Hi friends and supporters I pray this newsletter finds all of you happy, healthy, and well. We have had an amazing six weeks of incredible back-to-back events and outreaches. Thank you for all you do with your, prayers, and support.
“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some of us are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another- and all the more as you see “THE DAY” approaching”
Hebrews 10:23-25
We have got to give Tim Benjamin a special shoutout and thank you for his very generous donation contribution to Armor Up. We are so very grateful! Congratulations on the renaming of your air conditioning company to Victory Air. We are especially fond of that name. Victory House and Victory Air partners for life. I feel very called to open up another house for women in recovery including victims of human trafficking. With support and help from people like Tim Benjamin that just might happen sooner than later. We thank all of you in advance for being a part of all that Armor Up is doing at Freedom House, Victory House, and the addiction and recovery community.
August is overdose awareness month and we were so blessed to be a part of 4 different overdose awareness events. Our very own Helen Bruso who is on our board of directors spoke at two of these amazing events on behalf of the DEA. We love you and are so proud of you and thank you for also speaking on behalf of Armor Up.
HERE
The four events we were honored to take part in include:
8/17/23 Chasing the Dragon; The Life of an Opioid Addict, film screening and panel discussion
8/21/23 The 2023 Central Florida Fentanyl Summit sponsored by the Blue Plaid Society
It is so important to be very aware of what is going on in our community and the new advances in drugs these poison dealers are distributing to our friends, family members, and children. The overdose rates in many places are much higher than they once were and we have seen fentanyl in so many street drugs that were once considered to be “safe” like marijuana. These conferences are pivotal in changing the narrative of what is truly happening in the cases of these deaths. In most cases it is found that there is a higher concentration of fentanyl in street pressed drugs like Xanax, Oxycontin, and Adderall. We need to change our terminology, the people who have died from fentanyl have been poisoned. An overdose is an accident meaning accidently ingested too much and death occurred as a result . Poisoning refers to when these drug dealers are knowingly distributing Fentanyl to unsuspecting users in active addiction and they are dyeing . Drug dealers are often recklessly mixing together uncalculated amounts of Fentanyl and other commonly known drugs in hopes that it will do the job and bring them the desired profit; not considering the lives they put at risk while trying to play pharmacist. It only takes a quarter of a grain of salt amount of fentanyl to kill.
8/26/23 Overdose Awareness Day- Reiter Park
Overdose awareness event at REITER park in Longwood. So grateful for all the work that Seminole County is doing to prosecute the drug dealers poisoning people with fentanyl, laced pills, and marijuana. it is a tragedy how many people we are losing daily to fentanyl overdose. We’ve lost some of our own and it’s a tragedy! We must be the voice and spread awareness. Thank you to all who were at this event today. I’m so sorry to all the people who have lost their loved ones to fentanyl poisoning! God bless you.
8/27/23 Project Noelle Overdose Awareness Day – Lake Eola
This event breaks my heart every year. This year was especially hard because one of our very own (Leigh Minter) lost her brother to fentanyl poisoning just a short several months back. We had been praying for him for years. To watch Leigh and her momma suffer this tremendous loss brings it so close to home. We are so sorry for your loss Leigh and the Minter family. We love and adore you and we are here for you. You know my friends reading this it’s not abnormal anymore for the women who come to Victory and Freedom houses to have needed to be revived with Narcan from Fentanyl poisoning. One pill can kill. One line can kill. One hit can kill. The teenager who is trying marijuana for the very first time is loosing their life to fentanyl poisoning and it is now an everyday occurrence. We have got to spread awareness to our children, families, and communities. Today taking a drug, pill, or hit is like playing Russian roulette. You have a 1 in 6 chance that it might be the last breath you take. One in every six pills tested has a lethal amount of fentanyl in it, those are the facts. I am so sorry to all of you that have lost a loved one to overdose or Fentanyl poisoning.
Painting Stones
Loved painting our stepping stones for the entryways to FREEDOM AND VICTORY houses with you ladies! I so enjoy watching you all be so creative !!! We also painted our rocks to go and place them at bus stops, where people walk, and where the homeless dwell. We do this to encourage our brothers and sisters in our neighborhoods! We are blessed to be able to do this and have a miracle story of one of our girls who came to Victory House and literally found one of our rocks that said surrender and went into recovery the next day. Guys, we can’t make this stuff up. God is so good 
No joke it’s the coolest story ever. Amanda, if you happen to read this, we love you and you encourage us to keep going and placing our stones in our city to hopefully make a difference in someone’s life and remind them Jesus loves them! 
Passing Out Stones
We passed out all of the rocks that we made to encourage whoever found them we placed them at homeless camps and placed them at bus stops. We placed them all along and off 17-92 in Longwood, Casselberry and Fern Park.
I pray that all of the love and time and prayers that went into those rocks of encouragement. I pray that all those rocks made it into the right hands, Lord and that they encouraged the people in your city that needed it at just the right moment!!!!! Thank you, Lord, for letting us get to have fun and paint and create and pray together for the gift of getting to go. Inspire and Encourage your people!
Kari Jobe & Cody Carnes Concert
We had so much fun at Northland‘s concert with Kari Jobe and Cody Carnes and Leeland. I think we were all wrecked by the time we left. Very Holy Spirit filled, very anointed, and very powerful. Thank you Lord for making a way, so that we could all go. So powerful WARSHIP!
Baptisms
On this day August 3rd, 2023, our group (Motley Crew) of women, their families, and friends all gathered on Bethune Beach to take part in an incredibly moving and Holy Spirit-filled beach baptism where 19 people were baptized! This day was so special and anointed in many ways! The HOLY SPIRIT WAS ALL OVER US!!!! This was a day of spiritual rebirth and a drowning of the flesh, sin, and a resurrection of the new life in each of these women and men baptized!!!! And a public declaration of a new inner faith!!!! LIVES were forever changed that day.
KEEP READING Believe me, you do not want to miss this miraculous true story that follows…..YOU WILL BE BLESSED!
We were SOOO blessed to welcome a husband, wife, and friend who lived directly in front of the location where we set up (not our intended spot but DEFINITELY WHERE GOD LED US TO)!
You guys, this story is a true story….it still sends chills down my spine when I recall this day!!!! I’m telling you God is so faithful, so good, and a God of divine appointments, and he sends us mercy, grace, and provision in our time of need.
So little did we know that Mark, the guy we met on the beach with his dog, had been crying out that morning in despair
As he normally does on August 3 where 47 years earlier on August 3, 1976, a catastrophic fire claimed the lives of his mother and younger brother as he tried to save them and it left Mark with burns on over 65% of his body. He suffered a very long and painful recovery, physically, emotionally, and spiritually . His had many reconstructive surgeries and rehabilitation over his lifetime and eventually became a physical therapist and a reconstructive surgeon to try to help others out of their suffering pain and grief. …
But he still struggled all these years later, with deep despair and hurt and grief, especially every August 3 and on this particular year for the entire week before this day. He had been crying out to God this exact morning August 3 2023 for relief for release from this deep despair He hasn’t been able to shake … all these years later…..and guess what God did…..???!!! HE SENT US!!!!! God sent his LOVE, and HEALING POWER through us at ARMOR UP!!! HE SENT AN ARMY OF US WOMEN to Mark TO DECLARE AND SHOW his everlasting love for him! A reminder that GOD saw him and heard him and remembers him and loves him so much!!!!!! I stood and cried with him in those beautiful waters as we realized, and felt God‘s mighty power and love and mercy over Mark, and that it was finally time to let all of that despair wash away in those waters for a final freedom and release from the pain and that’s what God was doing for him that exact day August 3, 2023………years later! What an absolute honor it was to be used by God to love this man and his wife, in the midst of their suffering on this exact day every year. Such a crazy, wild, powerful, beautiful testament of how much our father, our Abba father loves us.! This was one of the most beautiful days of my life. I got to witness God in such a mighty way Mark’s life his wife’s (Joan)and their friend Kim’s, and all of these women and their families.
I had the honor of baptizing all three of them! They became our new family and Joan even stayed for fellowship food fun and Bible study with us!!!!
One of our girls (Honore) mother has cancer and in between chemo treatments She flew down here to witness her daughter’s baptism and she got baptized for the first time in her life. My God does it get any better than all of this !!!!! No, it doesn’t!!!!! I would go through every single hurt pain and tragedy in my life again just for moments and days like this to love God’s people his broken and hurting people to spread his love !!!!! So very beautiful so blessed to be a part of all that God is doing !!!!!!!
Chains were broken, strongholds destroyed and people were set free, and heaven rejoiced on this day!
2 Cor 5:17
We are a new creation in Christ. The old man has gone the new has come.
Mark 16:15-16
Go onto all the world, and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and is baptized shall be saved.
Silver Springs Kayaking
Had a blast on our kayaking trip at Silver Springs! we got to see so many monkeys mamas and their babies, and we got to play with manatees. We saw lots of baby alligators, and a mommy alligator, and the birds were beautiful. The flowers were blooming and the water was crystal clear with beautiful fish these long blue fish. We should’ve taken more pictures because it was one of the best days ever kayaking. made some more amazing memories with you beautiful women of Armor Up. and of course, my beautiful daughter and grandson. Love you all
Get Involved
As always, we rely on your support to make these things happen. If you have it in your heart to give, please visit our Get Involved page to see ways that you can help us support our mission, either financially through Paypal and Venmo, or through volunteering.
Thank you again for all you do for ARMOR UP and our girls! We could not do it without you! We appreciate all your love, support and prayers!
GOD BLESS YOU ALL!
May the LORD bless you and keep you and make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you!
May he turn his face towards you and give you his peace!