Iron Rose Sister Ministries

Written by Pamella Sevillano, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries in João Pessoa, Brazil.

Have you ever thought about the love and care a mother has for her children?
If you’re a mother, you know what I’m talking about, and if you’re not, you can imagine it.

When we are expecting, we think about every detail for their arrival. Where their room is going to be, where they will sleep, what clothes they’re going to wear, and lots of other things.

When I start thinking about my experience as a mother, and the preparation for my kids' arrivals, I can imagine how God prepared everything for Jesus’ arrival here on earth. How He chose the way His Son would come to the world, how He chose Mary and Joseph as his parents, in what cultural and political context Jesus would come, and how He prepared just everything for His birth. God is a caring Father and we can see this clearly in Jesus’ earthly life.

Just like some of us mothers are always making sure our kids have the best opportunities for growth, always wondering if they are okay, if they are in good company, if they are eating well enough to be healthy. We can also see that as Jesus grew, God provided new paths and relationships that helped Him evolve in all phases of life.

Nothing compares to the love of God, but something similar is the love of a mother for her children.

Isaiah 49:15 says:
“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!”

And the intense love God has for Jesus is the same love He has for us as His children.

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” (1 John‬ 3:1)‬

Just as God loves us intensely and we love our children intensely, we also want our children to love us and the Lord. We want them to seek us in moments of happiness and sadness, of relief and distress, of peace and pain…the same way Jesus looked for the Father.

There are several examples of this in the Bible:

• After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. (Matt. 14:23a)
• Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. (Mark 1:35)

And even in one of the most well-known times, when he went alone to the Mount of Olives and prayed:

• “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42)

We long to embrace our kids, care for them and love them. Jesus knew the power of God’s embrace, and He always made sure to seek it. The Lord’s embrace is transformative. Most of the time, life is still going to be hard (Jesus Himself still had to go through the cross), but the love and protection we receive when we submit ourselves to Him is healing, like a mother’s hug.

May we, as sons and daughters of God, never forget His love, care and protection. And know that He loves us unconditionally, as He loved Jesus His Son.

#IronRoseSister #HIStories #loveofGod #Godsembrace #loveoftheFather #guestwritter #blog

Written by Lisanka Martinez, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Venezuela

As a teenager, I heard a story in which a man cheated on his wife with a cousin of hers. Shocked, I discussed it at home and we remembered a family situation from when I was a child: my aunt's husband tried to make her younger sister fall in love with him, who, offended, told her sister, but she did not believe him and preferred to trust the word of her husband. This kept them as enemies for some time and all of us in the family were involved in one way or another. That memory allowed mom to free herself from another memory that she had preferred to hide from us while we were younger: In her family there had been the shameful case of a man who had children with 2 sisters. I couldn't understand it, it seemed so horrible to me. I described the man as a depraved monster and the women as stupid, submissive, fearful, and even scoundrels who accepted that situation for years. Mom tried to justify them due to their ignorance, coupled with fear and loneliness. I was left very confused and reluctant to accept this type of behavior in the middle of the 20th century.

Years later, being a Christian and preparing for some Bible classes, I had the opportunity to learn and analyze a little of Jacob's story. There I found out that he had been married and had children with 2 sisters. What an ugly story for a relevant character in the Bible! Oh! The poor man had been deceived, but why did he continue with her? And poor Rachel, how bad her father had been in making that change. She, as a daughter and a woman, could not disobey him and protest. Poor dear! I hardly even thought about that older sister who was also a main character in that drama. When I thought of Leah, I saw her as the accomplice of the father who had stolen his sister's happiness, perhaps out of selfishness, perhaps because of the tradition of that time that determined that the eldest should marry first. I saw her as a bad guy in that story. In my critical and romantic mind, I reasoned that she should have warned Jacob of the deception so that the marriage would not be consummated and help him plan on how to achieve happiness with his beloved Rachel.

Sometimes we, as humans, want explanations adapted to our understanding of the facts that God shows us in the Bible. We act with such arrogance that we dare to question divine purposes without remembering how fortunate we are that He loves and forgives us. There should be no doubt of that.

Sometime later, preparing a class on domestic violence, I had the opportunity to re-analyze this story. Now, I dedicated myself to thinking in more detail about each character and, of course, I got another perspective on Leah.

Etymologically her name means: tired, languid, melancholic, and hardworking. These four characteristics can define someone who is not happy or appreciated, and who does not have much support, perhaps someone who feels lonely even when surrounded by many people.

Leah was the oldest sister and the first thing that is said about her is that she had "delicate" eyes, for which some authors affirm that she had downcast, sad eyes; perhaps due to some disease. There is no certainty of this, but it is certain that Rachel was more beautiful and vivacious. What a disappointment for Jacob. And what about how Leah felt? Perhaps she was the most disappointed, but she couldn't protest. She could only obey her father.

The Bible tells us that Leah was despised and that she was comforted by God (v.31). Sibling rivalries are common. What is not common is that they stay strong as adults. Let's imagine Leah feeling underestimated and competing with a rival, not only more beautiful but also loved. There is a lot of loneliness in the person who does not receive enough love!

Despite these circumstances, Leah learned to rest and seek comfort in God. This is noticeable in the names that she was choosing for her children. Each name is a wish that her husband stop belittling her, but also that she is sure of having divine favor. We can see in them her personal and intimate relationship with God.

Just as Leah learned to cope with the rivalry with her sister, her husband's lack of love, and her initial loneliness by taking refuge in God and in loving her children, we too can learn to depend solely on divine love, knowing that we must take all our cares to God instead of complaining or being bitter. We can know with certainty that the best option is to rest and trust in God.

It doesn't matter if we are single, married, or single again, loneliness can sometimes creep up on us and bring us negative consequences in our walk with Christ. It can make us feel belittled, worthless, unloved. However, all these are tricks of the enemy.

What can we do when loneliness creeps into our lives? Or when we have unreciprocated love, or we are not valued in our workplace, or we are not taken into account for service in the congregation? Are we going to feel depressed or defeated? Or, on the contrary, will we understand that we are all valuable to God, that we are unique and there is no one exactly the same in the world, that God loves us, sees us, listens to us, and provides for us? Isn't all this a sign that we are not alone?

#IronRoseSister #HIStories #loneliness #Leah #loveofGod #guestwriter #blog

Written by Brenda Brizendine, Volunteer Coordinator for Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Colorado

As a child, I began to imagine what my married life would be like. A nice house, a loving husband, and many children! But I always thought: I WILL NEVER MARRY A FOREIGN MAN NOR LIVE OUTSIDE MY COUNTRY! Little did I know of the plans that God already had in store for me. As it says in Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

In my plans, I would get married at 25, have children starting at 28 and be a young mother of 3 adorable children.

I turned 25, then 30 and no, I hadn’t gotten married. Without realizing it, I began to give much more importance to the idea of being married and, yes, it even became a bit of an obsession. My friends had boyfriends, were getting married and had beautiful children and families. And I kept thinking, who will God send me? (My relatives also were reminding me of what I was “missing,” because I was not getting younger).

One afternoon during a Bible study meeting, we read 1 Corinthians 7, which mentions that single women should be caring about the things of the Lord. There I understood that it was my time to put my attention on the Lord Jesus and not on any of the other "things" or "people" I had on my agenda. That was the moment when I could fully serve Him.

When I focused “my” sight, “my” time, and “my” agenda on the things of the Lord, was when I learned to know Him better, to delight in Him and in His word, and to be more like the person He designed me to be. It was then that the man of my dreams came into my life.

Much of what our story entails is unanticipated plans: He is a foreigner, speaks another language and lives in another country. What an irony, right? Sometimes I wonder if I had to wait a little longer for having said my “never” phrase, but I am sure that everything happens in God's time and way.

At first, when he started to get closer to me, I saw him as just another friend, I didn't anticipate in the slightest way that something could come up between him and me. The relationship progressed, to the point where he asked me to marry him. Everything went very well, thanks to the support of God's blessing. But my heart had not forgotten the part of my “fear” of going to live with a foreigner in another country.

One Sunday at church, a couple of months before the wedding date, a sister told me she had a message from God for me. *Note: I hadn't “ever” shared about my “never” with many people, so I had already “packed” it. But God, who knows the depths of my heart, my desires, and my fears, had not forgotten. And He wanted to work on that area of my life.

The message was the following: My daughter, I love you, I formed you and I know the desires of your heart, and also your fears. I know you don't want to leave your country, and you don't want to leave your family. (By that time, my dad was sick and receiving dialysis treatment, I have a sister with special needs, and I couldn't get used to the idea of being away from them, "in case they needed me") But today I tell you, - the message continued - the man you are going to marry, I have sent him to you, he is going to love you, he is going to take care of you and your family, and he is going to be with you because I prepared him for you. And for your family here, I'm going to take care of them. Just remember: be still and know that I am God.

Sisters, only God could send such a punctual message like that! By the way, you can confirm that promise of God in Psalm 46:10. With that message sisters, I had no doubt that this was God's time, and the man that God had prepared for me, including the fact that he was a foreigner!!!! That filled me with peace and confidence to continue with my unexpected plans.

We have now been married for 9 years, and in this time, we have experienced an endless list of unanticipated plans:

• During the process of migrating to this country, God provided people and resources to complete it.
• When we were preparing to grow the family, the doctors told us that we had no chance of achieving it.
• We focused on buying a house then, and without anticipating it, we got pregnant. My husband's reaction at that moment was: "and how are we going to eat?" Thinking that our budget would go to the payment of the house, and we were not prepared for medical payments. At the end of my pregnancy, my husband lost his job. We had a beautiful girl, but we were left homeless as the home we were building fell through. During this time, we had to live with the in-laws.
• We had been looking for a house to live for months, and our real estate agent called us to tell us that a client wanted to sell his house to someone who did not need to "fight" for the house, because at that time the real estate market was very crazy.
• My husband loses his job again. Even though we had planned that I would stay home to raise the baby, I had to look for a job. God sent me one that only needed me for a few hours per week.
• My husband finds a job in another city. God introduces me to Iron Rose Sister Ministries, and I start working for them.
• We have to move again to be closer to my husband's job. This new house is much better than what we were originally looking for, before the baby.
• COVID arrives. We lock ourselves in.
• We began to attend church at another congregation post COVID. They invite me to be part of the team that restarts the women’s ministry.

There are many more things that I can continue mentioning. There is a lot of unpredictability in the work area, in relationships, in the housing situation, regarding illnesses, but something that I can anticipate is the love and care of God.

When I look back at what has happened in these last 9 years, I have no doubt that God is faithful to His promise of being with us until the end of the age. It behooves us then to be still and recognize that He continues being God.

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures forever.”
(Psalm 107:1)

#IronRoseSister #HIStories #unanticipatedplans #loveofGod #careofGod #waitontheLord #guestwriter #blog