose to question why my relationship with my mother and brother was spiraling down hill if God was so good. I didn’t. It pushed me even closer to God but I rebelled against my mother because she should have known better if she knew me at all. Until that time, I was often considered her little “mini me” except by her. My mother knew, I was her mother’s mini me (in short I strived to always try to do and say the right things from my early youth and would call an adult on the carpet for lie on the spot). I spent my teen years angry at my mother and doing all in my power to be her total opposite. I strayed away from my faith walk though it was done undercover. I also developed a bad personal characteristic: if anyone falsely accused me of doing or saying anything, I would snap on them. Once I became an adult, I referred to it as my little red button. I did not realize the source of that manifestation in my character until my brother was trying to calm me down when my mother and I were in a disagreement. I can’t remember what it was about but I remember having a tearful voice and stating to my brother that I was sick of being accused of things he had done, especially then because I had not lived with my mom for almost 5 years. Though tearful, I was livid and have no recall of what threat I made (probably to end my relationship with my mom). The reason I have no recall of what led to the encounter that day is because it is the day that the spirit of forgiveness invaded my body. My brother, while trying to get me to calm down told me the “real” reason why I could not go to Cromwell Academy. Less than 1 year earlier of receiving this scholarship, for the first time ever (and I am the youngest of 5), my mom received a social welfare benefit. She was given a 25% section 8 voucher. At that time (pre-Clinton administration) no child whose parents received any social welfare benefit could attend a private school on scholarship. It was also the reason why my brother had to wait until he turned 18 to attend Job Corps which is why he knew about the private school issue. I immediately forgave my mother and only wished she had told me the truth. It would have hurt but I would have gotten over it. It was also the day I learned not to judge people or situations by what is manifested on the surface. It was the beginning of the Lord’s lesson to me to looked beyond the surface. As I counseled youth in church, I grew to learn that the presenting issue may have several other factors or behind scene presenting issues that need to be dealt with before healing, reconciliation, etc. could begin. A counseling question I ask often is “What was your relationship with…..before these problems began?” The spiritual heart needs medicine to heal and experience of others is an easier pill to swallow.

I have a discerning spirit (also from my early youth). My mom referred to it as my guardian angel having a presence in my life beyond infancy. That is true because I was a daredevil likening myself to Evil Kenevil and should be dead save for the grace of God. In a Fortune 500 company where I worked, my boss would run new hires working in my department by me in the beginning. Then business got so hectic that at one point, they were hiring left and right and I had no say. That is, no say until I had to train them. From introduction, I would tell him who would be a good fit and who I felt they needed to get rid of before the probational period ended. Most, but not all were African-American youth however that was only part of why I knew there would be problems. My boss and I had an excellent relationship until then. He told me that I was judgmental and my fellow coworkers had 2 nicknames for me: Vanilla lover and ?e-otch. I did not single any of the young workers out because of their race, I singled them out because of their sincerity. My boss said I should try to train them to get them to high performing levels and I did try but that wasn’t the problem either. The company was super high-end and just one year prior to this hiring spree, the company would not hire any unmarried people, black or white because they felt they could not commit. There was also racial disparity because at that time, the head, my boss, was black and had worked his way to the top from the mail room through hard work and dedication. This specific group of 4 youth did not have this in mind. Within a year of their hiring I told my boss to have cameras installed because all of the blacks working for the company were being accused of stealing resources specifically for the clients (I got my nickname because I did not let anyone without their own key get those resources doing my watch). The biggest culprits were not black but had keys. It got so bad that the upper management was going fire most of the young blacks because 10’s of thousand of unsanctioned charges were being made to client accounts. The culprits, the 4 blacks and one more in whom I fought to keep because she just got caught up and her part was minimal. The primary trouble maker of that group was doing more damage then just stealing. She was making false accusations against the good black workers to take the attention off of her group. I was one that got levied with a charge along with many others. I wasn’t feeling the love and had visions of dragging her through a dark city ally while she was wearing one of her mini skirts (she was a little hefty) by her short hair and pinning her against a fence while I whoop her behind. There was also 5 person, white who I overlapped shifts with that needed to go also and one older person. All of these were single-out not to make it past probation. Somehow the message of love thy enemy and pray for those who despitefully use you flooded my spirit. Still wasn’t feeling the love but I tried praying for each of them 1 at a time. The prayer: “Lord if they can be saved while they are here (where we worked), then give me the grace to work with them. However Lord, if they can not be helped while they are here, then please Lord, move them out of the way.” This prayer gave me peace for all but one, she who I described how I wanted to handle the situation. I told my pastor who threaten to tie me to the altar, right before she recanted. She told me the story of delivery the bread given away by bakeries at the end of the day that could not be sold to poor families in the neighborhood. She said when she arrived at the last house, she told her children to stopped, she wasn’t giving this woman anything. She said she immediately was convicted and told them to go. She prayed and asked for forgiveness. The woman, was one who in the early part of her marriage, her husband had an affair which yielded a child which she named after her husband. I had told her about my prayer which she told me to continue. Then she told me that we have all sinned and some of our stuff didn’t smell good either. But God, Who is full of grace and mercy, forgave us and still does as we are still in flesh. If we are to live like Christ and for Christ, we need to show the love and mercy from Christ. I repented. One by one in a six month period of time, they were all let go and my “thorn” was the last to go and she resigned. I need to learn to pray about everything even with vision of a discerning spirit. The gift is an alert mechanism which requires prayer and a watchful eye. It is not always prophetic. In fact, if prayer is its constant companion, it can be useful in helping others. This is purpose of the gift:
1 Kings 3:9
Give therefore thy servant an “UNDERSTANDING HEART” to judge thy people, “THAT I MAY DISCERN BETWEEN GOOD AND BAD:” for who is able to judge this thy so great a people? It is hard to get others to be forgiving in the midst of turmoil. Having an example of how God delivers may help them get over that hump.

In my church of 26 years, there was one person, the mother of 4 of the youth who started out with me but none in the church, who was one of the people who in the beginning was waiting for me to fall out of the church. She criticized any and everything I did. I got to the point that if she was involved, I would take a back seat or do something back scene. She took over all the choirs and I loved to sing. I dropped out of all the choirs I was in. I had been doing the programs for the church for 15 years and she tried to take that away. I started audio ministry and supplied the equipment from 1988 (then a recorder and tapes). I did it for Mother Middleton mention above who could not attend all of the services and continued it when she died. All these gifts were God driven not glory driven and just did them and never asked for anything in return. The gift of administration, helping with preparation of the programs, doing program flyers and banners came straight from God because when I was in college, I did not have much money to give and I asked the Lord for more money to give more. He gave me instead talent and I gave it back to God 100%. Because of that, I was blessed with great jobs based on the talent given to me by God. However the personal attacks by this mother and a few others whose children had strayed from church did not stop. I told the pastor I was leaving because I could not take it anymore. She asked me not to so I did not. I suppressed the spirit because I felt bound by their judgment. I asked the pastor and overseer (the she mentioned her was then retired but overseer soon to return to pastor) if I could partake of prison ministry with another church and also asked that whatever I did for the church not be acknowledged at the end of any service. I wasn’t free to worship though I did participate in praise service. That pastor did not believe the personal attacks were as bad as I said so I stopped trying to discuss these things with her. If we had two services on a Sunday, I would eat alone and sleep in my car between service. I was called on that for being anti-social so I stated that I prefer to be alone then be a part of conversations targeting others. Got pushed back for that though did not make the statement towards any individual nor was I nasty about it. Some of the saints tried to rally around me because they were witness to the personal attacks but I still wasn’t free. I wanted to go but God wouldn’t let me. When there was snow, I would go to local churches (mines was 35 plus miles away). I had picked out my new one but God said no. These were mega churches that I could fade away and just serve, praise and worship without being seen. Perfect! Neither had testimony services but one day they did. The young lady had experienced my pain. She went to another church and during testimony another had experienced our pain. They testified that God chastised them for having an improper response in that situation and that He would judge them for their response to Him because it was he job to handle/judge the attacker for their acts against (me/us). As she was when she heard that testimony, so was I, condemned in my spirit. I repented and asked for forgiveness. What I teach others is that if they are attacked, in or out of the church, God will hold us responsible for failing to respond in a Godlike manner by not showing His love, mercy and grace towards their attacker. He cares what is done to us but He will hold us responsible for how we respond and not our attacker.
Isaiah 59:18
According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompence.
If that spiritual tidbit does not work then I use this: “I am not going to Hell for anyone else. Bible says if I don’t forgive I won’t be forgiven. It is a simple as that. Let it Go!”

Wrapping It Up

The Challenge: Based upon your S.H.A.P.E. Assessment above (the way God wired you), If you knew you couldn’t fail … and ‘lack of money, or time’ was not an obstacle… list your Top 3 Things you would ‘Focus’ your Life on, next to #1 Loving God & #2 Loving Your Neighbor (these would be your ‘3 God-Sized Dreams’ for your life)?

1. My Relationship with GOD

2. My Relationship with Others

• Putting Your Spouse First
• Your Kids Second
• Everyone Else After those

3. I want to help our youth get to Christ. I have a heart towards foster youth but all our youth need to come to Christ. In my youth, just about everyone went to church and was raised in church. Now, it seems to be opposite.

4. I have play that I want to reach the world though I will start here. The cast will consist of present and former foster/guardian/kinship care youth telling their story through a spiritual lense.

5. Reconcile my family. If I explained the dynamics, it would be quite apparent why this could only be accomplished through God.