Doesn't every lodge have to have a charter to operate ?? ...
Yes but that's not how it works with GLs. Only a very few GLs are directly sponsored by other GLs and that is never done in any territory where a regular GL already exists. With grand lodges what matters is *recognition*. If a jurisdiction points to a charter that's a very bad sign. Jurisdictions that have plentiful recognition tend to note any charter as historical trivia or have it as a non-profit corporation in their state for tax purposes only. I have no idea how many jurisdictions yours trades recognition with but you definitely can't just look up the local lodge while traveling and visit the way we can.
One of the two starting points for judging regularity is the United Grand Lodge of England. If a GL from your state is listed (Grand Lodge of Georgia is listed) but yours is not you need to have a great deal of history as to why your jurisdiction would be valid in addition to the UGLE recognized one -
http://www.ugle.org.uk/about/foreign-grand-lodges see the North America tab.
The other of the two starting points is the Conference of Grand Masters Prince Hall -
http://www.conferenceofgrandmasterspha.org/gjlinks.asp They list the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Affiliated Grand Lodge of Georgia not yours.
Put together this makes it clear you joined a clandestine lodge. Chances are near zero you knew that at the time. Chances are near zero most of the members of your lodge know that. Only grand lodge officers necessarily know and by the time they find out they have far too much time invested to start their degree over.
Please understand that clandestine lodges tend to be forces for good in their communities. After all they teach what we teach except for dealing with out of town Brothers. Members of clandestine lodges tend to be wonderful guys.
If you don't care about heritage you don't have to care. Our jurisdictions have 300 years of history from their modern founding point and several centuries farther back than that in operative forms. But our mythical history extends back millennia to King Solomon's Temple. Who knows how far back your jurisdiction's founding was but it was definitely separate from the continuous body. And of course your jurisdiction's mythical history also extends back to KST.
Most of the members here would love for you to apply for healing
http://mwphglga.org/ or
http://www.glofga.org/