This is a great idea that was first published in our newsletter in 2002. It was one that I (Robyne) have personally used and thought it would be great to dig it out and share it again. Enjoy!

This is a 'ministry must' for leaders and 'busy' people in every church. I started this with a group of women in leadership, and now all the leaders in the church are expected to practice this to develop a minimum of time spent prioritizing our spiritual, marital, parental, and social lives as we honor the Lord.

At the last women's ministry team meeting of the year, we presented each of the ladies with a purse- size, complimentary church calendar for the upcoming New Year. At the end of the meeting, which featured a Bible study about the importance of our personal time with the Lord, each lady was asked to:

First, randomly turn the calendar to January. Then with eyes closed, make small circles with index finger on your right hand, and randomly 'select' a day on the page. On whatever day the finger landed, she was then asked to schedule an entire hour dedicated solely to the Lord! This was repeated with each month for the whole year!

After they scheduled the year of special 'dates' with the Lord, we then asked them to schedule special monthly 'dates' with their spouse, then each of their children! The women LOVED it! It is much easier to keep a 'date' and/or 'appointment' if it is already on your calendar! (Try scheduling something on your calendar and then canceling on Jesus!) Remember to emphasize that this is aside from any daily devotional you may have, or any church Bible study, or worship service that you already attend.

It really helps you to keep your life prioritized.

It doesn't matter what you schedule to do with Jesus on His special day/time... just that you do it! On one of my special 'dates' with the Lord, I sent my husband, and toddler son, out for pizza, and I stayed home and walked around telling the Lord how much I thank Him for just being HIM!!! I had the candles burning and my favorite praise and worship CD playing low and softly in the background, to give a nice 'intimate' atmosphere for my 'date' with the Lord.

The next day, for my morning prayer, I felt like the Lord sent me a warm hug and a 'Thank you' for the 'date' the night before. It was wonderful!

Later in the year, many of the women gave testimony as to how much their relationships grew with the Lord, their spouses and their children! Everyone really seems to have embraced this 'must' for life prioritizing.

Submitted by: Rhonda D. Byrd
New Hope, San Bernardino, CA

... Be part of the Studio Audience

Jennifer would love to have you be part of the studio audience for 2 one-hour programs she is filming for CCN.TV

Filming Date: Tuesday, January 9
1:30-2:30p and 3:00-4:00p
Broadcast Date: To Be Determined
For information: Email Kim at kim@ccn.tv

Deborah Lovett, Speaker and Author
Planning your 2007 event? Invite Deborah to your next outreach! Born on Easter Sunday, an evangelist at heart, she brings the gospel of grace alive through the storytelling of the Woman at the Well!

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We had some great responses on Mentoring Ministries and in this issue we are sharing one of them from Cwilla from Manassas Church. It is an original idea and one that may help to stimulate your ideas for a mentoring ministry.

We collected all of the names, addresses, telephone numbers, birthdays, and a list of hobbies and interest for each of the young ladies (22 in our church who are in grades 6-college).

Once they were collected, we prayed over the names and asked God’s direction for whom we would select to mentor each of these young ladies. We compiled a list of available adults that we thought might be a good mentor and prayed that God, would impress upon the hearts of each of these ladies (if it was His will) to be a mentor for one of the young ladies on our list. There were four of us ladies who prayed for God’s leading, and His choice of who would do the mentoring.

We planned for quarterly meetings and then printed announcements/invitations regarding the ministry on beautiful cardstock paper. We tied them with soft pink ribbon and passed them out to each and every lady in our church. We knew that God can and will use all ages and we wanted the women who participated to be His choices not ours.

We have had two of our quarterly meetings with our mentors and mentorees so far. The first was teaching the young ladies how to make bread and while the bread was going through the process of rising and baking we decorated flip flops and did pedicures for the young ladies. The girls loved this because each left with a special pair of flip flops that they had decorated with their choice of accessories, and most had never had a pedicure. We also supplied pizza and soda for their evening meal and each was able to take some bread home with the recipe for the bread.

The second meeting we spent time teaching the girls how to make a beautiful scarf. We had several ladies who are not mentors but were willing to share their talents with the young ladies and mentors by presenting or teaching at one of the quarterly meetings.

All the participants receive a beautiful bookmark with Titus 2:3-5 printed on it and guidelines for the ministry. The pairs are encouraged to stay in contact with each other regularly.

Did you know there is a brand new Issue of Java with Jennifer?

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As leaders and workers in Women’s Ministry we all have found ourselves caught up in the “busy-ness” of organizing and planning ministry... or as Beth Moore calls it "the captivity of activity!"

Our daytimers (or PDA's) are packed with appointments, meetings, and activities.

If you are like me, you thrive on getting things done, and doing them well. But I have to admit, sometimes in all the activity I have let my time with the Lord become haphazard, less than it should be.

This should be a red flag in the life of every leader. As leaders, we cannot afford to let our relationship with the Lord slide. As my mom always says, "If your cup is not full, how can you share with others?” You can’t get anything out of an empty cup and a cup that is half full can only share part of what it could have given.

So, how’s your cup?

Everyone has to find their own schedule and method of study that works for them, but here is a small sampling of devotionals/studies that I have found to be particularly encouraging as a leader of women.

• A Woman's Guide to Servant Leadership: A Biblical Study for Becoming a Christlike Leader by Rhonda Harrington Kelley
• 31 days of Praise by Ruth Myers
• Morning and Evening by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Stay in the Word!

In Him... Robyne Beaubien, Editor

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