“I’ve experienced the breakthroughs firsthand…” – Meet Stephanie

Vikki Waters • October 16, 2017

Stephanie Johns joined the prayer team at GGM in late 2015. Her introduction to GGM was at the suggestion of her daughters after the death of her husband in July 2013. She experienced firsthand the breakthroughs the ministry could help facilitate as that very day she took a huge leap forward in her grief journey.

She then became involved in the Bible studies and workshops where she was challenged and instructed. Joining the prayer team was a natural next step as she knew she wanted to share with others what had so radically impacted her life. One of her life’s goals is to facilitate others to hear God’s voice for themselves.

Having been raised in a preacher’s home and married to a preacher for 44 1/2 years, Stephanie is excited to minister at GGM knowing firsthand the difference it can make.

Stephanie has three married children–Michelle, Angela and Michael. She also has six grandchildren–Matthew, Joshua, Luke, Sophia,  Annabelle and Lili. (But she doesn’t have time to tell you how great they are!)

Since her husband’s death and her retirement from Erlanger Medical Center,  Stephanie has kept busy volunteering at various ministries including the local crisis pregnancy center; attending Iris Global Mission School in Rio de Janeiro; going on mission trips to Honduras, Las Vegas, Romania and Pine Ridge Indian Reservation; and leading a GriefShare group at her church.

She has many friends made through her association with several Christian singles’ groups.  These groups enjoy varied activities together including white water rafting, kayaking, camping, biking, hiking and just hanging out.

Without a doubt her favorite food is potatoes anyway you fix them.

She loves life and would wholeheartedly and without reservation recommend the ministry of GGM.

Searching for love in all the wrong places? It’s time to experience the Father’s love.

By Vikki Waters • September 20, 2021
Not long ago, I learned that when I was a baby, one of my primary caregivers regularly told me that my mother didn’t love me and that’s why she left me to go to work every day. Of course, when this was discovered, my parents found a new babysitter, but the invisible damage had already been done. Although I...

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By Vikki Waters • February 9, 2021
When I’d accepted Jesus into my heart, I’d allowed my driven personality and my wounds from the past to inform my faith, and I became a works-oriented Christian. Somehow, though I’d been wooed by God’s unconditional love, once I was in His Kingdom, I was driven by performance, not by love. This, I was discovering, was contrary to what the...

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By Vikki Waters • July 10, 2020
God works because of love, not obligation, and it is this reality that He invites us into when He calls us co-heirs and rulers with Christ. Paul describes exactly this quality in the believers in Thessalonica: “We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in...

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By Vikki Waters • November 4, 2017
I grew up in a fairly normal American Christian family being the youngest of five children. A couple of times a week as a family we went to a mainstream evangelical church. At the age of nine I was baptized because some of my friends were but I didn’t really understand what it meant. I...

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By Vikki Waters • October 24, 2017
When Deb Mileur said, “I do” to Jesus in 1988, she fell so in love with the Bible that she began sleeping with it under her pillow; she read it, highlighted it, memorized and taught it. In 2009, during a friend’s visit to India (where Deb and her family lived as missionaries), she learned about...

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By Vikki Waters • October 11, 2017
Anne Armstrong unofficially joined the Growing in Grace Ministry (GGM) family in December of 2010 after receiving her first SOZO there.  Anne was referred to GGM by a former ministry team member after sharing her heart and struggles about feeling “stuck” in certain areas of her life. Even before finding healing for herself at GGM,...

From strict religion to a true relationship! – Sunda’s Story

By Vikki Waters • September 3, 2017
Before coming to Growing in Grace, my life was a mess. I was in pain, I was angry, I was confused and I only knew God through religion’s eyes. I was raised in a very conservative and strict religion and that is how I saw God. I always felt His eyes of displeasure on me...

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By Vikki Waters • June 30, 2017
About three and a half months into my husband Richard’s out-of-state job, I realized I had been internalizing my resentment about being alone. On the weekends, we focused on being together, but during the week I focused on keeping busy with ministry and activity. Inside, I felt depressed and tired. These feelings were an old default that I had become...

Let Down Your Walls

By Vikki Waters • June 22, 2017
Though Jesus had become my Savior, the walls barricading my heart remained. Some of them softened, but many of them were my closest allies. It’s hard, even for Jesus, to have a relationship with someone who has walls like I did. I only had so much capacity for His love. Because I didn’t believe He really loved me unless...

Does God Really Enjoy Me?

By Vikki Waters • June 13, 2017
We are new creations, filled with a new belonging and a new power—all because of Christ’s work in us. In Ephesians, Paul painted a beautiful picture of this: I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith....
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