About Lisa Creager Part 3
Life Church Bibles and Growing Up 
Yay! It’s YOU, hey there!
I’m super excited that you’re (still) curious and made it here to part 3 of About Lisa!
If you missed part 1 https://gratitudeisthesecret.com/about-lisa-creager-part-1/
If you missed part 2 https://gratitudeisthesecret.com/about-lisa-creager-part-1/about-lisa-creager-part-2/
I really do appreciate you taking actual moments out of your personal relaxing time to be interested in my cocktail of life!!!
This whole site will be filled with WONDER and CRAZY.
I say just strap in for the ride and know this, it will always and forever be dipped in complete pure love!!
Once these little nuggets of my life in these “about me pages” were all written and I read through them, I was like damn, that is a lot of interesting moments and each one has its own character building opportunities.
Very interesting stuff though, right?
MAKES you think about your own story with your own unique twists and turns with failures and triumphs etc.
You just keep growing, evolving, learning, and doing the dance no matter what because time never ever stops!
Thank God you have the ability to truly look back and see most of the shiny gold nuggets, those little rays of sunlight peeking through and to see where you are now (through the ups or downs) and be grateful for them, ya know?!!!
Okay, let’s get this part of the story rolling again!
Back to remembering the Mormon church as a child I have small, short memories.
I can really only remember a few walls, a room downstairs (possibly for baptism?) and that big room everyone gathers in and oh outside after church waiting to leave, it must have been Easter, because I had on little white shiny shoes!
My memories about church growing up are a couple of truck rides with my sisters and an older woman who smelled and my sisters made me sit by her.
I recall NO church or worship (except maybe a wedding and/or a funeral) until Cody’s preschool years!
A good friend……
I met a woman while working at the market, who I became VERY CLOSE to for 10 years after I hired her for Rachel’s daily day care.
She and I were in each other’s delivery rooms giving support as we did Lamaze together during both our second pregnancies, so our boys were close in age.
I am remembering all of this now and it’s been almost 25 years ago, WOW! Pretty close girlfriends for sure!!
She knew of a Christian Preschool with an AMAZING teacher!
I really don’t remember why I was thinking or even talking about this kind of preschool?!
As I look back now, I can see how God (spirit) was weaving through my heart.
Preschool…………………………………
Cody our son attended this Christian Preschool for 2 years (Mrs. Mitts KNEW it would benefit Cody) and years later I could see it!
It was here that his wonderful teacher Mrs. Mitts offered to disciple me (teach me about Christ).
I started attending Hauser Community Church around this time.
My First Bible…………………………..
Mrs. Mitts and her assistant Miss Pat gave me my first bible on 3-15-1993, Rachel was just turning 10 years old.
The Student Bible New International Version with my name embossed in gold on the green cover!
I used this bible so much that pages are falling out and notes are written on the edges of pages.
I even got baptized in the river of Allegany at age 33, using a collection of scriptures from my bible that Jesus said from his baptism, I was Full on IN!!
My kids and I memorized scripture out of this bible, I trusted this bible.
UNTIL 2022, this is when I was led by spirit to watch a few videos from a gem of a man named Bill Donahue.
Introducing Bill Donahue………………………
Bill started uploading videos on YouTube somewhere in the 1990’s.
Through these videos that Bill created I learned about the King James Bible.
Of course Bill’s knowledge BLEW ME AWAY, he is another big reason why I’m doing this project.
Bill spent many years with his wife Joan by his side researching and finding FACTS to corroborate his knowledge of the ancient texts and their TRUE MEANING!
Bill’s YouTube link is here…… https://www.youtube.com/@bdona4556
Watching, listening and learning his OUT OF THIS WORLD BREAKDOWN OF the actual TRUTH of the words in the bible and what they REALLY MEAN, has changed me!!
There are deep ancient meanings of the symbolism of each word and I became very curious about it ALL.
Because of Bill’s background through his life story and how his walk with God came to be, I hungered for more of his truth.
This is your link to read Bill’s FASCINATING LIFE STORY https://www.hiddenmeanings.com/billorigin.htm
I was SURPRISE and SHOCKED when I found out in 2023 after I purchased a KJV bible (curiosity got me big time!!), they were NOT the same scriptures as my bible!
Everything I thought was true within pages of my bible (are skewed).
Each page is not the same as KJV OR other bibles… phrases and words are changed/different/altered from the KJV.
Come to find out, even some King James Bible versions are now proved to be incorrect in some of their spelling.
Just “one letter off” changes the WHOLE scripture!!
Back to CHURCH………
During Cody’s preschool years, my kids and I started to go to church, this was around 1993.
Our church was called Hauser Community Church in Hauser, Oregon; headed towards Lakeside where my beautiful Mommy still lives!
The pastor was an amazing tall skinny man full of love with a bright beautiful welcoming attitude and this includes his sweet wife too.
The music was my type, fast, upbeat, and just enjoyable, it would bring me to the FEELING of LOVE and me wanting more!
My husband even attended with us for a short while (men he worked with were also Christian’s that attended church) as he went to Sunday school with me.
One day we were attending a class before service (it was about marriage) and some folks were speaking up and “Oh my goodness, I just heard my husband’s voice (in my left ear) HE was SPEAKING (LOL)!!
I’ll never forget my deep, deep, joy that day, it seemed as if a miracle had just happened!!!
A memory that is embedded in my heart, for sure!!
A few years later before we knew it, the pastor’s mission was to move on, so we did also; the new Pastor just didn’t have the pull on my heart.
VOLUNTEERING at school………………
Meanwhile, I chose to volunteer at Eastside Elementary school (where my kids went) in Coos Bay, Oregon.
Ashley’s turn to attend school full time (1996+-) came and this made me realize ALL 3 of my kids would be attending classes EVERY DAY.
I wanted to be with them, I enjoyed my role as a Mom and I also wanted to make sure they were always safe.
So, I volunteered for the Title 1 reading program and I helped in the library daily.
I even ended up applying for work at Eastside School because the librarian and I had gotten close and I knew most everything about the library.
She had to have surgery and wanted ME to take over during her absence, because I knew the ropes and the kids!
The librarian, Annie, only lived two miles from us in those Allegany mountains.
She had 3 boys and her husband was the band teacher at Millicoma Jr. High which was next door to the grade school, where Rachel was.
I see how spirit had an influence here.
I was bringing comfort to her in a time when she would have worried about her beautiful library and how it flowed so well.
I also ate lunch with my kids, and I spent MANY recesses with them and their friends.
Rachel, my oldest, was now attending the Jr High next door so I would attend her Home Economics class often for meals, extra fun, etc. and I ate lunch with her too!
I was a room mother many times and that role was amazing!
I had come to realize I really enjoyed bringing smiles to the little children’s faces in creative ways!
All of the kids knew me and were always happy to see me, one little boy in particular nicknamed me “Mrs. Funny”!! HUGE COMPLIMENT!!
I made a number of adult friends and acquaintances, I had created a friendly bond with many teachers, the secretaries and all 3 Principles that had come through.
I dove in head first and learned all I could about coaching kids soccer for Cody’s 1st through 3rd grade, because coaches were all parent volunteers.
Boy, I HAD a blast!
Our team was an undefeated team except maybe twice during those 6 seasons (2 seasons a year)!!
I guarantee it was EACH CHILD giving it their ALL!!
The parent’s in the parent’s teacher club at Eastside School were not really listening to my ideas, (some parents really didn’t like my positive attitude) I was a newcomer!
I decided to take a BIGGER STEP one year to get heard and it happened, I was voted in as the President of the parent club!
For a few years in a row, we gathered our creativity, our ambitious drive and managed to complete a few amazing carnivals and family fun nights.
Just to bring the families into the school to give the children opportunities to share their day to day life at school with Mom and Dad etc..
Other schools in the area “talked about how fun they were”!
We made over $30,000.00 in just a couple of years and paid for a covered playground!
In 1998, for some reason I decided it was time to take a break so I stopped volunteering.
As much as I LOVED what we parents had done within the community, I realized I needed a break and I found that when I started saying no it felt really good to say.
OTHER Christian’s…………………….
It was during these years also that I was able to really witness other Moms with their families and their walks with the Lord.
I began to see and realize that some Mom’s that went to any type of church were somewhat judgmental toward other people.
It was mostly the Moms, I feel the Dad’s were pretty chill.
Seeing Mom’s (not all, mind you) looking at folks with a bit of disdain, you know that up and down look with a bit of a “ew”.
As if the folks they were looking at were not up to their Christian standards (or whatever standards they had).
You could tell (at least to me) they were thinking things like what clothes you have on, the car you drove, if your kids acted properly, what church you went to, what restaurants you ate at, etc.
It was very eye opening but also rather shocking because I believed we were to emanate God’s love toward everybody….
Ya know……. God IS LOVE!!!!?!!!
This is when I realized and decided that I did not want to have the title of a Christian.
I am so super grateful right now in this hot second that you’re still with me, reading and just plain curious, thank you!!
Hey, let’s just jump to number 4 in this sequence of About Me pages, okay?
See you there!!
