Lost & Found in Jesus

Today I am joining Lisa-Jo and friends for Five Minute Friday.

This is where we come together writing for 5 minutes without editing or overthinking.

I love this community.

Check out what everyone's is sharing on the word AFTER here.




Today was one of those conversations with my mentor that was both encouraging and challenging. After I got off the phone with her, I couldn't get one thing out of my head.

Am I pursuing ministry more than Jesus?

You see there are times that I get caught up in the "doing" and lose sight of the "why."
I could rattle off to you the many reasons that I do what I do, but it all comes down to one thing. The most important thing.

Jesus loves me and I love Him.

Everything that I do from mothering to ministry flows out of that love.
He has to come first in all of it.
And sometimes I fail.
I try to do it on my own, inviting Him into the place where I am 
when all along it's His invitation that I am responding to.
And then there's grace. 
He gently reminds me that it is only by Him, for Him, 
and through Him that any of it is possible.

I want to pursue Him above all.
To stop striving for anything more than Him.
To be so lost in Jesus that there is where I am found.
That is my prayer today.



Look to the Lord and his strength;
seek his face always.
Psalm 105:4

Blessings,

Sharing the Dream

One of my first steps in moving forward in my God-Sized Dream 
was to share it with my mentor.

Karen has been my mentor for almost two years now 

and I am so incredibly blessed to have her in my life. 

Our relationship started five years ago when she was leading a Bible study for women on Saturday mornings that I attended. I loved hearing about her relationship with the Lord and could sit listening to her teaching for hours. She just leaks Jesus and I wanted to be near her for the overflow of that love for Him. That time we shared was wonderful and ended way too soon.

About a year or so later I had begun to feel a desire to have a mentor. I had heard a message that spoke on the importance of having "a Paul" in life. I had been blessed to be walking with someone in Children's Ministry, but really wanted someone who could mentor me in all areas of my life and not just ministry. So I began to pray. I prayed for God to bring someone into my life to be my "Paul." Two weeks later I walked into a women's small group that I was attending to find Karen. She shared her passion in being a Titus 2 woman during our time together that morning. She referenced these verses when she spoke about her heart for women.

These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, to live wisely and be pure, to work in their homes, to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands.

Titus 2:4-5

It was if God said to me that morning, "Ask and you shall receive." I knew that Karen was the answer to my prayer and asked it she would consider mentoring me and she agreed. We began to meet weekly - praying, talking, and studying together. She came alongside me as a wife, mother, and ministry leader. She teaches, encourages, challenges, and loves me.

It was only natural that one of my first steps in moving forward in my God-sized dream would be to share it with her.

She had recently invited me to lead a Bible study for moms in our church. She knew it would be a challenge for me as I would have to face one of my biggest fears - speaking. I knew that it was totally out of my comfort zone, but I did it scared.

So I don't think she was too surprised when I told her about my dream. I think that she had that vision of me even before it was revealed to me. It was a sweet conversation in which she shared how much she believes in me. She believes in all that God has for me...including my God-sized dream.

Do you have a mentor? 

Have you shared your God-sized dream with her?

My friend Holley Gerth invited me to join a group of dreamers that she affectionately calls her God Sized Dream Team. What a blessing to be part of this group. 

We will be gathering each week on Tuesdays at Holley's to encourage each other and you to dream those God sized dreams.

Won't you join us?
What is your God-sized dream?

Blessings,

Wednesdays with Women in Kidmin

Wednesdays with Women in Kidmin is about bringing together some of the leading 

women in children's ministry to share their knowledge and passion. 

For us to gather and learn from each other...to sharpen each other.

As iron sharpens iron,

so a friend sharpens a friend.

Proverbs 27:17

Women of Influence

- Karen Apple

I was a children’s pastor for a lot of years. Even before I joined a church staff, I thought of myself as a pastor (shepherd) to children. The women who inspired, initiated, encouraged, partnered and prayed with me are MY “shepherds” and my very special women of influence.

  

THE INSPIRATIONS

My mother taught “Good News Clubs” and Sunday school for many years. She made God’s Word come alive with facts she learned from the World Book Encyclopedia along with games and wondrous object lessons. Public school was hard for this learning disabled girl, but the Bible was easy to understand because Mother’s inventive, experience driven techniques were all wrapped up in a heart of love for kids and God’s Word.

Mrs. Kapel taught first and second grade children’s church. Stories about “kids like me” made the Bible messages relevant and SOOO interesting. Her influence lasted long after I left her classroom because her life reflected Christ’s likeness. I knew she cared for me so I looked for her each time I came home from college to tell her about my studies and plans for the future. I wanted to be just like her.

  

THE INITIATOR

One Sunday night after the church service, my mother asked me what I thought about the missionary’s message. His words struck a chord in my twelve-year-old heart so I said, “I know I want to teach kids about God’s Word when I grow up.” 

She didn’t skip a beat before she said; “You start next Sunday night in the two year old room with me.” That night the exciting mentorship began and it launched me on a journey that continues today. What a BLESSING to have a mother with a passion for children’s ministry and a vision for keeping the fire alive and growing in me.

THE ENCOURAGER AND SUPPORTER

Mrs. Elizabeth continues to inspire me.  She’s ninety years old now and works every week in the kid’s ministry resource room. She taught four year olds forever and advised, encouraged and supported me SO often during my years as a children’s pastor. She didn’t just “do” children’s ministry, she “lived” her faith.  

One of our staffers once said, “When I grow up, I want to be ‘Mrs. Elizabeth’!”

Every leader needs a “Mrs. Elizabeth.”

  

THE PARTNER IN MINISTRY

As our kids’ ministry grew, we increased the hours of our weekday preschool director to include all early childhood ministries. Together we planned, cast vision, recruited and trained volunteers. We spent so much time together we began finishing each other’s sentences and nodding in agreement after hearing only one word.  The youth pastor listened in amazement then asked, “How do you talk in short hand?”

Beth replied, “Between the two of us we have one brain.”

She knew how to take our vision and give it legs. She also knew when my visionary brain was out of control and with gentle persistence and humor she reined me in.

We never said, “MY ministry”. It was “OUR ministry”. Children’s ministry was a TEAM. It included each staff member we hired, volunteer team leaders, classroom teachers, parents AND KIDS.

THE PARTNERS IN PRAYER

After MANY years in children’s ministry, a new passion grew in my heart. I loved talking to other kids’ ministers and volunteers. Hearing their hearts and investing in their lives thrilled me. I prayed about this new idea and a ministry to kids’ leaders was born.

One of the church moms knew about this new adventure and asked if she and her prayer team could adopt me. I couldn’t believe the wonder of God’s work. Hope is a passionate prayer warrior. Her life is a shining beacon of God’s grace in the midst of hard times.  She encourages me with her faithfulness, sweetness and passion for God’s Word and the power of prayer.

Mae and each woman I mentor ask how they can pray for me. Women of action are women of prayer and I am very grateful for their loving investment in my life.

  

WOMEN OF INFLUENCE:

-Are women who make God’s Word their joy. (“When your words came, I ate them; they were my JOY and my heart’s delight.” Jeremiah 15:16) 

-Are “imitators of God as dear children…” (Ephesians 5:1) 

-Make their hearts Christ’s home. (My Heart – Christ’s Home, Robert Boyd Munger, Andrea Jorgenson)

My life continues to change because of God’s shepherds of influence.

Karen is a speaker, mentor and writer who was a children's pastor for lots of years. She adores Apples, especially her husband Steve.

Website: www.karenapple.net

Articles: http://www.cmbraintrust.com/en/homepage/cmbt-authors/karen-apple

I Did It Scared

This is the promise that I have been holding on to for the past few weeks as I have been preparing to lead a Bible study for moms at our church.

One of the fears I have been struggling with is speaking in public. I am talking butterflies the size of cows even thinking about it let alone actually doing it. When my mentor asked me to lead, I thought of a million reasons to give her for why I should not do it and then heard a small voice coming from deep inside that said, "yes." 

And I immediately thought to myself, "You have just lost your mind."

So over the past weeks of preparation I looked up every Bible verse that said "do not fear" in every translation. I thought if I could just get rid of the fear...

But the reality for me was that I just had to do it scared. 

I had to turn it over to Him and say that this is beyond me and I needed Him. The fear didn't go away. I stood on Tuesday morning in front of a group of women and taught (flipboard, notecards, markers, and all). My heart was beating a mile a minute the whole time and the last thing I prayed before I began was "I need You Lord. Please..."

When I was done I sat down and let out a huge sigh. 

All I kept saying in my head over and over again was "Thank you Lord."

Here is a little of what I shared...

In order to learn how to be a better mom to our children, we need to learn more about how our Father parents us. What better way to begin than

In the beginning...

God our Father is the Creator of everything. At the very beginning of Genesis we hear how everything came to be. From light to darkness to stars and oceans. At the end of each day, God looked over everything He had made and said it was good. But something changed after He created human beings in His image. God looked over ALL He had made and said it was VERY good.

That ALL is you. You are His creation and you are VERY good in His eyes.

Body and soul, I am marvelously made!

Psalm 139:14

There are so many times as moms that we don't really feel so marvelous. Maybe it's a bad hair day. Maybe it's a day that we don't get everything done on our to-do list. Maybe we are short in patience with our kids.

But how we feel isn't the truth.

The truth in His Word says that we are marvelously 

made in His image and we are very good in His eyes.

That truth isn't just for us though.

It is also true about our children.

There are some days that it is a challenge to remember that they too are very good. (You know...one of those days where there is constant bickering.)

But their behavior doesn't define them.

God does.

They too are marvelously made.

When we focus on the positive, the negative is harder to see.

So for the next week I want to challenge you to write down 

5 things that you find marvelous about your children.

God Made Her Strong

 

God has knit my heart together with my cousin Amie's heart. 

We are both passionate about our family, Jesus, 

and mentoring among many other things.

I recently asked her to share about her passion for mentoring.

I'd like you to meet my cousin, Amie, and hear her heart today.

 

 

He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Isaiah 40:29

God made me strong!

I’m not only talking the kind of strong that you learn from growing up with cousins on a farm. I am strong like that and can do heavy lifting, but it’s more than that. I’m strong headed.  I like to think that He created me to do heavy lifting with my brain as well. Now, if you ask my parents or the Jolly German (my husband), they will probably tell you about the downside to this, but I know it is a gift from the Lord.

Over five years ago, the Lord called me out of a strong position in the secular world to do full time ministry. My strong brain told me this wasn’t logical. I couldn’t go back to the salary I made when I graduated college and still make ends meet. There wouldn’t be enough money. I wouldn’t be challenged enough. But the reality is, the Lord’s ways aren’t always logical. My best friend showed me a video of the vision of the North Charleston DreamCenter and I couldn’t ignore it. North Charleston was 7^th in the nation for violent crime per capita and it was only 15 minutes away from my house. I couldn’t sit back and ignore it.

I had no idea at that time what the Lord had in store. I stepped up to volunteer for 6 months and found myself leading Children’s Ministry. The funny thing about this is that I have no children. Here I am learning and teaching others about how to bring up a child in the ways of the Lord – yet I have never done it myself. Just another way the Lord uses the least of these and He sure did. The ministry grew from ground floor to just at 100 kids in 3 years before stepping aside to allow others the room to step into ministry.

I took a year off of Children’s Ministry to help establish the fundraising strategy of the Dream Center and in this time found my heart bending towards our e3 mentoring program. e3 (educate, elevate and empower) is a youth mentoring program that matches at-risk kids in middle and high school with professional and community mentors on a one-on-one basis. The mission is to help the youth become productive citizens who make positive contributions, good choices and love God.

The program was established in August 2009 to address the needs of the youth in our community and in 4 years, we have mentored an average of 35 students each year. By targeting issues such as staying in school, finding part time work, developing character and teaching students how to set goals we have been able to effect the community for generations.

The Impact

• 100% of the Seniors enrolled in 2011 Program Graduated – 12 Students
• · Graduation Rates at Local High School are Rising

2008-2009 @ 36.2%

2009-2010 @ 40.2%

2010-2011 @ 45.1%

• Increased Student Exposure with Trips: Columbia, Myrtle Beach, Orlando, Cape Canaveral and Washington, DC
• Lives Forever Changed by Relationships Centered in Christ

I have played a background role in the mentoring program for the past 4 years,

but I am excited about stepping up and growing this program. There are more than 400 kids in the Lowcountry area that don’t graduate each year in our local high schools. I feel like God has given us a vision to reach 400 students through the e3 mentoring program in the next 4 years and hope that you will pray alongside us for the resources to make this happen.

If you’re interested in the e3 program, sponsoring a child, or taking the step of mentoring, you can contact me at amieheath@seacoast.org or call 843.375.1099 x1703.

 

The Magic Formula for Family Ministry

Today I am joining the conversation with some friends 
in the Fammin Blog Tour to answer the question 
"What is Family Ministry?"

If there is a magic formula for Family Ministry, I haven't found it yet.

I would even say that it probably doesn't exist.

Our pictures of the families that we serve inside and outside of our churches are changing. No longer are we looking at the Dad, Mom, and 2.5 kids family model. We have more single parents and blended families. We have grandparents now raising their grandkids. We have foster families that we now serve.

The families that you serve in your church may not
be anything like the families that I am serving in mine.

So trying to put Family Ministry into a nice neat formula is nearly impossible.
Each of our families are different with needs that are different as well.

What if we began by first asking
"How can we serve your family?"

There are a few things that I believe about Family Ministry.

• It's all about Jesus. Everything we do should point to Him and our redemption story through Jesus.
• It's all about relationships. Everything happens in relationship. Building, equipping, encouraging, and teaching.
• It's all about vision. Everyone should know the why behind the what.



These days I have more questions than answers 
when it comes to what Family Ministry looks like.

What if we looked at Family Ministry
through the lens of our church family?

What if we looked at everyone in our church 
family as having something to offer?

Imagine the impact on the next generation if the 
entire church family poured into them in some way.

Titus 2 in action with the older generation
walking alongside the younger generation doing life together.

Everyone would have and be a Paul and Timothy.

Mentoring and being mentored.

We will tell the next generation
about the glorious deeds of the Lord,
about his power and his mighty wonders.
Psalm 78:4 

Asking the questions is just the beginning of something 
God has placed deep in my heart.
I am looking to Him for the answers every day.

I am so incredibly blessed and thankful
to be part of the Family Ministry team
at The Gathering.

What does Family Ministry look like for you?

Missions Monday

It's time for Missions Monday.

Every Monday I will introduce you to some great charities that you can get involved in. When I say get involved, I mean you can donate your money, time, and/or pray for these organizations who are doing amazing things to help people.

Today I would like to introduce you to

Kids Hope USA.

From the website:

One simple thing will make a big difference in the life of an at-risk child: One-on-one, positive attention from a responsible, caring adult.

KIDS HOPE USA develops these one-on-one relationships through the creation of church-school partnerships that pair church members with at-risk kids in supportive, mentoring relationships.

KIDS HOPE USA mentors spend just one hour per week, reading, talking, playing and listening to a child at school. By helping the child feel loved and valued, they help that child to learn, grow and succeed.

You can change a life…and that’s no small change.

You can learn more about this organization and how you can get involved by visiting their website here:

Kids Hope USA - Website.

You can connect with them on Facebook here:

Kids Hope USA - Facebook.

An Often Overlooked Opportunity

I absolutely love that there are men who gather to learn together and encourage each other, but I think that there is an opportunity for men's ministry that is often overlooked. This is the opportunity to come alongside the next generation and pour into the fatherless children in our churches.

John Sowers shares in his book Fatherless Generation that fatherlessness accounts for:

• 63 percent of youth suicides

• 71 percent of pregnant teenagers

• 90 percent of all homeless and runaway children

• 70 percent of juveniles in state-operated institutions

• 85 percent of all youth who exhibit behavior disorders

•80 percent of rapists motivated with displaced anger

• 71 percent of all high school dropouts

• 75 percent of all adolescents in chemical abuse centers

• 85 percent of all youths sitting in prison

 

John also shares these statistics:

 

Children with mentors are 46 percent less likely to do drugs, 33 percent less likely to resort in violence, 53 percent less likely to drop out of school, and 59 percent more likely to improve their grades. One-to-one mentoring has also been shown to lower the rates of teen pregnancy, suicide, and gang involvement in communities.

I believe that the men in our churches can change the future of our next generation by intentionally mentoring these children.

 

Being a Mentor

I am a firm believer in both having a mentor and being one as well. I think we should all have a Paul and Timothy in our lives.

For the last year I have been mentoring a couple of girls and it has been such a wonderful beginning in our journey together.

Here is what it looks like:

• They have complete access to me which means they have both my home and cellphone numbers which they can use at any time to call or text.
• We talk on a weekly basis about everything from family to school to faith. This is usually a phone call but once in awhile it will be in person.
• I commit to praying for them daily. They will share prayer requests during our conversations or ones they send randomly throughout the week.
• We have a date day or night every month. I will usually let them pick what they would like to do during this time together.
• We commit to do a Bible reading plan together. This may be one chosen from YouVersion or a special Bible study.

Mentoring for me is also a partnership with parents and the opportunity to be someone to come alongside them as an additional voice in their daughter's life. In order to do this, communication with the parents of the girls that I mentor is necessary, so I will have conversations with them on a regular basis.

I can't even tell you what a blessing it has been to be a part of these girls' lives. Over the past year we have laughed and cried together. We have learned so much and prayed big prayers together. We have had such a blast together and I so look forward to what God has in store for us in the years to come together.

Missions Monday

It's time for Missions Monday.

Every Monday I will introduce you to some great charities that you can get involved in. When I say get involved, I mean you can donate your money, time, and/or pray for these organizations who are doing amazing things to help people.

Today I would like to introduce you to

The Mentoring Project.

The Mentoring Project inspires and equips faith communities to mentor fatherless boys.

Here is a wonderful video to share the vision of The Mentoring Project:

The Mentoring Project is doing something different for Father's Day. You have an opportunity to celebrate your Dad by making a donation that will help recruit and equip mentors all over the country.

Visit Don't Buy the Tie to help make a difference in the life a fatherless boy. 

You can learn more about this organization and how you can get involved by visiting their website here:

The Mentoring Project - Website.

You can connect with them on Facebook here:

The Mentoring Project - Facebook

and you can follow them on Twitter here:

The Mentoring Project - Twitter.

Walk With Me

I think that generally when we think of discipleship, we too often associate it with having someone in our lives to encourage us and empower us. I think having a mentor is important, but I also believe that being a mentor is equally important.

One generation shall commend your works to another,
and shall declare your mighty acts.

Psalm 145:4

I think the lessons we teach in children’s ministry are important, but I also believe we have so much more to offer these kids. Being involved in the lives of the kids outside of Sunday mornings is something I am very passionate about. As Paul walked with Timothy, I believe we are called to walk with the next generation following us. They need to see us living out what they are being taught on Sunday mornings.

This may be something as simple as having lunch with them or tutoring after school. It may be watching a baseball game or bringing them home for dinner on a regular basis. The important thing about this time is not what you buy the kids or where you take them, but that you are there – there to talk and there to listen, there to offer encouragement and to give direction, there to pray for and with these kids. We have not only an obligation but an amazing opportunity to invest in the lives of these kids.

I know most of you have a “Paul” in your life, but do you have a “Timothy”?
Who are you walking with today?