Step of Faith

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart;

lean not unto your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge Him
and He will direct your paths."

You know those verses seem so simple when we say them, but putting them into action seems to be the hard part. I have to say this weekend has truly been a reflection of how true God is to His word and His promises. Our first SHINE luncheon was held at The Wrenn House on Saturday. It was a wonderful day and a true testimony that when we trust God with ALL our heart, He is true to His word and will direct our paths!

God had spoke to me about asking a few of friends to join me and be guest speakers for the event. I was so honored to be joined by Sherry Hicks and Dori Facemyer, two of my closest friends. We spent the weeks proceeding the event praying not only over what we would be speaking about, but also who God wanted us to invite. As we sent out the invitations, we prayed over each and every woman that was invited. God promised 30 women would be there and with the waitress, we had 30 ladies join us for a wonderful afternoon.

What a perfect place to have the event! The Wrenn House was so wonderful to us. The room was beautiful and the view was even more gorgeous, a lovely view of the Bell Tower in downtown Salisbury. Part of the goal of THIS event was to treat some special ladies to a relxing afternoon with food, fun, and spiritual encouragement. We hope that each one who attended left feeling refreshed both physically and spiritually.

SHINE was introduced as well as the inspiration for the ministry. It was such a blessing to have so many wonderful ladies interested in what God has called us to do. Specifically speaking about myself, this ministry has been a long time coming, but definitely a path that God has directed me on. Again, I am just so blessed Sherry and Dori not only supported me, but decided to join me in the efforts of the day. SHINE may be my vision, but it was OUR day to minister.

Once we shared about SHINE, it was time to get down to business. NOPE... not eating yet. It was time for door prizes. The mothers with the most children were honored with a little gift of notepads adorned in the SHINE colors. We all know that mothers need lists, especially if they have 5 or, even worse, 9 kids. (Not to say that 9 kids are bad or anything! LOL) There were handmade earrings and also SHINE canvas bags with treats inside.

We had lots of fellowship... and of course... GREAT food! Now you know that a bunch of women can't get together for that long and not enjoy a wonderful meal! I can only hope the ladies thought that there was more meat at this event than just the physical food. Our hearts' desire was to not just feed the body, but feed the soul. I know I so enjoyed listening to my friends as they opened themselves up and shared what God had put on their heart as we spoke on Faith, Failures, and Flaws. Only by God directing our path were we able to tie in each message so perfectly, since we hadn't shared at all what we were going to speak about in detail.

Dori Facemyer shared with us about FAITH. For those of you who don't know Dori, she was diagnosed with MS and has had to learn lessons on faith in more ways than one surrounding her health alone. The room teared up as she shared how God taught her harder lessons in faith when she lost her brother on the same date as our luncheon several years ago. Dori talked to us about child-like faith and challenged us all to truly depend on God for our faith.

Sherry Hicks followed with her message on failures. She shared about her many failures through life from failing her driver's test the first time to losing her job in the corporate world. She told us that God showed her an important lesson about the failures in her life.. the failures in her life all had one common theme... the word "I." Each time SHE tried to do something on her own, she was bound to fail. Sherry really made us think when she raised her hand and introduced herself as they do at AA meeetings, "Hi, I'm Sherry Hicks and I am a failure." But... she didn't stop there, Sherry challenged us to keep moving and press forward. She inspired us to write God's word on our hearts so we could depend more on Him when we felt we were failing.

I (Christina Helm) finished up the afternooon of speakers. God used this event to humble me in so many ways. My topic was flaws and OH could I give you a list! Mid-speaking I felt God prompt me to forget about the notes from the studying I had done prior to the event and share a bit more detail of my personal testimony. As God, once again directed my paths, I saw how the events of my past had brought me to that very moment. Isn't it amazing how God works? God had me sum everything up with an visual aid that honestly made me very vulnerable. I won't give the details in case you missed out.. you have to hear it for yourself the next time, but as you can tell from the picture, it was messy. But God brought everything... Dori's message, Sherry's message, and mine, together.

Our prayer for the women at this event as well as for you is for you to write your areas where you lack faith, your failures, and your flaws... on the Rock of Jesus! We don't want to live in the rubble of our lives any more. We want to SHINE as we reflect the Light, Life, and Rock of our lives.

I know this has probably been the longest SHINE post so far. I just want you to catch the vision and see the fun we all had. It is our desire to make the SHINE fellowship meetings be times of rest, relaxation, and spiritual rejuvination. When you come you will have the opportunity to meet wonderful women like we were honored to have in our presence! If you weren't able to be with us, we do have CD's of the speaking portion of the event. See the side bar for more information.

SHINE is ready to trust in the Lord with all our heart. We no longer want to lean unto our own understanding. We want to acknowledge our Heavenly Father with ALL our hearts. And one thing is sure... we know HE WILL direct our paths. So keep coming back to the site. Leave some comments, share a little, help each other out, inspire someone, nurture a friend's spiritual growth, and join us as we educate the world about the love of God... of course, one little light at a time!