| AHW MINISTRIES NEWSLETTER About His Work with Janet September 2017  |
Happy Birthday Mentoring for All Seasons
It's been a very exciting time for the Thompson household and
About His Work Ministries
since
Mentoring for All Seasons: Sharing Life experiences and God's Faithfulness
officially released on September 12! I've been a guest blogger every day, and sometimes twice a day, throughout September and well into October. It's been a thrill to see women responding to the call of Titus 2:3-5. I've had the opportunity to make so many new acquaintances as we share the same heart for mentoring in the church and personal lives of women today!
I stopped by our new Boise LifeWay Bookstore and was delighted to see Mentoring for All Seasons on the "New Arrivals" shelf in the front of the store! That never gets old no matter how many books you've written. Even the manager got excited and we took a picture together.
My prayer now, and always, is that God would use Mentoring for All Seasons to start a revival of women reaching out to each other in the many seasons of life we encounter from tweens to twilight years. So many women are trying to do life alone, or on their own, and that was never God's plan. In fact, if you read Titus 2:1-8 carefully you will see that Paul was telling the new pastor Titus how to start the first women's and men's ministry ever documented in the Bible. Yet, so many of our churches today have lost this focus and instead of spiritually older men and women mentoring the spiritually younger, there's a huge generation gap of mistrust and misunderstanding.
As we look at our world today and the confused generations, we have to wonder if the church has lost its original mission in Psalm 145:4 One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts.
I know this isn't the case in many of your churches. You have mentoring ministries and I pray mentoring is infiltrating every area of your church form the pulpit to the pew.
I hope you will take the time to read some of the blog posts I've written on my blog list below, and also others available at my
website
. Please feel free to share them on your social media.
If you don't have a mentoring ministry yet, Mentoring for All Seasons would be a great way to introduce mentoring to the women of your church. Many small groups, Bible studies, women's groups, and women's ministries are reading it together and discussing the questions after each season.
Contact me
for a special offer from the publisher through December 31, 2107.
For those with a mentoring ministry, I always suggest having books and Bible studies available at your Orientation Coffees and Kickoff Training Nights so the M&M's can purchase and start doing together. That's also why I wrote the
Face-to-Face Bible study series
with specific M&M's discussion questions. Mentoring for All Seasons would be a great book for them to do together too. It's available at Christian bookstores, online bookstores,
Amazon
, and signed by me at our
website shop
.
On a personal note, I'm having cataract surgery on my right eye October 17 and left eye October 31. I treasure your prayers. I'm not sure how much computer work I'll be able to do during this surgery healing time, so if you don't hear from me next month, don't worry. I'll be back with more About His Work Ministry news in November, the Lord willing.
Enjoy your fall!
About His Work,
PSSS: I'm still receiving stories for my next book, "Get Your Brave On." I would love to hear of a time when God gave you physical, emotional, spiritual, mental . . . strength to do something you couldn't have done without His help. Please
contact me.
PSSSS: Leafwood Publishers, my publisher for
Mentoring for All Seasons, is offering a 50% discount on orders of five or more books, good until December 31, 2017.
Contact me for more information to share with your ministries and church.
PSSSSS: Read the
Author Interview with DiAne Gates about her new book,
Twisted,
and a chance to win a free copy.
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FEATURED BOOK OF THE MONTH
The Team That Jesus Built
How to Develop, Equip, and Commission a Women's Ministry Team
Building, remodeling, or refurbishing your ministry? This book is for you and your team members!
THERE ARE NUMEROUS THEORIES AND BOOKS written on leadership and team building, but from personal experience Janet learned that none surpass the example of Jesus and His team of disciples. Using the Gospel of Mark as the text, Janet will help you develop a team that is equipped to do the Lord's work even when you are not around.
Through personal observations, step-by-step instructions, and simple how-to applications of Jesus' leadership principles, The Team That Jesus Built equips laywomen-regardless of church location, denomination, or size-to cultivate leadership skills and create teams for the glory of God. The goal of every ministry leader!
Based on Janet's experience building the
Woman to Woman Mentoring Ministry
at Saddleback Church, under the leadership of pastor Rick Warren (The Purpose-Driven Life), Janet mentors ministry leaders with tools, direction, guidance, and encouragement to build teams that equip leaders to build teams.
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I Would Love to Speak at Your Event!
about your event
call or email to discuss availability.
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TALK TO US
This Months featured
Woman To Woman
Mentoring Ministry Testimony
Married only a few years, we were in a season of newness: new city, new ministry, new mom with a four-month-old. I longed for a friend and mentor. I had so many questions about being a new mother and the wife of a husband in ministry. I felt lonely and cried out to God about my struggles. Then I heard about the
Woman to Woman Mentoring Ministry
at our church, and knew I should participate.
I met Sheri at the introductory coffee, and we hit it off. It was no surprise when the prayer team matched Sheri as my mentor. We began meeting regularly, and Sheri spoke the truth God wanted me to hear. She blessed my life and was a huge spiritual growth catalyst.
Sheri didn't just speak things of the Lord, she walked through life with my family and me. If I was in a crisis, Sheri was there for me. I was so grateful to the Lord for giving me such a wonderful friend and mentor.
Sheri and I live in different states now, but we talk often. I love hearing Sheri's, "Hey girlfriend!" When we talk, it's as if time hasn't passed.
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Mentoring Tip
"Whatever season you're in now. . . . you just came out of a season . . . and you'll soon be going into the next one. Share with another woman what you learned from the past season, and look for a woman who will help you navigate your upcoming season." Mentoring for All Seasons
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"GRAMMIE'S CORNER"
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Meet An Author
the thrill ride continues...Twisted:
the second book in the
Roped Series
What inspired you to become an author?
Years ago, while writing my first series that still sits in my file cabinet, in the quietness of my heart the Lord said, "You can't teach what you don't know. Parents don't know the truth of My word, so how can they teach these truths to their children?"
After several rejections, disheartened, I shoved those manuscripts and illustrations aside, and enrolled in classes to learn to write. At the time, I was a wall-paper sub-contractor and my partner was a barrel racer with a spiffy little cowgirl daughter. One of my first assignments was to write about a child I didn't know and I'm sure you've already guessed the subject of that homework.
Never having been to a rodeo or knowing anything about horses, our family joined their family and I fell in love with the sport, the people, and the horses. All the while, never forgetting the Lord's words to me that evening so long ago... "You can't teach what you don't know." And still troubled by the fact many parents, even in the church, didn't know much more of the Word of God than they picked up on Sunday morning.
How did this lead to the Roped Series?
Our Lord Jesus told stories to convey His truths to people. Why not tell a story illustrating truths God wants us to know? So, with the Crosbys' and the Fairgates--two Texas families, one believing the Truth-the other not a clue--the storyline of
Roped
was born.
Years later, I typed "The End." Tears trickled down my face and I cried ..."Now what, Lord? I've given this my all. I don't know what else to do. It's Your story. Do with it as You please."
That was Wednesday. On Saturday, a writer friend and I were emailing and she asked, "What did you ever do with the story you were writing in DiAnn Mills' seminar?" I had to reply, "Nothing." "Do you have three chapters finished?" I felt ashamed. "Yes, I have the whole book."
"Will you let me read a chapter?" My heart raced and I typed "Sending it now!"
That was Saturday evening. Sunday, she emailed "I love it. Do you mind if I send this to my publisher?" Did I mind? Thank You Lord! The next day her publisher requested the whole manuscript and three weeks later, I received a contract.
Roped
released August, 2015,
Twisted
released July 14th 2017, and
Untied
is my current WIP. "Nothing is impossible with God."
Other than your salvation, was there an event that completely changed your life?
Yes! The sudden death of our twenty-eight-year-old daughter. Put in a sack, shaken up, and run-over in the middle of life's freeway would have been a good description of me during those early days and months after her home-going. All I wanted to know was WHY? Why her, God? Why me?
A year or so after our Michelle's death, I began meeting other mothers in our small town who had also lost children--never imagining God had a plan. And every time our church team called to check on me, I added another parent's name to their prayer list. They asked if I had ever considered leading Grief Share. "NO" leaped off my tongue. I wanted nothing to do with other grieving people. I had enough of my own. But God-without hesitation-began a work in my heart 'til that NO soon became a frightened YES.
I recall those first few meetings-we did little else but cry together. Those tears were the cement God's love used to transform our lives, allowing us to become His physical arms of comfort to all He brought to us. I learned to surrender those WHY questions in one of my dark moments when He took me to Deuteronomy 29:29..."The secret things belong to the Lord..." and asked, "Do you trust Me?"
Sixteen years later, God still allows me to watch His healing hand at work, to cry with and love hundreds of people traveling through their dark valleys of grief. His comfort and grace never changes as He takes their wrecked lives from despair to their new normal.
What about that book series hiding in your file cabinet drawer? Will it ever see the light of day?
Funny you should ask, Janet. The past few months God's been tapping on my shoulder to finish what He began. This four-book series, currently entitled
The Master's Plan
Series, is a family devotional series, with illustrations and a color book, aimed for use teaching God's Word to you and your little ones, even if you have little knowledge of His Word. My prayer partner said for years, "I wonder if God's not saving this series to be left behind during those years of tribulation?" Looking at the newspaper and reading my Bible, I'd best get busy, don't you think?
To learn more about DiAne, her books, and her ministry sign up for her
posts.
For a chance to win a free copy of
Twisted,
contact me.
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