Testimonies - Suzy Yaraei

September 29, 2009

Suzy co-led the Worship Department of MorningStar Ministries in North Carolina with Leonard Jones for 7 years, from 1998 – 2006. Prior to joining the MorningStar Ministry Team, she sang professionally with Reba McEntire, Wynonna Judd and several other successful recording artists. Her three CD’s Simple, Shining, and Spin are powerful tools for worshippers.

In June of 2006, Suzy and her husband, Kamran Yaraei, started “Holy Spirit Adventures.”

Suzy's greatest desire in ministry is to help free people worship God with total abandon. She wants worshippers to discover who they truly are in Christ. She has a heart to teach and release worshipers to flow in the power of the Holy Spirit through prophetic and spontaneous song, sound, movement and art. She also has a passion to see true Christianity re-birthed through teaching the basic foundations of the cross. Conditions such as forgiveness and repentance, and keeping our hearts clean and open for the flow of His love and power.

Suzy’s Story – How she met and fell in love with God:

Suzy was born on January 4, 1960. She grew up in a home with a Catholic heritage. There were normal setbacks from a dysfunctional home which Suzy started learning to overcome after her mother, Mary Rae got into recovery programs. It was her mom who actually got her started on her road to recovery. Since then she has overcome many things in her life through her faith in God.

Suzy shares, “My story is not unique. Unfortunately there are more people in the world who are familiar with the pain I experienced than not. I like to tell my story frankly and briefly.”

So, this is Suzy’s story, in her own words:

I began singing professionally at age 18. I sang in several different groups and bands, all the while getting more and more into the drug and alcohol scene in Dallas.

At age 25 I got the chance to audition to sing back-up vocals for a new, barely known, artist, Reba McEntire. I drove to her home in Oklahoma to audition, and got the job. Reba quickly rose to the top of the country charts. In no time she became the queen of country music, winning award after award, with all of her albums going gold and platinum. I was privileged to sing with Reba on every album she recorded during my five years working with her.

One day Reba introduced me to a new member of the tour, her hairdresser and wardrobe assistant, Sheri McCoy Haynes. I thought Sheri always acted a bit strange but I was drawn to her nevertheless. I remember admiring her face – it always looked so bright and clean. One day I asked her what kind of makeup she wore. She told me that her makeup probably had nothing to do with the way her face looked. She said, “It’s probably Jesus.”

I said, “Who?” She explained a bit, and then I went out and drank myself into a stupor.

Shortly after that time, Sheri and I were in a hotel room together when the Holy Spirit came into the room in a mighty way. I had no idea who the Holy Spirit was at the time, but I felt this presence that caused me to fall off my bed, crying. Not knowing what was happening I tried to get up to do my laundry, but I couldn’t walk or stop crying. I made it as far as the hotel stairway where I sat crying. I can still smell that place. I remember sitting there wondering what was happening to me, and if God was real.

After my experience in the hotel Sheri began to teach me a little bit about Christianity. I tried to straighten up and “fly right,” (I read the Bible twice), but I couldn’t quite pull myself together. I continued with my life of sin and debauchery on-and-off for several years after that.

My breaking point came after my first husband and I separated. I was home alone drinking a lot of vodka one night, really at my end, when another divine intervention occurred. I had been crawling around on the floor, crying out to God for help when I thought I heard a voice at my front door, but no one was there.

(Now, I may have been known to drink a lot, but I had never hallucinated on vodka.)

I remember clearly what the voice said. It spoke, “I want you to call your husband, get some help and quit your job.” Out of desperation I called my husband to get the number of the counselor he was seeing so that I could get some help…and then I called Reba. Reba and I agreed that I should obey the voice I heard, so I left her band.

Through the advice of the counselor I admitted myself into a treatment center for drugs and alcohol in 1990. I was thirty years old at the time.

One month after I was released from the rehabilitation center, a plane crashed violently into the side of a mountain outside of San Francisco, killing all of Reba’s band members. I would have been on that plane had I not listened to the voice that day. I know now that it was God’s voice at my door that night. He has so much love for us! He came to talk to a drunken young woman crying out for help. He saved my life! I knew then that I would follow the call of God on my life no matter what. That was my 9-11 wake-up call!

I continued touring with Wynonna Judd and Kathy Mattea after that. I did shows with various other recording artists, but I was restless, becoming more and more hungry for God.

In 1994 Don and Christine Potter and Sheri Haynes invited me to a MorningStar Conference. When they invited me I didn’t know what a conference was. I thought they were inviting me to a business meeting of some sort, and while I wasn’t terribly crazy about the idea, I went. What happened to me there changed my life forever and I have been running hard after Jesus ever since.

Simply put, the Holy Spirit sat on me for 5 days at the MorningStar conference. I couldn’t walk, sing, or do much of anything. I cried a lot and met some wonderful people there who proved to be instrumental in my life to this day. I believe God was purifying and delivering me through the pure sound of true worship coming from Don Potter, Leonard Jones, Lilo Keller and the others who were involved. God deposited in me something that has never left - a true hunger and passion for the ways of His Holy Spirit in worship and life.

I left that conference and vowed to give my whole life to God. I started studying the Bible like I never had. I ate the Word until I was so full I was dizzy, nearly fainting. It was one of the best times of my life.

Soon after, I left everything in Nashville and moved to Moravian Falls, North Carolina to live with Buck and Elaine Petty whom I had met through Christine Potter. They helped me get back on my feet after getting divorced and leaving the music business. They gave me shelter, a job, food, and more love then I had ever known in my life. I purchased land from Buck and Elaine and I still live next door to these precious people in my small, paradise cabin built by Buck and his son, Brian.

My husband Kamran and I thank God every day for bringing us to this amazing place.

After moving to Moravian Falls I began to sing with Don and Leonard on the weekends at MorningStar meetings and conferences. In 1998 Rick, Don and I met for lunch and they offered me a job. Imagine, getting paid to worship? I was still learning what that meant. (I’m still learning). I remember saying to Rick, “Hey, I don’t know how to worship that good yet, but I really need a job.” I was so excited and so thankful! I cried all the way home.

I have had the best mentors. They are among the most respected Christian leaders on earth today. Wonderful people like: Don and Christine Potter, Rick Joyner, Steve Thompson, Leonard Jones, Bob Jones, Geri and Lilo Keller, Brad and Jill McClendon and many more.

Since I found the Lord I have been learning and growing in the ways of worship, teaching, and mentoring. I have a heart to take people into deep intimacy in worship where they can have a fresh experience with Holy Spirit that will carry over into their daily lives. I believe musical worship can be a life-changing experience every time as we go deeper into His realm of sound and light. I believe we can take these experiences to heart to gain more power to go out and change the world for Jesus. We should be able to stand on street corners singing spontaneous songs of the Holy Spirit, drawing all people to His love and power. Miracles will follow. I‘ve seen it first hand. It’s about more than just a worship song - much, much more.

Now, Kamran and I are off into the wild, adventurous ways of the Holy Spirit, going wherever He leads. This is the first time in my life that I don’t know where the paycheck is coming from. I am so excited to see what God will do as we step out in a whole new area of faith.

We courageously look to Holy Spirit, Jesus and our Father and ask, “ Hey guys, what adventure can we go on today?”

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