I remember moving to Nashville almost 18 years ago now and it wasn’t easy. Read this post by guest blogger Linda Lesniewski, Women’s Minister at Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, Texas. She shares a great ministry to those women new to our community.
When was the last time you moved from one city to another? Perhaps it was recent enough that the disorientation that comes with moving remains fresh in your memory. For others, like me, those memories dim with each passing year. My hometown is quickly earning status as a desirable retirement community. Instead of mostly young moms arriving in town distracted with enrolling their kids in school and after school activities, we have a growing number of women arriving with that ‘lost’ look in their eyes. Perhaps their husband has recently retired, and they’re redesigning their life. Maybe they’re aging and decided to move closer to family. Others came looking for work having been replaced by someone younger. Perhaps a blended family influenced the move.
Regardless of the reason for the move, women always experience a deep loss of family, friendships, routines, and activities they left behind. Most experience grief. All experience disorientation! That’s where our ministry to women can welcome and help connect them to their ‘new’ sisters in Christ! We found creative ideas and meaningful resources to guide us at Just Moved Ministry.
What ways are you reaching out to the ‘newbies’ in your community or church?
Linda Lesniewski is the Women’s Minister at Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, Texas and the mother of four young adults and grandmother of four little girls. She is a contributor to the book Transformed Lives: Taking Women’s Ministry to the Next Level published by Lifeway. She has authored A Little Book About Knowing A Big God for children, Women at the Cross, published by Revell, and Connecting Women: A Relational Guide for Leaders in Women’s Ministry, published by Baker Books.
Resources:
Women Reaching Women
Transformed Lives
Just Moved Ministry
