Faith Levine (Founder)
My story begins with the fact that my mother (birthmother) named me “Faith”, with the hope, prayer and firm belief that one day, we would be re-united—if only in the life to come. God had a plan that would include that tremendous blessing and that is also part of my story. Our God is wonderful beyond what any of us can fathom, I increasingly believe. I was placed for adoption as an infant-due to circumstances later regretted by both my birth-parents, but God saw that pain and had a plan to restore us all! This included being introduced and reunited with not only both my parents but my four full siblings and a host of other relatives. It was a blessing beyond compare and continues to this day. The many years of separation included my being adopted at 5 months of age into a family truly hand-picked by God, and I see that increasingly the longer I live. My adoptive sister led me to the Lord and I was taken to the point of true Salvation in the late fall of 1993—made a new creation and in a moment, old things passed away. It is quite a story–really as all testimonies of God’s radical interventions into a life are and should ever continually be. Story, upon story, upon story.
I was teaching Sociology at two institutions in the Kansas City area–about 2 years into that “career” and radically saved mid-semester. Rather than removing me from the classroom, as I imagined He would have to in that I no longer “believed” what I was teaching, He immediately began to instruct me–often in the moment–on how to present the material His way. This eventually led to many opportunities to learn and teach various means of evaluating theories, “facts” and doctrines increasingly embedded within textbooks and presented as not-to-be challenged “givens”. The classroom “ministry” extended over a 20 year period and eventually incorporated the presentation of competing worldviews as a means of understanding societal shifts over time.
Music had additionally, always been some part of my life. That too is a tale of many sub-stories involving His rescue from my immature pre-salvation intent to head down a very wrong path concerning that. Music, for me, was essentially “laid down” for a quite a long time and then, to my surprise, less than a year following my salvation, He prompted me to “sing a song” (a particular one) at the little Assembly of God church I initially attended. That as well, involves many stories within stories and turning points that rested within that day. Eventually He led me into the Messianic stream, and a couple of years later prompted me to serve as part of a worship team and ultimately in the leading of worship in various venues–primarily within the context of local Messianic congregations. It was shortly after this time that He began to inspire the writing of various “songs”–often, but not always, arising out of circumstances/struggles/victories pertinent to my own spiritual journey of faith.
In addition to the ongoing work of Spring of Gihon Ministries, other primary forms of ministry have involved: women’s discipleship and various teaching opportunities and services geared toward the care and advocacy of young children.
