Remember

Well i have got to say, when i happened across this picture of a Beloved Friend Diane, i had no idea at the time it would be the last one i took of her... she passed away a month later of lou Gehrigs, all this to say.. i have really been struggleling lately with my role as a women in a newly adopted church where women are not leaders, or to teach men. I am sure many of you are blinking non stop about now... but i know that God is working in me on this one.. cough cough. The Baptist's do things very in the box, and yet i know that God is growing me in incrediable ways. so, you say what is the tie in with "Diane" ? well Diane was an amazing friend and Mentor, and it just so happenend that she lead Women's Minisrties, ( i am not taking about pajama parties and High teas) I am talking spiritual warfare and deepening your relationship with God without all the mumbo jumbo of limitations...

Diane was the poster girl for limitations growing up... her childhood... what there was of it.. was cruel, and one gross measure of abuse after another. so how could this woman have such an untainted view of God as a True Father, or see Christ as someone who dared to love her unconditionally? cause she dared to search for the truth in Gods word, about who she was in Christ not what others pinned on her, or what she thought of herself. she relied on Gods timing and love to strip layer after painful layer, bandages that hide the wounds that wouldnt heal wounds that Named her. Wounds that bore rememberences. Diane would sit for hours and laugh and pray with women and men as she walked in the mire of thier junk and lead them to the truth of Christ. she was a lay counselor that was motivated by the Healing Touch of God.

So here i am in a new church that would look at Dianes place in the Church and worry how to keep her in the safe box. Funny thing about it.. one evening a few months befor her death i laid in bed with Diane talking about Womens Ministy and how she had given me so much over the years and fostered a deep love for women and thier " stuff" and she reached over and took my hand and said to me....Kary Continue the work. you know how to do all the things God has allowed me to do here, you have been part of it every step of the way. ( so she was passing the baton of sorts) and i wept as she spoke these words to me knowing it was true... that what i have gleaned and walked with her was not for not. When it is God inspired it gives you life. and that is what her Ministry is/was all about.

Now I sit here in this new Church and think to myself.. o.k. God how in the world will you use me inside the box? I think that with this network coming together of the churches int eh community coming together to do Gods Stuff not our stuff and inviting God along for the ride is part of that whole picture of inside the box... there is a deep sence that God is going to use me in ways that are new to many but fitting for HIS MINISTRY. in ways that are outside the box. I cant wait to see how God will grow me up in this little community of 2000 people. with Rob on the Chamber board it makes me smile to wonder the GOodness of God and HIS plan.

Thank you God for the woman, mentor and Friend that Diane was and is to me.... thank you for allowing me to walk with her for those years and recieve your healing in those dark places she tenderly offererd saftey and your truth to. Thank you that you are a God outside the box.....