Issue SIX

This is Your Time!!! You can live ALIVE ON PURPOSE November 1, 2011
Dear Reader, The month of November is very special to me, it is the month I celebrate my Birthday. Alive on Purpose this month is of greater reality as I realize that I am still here. There is still time! God allowed me to experience all that I went through and has challenged me not to waste any of it. So what I want you to do is simple, reach down inside of yourself and grab everything that is stored inside of you and take it to the world! There is so much for you to do, so much for you to accomplish, so many people for the gift that God has given you to touch. You have been given another opportunity, another chance, and another year! Celebrate with me, and use it ALL! Using Everything I Have,

LaToyia D. Jones

Alive on Purpose & Nakia Jones Productions Partner Together for the Holidays! We need YOUR help to adopt 3 families for Christmas! Do you know a family who is need of help for Christmas? Write your nomination and submit it today. Please answer the question? Why is this family Alive on Purpose? We are looking for families that are passionate about making a difference.
Be sure to include your contact information in the nomination submission. You are encouraged to nominate your own family if you fit the criteria! Submission will be notified by mail/email/phone

7 Day Challenge #sevendays

Will you join us in our seven day challenge! I recently challenged some of the teens to speak positive for 7 days! (This is only the beginning of course!) Can you think positive? Can you speak only positive thoughts? Can you try to see the bright side? Can you see the joy in the midst of rain? Can you remain encouraged?

For

7 Days?

NOMINATIONS DUE BY DECEMBER 1, 2011

Please Email Jones.latoyia.d@gmail.com or Nakiajones213@gmail.com

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Philippians 4:8

Why Are You Alive On Purpose?

We recently asked readers Why they are Alive on Purpose? Check out their responses Why Are You Alive on Purpose Shawntia?
Because God has given me a purpose for others, and will use my story to be the foundation in which I stand Im Still Standing, I am here!

Why Are You Alive on Purpose Rachel?

The answer to this question is simple: Because I Survived!

Shawntia shares her story? As a child I was born & raised in church,
and I was often without a voice to speak for others to hear. My mom started using drugs when I was about 5yrs old, I was the first child of nine, and I was sexually abused by my stepdad at the age of 13. As A result, I was taken away from my parents but returned a year later. I was told that this was the situation for me and that no one else could handle this like I could, so I felt I had no other choice but to remain in a childs place. Throughout my childhood my mother continued to use drugs. I continued to do what I knew best which was to seek God, Quote (Train a child in the way they should go & theyll never depart) Im a living witness of this scripture. As my Mom continued to have children, it seemed my life got worse because I was the reliable source of being a live-in babysitter; the Devil thought he had my mind conflicted by planting in my mind for me to kill myself. It was because of this mental abuse that I was tired of being a mom when I shouldve been a child myself. My life changed when I had connected with people I had never seen before but their hearts were calling me to draw near. I began to tell a few of these individuals how I tried to kill myself and they started praying & ministering the Word of God into my life. The more time I spent with them the less time I was in the abusive mental & verbal states of mind. At the age of 14 I started attending church. I was catching the bus or calling for rides; whatever it took I did because I knew I had to give my life to God. My God parents which are the Pastors also spoke Gods word & continued to speak life along with the mothers of the church. Soon after I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior and vowed my entire life to God. I would put no one before him and will praise him no matter what life looks like. As years went on test and trials were thrown at me (Life) people in my own family told me that I was not going to Graduate HS, meanwhile I had the best church family in the nation (BOCA) who had Abundant Faith in me kept me encouraged and told me that I would continue to be successful. I then got a job and went to school in the morning and night school, I paid off my senior dues and my church family supported me the entire time. Even though my family was against me I graduated HS with confidence that with God all things are possible. After Graduating I went to college full time and had a full time job, was involved full time Warrior for Christ, had my own house and was determined to be successful. Im currently studying in the field of nursing still reaching for success, My saying is We All fall but with God we are all able to keep Standing. I truly thank God for everything I experienced this made me an even stronger woman. Even during the rough times I am quickly reminded of my course by all the brilliant women in my life who yelled their Spiritual Guidance & the Word of God. I continue to remain! Im Still Standing! I am also a PROUD mother of a brilliant, intelligent, amazing son who is my Angel and makes me feel better each day! I thank God first because without him I wouldnt be as strong as I am today!!! Indeed I am Alive on Purpose!

Rachel shares her story?

I wrote I deleted I wrote and deleted again. Unsure of where to start and how to communicate to you what really made me develop into the strong woman I am growing to be. You see for many years I looked for love in all the wrong places shopping, boys, and even friends. Only to realize that on my 26 birthday all that I needed was to actually hear my mother tell me she loves me. I can honestly say I dont remember her telling me those three words any time before then. Im not going to say I didnt think she loved me but she NEVER told me. Its funny how I could go years without talking to my real father but knew he loved me and that he would never let anything happen to me but with my mother it was different. See my mom made me feel like my step father and brothers were more important than me and though I wasnt then and never will be perfect I tried to be perfect in her eyes. Needless to say that didnt work! I needed approval validation from someone and it wasnt coming from my mom so I began looking other places. I began to become someone I was not to fit in, making up stories to be more like whomever I was around at the moment. I did this so much that I almost forgot that I was talking about a fictional character I had created to be accepted or to make myself appear better then someone else. There are people around me to date that may still not know who I really was then, during that time I never found an opportunity to sit down and tell them the truth. I had sex to be accepted, I had abortions (yes I said abortions with an S) because I was afraid to fail my mother and was afraid to become a static. Not thinking about the fact that it made me a static in a different set of glasses. I always had a strong desire to help young girls, didnt really know why other than they needed guidance. I didnt know how to do it other than be the best example I could (which wasnt always the best). The day my mom told me she loved me I knew that I was to do show girls how you can find love in God, mentors, and strong women around you. Help them to love themselves, find security in themselves, and happiness in themselves. I learned its the smallest things that can mean the most calling like them beautiful when everyone else around them may call them ugly, telling them you love them because no one else may. The Bible says that life and death is in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21). Some parents are currently killing their kids self-esteem and self-worth by not saying anything or saying the wrong things. My goal is to someday provide a place for the youth to come and be empowered, feel safe and KNOW they are not alone, while providing classes to help them through their trials and tribulations. My goal is to use my pain for HIS purpose. Oh and I almost forgot..My name is Rachel and Im ALIVE ON PURPOSE!

What are you reading? Check out the book selection for November!
The Dream Giver Bruce Wilkerson

This book speaks plainly about achieving goals and overcoming conflict, and the message within this book aims to touch the hearts of readers who need a spiritual push.
~Adapted from http://brucewilkinson.com

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Recently the founder of Ephod Ministries, Prophetess Edlexus Henley, partnered with Alive on Purpose to launch their first blog. The vision of this ministry is to remain outside of the box at all times. With obedience, transparency, confidence, class and the posture of prayer this ministry proclaims it's uniqueness and it's position to reflect the mind of Christ. Please check more about Prophetess Edlexus Henley and her ministry @ www.ephodministries.org.

is for PURPOSE
"Out the Box"
By: Edlexus Henley

.........in the lane of Poise, Elegance, and Purpose featuring LaToyia Jones

The streets are covered with cars going to their destination. Also the streets are covered with cars that tend to go out of their lane. The cars that go outside of their lane are driven by people who are not paying attention. Usually they are doing make up, tweeting, texting eating, or sometimes falling asleep. Whatever the case is an accident can be caused because you were in someones lane.
Miss LaToyia Jones is like the car that knows how to stay in her lane. She is out the box but she remains in Christ which is her number one Purpose. There are many different makes and models of cars. If I had to compare her to one it would be a Rolls Royce. Its not like your regular car. When you see one on the street it grabs your attention. When she walked into our church on a Wednesday night she did just that demanded attention. "That qualifies you to be out the box" I said to myself. Follow through this blog as I pick her brain to figure out how and why she is so "fly" in Jesus. Some people use the phrase "I am out the Box" as a crutch to be weird she uses it because thats actually who she is. So I asked her...

When she hears the phrase "out the box" what does she think of? "When I hear that phrase I think of someone who has broken past limits and boundaries. I think of a person who does not allow the status quo to encamp them into one particular direction and one particular mindset. I think of a person who is completely free and able to shift and move according to God's plan and direction. Would you consider yourself out the box? Yes, Its similar to the phrase "one size fit's all" which really means it never quite fits anyone. For most of my life I have tried to "fit" into what is designed (according to the analogy) to fit everyone. I tried to do what others did, and be who other wanted me to be. Not realizing that in that mindset we were beginning to become one in the same and the walls of the "b ox" were beginning to close in and surround me. I was in complete violation of God's plan for MY life and the individualism in which he created me to be. Jeremiah 29:11 talks about the plans that God has for me! In this statement there was complete intent in pointing out my uniqueness and my individuality from the plan that he created for another person which is also rather unique. The term one size fits all no longer applies in my life, and I am unable to be what other people have labeled me to be because it just doesn't fit my posture, my style, or my mold. I have learned to be ME, the ME that God created ME to be." When you hear the words poise, elegance, and purpose do you instantly see yourself or is there someone or something that reminds you of those words? "When I hear these words I don't think of myself first rather I think about all the women who are silently living Alive on Purpose. They have pressed through struggles, trials, and situations that almost killed them in order to seek what was going to give them "more" out of life. The life that was filled with Gods course and plan taking over and being their only guide. I am just a representation of all the men and women who do this every day. Everyday people overcome. Everyday people win. Everyday people choose to be greater than what the circumstances around them have presented and everyday people like myself and you choose to be greater than the box that the world has tried to confine us in. We are alive and full of ideas, wisdom, and creation. Elegance is not having the ability to cross your legs in the "S" at the dinner table, even though I was taught that. And poise isn't the ability to stand up straight and walk in a straight line. (Although those are important in another setting) It is rather the ability to stand confidently and boldly in the lane that you have been called into and do with courage, tenacity, and intent everything that you have been destined to do. We all have a Testimony, what were some things in your life that happened in your life to mold you into the purpose driven woman of elegance and poise? "My story is no different than the story of many other women that walk the streets, go to work and provide for their families every day. As a young girl I was highly exposed to drug and alcohol with two addicted parents I saw things that a young child should never see resulting in neglect, rejection and ev entually abandonment. Crack houses and the houses of "friends" became more normal for me then parks museums and dreams. What became abnormal to an outsider looking in b ecame very normal for me; as a child I was happy in pain. At the age of 8, I was taken from my mother and placed with my biological family which produced another set of conflicting emotions (I loved my adoptive parents but was confused by the situation, and overwhelmed by the pain). The pain that was once enjoyable began to eat away my sense of self and identity. At a young age I lost who I was and began to search for the identity of who I should be. Often falling into traps and tricks of life, relationships, and bad decisions this person called pain became more of a friend. Being developed into a woman of confidence took a God that was willing to mold me and shape me even in my experiences to refine the person that he created me to be. He was willing to let the world walk away and for me to experience the abandonment of flesh and blood to truly experience the tenacity to run after HIS plan even the more. It was through my pain than he birthed PURPOSE." Alive on Purpose is your motto is that because you were dead in past hurts and complacency before? "Alive on Purpose became a state of mind for me and I believe that it was God way of renaming me like in the biblical days. In 2004 my mother died, and during that time life became hopele ss and I had no idea why the things that were going on around me where happening the way that they were. I felt that my pain had taken over and I was a dead girl walking and eventually my life would reflect that of my mothers. It wasn't until I had a dream and saw that all of my pain: the abandonment, the abuse, the rejection, the rape, the defeat, the abortion and more were being used to bless the lives of other people. I woke up with a different outlook on life. I was no longer a mistake: I was born for a reason, my pain was no longer bad or negative it was rather useful. I was indeed ALIVE on Purpose. This statement became twofold. I was placed on this earth intentionally by God on 11.13.83 by design of DNA and I would live each day full of energy, passion and life to pursue destiny (purpose)!" Can you BOLDLY say now that NOTHING can detour you from your Purpose, and that nothing ever will? "I was recently given this thought "Either you want it or you don't" When I heard the statement I began to get an overwhelming desire to pursue purpose without limits. I want it! I want everything that God has for me, I want to wake up in passion and sleep in presence. I am on FIRE to be the manifestation of everything that was spoken over my life. Like the songwriter says, No limits No boundaries in his will there is increase all around me. There is nothing that I will not be able to conquer because just like you Edlexus, I was created for this. 'This' is a representation of whatever God has planned for your life."

For the complete blog visit www.ephodministries.org

Live

THE WEBSITE IS UP!

NOW On Purpose!

Visit us online @
www.Imaliveonpurpose.com
Attention!!! Attention!!!

Partner with Alive on Purpose as we send packages to young

adults in need. Do you know a college student that needs some inspiration? Please email us!

Packages Include: Inspirational Books, Journals, Pens, and the

November Newsletter

Have a Poem, Story, or Thought that you want to share in next months newsletter? Or do you wish to be added to the newsletter mailing list? If so please,

EMAIL ALIVE ON PURPOSE!

jones.latoyia.d@gmail.com

I use to think that I was brokenUntil one day I caught up to my healing. Alive on Purpose 2011

For Booking Information LaToyia D. Jones, BS Facilitator/Certified Christian Counselor/ Grief Recovery Specialist Jones.latoyia.d@gmail.com
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