First Presbyterian in Bonita Springs Florida
With my mom and Nancy at the Bonita Bay Women’s Bible Study Luncheon
Bay Presbyterian in Florida
With Kate and Ron at Moody Radio Florida
Teaching at Fulton Creek
Teaching at Women ACT in Tiffin, OH
My view at Women’s Break Away in Wisconsin
The amazing team in Wisconsin at Faith Alliance Church
Teaching at the Autism Luncheon in Chambersburg Pennsylvania
Major Judy introducing me at the Salvation Army Retreat in Missouri
It’s been pretty crazy around here with adoption stuff and a lot of ministry! So, I have really not been good about the blog. Here’s just a quick catch-up of the ministry for historical purposes, and probably not the most riveting read! I’ll write more about the adoptions in a separate post. 🙂
I headed down for a week of events in Florida, and on March 15th I had such a great time doing a full-day retreat for First Presbyterian in Bonita Springs! They are a wonderful church I’ve been to several times, but I’ve never done a retreat there. I spoke on the life of Peter and getting “Out of the Boat!” What a fun day, great response, and wonderful people to work with! Just love their new women’s ministries director!
March 17th I did a women’s luncheon for Bonita Bay Women’s Bible Study. This is a group that’s been going on for years, and they had about 200 people at the luncheon – just a great, community ministry! My dear friend, Nancy Lund, who is like an honorary mom to me is part of this group, and it was so great to see her! The morning was focused on what practical things people can do to help orphans and children in poverty. I talked about our adoptions and about Compassion and it was a great morning, again with great response!
March 18th in the morning I did a little “coffee concert” for Bay Presbyterian in the morning. It was focused on “Life Not Typical,” the title of my book, and also the concept of John 10:10. Jesus has come to give us life and life abundant! This is a smaller church, but they are so lovely. Very warm and hospitable. And since we are in Florida, at one point a large alligator swam behind me in the lake that is directly outside the windows of the sanctuary! You don’t get to say that everyday. 🙂
March 18th in the evening I went back to First Presbyterian Church and led the worship for their contemporary service. I also did special music and a short couple of minutes on the adoptions and God’s desire for us all to live out Micah 6:8 and love on purpose.
March 19th I was also back at First Presbyterian and I did the guest spot and special music on all the morning services, again speaking on Micah 6:8 and singing the song I wrote in Thailand, “To Be Love.” Every time I come here for services, I am so impressed with the staff – they just love the Lord, do great ministry, solid teaching, and the music director who coordinates things for me, Jeff, is just lovely to work with!
Then, March 20th I was on the air on Moody Radio Florida. So fun to be back at the station with Kate and Ron! I sat in on the morning drive time and talked about the new song project and our adoptions.
The following weekend I was back in Ohio at Fulton Creek Friends Church doing a one-day retreat again on Peter titled “Out of the Boat.” They were such a fun group! Very down to earth, and so easy to work with. I just loved being with them, and their response for our Compassion kids was amazing!
April 9th I was the keynote speaker for Women ACT. I’ve been here before, and this is an event that’s been happening for years. I presented “For Such a Time as This” on the book of Esther. I love that teaching, and even had the privilege of leading a young woman to the Lord about 10 minutes before I had to go back up on the platform! Still praying for her. 🙂
April 22nd I was back in Wisconsin to do “Women’s Break Away” in Chilton. It’s a one day event with many breakout sessions and options (and an amazing free coffee bar, you girls go!!) and I was their keynote speaker. I presented “U-Turn: Trusting God When Life Changes Direction.” Frankly, this event blew my mind. I get to meet so many wonderful people, but the ladies who were doing this event were amazing, and by the end of the weekend, they felt like family! So organized with a very large event (about 800), wonderful heart for women, professional, easy to work with, and loved the Lord. We got so many kids sponsored and the response was just incredible! Loved this one.
The next day I was the guest speaker at the worship services for Faith Alliance Church in Chilton – this is the host church for the Women’s Break Away. Since there was overlap with the audiences, I shared different but complementary messages – this one was “When God’s Direction Changes Your Life” basically about being completely open to where God is leading, and that the safest place to be is in God’s will. This church is not large, and for them to put on an event like they did yesterday is absolutely incredible. Then they took a freewill offering for our adoptions which I didn’t realize they were going to do, and totally blessed us beyond anything we expected! I was so amazed – we were teary. Like I said, they felt like family at the end of the week. We were thanking God for this wonderful part of His Church!
April 29-30 was another big weekend of ministry that just blessed me! I was in Pennsylvania that weekend and Saturday I was the keynote speaker for the Mothers of Children with Autism Luncheon. What an incredible ministry, and so needed. There were hundreds of mothers there (which speaks to how needed the ministry is!) and Elyse, the coordinator was incredibly professional and easy to work with, and a mom parenting autism as well. We loved her, and her husband Tim who helped us all weekend. Then Sunday I spoke for all the services on “Life Not Typical,”, John 10:10 and being sold out for the Lord. We also had an incredible response for Compassion here, and that just touches my heart and says so much about a church! What a blessing.
May 5-7 I was in Missouri at the regional Salvation Army women’s retreat. These are pretty fabulous. I did one last year too, and just loved it. I was working with Major Judy who did a fantastic job and made me feel so comfortable! There’s an incredible diversity in the audience at these in so many ways: age, ethnicity, background, income, education, even language (my messages were translated in real time into Spanish as about a quarter of the attenders were Spanish speaking). It’s one of the most diverse audiences I ever speak to, so that is a challenge but also such a beautiful thing to see how God can connect all people from all backgrounds and experiences! I truly loved my time here, and it was at a beautiful camp as well right in the heart of a city, so it was fun to experience God’s beautiful creation too! I spoke on “Living Loved” in three sessions.
Then, on May 13th, I was back at Circleville Baptist in Ohio for their Mother’s Day event. This is also just a lovely church with a real heard for outreach! They open the doors to their community for this one, and had such a wonderful response! I spoke on Eph 2:10 with the title “God’s Masterpiece” and I’ve always loved this verse as it tells us we are loved and valued, AND we have things to do! Let’s go do them! Apparently I forgot my camera here, but that doesn’t reflect my feelings. 🙂
After that I took a couple of weeks off for my daughter’s graduation and all the craziness that comes with four kids in 3 schools in May!!