Meet Sheila Self

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I'm Sheila Self, Executive Director at The Cross Ministries in Cullman, Alabama. My husband and I have been together for 31 years. I have two amazing children and two beautiful grandchildren. Gary and I are small-business owners and are in ministry full-time.

I had a supernatural encounter with Jesus on my back porch in December 2012. Something in me knew it was God, and I had to repent of all my sins. I felt as though something very heavy came up out of me, like 300 pounds had been lifted off me. I had no idea that I had just gone through deliverance. I had to read the bible to find out what happened to me that day. One year and five months later, I had scripture to back up my encounter.

Shortly after my encounter, the Lord started teaching me about deliverance in dreams and visions. The Lord spoke to my heart and told me that I would have a ministry of casting out demons and healing. I told the Lord that I could not do that because I was a woman, and besides, I knew nothing about those topics. All He responded was that He didn't look at my gender, but my heart. At that time, I did not know that was in the bible.

After I completed reading the bible in 2015, the Lord spoke to me in my prayer closet one day and told me to "go to the jail". The presence was so strong that all I could do was weep. Several months later, God opened a door for me to go minister to the women in jail for about 5 years. I witnessed women getting out of jail and then coming back. I asked them why they came back, and they said they had no choice but to go back to the drug dealer's house or back to that abusive boyfriend. My heart was broken for them.  They had burned all the bridges with their families and had nowhere else to turn, but to go right back into the lifestyle they were so eager to get out of.

By the leading of the Holy Ghost, we founded The Cross Ministries in 2017. The Lord had us open one of our rental properties for a women's recovery home and a second property for a transitional home. We had them open for about six years, and the Lord started opening the ministry to full-time counseling and deliverance to the public.

 I'm Danielle Smith, I have been purchased and redeemed by the blood of Jesus. I grew up in a dysfunctional family with a history of sin, addiction, and mental illness. I battled with these generational sins and curses. 

In 2017, a jail ministry visited the jail while I was incarcerated. I got saved and then I began my journey as a Christian. I loved Jesus, but I found myself continuing to struggle with addiction and sin. About a year later after struggling with addiction I decided to go to a women's faith-based halfway house program. After graduating from the program, I married my husband Jonathon Smith in 2019. We were doing our best to try to live for Jesus. We found ourselves falling into the traps of the enemy and ending up in bondage. In 2023 the enemy came after our marriage to destroy it. In December 2023, we got a divorce. I went through a year of mental torment and ended up in a psych ward. I was hearing voices telling me to kill myself, and went through severe spiritual warfare. I cried out to Jesus while I was in the psych ward and he answered me. I went through another halfway house program and also went through deliverance. Deliverance was the missing puzzle piece in my life. I am now walking free with power, love, and a sound mind! 

God has restored everything the enemy took from me, including my marriage with Jonathon.