Ministry Update April 28, 2008

Ministry Update April 28, 2008

John 6:27
“Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you…”

Well, Jesus sure gave me a ton of work to do this past week. How I praise Him for giving me the energy and passion to get through the week. I will do my best to sum up highlights of this past week.

Full JoyShop in Manheim for a local Farm Women’s group:
There were about 13 in attendance and we met Friday night and Saturday. It was a delightful group of ladies and I totally enjoyed my time with them, not to mention the good food we had! I was grateful for the opportunity to share my heart and passion.

“Serving with Excellence” conference in Dallas, Texas, April 20-24
To be honest, I could probably write several pages on what all happened in Dallas! From the time that Deb Risser, Judy Harnish, and my self boarded the plane in Philadelphia until we returned home, we felt God’s presence and leading. We made so many great connections as well as having many divine appointments. Some of the speakers we had the privilege to hear were Chuck Swindoll, Tony Evans, Ken Blanchard, Patsy Clairmont, Chip Ingram, Jill Briscoe, and Steve Douglas, President of Campus Crusade for Christ. We were challenged not only by their teaching but also by the leaders of the many workshops we attended throughout the week. It was exciting to be able to get my book into the hands of many people from all over the country! We definitely did some networking handing out many ministry brochures to help give JoyShop Ministries some exposure.

At the hotel where the conference was held, “Christian Leadership Alliance” had a table set up where any one could display their ministry brochures, etc. I noticed that someone from the Pocket Testament League had laid out about 30 pocket testaments with various covers. So this prompted me to lay one of JoyShop’s pt’s with the pile. A few minutes later as I was coming out of the ladies room, I noticed a tall man looking over the pocket testaments. As he shuffled through them he ended up picking out JoyShop’s pt! It was such an affirmation that I went up and gave him a copy of my book and told him all about the ministry! (poor man!) Turns out the woman that was traveling with him got a hold of my book and she later told me it was a divine appointment to receive my book!

One other highlight from our time in Texas: There was an exhibit hall for vendors to show off their offerings to help churches and Parachurch ministries such as ours. As we were strolling down the aisle, a man kind of jumped out in front of me with his arms wide opened and said “Anita!” Honestly, I had no idea who it was, so I looked at his name tag and couldn’t believe it. For the first time I was meeting face to face with Chuck Jones from North Carolina who I had met on Facebook! He is on staff at a large church in Charlotte, N.C. and had grown up in the same small town in Tennessee as I had. It was such a pleasant and unexpected surprise!
Ran into the President of Lancaster Bible College as well as Water Street Rescue Mission!

The only down side of the conference is that I am sure I came home a few pounds heavier. I won’t speak for Deb or Judy!

Manor Men’s Retreat at Kenbrook Bible Camp:
What a JOY to serve 10 men from Manor with the message of JoyShop! I have to admit I was a little intimidated by this, but from the moment I pulled in they greeted me so warmly and made me feel very comfortable. I felt the Lord’ presence with us and I just couldn’t help praising the Lord for this amazing opportunity. I could possibly be the only woman in America who can say she has taught at a men’s retreat!!!! After my last session one of the younger men came up to me and said he couldn’t believe he had never attended a JoyShop before in that I have probably done at least five at Manor! He said he loved it and was so glad he had come…even thanked me! I felt so blessed to have been an encouragement to him.

At Kenbrook there were other retreats going on and everyone ate at the same time in the cafeteria. Saturday morning before I went to breakfast, I prayed for a divine appointment with either a group of teens or women who I assumed would be at breakfast just so I could encourage them to seek God FIRST! Of course, I kind of forgot about it as I was eyeing up all the food choices for breakfast. Once I had my food on the tray I looked around for a table to sit with and saw one with two women sitting there. So I made my way over to them and asked if I could join them. As we exchanged info as to why we were at Kenbrook for the weekend, I soon knew that God had arranged our meeting. In fact one of the women used the very words, “divine appointment” to describe our meeting. Bottom line, one of the ladies shared with me that she was tired of the Christian life she was living. She wanted the abundant life that Jesus promises in John 10:10. She even mentioned that the Lord had been impressing upon her the verse in Matthew 6:33, “…but seek first the kingdom of God…” My heart sang with JOY as I shared with her about JoyShop Ministries and its mission. I invited them to sit in the back and be apart of the “classroom” setting and learn what they could from the two sessions I had yet to give to the men. It worked out perfect for them because they had the morning free. I love how the Lord answers our prayers and gives us the desires of our heart!

Trinity ECC mother and daughter banquet Saturday night:
Close to 100+ women attended this event. Deb Risser and her daughter, Alexis, traveled with me. Several women shared privately with me after the event that the message they heard had impacted them. One used the word “life-changing”!

How I thank God for creating this ministry to meet the needs of the many hungry and starved people of our day. It truly is a JOY to travel from place to place sharing our message. I sincerely thank you all for your support through your prayers, finances, and time.


Praise:
--Received a call from the person who is going to redesign the home page of Pocket Testament League asking for our content of the 21 Day Challenge so that they can add this to their web site to encourage their members to take the 21DC.
--Many new opportunities have opened up to minister to teens! One locally at Beyerland Mennonite Church, and I am working on finding a date to speak to students involved with the FCA at Warwick High School. We also received an invitation to speak at a youth retreat of about 300-600 students in attendance. Todd Agnew, a contemporary musician will be giving a concert at this event. This event is slated for the last weekend in August and I am looking forward to confirming the details in the next couple of days.
--The door has been opened for me to return to Penn Manor on May 7 to finish up the JoyShop, thank the Lord!
--A couple of men that attended the men’s retreat are going to try to find a way to have me speak at Columbia High School next year.

Prayer Request:

--Continue to pray the Lord will perfect and refine the message of JoyShop Ministries. I depend on Him to teach and instruct my heart or I would never have the nerve to step out and speak.

--Pray for all the people that received my book at the conference and on the plane! Pray that God will market the book for us and that it will get in the hands of those who need the message.

I close with a recent testimony we received through our website:
“I attended your JoyShop in Lancaster with Dove Christian Fellowship. I can't thank you enough for sharing. I have successfully completed the 21 day challenge and am still seeking him every morning in my chair with my hot tea! I love it!!!!!!!!! I can't believe how much it has totally transformed my relationship with Jesus.....ya know what I mean!? I also started journaling and I start my writings with Jesus, Good morning.... He really does like to listen to us and I can't even start to tell you how much I have noticed my God sightings now, it's amazingJ! Thank you ...”

This is what it’s all about, empowering and equipping brothers and sisters in Christ to find a deeper relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to the praise of His glory! Just think of how many lives will be impacted just by this one person! Amen!

Seeking Him with my whole heart---Anita

Minsitry Update April 16, 2008

I am trying to practice adding pictures to my blog but my choices are limited. I did manage to find this picture of some awesome college students from Altoona Penn State Campus. I had the privilege to spend the weekend with them last fall at a state park. We had a "JoyShop" time!

These past two weeks I have been studying John 3 and 4 and I have discovered some startling contrasts with the help of a commentary. We encounter Jesus dealing with two completely opposite people in two different ways.

In John 3 we meet a Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus and he is of high rank, a member of the Jewish counsel.

In John 4 the woman’s name is never mentioned and she is of low rank

Nicodemus is a Favored Jew and the woman is a despised Samaritan

Nicodemus had a high reputation, the woman was known as an adulterous

Nicodemus sought Jesus out at night

Jesus seeks out the Samaritan woman at the noon hour

Jesus says to the self-righteous Pharisee, “You must be born again.”

Jesus tells the Gentile sinner about “the gift of God.”

They both ask “How” to Jesus’ statement

They both meet His response with a skeptical attitude.

To Nicodemus he manifest Himself as TRUTH

To the Samaritan woman he manifests himself as GRACE

Jesus had to break down the pride of the Pharisee with the truth that all of Nicodemus’ religious training would not help him to enter the kingdom of God. Jesus declared to him, “no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

The Samaritan woman had no pride. She was so ashamed of her past that she came out at noon to draw water when no one else would be there. Jesus presented Himself to her in grace, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that ask you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

We see his approach to Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman fulfilled in John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

How divinely inspirational it is that John included these two incidents for our benefit. If I had to admit who I was most like, the religious Pharisee or the Samaritan woman, I’d have to go with the Samaritan woman. I am a sinner in desperate need of God’s grace and I praise God for giving me the living water of eternal life. Jesus satisfies my thirst!

MINISTRY UPDATE

Penn Manor High School Christian Club: Close to 35 students participated in a mini JoyShop. The students were very gracious to me. They were attentive and managed to stay awake during the 50 minute lecture these past two Wednesdays. A couple comments:

“I’ve been to a few JoyShops. They’re awesome! I always feel so uplifted afterward.”

“Thanks so much—you are a true encouragement. You were the boost I needed to seek God and not let Satan win the war.”

Sorry, but I have to tell you a story. Last Wednesday, Dennis Mylin, an adult, attended the JoyShop. I know Dennis from my teen pregnancy days. I use to give him guitar lessons every Monday night, while his mom would bake snack’s in our kitchen for our family. Our two families would play games and eat the yummy snacks after the lesson was over. This was a gift to me during my pregnancy. I looked forward to every Monday night and felt like I was doing something to help someone. Last week, I had told the students that I was going to do a book special just for them, two books for the price of one! My hearts desire was to see the book get into as many students hands as possible. What a JOY to receive an email from Dennis early this week, saying that he is involved with the youth at The Millersville Bible Church and that they wanted to sponsor 30 books for me to give out free at Penn Manor today! So after the JoyShop we were able to hand out free books to everyone. (We had to give away a few of our own books!) Please pray that the Lord spreads that book around Penn Manor.

Recently a board member told me that they had over heard some students talking and they mentioned my book! One student said they were on their third time through the book. Praise the Lord!

PRAISE

For a renewed friendship in my life that has led to a new board member! Judy Harnish has recently joined our board of directors and we are looking forward to her role in the ministry.

For the Pocket Testament League’s promotional of Joyshop Ministries pocket testament in a recent email to all of its members across the states and international. They have also recently expressed their plans to redesign their web page to encourage members to take the 21 DC! This is an answer to our prayers!

For this comment received through face book from a young woman who is in missionary work and had attended a JoyShop this past fall:
“Just the other week, I led team cell for my team in Israel and I decided to play the recording of your message to us in HDC about personal devotions. It was so refreshing to hear and very meaningful. Some of the things that you said went right along with things that I was struggling with in personal daily devotions. I believe our whole team really enjoyed the message and sought to spend more time in the word.”

Joyshop Ministries message in Israel….how awesome is that!!!!!!!

Just think, when the Lord works out the details for taping JoyShop professionally, the ministry will be able to go to so many more places!!

Over the weekend my son, Josh, received this text message from a young woman in high school in Reading who had just finished reading, “The File”
“It was really good. I could not put it down…it taught me a lot too, and now when I have free time in my day I spend it by reading my bible instead of flipping on the T.V.”

These comments make my heart sing! God is answering our prayers. He is using the book for the main purpose that I wrote the book…..to get everyone to open God’s File and read his love letters instead of wasting time in front of that idol….television!

Prayer Requests

Beginning this Friday, I will have nine days of extreme busyness.

Pray for the JoyShop I will be conducting locally this weekend for a group of women

Pray for safety travels as Deb Risser, Judy Harnish, and myself fly to Dallas Texas for the Christian Management Association Conference. We hope to learn a lot during our 5 day trip that will help to strengthen our ministry. However, pray for the contacts we will make there. I just can’t help but think that we are going out there for a specific purpose. I want to publicly thank Jack Pieklo who worked very hard to pull together “emergency” brochures to take along so that we can have something to hand out to other contacts while at the conference.

Pray for the JoyShop I will be doing the following weekend at Kenbrook Bible Camp with some men from my home church. Pray that the Lord will use these men who have a desire to grow closer to God to make a lasting impact in our church and our community.

Pray for energy as I finish at Kenbrook on Saturday afternoon and drive to another location to speak at a Mother Daughter Banquet at Trinity ECC in the evening.

In Him,

Anita

Ministry update April 8, 2008

April 8, 2008

Recently I decided that I should work through an exposition of the Gospel of John for my personal growth. It will take 71 days to get through this huge volume if I read one chapter a day! Today I happened to be reading the exposition on John 2:1-11, the first recorded miracle of Jesus turning water into wine. A couple of parallels jumped out at me.

How Jesus must have felt:

His mother is telling him it is time to do a miracle, yet he is telling her it’s not his time.

How often do we try to tell Jesus it is time to do something? Why is it so hard to wait for God’s timing?

Did he hesitate to begin his ministry? Surely he had to have known that once he performed a miracle, his life would never be the same. From this time on he would become a public figure, he would scarcely have leisure time and his time alone in communion with his Father could only be done when others slept. How did he feel at that moment?

I can still remember making the “scary” decision to start the process of turning JoyShop into an official ministry. I knew that my life would never be the same, it would never be my own, and I have to admit I hesitated for a moment. One does not start a ministry only to decide to quit the next year. Once I would pick up the phone and make the call to the one person I thought could guide me in this process there would be no turning back. But in my heart, I knew I was to step out in faith, not shrinking back, but trusting God. If he put this ministry in my heart then he would provide every step of the way.

How Jesus performed the miracle by using the servants:

His mother lays the ground work for the miracle by saying, “Do whatever he tells you.” Then Jesus calls the servants and tells them, “Fill the jars with water…now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” Jesus didn’t lift a finger! He simply told the servants what to do and as they obeyed he turned the water into wine!

Jesus needs us to do what he says! He is pleased to use these earthen vessels to display his miracles!

I learned today that in the Bible, wine symbolizes joy in God and that water is a symbol of the written Word. “Learn then, that the Lord is pleased to employ human agents in bringing joy to the hearts of men….And how may we His servants, today, bring the wine of joy unto human hearts? By ministering the Word…Here then is the blessed instruction for the servants of God today. Let us go forth with the Water of life, implicitly obeying the commands of our Lord, and He will use us to bring the wine of Divine joy to many a sad heart.”

This, my friend, is what I experience at every JoyShop. It is what we as a team are doing! We are encouraging the many sad hearts in the church to return to reading the Words of God. As more and more individuals start drinking in the water of the Word, Divine Joy will begin to fill their heart!

This past weekend, Paula Frey and myself made the five hour drive to Franklin, Pa. for a women’s retreat. We were grateful for safety in travel and the good mattresses for sleeping purposes! Forty eight women were present and we were blessed by the women’s response to JoyShop’s message. So many wonderful things happened in such a short time!

One dear woman came up to me after the Saturday evening session asking me to sign a book. She put her arms around me and thanked me. She said that she had been afraid for some time that she wasn’t really “saved” because she would have doubts at times about God. But after my morning session when I talk about doubts being normal she found freedom and joy knowing that she truly was saved!

Another woman drove back to her home town after the Friday evening session to bring her daughter back to attend Saturday’s session because she knew her daughter was hurting and she felt that her daughter would benefit by attending. I was so grateful to have time to talk with this lovely young woman the following afternoon and I am trusting God that His Word brought new joy in her life.

Other comments received:
“thank you for a life-changing weekend!!”

“You have really opened my eyes this weekend. I truly am going to seek God FIRST every day. Please pray that I can continue this desire and that I will be able to hear Him.”

“I have a husband and two sons who watch my every move and listen to what leaves my mouth. I have a youth group to care for as well, so this was just what I needed to hear…”

Thank you for your prayers for the weekend! Continue to pray that the Lord will anoint JoyShop’s message and spread it all over the place as these women go back to their different churches and begin to seek God first!

Prayer request:
Please pray for me as I go to Penn Manor High School the next two Wednesday mornings. Pray that I will have wisdom as to what part of the JoyShop I should do with the students in the Christian club since I only have 50 minutes each session.

Praise
The Pocket Testament League recently introduced our Pocket Testament to all of their Speaker reps. In a few days they will introduce it to thousands of league members around the world! Not only did they introduce it but they mention “The File”! How I pray that the Lord continues to get the book in the hands of those who need its encouragement.

For a student who recently completed the 21 DC and sent us her comments:
“I just want to thank you for the 21 DC. I learned a lot. More than you’ll ever know. I was struggling with a doubt that I’ve had. This challenge has helped in dispelling that doubt.”

Sandy Cove has given me an invitation to be a small part of a women’s retreat the last weekend in September as well as an invitation to come back in March of 2009 for a full JoyShop March 8-9.

Announcements:
Thursday night is JoyShop Ministries monthly prayer meeting at my home, 7-8:00 p.m. Anyone is welcomed to come!

In His Joy! Anita

PS---a miracle has just happened. I think I figured out how to add a picture to my blog all by myself!!!! This picture was taken at Berean Bookstore with my dear friend, Cynthia Herr, as we celebrated my book actually making it on a bookshelf at our local Christian Bookstore!