Weekend Review

What a weekend! A big thank you to the women of Lake Hamilton Baptist Church. God moved in such a mighty way. I am still praising the Lord this morning. The women at the retreat were incredible. The Ladies of Lake Hamilton had reached out to other churches in the community and invited them to take part in the retreat. At least six churches were represented!

Friday night was a "tough" session but good. God had clearly instructed me to talk about sin and the effect sin has on our walks with Him. The story of David counting the fighting men provided the opportunity for us to delve deep into our hearts and examine ways we allow self-sufficiency to reign instead of God-sufficiency. The ladies were so open to this strong word from the Lord. Many of them shared specific ways the Holy Spirit had spoken to their hearts. I told the ladies that I also heard a strong word from the Lord. In fact, I had trouble going to sleep on Friday night because I was processing all the ways that I had turned from God and relied on myself during the prior week.

Saturday morning, the Lord woke me up with a strong passion to teach His Word. I was so thankful for that. Each retreat is different. Sometimes I wake up and think, "Lord I can't do this." (which is true!) Other times I wake up and can't wait to get back to the church and open God's Word. This weekend I was glad that I had the latter response. I was also thankful to see the women had returned with the same excitement. After Friday night, I prayed God would give the women a desire to keep digging into His Word.

The first session on Saturday dealt with practical ways to remain focused on the Lord during our daily lives. We studied Psalm 101:2-4 and found the call to live a careful life. The goal God had laid on my heart for this session was to provide tangible ways to renew. I shared many of the disciplines God has called me to practice in my life.

The final session on Saturday was so very special. The Holy Spirit was clearly working as we opened God's Word to the book of Ezra. In this session we studied the call God had placed on the heart of Ezra and Ezra's response to this call. In short, we found that we must answer the calls in our lives not out of our strength but out of God's courage.

I continue to pray for the women of Lake Hamilton and thank God for their friendship, love, support, and encouragement. I will be returning to this precious Church in December. However, I will see many of the ladies before December. God in His goodness and grace has opened up other doors for me to minister in the Hot Springs area. All I can say is, "thank you Lord."

Busy, Busy, Busy

Okay, so I have already blown my goal of posting twice a week. At least that pressure has been lifted!

Seriously, things are busy at True Vine Ministry. This weekend I will lead a retreat at Lake Hamilton Baptist Church in Hot Springs, Arkansas. I am very excited about this retreat. I will be teaching three sessions. Each session will provide practical ways to have a fresh faith in 2009. The theme of the retreat is “New Year; New You!” Please pray for my focus as well as the ladies in attendance. I always pray that I will have a genuine sensitivity to the leading of the Spirit. I also pray that the ladies will be open to the moving of the Spirit in their lives.

Today, I also received an email regarding my upcoming mission trip. I cannot disclose the location but I can share that I will be traveling in March with four Pastors to lead a Pastors/Pastor's wives retreat. (I have the privilege to lead the wives in the study of God's Word) Please begin to pray for safety as well as the many details regarding lesson preparation, working with translators, and possible cultural barriers. My desire is that we will have a wonderful time worshiping the Lord as we study His Holy Word. I will keep you posted on this trip.

A Step Forward

Today I will be posting an updated bio on the TVM website. This posting represents a big step in my personal walk with the Lord. Allow me to share.

Around 10:00 p.m. last night, I was on the TVM website looking around and seeing if anything needed to be updated. I saw a few things but nothing major. Then I decided to click on my bio and read the content. For the first time, I was aware that the bottom portion of my bio shared more information about my experiences serving in the local church than my passion to teach women the Word of God. I thought about that for a few minutes and knew it was time to make a change.

When I wrote the first bio and placed it on the website, my heart was torn between two ministry calls--- local church work and teaching women the Word. My bio reflected this struggle. At the time, my love for local church work was fresh and my longing to return was real. In those first days of official women’s ministry, my heart desperately wanted to return to familiar ground. However, I was determined to follow the Lord no matter how uncomfortable I had to be.

Today, by God’s grace, I am in a different place. I no longer feel the struggle. My heart is planted completely in teaching women God’s Word. I do not long to return to the former comforts of my life. I long to move forward and serve God no matter what.

Things I will always miss about local church work:

• Ministering within a team of people. I miss serving with a staff. Some of my most cherished memories occurred with fellow servants called by God to equip God’s people for His service.
• Serving the same group of people each week and watching their faith grow. For the most part, the women I teach changes weekly. New faces can be a blessing but I miss seeing the effect of the Word of God as it takes root in lives.
• Putting together a ministry plan and watching the pieces fall into place. I loved hearing from the Lord regarding the ministry direction of the church. Whether it was a discipleship plan or an evangelism emphasis, I found this fun!
  
  Things I love about teaching women the Word of God:
• The peace in knowing I am where God has called me to be.
• The frequent moments when I cannot but I know He can (and will!)
• The quiet times of study when the Lord allows me to receive His Word for a group of ladies.
• Meeting so many neat ladies and seeing the Body of Christ from a larger perspective.
• Freedom that comes from knowing I am in over my head!

Weekend Review

Thank you for your prayers regarding the retreat! The ladies from Mt. Zion Baptist Church were awesome. The genuine love and care within the group blessed and encouraged my heart. Thanks ladies. I will continue to pray for you and look forward to the time when we can get together again and study God's amazing, life changing Word!

With this retreat complete, I am officially back in the swing of ministry. November and December provided a much-needed time of rest as well as an opportunity to focus on my family. While I am always thankful for rest and family interaction, the transition back to a more normal ministry routine proves challenging. Without a doubt, this transition back has been difficult.

Have you ever been there? Wanting desperately to focus on the God size task ahead, yet lacking the ability to do so? I think we all have. God in His grace meets us at places like these and reminds each of us to look to Him. While the choice is ours, the invitation remains clear, "Come to me and I will give you rest."

Throughout my crazy week last week, I had the choice to go to the Lord and lay my divided heart before Him. Unfortunately, it took most of my week to come to a place of desperation. Oh, don't get me wrong, early in the week I was desperate. Just desperate for the wrong thing. On Monday and Tuesday, I was desperate to fix my lack of focus. By Wednesday, I was trying everything to pull myself together so I could feel ready to do the work God had called me to do. Thursday was pretty much a blur spiritually. On Friday, I came to the point of knowing that I would never be ready if it was based on my abilities. Thankfully, the Lord in His grace, reminded me that I will never be able to ready myself for His work, only He can make me ready. Suddenly, my choice became clear, I had to recognize my inability and rest in His great ability. Thank You Lord!

This week if you feel divided become desperate for Him. I know of no better cure for a divided heart and a scattered mind than a desperate desire for the Lord.

I am praying for you!

Weekend Retreat

This weekend I will be leading a retreat for Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Walcott, Arkansas. The retreat will be held at Ceder Glades Retreat Center in Imboden, Arkansas.

I am really excited about this retreat because I am teaching three lessons from the study Reflecting His Glory. (To catch some of you up, I have written an eight week study for women called Reflecting His Glory. The study is not published. Several friends are working through the study to help me refine the lessons. Please join me in praying that God will open the door for publication in His time and His way! "Lord, I thank you in advance that You are faithful to accomplish Your work. Lord, I rest in You!") Back to the retreat, two of the lessons I will be leading this weekend are "favorites." The other lesson has been more of a struggle. The Lord has graciously encouraged me to stick with the lesson. Please pray for the retreat and for the lesson called "Living In Two Worlds." I will share more about this lesson soon.

I love my husband!

Thanks Jay for creating this blog. I love you!

I am so glad you stopped by! I hope you will check the TVM blog each week. I will post prayer requests and detail upcoming events. Please feel free to leave a message. Talk to you soon!

Andrea