What your mission trip is missing & The Ultimate Homemaking eBook Bundle ($640 Value for $29.97)

May 1, 2013 By Julie Sanders

This time of year many women prepare for short term missions trips. They get shots, plan testimonies, pray together, pack suitcases, and learn about culture. But one of the greatest potential impacts of a missions team experience often gets overlooked: mentoring on mission.

In addition to trying unfamiliar food and bathroom facilities, members of cross-cultural teams are stretched physically and spiritually. Whether it happens on village paths or city pavement, mission trips are good ground for growth.

Last year I led a team of four women and four teenage girls to Northern Thailand for a ministry trip. Preparing the team for the culture, pace, climate, and purpose of our trip was crucial, but just that was a limited focus. Especially when teams combine varied ages, part of ministry is mentoring. Each woman was assigned a teen girl as a mentee; they met monthly for preparation, accountability, prayer, and bonding. Even though some moms & daughters were on the team, the mentoring relationships built into our teens and strengthened our team. Once on the field, the relationships set us up for more effective ministry cross-culturally.

Instead of limiting our focus to national co-workers and their target groups, use a wider angle lens to include the younger members of the team. By serving with youth, we plant global understanding in the hearts of the next generation, and we pave the way for future leaders. God may use our influence in cross-cultural settings to steer the life of a younger woman.

Be passionate about the culture to go to reach, but also be passionate about reaching younger members of your team. “I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.” (Psalm 89:1) How can you mentor younger women on mission teams?

Mentoring happens on mission when:

You invite her participation
You get to know younger team members
You look for and nurture her gifts
You speak words of encouragement
You pray with her on the go, as you serve
Before the trip – You ask good questions, listen to her thoughts, affirm her contributions
After the trip – You ask good questions, listen to her thoughts, affirm her contributions

A new culture, fast pace, different language, and changes in plans may leave them feeling overwhelmed. Teens may be insecure and unsure of how they can help. The opportunity to serve cross-culturally will stir their hearts and, perhaps, their dreams about their future.

Your greatest ministry may be in the life of a younger team member from your own hometown.

And if you aren’t on a team yourself, how about sending a card, chatting over coffee, or texting to encourage that teen who’s widening her world and stepping out in faith? You can have a mission mentoring ministry right from your home.

Missions and mentoring cross over at a beautiful intersection when women look for ways to build into younger team members. Your heart to “mother others” has the potential to bear fruit in far away places and right at home.

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The M.O.M. Initiative is a ministry devoted to taking Titus 2 to the streets and making mentoring intentionally missional…and as a way of help to support this ministry, The M.O.M. Initiative is offering an affiliate link that provides you with a great group of resources at a very low cost. SEE THE LIST BELOW to check out what you get for only $29.97! (A $640 Value)

*A portion of all proceeds earned from any sales will go to helping sex trafficking victims through Courage Worldwide and to helping young moms through local women’s shelters.

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When you purchase The Ultimate Homemaking eBook collection, you will get instant access to any of the 97 eBooks and eCourses listed below.

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Bonus Offers

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All bonus offers expire at midnight on May 25th, 2013 (3 weeks from the last day of this sale).

General

It is your responsibility to download and back-up your purchase within the 1-month download time-frame. With proof of purchase, we can renew download links up until August 1st, 2013. After this date we will no longer have access to the books and will not be able to provide any new links to download.
Due to the nature of this sale, there will be no refunds available.However, we would invite you to read our Frequently Asked Questions page to learn more about the file types, the download process, how the bonus offers work, etc.

This post includes affiliate links, and I make a small portion of each sale. Thank you for investing in this ministry by purchasing The Ultimate Homemaking eBook Bundle through The M.O.M. Initiative!

Filed Under: Adoption & Fostering, Blended Families, Uncategorized Leave a Comment

Inspiring Stories of Adoption – Twice the Joy & MONDAY LINK UP WITH M.O.M.

February 4, 2013 By Genny Heikka

Full Circle:

Growing up adopted, Nancy has always had a positive perspective about adoption. “I wondered about things like my heritage, my background and if I had siblings or not, but I had a wonderful upbringing. I tell my mom she saved my life. That’s really what adoption is about” says Nancy. It’s no surprise that she and husband Mike who already had two teenage boys decided to adopt a child as well. “I always had it in my heart to adopt” Nancy explains.

After attending a Steven Curtis Chapman concert and hearing that he adopted three little girls from China, Nancy was moved to action. She and Mike began the process of adopting their daughter Anna from an orphanage in China. “The journey was filled with miracle after miracle” Nancy recalls. Anna, fifteen months old at the time, was listed as having microtia, an ear deformity that can affect hearing. “We didn’t set out to adopt a child with special needs, but the minute I saw Anna’s photo come across my email, I knew she was my daughter – the experience was life-changing” Nancy reflects.

“Being adopted and then adopting – wow – It’s like coming full circle! I can’t even begin to tell you the blessings we’ve seen. We celebrate Chinese New Year, we dress up and we make Chinese food,” says Nancy. “There’s such joy in adopting that I never want to stop.” In fact, Nancy and her family are currently in the process of adopting another little girl, two-year-old Arianna, from a different orphanage in China.

If Not Me, Then Who?

Ana, a single mom in West Sacramento always knew she wanted to adopt. “I didn’t try to have my own kids, I just felt that there were kids out there who needed parents and I could help. I went to school, I had my career, and I thought now I can do it” Ana remembers. She contacted Foster and Kinship Care Education at Woodland Community College, a program led by Instructional Specialist Cherie Schroeder that serves families in Yolo County. “I never thought I was going to be a foster parent,” Ana says. “I didn’t know if I could do it, but then I started going to the classes and thought, why not me, and if not me, then who?”

Soon after Ana got her license to become a foster parent and got a call about a two-day old baby needing short-term placement. “Cherie went with me to the hospital,” says Ana, recalling the day in clear detail. “I was so shaky, there was this tiny baby girl, just six pounds.” The support Ana received from Cherie and other volunteers helped her through. “I had to work at my job through the whole process and I didn’t have family leave” Ana remembers. When the little girl was 17 months old, Ana was able to adopt her formally. “When she says mom to me, I think, yes, I’m your mom” Ana says with a smile in her voice. Cherie Schroeder says of the experience “it’s a beautiful thing when you place a child into a family with so many opportunities.”

The Icing on Our Cake

When Kittie, a mom with two children of her own, was unable to have a third, she and her husband began exploring the idea of adoption. Around that time, one of her co-workers had a chance meeting with a pregnant woman. The woman was looking for adoptive parents for her unborn son because she wanted him to have opportunities and a life that she felt she couldn’t provide for him.

Kittie and the woman met for lunch the next day and not long after, the pregnant woman called and told Kittie that she wanted Kittie and her husband to be the adoptive parents of her baby. “She’s my hero” Kittie says. “I was able to be at her doctor appointments and my husband and I were there for the birth of our son.”

Though the waiting period involved with the adoption process was hard, Kittie and her husband acquired the help of an adoption agency and had an attorney to guide them through the process. And the bond they felt with their son was instant. “He’s made our family better, stronger, and more complete,” she says. “Just to have him, a seven year old boy who loves football, his mom, his dad, his sister and his brother, it’s changed our lives. He is the icing on our cake!”

Support and Resources

Edye Swidler, LMFT a clinical program director at Lilliput Children’s Services, a private, non-profit agency says “one of the most important things to consider if you are adopting is to work with an agency that you trust and to learn as much as you can about both the process and the special needs of the child you are hoping to adopt. It’s also important for families to be flexible and be willing to reach out to support systems and community resources.”

An adoptive parent herself, Edye knows how crucial post-adoption services are. Adoption is a lifelong journey and many families find themselves looking for support as children face various developmental milestones. Lilliput provides clinical services and support groups and they have been working with the Community Champions Network to develop a website that links families to adoption services.

-Written by Genny Heikka

*Article previously published in Sacramento Parent Magazine.

Do you have an adoption story? Leave a comment and share. You never know how your own journey or experience can inspire or help someone else!

Filed Under: Adoption & Fostering, Genny Heikka Tagged With: adoption 8 Comments

Who’s Your Mama

July 31, 2012 By Lori Wildenberg

Who’s Your Mama?

In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 5a

I really hate TV shows and books that are about an adopted child being reunited with his biological parent. The stories tend to reinforce an adopted child’s fantasy that all will be well once the biological parents are found. But mostly I am turned off by these accounts because I feel a little threatened.

Since I was in third grade, I knew two things. I wanted to be a teacher and I wanted to be a mom. I went to school, graduated, and got a teaching job. I got married, tried to get pregnant, and didn’t. For four years I went through the long and emotionally draining experience of infertility treatments.

My husband Tom and I had pictured a life with four kids with our last being adopted. God’s plan was different. In His great wisdom he had us adopt first-from Colombia- and then I gave birth to three other kids.

I have always jealously guarded my role as a mom.

I bristled when people asked me about Courtney’s real mom or said, Once you adopt I heard you get pregnant. All insensitive comments. I wanted to shout, “I’m her real mom and whether or not I carried her in my body or in my heart makes no difference.” That is true. True… for me.

I’ve come to realize my feelings aren’t the only important feelings in this adoption journey. (What do you know… it isn’t all about me!) The fact that I did not birth Courtney matters to her. It matters to her because she had a life before she was adopted. She has a history in which I’m not a part. Sure, her birth mom chose to make an adoption plan, Tom and I decided to adopt. But… no one asked Courtney.

The adopted child is the only one powerless in the adoption. Adoption isn’t only about joining another family, it is also about abandonment.

Courtney has told me she has a hole in her heart that won’t go away. I can’t fix my daughter’s wound. Finding her Colombian birth mom would be very difficult, but even if we were successful, I’m afraid the hole would remain.

The only way to fill that hole is with God and His love for His children.

Tom and I have always been honest with Courtney about her story and have done our best to give unconditional love to all our kids. We remind her that adoption is precious in God’s sight. So valued that he considers all of us his adopted kids. So we will continue to love and support her. And…we (by we- I mean me) will try to understand her struggles rather than take them personally. This is her journey of faith and discovery- and I am her mom. Always.

By: Lori Wildenberg

Filed Under: Adoption & Fostering, Parenting, Uncategorized Tagged With: abandonment, adoption, infertility, Lori Wildenberg, pregnancy 2 Comments

Fostering in our Future

January 24, 2012 By themomin

Over 500 children in Knox County are cared for by foster parents, but more await loving homes. One mom opened her heart and home to children in need of love and found that her own birth family received the blessing, too. With so many children worldwide in need of a home, maybe fostering will be part of God’s beautiful future for you.

By Featured Guest: Tara Dovenbarger

“I could never do that.”

As a foster mom I hear these five words in my daily conversations. Doctors, friends and even perfect strangers are curious, and somewhat perplexed, about how I am able to allow children into our family and hearts, and then let them go. They assure me that “they could never do that.”

There was a time, not long ago, that I felt the same way. I told the Lord I could never be a foster parent. Now, I am so grateful I submitted to the Lord’s prompting. Our family would have missed out on so many blessings that outweighed the pain of saying goodbye.

One of the first blessings was our opportunity to give a little boy regular meals. We witnessed his intense fear of not having food slowly disappear. We were able to teach him that eating from the garbage can was not needed, and this basic need would always be met.

What a blessing it is to give something as simple as a secure place to sleep. My two young children were thrilled that they were able to give a baby a bed to sleep in, which he did not have before. When our foster son first came to us, he would sleep in the firm grip of the fetal position. What an exciting night it was to check in on him and see him relaxed, spread out and sound asleep.

This ministry also blesses my husband. He teaches these dear children that they can come to our house, for any length of time, and never be victimized by a man. They can experience the firm, strong arms of love that only a daddy can give.

There are so many other blessings, such a being there for first pony rides and birthday parties, learning to pray at our dinner table, praying over them at night, holding and comforting them when sick and so much more.

As I look back and say, “Phew! How did we ever do that?” I know that we did not. God did. God told us to do something we could never do, and we have had the privilege of watching Him work.

I am so thankful God is allowing us to serve Him in the comfort of our own home. Our family motto is, “We have a lot, so we give a lot.”

I can’t imagine life without this gift to serve God. Even as I prepare my current son’s things for his move away, I am thankful that God has called us to the mission field of foster parenting.

Suggested Reading: For more about how to train up our children to have an impact on the Kingdom of God, read Julia Ferwerda’s book One Million Arrows. As you read you will be inspired by the vast opportunity awaiting believers in the mission fields of foster parenting, adoption, and support of the vulnerable. Prepare to be challenged.

Tara Dovenbarger lives in East Tennesse with her husband and four children. She enjoys writing and speaking about how the Lord has proven Himself mighty and faithful through everything from the death of a child, a troubled marriage, adoption, and raising kids with special needs. When she is not sitting at the kitchen table homeschooling her children, she is outside caring fo her mini-farm, stitching up something fun, or has her nose buried in a good book.

Filed Under: Adoption & Fostering Tagged With: Fostering Leave a Comment

What your mission trip is missing & The Ultimate Homemaking eBook Bundle ($640 Value for $29.97)

Mentoring happens on mission when:

Your greatest ministry may be in the life of a younger team member from your own hometown.

What’s Included in the Sale?

PLUS over $140 of FREE Bonuses

Home & Property {Cleaning, Organizing, Decor}

Educational Children’s Resources

Budgeting {Finance & Time}

In the Kitchen {Recipes and Cooking}

Pregnancy & Baby Care

Holidays & Special Events

Spiritual Growth

Marriage & Romance

Motherhood

Health & Fitness

Beauty

Working from Home & Blogging

Ecourses

PLUS, You will receive FREE Bonuses from these companies…

The fine print:

This post includes affiliate links, and I make a small portion of each sale. Thank you for investing in this ministry by purchasing The Ultimate Homemaking eBook Bundle through The M.O.M. Initiative!

Inspiring Stories of Adoption – Twice the Joy & MONDAY LINK UP WITH M.O.M.

Who’s Your Mama

Fostering in our Future

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