Thanksgiving holidays are busy for all of us. For that reason, instead of writing a column, I’m giving you some quick quotes to contemplate as you stuff your turkey, pack the van, clean the house, and make the pies! As you read them, may they help focus your thoughts, prompt you to pray and remind you that all of us at WomensMinistry.Net are so very grateful for you!

“Ah! on Thanksgiving day, when from East and from West,
From North and South, come the pilgrim and guest,
When the gray-haired New Englander sees round his board
The old broken links of affection restored,
When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,
And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before.
What moistens the lips and what brightens the eye?
What calls back the past, like the rich pumpkin pie?”
John Greenleaf Whittier

“Among the many acts of gratitude we owe to God, it may be accounted one to study and contemplate the perfections and beauties of His work of creation. Every new discovery must necessarily raise in us a fresh sense of the greatness, wisdom, and power of God.”
Jonathan Edwards

“The heaviest debt is that of gratitude. When 'tis not in our power to repay it.”
Benjamin Franklin

“Gratitude changes the pangs of memory into a tranquil joy.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“God hands gifts to some, whispers them to others.”
William R. Alger

“It is the will to be grateful which constitutes gratitude.”
Joseph Cook

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”
Marcus Tullius Cicero

“I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and new.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul; and the heart of man knoweth none more fragrant.”
Hosea Ballou

One thought from me:
“God allows hardship because of His great mercy and love for us, and He often removes it for the same reason. However, we should not thank Him more fervently on the day our difficult gift is removed than we do on the days we carry it.”
Jennifer Rothschild

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 1:3-6

Jennifer Rothschild
Author of Lessons I Learned in the Dark (and Light),
and Founder of WomensMinistry.NET
http://www.jenniferrothschild.com

This fun idea was originally published in Issue #190, November 13, 2003.

IceBreaker: Where's the Beef?

Objectives: A great mixer

Materials: Stickers representing one item that is part of completing a hamburger (e.g. bun, meat, lettuce, etc...) and hamburger shaped gum

Procedure: All participants have a sticker on the back of their name tags that represent ingredients that make up a hamburger (one per person). Everyone has to find others until they have a complete burger with all of the toppings for a group or team activity.

For a prize, we found the gum that is shaped like hamburgers.. one for each person on the winning team.

You can also do tacos...the human Taco... Believe it or not there is also gum in the shape of tacos!

Take a minute to revisit last week's sponsor...

• Special offer from Jennifer - Music with a Book!
• Deborah Lovett, Women of the Well Ministries

Who is on your leadership team?

Wow! What a great response we had to this question. Thanks to all of you who sent in information about your team! Here are some of the emails we received...

We have a smaller church (150-200) so my team is small... but they are talented. One member is also our church secretary so her organizational skills are phenomenal as well as her gift of hospitality. The second member is gifted in mercy and she heads up any outreach ministry we participate as well as coordinates the meals ministry in the church. My third member has high energy and creativity that just WOW's us all of the time. She is able to make even the most simple event elegant and fun. All three are gifted prayer warriors and always support me in my suggestions/ideas for events. Because of them we average an 85-90% attendance rate of women to all of our events and my mailing list for all of the women in our church is 85 women. They are wonderful.
Deborah Minnick
____________________________________________

Our Women to Women Ministry Team consists of:
Team Leader (major responsibilities: plan monthly meetings, prepare or arrange for team devotional/Bible study, pray for and encourage team members, and organize and prepare an annual team planning retreat)
Women in the Word Bible Study (oversees women's Bible studies)
Prayer and Encouragement (card ministry, Dinner Club, prayer team)
Special Events (Christmas event, Spring Tea, game night, etc)
Retreat/Missions (organizes retreat, overseas outside events like WOF, weekend conferences, local missions involvement) Connecting Women (small groups, communication, visitors, showers)

Our biggest challenge: To encourage each team member to involve more women in helping with events and activities instead of trying to plan and carry out the activity on their own or with only minimal help.
Cheri Young ____________________________________________

Our Women's Ministry Leadership team consists of four women. Our primary purpose is to set direction for ministry to Women within our church and community. We analyze needs, establish programming and assess progress toward annual goals. We keep the programs and events designed for Women running smoothly and consistently.

Director: oversees the ministry, reports to church Elders Board, sets agenda for leadership meetings and does research to offer ideas, materials and encouragement to team members.
Secretary-Treasurer: Takes minutes during meetings, looks after correspondence and anything to do with money (ticket sales, pays bills). We have a budget from the Church and operate a Petty cash account. She may take on other responsibilities such as visitation, oversee baby and wedding showers etc.
Program Chair: oversees the specific church programs offered for Women - Bible Studies (series offered in Spring and Fall), Equipping Seminars, Special Events (e.g Christmas), Outreach Events. We try to organize quarterly events each with a different purpose, often targeting differing needs such as Young Moms, Working Moms etc, She relies on volunteers (not from the core Team) who work on the specific details for each even.
Communications Chair: Edits and distributes quarterly newsletter, Makes church announcements and any advertising required to cover the specific programs mentioned above. May also help with other details as gifting enables such as organizing babysitting, offers decorating expertise etc..
Priscilla, Williams Lake, BC Canada
Church size: 200 ____________________________________________

Our core leadership team is called our Women's Ministry Support Team. This team does planning, visioning, and oversight for the Women's Ministry.

Our Team Mission is "to support the growth of the Women's Ministry by equipping ministry leaders through encouragement, qualifying them for service, understanding their needs (listening), instruction (training), and by praying for them."

The team consists of these positions:
Prayer (oversees 2 prayer teams and provides prayer support for everything we do)
Bible Studies (oversees all Bible studies and provides teacher training)
Missions and Community Service (oversees a Clothing Giveaway Event Team and coordinates various projects)
Evangelism (oversees small evangelism/follow-up team and brings Evangelistic focus to everything we do)
Life Equipping (oversees MOPS, Mentoring, and special workshops)
Events (oversees retreat team, breakfast team, and home events team)
Leadership Development (helps identify, train and equip leaders)
WM Director (oversees Women's Ministry and is staff liaison with the church)
Elaine Bonds
____________________________________________

Team Coordinator – plans the team meetings and the events and activities of the ministry, oversees the budget, handles correspondence and scheduling for conferences.
Prayer Coordinator – assembles a prayer team to pray for the women’s ministry, events and activities.
Publicity Coordinator – oversees all publicity for women’s ministry functions. Creates the newsletter, informational brochures, posters and flyers. Works with local media to publicize our events.
Outreach/Hostess Coordinator – Makes contacts with visitors to our church to inform them about women’s ministry events and programs. Assembles welcome teams for our events.
Inreach/Registration Coordinator – Ministers to new members of our church by planning and inviting them to a new members’ coffee and making the team aware of any needs that she becomes aware of. She also oversees registration for our events and updates our bulletin boards quarterly.
Hospitality Coordinator - Oversees the food for our events and activities. She plans the menu, assembles a team of helpers and servers for each event.
Decoration Coordinator – Makes each event beautiful and inviting. She also takes care of door prizes for the events.
Susan Morton, 1st Baptist Church Maryville ____________________________________________

As you can see, Leadership Teams are as diverse as our churches! We will share more of the ideas you sent in next week's issue.

In Him... Robyne Beaubien, Editor

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