A New Experience

Beginning September 6th I will be starting a new ministry at Lighthouse Baptist Church.  The idea sort of sprang up from a lady I met in Wilson.  The women of her church were in charge of decorating the church, preparing for weddings and funerals, etc.  The money that they used for these things did not necessarily come from thier pockets, they did three or four fundraisers a year to cover their expenses.  I combined this idea with the fact that about every other month (in Wilson) we attended ladies meetings in and around NC for fellowship and encouragenment. I merged these two ideas and presented it to my husband and thus began what I call the W.I.S.D.O.M. ministry of Lighthouse Baptist church. (Proverbs 14:1) Once a month, the ladies of the church will meet and enjoy a time of food, fun, and fellowship.  Of course each meeting will begin with a devotion - given by myself or a guest - from God's word.  Our key passages or thoughts will be based from Proverbs 31, Titus 2, and Women mentioned in the New and Old Testament. (Mrs. Ross will be glad that I am using my college notebook)  The age group will be 15 and up.
I am writing this blog to ask all who read to be faithful to pray.  There are many obstacles that will  have to be overcome for this to be a success. Some of them include: 

My lack of experience -  I have only spoken to women once in my life (and that was only for about 15 minutes!)

My age - I am close to the ages of most of the women in our church.  I want to be careful to befriend them; but keep the relationship such that when hard things have to be said they will listen. Also, a few of the ladies are older than me and have much more life experience than I have.  They will need grace to allow the "younger to teach the older".

Our Demographics - I am not sure if this is the best word to use; but I will try to explain myself.  Most of us could count the number of Black couples on our hands, who believe and follow the Word of God for salvation and practice, met and married before they had children, and have a healthy/ heavenly home (one where all parties are exercising and content to perform thier proper roles) - and still have a good number of fingers left over.  I chose the picture above to illustrate the goal of this ministry.  We want to train women who have a genuine and sincere love for Christ, who will dress in a godly fashion, have and demonstrate a godly love and submissive spirit to their husbands (who will desire husbands- not babies' daddies); and who will help bring their children up in the "nurture and admonition of the Lord.  In Newport there are couples who have been/lived together for 30 plus years and have never married, there are children in the tenth grade who are pregnant with their second child, but praise the Lord!!!there is a God who loves them and desires to show them a lifestyle that will bring Him honor and glory and simultaneously give them true joy and fulfillment.  I want to show these ladies, young and old, the vision that I believe God has for them.  Please pray with me for the Lord's direction, that I will be sensitive to His leading, and that those who attend will have ears and hearts that are open to be blessed by the Lord.

Tinyla