1542 South Kedvale Ave.
Chicago, Illinois 60623 USA
proverbs3130woman@juno.com
My name is Natalie K. Washington and above and beyond anything else, I am a child of God. In the worldly realm, I am a 30 year-old African-American Junior High English Teacher who teaches at a parochial school in Chicago's inner city. (West Side) In addition to being a Junior High Language Arts teacher, I currently own and operate a home-based desktop-publishing business called Picture Perfect Graphics, Inc. I proudly attend Pentecostal Tabernacle Bible Church 5265 West North Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60639 (where my pastor is Elder Christopher L. Johnson), at which I serve as Announcement Clerk and Church Publicist.
I am also a member of the Ministry Concert and Workshop Choir, which is an adult gospel choir comprised of Christian adults from ages 17 and up. I am in the process of writing a book of Christian poetry which I am calling "Poetic Praises", which should be published by the summer of 2001.
My entire life is a testimony, but I will limit my testimony and save the rest for church on Sunday. God has seen fit to save me from all kinds of illnesses, fibroid tumors in my uterus last year, an umbilical hernia as a child, pneumonia when I was in college, I could go on and on. Most importantly, God saw fit to send his son Jesus to save me myself. I was absorbed and wrapped in the fact that I was academically bright, had been educated in some of the finest institutions in this country, and was considered what some people might call physically attractive. People would tell me all the time that I was blessed. I would pay lip service by agreeing with them, but deep down inside I was so consumed in my own self-importance, I honestly thought that all of those blessings were bestowed upon because I was truly deserving of them. Though I may have looked as if I had it all together on the outside, my spirit was aching on the inside. Little did I know at the time, that it was because God granted me those tal
As gracious as our God is, he delivered me from many situations despite my half-step efforts to give Him the glory and praise He truly deserved. I blamed everyone and everything other than myself for the spiritual mess I was in at he time. Finally God decided that it was time for me to return to Him completely. Our school's music teacher, (who I had known since childhood) who was and is a devout Christian came to work at the school where I teach. He had such an anointed spirit about him. He would stop in my classroom and talk to me about different Christian issues, etc. As we began to talk, I could feel the layers of self-absorbancy fall from my spirit.
Even though God was ministering to me through Chris, I fought it and fought it hard. (Now I know that was the enemy coming to "steal , kill and destroy.") Finally during that school year, I was faced with some horrible situations on the job and in my personal life. I felt as if I had hit rock bottom. I became depressed and I lost my joy in living. I felt completely alone even though I had friends and family who were there to support me. I shared my feelings with my colleague, Chris and he encouraged me to get in my Bible and I did and little by little, my life began to change. I was still tested by the enemy, because I still wasn't attending church regularly. I still blamed that on the fact that my Catholic church was boring and I wasn't getting anything out of the Masses. God ministered to me and told me that enough was enough and that it was time that I stopped making excuses for not going to church.
In September of 2000, my colleague Chris became pastor of his own church and he invited me to a prayer meeting at his home. I didn't go the first time I was invited, but I went the next time and it was awesome! God presented me with a chance to come back to Him and I wound up taking the right hand of fellowship the same night and became the Pentecostal Tabernacle Bible Church's very first lay member. I was nervous at first, because I knew that it meant that I couldn't turn back to my old ways in which I had grown comfortable. God spoke to me and told me to leave those old ways behind and don't look back ... and I did just that! My life has been blessed and highly
favored every since! Hallelujah!!!
Do you know for certain that if you died tonight that you would go to heaven? This is the most important question of your life. If you are not absolutely certain, please contact me or visit this link.