Closing This Door to Open Another

Hello to all the readers we have had in the past 5+ years. We are not only beginning a new chapter in our ministry, but a new book, so to speak. The blog will be archived so that it can still be accessed, but our focus is now on one blog, with a different theme, and an updated message. Click on the picture below to read our first post from the new blog and, if you would like to follow us there, that would be wonderful. Thank you all for making our little ministry blog a part of your reading material.

Series: Women of Valor~Jaime Dills

~Featuring~ 

Jaime Dills and her (future) Equine-assisted Therapy  Ministry

I have known Jaime all of her life. Literally. She is my daughter, the younger of my two. I have watched her grow from childhood, mature through adolescence, and make some life-changing decisions in her young adulthood. Here is a little bit of Jaime’s story, about the path that God has been leading her down, and her aspirations for the future. 

Grace Point!:

How did the concept of an equine assisted ministry come about?

Jaime:

I have always loved horses, and I knew I wanted to grow up and have a career involving horses. As my faith grew, what I wanted as a career choice quickly became what I wanted as a ministry choice. I have felt the calling to have an equine assisted ministry for over  three  years now, and I am currently getting the education I need to not only own and operate such a facility, but to also counsel and minister to those who would use it. 

I have volunteered at several equine assisted therapy centers, to see how they operate on a day-to-day basis, as well as to observe to see how the horses and clients react to each other, and what the they learn from the experience. 

Jaime, with her unit, 

returning from a year’s deployment 

in Afghanistan, August 2014, Ft. Bliss, TX.

Jaime receiving a promotion 

to the rank of Sergeant. 

Grace Point!:

What people-group are you the most drawn to help and make your ministry available to?

Jaime:

I hope to work mostly with the veteran population. I want to help those that suffer from PTSD, physical limitations and emotional scars due to war injuries, and those that need help re-entering society after long deployments. I also want to help at-risk youth, their families, and individuals overcoming addiction.  I hope to incorporate a retreat where people can come to worship and become closer to God while they heal.

Grace Point!:

How has your military training and experience helped you to achieve this goal?

Jaime:

My military experience has helped me by providing me the opportunities to work with a variety of people, both here in the USA, and while deployed to Afghanistan. Also, because of my military service, veterans and their families have a special place in my heart.

Series: Women of Valor~Denise Davis

God led me to this beautiful lady a few weeks ago, who is full of inspiration and genuine concern for her fellowman. We are honored that she has shared part of her story with us here at Grace Point! 

PPM: How did I Write 4 Him come into being?

Denise: In 2012, I had tried to start an online business selling Christian items. It was during this time that the Lord began to place in my spirit to have a blog connected to the site to share a messages to encourage those in the Christian faith to hold onto God. I felt it was a true need to connect and identify with the pain, discouragement and disappointments that we each face in life, but may not always share with others. I felt a strong urge to let them know that God understands every single thing that they were going through. I did not want to try to paint an image that I understood everything they were facing, but that God did. 

As time moved on I began to develop a love more for writing for God than I did for trying to run a successful online store. After about a year, I decided to give the store up, but I knew I wanted to continue to write for God. 

I started homeschooling my daughter in 2014, and I would go to Google Plus to get information from other moms who were also homeschooling. I started noticing that many of them had blogs and were using wordpress. I didn’t know anything about wordpress, how to use it, nothing at all. I started searching it out and the more I learned, the more the desire began to grow again to start back writing for God. I started praying to God and asking him what should I call the blog. My daughter and I would sit together and discuss different names but none of them would really stick with me. Then, one day I heard in my spirit “I write for him”. I did a search on the name and found out that the name was actually already in use. So I tried “I write 4 him” and sure enough, the name was available.

    

(see more of Denise Davis at http://iwrite4him.com/)

I purchased the name, started my Wordpress blog, and from there I began to write as the Lord led me. At the time that I purchased the name for my blog, I told the Lord that I had really liked the “I write for him” name, and that if the person who had it ever stopped blogging I would like to have it. This year the person let the blog go, and I was able to purchase the domain name. I felt like God was saying “here ya go, you wanted it, so I saved it for you. Now continue to write for me.” 

PPM: What is the primary purpose for I Write 4 Him?

Denise: It has become my true desire now to encourage others to look to God. My call is to point others to Jesus. If I can just get them to look to him, then He will do the rest. I want them to know that, regardless of the mistakes they have made, or the problems they may be facing, God is able and willing to help them. I don’t want to appear as someone that is holier than thou, but I want them to know I understand because I have been there. I have made so many mistakes, messed up so many times, and even today the devil still tries to remind me of my faults. My only hope is to look to God when the devil tries to bombard my mind with my past failures and faults. I know that sometimes the stress and guilt can be so heavy that we feel too ashamed to come to God. But through it all, I have learned that God is faithful to forgive and that nothing, absolutely nothing, will ever change his love for me. 

I want others to know this too; I want them to remember God’s word and to remember his promises. I want to remind them that God is faithful and that he is there when they call. I wish so much that I could be a full time blogger and write for the Lord every day. But with being a wife, mother, trying to keep up with the house, cooking, running errands, and working as a registered nurse, this all most definitely takes time away from blogging. So when I do get free moments to get into my hiding place, I seek God and ask him what would he like for me to write and as he places it into my heart, I write for him. 

Series: Women of Valor~Rebecca Matthews

There is a ton of things that I could share, but this ‘interview’ will explain how Grace Point! eMagazine came to be, and how God is using several things that I love to do to create it.

So, even though I am writing about myself, in keeping with the spirit of the article, I will play both parts of interviewer and interviewee.

PPM: How did you get inspired to publish an e-magazine?

Rebecca: I have always loved books and magazines, and loved to read. When I first saw the concept of a flipbook about two years ago, I loved it, but wasn’t sure what to do with it. Ideas would come and go, but nothing stuck. Then, almost a year ago, in the summer of 2014, I was given a copy of this *bookazine, by a friend and our host at the time.

Not only did I thoroughly enjoy the content, but I immediately told my husband, “I want to do something like this!” The bookazine published by the American Bible Society brought out my creative side, but I still did not have any course of action directed by the Holy Spirit. So, I waited for God to move me in the way He wanted me to go with this new-found desire of my heart.

Several days went by, and the look and feel of the bookazine kept coming to my mind. I read every superbly written article, being drawn into the content by the picture that represented it and, from a design standpoint, realized how the pictures were impacting my perception of the article; how they made the article seem complete. I began to look at e-publishing platforms, magazines specifically, and the desire to create an online magazine kept coming to me stronger and stronger. But, I had to be sure it what was developing in me was a ‘God-thing’ and not a ‘me-thing.’ So, I continued to wait for Him to tell me something, one way or the other.

Then, about three weeks after being given the bookazine, I had a dream....

In the dream, I saw a wooden sign, painted in what I would describe as ‘beach-y’ colors, with the words Grace Point! written in cursive across the multi-colored stripes. When I woke up, I immediately created what I saw in the dream. So, the symbol on the left was given to me by God, specifically to use as the name of the magazine. And, not only the name, but the font, the colors, their arrangement, the angle of the exclamation point, and its size in relation to the other letters. It was all God-given.

PPM: So, what happened next?

Rebecca: Next?! Next, you say! What happened next was absolutely nothing!!... Actually, there was a lot going on in the ministry, but nothing toward developing a magazine! Summer was ending, autumn was coming, and God was not releasing me to do anything! By the time November came along, I was sure that God meant it all for a later date; some time a long way down the road. During the week of Thanksgiving, I said to God, “I would love to begin the magazine in the January. If I do that, then I have to have time to put it together.” He had answered a prayer for me when I was twelve years old having to do with starting something in January, so I knew He would understand when I asked in this way about the magazine. I went to bed that night thinking that it would be the last time I would mention it to God if I didn’t get the ‘go-ahead’.

Now, mind you, in the last three years, God has led me to create six blogs, fifteen studies, prayers posted online every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, built websites for us and others in the double-digits, and became familiar with self-publishing through Amazon’s Createspace; so it was not a question of how to do it. It was when. So, by the next morning, God had given me a resounding “YES!” and here we are six issues later.

The magazine keeps growing; He keeps sending me to various people, offering an opportunity to contribute. Some of those I am led to ask are artisans in Israel, whose work is featured every month. I send emails out to perfect strangers, to tell them I want to feature them in our magazine, completely free of charge. So far, no one has said ‘No’, and some of the responses I get back brings a tear to my eyes.

From Elena: I'm glad to get your letter and I'm glad to hear that somebody supports our country.

From Robin: Thank YOU very much! It looks beautiful, as does the whole magazine. I'm home recuperating from surgery right now and this put a big smile on my face.

From Miguel: Hi Rebecca, first of all, thank You so much for your proposal. We really need all that you can make to help us.

From Limor: I want to share my feelings with you, and tell you that your support of Israel is very moving, it actually brings tears to my eyes. (It's not a common thing for us to get support). So thank you for that.

We are charged with the responsibility of our fellowman; we are our brother’s keeper. God has called me, through this magazine, to give a voice to those who otherwise might have none. And, this not only to the artisans in Israel, but to each one who the Holy Spirit leads me to ask to contribute. It is so that their voice can be heard, whether it is a one-time contribution, or monthly. That I enjoy immensely putting the magazine together, searching for pictures, and building every page, is beside the point. I will continue in this venue for as long as I am called.

*a publication that combines elements of both a book and magazine

Series: Women of Valor~Ophelia Hart

I had the pleasure of meeting this awesome woman in December of 2012, through a mutual acquaintance. She has a warm,  sympathetic heart for those who are hungry and, once anyone tastes her baked goods, they are hooked for life!

PPM: How did the concept of a soup kitchen come to you?

In the winter of 1996, I saw in the news a number of situations that started me thinking about the possibility of needs in our County (Haywood). I was really not out in the community much due to working long hours in our bakery, which, by the way, gave us plenty to eat and, for me, most of the time more than I needed!! I realized we were so well blessed. So many friends had helped us along the way, and I needed to “give back” in some way.

These thoughts kept persisting, through my morning devotions, through sermons, through Bishop Tullis’ Sunday School lessons and, I feel, thru God’s leading. I would think about it real strongly for a while, then get extra busy and let it drop til Sunday morning, and then be reminded at least twice through the services! Finally, one Sunday the sermon was written just for me. I told Rob (Fuquay) on the way out that I had to talk with him. He came on Wednesday and we had a long conversation. He really did not know much about the needs in the county as he had only been there a short time.

I need to say here that I was thinking VERY small!!!! I had in mind perhaps making pots of soup and maybe distributing it thru Haywood Christian Ministries or some other means. At that point Rob didn’t know how to get it to the people who needed it, either. BUT, his vision was much bigger than mine. He saw possibilities of this becoming more than just a pot of soup. It was very exciting talking with him about it. We left our meeting with the plan that we would pursue getting needed information. Little did we know, but the Lord already had His plans in place!!

The Open Door, still in the same location, serving a free meal Monday

through Friday, along with a thrift store that helps to fund it.

The next day, I called two help centers and left messages, hoping to talk with them about delivering soups, etc thru their facilities, but neither called me back. I later realized that the Lord wanted a soup kitchen in Haywood County and didn’t need any snarl-ups from us humans!!

On Thursday night (24 hours after talking with Rob) Connie White called me. She had been in Rob’s Disciple class where they talked about needs in the county. Connie was working in a capacity to know about these needs. Rob suggested she call me and as the saying goes”THE REST IS HISTORY”

I won’t say it was all clear sailing from there but things moved along in a hurry. I believe the Lord went before us working out every detail There were many, many hours of planning and working out details but it all came together very quickly and very RIGHT!!

I sure am thankful that Connie couldn’t cook. If she could have made soup, the Lord might not have needed me and I would have missed out on the greatest spiritual experience, and blessing, of my life. I thank God for that nearly every day of my life. Also for Connie and all the hundreds of volunteers that have made this ministry a beautiful reality. PRAISE HIS NAME!!!!!!!!