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Kirk Franklin’s Son Caziah Franklin & ‘War Room’ Actress Alena Pitts Are ENGAGED!!!

Hello World,

When I saw this on my IG timeline last night, I need I had to share it with my After the Altar Call fam! Kirk Franklin’s son Caziah Franklin proposed to his girlfriend Alena Pitts, who starred in the blockbuster movie War Room, when she was a little girl. Obviously she is now a young woman. See the beach proposal photos below…

I actually interviewed Alena and her mother Wynter Pitts back in 2017 when she was 12 years old (so according to my math, she is now 19).  Below is a snippet of the interview…

1. How does it feel to be the youngest, African- American female author to be represented by a major book publisher?

Alena: Kind of surreal still. Like it hasn’t really hit me. So it’s crazy. I’m just grateful that it happened to me! And then I’m like, ‘Thank you God!’

And how did you get a book deal for Hello Stars?

Alena: So, my mom was like, ‘Hey Alena, do you want to write a book together?’ I was like, ‘Sure.’ My mom was like, ‘That would be so fun!’ I really didn’t think that was going to happen, but she was like, ‘Let’s just pray about it.’  So I prayed about it not really expecting anything to happen. So like two weeks later, we got an e-mail from Zondervan asking if we wanted to write a book for them. So I was like, ‘Wow, this must be God’s plan!’ (Laughter)

Wynter: It literally happened just like that! It was just this random thought I had one day, and I just looked at her and said, ‘It would be so fun if we wrote a book together.’ And that was it. And then, a few weeks later, we got an e-mail from Faithgirlz saying they wanted to talk to us about the project. It was so bizarre. Because of my ministry with girls, I had done some Faithgirlz product giveaways and helped them promote some things so I had a relationship with the publicist there. Since then, I found out the publicist mentioned our names to their team over the last year or so, but I didn’t know anyone else on the team!

See the remainder of the interview at ‘War Room’ 12-Year-Old Actress Alena Pitts & Mother Pen Children’s Book ‘Hello Stars!’ (INTERVIEW).

When I heard about Wynter’s death the next year following my interview with her and her daughter in 2017, I was stunned and saddened, but I believe Alena’s mother is with the Father in Heaven where we all aspire to go some day. And obviously, our Father is still leading Alena today. May God bless Caziah and Alena on their new journey together!

Any thoughts?

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NEW MUSIC: Tina Campbell ‘Pray For Me’ – Available Now!

Hello World,

Multiple GRAMMY Award winner Tina Campbell returns to the gospel music charts with her highly anticipated brand-new single, “Pray For Me.” We have all said, “Pray for me” at some point in our lives, right?

Check out the single below…

If you aren’t familiar with Tina, she started her music career in 1998 with her older sister, Erica Campbell, as part of the gospel music group, Mary Mary. Her solo music career began in 2014. She released her second solo studio album, It’s Still Personal in 2017.

She is married to Teddy Campbell, with whom she resides in Los Angeles, California together, with their five children, Cierra, Laiah Simone, Meela Jane, Glendon Theodore Jr., and Santana.

I actually interviewed Tina back in 2016. See a snippet of that interview below…

One of the most important statements that Mitch made was in Episode 8 was when he said to you, “You are one of the biggest stars I’ll ever meet in my life even though you don’t care about being a star.” Is that a true statement? Please explain your answer. Is he involved in your career now?

I’m not fascinated with stardom. I enjoy regular way more than I enjoy the stardom. I like to be valuable to people when I don’t have everything in the world to offer them. I’m very happy to have fans. I’m very elated, and I’m very appreciative of that, but it’s valuable to me when people like me and love me and think highly of me with and without accomplishments and that’s probably why I have still have the same group of friends that were my friends when I was five years old, ten years old and 18 years old, the same people from my church, my original church that I grew up with. I’m still close to all of them even though I’ve been away from the church. I like people who liked me before, when I quote unquote wasn’t nothin’. And without accolades and all of that. They just think I’m something because I’m Thomi’s and Eddie’s daughter.

I derive my value from who I was before I got here. Because if accomplishments are the only things that make me who I am, because if you strip me of my accomplishments, what am I? I’d like to think that my character, my integrity, the way I love, how kind I am to people, I’d like to think that those are the things that define me so the people so that know me in that respect and value me in that respect, that matters more to me than the people who know me as a star. So stardom doesn’t fascinate me. If I was just a soccer mom or I was over the PTA, I would go just as hard doing what I do. I’m just a very passionate person and whatever I do, I do it hard. I goes hard.

Stardom does not define me at all. I could have it or not. A GRAMMY is great, but I’m fine without it. Selling millions of records. It’s awesome. I would still think that I could sing and that God gave me a gift if I’m singing at a convalescent hospital to old women. And I’m so grateful for that because the ups and downs of the industry and people’s opinions and all of that, if that stuff made me, I’d be broken already.

Check out the rest of the interview at Mitchell Solarek is NOT Tina Campbell’s Manager & More: My InterviewWith Mary Mary’s Tina Campbell. 

FOLLOW TINA CAMPBELL

IG: @IamTinaCampbell

X: @IamTinaCampbell

FB: Tina Campbell

YouTube: /IamTinaCampbell

Any thoughts?

Any thoughts?

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Seven Scriptures that Emphasize the Easter Message Outside of the Easter Story Still in 2024…

Easter word

Hello World!!!

If you are a Christian, today, Easter Sunday, is the most triumphant and glorious day of the year…The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is the bedrock of our faith…It is how we know that we know that we know God. loves.. us…

If, by chance, you are a unfamiliar with the story – I pray that those who have never heard of the story somehow find their way to my humble space on the Internet – let me tell it to you in simple terms…

Holy God, creator of this universe, wants to have a personal relationship with us, the sinful human beings that He created…But because of our sin, which is essentially our willfulness or inclination to doing things our own way without God’s guidance, He cannot tolerate what we have done to ourselves and how we have desecrated our beings…However, he allowed his Son, Jesus Christ, a perfect being, to die, to sacrifice himself on the cross and bridge the gap between us and our Holy Father…And Jesus Christ was resurrected three days later proving that God conquers death!!! If you would like  to read the official story, please see Luke 24 in the Bible…

While the Easter story is confined to a few chapters, the Easter message is scattered throughout the entire Bible from the beginning to the end…

1. “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Genesis 50:20…This verse comes from the story of Joseph who was sold into slavery by his brothers because they were jealous of him and his close relationship with their father.  Years later, however, Joseph, who had been given a position in the government in the country where he had been enslaved, was reunited with his brothers…

Despite what had been done to him, Joseph assured his brothers that God used their evil deed to allow Him to be in a position of authority. And that position of authority enabled him to do good for many under him…

Again, what may be negative, God can and will change it to a positive for us and many others if we would give Him the opportunity…This is what happened with Jesus on the cross…

2. “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to His face.”  Job 13:15…Job was a man who had been blessed spiritually and materially, but God allowed all of his materials blessings to be taken away to prove to the devil if Job would still serve God.

This verse was Job’s declaration that in spite of His feelings that God had deserted him, he would still trust Him…Jesus, God’s son, felt that way as well…Although He chose to die for our sins, there was a point that He felt God was not with Him because He was dying…

And yet, He went through it because His ultimate hope was in God…And we can claim the same when we are going through tough situations…In spite of whatever seemingly hopeless situation we find ourselves in, God can turn it around…He did it for Job, Jesus and He can and will do it for us…

3. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him,  and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6…Sometimes there are things that happen to us that no matter how long we think about them or who we talk to about them, we cannot make sense of what happened…But we don’t always have to understand because God can straighten it all out…Those who lived with and loved Jesus didn’t understand why Jesus had die although He tried to explain it, but three days later, they understood…and were blessed…

cross

4. “Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer, and though the Lord makes  His life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied…” Isaiah 53: 10-11  With God, suffering can have a purpose…Jesus’ suffering enables us to have life with the Father…

5. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”  Romans 8:28…This verse is a testament of how God operates…God can and does take anything and bring good out of it…Death is vile…But Jesus’ death is how we are able to be reconciled to God…That is good…

6. “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.” 1 Peter 4:12-13…As Christians or followers of Christ, we will be tested…But even as we are tested, we can have inexplicable  joy knowing that we are being tested because we do believe in Christ….

7. “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:3-5 The ultimate message of Easter is that death is not the end of the story…And one day death as know it will be done and over with…

I wrote this Easter post because God has a track record of bringing the biggest blessings out of tragedies…I wrote this post for me, but I hope it blesses you…

Happy Easter! Jesus is Risen! Blessed be the name of Jesus!

 

Any thoughts?