Women Helping Women
with DeeDee Freeman
In 1993, you and your husband, Pastor Mike Freeman, founded Spirit of Faith Christian Center. Describe what led you to start that journey and how it’s impacted your lives.
The genesis of this journey was an in-home Bible Study where my husband Mike began to teach just me the Word, then my mother, my best-friend, and other family members heard and joined in. Sometime after we married, my husband who ministered with his father, also a Pastor, answered the call to pastor; he left the family church to pastor his ministry. He asked me before we married did I think I could be a pastor’s wife. I never knew then how much my life would change. I thought I would be what I had seen all my growing up years of a pastor’s wife. I thought I would sit and wear a hat and maybe do announcements sometimes. That’s not a put down at all, but that was my perspective of that position. We started with 12 people, and have grown to thousands. The impact on our lives is tremendous first of with such responsibility of knowing that one day we will have to stand before God and give an account of how we led His people. We realize that our life is not our own but to be used to the glory of God. We are having so much fun obeying this assignment traveling the nation and seeing how God is using two people from the Southeast section of the District of Columbia to speak life into many. We are humbled by this call of God on our lives.
This year marks your 25th year leading the church. How have you seen God use the mission and vision of Spirit of Faith Christian Center to transform families and communities?
Our mission statement:
Loving, Serving, Impacting Generations by Faith in Excellence, one life at a time
We have witnessed the greatest miracle of all, the transformation from spiritual death to life as countless thousands have received Christ as a result of not only ourselves but of people who have been under our teaching fulfill the Great Commandment. We also have seen marriages restored as we have used our own life story to teach others how to apply the Word of God to have restoration in their marriages. We support missions; we have community events where we give away food, clothes school supplies. SOFCC is very involved with our local schools. We have health fairs for the church and the community so they can come and get free exams and teeth screenings like many of us go to get with experts like this dentists in Tijuana.
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Spirit of Faith partners has come together to buys cars and pay mortgages. And in the mortgage industry, data analytics like the ones at Certified Credit mortgage analytics services is very important for it can have huge payoffs for both lenders and consumers. A little over a year we started a Sunday noon service called ECHO (Expanding Church Order) for the millennials. My daughter Brelyn and son-in-law Kevin are over that service, and it has grown close to 800 in one year. It is my husband’s voice passed down to the next generation. There are many other things that we have done to demonstrate that we are the light. There also other ministries nationwide that have been birthed out of Spirit of Faith. Those ministries are carrying out our legacy to make a change, through God’s Word in their respective areas.
In addition to leading a growing church, you’re also a wife, mother, and grandmother. How do you balance these responsibilities with your ministry commitments to make sure your family stays healthy and strong?
The Bible tells us to seek first the Kingdom of God, and all other things will be added unto me. It is the grace of God in my life that allows me to handle the multiple hats that have been given to me. My family all work together with us in ministry, so they’ve been raised in the church and understand that putting God first makes everything else work together for our good. I’ve never tried to “balance.” When we balance, we give more weight to one thing over another. So as a wife, a mother, and a leader of our church I’ve relied entirely on the Holy Spirit to guide me in prioritizing my life. The bible says he who lacks wisdom let him ask and the father will give it to him liberally. I rely entirely on the wisdom of God. I am big on making memories. I use every opportunity to create memories for my family. From picking my kids up early from school when they were younger for ice cream, to recently having a movie night in pajamas with my kisses (Grandchildren) to having everyone over for Sunday dinners. Moments matter so we have to purpose to make the best out of every moment.
What role do women play in developing a faith-based marriage and family life that influences and creates change in the world around us?
The women’s role should be to support the mandate or vision of the house. Some would want to fight this because they don’t understand that submission doesn’t mean control but to get under and back the mission. I realize that my vision and what I want in life is connected to my husbands and when I push his vision, mines is inside of his so my vision moves too. It’s about teamwork for me. Two are better than one, and when we work together, we can accomplish anything. I often call myself the incubator to my husband’s vision, so I make sure through prayer and encouragement that he sticks to what he has placed in me. My attitude and life as it relates to being a wife have impacted women everywhere even in my house with my two girls. So, as a wife touches the lives of her family, they in-turn can affect the lives of others
Next month, you’ll be speaking at the I Am Woman Conference, which airs on Daystar June 8th and 9th. Can you give us a sneak peek of your message?
About four years ago my husband was attacked with sickness, and the doctors gave us no hope. The ordeal in the natural would have been unbearable for most, but through my husband’s teachings on faith, I stood without being shaken. God gave me the assignment to teach everywhere I go “How to Focus on the Promise and not the Process.” Yes, I know that there is a process that we must go through, but it’s time focus on what we are going to and not going through.
Why is it so important for women of faith to come together at events like this and to encourage and inspire one another?
The Bible tells us that iron sharpens iron. Most women don’t know the power and influence God has equipped them with within themselves. When we come together, there’s an exchange, by energy, in just seeing other women, just like you, with some of the same experiences, hurts, issues, testimonies and praise reports that come to worship God. It is a refreshing, a rekindling, and a recharging atmosphere that allow us to see that we are more alike than we are different and that if my sister made it through, so can I!
What do you hope people that attend and watch around the world on Daystar takeaway from this unique experience?
I hope that they take away the knowledge of the power of God to apply to their everyday lives. I pray they are inspired and encouraged to seek God for themselves and get an understanding that He loves them and cares about everything that concerns them. I hope they fall more in love with God, and recognize that He is the source of their health, wealth, happiness, and contentment in every aspect of their lives.
As the founder of Women Walking in the Word, you empower women to step into God’s purpose for their lives. Can you share an example of how the Lord has used this ministry to changes lives?
Through Women Walking in the Word, we’ve seen women take control of their lives both spiritually and in the natural. There have been women who have come to our meetings who have lost hope and believed that God has given up on them or thrown them away. They had turned their backs on the church. We have been able to reconcile them with a loving God by ministering a message of relationship with God and not religion. Many women come in with all types of issues and sometimes they need us to teach them who they are in Christ and build up their confidence so they can go and accomplish their dreams. As a result of our care and love, women throughout our ministry have been made free from past hurts and struggles, answered the call of God on their life and started businesses.
Your passion for helping battered women has led you to start a transitional home called Dee’s House of Hope. Describe how this project will help women escape violence and abuse.
Dee’s House of Hope will be a safe haven or as I call it a “GRACE PLACE” a place of healing and restoration. Women and their children will be able to come and get the tools necessary to lead self-supporting, purposeful lives. We will offer counseling, job training, and employment placement to ensure that they can go back into the world confident, fulfilling the role of God originally intended them to be.
The latest headlines in the news have highlighted women’s issues around the world. How should the church be responding?
The church should be praying just like we have been commissioned to do for the state of our society. Then we need to be addressing real issues and having real conversations in the church and not ignoring it as it will go away. It’s past time we educate our children about the problems they will be presented with and how to overcome when challenged and not fall prey. Sexual misconduct sadly to say is not just the worlds issue, but it’s in the church. We the Church have to become the answer and not a part of the problem.
As a leader in women’s ministry, why is it so critical for the body of Christ to speak out against domestic violence?
As a leader, I realize that my voice carries weight and influence. Therefore, it is crucial to use it to cause a positive impact. Women need to know their value and worth and unfortunately, in the church women have been treated as second-class citizens and subservient for a long time. Men need to be taught as well their role in the home and how to handle life’s pressures better. The Church is this earth’s answer, and if we can show healthy, wholesome relationships to the world, we can attract more to Jesus. God established the family before He created the Church. Cultural change is possible. However, it needs to start with the church.
What advice would you give to a woman who has been the victim of abuse and had yet to experience God’s healing power?
It is not your fault that someone violated you. You have been created in the image of God, and that means you have great value. You are fearfully and wonderfully made, and God took His time to craft you. God loves you so much that He gave the best gift anyone could give, and that was His son. So, hold your head up knowing that you have done nothing wrong. Get into your word and allow the Father a real man to minister healing to your heart. Lastly, identify what attracted you to get into that toxic relationship so you will never experience that again. If this applies to you, I pray that this has come to an utter end and it will not arise a second time (Nahum 1:9).
As you look to the future, how would like to see the culture change when it comes to how we address women’s issues?
I would like us to discuss things as they happen, show how to apply God’s Word to the current events happening in the world. For too long the church has not addressed so many issues, not realizing that the people in the pews, both men, and women, are dealing with these issues in their everyday lives. We need to arm them with the ammunition of the Word of God to deal with these issues and emerge victoriously, and ready to show others how they overcame by the Word.