In the past, the pastor’s wife was the head of our women’s group. This meant she had total control of all the finances as well. We recently found out that she left with all the offering money for the group. Our women are very poor and sacrifice to give every penny. They’ve been saving for over a year for uniforms for the choir & songbooks for the group. It was very devastating for them.
Our Haitian women have asked us to take them deeper into the Word. So we are spending the next 6 weeks studying James. How fitting today that we learn –
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
9 Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position. 10 But the rich should take pride in their humiliation—since they will pass away like a wild flower. 11 For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich will fade away even while they go about their business.
12 Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.
13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
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Having dealt with the drama we’ve had here for the last month – our study today couldn’t have been more perfect! We are learning together as a group – as we move forward – to count it all as joy!!
We decided it was time to have a women’s committee. So today we held elections!! The women have NEVER had a chance to vote for anything like this before. So we spent some time today figuring out how we should do this.
Much like our elections in the states – it was a little chaotic!!
Today we voted for our Women’s Group Committee – President, Vice President, Secretary, & Treasurer.
Now it was pretty hilarious hearing them speak to each other about who the candidates could be. I felt like I should be hearing – I’m Tizzie (orphan manager) and I approve this message!!
One lady stood up and said, “To be a candidate you needed to be married”.
Another lady stood up and said – “Well that’s not fair. I’m single I should be a candidate”.
The same lady from before stood up and said, “Look – we all know you have a boyfriend at your house at night. So until you kick him out or get married – you can’t be the leader”! (She immediately sat back down).
Then another lady said, “What about Miss Beth? She’s single. She should be a candidate!” They all agreed.
Another lady stood up and wanted to be a candidate. They told her, “You gossip too much. Until you learn to control your tongue – you can’t be one of the leaders!” (She immediately sat back down).
Tizzie stood up and said, “The leaders should be from the Mole. That way no one gets mad at our staff”.
To my surprise several women said, – “Everyone here in this circle lives in the Mole. We’re all from the Mole!!”
Seriously – the women are so calmly calling each other out on why they should or shouldn’t be a candidate! It was quite the spectacle to watch. And yet no one got up and left! It’s like they all accepted their imperfections with little quarrel.
When it ended we had 8 candidates to choose from. What is funny is that back when the pastor’s wife was running the group – we were lucky to even have 8 women coming to our bible study! Now we fill every bench!
Every woman went to Jocelyn – one by one to cast her vote. The 4 who have the highest number of votes will be on the committee.
After Jocelyn and I counted the votes – our top 4 people were: Momma Gigi, Mme Nene, Mme Prophet, & Miss Beth!!!
Three of these ladies are from St. Louis! Many of you know that when we fired our pastor – he turned the church against our staff! Now the church is voting for our very staff to run our women’s group! – Does anyone else find that interesting?? 😀
What a crazy day!! What a crazy month!! Only God could predict this election today!!
