Sometimes I am just blown away by God’s unexpected surprises and blessings. As you know I recently returned from a two week family vacation in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Literally I was home for 11 hours and then left again for Sandy Cove to be a part of a women’s retreat weekend. As I was getting ready to leave for Sandy Cove a rather large package came in the mail from my birth daughter, Twila. Can you feel my joy just in that statement? To receive a gift from your birth daughter for you birthday when you did not know where she was for 21 years is truly an incredible gift from our Lord!!! When I opened the package I was breathless as my eyes laid hold of the most beautiful hand made quilt I had ever seen! Her aunt and several relatives, including her mother, wanted to make the quilt as a token of love and appreciation for the choice I had made so many years ago. Also enclosed were some pictures of the women working on the quilt and they had all signed a special card. Tears still come to my eyes as I look at the pictures. It made turning 52 not so painfulJ!!! What an unexpected blessing to be able to take the pictures to Sandy Cove and share them with others. As one of my dear friends said, “The story continues!” (I have attached a picture of the quilt on my bed).
Ministry Update:
Sandy Cove went great. I praise God for His goodness to us as we served the women who attended the retreat. Kay Risser, Kim Wilson, Shelly Kibler and Kristen Funk joined me for most of the weekend and were a huge help to me. They set up our ministry table and manned it when I couldn’t as well as pack up the materials left over at the end of the retreat. I am truly blessed to have so many volunteers willing to give of their time.
Ministry Update:
Sandy Cove went great. I praise God for His goodness to us as we served the women who attended the retreat. Kay Risser, Kim Wilson, Shelly Kibler and Kristen Funk joined me for most of the weekend and were a huge help to me. They set up our ministry table and manned it when I couldn’t as well as pack up the materials left over at the end of the retreat. I am truly blessed to have so many volunteers willing to give of their time.
Received this comment from Candy Davidson of Sandy Cove, “Thank you so much for coming to Sandy Cove to bless the women with your workshop … I want you to know that there were a number of women who mentioned on their evaluation cards how much you had blessed them …I am so looking forward to March when I can experience your whole JoyShop.” We had roughly 70-80 women who attended the workshop which was really good considering it was optional. Thank you for your prayers! We know that many lives were impacted this past weekend and many contacts were made that will help spread our message. The smaller above picture was taken with Candy, the main speaker, musicians, and myself.
I returned home Sunday night and was eager for Monday to come so that I could make an attempt to catch up from being away. With a busy week ahead I knew I had a lot to do. Before I had left for vacation I was asked if I would be willing to share for 25 minutes at my home church, Manor Church, with the fifth and sixth graders on how to know God. To be honest, there was a side of me that felt like saying no because my schedule was full enough. But I do have a soft spot for youth and certainly I wanted to give back to my own church. So I said yes.
As I went for a walk that afternoon before I was to share, I prayed and asked God how to best get the message across to this age group. Some ideas came and when I got home I quickly wrote them down. When I arrived at church I was greeted by one of the assistants of that class who promptly told me she was reading my book with her 5th grade daughter. What a blessing to know that she was finding the book helpful. As the 20+ students came in and sat in a circle, Sherilyn Schock gave a great introduction to the session and then we handed out our new teen journals with the highlighter and pocket testament. (BTW: my thanks to Jack Pieklo, Nicola Pearce and Deb Risser for the hard work they put in to our new design) The students were really excited to have them and I was excited to hand them out!
The next 20 minutes were just precious. It’s hard to explain except to say that they were so attentive and I could tell that many of them were grasping the message. At the end when I asked if they had any questions one dear little girl raised her hand and asked me, “Why did you give up your daughter for adoption?” I prayed quickly that God would help me to answer that question in a way that would satisfy her and at the same time make a spiritual analogy. I trust God that He answered my prayer. I then dismissed them for a practice time with their leaders so that they would leave knowing how to do the 21 DC and learn something new about Jesus. As I drove home tears filled my eyes, grateful that I had not said “no” to this invitation. When I think of what a privilege it is to be able to teach these children how to know God in a practical way, I can’t help but thank Him over and over for the JOY of it all. Daily I am aware of His grace in my life and I continue to rejoice that He allows us these many opportunities to impact lives for eternity!
On Thursday I wrapped up my time at Mt. Calvary Christian School. It was the closing session of JoyShop. I had previously given them the 21 DC to do. Again, I was reminded of the amazing privilege to impact these students to grow in their intimacy with Jesus. What was so cool was that I forgot to mention the fact that there were response forms in the back of their binder for them to fill out if they had time. But five students came up to me afterward and handed me their response forms. Some of the comments received:
I returned home Sunday night and was eager for Monday to come so that I could make an attempt to catch up from being away. With a busy week ahead I knew I had a lot to do. Before I had left for vacation I was asked if I would be willing to share for 25 minutes at my home church, Manor Church, with the fifth and sixth graders on how to know God. To be honest, there was a side of me that felt like saying no because my schedule was full enough. But I do have a soft spot for youth and certainly I wanted to give back to my own church. So I said yes.
As I went for a walk that afternoon before I was to share, I prayed and asked God how to best get the message across to this age group. Some ideas came and when I got home I quickly wrote them down. When I arrived at church I was greeted by one of the assistants of that class who promptly told me she was reading my book with her 5th grade daughter. What a blessing to know that she was finding the book helpful. As the 20+ students came in and sat in a circle, Sherilyn Schock gave a great introduction to the session and then we handed out our new teen journals with the highlighter and pocket testament. (BTW: my thanks to Jack Pieklo, Nicola Pearce and Deb Risser for the hard work they put in to our new design) The students were really excited to have them and I was excited to hand them out!
The next 20 minutes were just precious. It’s hard to explain except to say that they were so attentive and I could tell that many of them were grasping the message. At the end when I asked if they had any questions one dear little girl raised her hand and asked me, “Why did you give up your daughter for adoption?” I prayed quickly that God would help me to answer that question in a way that would satisfy her and at the same time make a spiritual analogy. I trust God that He answered my prayer. I then dismissed them for a practice time with their leaders so that they would leave knowing how to do the 21 DC and learn something new about Jesus. As I drove home tears filled my eyes, grateful that I had not said “no” to this invitation. When I think of what a privilege it is to be able to teach these children how to know God in a practical way, I can’t help but thank Him over and over for the JOY of it all. Daily I am aware of His grace in my life and I continue to rejoice that He allows us these many opportunities to impact lives for eternity!
On Thursday I wrapped up my time at Mt. Calvary Christian School. It was the closing session of JoyShop. I had previously given them the 21 DC to do. Again, I was reminded of the amazing privilege to impact these students to grow in their intimacy with Jesus. What was so cool was that I forgot to mention the fact that there were response forms in the back of their binder for them to fill out if they had time. But five students came up to me afterward and handed me their response forms. Some of the comments received:
“This JoyShop was amazing and I loved every part of it…I will never do my quiet time the same. I’ve grown so much closer to Christ in just the past month. Thank you so much for coming.”
“This workshop was awesome. Thank you for coming … to challenge, motivate, and encourage us. It is my desire to meet with God every morning. Pray that I may be obedient.”
Another dear student wrote: “I don’t do Bible Studies. I want to and I will try to get up early to spend time with God.”
One student told me that she wanted to fill out the response form but was afraid she’d miss something important in the session and that she would fill it out later and mail to me.
As I reflected over my time at Mount Calvary I couldn’t help but thank God for this ministry. I love it! To inspire people to seek God first on a daily basis and give them the tools to help them be successful is truly exciting!
Recently we received the following email in response to my book I had left purposefully on the bookshelf for a retreat house where I had done a youth retreat this past summer. “My husband's family spent the weekend at Charter Hall, a house on the Chesapeake Bay. Your book, THE FILE, was there at the house. Several of us picked it up and read the book. It was awesome! I just wanted to thank you for sharing your heart in an honest and powerful way. Isn't God awesome? He truly desires the BEST in life for each of his children and your story is evidence of this. The one thing that really impacted me was the response your parents had to your pregnancy. They could have been angry, withdrawn, and hurtful, but responded in love! WOW..... that's amazing. What a challenge for me as a parent of 4 to respond likewise!!”
Other book news: I made a stop at Barnes and Nobles to find out if there is any way I can get my book on their bookshelves. To my pleasant surprise the Community Relations Manager told me that my book is actually in their system and that you can order it online. He then told me that they actually had my book for a season but only sold one copy so they sent their other copies back to the publisher. He also told me that for a first time author it is really a miracle that they even have my book! He said I was very fortunate. I gave God the credit! I happened to be shopping with my son, Josh, that day, and so I told him that I would pay him to sit at Barnes and Nobles in the coffee shop reading my book in hopes that it would inspire someone to buy it! He was gamed!!!! Anyway, at least now you know you can send people to Berean Bookstore or Barnes and Nobles to purchase the book.
Ministry Prayer Request:
Thursday through Friday, Oct. 9 & 10, I will be doing JoyShop in a retreat setting with the junior and senior high students of DaySpring Christian Academy. I am so excited to have this opportunity. Please pray that these students will be receptive and take to heart what they hear.
Thursday through Friday, Oct. 9 & 10, I will be doing JoyShop in a retreat setting with the junior and senior high students of DaySpring Christian Academy. I am so excited to have this opportunity. Please pray that these students will be receptive and take to heart what they hear.
Tuesday, Oct. 14, I will be sharing the message of JoyShop with the leadership of the Brethren In Christ denomination which happens to be my church affiliation. I know in my heart that this is a divine appointment. I don’t know what the Lord is up to but I am extremely excited about this opportunity. Pray that JoyShop Ministries will find favor and that the Holy Spirit would reveal to us what role this ministry could have in impacting the denomination at large.
Well, this is enough for now. October is a busy month and there are other ministry events happening. In fact I have six full JoyShop’s this month. I usually do not book this many but it is just how it all fell. Pray that I will have the energy, passion, and discernment to serve effectively at every event. Thank you for being my support through prayer, volunteered time, and finances. I could not serve the body of Christ as effectively without your support and I am gratefully indebted to you.
In Him, Anita
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