A sweet lady, CJ Abbott had a burden to begin a monthly ladies meeting in 2013 to minister to the hearts of the ladies at Grace Baptist Church. Under the leadership of our pastor’s wife, Mrs. Dominique Miller the JOY Meetings were birthed. They were fun and encouraging! Due to CJ’s health, she was unable to continue these meetings, but Mrs. Miller wanted them to continue.
In the summer of 2015, I asked Mrs. Miller, who was going to take over the monthly JOY meetings. Without hesitation she replied, YOU! I swallowed big and said (in hopes to get out of it), ummm ok but I have never done a ladies meeting before. With that smurky look on her face, she says you’ll learn quick (that I did). I began praying about it instantly and asked the Lord to give me a burden for this ministry if it was His will I’d do it. The Lord did just that. And here we are 6 years later still serving the ladies of Grace Baptist Church. Because of the burden the Lord gave me, I wanted to share what the Lord has allowed us to do here in our church and make it easier for you to do at your church by giving you ideas and tools to help birth your ladies group.
Thank you Mrs. Miller for making me step out of my comfort zone. It’s an honor to be an extension of you and Pastor in serving the ladies of GBC. I appreciate your leadership and desire to want to minister to ladies in this way.
Our meeting group name was JOY. These letters represented the need to have Jesus first in our lives, others second, and then yourself. In this order, we can find JOY in our life as a Christian. In September of 2015, I organized and led my first ladies meeting. Those poor ladies that attended were guinea pigs since I was such a rookie at this. We have come a LONG way since that simply decorated meeting. I will never forget that first meeting themed “Crush Your Worries”. It was decorated in crush orange. (Oh, and the Broncos played the same night too…fitting I’d say. Who says the Lord isn’t a Broncos fan?!?!) And wow have we come a long ways from those minimal decorations?!?!
From the start of my taking over meetings, there was one thing I knew I wanted to accomplish every month, and that was to make it worth the ladies’ time to come. If I made it worth their while, they would be able to receive the fellowship and encouragement they needed.
In these past 6 years, I have been humbled that the Lord has allowed me to hold 45 meetings. We have been challenged from God’s Word over and over, had fun themes, food bars, activities, games, crafts, and even a couple of lives on Facebook during the pandemic. Every month each of the above elements were always carefully planned in an effort to sharpen and encourage ladies to better their relationship with God.
For several years, I would do a bulk of the work by myself and Katie Birner would assist me right before and during the event since she is a full time teacher. What a blessing Katie was to me in the early years of the JOY meeting and still is to this day. She is chill , faithful, dependable and a “whatever you need me to” kind of lady which are important qualities to possess in benefiting a ministry like this. Every ladies ministry needs a Katie Birner.
Thank you, Katie, for putting up with me for so many years. You are a huge blessing…thank you for serving Jesus like you do.
Through a set of unfortunate circumstances, I came to my senses through the help of a sweet friend to realize I NEEDED help. In the summer of 2019, I decided it was time to get some assistance if I was going to take these meetings to the next level. I asked my partner in crime, Jacquie Wyatt, to pray about assisting me in the planning and preparation of each event. Graciously, she agreed even though I’m sure she had NO idea what she was getting herself into with helping me. Jacquie has been a huge asset to our ladies ministry at GBC in her expertise and creativity with graphics. She does all of the designing of the material we use, and coordinates posts on facebook. She does so much to make these meetings what they are, We share the same burden, focus, and love for this ministry. Honestly, before I asked her to help, I had no idea if we would be compatible in this kind of work although I was hopeful; but over the past couple of years we have found that we work well together and have a blast while doing it.
Thank you Jacquie for taking a risk to help me. Our events wouldn’t be what they are without you. Your love for the Lord and servant’s heart is very evident in all that you do. We are blessed to have you part of our ladies ministry team. You will hear more from her in a couple of days.
Several months later, I asked Ashley Amaro to join our team to take on a very important task, the FOOD! If anyone knows anything about our meetings, knows one thing we always nail the food. The ladies who bring food always do an amazing job because of the leadership of Ashley and Katie. A few fun things we’ve done with the food is nacho bar, waffle bar, baked potato bar, pasta bar, s’more bar, concession food, and so many more. We will detail these out later in a different post.
Thank you Ashley for joining our JOY meeting team. You have done a fantastic job making each theme so festive and fun. You are so creative and we are blessed to have your expertise.
We have experienced many changes in the past couple of years for the good in our JOY meetings to take them to the next level in ministering effectively to our ladies. Each team member has a specific role to carry out which allows us to achieve more together.
Over the course of time, I felt the Lord leading us in another direction for our group name that fit more to what we were trying to achieve with these meetings. The pandemic hit and our meetings went virtual. During this time, it gave me time to really seek the Lord about changing the name. We changed our name officially to Sisters of Strength (SOS) during a Facebook Live on April 2, 2020. We presented the ladies with our vision and purpose from Galatians 6:2. Our desire is to strengthen each other as sisters in Christ through the Word of God in prayer, fellowship, and encouragement. In September of 2020, it became official in our first in person ladies meeting since the stay at home order was in effect. Our monthly meetings are now called SOS Meetings. It has been a great change and the ladies love it!
Follow our journey on our blog for ideas and helps for your ladies ministry at your church. You may have just a couple of ladies, but start a ladies group at your church. Ladies in your church need connection, fellowship, and most importantly challenged from God’s Word from other ladies.
