Women of Hope

March 2007

A Ministry of the Living Hope Baptist Church

God created women with special qualities and specific needs. Fashioned after the image of God, yet wired differently from men, God had uniquely equipped women for cultivating relationships, ministering to others in need, opening their homes in hospitality and such acts of kindness. Such features were reflected in Ruth's devotion, Elizabeth's humility, Sarah's faith, Phoebe's mentoring and Dorcas' benevolence to name a few.

With these in mind, the Women of Hope (WOH) was born. In this newsletter, we would like to give an overview of why we exist, our objectives, our core values, and our initial plans to kick off some activities for this year.

The Ministry

Women of Hope reaches out mainly to women in general, single ladies, married couples, widows, single moms, and daughters. It functions as an arm of the church to help women needing change of lifestyle to grow in the grace and knowledge of God and to be moulded in the character and image of our Lord Jesus Christ. In a nutshell, our goal is to help each other mature in Christ.

Objectives

• to equip women with sound biblical doctrine in order to facilitate personal spiritual growth (Titus 2: 3-5)
• to exercise God-given gifts for the edification of the body of Christ (Ephesians 4: 11-15).

Core Values

Core values are basically guidelines and convictions that the ministry will hold on to. It provides us with a standard on how to carry out our goals and objectives.

Commitment

• commit to grow spiritually through personal devotion and prayer
• commit to minister in the physical, mental, and emotional needs of women of all ages
• commit to a small group discipleship and mentoring

Accountability

• involves covenanting with one another to hold in utmost respect and confidentiality all personal issues and concerns

Transparency

• exercise openness and honesty with one another
• take the initiative to know each other

Avoiding the All-important Task

by Marivic Chiong

I’m not sure what the right word is – avoid, neglect, dodge, elude. But at some point in our Christian lives, that is exactly what we do in studying God’s Word, meditation and prayer. Truly this means of grace for most of us has taken a backseat. And that’s really sad.

I write as one who is deeply flawed in the area of spiritual discipline and who constantly falls prey to the tyranny of the urgent. That’s why in many days I simply can’t “get it together.” For busy moms like myself, the urgent needs beckon us to move away from a quiet time of prayer. We head toward the more pressing needs and never find our way back to our unfinished prayers and devotions. And this struggle usually finds its roots to skewed priorities, careless planning and simple complacency. (I am actually preaching to myself here.)

But our daily waiting on God hugely powers our spiritual engines. We need the Lord’s promises to carry us through our hours of labour and even in our hours of rest. It is a must to study His Word for daily renewal of our mind for God commanded us to love Him with all of our mind, not just with our heart and soul. (Matt. 22:37) Just a breezing through of His Word without understanding, is simply not enough.

I’m reminded of a mom who raises eight children, homeschools, and have some physical problems of her own. Yet in all those years, she managed to wake up at five in the morning, have an hour’s devotion of study and memorization. Afterwhich, she goes about walking for an hour and still meet a full day’s demand. I’m pretty sure that her wisdom to train and strength to fulfill the orders of the day and of a growing ministry were largely derived from those countless hours of meditation and seeking after the heart of her Heavenly Father.

In Genesis 24:63-64, we read: “And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, the camels were coming. And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel.” And in Psalm 119:97, it says : “O how I love thy law! It is my meditation all the day.” Both Isaac and the psalmist’s musing is almost enviable to our modern-day standards. They have learned and perhaps mastered the secret (and it really isn’t a secret) to living a life where God gets the priority. Our Lord generously gives blessings of whatever kind when we walk in the path of obedience.

When the Lord spoke to Elijah, God did not come to the prophet in a great and strong wind, or in an earthquake, or in a fire but the Bible records that God came to him in a “still small voice”. In another translation, the Lord was in the “sound of a low whisper.” (I Kings 19: 9-12). This hushed voice of the Holy Spirit in these quiet hours keeps us keeping on in our daily battles. Through God’s grace, let us then not neglect this all-important privilege.

H O P E

We have used the word HOPE as an acrostic to serve as a guide for us to remember what we should be doing. This acrostic "model" made up of biblical commands and exhortations is seamless and can be further expanded.

H - Hold fast; Helping

• "Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers." (Titus 1:9)
  
• "Hold fast the form of sound words (doctrine), which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." (2Timothy 3:14)
  
• "Helping one another. "Bear ye one another's burden, and so fulfill the law of Christ." (Galatians 6:2)
  

O -Obey; Occupy

• "Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear Him, and keep His commandments, and obey His voice, and ye shall serve Him, and cleave unto Him." (Deut. 13:4)
  
• "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, and teaching them to obey all things which I have commanded you. And Io, I am with you even unto the end of the age." (Matthew 28: 19-20)
  
• "And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come." (Luke 19:13)
  

P - Proclaim; Pray

• "But now He has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in His sight without blemish and free from accusation - if ye continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I , Paul, become a servant. (Colossians 1:22-23).
  
• "And pray in the Spirit, on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints." (Ephesians 6:18)
  
• "For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God. " (Colossians 1:9-10)
  
• "But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit." (Jude 1:20)
  

E - Extend; Encourage

• "She opens her arms and extends her hands to the needy." (Proverbs 31:20)
  
• "… having loved His own who were in the world, He now showed them to the full extent of His love." (John 13:1-17)
  
• "Extend our work to the weak as in Acts 20:35. With this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words of Christ. " It is blessed to give than to receive."
  
• "He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. " (Titus 1:9)
  

CONTACT OUR SISTERS:

• Pat Gilpo – 416 695-2029
• Sherryll Hortillosa – 416 251-8569
• Cely Montaniel – 905 897-1951
• Lynda Catanus – 416 741-5126
• Tess Ventura – 905 270-1646
• Luz Mendoza – 905 819-9171
• Marivic Chiong – 905 279-2773

Women of Hope's Photo Album