Romania 09

What an amazing trip we had. The team was a great group of talented women (and a couple of their husbands). As most of you know we went to host/run the first ever Women's Retreat for a group of women from around the country. 15 of them were pastor's wives and the rest were layleaders in their local churches. Most were from very poor means but had rich hearts and stories. One thing I noticed about them was that they were very open and honest about their emotion. I know their lives are very difficult but it seemed like they didn't wear the masks with each other like we do in the states. They openly shared their pain and imperfections in front of each other which only increased the intimacy and healing from the weekend. Before I left my room mate gave me a small, new Bible and told me to give it away to someone. I began praying that I would deeply connect with one person and know who to give it to. Early in the week our team spent a day visiting orphanages in Timasuara. We saw one place that was from the state that had 73 orphans (mostly handicapped) but hte love there was very healthy. We then went to another place taht was run by believers. It was all teenage boys and was run by a guy named Lorenzo who grew up as an orphan and now has a passion to see young men of God raised up from within. I was so touched and instantly went into youth ministry mode. Relating to these teens felt so natural for me and i just wanted to stay longer. Well, later that weekend we headed up to the mountains of Moneasa to start the retreat. None of really knew what to expect but began working with the conditions we had...setting up and preparing our workshops and worship. The first night was freezing...as I curled up wiht 4 blankets and tried to cover my head I smiled and thanked God for bringing me to this place to serve him. Throughout my next couple days I was drawn to a small group of young gals, one of which spoke perfect English and the others just wanted to interact with me. Saturday afternoon we had a block of free time and i went on a hike with this group. There was one girl I could tell was super special. Her name was Gabriella. We couldn't speak much together but we still tried and her and I ended up runnign through the forest together and taking cute pictures at pretty spots. As we walked back to the retreat I asked her friend to explain to me her family environment. Luci began telling me how Gabriella was 22 but had been raised in an orphanage since she was a baby. She was led to Christ by some American missionaries who came to help the orphanage every summer. I was so touched by Gabriella's story and also by our playful connection together. That evening Kristin Beasley talked about our worth as daughters of Christ and told the story of the 10 cow bride (I'll have to tell it to you later). But that night I was feeling so sick with a stomach ache, headache and I swear a fever....I told the Lord he had to do his work b/c I couldn't. As Kristin called me up I was very emotional as i began by asking how many women felt that special to God? There were tears in the eyes of almost every woman as i told my story of abuse, and a marred sense of beauty. I told them my name meant "Princess" and that God had showed me it was true for each of them as well. I really sensed the Spirit's power as woman after woman approached me afterward and told me that my story was their story. Gabriella was one of those woman and she came up by herself and said to me, "Me and you have same Father". She knew that i could relate to her sense of abandonment and pain. The last day I wrote her a card and gave her the little Bible....we both cried as we said good bye but I knew God had used both of us in each others lives.

Never Stop Running

Sunday I was in my 5th Triathlon held in Tempe, AZ. It was a tougher course than I'm used to on the flat terrain of Florida but I had an amazing experience. I always know the run will be the toughest part-it's so mental for me and after swimming and half mile and biking 12 miles through some hills I always have to reach deep to find the determination at the run. I'm not a runner and if you know me you know I never will be. But that doesn't mean I can't run/shuffle (AKA ruffle). I've never been able do the run without stopping and as I hit mile 2 I decided to try to find a pace and stick to it...all the while I'm not really sure I can do it without stopping. So as I'm going I hear the Lord saying things like, "you can do more than you think you can". I started reflecting about the last 6 months of picking up my life as a single girl and moving to the desert to follow the call of God on my life. I thought about all the valleys God had brought me through (and there have been some deep ones). The more I shuffled along the more I realized this race was a metaphor for my life....toward the end of the run we had a steep incline and I slowly passed a few people who had stopped to walk....as I reached the top I started across this big bridge and realized I could see the finish line. I sensed God's Spirit speaking to my heart again, "I knew you could do it...I know more about you than you know about yourself".....I started to hold back my tears and then thought, "what the heck, no one is here" I spent the last quarter mile in complete worship and even sprinted across the finish line. There was no big fan club waiting for me like there is at home but I pulled away and spent a few moments in prayer and gratitude for my life and this awesome season. What a race.....I want to keep running.

I think about VBC and the special family community there. I think a lot of people don’t experience those kind of relationships in their entire life………I’m trying to adjust to big church life. Community is found by attending Sunday school classes (they function like churches) and last night was my first orchestra practice with a french horn someone is letting me us...it was so cool and such a great way to meet people. You feel like you’re a part a family.

They put me in the middle of the horn section so I could hear the right notes (which really helped). Then we practiced all the songs and I held my own playing and was happy bout that. Then out comes 115 vocalists and we go through it all again………I swear I was thinking….we would only do this at Easter at VBC (maybe) and was just blown away by how worshipful it was to play a powerfully loud instrument with all these people leading a larger group of people to the throne. At one point I was watching the prompter screen and singing along and forgot I was suppose to start playing……afterwards the director had us all sit in the pews and did a devotional and then we prayed and broke up for fellowship and desert………….wow, I got to talk to so many people about our ministry and actually knew a few people too.

Sunday is my first day and we have to be there at 7.30-12 noon but it will be fun.

A trip to Daphne's

If there has ever been a day where I knew I was in ministry to the King it was yesterday. I came into the office to a difficult e.mail...you know one of those e.mails that you knew you were going to have to "fix things". I had an appointment to get to across town where I was going to lead a young girl througn her first Bible Study. As I was gathering things for the meeting my cell phone rang and the minute I answered the phone I knew it would change my day. It was a dear friend very upset about her Mom, who was on her death bed. I was so overcome with her pain that it comsumed me but I also knew I had to make it across town. As I drove down Scottsdale Road I couldn't believe the news and hearthache I was hearing from my friend. It was one of those moments where you had no words to console just a shoulder to offer to lean on. I pulled into Daphne's restaurant, prayed with my friend on the phone and finished the call. Just then I realized I had forgotten the Bible Study for this meeting...I took a deep breath and felt so drained by the morning. I prayed out loud, "God, I have nothing left for this meeting but I know you want to minister to this girl today. Would you just do your thing?" I searched the car and found a track of the 4 Spiritual laws. I started the meeting sharing about my friend and how her Mom was dying but she knew where she was going when she left this world. I walked this girl through the gospel and when I got to the part about Christ covering our sin she literally said, "that's beautiful". As her eyes teared up I knew God was speaking to her and I asked her if she would like to accept the Lord into her heart. After asking a couple of questions she was ready and we held hands and said a not-so-magical prayer as God did the supernatural in her heart. I opened my eyes and said, "Happy Birthday" to her......I can't wait to meet with her next week.

When I jumped back in the car and left Daphne's Restaurant, this verse came to mind.
2Cor 12:9 "But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness ." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

Sweetly Broken

The Lord has been teaching me to let go of all the safe places that I tend to guard and protect. It's a crazy thing to look within yourself and see so much that can improve and change. And yet I know I can't do it on my own. I think our deepest longing in life is to know and be known by others. Ultimately we must do that with the Lord and he slowly teaches us how to mirror that with others. But I guess we are just all so broken and cracked that we hide behind these plastic faces...we can't trust, or be vulnerable or share our true self. Sometimes that's out of fear of not being good enough and sometimes we are afraid of being a burden. But what happened to being in each others worlds? It seems that the world tells us to grow up and be independant and to build a life that does not NEED anyone. But all the while, we are hiding the fact that we do need each other...and really, we want to need each other.

One of my favorite characters on TV is Bear Grylls from "Man vs. Wild". He told a story once of being the youngest person to reach the peak of Mt. Everest. He said he would never do it again and the biggest thing he learned was when he fell into a crevace and was saved from plummeting to his death by 2 friends he was tied into. He said, "I knew then that I needed people and that's ok". Don't we all want to be "tied into" someone when we reach our own life's crevace? Don't we want to be cared about so much that someone would care enough to reach down and risk their life to pull us out? And isn't that what Christ did for us? God teach me to love and be loved....and may I peer into you sacrifice afresh.

To the cross I look, to the cross I cling
Of its suffering I do drink
Of its work I do sing

For on it my Savior both bruised and crushed
Showed that God is love
And God is just

At the cross You beckon me
You draw me gently to my knees, and I am
Lost for words, so lost in love,
I’m sweetly broken, wholly surrendered

What a priceless gift, undeserved life
Have I been given
Through Christ crucified

You’ve called me out of death
You’ve called me into life
And I was under Your wrath
Now through the cross I’m reconciled (Jeremy Riddle)

The Titus 2 Woman

The Titus 2 Woman
Romanian Women’s Retreat
October 16-18, 2009
Taught By: Caye Siller

Titus 2: 3-5 (NIV):
“Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good.
Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children,
to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.”

As women God gives us a standard in this passage to live by.
I. A Titus 2 Woman is an example of spiritual maturity

a. Spiritually mature women are reverent. (deeply respectful)
-Reverence towards God means laying down our family and dreams to embrace His.
"Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God , because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." Gen 22:12

-Reverence towards God means understanding where our beauty and worth comes from.
“Let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious” (1 Peter 3:4).

-Reverence towards God means treating others with respect and dignity

b. Spiritually mature women are not slanderers
-Are you a part of the problem or the solution?
-Accountability

c. Spiritually mature women are not addicted
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Eph 5:18
There may be pain in your life that is in need of a deeper healing. Only Christ can heal your wounds.

d. Spiritually mature women teach what is good. (of a favorable character or tendency)

-Goodness is taught best by the way we live our life. We must earn the right to teach others by first living a life that is honorable and of good character.

-Character is who you are when no one is looking
Application:
Are you living a spiritually mature life? Circle the area you could most work on.
Reverence Towards God
Laying down your desires, family, dreams
Understanding your beauty and worth comes from the Lord
Treating others with respect and dignity
Gossip
Addictions
Living a life that is worthy of being an example to younger women

We are all on a journey toward these standards God gives us as women. We will always be in a process. The important thing is that you are a woman who is trying to live spiritually mature. If that is you it may be time to begin thinking about adopting a younger woman to minister to.

II. A Titus 2 Woman is a spiritual mother to younger women.
You may be thinking that you could be ready to impact a younger woman’s life but maybe you are unsure about how you would “train” them. Praise the Lord! God gives us the exact criteria in the following passage. Consider this your training manual.
a. Train younger women to love their husbands…and to be subject to their husbands (1 Pet. 2: 1&2) (Eph. 5:21)
-The “younger woman” defined.
-The topic of submission-“man vs. woman’s role”
-Unconditional love
b. Train younger women to love (Philandros/Philos) their children
-Training younger women can simply mean becoming a spiritual mother to them.
c. Train younger women to be self-controlled (restraint exercised over one's own impulses, emotions, or desires) (Gal. 5:23)

d. Train younger women to be pure (free from moral fault or guilt)

e. Train younger women to be busy at home and kind
(of a sympathetic, helpful or forbearing nature)
-an atmosphere of love and safety

The Great Commission: Matt 28:16-20

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Being a Titus 2 woman is God’s design to help women fulfill the Great Commission. We are to “go and make disciples” or in the word of Titus 2, “train younger women”. Becoming a spiritual mother to a younger woman is a way of participating in God’s genius plan of multiplication.

Your life can be a movement that echoes into the lives of younger woman well beyond the time of your passing.

A Titus 2 Woman Trains Younger Women. Could there already be a younger woman in your life you could begin investing in? Could you write her name in the space below?



Nicole Nordeman “Legacy”
I won't lie, it feels alright to see your name in lights
We all need an 'Atta boy' or 'Atta girl'
But in the end I'd like to hang my hat on more besides
The temporary trappings of this world
I want to leave a legacy
How will they remember me?
Did I choose to love? Did I point to You enough
To make a mark on things?
I want to leave an offering
A child of mercy and grace who
blessed your name unapologetically
And leave that kind of legacy
I don't have to look too far or too long awhile
To make a lengthly list of all that I enjoy
It's an accumulating trinket and a treasure pile
Where moth and rust, thieves and such will soon enough destroy
Not well traveled, not well read, not well-to-do or well bred
Just want to hear instead, "Well Done" good and faithful one...

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