Meet Melanie Walker
I am so glad you have taken time to visit this site.
I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself and let you know a
little about who I am and what God is doing in my life.
My grandmother who was my primary spiritual influence took me to church with her
as a far back as I can remember. The congregation was small and most of the
people who attended were neighbors. It was there that I asked Christ into my
life during a Bible school. (Bible School and the annual church camp were my
favorite events.)
There were many people who poured into my life while there but two in particular
impacted me in a way that continues to influence what I do today. Joe and
Phyllis Williams, youth leaders, Sunday school teachers and lay evangelist saw
God’s calling on my life early and began taking me with them to area revivals
where Joe preached; Phyllis played the piano and we all did the special music.
What a time we had! It was there I begin to experience the presence of God in
worship and see His life-changing power in people's lives.
As a teenager God sent another special person into my life: Jackie Strain, an
accomplished musician who had played professionally for many years. The Williams
once again provided opportunities but this time for Jackie and I to minister.
Before long we were traveling and singing at any event where folks would have
us. We were involved in a lot of revivals at that time -- that was when folks
had revivals, the two week kind. We would often do the special music, serve as
the music leader and, after church, work with the youth. We learned early on how
to be instant in season and out of season. As life often happens, circumstances
began to take us in different directions. Jackie got married and I went to
college. (I became a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and worked as a counselor
and a Life Coach) We continued to minister together periodically but never again
the way we once had.
I finished college and returned home. My father’s mother was living with us at
the time and her daytime caregiver invited me to her church. She said I would
love the music. So off I went to the Monroe Street Church of God. Oh what music
they had! What a wonderful group of people who knew how to worship the Lord. I
became a part of their family in more ways than one. I joined the church and
ended up marrying one of their boys. I knew he had to be the right one when
Jackie and I reunited to do a series of engagements, one being a revival that
lasted over two weeks in the dead of winter and he traveled several hours every
night in the ice and snow to be there.
Gerald and I were both active in the church. We taught Sunday school, ministered
at the nursing home; he ran sound and I played bass guitar. This led us to
working with a group of teenagers who wanted to develop a contemporary band. It
had to be God. If you have heard my music you know this was quit a stretch but
God was in it and He used those teenagers all over the place to minister to
others. Gerald and I eventually evolved into ministering together as a couple.
We worked with our own band for awhile then Gerald began to have some health
problems. The doctor told us we had to slow down. So immediately we stopped.
Several years passed and Gerald didn’t have a desire to sing in the same way I
did. He always encouraged me to go ahead but I didn’t feel I should without him.
I knew how hurtful it would be to me if he chose to do something without me. He
loves the Lord but just wasn’t cut out or called to be one of those folks who
are up in front of people all the time. It took me a while but in time I began
to understand this.
One day I was working in a medical setting where I shared an office with a
dietitian who was also a Christian. We shared our faith frequently but she was
not aware of my earlier music or ministry experience. She came in the office one
morning and said God had woken her up during the night and told her something
about me. “He told me to tell you that He was going to return what the enemy had
stolen from you and more.” She didn’t know what she was saying, but I did.
Shortly after that time, an opportunity was given to me to sing periodically on
a Christian Television Station. I recorded my first CD in order to have tracks
to sing with when I was ask to be a guest on TCT.
Now many years later, God has open doors through the graciousness of Garth and
Tina Coonce to host my own TCT Network program where I sing and combine my
counseling and ministry experience to encourage and equip the viewers to
overcome obstacles and experience their best life in Christ. I believe God wants
to be BIG in our lives and I want those watching to catch that vision. As God
often does, this past year He enlarged my opportunity through “A Good Life”
teaching segments that also air on the TCT Today Network program. I do not
profess to be a preacher. Just someone who God has allowed to learn a lot of
lessons from working as a counselor and life coach for many years as well as
someone who loves the Word of God and has attempted to apply it to my own life.
As television was opening up God was also giving favor in Christian Country,
Country Gospel and Southern Gospel radio. I have been blessed to have recorded 4
CDs and am working on my 5th. There have been several number one songs and
awards along the way; certainly more than I could have ever imagined.
Interestingly enough God is making come to pass a word that was spoken to me
when I was 15 years old, one night when Joe and Phyllis and I were eating
hamburgers after one of those revivals. Joe said God had told him I would be
singing to millions. I have to say from the time he spoke that to me and the
time I began to see God bring it to pass was not only years but decades. There
were times the gifts and the calling were suppressed but I am a living testimony
to God’s faithfulness and His promise to fulfill the work He has started in us.
Gerald is who God made him to be and I’m being who God made me to be. He travels
with me, runs my sound, encourages me, is my spiritual covering and rejoices
with every door that is opened.
God is good and the desire of my heart is stronger today than ever to let others
know about Jesus, His saving power, His keeping power, His delivering power and
His overwhelming love and desire to commune with and bless people.
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