Ministry Role Models

Dear Friends,

I was looking over old posts and I noticed a line on my post about mission "I also got to meet two very different but great models of a ministers wife- but you will hear about them on my next post!"

Naughty Belinda! You forgot! So here is my post about the first model J (name removed for privacy sake), and I'll write about M on Wednesday.

J is an empty nester who decided when her children started school, and also when they moved away from home- that this was a fabulous opportunity to have some extra time for ministry. So she made the decision not to go back to her old job of being a school teacher- but to use the extra time to teach the Bible instead. In her early Christian life she had some mixed models of what it means to be a ministers wife- for several years she tried to talk her husband out of ministry because she thought she wasn't a suitable ministers wife. They played the piano and made sponge cakes and she wasn't any good at those things! All the while she was using her teaching gifts to bring up her children reading the Bible, and running some scripture classes. Eventually she was persuaded that perhaps those things were just as useful- and they moved into ministry.

J is a dynimo! She teaches several scripture classes (including some at a school for the disabled), runs a uni-aged girls Bible study, organises country womens Christian conferences for her area and coordinates an evangelistic kids club at the church. But one thing that stand out for me is not the amount of stuff she does but her attitude. She cares about kids becoming Christians and so she very passionate throws herself into the ministries that involve getting amoung the community. And she believes that the way women can grow is by getting stuck into the Bible- so stuck into they get under her wise council.

The other thing that stands out to me is her hospitality. Some other minstry models she had seen involved a policy of not letting church people into the house because it got in the way of the family. And while J is protective of her husband and her time (and I assume was protective of the kids when they were at home)- she doesn't do this by closing up her house. Infact, Js policy is one of an open house. One of the women from our mission team who was a former resident of the church can attest to this. New to the town- she arrived at the church and was very quickly aquainted with J. J invited her to come round to her house that day for dinner. The next day she was over at J's again for her girls Bible study. That welcome has had such an impact on this women- the warmth and welcomeness and the feeling of being imediately being swept into the church family- it had a huge impact on her life and ministry.

When I asked J what advice she had about being a minsters wife she said the main thing was to be what God had made you to be. People will always have things that they think you should do, simply because of who you are married to- and you will not serve God properly if you spend your time trying to please everyone. But if you have a ministry that you are gifted in and passionate about- then do it!

So rather than being overwhelmed that I would never be like her (my initial temptation), I was encouraged to think of what I could be like, and to follow her example of putting God and her husband first. Praise God! A real Titus 2 moment for me (look up Titus 2 if you aren't sure what I mean- it's great!)

I'll let you know about the other model on Wednesday.

love Belinda