Iron Rose Sister Ministries

Twenty years ago today, I boarded my first international flight and headed to Venezuela. I still have the boarding pass, departing Miami, on Viasa, an airline that is no longer in existence.
There are many Venezuelan things that are no longer in existence... The Venezuelan coffee and whole powdered milk I came to love in my first visit are no longer available. Arepas (a finely ground cornmeal patty and staple in the Venezuelan diet) are rarely seen at any meal because the product, originally produced in Venezuela, and later imported from Colombia, can no longer be found. The scarcity of basic foods and supplies in the markets is a testimony to the overall decline of the country’s economic conditions.

My favorite color is red. Those that know me well know that I avoid and detest the color pink. Maybe because I was super-saturated by it as a kid, or maybe because I see pink as a red wanna-be. Whatever the reason, I don’t like pink; but Easter morning 2014, I gained a new appreciation for the way God showed me a beautiful shade of pink.

That Easter morning, I joined with two other families in Brighton, Colorado, for a sunrise service at a friend’s property just outside of town. It was difficult to get up that early and the rain the night before made for a very brisk morning, but it was most definitely worth it.

We prayed, sang songs in worship, read Scripture, and were reminded of the beautiful hope of the resurrection—a hope we don’t have to wait to rejoice in only once a year, but can celebrate every day!

As the sun was rising in the east, the sky changed from reds and yellows to a clear blue sky filled with a sun that began to warm us. When the sun rose enough for its light to kiss the snow-capped mountains in the west, I stood in breathless wonder of the beautiful sight to behold. The mountains were glowing pink.

My aversion to pink was totally set aside for several minutes of silent splendor of the beautiful shade of pink God had used to paint the mountains.

I apologize for not attempting to capture the scene in a picture. I truly believe a picture would not do it justice. However, I encourage you allow God to transform your perspective—to take a new look at the way God paints something you have an aversion to.

At Iron Rose Sister Ministries, we value our mothers—whether a mother by birth, an adoptive mom, foster mom, or a spiritual mother. We all have mothers in our lives and whether or not you have been blessed to be a mom by giving birth, by adopting or fostering a child, we are all called to be a community of mothers in the spiritual sense. Mentoring, discipling, encouraging... Iron Rose Sisters are spiritual moms and we want to honor you!
Mother’s Day is this Sunday, May 14, and we want to give you a few ideas about how you can honor your mother and bless IRSM at the same time.
• Our Rose Cards are a great way to honor a spiritual mom by making a donation in her honor to support our growing Intern Program. You can mail her one of these cards, which represents a family tree of roses or your relationship as Iron Rose Sisters. These 4x6 cards can be framed, or sent in the mail—either way, you’ll be able to include a personalized, special note.
• Choose Iron Rose Sister Ministries as your charity of choice on Amazon Smile. (This blesses the ministry for purchases beyond Mother’s Day.) Just click on this link and make any future Amazon purchases at smile.amazon.com. A portion of your purchases will go to IRSM at no additional cost to you!
• Purchase an interactive Bible study book and/or an IRSM mug as a gift.
Thank you for your prayerful support of Iron Rose Sister Ministries and for giving us the opportunity to honor a special mom in your life as well.

I am at Pepperdine this week and if you happen to also be here, please pass by our table in the Sandbar and say hi!

If you don’t see me at the table, I am most likely nearby talking with someone and enjoying the fellowship of networking that happens at these events.

For me, the greatest blessing of the Pepperdine Bible Lectures is to gather with brothers and sisters that I have known for years or just met—all working together in the kingdom.

Written by Tony Brizendine, husband of Brenda and volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries

I can remember the excitement I felt as if it were yesterday. Brenda and I were picking out the paint colors, cabinets, carpet, and light fixtures for our new home. This is something we had prayed about for years and our dream was finally coming true. We received a phone call from our realtor while we were celebrating my birthday. He congratulated us on securing the property to build our new home on. I thought for sure this was God’s hand blessing us. We had already sold our previous home and were living in the basement of my parent’s house while waiting on our new home to be constructed. We also were pregnant with our daughter and were hoping the new home would be finished before she was born.

The months that followed seemed to contradict all of our excitement. The building of our home was delayed for several months due to a shortage of workers. By the time there were workers available, I received news that I was being laid off from my job. We ultimately had to pull out of building the house a few weeks before Brenda’s due date. I was crushed. No job, no house and a baby on the way. I asked myself over and over, “Why would a good God allow this to happen to us?” I felt angry and abandoned by God.

A few days after our daughter was born, I received a call from a former boss of mine. He invited me to apply for an open job with his new company. Within a week after his call and interviewing, I was employed again. My parents and younger sister helped us with our newborn daughter while we were living with them, which was a huge blessing for us. Two months later, our realtor called us and had a great home available for us to purchase that suited our needs perfectly. We were able to move into our house the weekend of my birthday, exactly 1 year after we had secured the property for the home we wanted to build.

After having some time to reflect, I realized that I was not putting God first. In that season, I had become selfish and shortsighted. I didn’t see God as my provider. I saw myself and my job as my provider instead of Him. He is the Great “I AM” and as Deuteronomy 6:4 says, “The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” God is not interested in just granting the desires of our heart, He wants our whole heart. While we see the surface level things, He can see from a much higher level than we can.

While I was very grateful to God for restoring my employment and helping us through that season, I felt as though our dream was lost. Yet three years later, God provided a home that was not far from where we originally wanted to build, and was constructed at the same time we lost our “dream house”. The selling owners took very good care of the house, which was far beyond our expectations, and left it in pristine condition. It was as if God had these people taking care of it for us while He waited for the right time to deliver it.

God had seen what we needed on the surface level, but He wanted us to learn to see Him first, The One, The Whole. Thanks for letting me share this reminder to keep our eyes fixed on the I AM.

Your transformation process may not be initially visible to others, but God is working to renew and change you, just as He does with every butterfly. Even as an egg, the caterpillar begins to take shape. In the second stage, the caterpillar eats and eats, growing and shedding its outgrown skin four to five times. The third stage is characterized by the most dramatic transformation – metamorphosis. During this stage, the caterpillar builds a chrysalis and within that outer form, all old body parts of the caterpillar are transformed into the body and wings of a beautiful butterfly. As an adult butterfly recently departed from its chrysalis, a final transformation must still take place. The butterfly’s wings are soft, wet, and weak. The insect must use its wings to strengthen them and allow a God-designed transformation to take place so it can fly in beauty, and fulfill the purpose for which it was created.
Just as the butterfly goes through metamorphosis, our transformation to Christlikeness takes time. Maybe at times we catch only a glimpse of what we are to become. There can be pain as we shed the skin of our old selves and the lies that cocooned us. Radical transformation, unseen by many, takes place in our hearts and minds as we continue to work and allow God to transform us into strong and beautiful creations that rest and thrive in the abundant life He has designed for us.
This month, we will focus on transformation and community—especially when those two things happen together.
What does transformation mean to you?

“We know not what we shall be”; but we may be sure we shall be more, not less, than we were on earth. Our natural experiences (sensory, emotional, imaginative) are only like the drawing, like pencilled lines on flat paper. If they vanish in the risen life, they will vanish only as pencil lines vanish from the real landscape, not as a candle flame that is put out but as a candle flame which becomes invisible because someone has pulled up the blind, thrown open the shutters, and let in the blaze of the risen sun.

From The Weight of Glory

Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis

The church is a community that extends beyond borders, languages, cultures, and time. I have had the blessing of getting to know members of the community of believers across the U.S. and from many countries across the world. Whether African or Chinese, Hispanic or Indian, Kazak or Russian, Canadian or Southern, the community in Christ is one.
One thing we all have in common is the desire for relationship—for a deeper sense of community. We long for community with our Creator and with His creation—other people with whom we can relate and share our lives.
Grandmas and college students alike want to know what it truly means to be in relationship with God and one another—what it means to be community, family, and the church to each other.
Today, I encourage you to find a community, members of a church family with whom you can be authentic, encouraged and accountable.
It is my prayer and one of the goals of Iron Rose Sister Ministries, that we might be that community to each other—a church family that spans at least two languages and two continents. I pray that we may be iron sharpening iron to one another and that we might encourage and inspire each other to be as beautiful as a rose in spite of a few thorns—all in the context of community.

The Common Threads cannot even be considered outside the context of community—whether between two people or twenty, we need others to encourage us to bloom and grow, to gently and lovingly point out our thorns, and to serve as iron sharpening iron for each other.
Thank you to those who have been true Iron Rose Sisters in my life! You are the inspiration for all God has called me to through this ministry and that push me to continue to model those relationships to others across the Americas.
Don’t forget to share these Common Threads with a Christian sister today and thank her for being an Iron Rose Sister in your life.

Early tomorrow morning, I will leave for the Pepperdine Bible Lectures in Malibu, California. This is a four-day conference in which over two thousand people descend on the university campus for in-depth classes and workshops, reconnection with old friends and the opportunity to meet someone for the first time you feel like you have known your entire life.
If you plan to be in the area, or know someone else who will be at Pepperdine this week, please stop by our booth in the Sandbar! I would love to see you, hug your neck, and maybe even grab a cup of coffee and catch up.
One of the things I most enjoy about the Pepperdine Bible Lectures is being surrounded by other people passionate about knowing Christ and making Him known.
This year, as a part of the Spanish program at Pepperdine, on Friday, I will have the privilege of sharing three classes for the women. The overall Lectures theme is Spiritual Rhythms: Scrolls for a Robust Salvation. My three classes are entitled: Spiritual Rhythms of Relationships in Ruth; Spiritual Rhythms of Wisdom in Ecclesiastes; and Spiritual Rhythms through Difficult Times in Esther.
Thanks to the Texas International Bible Institute, these classes will be live-streamed through Zoom. Women from Venezuela, Colombia, and other locations are already signed up to attend the classes remotely.
Our blog theme for the month of May is transformation and community, especially when those two occur in tandem. An excellent reflection of transformation in community is through Lectureships, like this week at Pepperdine, or later this month at the Baxter Institute in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, where I will also be speaking. I hope to see many of you at these two excellent opportunities for community and transformation.
Thank you for your prayers for these and other events! May God bless you this month as we reflect on the transformation found in community.

An instant connection. A feeling of family.  Several hundred individuals have descended on the campus of the Baxter Institute this week, many of whom have never met before. Nearly a dozen countries are represented, but the spirit of oneness felt and shared has little to do with a common language, but rather a common Lord.

I have the privilege and honor of reconnecting with some families and meeting others for the first time.
What a joy to get to see Venezuelans I have not seen in years! Their children have grown and God is doing amazing things in their lives.
Yet the joy in meeting others for the first time, who also have a passion for God and His church, is unrivaled.
The beauty is that what we all have in common is our brotherhood in Christ.
Please join me in praying for these brothers and sisters in Christ who are serving in churches of all sizes across Honduras and in other countries across Latin America. Here are some specific prayer requests on behalf of those who are here attending the Baxter Lectureships:
• Many Venezuelans are here studying in the midst of the extremely difficult economic and political situation in their country. Please pray for their families, for Venezuela as a country, for the churches, and that God will be glorified through it all.
• Preachers, missionaries, and their families are here being equipped and encouraged to go back and fight the good fight in their respective congregations. Let´s join in the spiritual battle with them through prayer.
• Prayers of thanksgiving that God has given me the opportunity to inspire, equip, and encourage many of the women in specific areas that they can take back and share with others.
Thank you for being part of the community of those who have encountered Jesus. May we all be inspired and equipped to share that Good News with others!

The theme for the 2017 Pepperdine Bible Lectures was Scrolls for a Robust Salvation, focusing on the Scrolls of the Megilloth. I admit that I knew nothing about these scrolls or their intention in the annual spiritual rhythms of Jewish life. The scrolls of Ruth, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Lamentations, and Song of Songs are the five Scrolls of the Megilloth, which are read at certain, dedicated times or festivals in the Jewish calendar. Their purpose is to remind us of God’s plan, God’s love, and His redemption/salvation. And they are read in the context of community to solidify those reminders.

Faith pushed Abraham out of his comfort zone to leave home and move to a country he didn’t know... and his life was never the same.
Faith gave Esther the courage to go before King Xerxes to be the instrument through which her people could be saved... and the Jewish nation continues to celebrate her valor.
Faith allowed Noah to build an ark even though he had never seen a drop of rain... and his obedience changed the course of life for everyone.