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Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Pharaoh's Daughter

As promised and with permission from the author, here is the first installment of the stories that were told at our Women’s Inspirational Day, May 1, 2010.


Charlotte Siemens telling her story.
Imagine with me waking up and going to sleep with the cries and wailing of mothers; in this story Hebrew mothers lamenting the loss of life, howling bringing children into the world and soon after watching them being taken away. Pharaoh’s daughter – a woman hears these cries, perhaps wishing to get them out of her memory, wishing to live her regular, regal life with no interference, and yet hearing the endless cries, no doubt knowing full well that her father was involved in the slaughterings. She goes to the river to bathe, like every day in her seeming well- life. She is at the river ready to bathe, a royal princess. What we have in this story is: The love of a birth mother for her child, the love of an adoptive mother for the baby; the love of a sister for her baby brother. I too am the adoptive mother of two boys, and know the depths of a mother’s love for a child, regardless of whether or not she gave birth to that child. Our children came not in baskets floating down a river, but as 1 ½ year olds learning how to walk.
Our Biblical Model is Janet Davies.
The fashion commentator is Cyndy Brandt
.
Our Biblical story occurs during a time of intense racial prejudice towards the Hebrews, slaves to Pharaoh. Pharaoh’s daughter reached across racial and religious barriers to show compassion to a child. Although our children I hope are not surrounded by racial prejudice, our children are Nicaraguan, and so ours too is a cross-cultural adoption, which can bring with it added challenges, and possibly added adventure (it gives us a great excuse to travel to Central America regularly).
As you recall this story in Exodus 2:1-10, and as I have told the story, have you noticed that one "character" has not been mentioned? Nowhere in the text do we find God named. And yet everywhere we cannot help but think of God. We do not always know or understand how God works in the world But it is obvious here that God is somehow at work in the actions of these three women. The story is told in very low-key terms. There are not yet astounding miracles to wow us. Those will come later in the story of Moses. Yet the message here is that God sometimes works behind the scenes in the courageous actions of mothers, in the love of sisters, and in the compassion of a tyrant’s daughter! In this story, there is simply the faithfulness of ordinary people who live their lives under God.
So in a real sense, this is a story about the surprising and unimaginable faithfulness of God in the midst of ordinary human living. We were blessed with two boys, through adoption. On Carlos’ adoption notice it states: Placed into our lives, born into our heart. Little baby Moses was also placed into Pharaoh’s daughters’ life, and I truly believe was born into her heart.
I can imagine the anguish of Moses’ mother as she prayerfully lays her baby boy in a basket. I believe the birth mothers of our boys also brought them to safety, bringing them to the hospital or the orphanage praying that they would be alright. Was God at work? I like to think so – I am not garbed with finery, but pray I am garbed with grace and compassion. God works with ordinary people, with Moses’ determined mother, with a daring sister, and a compassionate daughter of Pharaoh. Our boys stretch me as a mother, as a woman, as a Christian. I have learned much about forgiveness, about endless ongoing love through difficult times, about laughter, about deep joy, about God’s incredible faithfulness.
God works through folks like you, through folks like me. God is faithful to and through us!
Physically, Pharaoh’s daughter, is garbed in royal clothes; emotionally she is garbed with grace. In our Biblical story, three women – three heroes. Gathering as women today: birth mothers, perhaps some other adoptive mothers, sisters and perhaps even a few regal princesses in the crowd. All of us: garbed in God’s grace, wrapped in God’s compassion.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Garbed in God's Grace ! ! !

Inspirational Day 2010!

Saturday, May 1st at Emmanuel Mennonite Church in Abbotsford.

The day started of with sunshine and with expectations of seeing old and new friends.
The decorations were ready and waiting for the women to arrive.
The tables for the meal were beautifully set and each of them had an angel as a centerpiece. Each one different and beautiful. They even came from different ethnic groups!


The women always make the most of the visiting opportunities
and registration line-ups is one of those, orrrrr.........

....waiting for the program to begin! ! !

Our event was well attended - - - 186 women in total.
Some came only for the program but most stayed for the meal fellowship as well.

Marlene Friesen (EMC) lighting the candles in memory of our sisters that went home,
to be with our Lord, since our last Inspirational Day in Kelowna 2009.
We had received 23 names from our MCBC
Congregations.
The Memorial time was led by Vanj Thiessen (E
MC).
I will post her inspiring thoughts in a day or two.
(Have to keep you all coming back to this site! :-))


Every Life has a Story!
To introduce our main topic, we first had 3 testimonies from sisters that
experienced the Grace of God in a very real and tangible way.

1. Lot's Wife - Not looking back!

2. Pharaoh's daughter - a mother through adoption!

3. Ruth - caring for an aging mother-in-law!

(Some of these stories will also be posted in the coming weeks.)

Our guest speaker, Jeanette Hanson, MC Canada Witness Worker in China,
pulling it all together in her speech about how each of us is
"Garbed in God's Grace" based on Ephesians 3:7

Enjoying a yummy meal together and having fun while doing so...
by guessing who our Biblical visitor were.

Promoting our Fall Women's Retreat at Camp Squeah - October 15 - 17!
Our special guests at the retreat will be Feather Janz (right side and sitting)
and singer Lisa Adrianne (also sitting)

These were our Biblical guests, can you guess who they were?

"As each has received a gift, employ it for one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace." 1 Peter 4:10