30 April 2023
It’s hard to figure out where to begin a testimony- especially one that has had such an impact on your life that the entire trajectory has changed. I started attending Shine through the invite of a friend. I was looking for what many women here are – a Christ centered community of women to do life with. I, like many others, am not from here and longed for friendships deeply rooted in love and Jesus. I went to Shine and honestly it was wonderful. I kept going when I could make it work schedule-wise. BUT, the real magic happens when you STEP OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE. I started attending Coffee & Conversation while I had a very (unpleasantly) visible health diagnosis (hello Bell’s Palsy). Talk about uncomfortable… showing up to a meeting with a small group of women while half your face is paralyzed. I kept asking God what He wanted me to take away from this diagnosis – and He put the Coffee & Conversation opportunity right in front of my face. I put down the excuses (like many of us need to do if we truly want a Christ centered community) and put my big girl panties on because if I wanted community – it was NOT going to come knocking on my door, I had to go for it myself. Coffee & Conversation is where the nitty gritty happens – this is where you get to really know other women, expand your network, laugh, love and pray together and realize you really aren’t as alone as you thought, actually you aren’t alone at all (it’s like the small group to Shine). It was at Coffee & Conversation that Erin began to pour into me and saw that I needed something more.
Over the course of 6 months Erin mentored me – she was the surgeon to my soul, finding things I needed to have pulled out of me and face head on, then lay at the feet of Jesus. Erin pushed me in my faith like no one has ever done – as others have said, she truly is the hands and feet of Jesus to women here in our community. God moved through Erin to reach me and show me how to step out in faith and do crazy things that are not the cultural norm in our society. I left my career (which cut our household income in half), we sold our “dream home” and I became a stay at home mom (which we had been praying for over the course of 14 years). Looking back – hindsight is always 20/20 – God knew I needed to become closer to Him, needed the Shine community, needed Erin to push me and grow me in my faith walk, needed to take care of my own spiritual, physical and mental wellbeing, needed to be home with my children to have bandwidth to help our youngest with some diagnoses he would receive and battles we would need to overcome.
Coffee & Conversation has evolved some and now I am blessed to host one of them in my own home – my prayer is to help other women connect closer to each other in community, but most importantly to Jesus Christ. Through Erin and Shine, God has moved mountains in my life and seen me through medical issues, huge positive life and family changes, uncertainty, loss and as we continue to take steps in faith chasing God and where He is leading our family. Now attending Shine nights isn’t a “if it fits in my busy schedule” kinda thing, it is a “how can I move my schedule around to fit it around Shine?”. My story isn’t over and neither is anyone else’s in this community. My only question is, what are you doing to chase Jesus… what are you boldly stepping out of your comfort zone in faith into? How is God using you or a situation you are in to draw you closer to Him and show others His love?
Let’s go make Jesus famous. ❤️