The word "Mother"

First I want to acknowledge this is a quote from the book Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge and is not my own writing. I am honored by a young sweet woman who is growing in her walk with Jesus who calls me 'Mother' and so it is to her I post today.

To Mother
As large as the role our mothers have played, the word "mother" is more powerful when used as a verb than as a noun. All women are not mothers but all women are called to mother. To mother is to nurture, to train, to educate, to rear. As daughters of Eve, all women are uniquely gifted to help others in their lives become more of who they truly are - to encourage, nurture and mother them towards their true selves. In doing this, women partner with Christ in the vital mission of bringing forth life.

The nurturing of life is a high and holy calling. And as a woman, it is yours. Yes, it takes many shapes and has a myriad of faces. Yes, men are called to this as well. But uniquely and deeply, this calling makes up part of the very fiber of a woman's soul - the calling to mother.

All women are called to mother. And all women are called to give birth. Women give birth to all kinds of things - to a book (it's nearly as hard as a child, believe me), to a church or to a movement. Women give birth to ideas, to creative expressions, to ministries. We birth life in others by inviting them into deeper realms of healing, to deeper walks with God, to deeper intimacy with Jesus. A woman is not less of a woman because she is not a wife or has not physically born a child. The heart and life of a woman is much vaster than that. All women are made in the image of God in that we bring forth life. When we enter into our world and into the lives of those we love and offer our tender and strong feminine hearts, we cannot help but mother them.

The capacity of a woman's heart for meaningful relationships is vast. There is no way your husband or your children can ever provide the intimacy and relational satisfaction you need. A woman must have women friends.

It is here, in the realm of relationship that women receive the most joy and the profoundest sorrows. The friendships of women inhabit a terrain of great mystery. There is a fierce jealousy, a fiery devotion and a great loyalty between women friends. Our friendships flow in the deep waters of the heart where God dwells and transformation takes place. It is here, in this holy place that a woman can partner with God in impacting another and be impacted by another for lasting good. It is here that she can mother, nurture, encourage and call forth Life.

To have a woman friend is to relax into another soul and be welcomed in all that you are and all that you are not. To know that, as a woman, you are not alone. Friendships between women provide a safe place to share in the experiences of life as a woman.

(Captivating, 176-180)

Sunday Community

HIt is early morning, mid-July and hot outside. In Phoenix it is always hot at this time of year even in the morning. It seems the day starts hot and just gets hotter. The TV is on. I am listening to Tiger Woods talk about his golf game and I am reminded that I need to pray God's blessings for his life. It is Sunday morning and soon I will prepare for church. As I type this blog today I can hear my heart long for community. To be involved in community, to share my heart and to hear the heart beats of others, to love and to be loved, just the way I am, yet nudged to work on weak areas and further develop my strengths. John Maxwell in a seminar several years ago encouraged those of us in attendance to work on our strengths. He further went on to say we were not to ignore our weak areas but instead to focus on our strengths. I liked that. Most of time we are told to work on our weak areas. But Maxwell said that if our weakness was a 4 or 5 on a scale of 1-10 that if we worked hard we might get that weakness to a 5 or 6. He said instead if we worked on our strengths which might be a 6 or 7 on the scale, we could move that to a 7 or 8. Wow! The Bible says that 'iron sharpens iron' meaning other people in my life smooth me. That way as I am in community I am not only using my strengths and increasing my ability to serve God to a higher degree, I am also smoothing out those weak areas. Seems like community is the answer for me to grow in both my strengths and my weakness.

Pornography

Susie (name has been changed), I got your message today and am so grateful for what God is doing. Please take it slow and continue to know this is a process that will take time. Change for Joe will be the most difficult thing he has ever done in his life but the reward God will give him will be the greatest freedom he will ever experience. God is all about freedom which is why He sent His son to die in our place....so we could be set free! I am so proud of you...your heart is so good and full and rich. Stay focused on yourself working out with Joe what you guys have agreed to in counsel and trust God with the rest. I love you and feel your pain as well as your excitement that the future does not have to look like the past. You have sought wisdom, trusted God in it and endured to maturity in Christ. James 1. I trust one day you will be able to share your story to give hope to so many woman who are suffering under the stigma that they must be silent and endure. We need to address this issue with woman so they can be equipped, just like you to make the right decisions, to act in a forward motion towards healing and freedom.

Ministry Opportunities

We of the DMI Team really do believe God’s people want to be matured and built up in their faith in Jesus Christ.(Col 2:6&7)For over 15 years this has been our calling. We have seen the fruit of this passion as those we have trained are passing this same vision on to others. Thus DMI is about to embark on a new opportunity.

DMI has been offered 900 sq ft of newly renovated space in a retail location at the NWC of 51st Ave and Cactus through it's favor with a Christian owner. The cost to have our office in this location is approximately $300.00 per month plus electricity. DMI needs your help and we need it right away to make this move possible. If everyone who reads this blog were able to send a $100.00 donation immediately to DMI we could make this move by August 1st, 2010. The DMI Team takes no salaries nor do they profit in anyway as all donations are used for ministry purposes.

The opportunity this location provides is unlimited and we believe God has opened the door for us to expand the way we do ministry. For instance, we will offer weekly Bible Study & Discipling groups led by Betty Bublitz, myself and others along with leadership & evangelism training seminars. Also available will be weekly Christian Yoga classes, job interview training and preparing a resume. We are exploring various other ministy ideas and would be interested if you have an idea for our new facilities because we would like to hear about it.

Right now we need the following and would like to know if you would be willing to participate with us in any of these opportunities?

1-Helping us move to our new location.

2-Video/Podcast abilities to tape our events and put together short YouTube type videos

3-Host a fund raising opportunity

4-Donate a Computer & Printer

5-Volunteer bookkeeper 2-4 hours per month

6-Speakers/sound system to enhance seminars & trainings

7- 8’ Conference Table

8-Stackable chairs for meetings

9-Light Construction work to build out a 6' half wall adding a countertop with underneath shelves

10-Monthly committed givers-we can accept direct payments through your employer if you opt in for charitable contributions as most companies have this available

11-Committed prayer partners

12-Web designer/host who will get us back on the internet with an up to date site

I believe God is asking us to make the need known and take the ministry to another level & trust Him for the bounty. So that is what I am doing. Amen!

PS. DMI is a Non-Profit 501C3 ministry and we do give tax deductable receipts!

DMI
dmii@cox.net
P O Box 11300
Glendale, AZ 85318

Father's Day

When the immigration issues came to light in Arizona I found myself wanting to call my Daddy for his opinion. He lived just a few miles north of the Mexico-Arizona border outside the town of Douglas. He loved the Mexican people and traveled into Mexico often helping with a small community of Christians just on the south side of the border in a little town called Nacco, Mexico. My dad often handed out a little booklet published by Campus Crusade for Christ called "Would You Like To Know God Personally" sharing his faith even when a Highway Patrol officer stopped him for a broken tail light. That same officer was days later called to the scene of a fatal accident on Highway 91 at Grants Road where my father, for a reason we will never know, did not stop, t-boning another vehicle. The horrific accident took the life of a young mother, her mother and my father. As I walked the area of the accident, there in the dirt of the desert, was the booklet. Covered in sand I almost passed it up for discarded trash but quickly realized the dusty little booklet would become my Father's legacy. At his service, my sister and I had each page copied onto a larger page and gave it as a handout to each of the 300+ people that lined the standing room only service. My dad was not a hero, he was not even always an ideal father, but he was my daddy and I loved him....and I miss him.

Memorial Day

My, how time has whizzed by like a whirlwind since my adult children with children have informed us, the grandparents, of our duty and obligation to the annual getaway of the adult only children. To put it in a nutshell, it means we, that is the grandparents, get the opportunity, as my adult children remind me often, to babysit. Well the youngest is three so that is not really babysitting, but then again when you are approaching sixty, almost touching sixty to be exact, three years old is really close to being a baby. And so as the annual trip goes, the adult children gather together and plan for a year their adventure trip, reminding the grandparents, us, of how much fun they will have on this gathering of the brothers and sisters and how I should appreciate how much they like each other, as though that makes their plans easier to encompass for the grandparents, us, to embrace. Ha! It just makes me wonder if I truly can survive another of their annual trips of the brotherhood and sisterhood, because it means we, that is the grandparents, us, get the opportunity, there is that word again, to babysit the adult children's offspring. Don't get me wrong I love those little ones. They are a blessing to me and to my heart. They are fun and full of life. These children of my adult children light up my life and remind me of my legacy. However, and that is a very big however, I know how fully tired I will be and ready, yes very ready, to give these little ones back to my adult children when they arrive four days later. Without any regret, I will close the door behind them when they leave and collapse on the couch, a bittersweet smile on my face that the annual trip is over and yet a good time well spent for everyone!

Women In Ministry

OK...it has been a while, well maybe a long while since I have blogged however I just read a blog by Felicity Dale, co-author of The Rabbit and the Elephant, about women in ministry and it sparked my need to comment. Since I am a woman and since I am in ministry and since I believe all women and for that matter all men are in ministry as Followers of Christ I want to clarify what being a woman in ministry really means. I believe we are all called to be available to share Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leave the results to God. To me that is ministry and all living human beings are to do this. It was Jesus' last words on earth. However the kind of ministry I think Felicity was talking about is from a pulpit. While I am OK with a woman in the pulpit (I use this word to refer to the use of a platform which could represent a woman talking to a group)and I have had the opportunity many times myself and enjoy doing so, I believe there is a point that needs not to be missed. In the beginning, when man and woman were created and woman stepped up in leadership and led her husband into biting the apple, I believe at that time her man could have and should have covered her with something like this, "Now honey you know what God says about this. I am taking the leadership here and I am not going to eat the apple. I know you already have taken that bite, but because i love you so much and because the buck stops here as your leader, I am going to not participate in this. I love you very much however I am going to be firm in my leadership role and cover you. I know God will understand because He is a loving God." Now that is leadership magnified. I do believe as a side-note that Eve would have been covered by Adam's obedience...we will never know though will we? So with that said I think it is very important that women grab hold of the value of being an equal partner however also know the equally important value of being under the covering of their husbands. If a woman is not married God is her covering and in all things she must be diligent to seek God's counsel and the wise counsel of Godly people both men and women in her life. If a woman is married she must be under the counsel of her husband which does not matter if he is a believer or not which is a hard concept for a woman whose husband is not walking with Christ as his head. In this way all her ways will be blessed because she is not seeking the limelight for personal glory rather being in submission to God's authority as her ultimate head and then to her husband. I have more to say about this in my next post.