Welcome to The Well
Welcome to The Well
Ladies, we are so glad that you have joined us for the first few weeks of our new studies. Our prayer is that whichever study you picked, or both if you were extra ambitious, has benefitted and blessed you in some way already. We did want to give an overview of each study and keep you up to date in case life has gotten in the way and you may have missed a session. If you have not had a chance to join us for one of the studies, it is not too late to join. The overviews below can get you up to speed and ready to meet with us on the next session. It is a blessing to have each of you joining us and we cannot wait to hear how these studies are impacting your lives.
Wait and See by Wendy Pope
We've had a fantastic start to our Wait and See series!
In our first meeting, we reviewed Wendy Pope's introduction of the book which included so many great statements including:
Don't let the object of your wait become greater than the Person of your faith.
If you are willing to learn, the wait and see can be full of valuable lessons.
Some of your sweetest encounters with God can come during your wait and see seasons.
We also talked about using our new The Well notebooks to create our own "mini-Bibles" to record Scripture that resonates with each of us individually. That way we have comforting verses from His Word right at our fingertips when we find ourselves facing trying times or situations. (Wendy Pope actually introduces this idea in Chapter 7 and, while we're not that far yet in our study group, our leaders thought it was a worthwhile idea to present now so our ladies could start jotting those Scriptures down!)
We ended the night by jotting down our own personal "wait and sees" on notecards, sealed them in envelopes, threw them into the middle of the circle and prayed over them! It will be fun to look back at the end of the series to see how many "waits" have come to fruition, how many are being handled differently due to the lessons learned in this book and how many just don't seem as important anymore as God has changed the waiter's hearts and minds.
In our second session, we reviewed Chapter 1, When the Wait Begins and Chapter 2, When Waiting Means Working Out. The following statements are just a few of those that stood out:
Too often, we consult the Person of our faith (God) only after we have exhausted our efforts to push through our wait on our own. If we want to be women who wait well, we will invite God to be part of the process at the beginning, setting our focus on the Lord, not that for which we are waiting.
Our inclination is to hurry to the finish line, when instead we should patiently stay put, showing ourselves faithful. We have to allow God to do a work in us before He can do a work through us.
We have to trust that it is God who ultimately works things out, not our own abilities to make things happen.
Even it doesn't seem like it, God works while we wait.
We also learned about five common misconceptions about waiting and most of us in the group could relate to more than one of them!
We're just getting started with this book but, already, it has given us so much good information to think about. We would like to encourage any of you who haven't attended these sessions to think about joining us. It's never too late and, even if you don't have the book, an outline of the most impactful parts of the chapters each week will be provided to you, and we think you will find that the discussions that arise during these sessions are invaluable.
Come join us!
-Wendy
Seamless by Angie Smith
Seamless is off to a great start!
Angie Smith is so relatable as she talks about her own struggles to understand the Bible. In our first session, she told a story about buying illustrated children’s Bibles and turning to those when her “big girl” Bible didn’t make sense. I really appreciated knowing I wasn’t the only one having a hard time getting my head around some stories.
In our second session, Angie challenged us to ponder a deeply important question -what is it you believe to be true about God? This is important because what we believe about the character of God shapes our posture towards Him. In the Garden of Eden, Eve chose to believe – at the serpent’s urging – that God isn’t trustworthy and so began our descent into sin. Through the pages of scripture, we can find that His love IS trustworthy, it’s true and it rescued us from what we deserved.
I hope you’ll join us for the remaining sessions – this group meets on the 1st and 3rd Monday evenings at 6:30pm with childcare available for a small fee and on the 2nd and 4th Monday mornings at 9:30am.
See you then!
-Catherine
Childcare
Ladies, we know that it is not always easy nor convenient to get to the Monday night meetings. Therefore, we have arranged for childcare to be available to you. This will allow you to join us without worrying about the care and safety of your children.
We do ask that you check in your children using Church Teams, the same process that you use on Sunday mornings. If you do not know how to do this, please see one of the leaders and we will be more than happy to help you.
We also ask that if there are any changes or updates to your child’s information, health issues, or specific needs/care information that you please inform us the night of your study. Being aware of any changes helps us to ensure that your children are taken care of in the best way possible and kept safe during the duration of the Bible studies.
Please remember that there is a fee for the childcare. It is $5.00 per child, max of $10.00 per family.
Leader Spotlight: Mindy Joyner
Why did you feel called to become a leader for The Well?
To be honest I had been praying for a way to build a deeper connection with the ladies at church. So, when Catherine reached out to me, I felt like it was God giving me the opportunity.
What is your favorite season?
Definitely summer.
Who from the Bible do you most relate to and why?
That's a good question. So many great people are in the Bible. I don't know that I relate to just one. I would have to say Eve. Reality is that a lot of times I think I know better and choose sin, only to be forgiven and redeemed.
What color do you think of when you think of joy?
Yellow.
What is your favorite worship song or hymn?
By far my favorite worship song is "It Is Well With My Soul".
What is one thing that has helped you in your walk of faith or what has helped grow your trust in God?
This women's ministry has definitely helped me grow in my faith. Being around so many women and hearing their testimonies and feeling their love for God just makes me want to dive deeper, not just in the Bible, but in my personal relationship with God.
What hobbies or pastimes do you enjoy?
I love being outside so it's no surprise that my hobbies include hiking and gardening.
What is your favorite food?
I am definitely not picky when it comes to food but if I have to pick, Greek it is. I love Mediterranean food.
What is a spiritual story or testimony you would like to share?
I don't know that I have just one; I feel like I am a walking testimony. He has saved me, forgave me, walked with me, cried with me, and just sat with me. I have so many pivotal moments in my life that should have made him walk away. Yet he never has. He continues to provide and make a way. Even if I don't understand it, He always had a plan for me.
See You Soon
Ladies, we hope that you are gaining Biblical knowledge and application through these studies. We are certainly enjoying learning and growing in our faith alongside each of you. While this ministry is certainly about learning from God through His Word, it is also about fellowship. We hope that through these groups you are forming and growing relationships with other ladies.
We all have struggles and troubles in life; coming together and walking alongside one another helps us keep faith and hope. We are praying for you through our journey together and we can’t wait to hear how this ministry is impacting you.
Annie, Beverly, Catherine, Karen, Kris, Mindy, Sharyl, and Wendy
Ladies, we are so glad that you have joined us for the first few weeks of our new studies. Our prayer is that whichever study you picked, or both if you were extra ambitious, has benefitted and blessed you in some way already. We did want to give an overview of each study and keep you up to date in case life has gotten in the way and you may have missed a session. If you have not had a chance to join us for one of the studies, it is not too late to join. The overviews below can get you up to speed and ready to meet with us on the next session. It is a blessing to have each of you joining us and we cannot wait to hear how these studies are impacting your lives.
Wait and See by Wendy Pope
We've had a fantastic start to our Wait and See series!
In our first meeting, we reviewed Wendy Pope's introduction of the book which included so many great statements including:
Don't let the object of your wait become greater than the Person of your faith.
If you are willing to learn, the wait and see can be full of valuable lessons.
Some of your sweetest encounters with God can come during your wait and see seasons.
We also talked about using our new The Well notebooks to create our own "mini-Bibles" to record Scripture that resonates with each of us individually. That way we have comforting verses from His Word right at our fingertips when we find ourselves facing trying times or situations. (Wendy Pope actually introduces this idea in Chapter 7 and, while we're not that far yet in our study group, our leaders thought it was a worthwhile idea to present now so our ladies could start jotting those Scriptures down!)
We ended the night by jotting down our own personal "wait and sees" on notecards, sealed them in envelopes, threw them into the middle of the circle and prayed over them! It will be fun to look back at the end of the series to see how many "waits" have come to fruition, how many are being handled differently due to the lessons learned in this book and how many just don't seem as important anymore as God has changed the waiter's hearts and minds.
In our second session, we reviewed Chapter 1, When the Wait Begins and Chapter 2, When Waiting Means Working Out. The following statements are just a few of those that stood out:
Too often, we consult the Person of our faith (God) only after we have exhausted our efforts to push through our wait on our own. If we want to be women who wait well, we will invite God to be part of the process at the beginning, setting our focus on the Lord, not that for which we are waiting.
Our inclination is to hurry to the finish line, when instead we should patiently stay put, showing ourselves faithful. We have to allow God to do a work in us before He can do a work through us.
We have to trust that it is God who ultimately works things out, not our own abilities to make things happen.
Even it doesn't seem like it, God works while we wait.
We also learned about five common misconceptions about waiting and most of us in the group could relate to more than one of them!
We're just getting started with this book but, already, it has given us so much good information to think about. We would like to encourage any of you who haven't attended these sessions to think about joining us. It's never too late and, even if you don't have the book, an outline of the most impactful parts of the chapters each week will be provided to you, and we think you will find that the discussions that arise during these sessions are invaluable.
Come join us!
-Wendy
Seamless by Angie Smith
Seamless is off to a great start!
Angie Smith is so relatable as she talks about her own struggles to understand the Bible. In our first session, she told a story about buying illustrated children’s Bibles and turning to those when her “big girl” Bible didn’t make sense. I really appreciated knowing I wasn’t the only one having a hard time getting my head around some stories.
In our second session, Angie challenged us to ponder a deeply important question -what is it you believe to be true about God? This is important because what we believe about the character of God shapes our posture towards Him. In the Garden of Eden, Eve chose to believe – at the serpent’s urging – that God isn’t trustworthy and so began our descent into sin. Through the pages of scripture, we can find that His love IS trustworthy, it’s true and it rescued us from what we deserved.
I hope you’ll join us for the remaining sessions – this group meets on the 1st and 3rd Monday evenings at 6:30pm with childcare available for a small fee and on the 2nd and 4th Monday mornings at 9:30am.
See you then!
-Catherine
Childcare
Ladies, we know that it is not always easy nor convenient to get to the Monday night meetings. Therefore, we have arranged for childcare to be available to you. This will allow you to join us without worrying about the care and safety of your children.
We do ask that you check in your children using Church Teams, the same process that you use on Sunday mornings. If you do not know how to do this, please see one of the leaders and we will be more than happy to help you.
We also ask that if there are any changes or updates to your child’s information, health issues, or specific needs/care information that you please inform us the night of your study. Being aware of any changes helps us to ensure that your children are taken care of in the best way possible and kept safe during the duration of the Bible studies.
Please remember that there is a fee for the childcare. It is $5.00 per child, max of $10.00 per family.
Leader Spotlight: Mindy Joyner
Why did you feel called to become a leader for The Well?
To be honest I had been praying for a way to build a deeper connection with the ladies at church. So, when Catherine reached out to me, I felt like it was God giving me the opportunity.
What is your favorite season?
Definitely summer.
Who from the Bible do you most relate to and why?
That's a good question. So many great people are in the Bible. I don't know that I relate to just one. I would have to say Eve. Reality is that a lot of times I think I know better and choose sin, only to be forgiven and redeemed.
What color do you think of when you think of joy?
Yellow.
What is your favorite worship song or hymn?
By far my favorite worship song is "It Is Well With My Soul".
What is one thing that has helped you in your walk of faith or what has helped grow your trust in God?
This women's ministry has definitely helped me grow in my faith. Being around so many women and hearing their testimonies and feeling their love for God just makes me want to dive deeper, not just in the Bible, but in my personal relationship with God.
What hobbies or pastimes do you enjoy?
I love being outside so it's no surprise that my hobbies include hiking and gardening.
What is your favorite food?
I am definitely not picky when it comes to food but if I have to pick, Greek it is. I love Mediterranean food.
What is a spiritual story or testimony you would like to share?
I don't know that I have just one; I feel like I am a walking testimony. He has saved me, forgave me, walked with me, cried with me, and just sat with me. I have so many pivotal moments in my life that should have made him walk away. Yet he never has. He continues to provide and make a way. Even if I don't understand it, He always had a plan for me.
See You Soon
Ladies, we hope that you are gaining Biblical knowledge and application through these studies. We are certainly enjoying learning and growing in our faith alongside each of you. While this ministry is certainly about learning from God through His Word, it is also about fellowship. We hope that through these groups you are forming and growing relationships with other ladies.
We all have struggles and troubles in life; coming together and walking alongside one another helps us keep faith and hope. We are praying for you through our journey together and we can’t wait to hear how this ministry is impacting you.
Annie, Beverly, Catherine, Karen, Kris, Mindy, Sharyl, and Wendy