We had over 400 women join us last Tuesday at the live webcast with Pat Layton dealing with post abortion healing. Many women also communicated with one another via chat during the webcast. Below is an article by Pat from the January issue of HomeLife Magazine.
Article ~
Many Women attending and serving in our churches have had one or more abortions. How can the church help these wounded women heal?
I can't do this! I can't be in a Bible study with all these godly women. I don't fit in here, Sandy thought, wiping mascara-stained tears from her face. I've had four abortions. How can God forgive that when I can't forgive myself? These women would be appalled if they knew my secret.
Can you picture the church, God's family of faith, as the scariest place in the world to share your deepest secret and greatest pain? Perhaps you can. Today, many women attending and serving in our churches carry the secret of a past abortion. Women shackled by guilt and shame, guarding the secret in self-imposed isolation. I know this is true because for years, like Sandy, I was one of them -- until a dear sister in Christ and a loving church showed me the path to God's healing and His redemptive plan.
This story came across my email this past week and I thought to myself, now this is why I do what I do. No, this has nothing to do with me personally, but sometimes I get caught up in the minutiae of work and need to be reminded of how God is working and how I'm so blessed to be even such a small little part in His work.
Terry lives in Millington, TN, a large Navy/Marine military base and community. She's very active in the Women's Ministry at her church. One of our network partners told her about the new Tour of Duty Bible study. He shared a sample of the Bible study with her, she looked over the information, and seemed very interested in taking it back to her church.
The next day she and a friend went shopping - both of them bought a copy of the Tour of Duty Bible study at their local LifeWay store. They began to share information with some of the women in the church and are now leading a study of Tour of Duty in Millington.
The friend's mother is at Camp Pendleton in California - largest Marine Base in that area. The mother has a large group of women getting together for dinner and beginning the Tour of Duty Bible study. They are reaching and telling people who have already left the base about the study. One lady commented "she wished she had had something like that when they left".
So - in just over a week's time - word has spread from Decatur, AL to Millington, TN and to California and a large group of women are already benefiting from this study. Terry said, "Your sharing information about Tour of Duty with one person has already crossed the country and is spreading to who knows where."
Do you know a military wife? Would you let them know about Tour of Duty and ask them to share their stories with us here on All Access and on Facebook/lifewaywomen?
Rarely do we talk about our families on Allaccess, but today's a little glimpse into the lives of the Seidenkranz home. The man of my dreams - his name is Ed. We've been married for 13 and a half years. He's a musician and I'm his biggest fan. We've got two kiddos as you can see. God chose adoption for our family and we couldn't be happier about that! Josiah is a Nashville born boy (he's 9) and Ana Mei (almost 6) is our little Chinese girl! Even though I'm the marketing girl here at LifeWay, and I love what I do, my biggest passion is my family.
Below are a few pics. Two things we did this Christmas season were going to Dickens of a Christmas in our home town, Franklin, TN and cutting down our own Christmas tree!
Merry Christmas everyone!
I would love to see family photos of you all. How about posting them on our LifeWay Women Facebook page!
If my "Prayer Chair" could talk it might tell you some pretty soapy secrets about my life. It's true isn't it? If you are like me, a look back at my prayer journal reveals the real condition of my heart on any given day, during any given season. Psalms 139 says that God knows everything about us anyway. He not only knows the heart condition, He even knows the overflow of the heart--the words we are going to speak before we speak them. God knows our secrets and He sometimes calls us to share them for the life of another.
Sharing my most shameful life secret is part of the ministry of "testimony" God has called me into through my Lifeway Bible Study "Surrendering the Secret". Over the past 3 years God has opened doors for me to share with hundreds of churches across the US and thousands of women who carry the heartbreak of a past abortion.
I was recently asked to help verify a few of the often-quoted statistics about abortion:
43% of American women of childbearing age have experienced an abortion
Nearly ½ of all pregnancies are "unplanned" and 4 out of 10 end in abortion.
Since abortion was legalized and estimated 55 million lives have been lost.
The statistics are difficult to prove since the main organizations following abortion are those whose goal is to justify it's legality.
A few mornings ago I read Genesis 18 and 19 where Abraham is pleading before God for the protection of the few righteous men and women living in Sodom and Gomorrah, specifically his own family. I was reminded of my search and my prayers asking God to reveal the truth about how many women, and men, are being held in bondage over this devastating lie about freedom and choice.
Are you aware of how many family and friends around you who are hiding the secret heartbreak and shame of a past abortion?
Are there a Hundred? Fifty? Twenty? Ten? One?
Regardless of statistics, my question is much like Abraham's...Does it really matter if there are millions, which I fully believe there are, or would it be worth our ministry and prayers, if it was just one? One woman who on one very tragic day, made one very tragic decision to have her own son or daughter ripped from her life thereby stepping into a dark pit of secrecy and shame that she would always feel she deserved until someone came along to tell her about God's immeasurable grace and unfailing love.
Would you do it for one?
If so, I will be offering a Post Abortion Recovery Leadership Training January 22, 2011 in Eagle River, AK. I would love to tell you how.
We are currently establishing our Surrendering the Secret Certified Leader Training schedule for 2011 as well as "Imagine Me, Set Free" Women's Conference Dates. www.surrenderingthesecret.com
COMING SOON: FREE Webcast
LifeWay Women Live: Surrendering the Secret
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
@ 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM (Central Time)
Yesterday Melanie mentioned that our buddy Travis Cottrell has written a brand new book (available now!) called Surprised By Worship: Discovering The Presence of God Where You Least Expect It. It's such an insightful, heartfelt testimony of finding God in unexpected places; it's one of those books that you'll underline and re-read over and over again.
For the last couple of days I've been thinking about times in my life when I've been surprised by worship, and one instance in particular popped in my mind right about the time I started writing this post. Funny how that works, huh?
When I was about 22, I was in what should have been my last semester of grad school (as it turned out, it wasn't, but that's another story for another day) and was pretty much an emotional and spiritual train wreck. I'd grown up in the church, accepted Christ as a young teenager, and then proceeded to ride the roller coaster of immature faith all the way to college. The spiritual struggles really kicked in my senior year at State, and the struggling continued - oh, and how - in grad school. Even though I was labeled as sort of a happy-go-lucky girl by my English department buddies, I was actually anything but. I was miserable. MISERABLE. In a hundred different ways and for a hundred different reasons.
I still believed in God. But I wasn't exactly following Him. And as my bloggy friend Kate Andre once wrote, "It doesn't take long living apart from the life-giving source of relationship with God to become a person you can't even recognize." I relate to those words more than y'all will ever know.
At that particular time I was driving a car that was about seventy-four kinds of unreliable, so one Friday afternoon I drove to my hometown to put my car in the shop. Since it wasn't fixed by the time I went back to school on Sunday, my daddy let me borrow his car for the return trip. It was a cream Crown Victoria, and it was basically a land yacht. Exactly what every 22 year-old girl fancies as her dream car.
I was about 15 miles into my trip to Starkville when I started thumbing through my daddy's collection of cassette tapes (remember: this was the early 90s, so in-car CD players were still verrrry fancy), and I picked up a Greatest Hits by the Maranatha Singers. I put it in the cassette player and started to listen, sort of half-heartedly singing along with words that I knew in my head but hadn't felt in my heart for a couple of years.
Eventually a song called "Glorify Your Name" started to play, and after singing just a couple of words, the spiritual dam gave way and I started to cry. Actually, I started to bawl. I cried so hard that I thought maybe it would be better if I pulled off the road; I just couldn't figure out where all those tears were coming from. After all, I thought I'd sufficiently distanced myself from God. But somewhere between Kemper County and Oktibbeha County, He reminded me that even though "my flesh and my heart may fail...God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever" (Psalm 73:26).
In all my brokenness I worshipped Him that day. He showed me His faithfulness when I least expected it.
I would love to tell you that life from that point on was one big praise and worship chorus. But it wasn't. In fact, the train wreck continued to roll along for about three more years (though I did manage to finish grad school, believe it or not). But in the moments when the enemy reminds me of how far I fell, of how much I messed up, of how callously I disregarded the One who took on all my sin and died for me, I can think back on that afternoon in Daddy's Crown Victoria and know that God never forgot me. He knew me. He loved me. He never quit pursuing me.
It wasn't long after last week's earthquake when word started to spread that Dan Woolley and David Hames, two men who work with Compassion International, were unaccounted for. They were in Haiti to shoot some video footage, and they had just returned to their hotel when the earthquake hit. David is still missing. We continue to pray for him and for his family.
Dan was found and rescued last Friday morning. Through some friends' updates on Twitter, I followed a link to video footage (from a French TV station, I think) of Dan being pulled out of a pile of concrete chunks that used to be a hotel. My little boy and I watched the footage four or five times, and every single time I watched, I thought, "That's exactly what God does for us. He meets us in the rubble of our lives, and He rescues us. He pulls us out of darkness and into the light." He doesn't do that because He needs us. He does it because He loves us - and because, in His infinite kindness, He wants to use us for His glory.
Yesterday my friend Kelly posted this video of Dan on her blog, and watching it is so worth your time. It's such a reminder of what really matters, and I think - no, I know - that you'll be blessed by what you see. It's an incredible testimony.
"I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD." Psalm 40:1-3
Merry Christmas to all of our LifeWay women gals out there. I don't want to NOT spread Christmas cheer but I also want to take a moment to acknowledge those who have someone who is missing in their Christmas picture this year. I'm one of those people.
Two of my dear co-workers at LifeWay just lost a parent very near to Christmas. To one friend, one day she was planning Christmas festivities and the next day she was planning her beloved Mother's funeral.
I lost my funny and wonderful earthly father 13 years ago next month. Some holidays are easier than others. This turns out to be one of the harder ones and I don't know why. He is supposed to be in that family photo. But he is not. BUT joy of joys, I'll see him again. Sorry, I don't mean this to be a downer. But maybe its just a reminder to be sensitive to what others around me (and us) are going through.
Its okay to miss people this time of year. I'm one of the cheeriest people I know and God has allowed me to have a more tender heart this Christmas. Christmas just intensifies everything more. Happier, sadder, fuller, emptier, surrounded, yet lonely. Sometimes I think that's God going...'Hey, I'm over here...this is really the way it is!!'
He came, Jesus came to this earth for a hard journey, but He persevered and in the end, He won. It was a hard road but it was a good road. It may the only piece of good news around us this Christmas. But it is the BEST news there is.
So, are you missing someone special this Christmas? if you are, we want to pray for you, tell us about them.
We'll post something cheerier in the days ahead. I promise. We do have much to celebrate in Christ.
A TRUE Wilderness story . . . by a dear personal friend . . .
Two weeks after I married my husband, I found out he was gay. I did not come from a home I wanted to move back into, and because I was raised believing divorce was a sin, I stayed. At the time, I lived in a new city with very few friends, and the church we attended was mostly my husband's family. I did have a deep love for God, but my understanding of His relationship with me consisted mostly on my ability to be good.
I could detail the depth of all the betrayal as I endured news about my husband's lovers, the church's response to us, his family's response, and my family's response; however, the bottom line is that I was alone.
I remember clearly a conversation I had with God one evening when I told Him, "I love you very much but I don't know what to do with this pain." For the first time in my life I walked into a life of willful sin. Hebrews 11:25 tells us that there is pleasure in sin for a season. When that season ends you find such emptiness and despair that you lose yourself trying to recapture that fleeting relief of pleasure. I was living with the consequences of my own sinful choices.
One night I came home from a night out and was overwhelmed by the emptiness in my life. As I laid there in the dark, God's presence came into that room and love swept over my heart in the most profound way. I experience His grace for the first time. God gave the best He had for the worst in me. I decided I would never again base my relationship with God on anything but Him and His love for me. What a revolution that started in my life! I still am being changed by the truth of it.
My husband and I were married for 15 years and we have 2 children. We have since divorced and moved on to new chapters in our lives, but what I learned about God's commitment to me, to my ex-husband, and our children is really found in the depths of Romans 8. It is all about God's goodness. God has gone to great lengths to call us, keep us, redeem us. I can trust Him when I can't even trust myself. God is my redeemer and the lifter of my head.
And a recent Facebook message I received from my dear friend . . .
Tonight was the first bible study with me leading One in a Million. Wow was it great. Please
forward a Thank You to Priscilla for me. My husband and I sat with my brother and his wife tonight and talked after the video about session one. I don't even know how to tell you about my brother and the amount of sorrow he has lived through and put others through. I have even learned things since I have been here that I did not know. Tonight God used that study to reach in deeply into his heart and also into his wife's broken heart and start a move of the Holy Spirit. He is telling his friends that he is in Bible study! I can't even explain all that God is doing. Thanks to Priscilla for her giftedness. Mostly thanks to God for all of it.
So, I sit here and know that God is good, all the time. I'm so thankful for His Word, His promises, and His people that He uses, like Priscilla Shirer, and my dear friend JoBeth!
I know you are in great anticipation of the release of the 2010 list and I PROMISE. We will post it first thing in the morning! So stay tuned.
In the meantime, I wanted to tell you who visited our office on Monday. We had a VERY special guest (or guests). A few months ago, I put a prayer request for Ian Miller on this blog. Ian was diagnosed with a rare cancerous tumor on his brain. He has since had extensive surgery and has begun chemotherapy treatment at St. Jude's Children's Hospital in Memphis. His sweet Mom, Anna, is one of our long time Women's Events team members and former LifeWay employee. We love Anna and we have been praying diligently for Ian and his parents.
I walked onto our floor for my lunch break from an all day meeting and there he was, the precious 19-month-old Ian Miller, with all of the energy and vibrance and joy (and pushing the elevator buttons over and over) that any healthy vibrant almost 2-year-old has. Some of my team members were there along with Ian's parents and we were just mesmerized by him. Here he is with our sweet team member, Michelle Hicks:
And you know why? not just because it was so wonderful to see him so lively and squeeze him and smooch him but because the very presence of Christ was all over him. He plopped into my lap to play with my cell phone and I just felt his tiny life and how much I love him and I barely know this child. So how much more do his parents love him? and how much MORE does Jesus love him? And you could just FEEL His presence with Ian. Jesus is the King of suffering and He is close to the broken hearted. And He says let the little children come unto me. And boy does He come unto them too. I could cry just retelling it.
Oh it makes me love Jesus so much. In the hardest, sweetest, weirdest places, He shines the brightest and the clearest. He just shone through that sweet boy. Thank you Anna and Jason for blessing us with an Ian, and a Jesus, visit.
Please join us in continuing to pray for Ian. He is continuing his chemo treatments and his first one went so well. Praise God. You can follow updates on twitter by following his dad @jasonlionchaser or pulling the #ianmiller. And/or check his caring bridge Web page at :
Melanie
Melanie
Sophie
Sophie
Paige
Paige
Kris
Kris