Christian women. This term can conjure up many images to many people depending on the context. And they are not always positive. We as Christian women can often go from feeling so understood, loved and accepted while in Bible Study to ridiculed, pitied and ostracized when entering a secular setting. Sometimes our positions can feel threatened or hard to define to an unbeliever. Sometimes we feel as if we are looked at as being duped – after all they seem to all know scriptures on “submission,” women being quiet and that the man is the head of the home. Those small glimpses of a greater Gospel message of love, when taken out of context, can even tempt many Christian women to find places of worship that swing to the opposite end of these statements.

I read this entry today, written by Mary Kassian, in an excellent blog sent out by The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood which gave a solid retort to some of this thinking. I wanted to share with you all: view article. May you find your secure position in light of truth, handed down from your King-Father, before time began.

Love to you all!
Michelle

Take some time for tea. And a scrumptious luncheon with fabulous women and girls. Your time will be filled with food, drink, conversation, some light entertainment and a family photograph, as we get to know each other more in an atmosphere of all things lady.

Event Details
Mother/Daughter Tea
Saturday, May 7th at 1:00pm
Grant Avenue Baptist Church Gym

RSVP for the event
RSVP must be made by Wednesday, May 4th. Please use the comments section of this post to tell us that you will be joining us and how many people will be attending with you. You can also RSVP by contacting Elizabeth Howeth at 503.593.9014 or E-Mail

This is a wonderful opportunity to touch the lives of children around the world, helping meet some basic needs.  We have many women who will be participating this year by praying for children and filling shoe boxes.  We’d love to invite you to join in! You can begin by praying as to how God will have you help.  Next, you can begin to save some shoeboxes and then fill them with needed items.  For more information, please contact Betty Ricklefs or leave a message for her on this blog post.

Here is a short video which explains how to pack a shoebox and some suggested items:

Hello ladies!

This is just a friendly reminder to remember your secret sister daily.  Many of us are really experiencing the effects of prayer as I hear of testimony after testimony of life-changing events through prayer.  We can find millions of awesome gifts for one another, but none will touch the heart as much as prayer.  Some tips for praying for your secret sister:

• Pray for her kids when you see a school bus or drive by a college
• Pray for her husband when you see a man with the same colored hair
• Pray for her health when you see her favorite flowers or drive by a doctor’s office
• Pray for her spiritual life when you see the book of the Bible where her favorite verse is located
• Pray for her career and finances when you pay a bill

Thank you for being women of prayer!

And please keep praying for Women’s Connection!  For your information:

• We are planning a retreat which will likely take place next February.
• We are planning a tea in May and would love your attendance, more details to come.
• A new women’s Bible Study has begun on Sunday mornings at 9:15 taught by Betty Ferren.
• We have the opportunity to be an Operation Christmas Child participant, so see Betty Ricklefs if you’d like to help.
• Pictures of some past events are linked to our church website.  Check out our new flickr account.

Isn’t the New Year exciting and discouraging at the same time? Or am I the only one who looks forward to fresh new changes, but also regrets the things not previously accomplished? This duality has me realizing how self-centered I can really be and how focused I can be on those things that really aren’t worth wasting time on. God is teaching me that His mission on this earth will be accomplished. Period. My part is to abandon what is useless and to turn my heart toward Him, searching how I may be part of His mission. There I will be in His will. There I will accomplish all He wants me to accomplish, and it won’t be measured from January to December. It will be lifelong and fruitful. He’s centering me on a familiar, but always new verse:

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things. Philippians 4:8

I don’t doubt the power of resolutions in motivating us to be better people. (Read the great Puritan, Jonathan Edwards’ resolutions to prove this point!) When those resolutions are Spirit-led and we are meditating on Him, then we will resolve to be people after God’s own heart. It’s not always easy and have I failed miserably! I’m so grateful I serve a God of grace and mercy, who continues to guide me toward Him!

I love you all and look forward to starting a new year in women’s ministry with you all. I am excited about several women who have stepped forward to be on our leadership team, to be teachers and to just generally help! Praise God for answering this specific prayer! We will be meeting shortly and some specific dates will be nailed down, as we pray for direction in fruitfulness to His kingdom and not idle events of futility. Pray with us!

Please let me know if you feel called to help in Women’s Ministry and where God is leading you. We always have room for more!

For your own planning:

February 8th, 6pm: Secret Sister Revealing Party

I’m so sorry to be so long in posting ANYTHING on here!  I could give a laundry list of excuses and blame innocent children and other responsibilities, but I know you all have those (and more) yourselves! So, I will simply ask you to forgive me and get to the details!

Do NOT miss our ladies Christmas gathering Friday, December 10th at 6pm.  Come hungry.  Come ready to relax.  Come with a friend.  Come alone.  Just come!  If you want, you can participate in a number of ways:

1)  You can bring a dozen cookies and we’ll have a cookie exchange.  Or we will eat them all that night.  Who doesn’t love cookies?

2)  You can sign up here (simply by leaving a comment or emailing me) or on the church education building hallway bulletin board to decorate a table.  You will have creative license to decorate an eight-person round table, complete with table setting.  The first 8 to claim will get the opportunity (at this point, I believe we still have 3 or 4 open tables.)  We’ll all vote on the most creative and that table will win a prize.

3)  You can sign up to bring a food dish.  We are requesting specific categories of dishes (not to be controlling, but to avoid 20 of one thing) so email me or leave a comment and I will let you know what is still needed.

Or, you can do nothing more than attend and we will love you just the same!!  Invite your girlfriends and join us for an evening of light hearted fun and great food as we focus on the birth of our Savior.

Rekindle – to set alight or start to burn again. (thefreedictionary.com)

I love the word rekindle. And, I love it’s meaning.  It just sounds so……hopeful.  And, it anticipates something new happening out of something already there.  This is where we are in Ladies Ministry.  We have a new name, we have new leaders and we have new schedules and events.  But, we couldn’t have any of that “newness” without that which was already established.  We have many women working in Women’s Connection who have been in ministry for years and many things we do will have already been done before.  What we want to do now is ignite a new passion, fan the flames of existing ministries and burn with a new desire to reach out to women where they are and connect our lives with theirs, all with Christ as our foundation.  Will you join us?

“Joining us” will look differently to each of you.  You may be a prayer warrior for women and the ministering to them.  You may have a calling to teach or lead a small group.  You may have a home open for a Bible Study or gathering.  You may want to be on our leadership team to help plan and implement events.  Or, you may be an attender.  Please pray for your role as this ministry is for all women, regardless of their walk with Christ, their church attendance, their age, marital status or availability.

So, here’s what you do next!

1.  Feel free to subscribe to this blog, so you can receive any new information as it’s posted.  Feel free to leave comments on the blog – how can we pray, what suggestions do you have, what may be of interest to this community of women?

2.  Attend an event!

Kids Play, Moms Pray – Occurs the 1st and 3rd Monday of each month at the church.  All women are invited whether or not you bring kids with you.  From 9am-10am, everyone gathers to just chat with one another.  From 10am-11am, the moms break out to another room to pray for our families and the kids stay with a childcare worker to play and have snacks together.

Ladies Night Out – Occurs the last Monday of every month.  At 6pm, women can meet at the church and bring a project you want to work on.  Are you a scrapbooker?  knitter?  stamper?  Any project you’re wanting to have some space and time to enjoy is welcome!  Bring a snack and come enjoy relaxing among friends.

Fall Gatherings! – We’re excited to invite you all to a women’s Fall Gathering!  This will occur in the gym on October 16th at 5pm.  This will be a casual evening of food and fun.  We will provide drinks and dessert and ask you to provide a potluck dish.  If your last name begins with A-M, please bring a side dish/salad.  If your last name begins with N-Z, please bring a main dish.  This will be a perfect opportunity for you to get away and enjoy time with other women.  We will present some upcoming opportunities with Women’s Connection, as well, but no one will be put on the spot about anything.  Could you let us know if you plan to attend?  Just email Michelle Fowler or leave a comment on this blog.

It’s an exciting time and we don’t want you to miss out on any of it.  All women are welcome to attend any event, but if you feel a bit shy about attending alone for the first time, or are a bit unclear as to what to expect, please contact me, Michelle.  I’d love to meet with you or just chat!

I’m praying for you, ladies, and your families.  I’m so honored to be ministering along side you.

Michelle

I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.  2 Timothy 1:5 has always been close to me, because I, as Timothy did, have a godly grandmother named Lois.  My mother is Nancy, not Eunice, but passed along the foundations of faith, as Timothy’s mother did.  Lately, I’ve been reminded how the Faith, which has lived in so many women before me, is being shared with me nearly every day.  This was the theme, if you will, in which we circled about over a rainy weekend in April, right on the beautiful Oregon coast.

That weekend was our Grant Avenue Baptist Church Ladies Ministry strategy session.  A mouthful, yes, but it was an incredible opportunity to seek God’s face through prayer, examine the surveys ladies had filled out weeks prior, brainstorm, and eventually come to some honed down ideas as how to proceed with our ministry to and by the women of our congregation.

We each expressed a heart to be part of a ministry which was a community of women for women, where we are now and where we’d like to be.  Rather than picking out traditional elements of some ministries, we decided to look at the gifts women of our flock already have been given, and design ministry around our strengths.  Women have already been ministering so much to one another among us, and so much of the hard work has already been done under the leadership of Lorna Jones for over a decade!  How blessed we were to be able to pick up from there!  We wanted to continue to be women who  help nurture our flock, then we will naturally nurture outside our flock.  Many felt mentoring, teaching, and generally walking beside women was where God was leading us.  We wanted to be connected to one another and to our Savior.  So, we began seeking a name and a mission statement, so that all ideas would align in the right direction.

Our new name is “Women’s Connection.”  Our mission statement is, “A community focused on building Christ-centered relationships.”

Community.  That’s what we want to be.  We desire to let God build us from where we are, so you can meet Him through us.  We want to “one another” to one another.  You know, “love one another,” “serve one another,” etc.

So, many of us are continuing to find exactly our place in this ministry, and are planning to present many new and continuing opportunities to you very soon.  We’ll soon be announcing a gathering of sorts for some fellowship, fun, and opportunities for you to sign up for Bible Studies, retreats, mission and ministry opportunities, etc.  Would you also pray as to where you may want to contribute?  And then, let me know!  This blog will serve as a source of information and maybe some inspiration for you.

Michelle Fowler
p.s.  I’d love to have a logo of sorts for our ministry.  Something that encompasses the idea of connection or community.  Any of you graphic designers out there?  I’d love your submissions!