The Road

Life is a trip. You travel down the road and every now and then an unexpected turn or obstacle or bump changes things. It is not always simple to go from one destination to another. Sometimes the road seems to break down, no longer smooth asphalt but boulders and gullies you had not expected, or you end up on a road you were not prepared for or did not want to take. I know all about such roads. The Amazing Collection: The Bible, Book by Book took us down a road that was sometimes confusing, sometimes frightening, and always challenging. Rarely could we see ahead or around the bend, but it was a road and it led to the “impossible”.

It All Began With Prayer

It was 8:15 AM as six or seven of my women’s ministry team pulled our metal chairs into a circle. We met every Tuesday just before The Women’s Fellowship to pray for the ministry and the needs of the 350 + ladies who attended. By 9:00 it was time to wrap up, and we ended with the final and often repeated prayer, “Lord, help us reach one million women for Your glory and Your Word alone.”

Still I was totally unprepared.

As I sat listening to the Bible teacher later that morning she said “The Word of God” in one of her sentences. They are common words, words that as the Director of Women’s Ministry I would hear several times a week, but for some reason at that moment they took on new meaning. I began to wonder, if these REALLY are THE WORDS OF GOD, why were there books in the Bible I knew so little about? And how come I was more familiar with the current popular Christian books than I was with the book of Habakkuk or Zephaniah? The questions haunted me for weeks.

Eventually I made a radical decision. We would begin to teach our women every book in the Bible in a sequential manner. Within a few months our new program was launched. Ten or more teachers from around the Atlanta area would join us on Tuesday morning and teach one book of the Bible. If the book was particularly long then more weeks would be allotted. It took four years to complete, but in the end though the impact was great, it was not all I had hoped for.

After contemplating how we could improve, I knew we needed a workbook and instead of teachers from all over the Atlanta area, we needed a team who would work together to make the lessons more cohesive. I knew it could be done. I just didn’t know HOW!

Psalm 25:4
Make me know Thy ways, O Lord; teach me Thy paths.

A Jump Start

Sometimes in traveling life stalls. You know you should be heading somewhere, doing something but seem helpless to know what to do next. And then someone comes along and gives a push in the right direction. On October 20, 1999 that help came to me in a most unexpected way.

I was at a leadership conference at Dallas Theological Seminary in Texas. There were many excellent speakers, including our family friend, Bruce Wilkinson. He spied me walking down a hall, and as we stopped to talk he said the most extraordinary thing. “I know that you have been praying for one million women for Christ but you must break through your fear, step out in faith and move forward. If you wait much longer you will be too old! I believe God is telling you to begin now. ”

God Speaks

His words were so powerful and fervent that I truly felt like GOD was speaking to ME. It scared me to death. I knew the only way to reach that many women was through video, and I also knew God was pressing me to help women know every book in the Bible. But the question was, “How could this be accomplished?” Quite truthfully I was terrified at the prospect. I had no expertise, no funding, no clear vision and one hundred reasons why this would be impossible. But after months of anguish and prayer I took a small step. On December 11, 2000 I made telephone call.

By the end of the day I had a prayer team and a teaching team all willing to step out in faith with me into the great unknown. A huge hurdle, an enormous obstacle in the road had been moved. And that was the beginning of a new turn, the destination unsure; the map non-existent.

Luke 4:19
And Jesus said to them, “Follow ME and I will make you fishers of men".