Today I want to pause and let’s share one aha moment or one takeaway from Chapters One, Two, or Three in this study.
Can I share mine?
My desire has always been to impact people with my faith, but in the past year I’ve felt a burden for women across the world. In the powerful book, Half the Sky, the authors detail oppression of women across the world.
It’s hard to read.
It’s hard to imagine.
Yet I just returned from a trip where I saw it close and upfront.
When forced to acknowledge that half the women across the world live in oppression — from sexual slavery to a lack of education and opportunities, or a safe place to live — it can feel overwhelming, as if there’s nothing we can do.
Half the Sky author Sheryl WuDunn, reminds us that, “Our focus has to be on changing reality. . . ”
That’s why I was so excited to partner with my friend, Lysa TerKeurst and others on a recent trip to India. Lysa desires to change the world — so much so that she’s giving away all of the proceeds from her newest book. (In fact, she’s given away all of the proceeds from her last few New York Times bestsellers.)
She understands that she isn’t big enough to change laws or culture, but she can touch the reality of one woman at a time.
We partnered with Mission India, a ministry that offers a woman the chance of education through literacy programs. Most of the literacy centers we visited were vibrant. Women who had not been able to write their name were reading at the fifth level after a year. They shyly showed us their progress.
Church plants are birthed out of those literacy centers.
Women are teaching their children to read. They are learning how to run a small business (making toothpaste or sewing or making laundry detergent are a few ways they are making money).
When you buy Lysa’s book, Uninvited, you make a difference in ministries like Mission India.
Maybe we can’t change a nation. Maybe we can’t change laws.
But when we can change a woman’s reality, that act multiplies.
This beautiful new friend learned to read through the literacy program in a slum area in Central India. She and her son have become believers.
She and three other women in the literacy program banded together and began to save money. Five rupees here. Ten there. They bought a sewing machine and started a business.
Now that they can read, they can measure fabric. They can count money. They can keep a tally of their profits.
Life changing!
My aha moment is that I may not be the next Lysa TerKeurst, and that’s okay because she fills those shoes quite nicely.
But I can do what God asks me to do. Whether that is in my home, my community, my church, or across the world.
I can go, if that is what He asks.
I can give, because it goes a long way when we all give together.
I can pray, and I do. Will you pray for my friend pictured here? Pray that her husband will come to know Jesus. Pray for the health of her two boys. Rejoice with me over the uniform her little guy is wearing. He has to cross a rickety metal bridge over a sewage canal to walk to school, but his beautiful mama is making sure he has that opportunity.
Today let’s pause and pray for each other.
Share what God is speaking to you through this study.
If you’ve hit a brick wall, let’s pray and help you climb over it. If you are excited at what you are discovering, share it with us and let’s celebrate.
Suzie
To learn more about Lysa’s book, Uninvited, which releases August 9th.
It’s been great following you. I have the strong desire to help people financially especially supporting the things of God. In my little small way I do it and as well pray for the people I come across with. I am enthused but still don’t know if that’s my mission in life. Making life better
Doing a study of your book has touched me in so many ways. It is helping me to learn that my “small” ways of doing things for Christ are just as important as having lots of money to give. I can pray for others, just like praying for your friend, her sons and that the Holy Spirit penetrate the heart of her husband. I am hoping to buy(if my budget allows) Lysa’s new book and do the Bible Study through Proverbs 31 starting in September.
Suzie, please know that many, many women are being touched through your book. Eyes and hearts are being opened to the fact that we can all be that 13th disciple. We all have something to offer to further God’s Kingdom.
Thank you for answering God’s call on your life to share this study with others.
Susie, can I just say to you that God has used YOUR life to change the direction of mine?! It started with your book, the mom I want to be. That changed the way I viewed my motherhood forever. Recently I picked the book back up and read Albert Einsteins quote. Later, I heard it on a movie. The next day I picked your book up again and saw in your short bio that your a youth worker. I have always dreamed of working with youth. So I looked up the title and degrees it took to pursue it. I am currently enrolled in school for the first time in 15 years pursuing my associated in Christian Studies! God is multiplying your story in my own life and family! God bless!
I am so glad that this sweet lady knows Jesus!!! I’m so glad she can influence her boys to be the #13disciple!! My aha! moment was that I CAN influence people by writing what I learned from Scripture. At least I can get them to think about the Word of God as it applies to their lives. I will be working more with my blog! Thank you.
A former Second Grade student of mine is now entering sixth grade. Both his parents have abandoned him and he lives with his elderly grandfather. I feel led to be his encourager, his nurturer, his cheerleader, prayer warrior, and his advisor. He’s funny, creative, smart, and I’m so grateful God’s given me the opportunity to be his “Aunt” Cindy as he calls me and help him navigate through life.
I love this, Cindy! What a great phrase: his encourager, nurturer, cheerleader, prayer warrior, and advisor. We all need an Aunt Cindy in our lives. I’m so glad you stepped into his!
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It’s been great following you. I have the strong desire to help people financially especially supporting the things of God. In my little small way I do it and as well pray for the people I come across with. I am enthused but still don’t know if that’s my mission in life. Making life better
Every amount, small or large, invested in the kingdom is so powerful. What a beautiful heart you have, Joyce!
Doing a study of your book has touched me in so many ways. It is helping me to learn that my “small” ways of doing things for Christ are just as important as having lots of money to give. I can pray for others, just like praying for your friend, her sons and that the Holy Spirit penetrate the heart of her husband. I am hoping to buy(if my budget allows) Lysa’s new book and do the Bible Study through Proverbs 31 starting in September.
Suzie, please know that many, many women are being touched through your book. Eyes and hearts are being opened to the fact that we can all be that 13th disciple. We all have something to offer to further God’s Kingdom.
Thank you for answering God’s call on your life to share this study with others.
Susie, can I just say to you that God has used YOUR life to change the direction of mine?! It started with your book, the mom I want to be. That changed the way I viewed my motherhood forever. Recently I picked the book back up and read Albert Einsteins quote. Later, I heard it on a movie. The next day I picked your book up again and saw in your short bio that your a youth worker. I have always dreamed of working with youth. So I looked up the title and degrees it took to pursue it. I am currently enrolled in school for the first time in 15 years pursuing my associated in Christian Studies! God is multiplying your story in my own life and family! God bless!
Wow, that’s awesome. : ) We never know, until eternity, the impact. Your words have given me joy!
I am so glad that this sweet lady knows Jesus!!! I’m so glad she can influence her boys to be the #13disciple!! My aha! moment was that I CAN influence people by writing what I learned from Scripture. At least I can get them to think about the Word of God as it applies to their lives. I will be working more with my blog! Thank you.
A former Second Grade student of mine is now entering sixth grade. Both his parents have abandoned him and he lives with his elderly grandfather. I feel led to be his encourager, his nurturer, his cheerleader, prayer warrior, and his advisor. He’s funny, creative, smart, and I’m so grateful God’s given me the opportunity to be his “Aunt” Cindy as he calls me and help him navigate through life.
I love this, Cindy! What a great phrase: his encourager, nurturer, cheerleader, prayer warrior, and advisor. We all need an Aunt Cindy in our lives. I’m so glad you stepped into his!
What an honor and blessing it is when God grants us the desire, the opportunity, and the means to go beyond Samaria! Love this.