Woman On A Mission Ministry

You mat­ter. You are here on planet Earth for a rea­son, placed here by a Cre­ator who has designs on your life.  There is some­thing you are meant to do in the world for the world.  Some­thing you are meant to give to oth­ers.  You were cre­ated for a pur­pose by a pur­pose­ful, orderly God.  When He built a world that was both effi­cient and beau­ti­ful, He filled it with human beings and decided to include you.  Why?

The Cre­ator planned that every per­son would play a part and help the uni­verse work as it should.  To some He gave what humans would con­sider big jobs, to oth­ers, sim­ple assign­ments.  But to Him, every task was immensely impor­tant for the work­ing of the whole.  Each per­son, each tiny baby He fash­ioned, had –has— a pur­pose to ful­fill that is nec­es­sary.  You were cre­ated to do some­thing to make the world a bet­ter place.  You were cre­ated for a purpose.

If the words above res­onate with you, per­haps it is because your Cre­ator imbed­ded in your very DNA the notion that you are here to make a dif­fer­ence.   Try as you might, you sim­ply can­not shake the dream-like long­ing you have to do just that—to play a role that is truly sig­nif­i­cant.   At times you tell your­self to give it up, to be con­tent with what is and adjust your atti­tude.  But you can­not do it.  Deep within, you know there is more to life than this.  There is a rea­son I am here; my exis­tence is not ran­dom.  I matter.

For we are God’s work­man­ship, cre­ated in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God pre­pared before­hand, that we should walk in them.

Won­der what that is, that some­thing God planned for you?

The par­tic­i­pants in the cur­rent Woman on a Mis­sion class recently shared their fam­ily sto­ries, which is the self-discovery home­work for Les­son 1.  Most came with much fear and trem­bling, not know­ing how much to share, how deep to go, what secrets to reveal, and just how much they should trust com­plete strangers.

Here is a sam­pling of what the small group facil­i­ta­tors had to say about the evening’s shar­ing.  It will give you a taste of what we all experienced.

S: My group was unbe­liev­able. They were even more trans­par­ent than either of my pre­vi­ous groups. They revealed wounds and pains that they had never shared with any­one –not even with their hus­bands. One of the women in my group who had typed out her story wanted her hus­band to know about some of her wounds so she just handed him a copy to read before she left for class.  She would not be able to say the words out loud to him.  Yet, to her small group, she some­how man­aged to do just that.

G: I’m email­ing my group indi­vid­u­ally to thank them for their hon­esty and trust (as they shared their sto­ries). I love WOM and the women it brings into our lives.

M:  Last night was incred­i­ble! I felt hon­ored to be a part of it and see God’s work­ing miracle.

LA:  It was awe­some!  The ladies were so trans­par­ent about their strug­gles, and even at such young ages, they have already dealt with so much.  It was truly an honor to be on the lis­ten­ing end of their shar­ing!   We are all feel­ing a close­ness already…great study, Linda!

D: Our group was amaz­ing…  The depth of pain, abuse, tragedy… the courage to tell the sto­ries… oh my good­ness.  It was so spe­cial, I really felt hon­ored to be with the women. One lady started sob­bing and couldn’t get through her story, I asked if she was ok and told her that she didn’t have to con­tinue.  .  .  After our group prayed for her, she said she wanted to try one more time and then she fin­ished her story!  What a tes­ti­mony to the other women–and to me!

B:  Last night was a won­der­fully bit­ter­sweet time of shar­ing.  They are all so different–in their lives and in their sea­son of life… Their sto­ries are dif­fer­ent, and yet, there were threads woven through each story that wove us all together. For me per­son­ally, it was so excit­ing and mean­ing­ful.  There was a much deeper level of shar­ing than I anticipated.

L:  The sto­ries in my group served to remind me once again that we ALL have a story –with pain, joy, tragedy in each one.  It con­firms again how alike we all are –how much we have hurt in the past —and how much we hope in Christ. It also con­firms just how des­per­ately we need each other.

P:  My group’s sto­ries were  full of so much pain and strug­gle.  I couldn’t believe how open and trans­par­ent the women were.  One woman, who had planned not to share much because of the raw emo­tions she was feel­ing about a sit­u­a­tion right now, decided she needed to talk about it –and did.

For WOM lead­ers every­where, this is no mistake–the trans­parency we wit­ness in the Woman on a Mis­sion classes. And it is not the result of what WE did last night or what other lead­ers do else­where.  It is God at work. He wants us to remem­ber that He cares and we are not alone. As we open our­selves up to oth­ers,  God’s love flows through them to us. We would do well to remem­ber to praise Him for let­ting His glory shine as we say out loud what is true of us.   Please pray for women every­where who are going through the mate­r­ial all over the country.

Against all odds, namely a Feb­ru­ary bliz­zard that blasted across the north­east,  I arrived with­out inci­dent in Pitts­burgh the day after the storm blew through.  Mary Lucas gra­ciously opened her 100-year old, charm-filled Sewick­ley home to me, mak­ing me feel truly ‘at home.’   At a cof­fee the next day, I was greeted by twenty or so women who had either been through my book or were cur­rently going through the mate­r­ial. Mary and Helen, God must surely be at work along­side you.

God never ceases to amaze me.  What women!  What sto­ries!  What hearts for min­istry!  But most endear­ing to me of all was the tan­gi­ble unity I felt with like-minded sis­ters in Christ.  Self­less and gen­uine sojourn­ers so many miles from my home.  It was as if we’d known each other for decades.  Their excite­ment for life and for mak­ing a dif­fer­ence was noth­ing short of thrilling.  My one regret was in my fail­ure to snap some pic­tures of their faces!  Too caught up was I in the con­ver­sa­tions and the shared vision for “glo­ri­fy­ing God by accom­plish­ing The Work He has given us to do.”

Friends in Pitts­burgh, Lit­tle Rock and else­where, mark my words:  When God begins to move in the hearts of women every­where to do what He cre­ated them to do with their time, tal­ents and energy, the impact on our soci­ety will be stag­ger­ing!  Because “the peo­ple who know their God will dis­play strength and take action” (Daniel 11:32).  They already are!

Pitts­burgh, send me your sto­ries and pho­tos!  I’m col­lect­ing them for “my next book” –that dreaded (er, lovely?) phrase! Mem­phis, Michi­gan, Pine Bluff, Con­way, you too!