Thank you so much for this opportunity to write of what God is doing. I find that it’s truly a challenge to write about one’s self, but I will endeavor.

My story is not one of glitz and glam, in fact it’s messy in some parts, sad in other parts, some other parts still pending.  But I’ve always believed God to make use of all the stories He has made me survive.

I grew up in a Muslim home and with a strong polygamous heritage on both sides.  My family root is in the nation of Sierra Leone.  But I found the Lord as a college freshman in a African-American church in 1997.  Over the years I’ve had several challenges that I believe they  have added to the content God has given me for the His glory.

Some of these challenges have included broken relationship, domestic violence, abuse, single parenthood, health scares, child hood trauma, a fire in my home that left me homelessness for a short season, and financial issues etc.  I always say there isn’t much I’ve not gone through but somehow God has gotten me through. Even from the things I entered into myself.  And during the times I didn’t know Him he was still aligning things for me.  At a young age and even in the midst of the most hottest fires He would show me glimpses I didn’t understand but He had a plan all along.

In the early 2000s during extreme heart-break, public shame, and loss, I found myself in a place where God was all I had.  I know people say that often, but He literally was.  I was afraid to talk to anyone.  Could no longer trust many around me.  I was in divorce court.  My home was slipping out of my hands including the roof on my head.  In fact between 2010 and 2012, I had to start from scratch.  One example of that when I lost my single family home to a short sale, I moved all that was in it into a storage facility and moved into a one bedroom apartment with my kids.  Few months later due to one challenge or another, everything in the storage unit was auctioned off by the storage company.  I’d lost it all.  I started from scratch.  Buying used items, sleeping on air mattresses, eating from pantries, and just getting by.  It was then he prompted me to Live BY FAITH…hence the pen name.

I tell you I didn’t right my first book nor did I start sharing the Gospel, until that season. I almost felt like all of it was brewing all along but God needed to get my attention…Needed me to be free from the choices I made.  In that hot season He gave me songs, and I would write and read the Bible instead of sleeping.  I really couldn’t sleep.  And then one day I decided by His leading to start a YouTube channel.  My consistency was unfaithful.  I began to get distracted.  Would stop for months.  And then almost two years at one time.  I was in the faith and still loving and serving God in my local church.  But I lost connection to the one showing me the vision.  Thus the vision faded away.

Until October 2016, when I cried out again.  “Lord I want to be used by you. Show me what to do.” I was then reminded of His grace and the area in which I’d quit.  That was October 12, 2016 when I made that prayer.  I was reminded that I’d gained and lost everything I sought for in this life.  What should have been my agenda all along was to preach Jesus, and to let people know about how He gathered my mess.  So in crazy obedience ON THE NEXT MORNING, October 13, 2016, I turned on my phone, not concerned about how I looked, sitting in my bedroom closet floor, I went to Facebook live and started telling all who could hear of His love that I know.  With this one move, God gave us the #Morningcrew. But because I’d failed and stopped and started before.  I gave myself a challenge to only do it for 40 days and then I would stop.  But it seemed like God has other plans.

We passed day 40…and something was happening.  In November 2016, David Oyedepo came to my town.  I took time off work and went to the conference.  At the end of the service people lined up to pray on his chair.  I was nervous but stood in the line anyway. But then I heard “don’t sit on the chair,” like others were doing.  Bow to the God that lifts loves.  So when it was my turn that is what I did.  I bowed and spoke to my God that is no respecter of persons.  As I left the stage, the white man technician somehow handed me the mic the bishop had been using.  In a joking manner I asked my sister to take a picture of me with it and while I posed with the mic I said a prayer and spoke in my heavenly language.  I believe the amplifying was beginning then. I do not attend LFC.

By Day 70, on New Years Eve 2016/17, someone sent me a song.  I played it on the #Morningcrew and God sent me a miracle in this song by Nathaniel Bassey, (who I’d never heard of before then).  Miracle money came from one man I still have never met, and that help changed the course of the platform completely.  I was able to publish my 4th book stress free.  Zeal came, more books and songs came, and within 90 days from that the door opened for me to go to the nation of Israel and be in the room for the labor pains of the first Hallelujah Challenge.

All I ever did was follow His instructions.

As 2017 continued, the #morningcrew continued faithfully daily on my Facebook page and as consistency continued daily, God was doing something.  He is the founder, I just turned on the phone and obeyed.  Today we are on day 436.

The #MorningCrew (hashtag intentional) as now called the platform, is a community of early risers who gather daily to hear Him, according to Luke 21:38.  Our motto remains that A PRAYER LIFE IS NOT OPTIONAL.

We meet at 6:00 am EST M – F, and 7:00 am EST on weekends, EVERY SINGLE DAY, and simply share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  From all around the world, friends, family members, and strangers, log on to listen, pray along, participate in the monthly challenges, and share the videos with loved one.

The broadcast continued through 2017, and on the 100th day anniversary of the #MorningCrew, I released her fourth book, titled “Confessions of the Morning Crew”, which became an immediate Amazon best seller on e-book.

On October 13 – 15, 2017, the #MorningCrew celebrated our 365th day with a first in person meeting, in Laurel, Maryland, by holding a three-day conference called ARISE, which is now the annual conference.

During this first power-packed weekend, over eighty women met for the first time, after only seeing their names on a phone screen for a year.  We gathered to worship and fellowship with one voice, from states such as South Carolina, Maryland, Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, and from the nation of Trinidad and Tobago.

Shortly after, on Thanksgiving Day, 2017 the #MorningCrew gathered again in person and embarked on our first homeless outreach, in partnership with another Facebook fellowship ministry, and they fed the homeless in two locations across Washington, DC.

And God has taken over from there!!!  We will also be doing a Christmas Homeless Outreach on Christmas Day.  The next  Arise Conference of the #MorningCrew will be held in October 2018 in Maryland, USA.

The #MorningCrew is a proven example of the ongoing impact of social medial in our time.  In Mark 16:15, Jesus Christ tells us to “go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”

After the acceptance of this commission in my life; the help and leading of God, as well as the use of social media, aids the #MorningCrew in fulfilling the Mark 16:15 agenda, around the globe, one life, one testimony, one live video and one share button at a time.

All this while as individuals, we personally get closer to the Lord and live under the “M633” instructions: Mathew 6:33 – Seek ye First the Kingdom of God, and ALL OTHER THINGS WILL BE ADDED UNTO YOU! 

I give all glory to God as I encourage anyone ready to simply trust God no matter what.  And be consistent your relationship with Him.

To His fame I stand as a testament to the merciful move and use of God, over the life that is made available to Him.

God bless you!

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Minister Alphina “ByFaith” is definitely a woman on the rise in her generation for such a time as this.  She is a devoted mother, who holds Master’s Degree in Organizational Management from Trinity University, in Washington, DC., and she continues to be a student of the Word of God.  All this while mothering two angels and working a 9 -5 job that she has had for almost two decades.