NE METRO is associated with Apostle/Prophet Chuck
Pierce & Glory of Zion Ministries as a Church of Zion. APOSTLE TONY CAVENER is a
member of the International Coalition of Apostles founded by C. Pete Wagner.
A brief history of NE METRO:
In
1982, APOSTLE TONY & PASTOR SANDRA CAVENER began serving in pastoral
capacities in several churches. Both were ordained into the ministry through
the Association of Vineyard Churches in 1988. TONY & SANDRA helped to lay
new foundations and set in order several existing works. In the late 1980's,
they ministered in an apostolic and prophetic capacity to several churches in
the southeast US. As church planters, they helped in the founding of the
Oklahoma City Vineyard.
Through a prophetic vision the Lord called TONY & SANDRA to move from
Oklahoma City to Atlanta in 1991. They served as associate pastors at the
Atlanta Vineyard from 1991 to 1994. In December 1994, as the winds of the
Toronto blessing began to blow, they planted NE METRO Christian Fellowship
in Norcross, GA. In 1996, NE METRO left the Association of Vineyard Churches to
pursue the renewal that was breaking out all over the world.
Since 1996, NE METRO has developed relationships with John & Carol Arnott
(Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship), Prophet Bob Jones, John Paul
Jackson, Keith Miller, Chief Niegel Bigpond, James Goll, Dutch Sheets,
Chuck Pierce, and many others.
SANDRA was one of the keynote speakers at the 1997 Toronto Airport Christian
Fellowship's Women Conference. She has been involved in planning and
participating with many other women's conferences. Another passion of SANDRA's
is for the next generation. She has attended numerous conferences at The RAMP
in Hamilton, AL with NE METRO's youth..
TONY & SANDRA have ministered internationally in Canada, Costa Rica, the
UK, the Dominican Republic , Peru, and Australia. Seven men from NE METRO participated
in a historic event as "shofar trumpeters" who blow the shofars at
the end of 0.7.07.07 The Call Nashville when Ray Hughes called for the
"new sound" to come forth into the nation.
A MIRACLE IN COSTA RICA
After an
intense 5 day International pastor's conference in San Jose, Costa Rica,
Apostle Tony and several of his ministry partners took one day off and made the
5 hour drive to the West Coast of Costa Rica to rest and enjoy the beautiful
beach at Manuel Antonio. This was on Labor Day in September of 2000.
After arriving at the beach they all swam out into the beautiful Pacific Ocean
in the four to six foot waves and began to body surf. After about 30 minutes
Tony grew tired and headed back to shore, on his way to the beach an undertow
caught him and swept him off of his feet, the powerful undertow literally
picked him up in the curling wave, and catapulted him head first into the hard
sand. The pain was excruciating, it felt like red hot liquid fire going
throughout his entire body and then......complete silence.
It was at that moment the awareness that something was horribly and tragically
wrong came to his realization. He was over a thousand miles away from his
home and his family, in a foreign land, totally submerged in water, and was
completely paralyzed from the neck down due to the the impact and the resulting
fractures to his neck vertebrae. In the ensuing seconds the reality of his
situation came vividly to him, he was totally paralyzed and unable to swim or
use any of his limbs, at all, he was completely helpless. It was then
Tony had an encounter with the Lord and cried out for His divine help.
Miraculously, he was propelled across the prevailing current and bumped into
one of his companions, all the time being completely submerged, paralyzed
from the neck down, and totally helpless. His companion looked down at
him and realized that something was catastrophically wrong with Tony. He
then reached down to help him to shore, after calling out for and receiving aid
from the others in the group. While waiting on the ambulance to arrive, his
companions laid hands on him and prayed that God would totally heal him. Within
30 minutes, TONY's
pain began to fade and he regained movement in the right side of his body.
Later in the day he was finally diagnosed with "miraculously" clean
fractures (no shards or fragments had to be removed - the C1 and C2 vertebrae
were completely broken, a normally fatal break known as a 'hangman's fracture')
and was fitted with a "halo" vest to hold his neck rigid to
allow for the natural healing of his broken neck (this was after a twelve hour
emergency transport where Tony was laying prostrate, strapped on an emergency
medical board, still in a bathing suit with sand under all of his pressure
points [now the feeling was coming back, ouch!], with a Philadelphia collar
around his neck to keep it immobile and secure, traveling all the way from the
Pacific beach to San Jose in the central part of the country via airlift and 4
in country ambulance rides, finally arriving at the hospital 'Clinica de
Biblica' under the wonderful care of Dr. Mora, neurosurgeon).
Thankfully no surgery was required and God began the healing process of TONY's
body. Within 5 days, Tony regained 70% use of his left side and arm.
Doctors diagnosed it would take him 3 months to be well enough to finally leave
the hospital and fly home.
However, only 8 short days later, Tony walked out of the hospital on his own
power with his wonderful wife Sandra helping at his side and flew home to
Atlanta (complimentary first class - thank you precious Delta flight
attendants).
TONY
should have died, drowned, or suffered permanent paralysis, but God had a
different plan. God performed a miracle! TONY is now completely
and totally healed, still advancing the Kingdom of God, filled with
gratefulness and thanksgiving to such a wonderful Savior!