Greetings

Greetings, Everyone.

Hi! My name is Carol Parsons

I am from Portage La Prairie Manitoba and attend the First Baptist Church. I have accepted to serve as President for Women In Focus. I am excited to step into this new venture in Women’s Ministry. I’ve had an opportunity to meet the Wonderful Group of Women at CBWC, The Gathering in Calgary, I look forward to getting to know you all more throughout the next few years. I was so Blessed and taken back with The Gathering I just sat back and took in what I could absorb but my brain could not absorb it all, it was good!  (there is so much more behind the scenes we dont even see God Keeps some things surprises)

I’m Married and A Mother to 4 wonderful Children 2 boys and 2 girls ages 10-22. I’m a Nana to three wonderful boys, one year old twin boys. We enjoy being on a acreage and have a few animals. I love reading and Writing, Singing . I love encouraging and praying for other’s and sharing Jesus. Keeping Connections with other’s is important and partnering for change.  I look forward to serving with Women In Focus and to see what God has in store for WIF.

Thank you and God Bless,

Carol Parsons

 

 

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In Memory of Martha Burwood

Martha served on the BCY Women in Focus team as their president and was serving on the Women in Focus executive when I was first hired as the director.  She was a positive, kind and encouraging person with a heart for God’s mission in women at home and globally.  We are saddened that one of our faithful servants has gone to be with the Lord and our hearts are with her family and friends who will dearly miss her.

Step Into A Miracle

The newest Bible study for Fall, 2016 is now available here and under our Bible studies tab, under Resources.  This is a longer study of 14 lessons and some of the lessons take more than one week if you get into a good discussion!  It was helpful for me (Faye) in preparing these lessons to wrestle with my own doubts about the possibility of miracles today.  The greatest area of growth was growing stronger in my conviction of our call to intercessory prayer as we see over and over in the miracles of Jesus that it was not the faith of the one ill, but the compassion of others that brings a response from Jesus.

Step Into a Miracle

Authors Among Us

The French Connection by Kim Louise Clarke

I was given the privilege of reading Kim’s manuscript and writing a recommendation for her reflections while traveling through Paris with her daughter.  Kim attends Crescent Heights Baptist Church in Calgary and is another published woman from among us.  This is what I wrote:  “There are travel blogs and there are daily devotionals, but what a rare delight to imaginatively walk with Kim through the streets of Paris while reflecting upon the presence and goodness of God in our lives, no matter where our feet may take us…Those stories are enriched as she draws fresh insight and needed reminders from the Scriptures into the overriding journey of what it means to be a disciple of Christ.”

Kim’s book was shortlisted in 2015 for the Word Alive Women’s Journey of Faith Publishing Contest and is self-published through Word Alive Press.  Kim’s book, her first, was launched at a book launch party at Crescent Heights Baptist in Calgary on February 29 of this year, an appropriate place as she has been a member of this church for 36 years.  It can be purchased from the Word Alive website at www.greatcanadianauthors.com, on Amazon or Chapters websites. More about Kim and The French Collection can be found at www.kimlouiseclarke.com.

 

Authors among us

Cindy Palin is a song writer and now published novelist who attends our First Baptist Church in Olds, Alberta.  Her first book is just out and available on Amazon.  She writes:  This spring I have a new book coming out called “The Faith Keeper”. In the middle years the questions don’t stop, and when our loved ones leave the faith, we are all left wounded in the wake. I think that’s what finally pushed me into writing a book. It isn’t the whole story for sure, there is another one coming later which includes all the seeds God brought my way to get me through. One of them was your mentorship course.

Link:

Belief equals Relationship

We tend to talk about belief as a set of rational tenets that we either affirm or not.  The origin of the word, bileve meant “love, loyalty, commitment”  and so to believe in God is really to assent to a love relationship with the Divine.  If I believe in my spouse, I am affirming their potential to live life abundantly and thus committed lovingly to be part of that story, as is believing in my own self and the full potential God has placed within me.

We give Thomas a bit of a bad rap by calling him The Doubter, when in fact, he was only longing to see and be in relationship with Jesus, whom others had already seen.  “Unless I touch the wounds in his hands and feet I will not believe” he boldly states.  But in the end, he has no need to touch these wounds at all, because the presence of Jesus is enough and he is back in relationship with the one he thought was gone forever.

Doubt is not the opposite of belief.  It is simply wrestling through with the mind what the heart already knows and has experienced.  I often wonder how in the world the stories of Jesus could be true or how someone could die and literally come back to life – it seems beyond human comprehension.  Yet, I have a relationship with the living Lord who nurtures my soul, comforts my longings and guides me with wisdom well beyond my own ken.  So, in spite of any doubts I have, I, Faye Reynolds truly believe!

Women as Agents of Change

Charles Spurgeon 1886

“It is horrible to be living to be saved, living to get to heaven, living to enjoy religion, and yet never to live to bless others, and ease the misery of a moaning world. Do you not know that it is all nonsense to regard religion as a selfish spiritual trade by which we save our own souls? It is useless to hope for peace till you know how to love. Unless your religion tears you away from yourself, and make you live for something nobler than even your own spiritual good, you have not passed out of the darkness into the light of God.”

This link reminds us that women are agents of change: