I Get by with a Little Help from my Friends

“I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm, I get high (on the Holy Spirit of course) with a little help from my friends
Mm, Gonna try with a little help from my friends.”
The Beatles

“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one, the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”  1 Corinthians 12:4-7

This week, on Kingdom Bloggers, we are exploring who each of us would choose for our Board of Directors.
For me, each one would have to have a specific strength and expression of their faith.

I would want a person who operates in the gift of faith. For that position I chose Joni Eareckson Tada.
Joni suffered a catastrophic injury during her teens. She dove into a body of water, hitting the bottom; she became paralyzed in an instant. Initially, right after her accident, she had a crisis of faith. She was able to reconsider after being ministered to by a friend. She then became determined to continue following the Lord. In that crucible of pain and suffering, she gained incredible strength and faith. She founded Joni and Friends, a ministry whose emphasis is to provide hope and assistance to handicapped people. For my Board, she would provide unwavering faith.
The next gifting I would look for is the gift of Wisdom. Instead of being one person, it would be a compilation of three sisters in the Lord. They are Robin, Joyce and Candy.
They each hold the office of Pastor. They each are extremely smart, yet have humility. I know if I would go to any one of them, they would speak the truth and sometimes the hard thing, rather than provide me with counsel that I wish I could get, if it is not God’s best for me.
The third person would be Heidi Baker. Heidi and Roland are missionaries in Mozambique. They are committed to the children there She loves the Lord with her whole heart and soul. She unabashedly expresses this in public and is not shy about it.  She would be an example of what passion for the Lord can accomplish. The Holy Spirit would be the “silent partner” in all proceedings.
 I would definitely angle to have someone on the Board that has a sense of humor. For that position, I have chosen my daughter Melanie. She and I can be responsible members of the family of God. Yet at the same time, we observe the absurdity of life. She would be vital in expressing lightness in situations that have become heavy and unmoving. Her relationship with me is honest and fruitful. We are not afraid to express our opinions on issues to each other, even when they are opposite. But when it comes to humor, we are often in sync.
Lastly, I would choose Jill Austin. She was a child of the Jesus Movement. She was creative and lived outside of the box. She often expressed the nature of her friendship with the Holy Spirit.  She expressed herself uniquely and even at times, in a quirky way. I feel like she jolted people into looking at the Lord in different ways.
So there you have it, my all woman Board of Directors. I didn’t preplan that either!

I see this Board with lively Board Meetings, as we together express the multifaceted nature of the Lord Jesus.
 I see in each one, a spirit of humility, along with a teachable spirit and with u together we could accomplish much for the Kingdom Of God

To me, it would be an honor to serve alongside them.

Linda Maynard

What's God's up to?

When I read scriptures like Psalm 139:13-16, Jeremiah 29:11, 1 Corinthians 12:4-27 and Ephesians 2:8-10, it's clear that God creates us as we are, and gifts us to be used in His work.

For as long as I can remember I've always wanted to help people. Be it a kid in my class at school that others picked on, an old person in a convalescent home that never received visitors, hungry children in a third world country, or even someone whose story I'd hear on the news. My heart has always ached when I hear of someone's pain, and I've had an intense desire to do something to make it better.

That's why I went into the kind of work that I do. Since 1980, I've always worked in some kind of human services job. I'm drawn to the disenfranchised.

Also I've always been especially interested in helping women. I don't know if it's as simple as the fact that since I'm a woman I'm more inclined to understand women. Or if it's because I was born in 1960 and grew up under the influence of the women's movement. Maybe it's because of the fact that if you look throughout history, all over the globe, you'll be hard pressed to find anyone more universally oppressed than women.

So when I thought about this week's topic of what would be our dream, or ideal, ministry I was a bit stumped. Initially I thought about how there are hurting people everywhere and God's repeatedly provided me with jobs, and ministry opportunities through local churches where I've lived, to reach out in ways that He created my heart to desire. Then I thought about the word "ideal" or "dream" opportunity some more and thought how cool it would be if I had the freedom to openly share the gospel as as well? What would it be like if I daily got to lead hurting people to Christ and then help them individually grow in Him? That would be over the top exciting! Those few times in my life when I've had the opportunity to help someone who was new in her faith to learn and grow have been among the most rewarding endeavors I've ever experienced.

I'm grateful that in my current church I have the opportunity to serve yet, to be candid, it's super rare that I ever get to work in this context with a new Believer, or to invest in a person, one on one, like I get to invest in my supervisors at work. So, if we're dreaming here, that's what would really do it for me.

Yet, I know God is in control of all things. So I choose to try to remain open to Him and sensitive to what He wants me to do each day. I also choose to trust Him that if I "miss it", that He is more than capable of showing me the error of my ways and getting me back on His path. I choose to stand firm in the knowledge (even when I'm as confused as I've been in my job situation and frustrations that I've shared about for the past couple of years) that He does have a plan for my life and it's His plan that I want more than anything else!

Stop for the One

I wish you could meet Anne Waterton. Anne is passion personified. She could say, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ,” but she would never say that lest she take any part of the glory that belongs to Christ. Instead, Anne would say, “Follow Jesus, never mind about me.” Anne is passionate about Jesus. I want to be passionate about Jesus like Anne is passionate about Jesus.

Anne has never, and will never be the ‘face’ of public ministry. She will never tour with the Women of Faith or make a name for herself by being a Bible teacher like Kay Arthur, Joyce Meier, or Beth Moore. You will never read a book written by Anne. She is not like Heidi Baker, who has performed miracles in the name of Jesus that can be seen on youtube. Anne probably doesn’t even know who Heidi Baker is but she lived by the same principle, “Stop for the one.” I want to stop for the one, and never miss an opportunity to share the love of Jesus by offering a meal, pray for healing, or just sit and listen.

Anne has three natural children, but I’m certain her descendants are as numerous as the stars in the sky, like Abraham. Whomever God puts in her path, Anne stops for them, usually feeds them and loves them, encourages them in the Word and then continues to pray for them. She is a spiritual mother to so many and her legacy continues to multiply until Jesus comes again. I want to build a future legacy for my natural descendants and my spiritual descendants so that the Lord will bless them as he promises. I want to be a spiritual mother and disciple others to obey everything Jesus commanded.

I met Anne 15 years ago. We would sit together at church; her husband was no longer around and mine didn’t attend church. Anne had a Tuesday night supper prayer group. I don’t know if I invited myself (because that would be like me) or if she invited me (because that would be like her) but I started attending the Tuesday night supper prayer group.

Anne cooked supper for a group of women, usually 6-8. We ate together and then read a passage of Scripture before praying together. Tuesday nights were just one of the myriad of ways that Anne put love into action, loving all the wounded Christians back to spiritual health that showed up at her door; and we were many. She never wondered, “Is this the Father’s will?” Anne spent a lot of time in intimacy with the Father that she knew his will and did it, just like Jesus. I want to spend time with the Father and know his will and do it too, like Anne, like Jesus.

I wish you could meet Anne, but you never will – at least not this side of heaven. The last time I saw Anne, the Holy Spirit said to me, “This is the last time you will see her.” I was grieved but then I saw a vision of heaven. The angels’ joy was uncontainable; they were preparing for the party when God would finally bring her home. All of heaven was excited because Anne had been so faithful, so passionate to do the will of the Father. I want to be famous in heaven because of my faith.

On Friday, June 17, at 5:30pm, Anne walked into heaven and the Father greeted her saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Come and share in your Master’s happiness.” Anne was passion personified. I want to do the works that are prepared in advance for me to do and when it is over, I want the Father to say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” I want to be like Anne Waterton.

My name is Andrea York. I am humbled and honored to be invited to join this talented group of writers at Kingdom Bloggers. I will be writing on hump day, a.k.a. Wednesday. I’m Canadian, and I guess that makes me a foreign correspondent on this site. I’m also a wife and a mother. If you would like to know more about me, please visit my other blog site, andreayorkmuse.com.

What Do you Want to be When You Grow Up?

As a kid I really enjoyed my Matchbox cars (I still have some), art, the outdoors and machines. In those days we didn't have remote control TVs, personal computers, and the certainly the digital age was still a long way off. We walked or rode our bikes everywhere, played real sports with real people, and amazingly, cars didn't even have seat-belts. For sure technology has come a long way... but I have changed a little. I prefer to wake up in a hotel room instead of a sleeping bag on the ground. I still do love art and machines.

My conversion to Christ added a whole new dimension to my life, and I became passionate about certain aspects of the Kingdom. And that's what we will be writing about this week, the very thing that we dream about doing as Christians... the passion and desire of our hearts. Oh, and this week we are adding a new Kingdom Blogger; our Canadian friend Andrea. She debuts on Wednesday, don't miss it.


From the moment I encountered Jesus, I got supercharged about Christianity. I wanted to be the best and most knowledgeable Christian I could be. M encounters with God we so real, and I just wanted more and more and more! I loved to watch God at work in powerful ways such as healing, words of knowledge and prophecy. To be honest, I didn't really know what all that stuff was, it was just happening around me and I took it in. And worse I didn't know how to pray or read the Word either. But I know that I wanted Jesus: the Living, Powerful, Amazing One! My spirit was s excited I would lay away thinking about all the things that God would use me to do.

If you've read Kingdom Bloggers for any length of time, you know that I am not too good at all the traditional Christian stuff. I am bit off in the wilderness some days. It is just this past year that I actually found a church that could handle the real me.

My passion as a Christian is to be like Paul was. I want to teach, to travel and to operate in the power gifts. I certainly want to love on people as well. Next week I will tell you how come I am not quite there yet. :) The reality for me is that I have had a chance to travel as a missionary; in fact that is how I met Joyce. God opened the doors to ministry for me and financed it all too! I was out of the country on average about twice a year, and when I wasn't, I ministered just about every week in a Brazilian church in my region.

More recently I have been staging the next season of ministry. I taught a 7 week course on all the things I love about the church, and we have already planned classes out into 2012! I wrote 2 books and about 700 blogs. The best part is that I am working with a great team. And not unlike Kingdom Bloggers, we are starting to work well together. I love teams! I am at my best when I am with others that compliment my gifts. There is such freedom to pass the baton to a co-laborer for Christ and watch them succeed too.

As I look back, that is one of the biggest changes in me, I learned through Christ I need people. I love the gifts that he pours out on the church, and whatever they are, I want to be with them!

I still lay awake at night praying, and thinking about all the things that God has for me. I share my hearts desires, and He give me his. We're in this together for all eternity!

How about you, what's you hope for your Christian walk?

What's God put in your spirit?

I really appreciate what David and Joyce have said this week about how God has a different plan for each of us.

God saved David from Alcoholism. God took a high school drop out, welfare mom, and made her not only a college graduate and successful mother of 8 children, but now Joyce is completing her PhD. God took Tony through his own conflicts and questions when he was in college, and now he's getting to reach out to college age young people (2 Corinthians 1:4).

So what's my story?

All I can think to tell you is that the area where I've always been the most passionate, and seen God use me the most, is through my work.

From the time I graduated from high school my heart has always been for those people in our society who're on the fringes, the different ones. It's not always been the same people group, but it's always felt "right" to work with people who are outcasts. While I worked my way though college it was as a care giver in places like group homes with intensely acting out teenagers, or cottages for developmentally disabled, or secured psychiatric hospitals. When I graduated from college I began taking management positions in these types of settings.

I've tended to be shy and certainly not what others would call a go-getter in my personal life. But in my career God has worked though me in a way beyond my natural personality. I've seen God give me the ability to confront when needed, to teach large groups, to share with outsiders about our mission, to interact with top level executives, and to find new revenue sources - all of these are not things that come naturally to me - but God has continually given me the ability to do what I need to do to pursue my passion. Through the years that passion has changed to be more for the care givers of those outcasts than for the actual clients. I've found myself driven to work toward training, empowering, and generally making the workplace better for care givers.

There's a line in a song by an old Christian singer named Carman that I've always remembered:

"The desire is the confirmation that the destination is there,
God wouldn't have put it in your spirit if it wasn't going nowhere".

What's God put in your spirit? Where's your passion?

It's NEVER too late

I’ve written a lot about my life journey.  I’ve shared the pain of being a single mother with no education.  I’ve shared that I was abused and abandoned.  I’ve shared that feeding and clothing my children meant food stamps, commodity foods, welfare food baskets and miraculous deliveries of food.  It was not easy.  It was something that if you met me now, you’d probably never believe.  You see now a confident woman who is working on her doctorate and you probably think I never had it rough.  You would be wrong.

It was May 10^th.  It was graduation day at the University of Missouri-Columbia.  I was alone in a delivery room (this was before they babies born in hospitals came into the world in a birthing room).  I was delivering baby number 3.  The baby would be Joshua if a boy and Bethany if a girl.  I was praying for a girl.  I had two boys I loved but in my mind, this was my last child.  This was my only hope for a daughter.

I had struggled all night thinking my pain was just the bladder infection the doctor had diagnosed earlier that day.  Around 2 a.m. I knew different.  I was staying with some friends from church who kindly let me spend the night there since I was not well.  My boys were at their aunt’s house.  The woman was a powerhouse Christian and prayed in the spirit all the way to the hospital, literally dodging black cats with her large white Cadillac.  Two hours later, there was an emergency.  The baby had aspirated before birth and in haste, the doctor pulled her out with forceps.  I saw flesh being moved from my body to the waiting pediatricians.  I asked was that my baby.  The doctor said yes.  I said what is it?  He said a girl.  Then he moved closer to my face and said, Joyce, it doesn’t look good.  Don’t get too excited. 

I didn’t see her again until I was able to walk to the NICU.  I had already been up in my room.  It was a large ugly cavernous room.  They put me in it because they feared I’d be mourning the death of my daughter.  They didn’t want me with a woman who was cuddling her baby.  With my IV pole, I walked to the sink.  With my untethered hand, I started washing my hair in the sink.  That did make the staff rather upset with me.  I guess I was supposed to stay in bed and not worry about my hair.  Then I walked to the large window on the other side of the room.

It was a beautiful spring day for Commencement at the University of Missouri.  The Hearns Building was abuzz with cars, and people.   Streaming out of the building were young scholars.  People my age, my peers, streaming out of that building with their caps and gowns.  I cried.  I thought that should be me.  I should be graduating college.  Instead, I have three beautiful children who depend on me and I am a welfare single mom.

I give all the glory to God for where I am.  I really do.  But I also believe in education.  It has been one of the tools that God has used to shape me.  It has not only shaped me but transformed me.  While on the inside, I’m still rather quite insecure, education has given me a sense of confidence.  I can appear as if I am ready to take on the world.  And you know what?  I probably could and do a great job with it.  And it is first because of grace and second because of education.

Trevecca's College of Education Logo

I didn’t care for school as a kid.  In fact, in Jr. Hi, I pretended to be sick most of the time.  In 9^th grace, I would be sick on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday morning – I’d return to school on Friday afternoon to work in the library ONLY so I could go out over the weekend.  I dropped out after the 11^th grade to marry and became a mom before I would have received my diploma.

Now, I have a passion for education.  It is so important.  I can’t say it’s about the job either.  I’ve had some very good jobs.  I’ve been somebody career wise.  And yes, I wouldn’t have been without education.  But it’s not about the job.  It’s about knowing. It’s about learning.  It’s about the transformation of a welfare mom to a doctorate.  I’m too old for this doctorate and I know it.  Everything says it was too late.  But then again, when I was young and cried as my peers graduated, everything said it was too late to go back to school.  I did it then.  I can do it now.

What about you?  What has education done for you?