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Featured Article
"What if" are words that can bring hope or discouragement. What if only one girl's life is changed?
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Greetings!
Have you ever played the "what if" game? Sometimes the "what ifs" we ask ourselves can be devastating. However, when you remember how big our God is "what if" can inspire much hope.
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What If?
A group of pastors and missionaries in Argentina once held a week-long outreach. They set up a tent and invited many Argentines to attend the event. Some people came, heard God's word, and went home. Only one girl and her mother came forward that week. The people who planned the outreach felt they had wasted their time.
Years later the daughter of one of the missionaries met the girl who was saved at that meeting. Because of the girl's testimony, her father was saved. He and his wife went on to be the first Grace Brethren missionaries to Uruguay.
Sometimes we measure success by our own worldly standards. If we don't see large numbers or noticeable change, we feel we've wasted our time. However, this girl's story demonstrates the value of reaching one person. The seed planted in her that day spread to many others, and we have a whole group of people added to our Christian family. One life changed is no small thing.
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Planting seeds through Event!
When his 5-year-old daughter came home and asked, "Do these jeans make me look fat?", Jon Rauch and his wife decided to take action. They researched how to address this concern and found the Secret Keeper Girls Pajama Party event. As children's pastor at Grace Community Church in Goshen, Indiana, Jon asked Wendy Nunemaker, who coordinates women's ministries, to plan the event. The church hosted this event on May 6 for moms and their daughters ages 8-12. The event focused on beauty and modesty, and included upbeat worship, awesome decorations and a mother-daughter showdown. There was also a fashion show where girls modeled fashion-friendly but modest clothes. The best part about this event was that it was loaded with scripture that shows what God really wants from girls. If you would like to host your own Secret Keeper event check out www.secretkeeper.com or email Wendy at nune@bnin.net.
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Going Deep with Girls
By Jamie Bisesi
In Lies Young Women Believe, authors Nancy Leigh DeMoss and Dannah Gresh team up to address the top 25 lies of the youth generation specifically relating to young women.
This book is great for pre-teen and teen girls, as it is written specifically to this audience and speaks directly to this generation's issues. The book contains relatable personal testimonies and stories which are followed up with scripture and application. Many of the chapters include national statistics and additional information to drive home the point.
Topics and lies discussed include: self-image, eating disorders, media, friends, relationships and the deceiver (the father of all lies). A good tool at the end of the book is scriptures boxes for the girls to cut out and post on their walls, bathroom mirrors, car dashboards, to remind them WHO they are in Christ.
I used this book with about twelve 7th - 9th graders during our second year of meeting together. This was a good fit for us because there was a deep sense of commitment and in-depth sharing that we didn't see when meeting with them during our first year. This study solidified our group and the girls held one another accountable. They were constantly amazed at how God's Word addressed each issue and at how timeless and applicable it was in their lives.
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The work you do is no small thing! You never know what fruit one seed will bear.
Sincerely,
Nicole Miller
Girls Ministries Coordinator
Women of Grace USA |
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