Serving our Covenant Children

A primary goal of the Redeemer women's ministry is to serve our church family.  The events targeted at serving our covenant children are some of the most fun!  These precious children always make us laugh, show us how to be curious again, shower us with excitement and offer blessings of hugs!

Here are pictures from 3 of the most recent events targeted at our children - Mother's Day crafting, Father's Day crafting and our annual VBS that requires many volunteers to host the 100+ children that attended this year!

What a privilege to help our parents raise up these little ones knowing that they are a part of God's kingdom and they have a church family that surrounds them with love!

Mark 10: 13-16   People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them   When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”  And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.

 Father's Day crafting - The boys made Popsicle mats that told their Dads all the things they loved about them!

 The girls made a key chain with "keys to my heart" for their Dads!

 As you can see, we had a room FULL of fun!!!

 Mother's Day Crafting - The children were excited to make a "secret" gift for Mom (since we all realize  Moms generally KNOW EVERYTHING!!)  Every child made a card, and the older children painted canvas shopper totes, while the younger children made potted flowers for Mom!

 It didn't take much encouragement to have these children focus on their work! 

What a wonderful way to love on these sweet children while helping them with spelling!

 VBS 2016 was a huge success!  Our church hosted over 100 children from our community for this week of learning about God's creation, man falling into sin, and God's covenant with His people.  Many of the women served as teachers, leaders for music, crafts and recreation, and in the kitchen preparing fun snacks every day!

A special thanks to Kris Blaede, our talented director that organized this important learning and outreach event for these children!  Praise God for all the ways He calls us to serve Him in our community!

Redeemer Women's 2016 Spring Retreat

 Our Annual Spring Retreat was held on Saturday, April 30th at the church.  What a wonderful day of fellowship and fun for all 44 ladies that attended!  In the morning, we had time for signing praises and personal testimonials on the power of prayer, followed by small group discussion breakouts.  After lunch together, we devoted the afternoon to mission outreach crafting activities.  As you will see in the pictures below, we were able to create MANY wonderful items to donate to various local organizations including pampering kits for the ladies that are in our church as a part of our host week for Family Promise, prayer quilts for three Redeemer families, 26 fleece tied blankets going to various organizations, including an outreach to children in Juarez, Mexico and hand knitted infant caps for local hospitals.  If you missed this fun event, make a point to attend next year!  This is truly a great way to get to know your sisters at Redeemer while praising and serving our Lord!


   

The theme for the 2016 Spring Retreat was "Hands to Work, Hearts to God," which complimented our focus on spiritual growth in our prayer life for the morning session, and putting our hands to work with mission outreach activities in the afternoon session.

   

A group of ladies (and youth) blessed our day by leading our songs of praise! 

Lisa Trigsted and Lori Bajema shared personal testimonials on how God's grace and prayer has impacted their life and their families.

It was exciting to have a number of our youth join the retreat this year!

Marilyn Van Pelt led the ladies in creating three prayer quilts for Redeemer families.  As each knot was tied on these special quilts, prayers were given for the specific needs identified by each recipient.  Each person was also given the opportunity to add a personal message or Bible verse to the quilt. 

Rowena Yates led a group in making salt scrub to add to the other items in our pampering kits for Family Promise.  We hope to shower a little love on the Family Promise women that we serve in our church during our host weeks ahead with these "surprise" kits!

What an AMAZING stack of beautiful fleece blankets to share with various organizations that serve children in our local community and beyond!  Everyone worked hard to finish 26 blankets during the retreat, in a wide variety of "kid friendly" themes!  These blankets will be given to children that have likely never had a "special blanket" to snuggle or keep them warm, including 10 of them going with a local church mission trip to Juarez, Mexico to hand out to the children in that community.

June Buzzell and Christine Broom led the knitting group that made adorable infant caps to share with local hospitals that provide them to newborn babies and their parents.  What a special blessing these darling caps will be to these precious little ones and their families!

February and March CCCC Gatherings

Our Monthly Coffee, Cookies, Chatter and Cheer Gatherings continue to offer a wonderful time of fellowship for all Redeemer women.  These events are held monthly in a member's home, and offer a time to deepen our friendships, encourage each other more effectively, and know how to  serve our church family more faithfully.  If you haven't been to a CCCC event, watch for announcements in the bulletin and come join us!

February's CCCC gathering took place at Andrea Belonga's home.  What a fun night for all!

March's CCCC gathering took place at Christine Broom's home.  Great to have some of our youth joining us for these monthly events! 

Annual Redeemer Women's Tea

The Annual Women's Tea was held in February at Kristen Kolb's home.  Approximately 50 women and girls were in attendance, and as you can see from the photos below, MANY creative hats were on display!  There was delicious food to enjoy, music and songs to share, sweet fellowship for all and a "hat competition" with prizes for most creative, most elegant, etc.  Everyone in attendance agreed this was a very fun event!  Many thanks to Kristen Kolb and Laura Miller for planning and hosting this wonderful tea for our ladies to enjoy!  If you missed the tea this year, make a note to be sure to participate next year, you won't want to miss out on the fun!

Women Mentoring Women at Redeemer

Titus 2:3-5 -- Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

Redeemer encourages our women of all ages to mentor and be mentored as Paul exhorted in his letter to Titus. These relationships shouldn’t intimidate any of us. They can be short or last a lifetime. They might start with guidance on a specific need or with a general desire for deeper one-on-one relationships with another Christian woman.

As you consider this opportunity, here are a few questions to ask yourself:

1.     What do you want in a mentoring relationship? Clearly define what you hope and expect. Mentor and mentee should understand what the other expects from the experience. Unmet expectations can lead to failure and disappointment.
2.     How do you want mentoring? Agree together how often, when, where and why to meet. Perhaps start with a three-meeting get-acquainted relationship and build from there. Mentoring can be for a season. It can change over time.
3.     How can we help each other? The mentee may be younger and the primary seeker of knowledge, wisdom and help. But mentors need help and wisdom too. Mentor each other. Learn from each other. Listen to each other. Provide each other options not commands, relationships not tyranny.

If you want to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity and be a mentor or to be mentored, please contact Marilyn Van Pelt – howvanpelt@aol.com, 214-783-3854. Marilyn is keeping a list of both to facilitate matching women to meet specific needs.

Redeemer Children's 2015 Christmas Craft Event

Looking for ways to get involved with Women's Ministry events?  One fun way is to volunteer to help with the Children's Craft events that we sponsor three times a year:  Mother's Day, Father's Day and Christmas!  At these events, our Covenant children enjoy a pizza lunch following worship service, then a time of making "special surprises" for their Moms, Dads, or other family members.  This is always a great time for our Redeemer Women to get to know our younger children, while showing them how much they are loved!  Watch for bulletin updates around these holidays and come join us!!! 

January's CCCC (Coffee, Cookies, Chatter and Cheer) gathering was held at Terri Lytle's home.  Everyone attending enjoyed a fun evening of fellowship and yummy treats!  As a reminder, these events occur each month, watch the bulletin or look at the church calendar to see upcoming gatherings.  These informal evenings are a great way to deepen your friendships at Redeemer!

Flower Arranging Class

Sharing our Talents - Flower Arranging Class

At our Spring Retreat (April 2015), many of the ladies in our church taught workshops that demonstrated how they use their unique gifts to build up the church, serve one another, and build relationships.  As a follow on activity, at our August kickoff event, small groups were organized based on personal interests to continue deepening our relationships while learning new skills!  Here's a few pictures from one of the groups, led by Diane Bult, that focused on turning everyday flowers purchased at the grocery store into beautiful arrangements!  Nice work, ladies!

Showers of Blessings at Redeemer

We've been blessed this past year at Redeemer with many reasons to celebrate, including several bridal and baby showers.  One of the greatest privileges of being a part of Christ's church is sharing these joyful life celebrations with our Redeemer sisters!  Here's some pictures to share from two of the baby showers for Anna and Emily (with Laura and her sweet baby, Sam, also in attendance).  We are delighted to welcome all these precious little ones into our church family!