Lutheran Women in Mission

Learning How to Let Go

Sometimes you have to let go! We’ve all faced time of letting go. Letting go of our children as they go to school, from grade school to college and beyond. We have to let go of our family traditions as our families move far away geographically—think of Thanksgiving and Christmas. We have to let go of the idea that our children will want our china and crystal someday! You can add your own.

What does this have to do with my thinking about LWML this week? I have to tell you, if a woman in my congregation came up to me and said she wanted to start an additional LWML group in my church, after I picked myself up off the floor, I would be so excited! If they wanted to meet once a quarter, or have Bible study and collect mites only, or do activities with their small children, I would be so excited! If they wanted to have an LWML as a service group alongside a women’s ministry group already in existence in their church, I would be so excited!

Yet I received two inquiries from women interested in starting LWML groups who met opposition because they are proposing an alternative look for an LWML group. Isn’t that sad. When we “mentor” women in LWML that doesn’t mean we make them do exactly what we have been doing in our LWML group over the years. If we are comfortable in our group and how it operates and when it meets, and don’t want to change, why not encourage formation of another LWML group? They, too, want a group that they are “comfortable” in. Why not try letting go?

I hope you will take it as a mentoring opportunity should some women in your church want something different in their LWML group and are proposing to start one with a different look. Teaching with love and encouragement can be a great example of “serving the Lord with gladness.”

Believing that God has molded each of us individually with love should help us let go. Individual molds means no two are exactly alike. Can’t we let go and let God guide the women to celebrate LWML as it meets their needs? Be a positive mentor. Just think how exciting it would be to have more than one LWML group in all our congregations!

I [Paul] therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift (Ephesians 4:1-7).

Love to you!
Patti

Me and the LWML office staff at a session on, “Effective Mentor-ship”.

LWML Convention

Young Woman Representatives

2017 Convention LogoWe were privileged to welcome 81 Young Woman Representatives to the Albuquerque Convention. I’d like to share a message written by one of those young women following her return from convention. Lisa Rhonemus attended her second LWML convention (her first was when she was 12 in Tampa, Florida). She cites the joy her grandmother had working in LWML and attending conventions as motivation for attending.
Enjoy!
Patti

My sisters in Christ, I was extremely blessed to be able to represent our district as one of the Young Woman Representatives (YWRs) at the National LWML Convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was there that I got to serve the Lord with gladness alongside other young women from across the country as we collected and sorted the plethora of ingathering items. I got to hear the testimonies of former and current LWML grant recipients and hear how our “Mighty Mites” have helped build schools, provide tutoring to at-risk kids, provide for the physical and spiritual needs of refugees in Lebanon, train pastors, and oh so much more. More importantly, I got to watch as we voted to fund 22 national mission grants which will impact so many lives during the next biennium.

As I have returned to the real world and reflected on my experience; I was surprised by how long it took me to really adjust and grasp what we have done for 75 years and what we do as an organization. I think there are others who struggle with explaining who we are and what we have done as well. In the same way that the Church is made up of people who have been touched by the love of Jesus, the women of the LWML have been touched as well. As Lutheran Women in Mission we are active in the Mission of the Church in reaching the lost and the erring.

By ourselves we are women who deal with the ups and downs of our various situations and try to make a difference in the world. By ourselves we deal with grief and heartbreak while trying to pull up those who have woes much greater. By ourselves we donate a few dollars each month, maybe just two pennies. By ourselves we can cook a meal, give a hug, teach a child, and make a blanket. By ourselves we might be a hand, or a foot, or an eye, accomplishing one task alone. But together?

Together we are Lutheran Women in Mission. Together we can walk to the ends of the world, seeing the needs of God’s people, and reach out with a loving hand (or hug). Together we can raise $1,582,250 for mission grants and together we can change the world by spreading the love of Christ. Together, by the guiding of the Spirit and with God’s grace, we can serve Jesus Christ above all. Together we are the LWML.

Lisa Rhonemus

Pictured, Young Woman Representatives at the 37th Biennial LWML Convention in Albuquerque