Women’s Ministries

Sausage and Tortellini Soup February 4, 2012

Who’s Your Daddy? January 31, 2012

by Priscilla Shirer, from the Deeper Still Conference

He is the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
He’s the keeper of creation and the creator of all.
He’s the architect of the universe and the manager of all time.
He always was, always is, always will be.
Unmoved, unchanged, undefeated and never undone.
He was bruised but brought healing. He was pierced but eased pain.
He was persecuted but brought freedom. He was dead and brings life.
He was risen to bring power. And he reigns to bring peace.
The world can’t understand Him. Armies can’t defeat Him.
Schools can’t explain Him and leaders can’t ignore Him.
Herod couldn’t kill Him. Nero couldn’t crush Him.
The new age cannot replace Him and Oprah cannot explain Him away.
He is life. He is Love. He is longevity and He is the Lord.
He is goodness, and kindness and faithfulness and He is God.
He is holy and righteous and powerful and pure.
His ways are right, His word eternal, His will unchanging and His mind is on us.
He’s our Savior, our guide, our peace, our joy, our comfort, our Lord and He rules our lives.
I serve Him because His bond is love, His yoke is easy, His burden is light and His goal for us is abundant life.
I follow Him because He is the wisdom of the wise, the power of the powerful, the ancient of days, the ruler of rulers, the leader of all leaders and His goal is a relationship with me.
He’ll never leave you, never forsake you, never mislead you, never forget you, never overlook you and never cancel your appointment in His appointment book.
When you fall He’ll lift you up, when you fail He’ll forgive you, when you’re weak He’s strong, when you’re lost He’s your way.
When you’re afraid He’s your courage, when you stumble He will steady you, when you’re hurt He’s going to heal you, when you’re broken He will mend you, when you’re blind He will lead you, when you’re hungry He will feed you, when you face trials He’s with you.
When I face persecution He shields me, when I face problems He will comfort me, when I face loss, He will provide for me and when we face death He will carry us all home to meet Him.
He is everything for everybody, everywhere, every time and in every way.
He is your God, and that, Sisters, is who you belong to!

Common Threads! January 28, 2012

Girls! Join us Saturday morning, February 11th (9:30-12:00) for the next Common Threads. It will be a great time to connect with other NSB women. We will have brunch, enjoy a great “how-to” session on new ways to wear your favorite scarf (make sure to wear your favorite scarf!!!), and then enjoy a workshop together. Info on our workshops is provided below.

This is a great safe place to bring a friend who you’ve been wanting to invite to church (we are not having worship this time). Bring a friend and be entered to win a prize!

Register online http://www.nsb.org/register-online

Workshops include:

Crafting with Kelly: Come and try your hand at a few new crafts and learn about the amazing online crafting community of Etsy. Cost is $7 and you will take home a project with you. Click here to see Kelly’s Etsy store and some of her project creations.

Homemade Cooking with Karin: Come and learn the secrets of a great piecrust at this hands-on cooking class. Learn multiple ways to use piecrust in your cooking. Bring your own rolling pin and a favorite recipe to share!

Sharing a Cup of HospitaliTEA with Lydia: Come and learn how to serve a simple cup of tea to a friend or neighbor. Enjoy some tea together and hear some simple ways to open up your heart and home in hospitality. 

Hula & You with Sue: Winter cold got you down? Come and learn the traditional Hawaiian hula dance and give your mind and your body a mini-vacation! Hula is a great form of exercise and fun. Wear your muu muus or the like and a lei or flower in your hair and we will dance the morning away.

For more info contact: Julie Guest at julieguest25@gmail.com

“Show up” and be amazed by God! January 24, 2012

Submitted and written by Carry Mattocks

Serving and being used by God never ceases to amaze me!  God can use the smallest steps of obedience for His glory!  I think of all the times I have been involved in an event or bible study and was encouraged by people just “showing up.”  When we “show up” we encourage those around us.  When we “show up” to be by someone’s side, the love of God is conveyed.

Obeying that call to “show up” admittedly has sometimes been a struggle – especially when it means taking time away from my family and their activities to visit a woman in prison.  It has, at times, brought tears to my eyes when I’ve had to miss one of my kids’ games or that infrequent call from my college student. But I know the Lord has directed me to do this and I must obey – and despite what I am missing, I am blessed each and every time I “show up.”

On one of our recent prison visits, one of the inmates asked a volunteer “why do you come here and do this?”  The volunteer simply explained “I feel called by God.”  Tears welled up in the inmates eyes as she recalled how her 2 children don’t come and see her, despite living close by.  And only once in 3 years has she had a visit from a family member.  She feels abandoned by her friends and family and yet, when someone “shows up” to visit her, it speaks volumes about how God loves her.

I’ve not been given the gift of speaking, writing, intellect or music.  BUT “showing up”… that I can do!  And when I do – wow, the Lord shows himself and I am blessed just as much as the inmates we visit.  The poem below was written by one of the inmates we visit.  I am passing this along so you can be blessed by those who “show up!”

God’s Hotel

by Purdy inmate, Leisa Lopez

I checked you in last night my child,

cuz it hurt me so bad to see you out there running wild.

All tired and sucked up you appeared to me,

but put a mirror in front of you and you can’t even see,

that you number among the walking dead,

sores all over your body, confusion in your head.

Jail is not the place you want to be,

but it’s “my hotel” where I can work on thee.

You see, you weren’t just arrested, you were rescued from yourself.

I had to bring you back here to put your drug use on the shelf.

Give you some rest, some food and some talk,

encourage you and love you before I let you walk.

Don’t be like a mule that’s lead around by a bit,

just listen to my warnings and I can help you quit.

This could be the last time you have to come into this place,

just listen to me, the Creator of all, with tears upon my face.

Connie Cavanaugh January 15, 2012

Introducing our speaker for this year’s Women’s Retreat: Connie Cavanaugh!   We are in for such a treat, ladies.  Here’s a little bit of her biography.  For more information, you can visit her website: www.conniecavanaugh.com

Connie Cavanaugh was born in a small town in northern Saskatchewan. The fifth child of a religious family that grew to seven girls and one boy, her father worked many jobs in order to care for his large family. Connie remembers visiting her father in his blacksmith shop on Main Street and then later riding along on his early morning school bus runs. Her mother, trained as a seamstress, was a homemaker until the last of the children started school at which time she found outside work also. Connie’s main memory of her mother is seeing her bent over her Singer sewing machine for hours every day to make sure her seven girls had well-made, fashionable clothes.

At the age of 13, the sudden death of an older sister and the resulting difficulties at home due to her mother’s struggle with grief and illness, catapulted Connie into some troubled times. Connie’s search for answers to the big questions of life, especially life after death, began during those turbulent teen years that coincided with the dawning of the drug culture in North America.

Although she was raised in church by religious parents, Connie never heard about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ until, at the age of 18, at a Christian revival meeting a new friend explained the gospel in terms she could understand. Read her full salvation testimony.

She joined Faith Baptist Church in Saskatoon Saskatchewan, her first evangelical church. Henry Blackaby — who later co-authored Experiencing God — baptized, discipled and married Connie and her husband Gerry Taillon on August 5, 1978. Connie sensed a strong call to ministry and found fulfillment by marrying a pastor and becoming involved in ministry leadership.

Connie completed her bachelor of Education degree from the University of Saskatchewan and taught high school English for four years before taking early “retirement” to raise their two daughters and one son.

For many years Connie did what many pastors’ wives do – whatever needed doing! From playing piano for worship to teaching Sunday School to hosting baby showers to cleaning the church to hosting and counseling those that dropped in, Connie did it all. She loved the ministry and the people God brought into their lives as they moved from Saskatchewan to California so Gerry could complete his Master of Divinity degree. From there they answered a call to go to Quebec and four years later, they headed west again to Cochrane Alberta where Gerry is now the National Ministry Leader of the Canadian National Baptist Convention.

From early in her Christian life Connie wanted to write and speak to women but it would be more than 25 years before her primary responsibilities as a minister’s wife and mother would allow her the time to pursue that dream. During those years, God allowed Connie to experience many things she would use in her teaching when her public ministry began.

One thing Connie never expected would happen was her long season of spiritual dryness. After her radical conversion, zealous evangelicalism, and love for the ministry, Connie was blindsided by this difficult and challenging experience. But God had a redemptive plan for this time of trial, using it to launch Connie into a ministry of speaking on the international stage as well as authoring the book that gives hope to others who struggle with spiritual dryness. Click on From Faking it to Finding Grace to read a sample chapter and/or order the book.

Connie writes articles and columns in many Christian publications, both print and online. Her popular family life humor column, A Slice of Life, ran in Homelife magazine for five years. She is a featured writer for On Mission magazine and a columnist for Women Alive’s ezine.

Connie speaks at Christian events all over North America. She has also been invited to Europe, South America and the Caribbean. Ever the storyteller, Connie peppers her teaching with hilarious accounts of real-life events. She communicates spiritual truth with energy, humor, warmth, and grace. Connie counts it a great privilege to speak to women of many denominations as she devotes her life to furthering the work of God on earth.

Connie and Gerry, after more than 30 years of marriage, enjoy traveling together, hiking, skiing and cheering their (different) sports teams to victory…or not! They spend as much time as possible with their three grandchildren and three grown children and their spouses who live nearby.

Girl Time! January 10, 2012

I just returned from an amazing weekend away with 3 of my best friends.  It was wonderful on so many levels and I am so blessed that this weekend away happens twice a year.  In fact, this Sunday  we calculated that this was the 18th time getting away for a weekend as a group of four.  We have a lot in common: we’re all married, we’re all moms, we all love scrapbooking, and–most importantly–we all love Jesus.  I love these girls like sisters and I am so grateful for all the ways they enrich my life.

I’m also grateful for the chance to get away!  Every time I am able to get away with friends I know I come back as a refreshed, better version of me.  This ability to get away is a gift, especially because it has become such a consistent part of my year.  But because the advantages are very apparent to my husband, he is willing to help make it work and is supportive of the time.

How often do you get away?  Are you able to find some “me time” in your busy schedule?  If something like that sounds heavenly but impossible, you’re in luck!  Women’s Retreat is just around the corner.  Mark your calendars NOW for March 16-18.  This year we have a new venue in Yelm, WA, that offers lots of fun activities and amenities.  Time away from home–especially with good girlfriends and other sisters in Christ–is important for all of us.  Get it on your calendars now so that all arrangements can be made.

More information will be posted in the future, but I wanted to make sure it’s on your radar.  So get out your calendar right now and mark those dates!

If you’re still reading this then you’re not getting your calendar.  DO IT NOW!

Continuous Cleaning Oven: Elves Not Included. January 3, 2012

I just finished cleaning my 25 year old “continuous cleaning” oven.  As with all good deep-cleaning projects, a few thoughts came to mind.

1) I’m not sure whose brilliant idea it was, but the name is a complete misnomer.  Well, either it’s a misnomer, or whoever delivered this oven to this house 25 years ago forgot to include all the tiny little elves that sit in it and “continuously clean.”  I’m also wondering: if the elves had actually been included in the package, would they have also maintained the outside?  Does “continuous cleaning” include the little dust bunnies that collect in the door hinges, or all the burnt crumbs that gather in the storage drawer down below?

2) Alright, all joking aside, I know what “continuous cleaning” means and how to clean such an oven.  Well, I know because I googled it–AFTER buying one of those fancy aerosol bottles of oven cleaner which clearly states on the label “NOT FOR CONTINUOUS OR SELF-CLEANING OVENS.”  Dang.  Too bad I didn’t see that when I bought the thing.  I’m still wishing my oven came with tiny little elves.

3) After going through nearly an entire roll of paper towels and meticulously sweeping out all of the little burnt crumbs I possibly could, then having to completely empty the contents of the storage drawer, wash out all of those items that now had little burnt crumbs on them, I thought “There has to be a better way.”  Always wanting to learn from the past I made a mental note: Next time use the vacuum.

4) If you haven’t noticed by now, this was one of those projects that seemed simple when the idea was first conceived, but then not far into it I realize this is not one of those oh-I’ll-just-do-this-really-quickly-while-I’m-thinking-about-it projects.  It’s one of those what-was-I-thinking-doing-this-right-now projects.  Now the oven racks are blocking the sink, every cookie sheet, muffin tin and other oven-proof container I own is consuming my counter space.  The gloves are on, the paper towels are flying, and my mind is a blur trying to figure out why I decided to do this right now, and whose genius idea was it to name this “Continuous Cleaning”?!?!

But alas!  Project complete: continuous cleaning oven cleaned.  At least I won’t have to think about that for another 3 years.

Donations Needed for Blessings Boutique! December 31, 2011

Hello Faithful Readers!

The team of Northshore women traveling to Los Cedros, Nicaragua will soon be leaving and they could still use more women’s clothing for the Blessings Boutique.  The hope is that each woman at the conference would be able to pick out a church-appropriate outfit.  Approximately 300-350 women are expected to attend.  Items most needed are: skirts in all sizes, light scarves (not wintery), and short-sleeved tops in all sizes, but particularly large (L).  The last day for collection will be January 3rd. 

Donations can be left in the wooden donation bin located in the Student Center. QUESTIONS? Please contact Judy Hystad at425-821-0511 or 2012NicaWomensTeam@gmail.com.

Thanks in advance for your donations.

Adventures in Cambodia: Part 4 December 27, 2011

The last post in our series from Keirstin Hammond and her year-long internship in Cambodia:

Where was God’s provision most evident?

I felt like God was very present—there were many times that I begged for his presence and He was so faithful to show himself to me.  There was so much provision in pruning me, comforting me, revealing Himself to me.  He protected me physically, always keeping me safe and healthy.  He was in everything.

About three nights before I left I ran into a girl who lived a couple of doors down from me.  She didn’t look well, so I asked her how she was.  She replied that she was really struggling.  When I asked her what was wrong, she proceeded to explain that her husband had not come home for two days.  She had no idea where he was and he wasn’t answering his phone.  She was completely distraught and said she just wanted to die.  Then she continued to pour her heart out to me and shared her life story.  This girl had a very rough life growing up and had many disturbing things happen to her.  But that night I was able to share Jesus with her.  It was so incredible!  I asked her if she had ever heard about Jesus and she said she had, but she was scared to accept him or trust him because she was Buddhist.  I asked her if she wanted to know more about Him.  She said yes and we began from the beginning.  A couple hours later she wanted to accept Jesus as her Savior!  First I prayed for her, then I prayed with her and she became a believer that evening.  It was such amazing timing; I could see the hunger in her eyes for hope, for something she could cling to.  I promised to find her a Bible so she could learn more, though I wasn’t entirely sure where to find one.  I started by asking a CHO staff member.  He told me that sponsor money for Khmer Bibles had just come in so CHO had a ton of Bibles!  Impeccable timing.  I gave her one and she clung to it, telling me shoe would take it everywhere with her and read it when she could.  I went to bed that night in tears, not believing what just happened.  It all came about at a time I was least expecting and I was so humbled.  I knew my Khmer was not up to par, but I trusted that God was imparting any information and clarity that I could not.  Our God is SO awesome, and I’m amazed at how He uses us!

Photo: Keirstin with her English class students

Our Merry Little Christmas December 24, 2011

Submitted by author Lydia Harris, as see on her blog Mentoring Moments.

I awoke with anticipation. After years of illness, I finally had the energy to host the Christmas gathering for our kids and grandkids.

Our home sparkled with festive touches, and the dining room table looked beautiful with our best china and silver. Soon the smell of fresh yeast rolls and simmering beef stroganoff would greet the family.

In my mind, I could already hear the grandkids squeal with joy as they ripped open their packages. And for the adults, I had planned a fun treasure hunt to find gifts of money. I couldn’t wait to snap a photo of our family wearing the colorful fleece scarves I had made.  Perhaps we would don them and carol for the neighbors. This would be a Christmas to remember!

The phone rang. “Merry Christmas!” I said. It was our daughter, but her “Merry Christmas” sounded flat. “Alex has a fever.”

I sighed. With my compromised immune system and our son’s two-month-old baby, I knew we couldn’t all get together. So we
rescheduled our family Christmas for New Year’s Eve.

Our son and his family still came for Christmas dinner, but with only half the family present, I felt let down. We read the Christmas story, but two little voices weren’t there to join in. The day hadn’t gone as planned. However, I looked forward to celebrating together on New Year’s Eve.

As my husband and I crawled into bed, he said, “This year we had a merry little Christmas–with the emphasis on little.” He yawned. “But sometimes, little is more.”

As the days of December dwindled, I looked for the more in our little Christmas. But I couldn’t find it. The little became even less when our son-in-law got sick and couldn’t join us for our belated celebration. I half-heartedly cooked another Christmas dinner. But I couldn’t recapture the memorable Christmas I had hoped for.

Months later, however, God worked in my heart, and the little began to grow. God reminded me from John 1:16 (NIV) that from him “we have all received one blessing after another.” Finally, I was ready to recount some of my “little is more” Christmas blessings.

As I listed them, I realized our entire Christmas season had been filled with touches of God’s love. God also reminded me of our
pastor’s message on Christmas Eve. The pastor emphasized that Jesus’ birth was only one snapshot in a larger photo album telling the story of Jesus’ life. Yes, we see Jesus born as a sweet little baby. But the Bible is the entire album and reveals other pictures of his life, including his tears, temptation, crucifixion, and resurrection.

Reflecting on our merry little Christmas, I realized that memories of Christmas shouldn’t hinge on one single day. Christmas is only one small snapshot in our family’s photo album of life. As I pictured the years of our lives, I found God’s fingerprints of love and blessing throughout them. No, we weren’t always smiling in the pictures. But even when things didn’t go as we planned, they were part of God’s plan.

Now as I anticipate another Christmas, I know it probably won’t turn out exactly as expected. But that’s all right. I’ve learned that if I let Him, God can take even a merry little Christmas and make it more.