Iron Rose Sister Ministries

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Published: 10 August 2013

For those that know me, especially the students of the LSU Christian Student Center, I love to tell and hear God stories.  They’re stories about the little things in life that give testimony to the living and active hand of God in our lives.

There are so many God-stories that I may run out of Saturdays to tell them all, but I will begin with one that happened just this past Wednesday….

My chest was tight and my head was swimming as I totaled up how much I had personally invested in the new ministry since February of this year.  The weightiest and final straw came after authorizing the purchase of 2,000 copies of the 1st small group Bible study book, Human AND Holy, and 3,000 copies of the Spanish version, Humano Y Santo.  The English version is at the printer’s now and will be available within a week or two.  The Spanish version will be less than a month behind that timeframe.  But that is not the point of today’s story…

My inadequacies were rearing their ugly heads as I doubted the wisdom of making this decision.  I had not come to this recent decision on my own, but made it in counsel with the Board of Directors for Iron Rose Sister Ministries.  We all agreed it was a great savings in an effort to reduce the overhead cost for each of the books, especially as they are distributed to Latin America and many women and churches that are in need of such materials and encouragement.

But as a very large chunk of my savings went to the advance purchase of the books, my trust in God and His plan for the ministry wavered.  I started counting my blessings and continued praying, but the tightness in my chest would not go away…

I got a few more things done that afternoon in an effort to distract myself and headed to church a short time later.  That night, we continued our discussion in the book of Matthew and “happened” to be in chapter 14, which includes the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 with the five loaves and two fish.  Someone mentioned the lack of faith the disciples had and made a comment about how many miracles the disciples had seen and yet they still doubted.

Well, I get it.  I am definitely one of those disciples, a follower of Jesus that has seen so many miracles in the past, one that has been blessed countless times with God’s provision, but still doubts.  Oh ye of little faith.  Yep.  That’s me.  “Little faith,” party of one.  Party of many.  Because I know you’ve been there too.

May we all be reminded of the overabundant examples of God’s provision, from the stories in our own lives to the multiplying of the five loaves and two fish with twelve basketfuls left over!  I thank God for graciously reminding me of that this past Wednesday night.  My fears are still very real and very present as I continue to move forward with this new ministry, but over the past few days, I have gone back to the five loaves and two fish as a reminder of God’s provision and blessing.

Details

Published: 09 August 2013

In the process of launching Iron Rose Sister Ministries (IRSM), I have avoided taking the step to blog.  Not because I don’t think I’ll have something witty to say each and every day, but out of fear that what I say will not be well-received, that it won’t strike a chord, or that the reader, you, would not continue reading so as to catch the entries that are really worth reading.

But here I am… taking things one step at a time as I have encouraged so many others to do in the past and starting the official Iron Rose Sister Ministries blog.

The goal is that you will not always hear my voice sharing testimonies, encouragement, devotional thoughts and God-stories.  There will be others that will guest write to share other Iron Rose Sister stories and inspiration.

Please forgive any grammatical errors you may come across.  The blog is not like the books and Bible studies being published for IRSM that have been and will be reviewed by others who are more expertly equipped in the English language.  Here, I will write from the heart to share news about the ministry and ways in which God is working, among other things.

For those of you that also speak Spanish, a version of each day’s blog will be available on the parallel blog page as well :)

There will be days in which we will deviate from the norm and something will need to be shared that trumps the original plan – God works that way, you know ;)  However, in an effort to generate interest and create a pattern of blogging, the following will be the standard organizational structure that each week will follow:

Sabbath Sunday - a verse to reflect on (just a verse or a photo; rest for me as writer)
Makeover Monday - attitude, worldview, etc.
Transformational Tuesday - Spirit's leading
Wake-up Wednesday - an encouraging word / challenge
Throwback Thursday - a story from back in the day
Food and Family on Fridays - sometimes a recipe
Story-time Saturdays - God stories

There will also be Iron Rose Sister Ministries updates, as needed, at the end of each post.

Thanks for joining us on this journey and I can’t wait to share with you all God is doing through me and through Iron Rose Sister Ministries!