Bonjour my sisters and brothers,

I'm so excited and privileged to have been given such a vision as this from our Heavenly Father.  Why he chose me I'll never know, but the fact that he did is more than enough to say "Thank you."

From the time I wrote my first poem at the age of eight until my mid to late twenties, writing was just something I did.  It was personal, sometimes therapeutic, but never a desire to be publicly shared with the world or thought of as a gift.  It was a part of my private world, thus the word gift alone put me in immediate resistance and denial.  It wasn't so much fear of the gift itself, as the word that silently echoed behind it, "responsibility."  I refused to speak the word gift until I was ready to step out to accept the responsibility for which God had given the gift.  I did finally accept my gift and responsibility and have done a lot of writing since then, but was no where near ready for the calling of The Blood Magazine.

In 2006 I received the vision for The Blood, and I can't stress enough that this is God's magazine. 
I admit God has blessed me with a unique spirit of forgiveness.  He blessed me with a good portion of his compassion and understanding.  And he really blessed me with patience, but with all that he has blessed me with, I'll never have any of it anywhere near his immeasurable capacity.  I will hear a news story and feel a criminal is worthy of forgiveness, but at the same time may think another, hypothetically speaking, ought to be shot.  I may still think this person or that situation will never change, or something in me will never change.  At least I use to have those doubts, but now my trust is at a new level and I know God can change anything and anyone.  But I acknowledge my less Godly thoughts and doubts to stress that this is God's magazine, not mine and his message that there is no transgression too great for his forgiveness or too far out of reach of Christ's redeeming blood.  I'm a child of God, blessed by God, and privileged with characteristics of God, but still human in part while God is all spirit and sovereign.  I'm an imperfect woman, who has had an imperfect life, who is a Christian and a better, not perfect, but a better human and spirit because of Christ.  So I don't walk in this vision because I've perfected the journey.  I walk in the vision to testify to a perfect God, who sent a perfect son into an imperfect world, who by his Perfect Blood brings restoration to an imperfect man (mankind). 

On a personal note, I'm a pretty down to earth person.  I love laughter, it truly is medicine for the soul.  I treasure personal time and space, thus my home is my sanctuary.  God truly is my best friend, no one, not one solitary person on earth is allowed to have that title.  If a person mistakenly calls someone my best friend, I will quickly correct them, that is a no no.  My pet peeves are dishonesty and selfishness, neither is a necessity.

Like all of us, my life hasn't always been easy and I didn't get here over night.  I made it through good and bad times.  I made it through childhood trauma, sexual abuse and incest, heartaches, corporate warfare, and the list could go on.  We all have trials and tribulations.  I had to suffer the consequences of not keeping Christ and my relationship with him priority; the results of disobedience are not results I want to experience anymore in my life.  The good news is, I've also experienced joy along the way, peace, love, laughter, and just being me and walking into my deliverance, my purpose, and my destiny and indeed life is good, even with the bad it is good.  Or maybe I should clarify, life in Christ is good no matter how crazy things may some times get.  If we're honest with ourselves, most times, the good always outweighs the bad, for me personally, it has always outweighed the bad even when it didn't feel that way.

Probably my favorite scripture growing up was Romans 12:1 and during my young adult years Psalm 34:8. But now, I just love the word of God.  There are so many scriptures he has made meaningful to me at different times and for different reasons and it never stops when one begins to really draw nearer to him and study his word more.  I love getting to know him personally and not just what others tell me about him.

I love to encourage others towards God and I hope that as you take this journey with me and The Blood magazine that you will indeed be encouraged and will also be an encourager.

Thank you for giving The Blood your time and attention.

Allison Royalette