Women's Group by guest blogger Cristy Cash

I spoke of Women's group a few posts back. Cristy Cash is one of Melinda's (who hosted/lead women's group) sisters...she is also my partner in ministry...my dear, dear friend...and my sister...in Christ :) I have asked her to write about the impact women's group had on her. This is why...in this generation I feel this is what is missing. So many overlook their need to be in intimate community. I think we also forget how vital it is that we reach out to others around us...so many are dying on the inside and we need to be the hands and feet of Christ to them. When I was in my lowest valley I could always look around and see someone lower and offer a hand...a hug...a prayer or a word of encouragement. Read this and be strengthened and encouraged to either seek out this kind of community or be this kind of community to someone you know who needs it...

When Shanna asked me to write to you about the Impact Women’s group had on me it really caused me to think. It was not easy to quickly conjure up pivot points of faith that happened in that room that was available to me. I think it was not easy because it wasn’t so much an event or an experience in itself but the launching of a journey and a safe place to call home.

My first experience with Women’s Group was – well – Men’s Group! J When I was a young teenager before I was walking with God, Dean and Melinda hosted a men’s group in their home and once in a while I would see them gathered and praying. As I floated in and out of life with Dean and Melinda at one point the group shifted over to women. I really was not involved. Once in a while I would be part of singing but that was just because I enjoyed singing! I remember times that I would be at Dean and Melinda’s house when I wasn’t really in a good walk at that time and I would see all the girls gathered and sharing – including Shanna and Christie. I rarely darkened the door with my presence. I didn’t even really get what was going on.

When I did accept faith in my heart, many of the other girls had “graduated” and gone on to other points of leadership and ministry. People still flow in and out. I can tell you this though. Women’s Group is and was not profound or mysterious! It is the wisdom and faithfulness of a family to provide a safe place for people who are beginning the journey of accepting healing in the deepest parts of their hearts. It is something that happened – not in a living room with a piano, but in the hearts of women who yearned for a place to go to sojourn with others in a similar place – or believed there was an answer for their heart that these women could help coax out. It was a surgery room where light was shined on the darkest parts and tears released tension that allowed healing to begin. It is a place where I learned that there is no room for compromise in my heart – that I need to commit to being “not normal” in the world’s eyes and to live in the Lord’s world.

It is a place where my husband asked me to marry him, where I wrote music day after day, where I laughed and sang with my sisters, where I prayed for my hurting friends, where people are oddly more honest than in other places, where some people have chosen to reject Christ’s will for them for a time, where I saw in practice that it is good to give to those in need with every part of you – your time, your home, your heart, your tears, your prayers. It was a start of a journey for me. I can tell you with a hint of pride (I am just proud I made the right decision) that God presented me with a choice in that room – to make room only for HIM in my life – or to leave a little space for the world and I can say that he showed me the road less traveled started in that room for me.

I present to you today that you have an option in front of you – to love and trust and follow Christ with all of your heart, mind, friendship, body, food, money and soul. I submit to you that it is not so painful as it seems. Yes we have stood on the sidelines at times watching others succeed in the world’s eyes – bittersweet in agreement with ourselves and the Lord that there is something else for us, but the investment in the LORD that we have made – and that started in that room – is better than any choice we ever could have made and it has made all the difference.

Cristy Cash

You can read more of Cristy's story at http://cristycashtransparent.blogspot.com/