Let us share with you how our ministry began.  We were members of Church of the Way of Forestville, MD when God called us out to start a new work.  Pastor Glen was an elder and Anita was a part of the Praise Team and led the discipleship ministry.We had received various words about pastoring in the past but we sensed no confirmation on the timing.  In July of 2006 with the occurrence of a number of events we sensed that now was the time.  We were sent out by Church of the Way in September 2006 and began Zoe Life Ministries in January 2007 - four months after the passing of Anita's father, which made this venture more difficult.  We deeply missed him.  He was a good friend and mentor, but we felt that God had called us to this work and dad would have wanted us to keep going too. So we began working on our logo, trying to decide what images to use.  Water and trees kept coming to our minds.  We looked at other things but kept coming back to water and trees, so the logo was created.  One day we were given some verses in Ezekiel, that struck a remarkable resemblance to the logo we created.  It described a beautiful picture of he temple of God, water, fish and trees.  We were amazed, we knew it was not a coincidence.  These verses brought great expectancy, humility and closure to our doubts. The verse was Ezekiel 47:1-12.  It speaks about an encounter between Ezekiel, the prophet and a messenger from God. In this vision, there is fresh water pouring out of the temple - the place where God dwelled in the old testament. The prophet and the messenger step into the water as they walk along the bank. First, it's at their ankles, then their knees, then their waist and then it is so high it is uncrossable. In the Bible, water represents the Holy Spirit. So this represents the flowing of the Holy Spirit to depths that cannot be fathomed. This fresh water river flowed into the Dead Sea. Where nothing grows, but because of the fresh water there were suddenly trees on the banks of the river and all kinds of fish and fishermen were casting their nets and bringing in the fish. This speaks of the Holy Spirit anointing places to bring forth life -  trees and fish. In the Psalms  it speaks of how believers will be like trees planted by rivers of water and in the new testament Jesus referred to his disciples as fishers of men, so the trees & the fish represent new believers- all kinds, moving from death to life. As Ezekiel looked up from the cities of fisherman, he noticed that the trees on the banks now had fruit that was for eating and leaves that were for healing. This represents mature believers, because when the trees first appeared they had no fruit, only a mature tree bears fruit and these trees were equipped to also bring healing. So God sent the water, He birthed and multiplied the trees & fish. The message is simple - we like Ezekiel have the privilege of stepping into the midst of what God is doing. But we must remember He is the one who is in control.  It's not about us. It's about His Kingdom. All glory and honor belong to Him.  Our logo will always be a reminder of these truths.

An easy way to remember this process is:

Birthing - from death to life

Rooting - from life to sustainability

Fruiting - from sustanability to duplication