THE BEGINNING

At the age of fifteen, I made a personal life-changing decision to follow Christ. Before this decision, I grew up in the church but was not making the healthiest choices for my life. After receiving Christ, I firmly believed and built my life around 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." My life was new. I was new, and I began to grow in my faith in Christ. It is a journey that I have not walked alone. I would not be who I am today without the Christian women in my life that have invested in me.

 I have been on the receiving end of a mentoring relationship many times. I have sought out women that are steps ahead of me in their walk.  In whatever season of life I was in, they imparted Godly wisdom and gave me their support. I was mentored through my teens, dating, marriage, mothering, serving in church, and being a pastor's wife! As I continue my journey in life, being mentored continues to be a priority to me. 

 At eighteen, I began having a heart towards mentoring when I realized that God could use what I had walked through to help others. I then became a youth ministry leader. After marrying my husband, Jeff, we served in youth ministry for 15 years. I took on many roles, investing in others in their Christian walk, and it became my passion. It was truly rewarding to help others in their journey, whether it was a teen, a youth leader or a young single mom from a group I started.  

THE TRANSITION

In 2013 we began serving at The Waters Church. Jeff was now an executive pastor, and I had to find my role. As we settled into our new church home, I became part of the Women's Ministry planning team. While working in this ministry, I was contacted by a woman named Tami Jean, who also had a heart for women. We discussed how to find her role at the church and what God was calling her to do. Some of the obvious options like running a small group Bible study or serving at an event didn’t seem to be hitting the mark of her desire as she was already faithful in those areas.  I don’t think either one of us realized, at the time, that this conversation planted a seed that would grow into pioneering a mentoring ministry down the road. 

In the fall of 2015, I went to a women's conference. The speaker challenged us to ask God what call was being placed on our hearts.  I heard God tell me to step down from the Women’s Ministry planning team. This team was for women's ministry, and I knew my heart was for women. This message from God did not make sense to me! In my confusion and stubbornness, I chose to pray for my friend attending the conference to avoid what God was telling me.  At the end of my prayer for her, I closed with part of the verse from 1 Samuel 15:22, "To obey is better than sacrifice." As I pondered what God had asked me to do, I reluctantly asked another friend, who was a prayer team altar worker, to pray for me. She had no idea what God had asked of me. A few moments after we had prayed, she found me and told me that she had a vision of God asking His daughter to do something step by step and to trust Him. With each step of the journey, a firm stone would come up to stand on as His daughter trusted Him. I didn't know what she meant, but she said, "Remember, obedience is better than sacrifice!” What?  I couldn't believe that she had quoted the same verse I had just prayed over my other friend, and at that moment, I knew I was hearing from God.

 A couple of months later, I was at a women's event where we wrote down whatever God placed in our hearts.  I wrote down one word: mentor. That word seemed to come out of nowhere.  Looking back, I see that God was giving me insight into the path that He had planned for me.   Even after the women's event, I still had no idea why God had moved me out of such an obvious place in which to serve.  The following week I met with our lead pastor and his wife. My pastor asked me, “if I could do anything with my time, what would it be?” My answer was to mentor more, but I am only one person, with limited time. He responded with the next question, "How do we multiply you?" That was a great question that only God could answer, and He began to reveal that answer over the next several months.

 One of our pastors told me about a woman who was wanting a spiritual mentor and wondered if I knew anyone who would be interested in mentoring her. I remembered the woman, Tami Jean, who talked to me about a year before and I asked her if she would be willing to mentor this younger woman. She said yes enthusiastically, and they began their mentorship connection. These two women didn't know each other, but both had a desire to grow in their faith together.  I saw that relationship form, yet the prevalent question kept coming to me, "How do I connect people who don't know each other?" Established relationships were the basis of how I was mentored myself and how I mentored others. I still questioned if there was a natural way to connect people who didn't know each other. 

 In the summer of 2016, I led a missions trip to Guatemala, comprised of twenty-six women of all ages and backgrounds who did not know each other. I witnessed God creating relationships that lead to organic conversations among the women. I had also prayerfully and sometimes strategically placed the ladies in rooms together with other women that had similar life experiences.  As a result of this, there were also "God conversations" happening.  I noticed that as I connected with the Holy Spirit through prayer, He would work through the similar life experiences these women shared. This was a confirmation to knowing that God can place strangers together to create meaningful relationships.  He does His connecting and He helped me also create intentional connections.  

 Almost a year after the women’s conference turning point and step of obedience, God placed in me a plan to start Becoming Her mentoring ministry. God had shown me that it was possible to connect women in meaningful ways that didn't know each other. This ministry would be a vehicle to connect women in our church that wanted to grow spiritually with the help of a mentor. I had to leave a serving position on the women's committee to create space and time to dream and to develop the mentoring program. Even if I didn't know exactly what this would look like, God had my attention. I was to take one step at a time and continue to trust Him just like my friend’s vision of the stepping stones.  We all need to grow in Christ and benefit from others ahead of us on the journey of faith.  I think of the quote by Craig Groeschel, “We come to faith in Christ as individuals, but we grow in our faith in community with others.” God has a plan for all of us.  We are each His masterpiece. The journey of a woman, discovering her identity and purpose in Christ, is enriched by leaning into another woman of faith living life alongside her.  

I asked twenty individual women from my church to come along on this journey of investment in fellow believers.  They answered the call of Titus 2, that we are to be intentional to love people, disciple them, and encourage them along the way. God had answered the question of how to multiply me.

RIGHT NOW

Since the beginning of this journey, Becoming Her ministry has gathered techniques and resources that continue to develop our growth with mentoring. We have partnered with women from various life experiences and have found that we all need help along this journey.  We have all been learning from each other through the years of this ministry.  God continues to give the next steps as we have grown.

The Becoming Her curriculum is a tool that helps equip mentors to minister to those who want to be mentored.  The curriculum will provide practical information about mentoring, along with helpful tools that can be used to mentor well. I pray that the curriculum will give you confidence to come alongside a mentee as you partner with what the Lord is doing in their life.  I am excited for you to be on this journey with me as the Lord places people in your life to invest in.