Tonight was one of our first events with just girls. So what did we do? Watch She’s The Man, naturally! It was a blast to have so many girls at church on a Friday night laughing together. I’m sure it is the first of many nights like these to come. (:
I’ve spend the past weekend in what feels like my hometown. Really it is my college town, but if you knew how much God changed my life while here, and the lovely relationships formed, you would see it as home too.
It was so nice to be
back, to be surrounded by friends, and to have a beautiful reason to celebrate – a wedding!
It was the most beautiful wedding I’ve been privileged to be part of – and I’ve been part of some really great weddings. This wedding was special not only because Becca and Adam are so in love, but mostly because Christ was the center and reason to celebrate.
It was so beautiful to be reminded that life is all about Christ. this weekend, I was able to be part of conversations that I’ve missed in Frisco. Conversations that are centered on Christ, not the next fashion or money or tv. But Jesus. That’s all that matters, and all that we need to center ourselves on.
As we prepared for a wedding, we were reminded that Christ, our bridegroom, is waiting for His Bride – the church. As Becca came down the aisle, and Adam waited for her, Michael (the preacher) said, “Adam, your bride has arrived; Rebecca, your groom is waiting.” What beautiful symbolism of Christ and the Church! Such a good reminder that Christ is coming to heal this world and make all things new, therefore we shall run to Him. So edify Christ, edify the Body, cherish the Church, nothing else matters.
In May, I stepped into the role of ‘girls minister’ at FBC Frisco. So many times I’ve been asked why it is that I do what I do.
Simple, Jesus told me to.
I grew up going to church, and came to accept Christ at an early age. While in the youth group, walking with the Lord became really personal and real to me. One of the most defining moments in my faith came the summer after my freshman year of high school at church camp. Every Thursday at camp we would spend the morning in what was called a “concert of prayer.” The entire camp would gather and pray over the government, schools, families, churches, missionaries, and so on. This one year, as we were praying over our youth ministers, my youth minister came up and put his hand on my shoulder, and we stood praying for each other for a while. It was a very special moment. When we were done praying, Adam gave me a hug and asked me if I had ever considered being a missionary. I said yes, my grandparents were missionaries in Africa, so going on missions was always an option. I had been on a few mission trips prior to that, and loved serving God that way. Adam told me that when he placed his hand on my shoulder, he had the most vivid image of me on the mission field surrounded by little black children. We talked more about it, and we really felt that God had shown Adam a clear direction for my life. God had called me to foreign missions. The call was as real and as clear as my mom’s call to dinner each night. The emotions of that day were so contrasting. What peace and excitement I felt that God would call me, but what fear there was also in living a life completely different from everything the world expects.
I continued to serve God and the church in various ways through high school. I was very involved in our youth group, and we experienced several youth pastor changes throughout my time in high school. I went out of the country on several trips, but found that serving God and being “on mission” did not strictly mean leaving Frisco.
In 11th grade, two faith-impacting things happened: I made a best friend, and my youth group was without a youth pastor for a very long time. (Which was also remedied in the most positive way later that same year). I had friends all through school, but never ones that I felt were true friends. I especially struggled in the youth group fitting in with the girls in my Sunday school classes. They were much “cooler” and more popular than me, and they had been friends for so long that I just did not fit in. When Amy moved to our church, we hit it off immediately. We were at a similar point spiritually, and we are so alike in many ways. Looking back, I feel that this was a changing point in my life – I had friends!
Losing Adam as a youth pastor was not as devastating as we thought it would be. It was a good move for him, and their family has done great, impactful things for the Church. And it was good for me to experience change. What happened when he left, however, was nothing. For a good amount of time there were no Bible studies happening, no outside events. Nothing. As I saw my youth group slow down, Amy and a few other close friends and I decided that we needed to do something. What could we do? We were only 17. It was intimidating to teach our peers, so we decided to do what we could manage. We started a middle school girls Bible study. When I tell people of this, they look at me like I’m crazy for willingly hanging out with middle schoolers. It was one of the most rewarding times. To teach girls the Word, to pour into them and build relationships, to laugh and have fun in a godly way; that time taught me so much.
The next few years, God continued to teach me through various situations and experiences. He used Chris, my youth minister, now “boss,” in big ways. Joy and laughter permeated my years as his student. Our close relationship helped me to see what ministry was like, and allowed me to be part of the leadership of our church. So the changes that happened in 11th grade were big, but so good. Looking back, despite the sometimes hardness then, God knew what He was doing. Throughout this time, my life was also consumed with band at school. I had relationships with people who were so different than me and who believed different things than I did.
When I went off to college, I began visiting churches with my roommate. The second church we went to immediately felt like home. The church reminded me of FBC Frisco, and the people were so welcoming. Before the service was even over I had made up my mind to make it my church home in Arkadelphia. During the Sunday school class, a lady made an announcement asking for helpers with the youth group. Somehow, my introverted self found her at the end of the service and volunteered to help. What started as a small step, turned into what I think defines my time at college. For the first few years, I served with about ten other college students as an intern team under Jason and Sarah, the husband-and-wife youth ministers. It was such a blessing to be able to learn from Jason, and to do ministry and life with the team. We really became so close, and lived with a desire to impact students’ lives. The last two years, Jason asked me to fill the associate’s position as associate youth minister and girls minister. I willingly agreed and spent the summer with the Park Hill Youth. These kids became family. Jason and Sarah are more like parents than bosses, and God moved in such big ways through my time there. I’m struggling to even put words to my experiences in Arkansas, but overall God put a passion in me to reach teenagers for the Kingdom.
Throughout this time, there was always the 9th grade call to foreign missions in the back of my mind. I had spent the summer after 10th grade in Uruguay with missionaries, and a few other summer weeks in Jamaica since then with missions, but once college hit, my mission field was Arkansas. At times this was confusing. Hadn’t God called me to little children surrounding me in Africa? Why did my passport expire, keeping me in the States? I was loving where I was at, and God was teaching me so much, but what about that call? Last summer, my younger brother and I decided to go out of the country. We both love adventure, foreign missions and Spanish. Therefore we contacted some missionary friends and asked if they needed help for the summer. They needed some summer interns, and they willingly let us stay with them in Santiago, Chile. What a blast! We had the opportunity to teach in schools, share Jesus, and learn to ski in the Andes. (And so much more.) However, the entire time we were there Brandon and I would have conversations about why we were there. Not us specifically, but American missionaries in general. We did not feel that our trip was contrary to God’s will, but we did wonder why the IMB had so many missionaries in Chile when most of the churches in Santiago were run by Chileans and functioned on their own. What right did we as Americans have to impose our ideals on them? There was an uneasy feeling. As I was praying about it one day, God told me that the reason I felt so uneasy about the missions was because He wanted me in the States for a while. Maybe someday, for a time, I’ll live overseas. But for now I’m in the country.
A few weeks after Chile, I was having lunch with Chris and he asked me what I learned while in Chile and I told him about being in the country and not overseas. As he listened to my experiences and we talked through things, he then sat and thought for a moment and said that there’s an opportunity to start the girls ministry and have a full-time girls minister with the FBC youth group, and that we should pray about it if I’m interested. We were both pretty excited about it and hesitant at the same time. This would be so new for both of us. We knew we could work together because we had in the past, but is this the right position? For about six months we just prayed about it. No talking about it, no planning, just praying. One of the reasons I respect Chris is for his commitment to prayer. The more I prayed, the more excited I became. Ideas kept coming in my head. My dad was even very excited about girls ministry, and has brainstormed so many helpful ideas with me. Almost a year after those initial conversations, the idea came to fruition. He called one night (far too late, might I add) and in a sarcastic mood, seriously asked me to come work for him. After a year serious prayer over whether it was the right decision or not, I said yes, and have been so blessed to be back in Frisco – a place I never thought I’d move back to.
So here I am. Why Frisco, why Teal, why girls ministry? Because God has placed me here to build relationships, to walk with others as we walk with Christ. It’s simple really. I just tell God’s story and love much because I have been loved much.
Since before I became the girls minister at FBC Frisco, I’ve been wracking my brain for the perfect name for this girls ministry. I’ve googled plenty of other girls ministries, and have found some good names and a lot of really cheesy names. I wanted the name of our ministry to mean something, to be unique, and to be catchy and cool. I am tired of lame acronyms and have been on the hunt for the best. I know that every name could be modified but today I have chosen “Teal | A girly shade of Blue.”
I sat down many times today to make this blog, plan out a mission statement, and get a name for this girls ministry. It’s been difficult and not every goal has been accomplished. But I think we have a name!
At high school camp, earlier in the summer, I was hit with the idea of Yellow as our girls ministry name. The spirit during rec this year was unbeatable, and the “yellow team” (11th grade) was huge and very spirited. I had the thought that since we are called “Blue” as a whole youth ministry, why not name the girls portion a color. What better to compliment Blue than yellow? Well, as I thought it over more and more, the word “yellow” is just so long and awkward to say, and I wasn’t sold on the idea. I talked it over with a few people, and they liked the color theme, but yellow wasn’t really the color to do that with.
So then I used the ever handy dictionary.com to find some synonyms of “blue.” The keepers were cyan, periwinkle, sapphire, and teal. None really caught my eye. 
But the more I thought about teal and a “lighter shade of blue” or “Girly shade of blue” the more Teal grew on me. It is also really pretty, so I figured we’d think on it.
As I was using dictionary.com, I found a few things.
1. The actual definition of teal is: “Any of several species of small dabbling ducks, of worldwide distribution, usually traveling in tight flocks and frequenting ponds and marshes.”
Not that I particularly love birds, but ducks are neat and what stood out to me is that they travel in “Tight flocks.” The verse that I have in mind as the central verse for our girls ministry is John 13.35: “And they will know you are my (Jesus’) disciples if you have love for one another.”
I feel that the tight flock ties in nicely with that verse. God calls us to be a unified body of believers and for our lives to be defined by how we love. It is essential that as girls, we stick together in a close flock.
2. The color teal got its name because of a bird (see above comment). This bird has teal all around its eye. I find this interesting because eyes are very important. Descartes (an old French philosopher) said that “the eyes are the window to the soul.”
I love that! In scripture, time and time again, the psalmists write of lifting our eyes up to the Lord, both in praise and in times of trouble. If our eyes are the window to our souls, and we are to constantly lift them up to the Lord, then it is as if we are to continually have our eyes and souls fixed on God so that He can see our very soul. God doesn’t need just our eyes to look at Him in order for Him to see our souls, He does that all the time – He knows our very thoughts. However, our attitude and entire beings should be so fixed on God and our lives should be walking in the direction of the Lord that when God looks into our souls, He is glorified and ever so proud. I think these teal birds are onto something.. (:
Matthew 6 also says this about the eye: “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” I think this lines up with Descartes and challenges us to live holy lives.
3. Have you ever had a weird dream and then looked it up on the internet to see what it meant, even though it might be sort of superstitious? Me too…probably more often than I want to believe. Well, I looked up “teal” on one of those sights for color and found that teal represents “idealistic, faithful, sentimental; Emotional healing, rich, unique, and expensive.” I like those words. I especially like that teal represents that which is unique and expensive. As daughters of the King, we are of greatest worth! Ephesians tells us that we are “His masterpiece” and Hebrews calls us royalty. We are so much more cherished and loved than the world lets on to. Christ loved us so much that He died for us; we were bought at a great price. As daughters of God, we are unique, set apart from the world, and cherished by our Maker. How wonderful to have such a gracious God!
So there are my thoughts on “Teal.” It’s simply a girly shade of Blue.
May we be girls that hold ourselves and others as unique daughters of the King, keep our eyes and lives in line with Christ, and that are united in love – very much like a tight flock.
bluegirlsministry 