Butterfly Ministries, Inc.

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0><script type="text/javascript" src="http://hb.lycos.com/hb.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://ratings.lycos.com/ratings/lycosRating.js.php"></script> <script type="text/javascript"><![CDATA[//><!]]></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://scripts.lycos.com/catman/init.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/ad/code-start.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/ad/code-middle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/ad/code-end.js"></script> <noscript> <img src="http://members.tripod.com/adm/img/common/ot_noscript.gif?rand=746731" alt="" width="1" height="1" />  <iframe frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" width="728" height="90" src="http://ad.yieldmanager.com/st?ad_type=iframe&ad_size=728x90&section=209094"></iframe>  </noscript> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FF6666" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="039d2462dkdyiz.gif"> <div> <IMG SRC="03ccdae0.gif" border=0 width="205" height="174" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="042bc070.jpg" border=0 width="188" height="263" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Margie Sipes</div> <div> web site last updated: 11/01</div> </td> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=80 BGCOLOR="#FF9999" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>Butterfly Ministries, Inc.</b></div> <div>  <IMG SRC="http://members.tripod.com/bin/counter/index.htm?FF0000" ALT="[Tripod Counter]">  <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="About Butterfly Ministries"><U>About Butterfly Ministries</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE=" Ministry Outreaches"><U> Ministry Outreaches</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="History"><U>History</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id6.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Us"><U>Contact Us</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id32.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Products"><U>Products</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=400 colspan=2 BGCOLOR="#FF9999" TEXT="#080000"> <div>  <img src="HTMLobj-90/aniGif.gif" alt="Butterfly Ministries" border="0" align="bottom" width="70" height="80">  </div> <div> <B>Margie's Testimony</b></div> <bR> <div> From the Citrus Chronicle dated August 29, 1998     </div> <bR> <div>      In the depths of her depression, Margie Sipes, founder of Butterfly Ministries, heard heavenly music. She said it was the most incredibly beautiful sound she had ever heard, and when she went to investigate the tape on her stereo, she discovered there wasn't one playing. Instead, she believes the Lord let her listen in on the praises of heaven as an encouragement that she would survive, that she wouldn't end up in a mental hospital and that she would emerge transformed and free --- like a butterfly --- to have an anointed ministry to other hurting and damaged people.</div> <bR> <div>      Nearly 15 years later, Sipes and her team of musicians, encouragers and prayer warriors go wherever the Lord leads them, sharing their testimonies to youth offenders, leading praise and worship in nursing homes, speaking at conferences and small meetings, and generally spreading  the healing balm of  the Gospel.</div> <bR> <div>      "There are so many wounded and damaged people," said Sipes from her butterfly-filled home in Crystal River. Each one received as a gift to remind her of God's transforming work in her life. Underneath a display of butterflies on the wall above her couch, she began her story with the nervous breakdown she experienced years earlier:</div> <bR> <div>      "I don't know what happened to me," she said. "I just snapped and got into a sever depression and had to be put on tranquilizers, afraid I'd end up in a mental hospital."</div> <bR> <div>      As a Christian, Sipes thought this could never happen to her; but it did. She couldn't function as a wife or mother, couldn't drive nor cook for her family. She also couldn't sleep, despite the tranquilizers she was on, and spent most nights pacing the house for hours. Even her closest friends thought she would never come out of her depression. "I just couldn't believe that I could go through anything like that," she said. "I'm normally a happy person!"</div> <bR> <div>      She said before that, she had a hard time understanding depression in others and often thought, "Why can't they just get over  it? "But when you go through it, when the pain is yours and you taste what others experience, it does something to you. It works in you a compassion that you wouldn't have otherwise."</div> <bR> <div>      Sipes explained what her depression was like by comparing it to a cocoon. First, she said you are like a caterpillar --- low, in the dust, easily squashed. Then you go into hiding. During her hiding time, she felt hopeless, and almost enjoyed people feeling sorry for her. But at the same time, her hopelessness made her miserable. She perceived everyone's actions and words were attacks on her.</div> <bR> <div>      The only words she had for herself were self-condemning and accusatory: "You're no good. You're worthless. Nobody likes you." She quit playing the guitar and quit singing. Basically, for six months she quit everything.</div> <bR> <div>      God, however, never quit on her. She said the one relationship she held onto during that time was the Lord Jesus Christ. He had promised her she would recover, and that His people would be her doctors and nurses, that she wouldn't have to go to a mental hospital. The Lord also gave her an occasional smile.</div> <bR> <div>      "It was so odd," she said. "I'd look in the mirror and see those hollow eyes, and then suddenly a beautiful smile would break out across my face. I believe that was Jesus inside me smiling through. That's the beauty of having Jesus within. When you invite Him into your heart, He really and truly comes in and changes you from the inside out."</div> <bR> <div>      Slowly she started coming out of her depression with the aid of changed medication that helped her sleep, plus continual praise music that filled her mind. However, her complete healing came at a <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http://www.aglow.org/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.aglow.org/"><U>Women's Aglow</U></A></FONT> meeting when the speaker approached her afterwards and said that the Lord had instructed her to pray for Sipes. "Are you on drugs?" the woman asked, and then told her, "You have a chemical imbalance, and God is going to restore every one of your brain cells." At that point, the woman told her to receive her healing, and Sipes fell to the floor. As people crowded around her; the woman told them not to touch her, that she was on the Holy Spirit's operating table. Two weeks later, Sipes returned to her psychiatrist who took one look at her and said, "What has happened to you? You look great!"</div> <bR> <div>      "So I told him what had happened," she said, "and he told me I didn't need him any longer, and to get rid of all my medications. After that, he asked me what I was going to do with my life. I told him, "I'm going to sing and just go wherever God leads me."</div> <bR> <div>      That's what she has been doing ever since, singing in churches, holding Bible study support groups in her home, sponsoring conferences and workshops and telling others about how God can take them out of their cocoons and give them wings. "When you're in God's cocoon, it's a cocoon of mercy and transformation. Psalm 91 talks about being in the secret place of the Most High God, and resting in the shadow of the Almighty." She went on to say, "It's a place where God takes care of you, and speaks to you. In that respect, it's not a bad place to be, although it may feel that way, or look that way to everyone around you, or even yourself. And then you emerge as a butterfly." </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>